In China acupuncture, herbs and moxibustion are integrated into the healthcare system. Right now, in the Wuhan Province, COVID-19 patients and their families are getting traditional therapies alongside Western medicine for symptom relief of the virus. Acupuncture is also being used to treat patients for all the same reasons why many people come to MAS: for anxiety and insomnia, migraines and more.

During this time that we are not able to give you access to affordable community acupuncture, we want to continue to share easy, simple home-remedies and ‘homework-style’ treatment techniques.

Our good friend, Robert Hayden from Presence Community Acupuncture in Hollywood Florida, shared a clever technique from one of his favorite teachers. All you need is a hairdryer and a flat piece of cardboard.

Are you familiar with the term ‘moxibustion’? Perhaps we’ve sent you home with a ‘moxa’ stick and instructions on how to light and use it to warm particular acupuncture points or areas of your body. If not, moxibustion is the warming of moxa a.k.a. Mugwort on or above acupuncture points.
Acupuncture needles are one (terrific) way to stimulate and make use of acupuncture points, but know there are more, heat among them.

We like this ‘hot air moxa’ technique from Robert, because most people don’t have easy access to moxa, but just about everyone has a hair dryer.

Important: If you experience any of following:

1) numbness or neuropathy at the area of these points, or
2) poor circulation in the area of these points
3) open sores or wounds in the area of these points

Do NOT take part in this technique.

Basically, you shouldn’t do this unless you have normal circulation and sensation of your legs where these points exist.

If you’re not sure you have normal sensation or circulation, don’t undertake this until you’ve had the chance to clear it with your doctor.
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MAS acu-punk Elizabeth demonstrates the following air moxa technique here, on youtube. 

First things first - you are going to want to find a piece of cardboard that’s at least 6”x 6”. You can cut a square off of a box, or maybe use a thick file folder. If you have one, use a hole-punch to make a hole in the middle of your cardboard square. Otherwise you’ll want to cut a small hole about the width of a pencil with other means, perhaps a small knife.

Place the hole you’ve just cut in the cardboard directly over your acupuncture point of choice. Apply the heat from your hair dryer close to the hole until you just start to feel a ‘zap’ from the heat on your skin at the acupuncture point, then immediately remove the heat for a good 20 to 30 seconds. After this break, re-apply heat again for a total of 3 times at each acupuncture point, removing the heat in between feeling ‘zaps’ from the heat.


We are going to start with Stomach 36. It’s the mother of all points. If you only apply this technique to one point that we teach you, ST36 is the one to use.

Stomach 36, a.k.a. Zusanli a.k.a. Three Miles More, is one of the most venerable of all acupuncture points. It’s a highly useful tool for many of our organ systems. It sits on the Stomach pathway, so it’s good for anything stomach/digestive related. If anxiety goes to your stomach, this is a great point. It strengthens your whole body as it interacts with our ability to break down and extract the nutritional goods from which we eat So it’s good to stimulate this point if you are feeling weak or depleted. It’s also commonly a key ingredient in potent preventative acupuncture treatments*.

ST36 also a smart point choice for:
- Shortness of breath and cough
- Sore throat, chills, and fever
- Frontal headaches, stuffy or cold nose
- Weakness and dizziness *

While home, consider giving this a try if stimulating this acupuncture point sounds like it might be helpful for you. We will put out more tutorials of other common points and why they are useful over the next few days. If you have any requests, you can mention them in the comments when we put this blog post onto our Facebook page.

We hope to see you again soon and in good health.

* Peter Deadman, A Manual of Acupuncture, pages 158-161, Copyright 2001 AZ

You may have heard the following phrase spoken at MAS at some point over the years: "We don't give a lot of life-style advice". 

This is true. We've come to understand the abundance of available information and various qualified providers to offer it up, makes it easy for us to recognize our roles clearly: providers of access to top-notch, regular individualized acupuncture treatments.  And lots of them!

And while this is all the case, the current circumstances don't allow us to share in acupuncture together.  On top of that, there is immediate cause to think preventative health measures are of great importance to us, right?

We'll be writing here over the next few days to collectively share easy, non-expensive, practical food-related advice with the hopes of helping you stay well enough that you will not need western medical interventions in the near future.  We hope you find it useful.

