Maplebrook Acupuncture

03/24/2026

2026 ‘Dirty Dozen’ produce: Nearly 100% tested positive for pesticides, including ‘forever chemicals’

The 2026 “Dirty Dozen” list of most contaminated produce has a worrisome finding. Many of the most common pesticides are also potentially toxic “forever chemicals.”

03/24/2026

Spring Equinox (March 20)

Spring is the time of year, after months of reflecting and restoring, when you begin to move a little bit more of your energy into activity, slowly increasing over the course of a few months. Birth and growth are the key themes of this season.

With winter just before spring, we move from the most yin season toward increasing yang energy. This is why spring is considered to be a "yang season arising out of yin."

The Wood element

Spring is the season when the element of Wood holds the most prominent energy. People who have a lot of Wood energy in their constitution are often very driven, pushy or loud. (Martin Luther King Jr., and other social change makers have certainly had a lot of this. Because Wood energy is so driven, this often leads to a very accomplished person who has done a lot from a very young age.

Emotion

Anger is the emotion of Wood. Most of us are taught that anger indicates we are "out of control" and is not welcome emotion to express. As children, many of us are encouraged to "go settle down" when we are angry before returning to the family. Yet anger is such a motivating and natural force of energy.

When anger gets out of control, it can become rage (destruction). Anger in its own right is creative and constructive, and it can be fierce when we are fighting for something we believe in.

Anger allows us to see clearly what we know could be different. What are you angry about in general right now in your life?

As you think about this, feel the energy rise up in your body. That energy is the gift of the Wood element. When skillfully used, this energy can lead to creative resolution in any arena.

Source: Everyday Chinese Medicine by Mindi K. Counts, MA, LAc

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03/04/2026

02/04/2026

How Oxalates Harm
Health food or Health Disaster Part 5 of 10

02/04/2026

How Oxalates Harm
Health food or Health Disaster Part 4 of 10

For a great majority of plants, oxalic acid and oxalate crystals are essential to their growth, survival, and reproduction, and they are also secret weapons in the defensive warfare plants wage to keep from being eaten. Plants use oxalic acid's toxic powers to shun a variety of predators, including infectious fungi, other microorganisms, insects, and other plant-eating animals - including humans.
In an ancient technique, central and southern African hunters harnessed the power of oxalic acid by driving wooden arrowheads into banana tree trunks about 24 hours before the hunt. The oxalic acid in the tree sap is powerful enough to paralyze prey. It's a nerve toxin.

02/04/2026

How Oxalates Harm
Health food or Health Disaster Part 3 of 10

Or perhaps you have long-standing injuries or chronic itching, tingling, or pain that never fully resolves. Your doctors can’ help you figure out what is going on; they seem to think you’re “just fine” and should just live with life’s little miseries.

Other seemingly small things can be indicators of oxalate overload, including itchy or dry eyes, eye floaters, excessive tartar on the teeth, tooth sensitivity, frail skin, irritable bladder, UTI infections, frequent urination or cloudy urine. Liver stress from oxalate overload can aggravate chemical sensitivity. Digestive problems like indigestion, reflux, bloating, excessive belching, constipation, and IBS are especially common. Additional symptoms include shortness of breath, sinus problems, yeast infections, and even cold hands and feet.
You don't have to have symptoms to have a disease, and oxalate toxicity is no exception. But a wide spectrum of potential symptoms can occur in the wake of oxalate overload, and each of us will (eventually) suffer from our own unique subset of them if we persist with high-oxalate eating.

01/30/2026

How Oxalates Harm
Health food or Health Disaster Part 2 of 10

Because it is so easy to overeat oxalates, chances are you may already experience occasional oxalate-related aches and pains somewhere in your body.

Do you tend to get a stiff neck? In those of us with dietary oxalate overload, pain, knots, or stiffness in the top of the shoulders or in the upper or lower back are typical. Some people experience chronic or intermittent joint inflammation, gout, arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, or a more generalized stiffness, often accompanied by a lack of pep.

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01/28/2026

How Oxalates Harm
Health food or Health Disaster Part 1 of 10

Even moderate, relatively common levels of oxalate in a habitual diet can fuel the customary aches and pains of life: digestive distress, inflamed joints, chronic skin issues, brain for or mood problems, as well as health declines associated with “normal” aging. And then there are those painful kidney stones. 80% of them are formed from oxalate, much of which comes from the foods we eat.

01/16/2026

Sugar is the criminal.
High blood pressure caused by high glucose levels not salt! Check your blood glucose levels. Should be under 85. Get rid of your sugar first and don't eat sugar and salt together.

For most people, a diagnosis of HYPERTENSION is a lifelong sentence to daily medication and a likely death from the consequences of high blood pressure. Most...

01/16/2026

LDL cholesterol is a poor predictor of heart disease. Here's why your LDL cholesterol is not the key

LDL cholesterol is a poor predictor of heart disease. Here's why your LDL cholesterol is not the key to helping you predict your risk for heart disease. ...

11/14/2025

Great Eliminator

In Chinese medicine, the large intestine is referred to as the "Great Eliminator" because its sole focus is to move stool out of the body. However, there is a similar function on an emotional and spiritual level: find the gems, the most important nuggets of wisdom and love, and let go of the rest. When we learn to let go appropriately, we find becoming present a much easier task than when we were holding on to too much of our history. Emotional backing up leads to physical backing up and vice versa.

Source: Everyday Chinese Medicine, Mindi K. Counts, MA, LAc