Like many of you, this pandemic has given me plenty of time at home to try new recipes.  And since I limit how often I go grocery shopping to once a week or less, I’ve been stocking up on squash and sweet potatoes.  They don’t need to take up space in the fridge, and they can sit around for awhile if I don’t use them right away.  A sweet potato can sit on a shelf for 3-5 weeks, and a butternut squash is good for a month or more, as long as they are stored in a cool dry place. 

Last week, I stumbled across this recipe for Sweet Potato Tahini soup.  I made it over the weekend, and let’s just say, it’s a keeper. 

Cooking soup is like practicing acupuncture or playing jazz.  There is plenty of room for improvisation.  I had almost all of the ingredients listed in the recipe, but I had to make some substitutions.  I replaced the onion with a few scallions, a small carrot, a celery stick, and turnip.  I still ended up with a really good batch of soup.  I served it up with some steamed greens and flat bread on the side and a glass of white wine.  As Andy would say, DAH-licious.  

I plan to make this soup again later this week. This time, I will replace the sweet potatoes with a butternut squash.  

This is Lukas Volger’s Recipe from The Splendid Table:

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon minced or grated ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds or half-rounds (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
• Fresh lemon juice
• Frizzled Shallots 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon minced or grated ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds or half-rounds (1 1/2 to 2 pounds)
• 2 tablespoons well-stirred tahini
• Fresh lemon juice
• Frizzled Shallots (recipe follows; optional)

Directions

Warm the olive oil over medium heat in a soup pot or Dutch oven, then add the onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Cook until the onion is soft and beginning to caramelize, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, raise the heat slightly, and stir until they’re glistening all over, another 3 to 4 minutes. Cover with 5 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and add the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender. Add the soup to a blender with the tahini, in batches if necessary, and puree. (You can also use an immersion blender, but be thorough to achieve a properly smooth consistency.) Return to the pot to rewarm, add lemon juice and additional salt to taste, and serve hot, with frizzled shallots, if you like.  

As a food therapy nerd, I want to dive into some of the benefits of this recipe:

Sweet potatoes (and squash) are high in vitamin A, they are food that benefit the spleen/pancrease and stomach which, like acupuncture, helps to move blood and body fluids.  

The onions, garlic, coriander, cumin, and ginger, are all pungent spices that enhance digestion and resolve phlegm or mucus in the lungs.

Tahini contains healthy fats and other trace minerals.  

Lemons are cleansing. They help to digest fat and proteins.  That is why lemon and tahini go so well together. 

Try this soup.  Let us know how you like it and what adaptation you made to make this recipe your own.

Here's the story and how you can lend a hand.

As many of you may have heard, last week the Governor gave the okay for acupuncture clinics to resume business in the Granite State starting on June 1st. On its face this is great news. However a significant, bewildering detail lay in the State re-opening guidelines.

It seems a last minute provision was included - essentially a restriction -  that limits acupuncture practitioners to treating no more than one patient at a time. As you may imagine, this is problematic for MAS on a number of levels.

Most notably this restriction would not allow MAS to meet its expenses. Nor would we be able to accommodate all of the folks who we know are looking forward to coming back for regular treatments. It also introduces the absurd scenario where only two people would be allowed inside of facilities that are 2000-3000 square feet in size!

MAS is built to provide lots of acupuncture for not a lot of money charged for each treatment. In fact, it's part of this organization's by-laws. So the notion of increasing fees to meet financial needs for a 1:1 practitioner/patient ratio is out of the question. So we remain closed until this provision is either changed or removed. And we're working really hard to make this happen sooner than later.

Incidentally, we know of no other state in the US who has included a similar provision in re-opening guidelines for acupuncture practices, nor are we aware of any other heath professionals in NH who have been restricted in this way.

Let it be known that we are immensely grateful for the time and effort that Governor Sununu, the Re-opening Task Force and the Health and Human Services Commissioner are putting in under extraordinary circumstances. Based on our years of experience, we feel that the decision to limit acupuncture practitioners to treating one patient at a time is based on a lack of information as to how greater-access, affordable acupuncture clinics and practices have (and can continue to) safely functioned for over a decade in New Hampshire and beyond. Perhaps if so, that restriction would not have been added.

