From MAS acu-punk, Elizabeth Ropp:

Who doesn’t love a spicy warm cup of chai tea? I admit, I have at least three different varieties of chai tea bags at any given time. Last weekend, I was inspired to make chai from whole dried herbs by a video made by my favorite YouTube yoga teacher.

Chai tea tastes really good. It’s also a drink that offers many health benefits, particularly for warming the body, promoting healthy digestion, opening the sinuses, and improving circulation.

Chai tea is typically associated with India and Ayurvedic medicine. But just about all of the spices in chai tea are found in the Chinese Herbal Medicine Materia Medica.

Black pepper, cinnamon sticks, clove, and star anise are in the category of herbs that Warm the Interior and Expel Cold.

Cardamom and Coriander are herbs/spices are aromatic herbs that transform dampness or stickier body fluids (think phlegm). Like pepper, cinnamon, fennel seeds, and clove, they also benefit and promote healthy digestion. They are also particularly good for resolving phlegm and mucus in the chest or in the stomach.

Fresh Ginger is in the category of Warm, Acrid Herbs that release the exterior. This makes it a great herb to relieve body aches when you feel like you are catching a cold. Like the other herbs, it enhances digestion and relieves stomach pain. It also relieves a phlegmy cough.

I like Yoga with Adriene’s Basic Yogi Tea Recipe and I’ve made my own additions:

Bring a pot of water to boil on your stove, about 8 cups.

20 Black Peppercorns
15 Whole Cloves
3-5 Cinnamon Sticks
20 Cardamom Seed (split)
7 Slices of Fresh Ginger
1 black tea bag (optional)

Simmer on the stove for 30 minutes to 2 hours and then strain and drink hot or cold. You can add any kind of milk or sweetener to your taste level or drink it straight.

I like to add Star Anise and Coriander seeds to my chai. Other variations include fennel seeds. Chai is versatile. If you have some of these ingredients, but not all, you can still make a tasty cuppa chai.

If you are not sure where to find some of these ingredients, In Manchester, I recommend the Saigon Market on Union Street, The Spice Center on Valley Street, and A-Market on South Willow Street. All of these shops are taking good precautions right now with respect to wearing gloves and facemasks and asking shoppers to keep a six foot distance while waiting at the cash register.

All of us at Manchester Acupuncture Studio miss all of you. We hope to see you again and in good health.
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At this time we welcome donations of any amount via the MAS GoFundMe campaign to help us cover the rent while we are closed during the viral outbreak.
We are also welcoming This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as another way to support the clinic. Lastly, thanks for sharing any of our blog posts with friends and loved-ones.  We thank you for your fellowship.

Kudzu and Cinnamon Tea to reduce a fever, and more. - MAS acu-punk Elizabeth Ropp

Years ago, when I still lived alone, I woke up one night feeling feverish. I went to my kitchen cabinet, rather than the medicine cabinet, for medicine. There I found kudzu starch and cinnamon powder among my other herbs and spices. I mixed them up in a sauce pan with some apple juice. I sipped the connection on my couch and wrapped myself in a blanket. I felt the fever drain away from my body and I went back to bed.

Now that we are in the mode of stocking our kitchen cabinets with essentials to keep ourselves and our families healthy, I am going to share this remedy that my teacher, Dr. Lilliane Papin, taught me and my classmates, during acupuncture school.

You are going to need three ingredients:

1 Tbls. of Kudzu Starch
A few dashes of Cinnamon powder
1 cup of organic apple juice
Just enough cold water to dissolve the Kudzu starch

Kudzu, the invasive plant that grows all over the Southeast, is widely used in Japan for thicken soups and sauces.
In the Chinese Materia Medica, it is known as Ge Gen.

It is useful for many reasons:

Reduce a fever
Balance blood sugar
Ease neck, shoulder tension, and headaches
Alleviate diarrhea
Relieve hot flashes
Reduce alcohol consumption

Cinnamon is also a Chinese Herb, known as Gui Zhi.

It’s also useful to:

Prevent colds
Reduce phlegm that is stuck in the chest
Balance blood sugar
Reduce arthritic pain, especially pain that feels worse during cold damp weather

Apple Juice is high in sugar and should be consumed in moderation. It is a therapeutic food to hydrate and cool down the body and moisten a dry throat or soothe a dry cough.

