Treating Seasonal Allergies With Chinese Medicine

How to treat seasonal allergies with traditional Chinese medicine.

Yang Qi is in charge again and it is moving and shaking the things around it. But Yang’s hand can be a bit heavy. Learn more about using Yang qi to your advantage during this season and how it can impact your health for the rest of the year.

Qi Node 9: 芒種 Mángzhǒng (Grain Matures)

You’ve been conserving, planning, and preparing all year. Now it is time to DO!

Qi Node 8: 小满 Xiǎomǎn (Grain Sprouts)

We are mid-way through the first moon of Summer and the Yang qi is driving the creation summer fruits and vegetables. It is inspiring movement and activity in people and helping all of us to feel progressive and productive.

Qi Node 6: 谷雨 Gǔyǔ (Grain Rain)

The nature of Earth is to hold space and to create context. This qi node sets the stage for the coming summer and gives us insight into how we dealt with the qi of last Fall.

Qi Node 5: 清明 Qīngmíng (Clear and Bright)

Yang Qi emerges clear and bright at this time of the year, finally strong enough to start really doing things.

Qi Node 4: 春分 Chūnfēn (Spring Equinox)

The lethargy of Winter has given way to the agitation of Spring. Learn more about how you can take advantage of the return of a more directed and potent Yang Qi

Qi Node 3: 惊蛰 Jīngzhé (Insects Awaken)

Finally we can begin to feel the change in the balance of Yin and Yang in our environments. It’s still not time to go out and be super active, spending loads of time outside and getting sweaty but the change is coming. Use this node to finalize your Spring plans and get thinking about what you’ll want to do with the long days of Summer.

Qi Node 1: 立春 Lìchūn (Spring Begins)

Anticipating the rise of Yang qi and how to feel the change in the season

Qi Node 24: 大寒 Dàhán (Great Cold)

This node marks the final deepest decline of Yin Qi. But make no mistake, Yin has not disappeared and its depth and impact are still very much surrounding us. Read more the learn how to navigate the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next.

Qi Node 17: 寒露 Hánlù (Cold Dew)

Insight into the final days of Autumn and how to healthily transition into Winter

Qi Node 15: 白露 Báilù (White Dew)

An insight into how Yin is beginning the take charge of the season and heralding the powerful return of Winter Yin Qi

Qi Node 12: 大暑 Dàshǔ (Greater Heat)

Yang Qi is in decline but won’t let go! Learn how yang qi becomes pernicious at this time of the year and how to counteract its intensity to avoid health problems later in the year.

Happy Lunar New Year! The Reign of the Yang Water Tiger

The Yang Water Tiger is a stark departure from the Yin Metal Ox. Learn how this new lunar year is likely to shape up!

Qi Node 18: 霜降 Shuāngjiàng (Frost Descends)

The final node of Fall marks the collapse of Autumn into Winter and the rise of a more dominant and mature Yin

2021: Year of the Yin Metal Ox

The combination of Yin, Metal, and the Year of the Ox create an opportunity to learn from the past year and apply that reflective wisdom toward recovery and rebuilding.

Qi Node 23: 小寒 Xiǎohán (Lesser Cold)

The decline of Yin begins with this node and sets up the transition toward the young Yang of Spring.

Qi Node 22: Winter Solstice

The grandeur of Yin is on display during the longest night of the year. Learn more about what this point in the annual Yin Yang Cycle means for you.

You Are Enough

Listen in as Travis Kern talks with Stacey Whitcomb, host of the acusprout podcast, about founding Root & Branch and its mission to provide herbs for practitioners all across the country.

Covid-19 and Natural Medicine

A message from practitioner Travis Kern, LAc about the intersection between Covid-19 and natural remedies marketed as preventative or curative: There are a lot of people out there promising a lot of things. Health and illness prevention have gotten political in a lot of corners. But you can navigate this situation to the best outcomes for you and your family.

R&B Is Reopening

Root & Branch is excited to begin seeing patients in-person again.
We’ve had to put some new procedures in place but we are ready to be able to serve you again.

Learn about the new policies and procedures we have implemented to reopen our clinic

Why You and Your Parents Don't Need To Suffer As you Age

Everything I have seen in my short but lively career as a Chinese medicine practitioner suggests that most of the negative experiences we associate with the aging process need not come to pass. But in order to understand how our experience may differ from the common definition of aging, we must look at why suffering is a possibility as we age. Once we understand the problem, then we may understand its solution.

How Bugs Can Heal Chronic Pain & Disease

“I hate to sound like a broken record,” said one of my teachers, “but a lot of her problem is due to blood stagnation.”

I smiled at Greg’s remark. It was a familiar piece of advice, but one that bared repeating. Greg was one of the few westerners to go to China, learn chinese, finish a P.H.D. in Chinese medicine, and then study with various doctors who had decades of clinical experience.

“But why use the bugs Greg?” I asked after glancing at the patient’s herbal formula. “What would lead you to the conclusion that we need to break the blood?” His answer began an ongoing explanation of how to use bugs effectively in herbal prescription.

Let's be honest... You are lying.

There are a lot of inflammatory ways that we discuss health and well-being. This food is poison, that activity will kill you! Have you heard about such and such causes cancer?! The thing is, there are a lot of things out there that are less than helpful for optimal living but when the language gets too loud, too bombastic, and too crass, it often becomes misleading and then it makes it difficult to have the real conversations we need to have that could help us all live longer and live better.

Bulk Herbs and the Power of Decoction

Cooking herbs together allows their individual natures and flavors to blend together and enhance or subdue one another. This alchemy is the real power of Chinese herbal medicine and is almost entirely missing in most practitioner’s granule formulas. Remember that 汤 “tāng” means “soup” in mandarin and just like your chicken soup is not just the flavor or chicken and onion and celery but the marriage and harmony of all those things and many more, so too is your herbal formula not just a mix of “active ingredients” and chemical processes.

Behold The Humble Ginger Root: Understated Workhorse of Good Health

Falling Leaves and Changing Winds

Hazy Days of Summer and the Coming Change

Chinese Medicine is NOT Energy Medicine

Thoughts, Opinions, and Ruminations from our Founders