At this point, are you wondering how you may be able to help?

That's great - thank you! Here are two ways:

1) If any of you dear readers happen to have a contact at NH Dept. of Health & Human Services or within the Governor's office, please consider putting me in touch. We'd love an opportunity to teach how the 1:1 provision has the unintended consequence of keeping thousands of people from relief of chronic pain, stress, anxiety, insomnia, etc. in acupuncture clinics across the state.

2) Have your say by signing this petition that we will make certain to send along to NH Heath & Human Services, the Re-Opening Task Force and the Governor's Office by June 5th .

Thanks for sticking with us and we look forward to an update on the re-opening of MAS clinics soon.

Via Andy at the MAS YouTube Channel.

Hello, folks. We hope this message finds you doing well and are safe. It has been an interesting couple of months since we closed our doors to help slow the spread of Covid-19. Over the past couple of weeks, we have received more than a few inquiries as to when and if MAS clinics will reopen.

The short answer is, yes, MAS will absolutely re-open.

What follows is the longer answer.

As a healthcare facility, MAS is subject to state and national guidelines in our profession that have instructed both our initial closure, as well as when we are allowed to re-open and what standards and practices need to be in place in order for that to happen. These guidelines are in accordance with the best practices set forth by local, state and national governing bodies.

There are many aspects of operations related to facilities in Manchester & Nashua that need to be updated in order for MAS to abide by the guidelines set by these oversight and regulatory agencies for the foreseeable future. They include: a reworking of the physical setup in our entire facility in order to maintain social/physical distancing guidelines; the use of personal protective equipment for both staff and patients; hygiene protocols for both staff and patients; implementation of illness screening for both staff and patients; implementing and maintaining infection controls, reworking the way we schedule appointments and establishing how many people we can have in the clinic at any given time and maintain appropriate standards.  

While all of this is a lot to manage, we aim to do so while maintaining the simple soulfulness we all have come to expect. 

We have always been a small operation, working within a modest budget, and are now charged with putting into place multiple new systems in order to best protect the health of our clinic community as well as our staff members and their families. We are eager to resume operations and reconnect with you all. It is just going to take us a bit more time to get there.

We are aiming - roughly speaking - for mid-late June for re-opening.  As we get closer, we will let you know when scheduling will resume. 

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you and getting back to acupuncture. 

The Staff @ MAS

**Elizabeth's Video Tutorial is Here**

Over the years, many patients ask us how we got into practicing acupuncture. Here's my story. I studied massage in my early 20’s when my puppetry career was bust (that’s a story for another day). I was introduced to acupressure in massage school and I practiced massage at an acupuncture clinic after I jumped through all of the licensing hoops . Long story short, I was headed to acupuncture school a year later.

During my last year of acupuncture school, I was experimenting with ways to combine acupressure into massage. This came in handy for a particular client who lived in a nursing home. We had a regular standing monthly appointment. One particular day, when I showed up to her room, she was surrounded by nurses aids who were getting her cleaned up. She told me how bad she felt that she didn’t cancel her appointment sooner. She had a bad reaction to a new medication that caused an upset stomach and vomiting.

Instead of leaving, I offered to give her an hour long acupressure treatment to help calm her stomach. I am glad she took me up on the offer. I will always remember how well this treatment worked and how much better she felt as a result. I am going to teach you the two major points that I used during that treatment.

The two points are Pericardium 6 (PC6) and Spleen 4 (SP4). These two points are often used together as a point combination specifically for an upset stomach. You can use this for mild digestive discomfort like feeling bloated or nauseous, or hiccups. You can also press and massage these points for vomiting, diarrhea, and any pain located in the abdomen below the rib cage.

Yes, you can also use these points for morning sickness.

