Flora and Fana Acupuncture

Flora and Fana Acupuncture F+F offers acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, Chinese dietary therapy, and lifestyle counseling.

My practice sits at the meeting point of East Asian medicine and West Asian traditional medicine — and lately, my days ...
06/18/2026

My practice sits at the meeting point of East Asian medicine and West Asian traditional medicine — and lately, my days off have become a little laboratory for exploring traditional medicines.

This week’s experiments:
✨ Blue Nila (blue indigo) powder for brightening and calming the skin
✨ Sidr leaf for neuro inflammation, strengthening and cleansing the hair (natural shampoo!)

These remedies have been used for centuries across North Africa and West Asia.

Sidr has also traditionally been used in Eastern Asian medicine as honey derived from the sidr tree to be used as a nourishing tonic and to calm the nerves.

Chinese indigo, Qing Dai, has been used for centuries in East Asia as a topical herbal powder to clear heat, detoxify the body, and treat inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.

I was definitely worried that I would return to work with a blue-stained face. Fortunately, I also learned how to prevent this from happening.

I also treated myself with a little facial rejuvenation acupuncture, a non-toxic way to reduce wrinkles and produce collagen.

Want to take care of your spirit house and go on a natural medicine and natural beauty journey?

Reach out: www.floraandfana.com

“A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divi...
06/14/2026

“A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.”

― Shams Of Tabriz

06/12/2026

One of the beautiful things about acupuncture is that it’s a nonverbal treatment. An acupuncturist can gather enough information from your pulses, tongue, palpation, etc., to do a treatment.

However, my face speaks fluently when a patient shows up with coffee AND hasn't had breakfast.

Food builds Qi for treatment; coffee taxes it. Food gives your body Qi to work with, and coffee drains the reserves you need for healing.

Why Coffee Isn’t Always Your Friend (Chinese Medicine Edition)
☕ It taxes Kidney Qi — caffeine forces the body into “go‑mode,” borrowing energy from reserves you don’t actually have.

☕ It weakens Spleen Qi — coffee is drying and overstimulating, which disrupts digestion and nutrient absorption.

☕ It spikes cortisol — chronic stress hormones lead to inflammation, fatigue, and hormonal imbalance.

☕ It dehydrates the body — caffeine is a diuretic, which dries out tissues and worsens Yin deficiency.

☕ It disrupts blood sugar — drinking coffee without food causes crashes, jitters, and digestive strain.

☕ It increases internal heat — especially for people with anxiety, insomnia, hot flashes, or inflammation.

☕ It can worsen hair loss — by stressing the adrenals/Kidneys and reducing nourishment to the scalp.

☕ It masks fatigue instead of treating it — giving the illusion of energy while draining the root of vitality.

Need help? Reach out. www.floraandfana.com

Feeling my worst is what ultimately led me to Western and Eastern Asian medicine.In my early 30s, my health unraveled fa...
06/11/2026

Feeling my worst is what ultimately led me to Western and Eastern Asian medicine.

In my early 30s, my health unraveled faster than I could understand it. I was living with six autoimmune disorders, only three formally diagnosed, two newly named, and every day felt like waking up inside a body I no longer recognized. I didn’t know how to make sense of the pain, the exhaustion, or the fear. I felt so unwell that for years waking up each morning was the only thing reassuring me I wasn’t dying.

One of the most visible signs of that internal imbalance was my hair.

Unhealthy hair is often an outward reflection of what’s happening beneath the surface, and mine was telling the whole story. I was losing it in clumps from inflammation, taxation, and stress. What remained was dry, brittle, and fragile. And still, I kept pouring chemicals on my scalp to try to hide my early greys, adding more burden to a system already overwhelmed.

As my healing journey unfolded, I made a choice: I stopped dyeing my hair. Not as an aesthetic decision, but as an act of self‑acceptance and a commitment to stop introducing toxins into a body that was fighting so hard to find balance.

Letting my natural hair grow in became a quiet ritual of reclaiming myself.

When I was younger, I imagined (hoped) my grey hair would come in like Storm from X‑Men.

It turns out I’m more of a Rogue with streaks, marks of resilience, a reminder of what I’ve lived through. And honestly, that feels exactly right.

Asian medicines didn’t just help me feel better.

They helped me start to return to myself, to a body I could trust again, to a life that felt like mine, and to a version of life and health that wasn’t about perfection, but about alignment. For me, my hair, as wild as it is, is part of the testament of that.

If you’re navigating your own version of imbalance, know this: healing rarely starts from feeling our best. It often begins in the moment we finally decide we deserve better.