We'll just drop the following here today:

Garlic, garlic, garlic! Strongly consider eating garlic daily if your digestion allows for it. Raw, roasted, in pesto (yum) as an ingredient in your favorite food - however you can find a way to ingest it, you're likely better for it due to its long-recognized anti-viral and anti-biotic properties.  Garlic is likely a good friend to us these days.

Apple cider vinegar and/or fermented foods like pickles, saurkraut and kimchee are also favorites of the MAS staff.  Rich in beneficial bacteria while also known as Liver tonics in Chinese medical theory.  A little a day is a great strategic use of these foods. 

More soon.

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In addition, we'd also like to share the names of a handful of practitioners who are offering telemedicine consults for Chinese Herbal medicine, Western herbs, Naturopathic medicine and nutritional support, should you be looking for prescriptive guidance.

Dr. Laura Chan, ND, L.Ac. has extended a kind gesture to MAS patients by offering telemedicine consults with her with fees set on the MAS sliding-scale of $20-40. Dr. Chan offers prescriptions for Western herbs along with nutritional guidance and support as a Naturopathic doctor.  Reach her office at this secure email address:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Nicole Maniez, L.Ac. - Our friend and POCA-colleague, is offering Chinese herbal consults while her community acupuncture clinic in Flemington, New Jersey is temporarily shuttered.  More info here.

Paul Mosier, L.Ac. is offering telemedicine consults for Chinese herbal medicine. Reach his office at (603) 213-6090.

Angela Lambert, ND, L.Ac. is also offering the same for Chinese herbal formulas as well as Naturopathic medical support and guidance. (603) 431-0128. 

Making the decision to temporarily close the MAS clinics in Manchester & Nashua was a decision made in good conscience as it serves the public good to slow the transmission of COVID19, but comes with significant challenges ahead for the organization.  

Our staff have all been temporarily relieved of their duties in order to cut costs and preserve our resources so that MAS can be here long into the future. 

With all this written, MAS could use support right now.

Generous donations, suggestions and encouragement have already been offered.  Thank you!  This is a really big help to the organization. 

If you would like to take part, here are three ways to do it while our regular channels of revenue are on pause:

1) If you are able, donate directly.  Tax-deductible gifts can be made via Causevox or GoFundMe online, while a check is most welcome, as well. 

Mailing address

Manchester Acupuncture Studio
895 Hanover Street
Manchester, NH 03104

2) Purchase pre-paid treatments.  Yes, you can always pay for your treatments ahead of time. This would be an enormous help at this stage, in fact.

While we are looking forward to offering sales directly from this website, we aren't there quite yet. So, if you'd like to pre-pay for treatments, simply This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. making your request for the number of treatments you'd like to purchase and the total amount paid, on the sliding-scale of $20-40/treatment, naturally.  We will then send you an invoice from Paypal and you can pay with any major credit card or your Paypal account directly. We will make sure your credits are applied to your MAS account, no problem.

Alternately, a check could mailed to the clinic address above with the same information hand-written on a note, and we will update your credits accordingly.  

Your donations and purchases of pre-paid treatment packages are going directly to keep our ongoing expenses covered so that we can return to normal clinic operations as soon as possible. We will continue fundraising while we are temporarily closed.  

3) Share this web page with other friends, family and co-workers who know of MAS and may be interested to lend a hand.

Thank you for your choice to take part.

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A couple of last things.  We encourage you to sign up for our pretty terrific newsletter (via the form at the bottom of every page on this website) or check this website regularly so that you can keep abreast of important clinic announcements, including updates about re-opening. We normally send out newsletters monthly.

If you'd like to keep up with MAS staff during the shutdown, please visit the MAS Facebook or Instagram pages. We'll be posting a steady stream of goodies to share in order to keep in touch and lighten the days ahead a bit. 

It is a challenging time for us all. Let’s continue to support one another. 

We'll miss seeing everyone in recliners and look forward to opening in Manchester & Nashua again soon.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.

As of today (Friday March 13th at 3pm), we are closing Manchester Acupuncture Studio in Manchester & Nashua for a planned 2 weeks, until March 30th, in light of the COVID19/coronavirus epidemic.