Pericardium 6 is located on the inside of the wrist, two finger widths up from wrist crease, in the center, between the two tendons. Many people might be familiar with this point if they have taken a cruise and worn sea-bands to prevent sea sickness.

P6 is also a common point for anxiety and insomnia, palpitations and chest pains. (If you are experiencing chest pains you should head over to the ER.)

Spleen 4 is located on the inside of the foot above the instep. The easiest way to find it is to locate Spleen 3, on the inside of your foot above the knuckle of the big toe. Follow the bone (metatarsal) until you reach the other head of the same bone, then you are on Spleen 4.

Both of these points are good to press when you are feeling worried, anxious, or restless; emotions which can go straight to our stomachs.

If you like video that I posted above and find it helpful, you can combine it with the points demonstrated in two more videos:

Naomi Frank at Toronto Community Acupuncture shows us more points on the Spleen and Stomach channels.

and

And Justine Meyers of Acupuncture Together’s video on Anxiety, Stress, and Insomnia is making another appearance here.

I hope this is helpful. Please send us requests for topics that we haven’t covered yet at, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We miss all of you and we hope to see you again soon and in good health.

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If you are able, we welcome donations of any amount to help us cover the rents for Manchester & Nashua facilities while we are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic via a current GoFundMe campaign. You may also This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as another way to support the clinics, and/or simply share this blog post with friends and family. 

Thank you very much for your support and solidarity.

User Rating: 4 / 5

**Video tutorial with Elizabeth is here.

Here I am following up on a patient request for points that can ease constipation. This is a great request and we are happy to oblige.

We are going to start with the most commonly used acupuncture points for constipation. Then we are going to focus on two groups of points located near and just below the elbow and points just below the knee. These areas are almost mirror images of each other. Both clusters of points are good for regulating the activity of the intestines.

The first point we are going to use is Sanjaio 6. To find this point, look at the back of your wrist and measure three fingers widths up on your forearm. Sanjiao 6 is located in between the two bones on your forearm.


The area around and including Sanjiao 6 is the most important for constipation. You can also massage the point next to Sanjaio 6, which is Sanjiao 5, located 2 finger widths from the back of the wrist. Both of them are good for treating stagnation in the large intestine which keeps things from moving.

Next, find your elbow and place your thumb in the fleshy area just above the crease when you bend your arm. This is Large Intestine 11. Continue to massage your forearm along the bone covering an area measuring about the width of your four fingers put together. Here you are covering Large Intestine points 11, 10, 9, and 8. All of these points are good for treating fullness in the stomach and abdominal pain.


And finally, you are going to massage points on the Stomach Channel on the lower leg, Stomach 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40. To find these points, first located the bottom of your kneecap and measure and hand-width down on your lower leg between the two bones. This is Stomach 36. Press and massage Stomach 36 and and continue to press and massage the space in between the two lower leg bones until you reach the center of the front of your lower leg. Now that you have covered 4 major points on the Stomach channel for regulating the intestines, you can drag your thumb outward over the fibula bone on the outside of your lower leg. This point is Stomach 40. It’s one of the most crucial points for transforming phlegm and mucus in the body. Acupuncture students usually refer to it as “Phlegm 40.”

Spend some time on all of these points while you are taking a break to listen to music or watch a movie. Give each area a good thorough massage before moving on to the next. You can even go back over the points several times. You can even spend some time gently rubbing your belly in a clockwise direction (clockwise when looking looking down at your belly from above) to encourage more movement.

In addition to regulating the intestines, the Large Intestine points near the elbow and the Stomach points on the lower leg are good for calming the mind. In these uncertain times where we are forced to stay isolated and are under a lot of pressure, it’s easy to get agitated. Try using these points to keep yourself relaxed and in the present moment.

Thank you for the request. Please keep them coming. We miss all of you and we hope to see you again, in person.

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If you are able, we welcome donations of any amount to help us cover the rents for Manchester & Nashua facilities while we are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic via a current GoFundMe campaign. You may also This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as another way to support the clinics, and/or simply share this blog post with friends and family. 

Thank you very much for your support and solidarity.