Acupuncture and Herbs- No good deed goes unpunished

A friend of mine just finished Chinese Medical School and has set up her own practice here in Greenwich Village. (Chinese Medicine is basically acupuncture and herbal treatments.) To help her start her business and build up her clientele, I have offered to build a website for her. Nothing fancy, just a basic site using some of the concepts of search engine optimization to help her draw in new clients.

Anyway, she apparently felt that this was too big a task to ask a friend without offering anything in exchange, so she offered to treat me. I’ve never had acupuncture before and am interested in what she does, so I figured I would give it a try.

The acupuncture was pretty cool. I’m not sure if it did anything (she says I have stagnant blood and is working on moving it for me) but it certainly did not hurt. I won’t know if it had any positive affects for another month or two (this blood moving thing is very much tied to my menstrual cycle, FYI.)

She also prescribed raw herbs for me, which I have to cook every night for about 45 minutes. The herbs are rough, I’ll be honest. They don’t taste very good. They make my apartment smell “earthy” and it takes a lot of time. I want to try it out for her sake, but I’m not enjoying it. In fact, I have a cup of hot herbs in front of me know that I have been ignoring all morning. Even with milk and sugar (she laughed at me for doing that, so it probably isn’t the traditional way) it still tastes awful. I think there is licorice in there and something very bitter. You can tell that the other herbs aren’t so bad, but they aren’t strong enough to cover over that bitterness either. I’m still trying to keep an open mind, though. I just worry that it is giving me stink-breath as well. I’ll keep you updated.