Jeff Rippey

Acupuncturist

1011 E St Maartens Drive A St Joseph MO, 64506 Show map

About
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About

I'm a nationally board certified and state licensed doctor of acupuncture. I run a solo clinic in St. Joseph, MO. I specialize primarily in pain management, but also work with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and digestive disorders. I work across the spectrum of pain, from acute injury to neuropathy - any type pain, at any location on the body, for any reason.

Education and Training

Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine M.S. Acupuncture 2016

PCHS D.Ac. 2020

Board Certification

National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

Provider Details

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Jeff Rippey

Why It's Hard To Tell Patients Where Needles Might Be Placed
I've been answering questions on this site for a couple of years now. There's been a recent trend towards acupressure questions which I addressed in my first blog post. Generally, though, I've noticed that questions tend to fall into a few buckets:...
Why It's Difficult to Answer Acupressure/Pressure Point Questions
As part of this site, patients have the capability of asking questions of practitioners and subject matter experts. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of questions that take the form, “Please tell me x pressure point for treating y health condition”. I generally try to help these folks understand...

Is herniated disc pain for life?
Not necessarily. There are lots of things you can try to help manage the pain. Acupuncture has a long track record of success with this sort of pain. I just saw an article stating the WHO now recommends acupuncture over most interventions when it comes to managing back pain. There are lots of topical ointments, creams, and patches you can try. Sometimes these can offer relief, though it'll probably be temporary. Occasionally medication (over the counter or prescription) can help. I don't often run into cases where they help a lot. Using traction - either a traction table at a chiropractor or PT office or an inversion table can sometimes provide relief. PT exercises can sometimes help. READ MORE
What helps with ear ringing?
There are a few different underlying causes for ear ringing (tinnitus). Almost none of them respond well to any kind of treatment. The most common cause of ringing in the ears is repeated exposure to loud noises (earphones, concerts, car stereos, firearms, airplanes, heavy construction equipment, etc.) This type of noise causes cumulative, irreversible damage to the structure of the inner ear responsible for detecting and transmitting sound. Once the damage has accumulated to a certain point, hearing loss and tinnitus result. Getting hearing aids may help a bit, but it's not going away. In my experience, the second most common cause is excessive tension in the jaw and neck. Usually this is associated with TMJ, TMD, and/or grinding the teeth at night. Dealing with whatever is causing this (usually stress) and getting the muscles to relax will improve any ringing, but it rarely goes away completely. I don't like to dissuade people from trying to improve their situation, but tinnitus is extremely difficult to treat. READ MORE
How can I get rid of ankle arthritis pain?
Acupuncture has a very good track record with most types of pain, including arthritis pain. If you decide to go this route, make sure you're seeing an actual licensed acupuncturist (usually an L.Ac. credential) rather than a chiropractor or physical therapist. Going to a physical therapist for exercises, though, would be a good idea. You need to keep the ankle moving despite the pain or discomfort. Topicals like BenGay, IcyHot, Aspercreme, or topical Voltaren (diclofenac). Can help. Sometimes herbal topicals like arnica, frankincense, or CBD can help. Over the counter ibuprofen or aleve are sometimes useful. Prescription pain relievers can sometimes be useful. READ MORE
What helps with insomnia?
A variety of things can potentially help improve insomnia: Fixing your sleep hygiene can make a big difference. Light in the blue spectrum can fool your brain into thinking it's morning. Devices like phones, tablets, computers, and televisions all emit light in this range. Using devices like this at or close to bedtime can make you brain think it's time to get up and can cause or exacerbate insomnia. Better to read a book or do something else that helps your brain to calm down and indicates to your body it's time to sleep. Eating too much just prior to bed can cause stomach/GI discomfort, making it difficult to get in a comfortable position and fall to sleep. A light snack prior to bedtime is ok, a full meal should be avoided. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine have an excellent track record in treating insomnia (though sleep hygiene is still important and will still need to be addressed). Sometimes having some white noise in the room helps. Either a small fan or a white noise generating machine can help people fall to sleep. Over the counter sleep aids like melatonin or diphenhydramine (benadryl) can sometimes help folks get to sleep. Prescription sleep aids can often help. It's important to note that prescription sleep aids often have side-effects, can cause daytime drowsiness, and are sometimes addictive. If you have anxiety that is preventing sleep, addressing the anxiety issues either through prescription medication, therapy, Chinese medicine, or all three can often improve the situation. READ MORE
What helps with bloating?
What will help with bloating is going to depend on what's causing bloating. This could be a food sensitivity, it could be some sort of loss of function in the GI system due to an issue in the stomach/small intestine/large intestine, it could be function loss in the GI system due to pinched nerve in the spine, and that's probably just scratching the surface. Your best bet is to visit your primary care provider and let them do some testing to see if you can get to the root cause of the problem. Once you know why you're bloated, then you can figure out what might be the best treatment. READ MORE
Can back hernia pain go away with treatments?
I'm guessing we're talking about a herniated disk? Yes, treatment with acupuncture or physical therapy or both can often help relieve the pain associated with a herniated disk. READ MORE
Can a kidney infection go away without medications?