Need help? Reach out. www.floraandfana.com

Sharing some 4-leaf clovers I found this past week. Just like a four‑leaf clover grows from a tiny genetic ...
06/09/2026

Sharing some 4-leaf clovers I found this past week.

Just like a four‑leaf clover grows from a tiny genetic twist, people sometimes carry their own rare variations, little biological surprises that shape who we are.

Some mutations make our eyes a different color, give us unusual talents, change how we think, or make us see the world in ways others don’t.

In nature, a four‑leaf clover isn’t a mistake. It’s a reminder that variation is part of life’s design.

And in people, those rare traits, the ones that set us apart, are often the source of our creativity, resilience, and individuality.

What looks “different” on the surface is often just nature expressing itself in a new form.

A four‑leaf clover isn’t trying to be lucky.
It’s simply growing the way it was meant to grow.

What makes you lucky and unique?

Trauma isn’t just emotional — it lives in the body.Your fascia (the connective tissue wrapping every muscle, organ, and ...
05/21/2026

Trauma isn’t just emotional — it lives in the body.

Your fascia (the connective tissue wrapping every muscle, organ, and nerve) can hold patterns of tension, bracing, and memory from past stress.

When trauma happens, fascia can become tight, stuck, dehydrated, and reactive, creating chronic pain and emotional holding.

This is why you “carry stress” in your neck, jaw, hips, or chest —
fascia remembers what the mind tries to move past.

Acupuncture works directly with fascia.
Needles stimulate mechanoreceptors that help the tissue soften, unwind, and reorganize.

As fascia releases, the nervous system calms, breath deepens, and old protective patterns begin to shift.

Trauma stored in the body can finally move —and acupuncture gives it a safe pathway out.

Need help? Reach out. www.floraandfana.com

05/15/2026

NYT Magazine recently published an article titled “Inside the Interstitium, the Human Body’s Hidden Pathways,” highlighting new biomedical research on what they are calling the interstitium.

They told us about what we already knew and named thousands of years ago, the San Jiao.

In Chinese Medicine, the San Jiao (often translated as the Triple Burner or Triple Warmer) is a functional organ system that is described an interconnected network that governs fluid movement, temperature regulation, and the distribution of Qi throughout the body.

The San Jiao is understood through three regions:
🔥 Upper Burner (Upper Jiao): Above the diaphragm, including the Heart and Lungs. It governs respiration and the circulation of protective Qi, functioning “like a mist.”

🔥 Middle Burner (Middle Jiao): Between the diaphragm and the navel, including the Spleen, Stomach, and Liver. It oversees digestion and transformation of nutrients, working “like a warm fermentation chamber.”

🔥 Lower Burner (Lower Jiao): Below the navel, including the Kidneys, Bladder, and Intestines. It manages the separation of pure and impure fluids and elimination, acting “like a drainage ditch.”

🔥 Acupuncture works!🔥





www.floraandfana.com

05/11/2026

This is my self-care as an acupuncturist. Don't try this at home.

Need help, reach out. www.floraandfana.com

05/03/2026

It’s been a long day, but I finally carved out a moment to unbox my case of Evil Bone Water and share some of the surprises often tucked inside.

This (Zheng Gu Shui) is a traditional Chinese topical formula, hand‑crafted in the U.S. using empirical‑grade herbal ingredients. The literal translation of Zheng Gu Shui is “bone‑setting liquid,” but the name never quite stuck with Western audiences. Herbalists eventually started calling it “Evil Bone Water,” and the quirky nickname became its identity.

The Jing Butter sample in this batch has some of my favorite herbs — including shilajit — so I’m genuinely excited to see how this formula performs.

www.floraandfana.com

Thank you to everyone who joined us this past Sunday for the Reset & Restore Vagus Nerve Workshop Together, we explored...
04/29/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us this past Sunday for the Reset & Restore Vagus Nerve Workshop

Together, we explored yin yoga, breathwork, sound healing, and acupuncture to gently stimulate and support the vagus nerve.

The vagus nerve plays a central role in regulating communication between the brain and major organs—especially the heart and digestive system. As the core of the parasympathetic “rest and digest” response, it helps steady heart rate, support digestion, modulate inflammation, and influence emotional balance. When vagal function is disrupted, people may notice stress sensitivity, digestive discomfort, dizziness, voice or swallowing changes, nausea, appetite shifts, or fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure.

More offerings are on the way, and we’re excited to share what’s coming next.

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6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 408
Takoma Park, MD
20912

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