Meridian Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine

05/30/2025

03/28/2025

🌱 Spring 2025 🌱

In Spring, we are emerging from a Yin season of hibernation and inward growth, into a Yang season of outward movement marked by more warmth and physical activity. It is a season of rebirth and new growth. The acupuncture meridians and corresponding organs of Spring are the Liver and Gallbladder, which relates to the Wood element.

The Liver oversees planning and organization, and the Gallbladder is in charge of our decision-making. When the energy of our Wood element is flowing freely, we can be creative and clear-headed. We can make plans and follow through with them with order and efficiency. When Wood is balanced we are strong yet flexible, like bamboo that can bend in the wind without breaking. When our Wood element is out of balance, our vision can become clouded, we are unable to follow through with our plans, or we procrastinate and suffer from frustration, irritability, and anger, the emotions associated with the Wood element. Out of balance, Wood is inflexible and rigid, stubborn, and lacking vision for the big picture.

We can keep the Wood element balanced by appeasing the Liver and allowing its Qi to flow freely. Declutter and organize your home and work spaces. Spend time outdoors in the fresh air. Move and stretch your body to stay limber and flexible. Practice yoga. Get acupuncture or massage. The color of the Wood element is green, and increasing your intake of green foods keeps Liver Qi happy and flowing. Eat broccoli, asparagus, beans, peas, kale, lettuce, and sprouts. Sour flavors stimulate the Liver. Incorporate citrus flavors like lemon, limes, and grapefruit. Eat tart fruits like pomegranate, grapes, blueberries and raspberries. Cook or dress your foods with vinegar, and eat pickled or fermented foods such as kim chi, sauerkraut, pickles, and kombucha. Liver Qi is also moved by foods such as mint, chives, rosemary, scallions, garlic, ginger, and watercress.

03/28/2025

✨ SPRING BREAK OFFICE HOURS ✨ The office will be closed Tuesday April 1st - Thursday April 3rd. Any herb orders placed in this time frame may take longer to fulfill than the usual 2 business days. We appreciate your flexibility and continued support. If you are traveling for Spring Break, stay safe and healthy! 💚 The Meridian Team 💚

01/30/2025

🎉🏮🐍 Happy Lunar New Year! Wishing you health, luck, and prosperity in this Year of the Yin Wood Snake! 🐍🏮🎉

12/24/2024

❄️WINTER❄️

In Winter, everything in nature slows and enters a season of stillness, rest, and conservation of energy to prepare for growth and rebirth in the Springtime. Take this season of hibernation seriously. Preserve your energy and learn to practice stillness with as much discipline as you might approach your exercise regimen or work schedule.

The Winter season corresponds with the Water element, which rules the Kidneys and Urinary Bladder. In TCM, the Kidneys refer not only to our physical kidneys, but also the processes of growth, reproduction, and aging. Winter is an important season to care for ourselves because the kidneys govern our longevity, our fertility, and our mental acuity as we age. We relate the Kidney Yin to the strength and health of our bones, and the Kidney Yang energy relates to our thyroid, adrenal, and hormonal balance. The emotion associated with the Winter season and Water element is fear, so it is vital to practice calming exercises like breathing techniques, restorative yoga, or Tai Qi in order to avoid exhausting the Kidneys and to work to restore hormonal and adrenal balance.

The foods that support the Water element are foods that are readily available in the season of Winter such as cabbage, celery, carrots, radish, beets, sweet potatoes, oats, lentils, beans, and mushrooms. Eat warm, slow cooked hearty meals to warm your body and to combat the cold weather. Season your food with warming foods and spices such as cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, turmeric, onions, fennel, leeks, garlic, and chives. Eat foods with healthy fats to support your brain and nervous system such as salmon, lamb, almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, and beef bone broth.

Learn to enjoy the stillness in this Yin season so you have more energy to enjoy the upcoming Yang seasons of Spring and Summer. "It is the concentrated, internal force of Winter that enables a seed to burst forth in Spring."

12/15/2024

Here's our 2024 (well, January to November) Wrapped with some fun, surprising stats for our year!

11/30/2024

Thankful for all of you that allow us to share the gift of Traditional Chinese Medicine, to let us be a part of your team for health and wellness, for making our jobs not feel like work, and for being part of our greater Louisville family.