1.Heat the apple juice in a saucepan on a low heat.

2. add a few dashes of cinnamon powder

3. Dissolve the Kudzu in a little cold or room temperature water. You need to do this so the Kudzu won’t turn into a ball of dough when you add it to the warming apple juice.

4. Once the kudzu starch is dissolved, you can pour it into the warm apple juice, keep stirring so it doesn’t get lumpy. The juice should thicken a bit.

When your tea is hot enough pour it into a mug and drink it hot.

Kudzu starch can also be used as a replacement for cornstarch for thickening soups, gravy, and other sauces. This will give your recipes more therapeutic benefit. Dr. Papin would always quote Hippocrates in her classes and workshops:

“Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.”

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All of us at MAS miss all of you. We hope to see you again and in good health.

We are currently welcoming any and all tax-deductible donations via GoFundMe to help us cover the rents while we are closed during the virus pandemic.
We'd also welcome This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as another way to support the clinic. We thank you for your generosity.

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An easy one-point acupressure technique for leg cramps - MAS acu-punk, Elizabeth Ropp

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with a charlie horse? Or get a muscle cramp in your hamstring from stretching too deeply or exercising a little too hard?

I am going to teach you a simple acupressure technique to relieve leg cramps, with just one point. I learned this from my friend, Kristine Kaoverri Weber, shiatsu practitioner and yoga teacher. This treatment is so simple, that it’s right under your nose. Literally, the point is under your nose.

Of all of the acupressure tips that I share, this is the tip that I recommend the most often. It works so well and the results can be felt almost immediately. Mind you, this may not work for everybody. But I, personally, have seen this work for most people.

Here is what you are going to do:
Find the divot between your upper lip and your nose. This is called the philtrum. You are going to press and rub this point and take deep breaths until your leg cramp or muscle spasm goes away. This should really only take a few seconds.



This acupressure point is called Ren Zhong, or Governing Vessel 26. The Governing Vessel is a meridian that runs through the midline up the back of the body. We commonly needle points Governing Vessel points, like Du 20 on the very top of the head or, a special point, Yin Tan, right between the eyebrows.

And, that’s it. Try this the next time you get a muscle cramp in your leg and let us know if it works for you.

Video demo with Elizabeth
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All of us at Manchester Acupuncture Studio miss all of you. We hope to see you again and in good health.

At this time we are accepting tax-deductible donations to help us cover the rents in Manchester & Nashua while we are temporarily closed during the virus pandemic. You can alsoThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as another way to support the clinic. We thank you for your generosity and camaraderie.

In China acupuncture, herbs and moxibustion are integrated into the healthcare system. Right now, in the Wuhan Province, COVID-19 patients and their families are getting traditional therapies alongside Western medicine for symptom relief of the virus. Acupuncture is also being used to treat patients for all the same reasons why many people come to MAS: for anxiety and insomnia, migraines and more.

During this time that we are not able to give you access to affordable community acupuncture, we want to continue to share easy, simple home-remedies and ‘homework-style’ treatment techniques.

Our good friend, Robert Hayden from Presence Community Acupuncture in Hollywood Florida, shared a clever technique from one of his favorite teachers. All you need is a hairdryer and a flat piece of cardboard.

Are you familiar with the term ‘moxibustion’? Perhaps we’ve sent you home with a ‘moxa’ stick and instructions on how to light and use it to warm particular acupuncture points or areas of your body. If not, moxibustion is the warming of moxa a.k.a. Mugwort on or above acupuncture points.
Acupuncture needles are one (terrific) way to stimulate and make use of acupuncture points, but know there are more, heat among them.

We like this ‘hot air moxa’ technique from Robert, because most people don’t have easy access to moxa, but just about everyone has a hair dryer.

Important: If you experience any of following:

1) numbness or neuropathy at the area of these points, or
2) poor circulation in the area of these points
3) open sores or wounds in the area of these points

Do NOT take part in this technique.

Basically, you shouldn’t do this unless you have normal circulation and sensation of your legs where these points exist.

If you’re not sure you have normal sensation or circulation, don’t undertake this until you’ve had the chance to clear it with your doctor.
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MAS acu-punk Elizabeth demonstrates the following air moxa technique here, on youtube. 

