Peter Sheng Acupuncture

Peter Sheng Acupuncture An expert in acupuncture and Chinese herbs, we serve patients with a wide variety of challenging pr

04/18/2023

An Alternative for Adderall Shortage

A few months ago FDA announced shortage of Adderall, a prescription drug which is amphetamine derivative and a stimulant used for ADHD. This has caused panic and outcry among users who depend on this drug for work and study. Are there alternatives? Sure, there are other drugs in the same class which maybe more expensive or producing more side effects, but they are also difficult to find.

There is an increasingly large number of children and to a lesser extent adults are diagnosed as having ADHD in recent years, therefore the demand for the medication is higher. There is not a precise diagnostic technology for ADHD, rather, the diagnosis is questionnaire-based, and is subject to interpretation. Adderall and its likes have undoubtedly helped many people, however, they are an imperfect solution to an imperfect diagnosis.

For many years I have treated kids and adults with ADHD with acupuncture, Chinese herbs, or combination of the two with some success. Acupuncture needles tap into the autonomic nervous system and stimulate the heart and brain, Herbal mix is used to improve our heart and brain. I have also used this strategy to treat older folks with cognitive decline and poor memory.

From the Chinese medicine point of view there are different types of ADHD which are treated differently. Pulse diagnosis is a convenient way to separate them out for the differential diagnosis.

People who have ‘fire’ in the body, be it the liver fire, stomach fire or heart fire, may have an overactive mind. Different cooling herbs can be used to put out different kinds of fire. People with liver energy disharmony feel irritable and maybe restless. People with heart Qi and blood deficiency may suffer from inability to pay attention.

TCM aims to achieve inner balance of our energy and metabolism which can be very helpful to ADHD.

12/21/2022

From “Chinese Herbs for Leg Swelling” to “What Is Your Constitutional Imbalance “

I am not talking about American politics or voting rights. I am talking about your inner energy or Qi.  it begins with a 44 year old pharmacist who came for leg edema, refractory to water pill Maxzide. She increased the dosage recently, but to no avail. Upon close questioning, she is sensitive to cold weather, feeling thirsty, drinks a lot of water with frequent urination. she needs to go to the bathroom 4 to 5 times every night. She also experiences fatigue. She is puzzled as to why the same medication does not work anymore and is wondering if there is other effective alternatives? Can she find the root cause?

After history taking, pulse and tongue diagnosis, I told her she has “kidney yang energy deficiency” according to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) which is an entirely different medical system.

One week after initial visit during which she received acupuncture and the Chinese herbs, she returned, feeling much better: warmer, more energetic, only getting up once at night for bathroom. Her leg swelling still comes and goes, I reassure her legs will improve also very soon.

TCM’s approaches to leg swelling is a sharp contrast to Western medicine(WM). TCM takes into consideration the underlying body constitutional and type of imbalance or weakness. Western practitioners prescribe different water pills to help get rid of the excess water, which all work on kidneys. In the TCM framework, lung, spleen, kidney are all involved with water metabolism. TCM also takes into consideration the yin and the yang, heat or cold, exterior or interior, deficiency or access, basic diagnostic principles to further sort through each individual’s complaint.

Without getting into great details of TCN framework, I’ll simply conclude:
1.  For more complicated, chronic medical conditions, do not just resort to knee-jerk response or match the pill to the ill approaches. Prescription drugs are good but not without limitations or side effects.

2. Find an experienced TCM practitioner to find out about your body constitution/imbalance. TCM compliments WM well, especially for those suffering from chronic illnesses with poor response to bandaid medicine.

Acne and Chinese HerbsAcne is a common problem especially among teenagers. It is annoying and can affect self esteem an...
04/19/2022

Acne and Chinese Herbs

Acne is a common problem especially among teenagers. It is annoying and can affect self esteem and social relationships. Having used Chinese herbs to treat acne over the years, I would like to share my experiences and thoughts here so that more people may think of this treatment as an alternative to Accutane and antibiotics.

