All Episodes

August 17, 2022 6 mins

Real Mushrooms 25% Off Your First Order!

My name is Dr. Heidi Lovie. I am a Chinese medicine practitioner in New York city Manhattan. And I've been in private practice since 2009. One of the questions I often get asked by medical doctors or other healthcare practitioners is how do I refer to myself and how do I refer to the field when I don't automatically open with, Hey, I'm Heidi, the acupuncturist Chinese medicine is really complex, beautiful medical system unto itself. And there are eight pillars in the medicine, five of them that we use therapeutically in the treatment room. And another three we don't often talk about because they're not applicable quite in the same way, but they're equally as important. So the treatment room five are nutrition, our nutrition herb.

Movement, which is the right movement for the right body. tuina a type of medical, massage and acupuncture. But when I say acupuncture, that's really a title heading for anything where I'm using a tool, whether that's the needles or whether that's gua sha cupping moxibustion, we have many things at our fingertips.

The other three, which I have to give a tip of the hat to because they're equally important. Are meditation, feng shui and cosmology. And please note, I did not say astrology because I don't care what your rising sign is most of the time, but what we're looking at is what. Has impact on our human experience internally, what is impacting our human experience locally and work or the home.

And what's impacting our human experience on a much grander scale, a cosmological, a broader scale. And those are things that we can sometimes shift a little bit, but they don't have quite the same therapeutic immediate impact that the treatment room five. And so because we have this deep, broad education acupuncture school is often in many places in the us four years, full time.

In addition to what other undergraduate you did, but because we have these, I can tell a patient, Hey, you don't need me. You need a steak. You don't need me. You have to go for a run you don't need me. You need to upgrade the diet, but then I'm actually able to give suggestions, work with the patient and offer solutions in a meaningful way where we can impact their health and move them towards their health goals.

So when you're looking for an acupuncturist, you always wanna find somebody who's licensed. , this is a difficult licensure to get. We have to graduate. We have to do clinical experience. We have to pass our boards. We often have state testing that we have to do as well. And you wanna look for somebody ideally, who is also an herbalist.

You don't always need that. In a practitioner, but it's a good thing to have because they have that extra thing to offer you in the treatment room. So we're much more than just needles and I encourage you to visit your local acupuncturist to see for yourself.

I'm Michael max from Yong Kang, Chinese medicine clinic in St. Louis, Missouri today, with some thoughts on the question of what does acupuncture feel like?

Acupuncture feels fresh baked bread, a stone perfectly skipped, an unexpected call from an old friend…. Like old photos recovered from a dusty attic, misplaced vitality from another time becomes accessible with the right stimulation from a few skillfully placed needles.

Acupuncture can turn you on dime, reflect back to you your brilliance, call you to account for your habituated excuses, and slip you into a quiet so nourishing and vast you cannot help but touch on appreciation and wonder.

It feels like a well-swung bat, a nicely banked shot, a satisfying sneeze. Acupuncture wiggles you through constrained emotions, it loosen the heart and expands your chest in the same deep-sigh way that forgiveness creates an extraordinary amount of space in your spirit....

Mark as Played

Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.