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

"Wasian." "Dry needling." Two ways Asian becomes more palatable.
A recent New York magazine feature on the rise of "Wasian" identity included a number that stopped me: 82% of multiracial Asians in the U.S. are part white. I'm half white and half Chinese myself, and I read that statistic differently than I might have twenty years ago. Proximity to whiteness changes how Asian identity gets perceived. What's familiar gets accepted more easily. What's closer to whiteness gets celebrated faster.
I see the same pattern in my own field. Acupuncture is an ancient medical system with its own language, theory, and clinical reasoning. Dry needling is acupuncture rebranded through a Western biomedical lens. Same needles. Different name. Somehow more legitimate once it's detached from its Asian origins.
Swipe through for the rest of it, including where this shows up in my own life, not just my profession.

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

#eastasianmedicine #acupuncture #mixedrace #wasian #oaklandacupuncture

Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is coming up on September 25th, the day the moon reaches its fullest and roundest point of the year. In Chinese medicine, that roundness has never been just visual. It's a statement about balance and completeness.

The moon has always represented Yin: cool, receptive, nourishing, restorative. Autumn is the season most closely tied to Yin too, which is part of why this festival lands exactly when it does. If you spent the summer running hot and depleted, your body is already asking you to slow down.

Swipe through for how this shows up everywhere from mooncakes to family reunion to what we're actually treating for in the clinic this time of year.

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

#midautumnfestival #moonfestival #TCM #chinesemedicine #oaklandacupuncture

Jing is the concept in Chinese medicine that determines your reproductive potential. You inherit it from your parents at conception, and unlike most things in the body, it does not replenish itself. It is fixed in quantity and it declines with age.

This means egg quality work is not about adding more and hoping for the best. It is about conserving what you already have. Swipe through for what that actually looks like: from clearing hormone disrupters out of your products, to the herbs I turn to for Jing support, to the acupuncture timing that makes the biggest difference before an IUI, egg freezing, or IVF cycle.

Your eggs today reflect your health from two to three months ago. If you are planning a cycle, now is the time to start. Full write up on our blog if you want to go deeper.

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

#fertilityacupuncture #eggquality #TCM #chinesemedicine #jing

The TCM Costco Edit is back and this time it is for Mid-Autumn Festival.

Costco is carrying six varieties of mooncakes right now from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Guangzhou, China and each one has a story worth knowing.

White lotus seed paste nourishes the Heart and calms the Shen. Red bean paste tonifies Blood and resolves dampness. Salted egg yolk nourishes Kidney yin. Chestnut tonifies Kidney yang. Gingko nourishes Lung yin. Mixed nuts with walnut and sesame nourish Kidney jing and Liver Blood. The mochi red bean cake tonifies Blood and warms the Spleen.

Growing up Cantonese the Guangzhou Restaurant box stopped me in the aisle. This is the style my family always bought and the white lotus seed paste with double yolk was always what we had.

This is just the beginning of the Mid-Autumn Festival content. More on the history of the holiday, the TCM significance of the autumn full moon, and the seasonal food medicine that belongs on your table this time of year is coming over the next few weeks.

For now, get to Costco this weekend before these sell out. They always do.

📍 City Pulse Acupuncture | Oakland CA
🔗 Link in bio

#mooncake #midautumnfestival #TCM #chinesemedicine #costco

One of the most common things new patients hear at City Pulse is why we ask where they are in their cycle before every session. Here is the answer.

The menstrual cycle has four distinct phases and each one has a different hormonal environment, a different energetic quality in TCM, and a different clinical goal. The Menstrual phase is about moving Blood and clearing the old lining. The Follicular phase is about building Kidney yin and nourishing the developing follicle. The Ovulatory phase is about supporting the yang surge and preventing stagnation at the pivot point between yin and yang. The Luteal phase is about warming Kidney yang, supporting progesterone, and preparing the uterine environment for implantation.

In fertility acupuncture, when you come in matters as much as how often you come in. Phase-based treatment is the standard of care.

Swipe through for the full breakdown of what is happening in each phase from both a TCM and Western perspective and why the timing of your sessions matters more than you might think.

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

#TCM #chinesemedicine #fertilityacupuncture #fourphasecycle #oaklandacupuncture