Chinese herbs is a team work as well as a personalized therapy. The team work concept refers to use of multiple ingredients as opposed to just one In order to enhance effectiveness and to balance out each other’s side effects. Personalized approach emphasizes how you are different from other acne patients in terms of what herbs you need and in what quantity.

First and foremost treatment is to clear body heat or fire through a variety of cooling and detoxifying herbs. Chinese medicine is quite specific in differentiating the location of the excess heat, be it the lung, stomach or the liver. Secondly, herbs are added to improve circulation especially to the facial area. Third treatment is to pacify and harmonize the liver energy which can be enraged in time of emotional stress. This liver regulates the entire body and works through the autonomic nervous. Many patients with skin order including acne, eczema and psoriasis have abnormal liver Qi.

Having said that most acne problem patients have excess body heat, I have also treated a few who have cold sensitivity, or yang Qi deficiency. They need some warm herbs added to the herbal mixture to make their acne problem better.

Besides the herbal treatment, good personal hygiene, healthy diet (avoiding fried and greasy food) and lifestyle (going to bed early) should always be included as part of the treatment plan.

If you need my help with your skin problem from afar, telemedicine is available. Please contact me by going to my website
Peter sheng.com and fill out the Appointment Request form and I will contact you.

02/09/2022

Cold Hands, feet and the Raynaud’s Phenomenon

A lady in her 40’s came to me for help with management of cold hands and feet with pain. She had been extensively worked up by several physicians and the results were inconclusive. She was started on a drug for lupus but has failed to improve clinically. She felt extremely frustrated and worried.

Many people have cold hands and feet, especially in winter months. Not infrequently, there is color changes of fingers and toes too, such as redness, cyanosis and pallor. Dr. Raynaud, a French physician, first described this phenomenon in the 19th century. Since then, many have referred this as Raynaud’s Phenomenon (RP).Some patients may have more serious underlying medical diagnosis such as vascular insufficiency, autoimmune or blood disorder. However, the vast majority are just cold with poor generalized peripheral circulation in my clinical experience.

There is no effective treatment for this condition in western medicine. Many years ago some proposed a class of drug called calcium channel blockers which acted as vasodilators with mixed results. In a review article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2016, the authors pointed out that there have never been any good clinical trials for RP.

Cold hands and feet is due to deficienct yang energy which fails to reach extremities from the perspective of TCM. In addition, thee is lack of Qi (vital force) and blood stagnation. The treatment is to provide herbs to boost yang and Qi and to move the blood. This kind of practice has been going for over 2000 years and has been proven to be effective through many case reports. Acupuncture maybe added to help relieve pain, numbness and tingling of hands and feet. I have personally treated many patients in my 30+ years of practice and many have made good improvement.

01/21/2022

A young gentleman in his 30’s came to me for help with chronic insomnia. I could tell He had done extensive research on improving sleep from his usage of “sleep hygiene”, “sleep efficiency “. As expected he also was experiencing mental fog during the day, i.e. lack of mental focus and ability to make critical decisions. He was offered a CFO position and worried a lot about job performance.

Based on my examination, the Chinese medicine way, he had a lot of heat in his body. His hands were warm to the touch in December, his tongue bright red and his pulses big and jumping. In addition to acupuncture, he was prescribed Chinese herbs to cool off the heat. A cooling herbal formula called Zhu Ye Shi Gao Tang, along with other cooling herbs were prescribed. After four weeks, he slept 6 hours per night , up from 4 hours before, and his mental clarity and focus have greatly improved.

The key point here is his heat excess. I have several similar cases in recent years. Western medicine has not paid much attention to the concept of “heat vs cold”, not to mention how to treat heat and cold related problems.

