Tuesday, August 19, 2014

My Oriental Medicine Healing Experience

By Mary C., Student

When I had my first Oriental medicine healing experience, it was when I was very sick.  I had just run the 5k Mud Race that came to Anchorage.  My immune system had already been pretty weak prior to running it because of all the stress I had been under.  My asthma was acting up and I couldn’t breathe well, and I just felt bad overall.  So after I had done the mud race, I thought it was only going to be my body that hurt.  Two days after the race was over, I began to feel worse.  I couldn’t breathe well at all and I felt weak.  I started to get high fevers at night that became low grade during the day.  I felt like I was walking in a dream.  During the fevers at night, I would sweat so badly that I had to open the windows and have no sheets on me.

My teacher Cynthia was so sweet and asked if I’d like a treatment.  She used some essential oil blends and rubbed them into my lung meridian when I was supine, as well as other acupoints that I can’t recall.  During one moment when she hit a point, I felt like someone’s hand was resting on my lower belly.  It was incredibly weird but calming at the same time.  As if someone was there, helping my healing along.  Later I turned over into prone position and she pressed my Shu Points.  I fell asleep because I was so weak and tired.  Later on I woke up still feeling feverish, but almost like I was getting better already.  Cynthia gave me a special tincture that I had to take every day in water.  Later on I was given herbal pills from Lamar, our acupuncturist, and I made and appointment to get acupuncture done too.

For my acupuncture appointment I was given a “clearing” treatment and told to avoid caffeine for a while.  This made me sad, but I wanted to get better.  I made another acupuncture appointment and began taking the tincture and herbs that were given to me.  Within a few days I was already feeling quite amazing.  The fevers stopped completely and I felt like my lungs had cleared.  I could breathe again! There was also this new energized feeling in my body.  It seemed like I had more stamina.

After my second acupuncture treatment I was completely better and felt better than I had before I got sick.  It was quite amazing and whatever doubts I had before about Oriental medicine working, were gone.  I was a skeptic in some areas, but it seems each time I try these new things it opens my eyes even more.  I am so excited I get to practice everything I have learned to help heal others.


Note: The instructors and practitioners at Alaska Institute always encourage patients to see their doctor as needed for health emergencies.  There is much we have to offer in the case of non-emergencies, and we take an integrative and respectful approach to working in complement with a person’s conventional medical care.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Stretch Marks: Massage & Essential Oils

My massage class learned how to use essential oils & gliding cups to help erase stretch marks.  The essential oils soak in to soften the scar tissue and improve the skin, then the gliding cups bring healing circulation & Yin fluids to fill in the grooves.   

You should expect this to take between 1-6 months of consistent treatment, with a Very noticeable improvement if not complete healing of the skin.  It’s especially helpful to increase intake of water and Vitamin C during the treatments through fresh juicing, fresh parsley tea, or a quality supplement.

Here’s what we did:

Make the Essential Oil Cream.  There are quite a few oils and nice recipes that can be used. 

Here’s my blend:
(You can learn how to make things like this in my on-line essential oils courses, see the link at the bottom.)

4oz Cream Base:  Shea butter, Cocoa butter, Avacado oil, Apricot oil, Calendula infused oil.

Essential Oils added to base:  Rose Hip Seed CO2 6d, Bulgarian Lavender 4d, Palmarosa 6d, Green Mandarin 8d, Rock Rose 3d, Green Tea 2d, Carrot 8d, Pink Grapefruit 8d.


Apply Moxa Balm (Chinese herbal ointment) to acupoints LU-9 (pictured) and SP-6 (not shown).  This helps tonify Metal and Earth elements which are both indicated.

Apply the Essential Oil Cream to the stretch marks and really work it into the skin, but only to the person’s comfort level.  It should be a little vigorous but not at all painful.


Use the gliding cup
in short straight strokes going in different directions – up, down, across, diagonal.  Do this for about 5 minutes per area worked.  It takes about 15 minutes to do an entire abdomen by breaking it up into sections.  If the skin starts to get red or irritated, stop.

Use gentle massage to smooth out the skin area.

The cream can be applied daily.  The gliding cup can be done up to 3x/week.  This makes a great quick spot-treatment package as it only takes about 15 minutes and can easily be done on a lunch break or on the way home from work.  Results are seen in continuous gradual improvement and are often noticed to start immediately after the first treatment.

Learn tons of great information from my On-Line Essential Oils Course series. You can study here at our school in Alaska from anywhere in the world!