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Tiffany is a California State licensed acupuncturist and graduate of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, where she received a Master of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine. Her interest in the medicine and its origins led her to China, where she completed an internship and lecture series and received a Certificate of Traditional Chinese Medicine. While working at the Chengdu TCM hospital, she had the opportunity to follow the doctors on rounds in various specialized departments including pediatrics, cardiology, gastrointestinal, diabetes, respiratory disorders and pharmacy, seeing 20-30 patients per day.
A fan of the historic Chinese practice of apprenticing with a teacher, Tiffany has assisted under several of San Diego's most respected and experienced acupuncturists. As part of her clinical education she has worked at the downtown Senior's clinic and performed community-style acupuncture at local retirement homes, as well as at local health fairs educating on the health benefits of Chinese medicine.
Tiffany uses an integrative approach when treating her patients, utilizing Chinese Medicine's uniquely powerful insight to treat each patient as an individual and recognizing that the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects are interconnected. She also educates her patients on healthy diet and lifestyle choices as well as the prevention and recurrence of disease.
Working with Pins & Needles:
In an effort to continue to offer my patients the best service and appointment availability, I have been working with Jessica Goldthorpe L.Ac. of Pins & Needles since January. Jessica and I have combined forces and locations to further our knowledge, fuel our passions and support each others efforts to holistically and comprehensively help patients achieve their health goals through the medical practice of acupuncture and its modalities.
While we would both love to be available to accommodate all our patients schedules, we acknowledge that its not possible. As a team, Jessica and I have been able to expand our availability and are happy to speak with you to do our best to accommodate your schedule. Our unique styles of acupuncture compliment one another while our passion for helping people have access to a safe and effective medicine serve our patients best interest. If you are ever unable to get in for an appointment with me based on my availability please check with Jessica's schedule and see if her availability suits your needs better. We love what we do and we are happy to be able to comprehensively help you.
This was the number one reason for trying acupuncture and although it's not the most common reason to try it, "most people try acupuncture for the first time because they have some kind of ailment be it a pain, digestive distress, emotional imbalance, or in some way feeling ‘off’ or ‘not okay.’ Acupuncture can and should be looked at like ‘preventative medicine,’ instead of waiting to get a diagnosis that you have X or Y condition. If you see an acupuncturist, she or he will be able to detect much more subtle imbalances in your system and work to correct them. I wholeheartedly believe that prevention is the best medicine and we, as a society, could enhance our immune systems by taking this approach, therefore being less likely to need medications and reducing the possibilities of getting sick. Preventative health is key, however you seek it—eating healthy, taking supplements, staying active, and/or acupuncture
No two acupuncture patients receive the same treatment for the same disease or discomfort. Acupuncturists treat patients, not diseases. They are trained to take in every detail of you, from the sound of your voice to the quality of your skin to the sparkle in your eyes. They care about your whole story, past and present. They see your body as a network of interdependent parts: muscle, bone, fascia, organs, blood and body fluids, as well as more subtle layers like meridians and qi. They see what is deficient and what is stuck, mentally as well as physically, and make adjustments like a traffic cop, facilitating the body’s own healing ability.
Acupuncture has the ability to release muscle tension, as well as tension in the connective tissues. This allows the lymphatic, nervous, and circulatory systems to function more efficiently. For these reasons, acupuncture is helpful in both prevention and treating musculoskeletal disorders. In fact, sports figures such as Carl Lewis, Charles Barkley, James Harrison, and Kobe Bryant are known to use acupuncture in order to improve training and performance, as well as to speed up healing and to manage pain.
Regular treatments can help keep you healthier so you need conventional medicine less often.
Acupuncture has been shown to alleviate stress, increase blood flow, accelerate the body’s healing response, regulate hormones, and blood pressure.
Acupuncture can treat over 50 western medical disorders. This includes many common problems such as pain, infertility, allergies, auto-immune disorders, digestion, and insomnia.
You may go to acupuncture to cure your neck and shoulder pain, and find that the pain diminishes. Meanwhile, your stress level, sleep quality, digestion, and overall mood improve too.
Acupuncture is relatively inexpensive when compared to modernized forms of health care. Consider these numbers:
Blood pressure medication can cost $1,000 in a year's time. One MRI can be anywhere from $1,000-$4,000. Minor surgeries cost upwards of $10,000. Major procedures, like
open heart surgery, are about $100,000. The diagnostic process leading up to surgery combined with post surgical care stack the costs considerably higher. Most physicians
agree that these costs can be avoided by making lifestyle changes and adopting a preventative mindset. Without insurances coverage, a single major health event could easily
bankrupt the average American family. With the average cost of acupuncture treatment around $100, even at 10 treatments, the out of pocket cost will be $1,000. The fact is:
Combining a healthy lifestyle with a relatively small investment in acupuncture care will greatly reduce the likelihood of falling into a devastating financial crisis and it will likely
increase your quality of life in a very positive way.
Unlike drugs and surgical procedures, acupuncture does not have disturbing side effects –In our experience, feeling great is the
most commonly reported side effect.
Acupuncture assists in the recovery of drug and alcohol addiction. It does this by helping to reduce withdrawal symptoms, decreasing cravings, relieving
tension, and helping people relax. In fact, acupuncture is so successful in drug treatment recovery that many clinics throughout the United States use acupuncture as an
integral component of their programs.
Acupuncture has been around since before recorded history. The earliest written record comes from a few hundred years before the common era. If it didn’t work,
it certainly wouldn’t have lasted thousands of years and spread through hundreds of Asian medical lineages. Scientists try to understand how acupuncture works from a
biomedical perspective. Some refer to its effects on fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds all our muscles and organs. Some point to acupuncture’s ability to stimulate the
limbic system and autonomic nervous system. Some scientists claim in their studies that acupuncture is sometimes as effective as “sham acupuncture.” While they attempt to fit a versatile and non-linear medicine into a formulaic model with double-blind studies, the clinical experience of everyday practitioners and patients agrees with thousands of years of history — acupuncture works
TCM is a comprehensive and non-invasive health care system that has been used to effectively diagnose and treat as well as prevent illness for thousands of years. Yes, thousands of years! Take a moment and imagine how effective a medicine like this must be. Imagine how many millions of other people have found relief and a deeper connection to their health and well-being through Traditional Chinese Medicine! ”Human beings are bodies, minds and spirits. Health necessarily involves all of those components, and any program intended to improve health must address all of them.”
– Dr. Andrew Weil