01/17/2022

Treating Post Acute Covid Syndrome with Acupuncture and Herbs

By now, we are all familiar with the symptoms of COVID, yet another disease entity has appeared by the name of post-acute Covid, or Covid long haul. Simply put, some , after acute Covid, would suffer from a variety of symptoms such as lingering fatigue, mental fog, altered sense of taste or smell, body aches or even menstrual irregularities among females. The manifestations may vary from person to person, and there is no one magic pill that can take of everyone. So, borrowing from our experience in managing chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and ADHD, antidepressants, ONS stimulus like those used in ADHD, and anti seizure medicine have been handed out.

Treating post-acute viral syndrome is not new in medicine. For years we know there are people with chronic fatigue after infections, mono, or CMV infection. One of traditional Chinese medicine’s strength is to treat weakness and deficiency condition. Successful management is based on proper diagnosis of whether deficiency is yin, yang, qi or blood, or mixture of them.

The following case illustrates my points. A 45 year old female contracted COVID in late 2020, her recovery had been slow. She came to me six months later, with fatigue, lack of mental focus, feeling cold during the day with occasional hot flashes but warmer at night, and having not had any menstrual periods for three months. Diagnosis based on tongue and pulse examination put her in the category of both yin and yang deficiency. With acupuncture and Chinese herbs, her condition improved rapidly and her periods returned normal.

I have also treated several patients for altered taste sense and they all reported improvement after acupuncture. Those are anecdotes, however, TCM offers a non-drug solution based on a complete medical system several thousand years old.

12/16/2019

Headache

A patient with chronic headache over the past year was referred to me for management.

Upon close questioning, his headache had been daily, constant, low grade and all over his head. I asked him a simple question - If he felt better by applying pressure on his temples. His answer was "YES". I knew immediately that he suffered from "weak deficiency type of headache".

My impression was confirmed by examining his pulse - weak, sunken, deep, especially over the left first position (repressenting heart and brain). Translated into simple english, his head was not getting enough blood flow. In addition to headache, he also suffered from fatigue, lack of mental focus or concentration, poor memory and insomnia.

Energy-boosing herbs and blood invigoratin herbs were prepared for him. After one acupuncture treatment and one week of herbal therapy, he felt much better.

Like many other symptoms, headache also needs personalized approach!

12/11/2019

The Hot Flash That is Misunderstood

One of my prior patients with a history of early stage breast cancer from almost 20 years ago came to see me, asking the question - "Is hormone replacement with estrogen appropriate for me?" She has suffered from "hot flashes" for the past one and half years.

With pulse examination, it took me less than one minute to make the diagnosis - She has "big pulse", blood vessel wide and thick, pulse jumping with a strong amplitude. Her pulse is best described as "expansile", an indication of excess evil heat inside her body and the solution is to cool off her heat with herbs.

Listed below are my thoughts :
1. It can be dangerous to prescribe medications just based on patients' narrative, feeling hot after menopause does not equal to hot flashes.

2. "Heat vs Cold" is hardly addressed in western medicine, but is a very important concept in Chinese medicine.

3. Medicine should follow logical thinking. This lady had her menopause at age 55, or 6 years ago. She was initially fine until about one and half years ago. Why would she have intense "hot flashes" at 61, four years after menopause?

4. Upon further questioning, she admitted to have had many episodes of infections about 2 years ago, including UTI's, prior to her feeling very hot. My speculation is that her body condition/constitution changed then and there is residual inflammation in her body whcih made her feeing hot.

5. What is the definition of hot flashes? Hot flashes come and go, lasting for perhaps one minute at a time. Feeling excessively hot continuously is very unusual and it is not hot flashes.

6. There is definite risk of increased incidence of breast cancer and blood clots due to hormone replacement therapy with estrogen. As for the commom, real hormonal hot flashes, acupuncture and Chinese herbs can help and there have been a number of studies done to support its efficacy.