11/06/2024

Winter is coming (even if the current temps don't feel like it). With colder weather sometimes we experience different aches and pains in our back or other joints. Acupuncture is helpful for moving that stiffness, stagnation, and inflammation that can settle into our bodies in the cold seasons. Moxibustion is another treatment method we occasionally add to a treatment to combat the cold that can affect the smooth flow of Blood and Qi in our acupuncture meridians. Because of its warming properties, moxa helps promote circulation, relax muscle tension, and ease stiffness in joints and tendons.

09/23/2024

🍁🍂 A U T U M N 🍂🍁

Fall is associated with the Metal element in Chinese Medicine, which corresponds to the organs and acupuncture meridians of the Lungs and Large Intestine. Typical symptoms related to an imbalance in the Metal element are allergies, sinus problems, weakened immune systems, easily catching colds and the flu, skin problems such as dry, itchy skin, psoriasis, eczema, changes in bowel movements, and fatigue. The emotion of the Metal element is grief and the ability or inability to let go -- of either physical or emotional clutter. Because of this, Fall is an excellent time to declutter your living and work space. Fall is a transition season from Yang (heat and outward movement) to Yin (cold and stillness), so use this time to clarify what in your life and your home you no longer need, to ease into the Yin seasons of stillness with greater peace. Practice deep breathing exercises to strengthen your Lungs and boost your vitality and immunity.

The Autumn season is cooler and drier. Incorporate warmer, moistening foods into your meals. Eat more soups, bone broths, and slow-cooked stews. Nourishing foods to eat in the Fall are butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage, beets, lentils, apples, and pears. Season food with warming spices like cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, caraway seeds, fennel, and nutmeg.

Dress warmly for cooler weather, and always wear a scarf to protect your neck from the cold. Begin to embrace seasons of stillness.

06/30/2024

We opened our doors for the first time on June 1st, 2012. The ways in which we have grown and changed as a business, as practitioners, and as members of the community over the past 12 years has us feeling so grateful for all of you.

In 2015, we expanded our space to add more treatment rooms, and in 2018 we bought the building to fulfill the dream of housing other like-minded businesses under one roof. As Chinese medicine practitioners, we understand that our health -- our body -- is greater than the sum of its parts. We love sharing a space with the mental health practitioners at Mental Health Lou & You and the yoga instructors at Yoga Baum to provide a fully holistic approach to your health and wellness. We are grateful to you for trusting us with your health journey. 🤍

06/20/2024

☀️ Summer ☀️

Summer has the most Yang energy -- abundant heat, expansion, and upward and outward movement. Living in harmony with this season means to rise early with the sun, stay up late with the longer daylight hours, and take a midday rest if needed when the heat is the most intense. Activity and exercise are encouraged. Break a sweat to help release heat.

Summer is associated with the element of Fire, and the organs and acupuncture meridians of the Heart and Small Intestine. The emotion of the Fire element is Joy. Seek Water to balance the Fire element, by swimming, taking cool baths and showers, drinking plenty of water, and eating hydrating fruits and vegetables. If the Fire element becomes imbalanced, some Heart or Small Intestine symptoms that can occur are palpitations, indigestion, heartburn, insomnia, red complexion, anxiety, irritability, restlessness, depression (lack of joy), and mania (excessive joy).

The flavor of the Fire element is bitter. Bitter herbs and foods are effective in clearing heat. This is the only time of year when Chinese Medicine encourages eating cold, raw foods, and drinking smoothies or cold-pressed juices. Even so, if you experience indigestion, bloating, or sluggish digestion with too many cold foods or beverages, opt to enjoy seasonal fruits and veggies grilled, steamed, or sautéed. Incorporate these foods in Summer to keep your Fire element balanced: green tea, hibiscus or lemongrass tea, watermelon, cucumber, pineapple, grapes, plums, peaches, nectarines, mint, dill, cilantro, tomatoes, zucchini, bittermelon, asparagus, summer squash, cantaloupe, dandelion greens, celery, and lettuce.

06/04/2024

Travel season is upon us. What are things your body struggles with when you travel? Any number of things can be thrown off balance when we find ourselves in a different time zone, sleep on a different mattress with different pillows, or eat on a different schedule. Cupping therapy, along with acupuncture, is my favorite post-travel ritual to rebalance myself, release tension in my muscles from sitting on a plane or from a long car ride, and to feel grounded and relaxed.