First things first - you are going to want to find a piece of cardboard that’s at least 6”x 6”. You can cut a square off of a box, or maybe use a thick file folder. If you have one, use a hole-punch to make a hole in the middle of your cardboard square. Otherwise you’ll want to cut a small hole about the width of a pencil with other means, perhaps a small knife.

Place the hole you’ve just cut in the cardboard directly over your acupuncture point of choice. Apply the heat from your hair dryer close to the hole until you just start to feel a ‘zap’ from the heat on your skin at the acupuncture point, then immediately remove the heat for a good 20 to 30 seconds. After this break, re-apply heat again for a total of 3 times at each acupuncture point, removing the heat in between feeling ‘zaps’ from the heat.


We are going to start with Stomach 36. It’s the mother of all points. If you only apply this technique to one point that we teach you, ST36 is the one to use.

Stomach 36, a.k.a. Zusanli a.k.a. Three Miles More, is one of the most venerable of all acupuncture points. It’s a highly useful tool for many of our organ systems. It sits on the Stomach pathway, so it’s good for anything stomach/digestive related. If anxiety goes to your stomach, this is a great point. It strengthens your whole body as it interacts with our ability to break down and extract the nutritional goods from which we eat So it’s good to stimulate this point if you are feeling weak or depleted. It’s also commonly a key ingredient in potent preventative acupuncture treatments*.

ST36 also a smart point choice for:
- Shortness of breath and cough
- Sore throat, chills, and fever
- Frontal headaches, stuffy or cold nose
- Weakness and dizziness *

While home, consider giving this a try if stimulating this acupuncture point sounds like it might be helpful for you. We will put out more tutorials of other common points and why they are useful over the next few days. If you have any requests, you can mention them in the comments when we put this blog post onto our Facebook page.

We hope to see you again soon and in good health.

* Peter Deadman, A Manual of Acupuncture, pages 158-161, Copyright 2001 AZ

You may have heard the following phrase spoken at MAS at some point over the years: "We don't give a lot of life-style advice". 

This is true. We've come to understand the abundance of available information and various qualified providers to offer it up, makes it easy for us to recognize our roles clearly: providers of access to top-notch, regular individualized acupuncture treatments.  And lots of them!

And while this is all the case, the current circumstances don't allow us to share in acupuncture together.  On top of that, there is immediate cause to think preventative health measures are of great importance to us, right?

We'll be writing here over the next few days to collectively share easy, non-expensive, practical food-related advice with the hopes of helping you stay well enough that you will not need western medical interventions in the near future.  We hope you find it useful.

We'll just drop the following here today:

Garlic, garlic, garlic! Strongly consider eating garlic daily if your digestion allows for it. Raw, roasted, in pesto (yum) as an ingredient in your favorite food - however you can find a way to ingest it, you're likely better for it due to its long-recognized anti-viral and anti-biotic properties.  Garlic is likely a good friend to us these days.

Apple cider vinegar and/or fermented foods like pickles, saurkraut and kimchee are also favorites of the MAS staff.  Rich in beneficial bacteria while also known as Liver tonics in Chinese medical theory.  A little a day is a great strategic use of these foods. 

More soon.

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In addition, we'd also like to share the names of a handful of practitioners who are offering telemedicine consults for Chinese Herbal medicine, Western herbs, Naturopathic medicine and nutritional support, should you be looking for prescriptive guidance.

Dr. Laura Chan, ND, L.Ac. has extended a kind gesture to MAS patients by offering telemedicine consults with her with fees set on the MAS sliding-scale of $20-40. Dr. Chan offers prescriptions for Western herbs along with nutritional guidance and support as a Naturopathic doctor.  Reach her office at this secure email address:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Nicole Maniez, L.Ac. - Our friend and POCA-colleague, is offering Chinese herbal consults while her community acupuncture clinic in Flemington, New Jersey is temporarily shuttered.  More info here.

Paul Mosier, L.Ac. is offering telemedicine consults for Chinese herbal medicine. Reach his office at (603) 213-6090.

Angela Lambert, ND, L.Ac. is also offering the same for Chinese herbal formulas as well as Naturopathic medical support and guidance. (603) 431-0128.