by Shawn Kirby

Buying acupuncture needles is a lot like going to a really great smorgasbord – there are a lot of choices but it’s not always easy to know what you want and/or need. This handy little guide is designed to help you easily find and order the type of needle you know and love, and might even inspire you to try something new.

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by Shawn Kirby

placebo effect

n. The beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

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by Shawn Kirby

As a child, I remember my grandfather as a paragon of good health. While he did refrain from smoking and alcohol, which no doubt attributed to his overall health and longevity, he also ate as he pleased, enjoying a wide variety of home cooked meals, greasy diner food, donuts, apples from the trees on his property, fast food, and anything else that looked good to him. Despite this varied diet, he enjoyed perfect digestion. What was his secret? By today’s “Whole Foods” standards, his diet was often atrocious, so “eating clean,” was not the secret to his cast iron gut. Was Jack possessed of superior “jing” (or in scientific parlance, superior genes) which enabled him to “get away with” eating foods that would send other people scrambling for antacids? Or was there a different reason altogether, one that was directly connected with his attitude toward food?

My grandfather, dead now for many years, grew up in Denver during the Great Depression. During the school year, young Jackson ate the “school lunch,” part of a new government sponsored program that was designed to both help prevent nutritional deficiencies and hunger in low-income school children while simultaneously disposing of surplus agricultural commodities. When summer vacation came around, however, Jack’s mother could no longer afford to feed him. Consequently, young Jack spent his summers near Eldorado Springs, where he pan-handled for his meals and slept under a bridge until the school year started back up in September. Suffice it to say, Jack had a very different relationship to food than most modern Americans. To young Jackson, food mattered – and that made all the difference.

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by Shawn Kirby

This year Powder, Blue Poppy's door greeter and head of the security division, walked to raise money for the Denver Dumb Friend's League in the 2010 Furry Scurry. Powder raised $500.00, part of a total $961,354.58 raised, thanks to the generous donations of many Blue Poppy friends and customers. To all of you who donated, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We had a blast, and we plan to scurry again next year!

MUSH!

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by Shawn Tzu

As we move into the spring season, we have entered the time of year of the wood phase and the season of the liver. As you undoubtedly know, the two most important medicinals to benefit the liver at this time are Huang Peep and Chi Peep.

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