We don’t take this decision at all lightly, as we know that many in our community rely on MAS for healthcare. We are closing because we take our mandate to protect community health seriously. Evidence all around the world shows that the best way to ensure that this epidemic threatens as few in our area as possible is to limit its spread through physical-distancing. As you all know, we are typically open 365 days a year (in Manchester, a few less each year in Nashua), barring major snowstorms. This is the only time we have closed the clinic for more than two days in a row in 13 years of operation. But playing a role in helping to “flatten the curve” of COVID19/coronavirus transmission is paramount at this time.

To be clear, we are not aware of any confirmed case of COVID19/coronavirus in our staff or patient community. We are doing this as a precaution and to follow public health advice to limit gatherings of people. We hope that our closing will be part of the momentum of people staying home to prevent a severe outbreak. If ours and others’ measures to encourage physical distancing are successful, we may never see COVID19 become as widespread and destructive as it is in other places.

In two weeks, we hope to be open, but we will be evaluating and assessing this situation as it continues. We thank you in advance for your support and patience, and look forward to seeing you when we open our doors again soon.

We will remain active on social media, so you can stay connected to the clinic. 

We hope that you all will stay connected to your communities and support networks in whatever ways you can, from a distance, and that you will reach out to local resources if you need support. 

Let’s stay connected, and get through this together.

We’d like to share with you precautionary measures we are undertaking to ensure the health and well-being of our patients, staff and ultimately the vulnerable people in our region.  In addition, we offer links to helpful public health information. 

Thank you for your participation alongside our whole staff.

Most importantly, if you have symptoms of a cold, flu or diarrhea, please stay home and rest.  If you've had a fever within the last 48 hours, please stay home and rest. The main symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, coughing and shortness of breath. Call your primary care physician if you’re in need of medical attention for these concerns. If you need to cancel your appointment due to illness, there will never be a charge here at MAS.

However, many of our patients present with common non-contagious/non-serious upper respiratory symptoms such as allergies, asthma or a lingering cough following a cold, and we will continue to offer treatment for these conditions as they do not pose a risk to others.

Please use hand sanitizer when you check in at the front desk and we ask for you to wash your hands on your way out of the clinic after treatment.  When washing your hands, please wash for at least 20 seconds with soap and hot water, as recommended by the Center for Disease Control. 

In general, please do your best to avoid touching your mouth, nose, eyes and face with unwashed/non-sanitized hands in order to protect yourself.

Sources vary on the amount of space between people in which COVID-19 is likely transmittable: the World Health Organization says 3 feet, the Centers for Disease Control says 6 feet. Our recliners are all at least 3 to 5 feet apart. We have also created more space between recliners in Manchester & Nashua. Given this space provided, we consider our treatment spaces to be safe.

We continue to monitor notifications from the NH Dept. of Health & Human Services, Harvard Medical School and the CDC.

HERE ARE THE MEASURES WE ARE TAKING AT MAS TO ENSURE EVERYONE’S SAFETY.

At the beginning, end and throughout each day, we sanitize surfaces throughout the clinic that are frequently touched such as door knobs, doors and faucets.

We are now laundering blankets after each use. If you are able to bring in your own clean sheet or blanket to place on a chair, we'd appreciate the hand lessening the laundry load.

If you are coughing for any reason, we will provide a mask for you to wear in the treatment room. We understand the cough may be from allergies, asthma, or even heartburn, but it will likely help alleviate concerns from others sharing the space.  Thanks for understanding.

Our mission has always been to offer acupuncture treatments to anyone who desires it, while keeping fees low. With your participation we can continue to serve the people who need us and keep our clinics a healthy and safe place for all. Thank you.

In closing, what can you do to limit the wide spread of this virus - or any cold or flu?

1. Wash your hands often.

2. Cough or sneeze into your elbow or a tissue. 

3. Avoid touching your face.

4. If you have symptoms of a cold or flu, please stay home and rest.
   
   

 For more information, we offer the following trusted resources:

CDC Facts About COVID-19

FAQ by an Intensive Care and Infectious Disease Physician

American Society of Acupuncturists Covid-19 Fact Sheet

Business and Employer Guidelines

Harvard Medical School