11/19/2019

Sadness, Anxiety, Depression (SAD)

A lot of people have mood disorders that originate from a weak heart. I see this problem over and over aging in clinical practice through pulse diagnosis. Pulse at the left Cun position (first position right proximal to the wrist area) is usually weak, deep and thin. In western medicine antidepressants (SSRIs) and anxiolytics are prescribed. In Chinese medicine, herbs used to boost heart energy (Hwang Qi, Ren Shen, Ren Shen Yang Ron Tang, Shi Quan Da Bu Tang), to invigorate blood (Dan Gui, Chuan Qiong), and to dilate coronary arteries (San Qi, Mao D**g Qing, Yu Jin, Dan Shen, etc.) are mixed with herbs to enhance the brain power (Yuang Zhi, Shi Chuang Pu, etc.) to be prescribed to patients.

The interesting difference is : in western medicine, different mood, memory, mental problems are attributed to the lack of or imbalance of chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters, while in Chinese medicine, the theory is that the brain does not get enough blood (vital air and nutrients). By strengthening the heart, the brains get what they need and work better.

Give Chinese medicine a try!

09/13/2019

Recently I gave a talk at TriHealth on how to treat commonly seen allergic disorders, focusing on using acupuncture and Chinese herbs.

Some may ask : Who benefit from CAM (Complementary and alternative medicine)? The answer is those who don’t benefit enough from western medicine, those who have experienced side effects or those who are fearful of side effects from western medicine.

Over the years I have used acupuncture and/or Chinese herbs to treat a variety of allergic problems such as dermatitis, nasal allergy, bronchial asthma and bronchitis. Typically these patients came with a long history of suffering, have tried multiple medications with marginal benefits. They did get better under my care.

The current understanding is acupuncture works through multiple mechanisms : relaxation, balancing the autonomic nervous system, anti-inflammation, strengthening immune system, etc. Chinese herbal mix achieve multiple purposes : cooling the heat/fire, taking away inflammation, decreasing itching, etc.

I have treated a number of physicians with allergy and respiratory problems over the years. One female physician had persistent symptoms of sinus infection but failed getting better after three courses of antibiotics. Her symptoms subsided after two acupuncture sessions and one bottle of mixed herbs. Another pediatrician had seasonal asthma every spring. A few acupuncture sessions in early spring made her free of asthma attacks that year.

Western medicine is effective in many diseases treatments but it does not change one’s body constitution which may be a contributing factor to the suffering.

09/05/2019

Dr. Sheng is giving a speech on

“Complimentary and Alternative Medicine for Allergy, Eczema, Sinusitis and Asthma”. At

TriHealth Pavilion at I-71 & Pfeiffer Road on

9/12 Thursday at 6:30pm

09/04/2019

A middle aged gentleman asked me for help to get him off some of his regular medications.

He had diagnoses of type II diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, hypertension, depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, low back pain and high cholesterol. He had seen many physicians and had been on a long list of prescription drugs. Despite of the care from multiple specialists and plenty of pills, he felt miserable and began to have numbness of his feet and noticed occasional imbalance.

In western medicine each symptom is treated separately by physicians in that specialized field of medicine. The prescriptions from all the specialists made his medication list very long. To get him off him his regular medications would be a long shot. First I needed to understand his constitutional type. Was there a common thread?

His hands were warm, he admitted to profuse sweating, his pulse was big and expansive. His pulse was easy to feel with my fingertips using minimal pressure to the radial artery. This was a case of excess heat which made his mind very active (interpreted as anxiety/depression), his appetite very good (eating too much made it difficult to control diabetes and to lose weight), and suffered constipation with abdominal pain (considered as IBS in western medicine).

In addition to acupuncture, herbal formulas were prepared to drain the excess heat from his stomach, intestine and liver. Returned one week later, he felt to be a different person and felt greater than 50% of relief of all his complaints. A correct pulse diagnosis guided me to the portal as to where to begin to sort out this complicated case. Of course this was only the beginning of the road to recovery.

The concept and treatment of “heat excess” is not in the western medicine. This case illustrated the fundamental differences in eastern and western medicine. I am not criticizing western medicine, instead, I am advocating integration of eastern and western medicine so that our patients would get the better results of medical care and higher quality of life.

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8280 Montgomery Road, Ste 100
Cincinnati, OH
45236

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+15135282900

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