#48: Nora MacLeod

"You donʼt need grand ambitions to have a meaningful impact on others or to stumble upon self-discovery."

Mar 23, 2025

#48: Nora MacLeod

Welcome to Health Gossip. Today’s guest is Nora MacLeod, an acupuncturist and integrative practitioner with a background in the textile arts (aptly, her studio is named Tapestry). If you’re in LA, book a visit with her here.

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At a glance…

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Big 3: Leo/Gemini/Libra

@nora_macleod

What does health, or being healthy, mean to you?

Free and easy movement — of the body, mind, digestion, fluids, blood, lymph, breath. A robust seasonal appetite. And the ability to sit silently alone.

Was there a moment when you became more aware of your health, or your relationship to it changed?

Sophomore year of college I became very ill. I was in constant pain. I became a flake. Tired, fearful of food and drink, terribly cold. I dropped a few classes and travelled home via bus and train each weekend for some solace and to visit some new specialist. I watched reruns of Frasier at three in the morning, sleepless due to constant discomfort. A year later I had an effectively useless diagnosis with an idiopathic pathogenesis, no cure or reliable course of treatment. I was prescribed a $400 tablet off-label. I tried the sample I was given on my way out the door of the urologist Iʼd waited four months to see; it didnʼt do anything for my pain, but it turned my urine a deep and clear blue. I couldnʼt have afforded to fill a prescription even if it had worked. In retrospect, the cause of my illness was actually, originally, iatrogenic. I'd consistently sought out care from the medical establishment but the treatment I received made me more sick, doomed.

Nearly a decade after that, after several short lived bouts of remission achieved through diet and guided by my intuition, my boyfriend could see my deterioration and made me an appointment with an acupuncturist. Four months on, I experienced no symptoms of any kind. I have been in remission ever since. This experience combined with previous work in medical research and a pre-med post-bacc inspired me to study acupuncture and to pursue a path of service.

How would you describe your current lifestyle?

Unambitious. Stagnation is the root of pathology, but it must not be confused with unambitiousness; rather, I move at a pace that allows me the opportunity to better understand myself without distraction or expectation. Simple, routine, unhurried. You donʼt need grand ambitions to have a meaningful impact on others or to stumble upon self-discovery. I prioritize reading, writing, seeing patients at my home studio, sharing meals with friends, and playing tennis.

How do you start and end your days?

By 10:30am I feel satisfied with my day, nothing can mar it. I used to sleep late, but when I moved to Los Angeles five years ago I leaned into the time change and never looked back. I wake naturally between 5:20 and 5:40 am. I am so stupid happy in the morning that I usually sing and dance my way to the kitchen. I feed my kitten. I drink bone broth, write long-hand, drink butter tea, pray, read, meditate, play tennis, dry brush, shower, eat a protein and fat-rich breakfast. I supplement with Vitamin D, NAC, hawthorn, colostrum, and I cycle Chinese herbal formulas with my hormonal phases. I lock myself out of most apps on my phone from 9:30pm until 9:30am but I LOVE waking to find text messages and will shamelessly text friends before 7am. On days that I donʼt play tennis I walk to my local cafe and tear into a pretzel bun while I walk the hilly neighborhood.

I write on my laptop, occasionally creating a chart so that I can track word counts for whichever project Iʼm working on. Once I hit a particular mark I can let it go, close the document, and carry that creative momentum on to other tasks of my day. Sometimes hitting the mark is painful, other days it is mindlessly easy, but I hesitate to rest on my own motivations because motivations come and go and disappear entirely. Routine is where I dwell.

I see clients at my home studio three to four days a week, those days go fast and feel easy. After years of school and clinical internship, I am so thankful to do what I do, at my pace, and in the comfort of my own home.

At night, which is to say after the sun sets, I try to put on as few lights as possible. I floss, oil pull, brush my teeth, wash my face and then do gua sha or lymphatic massage. I crawl into bed early and I fall asleep immediately. My bedroom contains nothing except for my bed and a small nightstand. If I try to read before bed I never make it beyond a page or two.

Are there any practices that you rely on when feeling ungrounded, unsettled, or ‘unhealthy,’ per your definition above?

Get outside into the sunshine and move until I sweat. Listen. Pray. Call a friend, sister, or brother. Watch a familiar movie, like The Lady Eve or The Departed — or go to see something at American Cinematheque. Play with my cat until he tires.

I rely on herbal formulas to address signs and symptoms that emerge, whether thatʼs irritability, fatigue, eczema, or pain. I reserve performing acupuncture on myself for when I feel a cold coming on, but it always does the trick.

Are there any principles or mantras that guide your day-to-day?

Lately: Attribute everything to the dispensation of Godʼs wisdom.

What’s your relationship to self-healing?

I am a licensed acupuncturist, and in the state of California that makes me a primary care practitioner. To a large extent I am my own doctor. This is an interesting question in the context of acupuncture because in the Huang Di Nei Jing, there is a saying that the inferior doctor treats evident symptoms while the superior doctor initiates a cure where there is not yet disease. The medicine itself is a cue, a suggestion, an opportunity, for oneself to heal with all the resources your body already contains. For me, consistent acupuncture treatment, consistent diet, exercise, sunshine, laughter, dialogue, sleep, prayer — these are what prevents illness. I havenʼt been to see a doctor or a dentist in years and I consider myself very very lucky in that regard.

Do you work with any practitioners, texts, or modalities on a regular basis?

I have a library of resources afforded to me from graduate school. Texts from Eastland Press especially, including: Applied Channel Theory in Chinese Medicine: Wang Ju-Yiʼs Lectures on Channel Therapy by Wang Ju-Yi and Jason D. Robertson, Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies: Psychology & Chinese Medicine by Leon Hammer and Navigating the Channels by Yitian Ni (which I think is out of print).

The greatest of these resources being my professors and clinical supervisors and my peers, many of whom came to study East Asian medicine to augment their careers as nurses, MDs, dentists, nutritionists, physical therapists, etc. My own acupuncturist, a dear friend and mentor, has guided me through some rough waters. Their collective knowledge and generosity has changed my life.

I return to The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton if I ever feel loss of focus.

What types of foods are you typically drawn towards? Do you have a favorite meal?

Steak tartar. If itʼs on the menu, I will order it.

Staples: grass-fed bones, chicken feet, steak, sauerkraut/kimchi, raw walnuts, dried mulberries, goat kefir, bee pollen, avocados, clementines, carrots, kale, tinned fish for the days I canʼt bother to cook, and Celsius (I can only drink 1/4 can at a time but it is my drug of choice. The first time I tried it I hallucinated and Iʼve been accused of evangelizing it, to which I say, Youʼre welcome! On this note, I am giving up caffeine, among other things, for Lent...)