I understand and appreciate people's desire to avoid prescription drugs, and especially antibiotics. Some kinds of infection are self-limiting and will resolve on their own. In my experience, kidney infection is not one of those kinds. Kidney infection isn't something to fool around with. Left untreated, this type of infection can lead to sepsis and result in death. If you have a kidney infection, get on antibiotics, please. READ MORE
Can a spine hernia be fixed?
I'm not sure what you mean by "spine hernia". Are we talking about a herniated disk? If that's the case, a lot is going to depend on where the herniation is located and how bad it is. For the most part, spinal disks do not have dedicated blood supply. Because they don't have dedicated blood supply, it's very difficult for them to heal and they are very slow to heal. In my experience, outside of surgery (which is really only cleaning things up), there isn't a lot that can be done to the disk. Pain that you may be experiencing can sometimes be managed, but a lot is going to depend on how the herniation is impacting nerve structures. READ MORE
How can I ease ankle arthritis pain?
Acupuncture is typically very good for managing this type of pain. Some topical creams/ointment/patches can help, over the counter pain meds can sometimes offer some relief (make sure you talk to your doctor or the pharmacist about any potential interactions with existing medication or conditions), and prescription medication can help to ease the pain associated with arthritis. Even though it's painful, it's important to keep the joint moving and/or stay active. READ MORE
Can hyperthyroidism be treated without medications?
Sometimes, yes, but I don't like to go this route. There can be quite a few potentially serious health complications from hyperthyroid. It's best to use prescription meds to bring the thyroid levels down and then come behind that with other therapies like acupuncture or herbal medicine to see if we can wean off the meds. READ MORE
Can ankle pain be fixed naturally?
Whether or not your chronic ankle pain can be fixed is going to depend heavily on what's causing the pain. Chronic pain rarely "just happens". There's a history to what's going on. Without that history, it's very difficult to provide any useful answer. My suggestion would be to start with either your primary care provider or an orthopedic specialist. Get some imaging and an evaluation of your ankle. If the images and eval give us a concrete cause for the pain, then we're in a much better position to set expectations around what can and cannot be done as well as what treatment modality is going to give you the best potential outcome. READ MORE
What medications help with high blood pressure?
There are at least 4 classes of drug with multiple individual meds in each class that could potentially reduce blood pressure. The trick is finding the one that works the best for you and your circumstances. This is something that you need to work out with your primary care provider. READ MORE
Can a sinus infection be fixed without medications?
Sometimes things like sinus infection are self-limiting. In other words they often resolve on their own without any intervention. If the infection has been present for more than 10-14 days, a short course of antibiotics are the best option. READ MORE
Can drug addiction be fixed without medications?
Addictive behaviors are often difficult to address via any means. The main problem is: there is no treatment that will force a person to quit if they aren't ready to quit. Without knowing the specifics (i.e. what drugs are involved), it's difficult to know whether the issue could be managed without prescription medication. There are acupuncture techniques which can help a person deal with addictive behaviors, but drugs like meth and cocaine do not typically respond well to this type of intervention. The best approach is often a combination of prescription medication combined with therapy and other non-medication type therapies like acupuncture. READ MORE
What treatments help with ankle mobility?
If you're otherwise healthy, and the mobility issue is not the result of an injury then talking to a physical therapist or an athletic trainer would likely be beneficial. Either one should be able to give you some exercises and stretches which will improve your mobility. READ MORE
What helps with chicken pox?
Assuming your daughter is under 18, time and maybe some oatmeal baths to help with the itch. If this appears to be a severe case (i.e. there is substantial rash and/or there are blisters on the face or near the eyes), please get seen by your primary care or at an urgent care. READ MORE
Can anxiety be fixed naturally?
Sometimes fixed, sometimes managed. A lot is going to depend on how severe your anxiety is. READ MORE
Can bronchitis be fixed naturally?
Most cases of acute bronchitis are either viral or caused by irritants like cigarette smoke. Viral infection cannot be treated by antibiotic therapy and smoking is a lifestyle choice. So, yes, you could theoretically resolve bronchitis naturally - either by waiting for the virus to run it's course or avoiding smoke and minimizing exposure to air pollutants. If this is more along the lines of chronic bronchitis, there are still things you can to do minimize the impact on your life. Staying away from smoke, minimizing your exposure to air pollutants, and using acupuncture/herbal medicine/OTC meds to help clear mucus and dilate the bronchi. READ MORE
Can anxiety go away?
Sometimes anger and anxiety are related, sometimes they aren't. As to whether anxiety can go away on it's own, again, sometimes. Most of the time you're going to have to expend some effort to understand what causes the anxious feelings to arise and why anger is your response to those feelings. Therapy is an excellent place to explore these issues. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can support therapy and help to manage things by down regulating your central nervous system. In time, you can probably reduce the overhead in terms of anxiety and develop strategies for managing break through anxiety and anger. READ MORE
Can hyperthyroidism be treated naturally?
Sometimes, yes, hyperthyroidism can be treated naturally. It's not my preference though. I prefer to use prescription meds plus Chinese medicine. We're able to manage thyroid levels down more quickly that way. Usually we'll hit a point where the prescription med can be withdrawn or reduced. READ MORE