Acupuncture for Fertility, Pregnancy, Women’s Health and Wellness in Oakland, CA

Traditional Chinese Medicine has used scent as medicine for thousands of years. Incense is one of the oldest and most deliberate ways of delivering it.

In TCM fragrance enters the body through the Lungs, moves qi, opens the orifices, calms the Shen, and clears pathogenic factors. In TCM fragrance has never been separated from medicine.

Incense was historically an essential part of life for the noble and educated class in China, used to relax the mind, create happiness, and make the environment beautiful. The aromatic materials used in traditional Chinese incense overlap significantly with the TCM materia medica and in Chinese medicine there has never been a distinction between the ceremonial and the clinical because both emerge from the same understanding of how aromatic substances affect the body and the spirit.

Sandalwood, Tan Xiang, has been burned at Chinese ancestral graves and altars for centuries because its smoke is believed to carry prayers to the deceased and purify the space. Growing up Cantonese, sandalwood was the incense we burned when visiting my grandfather's grave. In TCM it moves qi, relieves pain, and calms the Shen.

Agarwood, Chen Xiang, is one of the most prized aromatics in the materia medica. It descends qi, warms the Kidneys, and relieves anxiety when the nervous system cannot settle.

I learned traditional incense preparation in Hangzhou including material identification by smell and traditional preparation methods. Since returning I have continued making incense for friends and family using sandalwood and agarwood. The process is delicate, meditative, and deeply satisfying.

This medicine has been using scent therapeutically for thousands of years. The only thing that has changed is that the rest of the world is finally paying attention.

📍 City Pulse Acupuncture | Oakland CA
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#incense #TCM #chinesemedicine #aromatics #tanxiang

I missed International Mahjong Week last week and I am not letting it pass without saying something.

I recently learned to play. As a Chinese American TCM practitioner I have been thinking about why it took me this long and the answer is complicated.

In TCM the Heart governs the mind and memory, the Kidney stores cognitive vitality, the Liver governs planning and strategic thinking, and the Gallbladder governs decision making and the courage to act on it. Mahjong engages all of them simultaneously.

A 2024 scoping review of 53 studies confirmed what TCM has always known: Mahjong is associated with better cognitive, psychological, and functional abilities. A randomized controlled trial found that playing three times a week for 12 weeks improved executive function in people with mild cognitive impairment.

But the history of this game in Chinese American communities is not simple. Mahjong was repackaged for American audiences in the 1920s by a Standard Oil representative who rewrote the rules and invented a fake Confucian origin story. Non-Asian owned companies are still selling sets with the Chinese characters stripped from the tiles. Aestheticizing a culture while erasing its roots is not appreciation. It is appropriation.

Yang Sheng is not just about individual practice. It is about what a community passes down. When a community is forced to assimilate, Yang Sheng is one of the first things to go.

My grandfather was held on Angel Island, where Mahjong was one of the ways detainees passed time during their forced rest. I sometimes wonder if that experience is part of why the game never made it into our home.

In TCM we talk about ancestral qi, the essence that is passed down through lineage. Reclaiming a practice that was interrupted feels like tending to that. Learning to play felt like coming back to something that has always belonged to me, not just as a game but as a practice, a lineage, and a form of Yang Sheng that was interrupted but never fully lost.

The medicine has always been in the tiles.

📍 City Pulse Acupuncture | Oakland CA
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#mahjong #chineseamerican #TCM #chinesemedicine #yangsheng

Hi, I am Rachel. If you are new here, welcome.

I am a fertility acupuncturist based in Oakland with fifteen years in practice. I specialize in fertility, women's health, and cosmetic acupuncture and work with patients navigating IVF, IUI, endometriosis, PCOS and PMOS, recurrent pregnancy loss, cycle irregularity, perimenopause, and postpartum recovery.

I am a second generation Chinese American and a second generation Oaklander. My grandfather owned grocery stores on 8th and Adeline and East 24th and 24th Avenues. City Pulse is the latest chapter in a long family story.

I do not just practice this medicine. I live it.
If you are navigating fertility or women's health and want to understand what TCM can do for your specific picture, I would love to talk.

📍 City Pulse Acupuncture | Oakland CA
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#oakland #introduction #meetthepractitioner #fertilityacupuncture #TCM #chinesemedicine

Last week during a Yina practitioner training we started talking about Yang Sheng and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since. I knew I needed to make this carousel.

Yang Sheng translates as nourishing life and it is one of the oldest frameworks in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Not a treatment for disease but a philosophy of prevention built around the choices you make every single day.

How you eat. How you move. How you rest. How you handle your emotional life. In TCM these are not lifestyle suggestions. They are clinical decisions.

Movement in Chinese medicine has never been about destroying your body with marathons and CrossFit. It is about cultivating qi. Building vital energy rather than depleting it. Food is not fuel. It is medicine chosen for the season and the person eating it. Rest is not laziness. It is a non-negotiable clinical intervention. And your emotional life is as important to your health as anything else you do.
Swipe through for the full breakdown of what Yang Sheng actually is and what it could look like in your daily life.

📍 City Pulse Acupuncture | Oakland CA
🔗 Link in bio to book

#yangsheng #TCM #chinesemedicine #nourbishinglife #preventivemedicine

We're beyond honored to share that City Pulse Acupuncture has been named Best Wellness Center by Oakland Magazine's Reader's Choice Awards 2026! 🏆
We're also incredibly proud to be recognized as a Top 5 Acupuncture Clinic and Top 5 Alternative Medicine Practice, an honor we've received for three consecutive years.
This recognition wouldn't be possible without the trust and support of our amazing patients and community. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your health and healing journey. 💚
Here's to continuing to serve Oakland and the East Bay with compassionate, award-winning care! 🌿