Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 207 posts
"I wake up at 3 a.m." — what do we look at first?
You can fall asleep, but you wake up around 2 or 3 a.m. without fail, and it takes a long time to get back to sleep. The time is almost always the same. Most people don't come in just to talk about sleep. They also mention a constantly stiff neck and shoulders, a bloated stomach and daytime tiredness.
Is bee venom pharmacopuncture safe?
If you've ever had severe swelling or shortness of breath after a bee sting, you shouldn't have it. In rare cases, this treatment can cause a life-threatening reaction. That's why we first test the skin reaction with a very small amount. If there's no problem, we increase it slightly next time. We never skip this step. After treatment, we have you stay at the clinic for twenty to thirty minutes.
Will an obesity gene test help me?
It can serve as a reference. But the results won't tell you "this is how this person should lose weight." It's honest to say that first. Many people get tested because they want to know why they've failed. We understand that feeling. But what people expect and what the test can give are different. Whether you tend to gain weight easily, or tend to have trouble controlling appetite
Can high foot arches be a problem too?
They can. People usually only talk about flat feet with collapsed arches, but feet with arches that are too high can also cause trouble because they can't let impact flow through. The arch is a bridge-like structure that sinks slightly with each step to absorb impact. If it's too high, there's no room to sink, so the impact travels straight up. Calluses form easily on the outer edge of the foot, ankles get sprained often, and
Why does a shoulder injured during exercise keep flaring up?
Because once it stops hurting, people put weight on a tendon that is still healing. Pain stopping and a tendon healing happen at different times. The first thing people who exercise ask is, "When can I start again?" We understand that feeling. But rushing here makes the same spot keep flaring up. The four muscles that connect the upper arm bone to the shoulder blade and rotate the arm
If I'm forgetting things more often, is it the start of dementia?
If you're worried about your memory, a cognitive test at a neurology or psychiatry clinic comes first. We recommend getting that checked before coming to us. Let us be clear: we don't diagnose dementia, and we don't claim to treat it. This article was written to tell you where to go. There's one more reason a check is needed.
Does worn knee cartilage grow back?
Worn cartilage doesn't grow back to how it was. But how much it hurts and how far you can walk can change. It's honest to talk about these two separately. We won't use the phrase "we'll regenerate your cartilage." Instead, we'll tell you what can change. They don't go hand in hand. Some people do well even though their images show a lot of wear,
What is numbness that runs from the buttock down the leg?
If you have trouble holding in or passing urine or stool, reduced feeling around the groin, or weakness in both legs, go to the emergency room right away. A bundle of nerves may be compressed, and in that case time changes the outcome. If you wait, it becomes hard to reverse. Also, if you can't lift your ankle so your foot drags, or your leg strength is noticeably fading, that's not something to wait on either.
My face gets hot and I sleep badly. Is it just my age?
It's a common change around menopause. It's not something to just put up with as "my age," and there are things that can be done. Suddenly your face and neck flush hot and you sweat, then you soon cool down and get chills, and this repeats several times a day. When it happens at night, your sleep gets broken. This is because as female hormones decline, the set point that regulates body temperature becomes more sensitive. Even a little
Does exercise really help frozen shoulder?
It helps. But it's not about doing the same exercise at any time; what you do changes completely depending on which stage you're in now. Frozen shoulder is a condition that tends to get better on its own over time. That doesn't mean you should just wait and see. The process takes years, and how you get through that time affects the range of movement you're left with at the end.
When and how should I start rehab exercises?
You start by holding still against resistance. Because the joint doesn't move, you can do it even while it still hurts, and it's safer for that reason. When people hear "exercise," they picture lifting weights or moving joints through big ranges. Doing that first during recovery leads to reinjury. What you do first is exercise where you use force but your body doesn't move. Because the joint doesn't move,
If the pain is gone, am I fully healed?
Pain stopping and being fully healed are different things. Pain is the first to go, and weakened muscles and ligaments come back later. In the clinic we say, "When the pain is gone, you're about halfway there." If you stop here, you often end up coming back a while later with pain in the same spot. Pain mostly comes from inflammation. When the inflammation settles