Hidden Gems: Meet Dhruv Jagasia of Dharma Acupuncture & Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dhruv Jagasia.

Hi Dhruv, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In mid-2019, one day, in my one-bedroom apartment in Hermosa Beach, I woke up with such intense jaw pain to the point that it was painful to speak or eat. Concerned and unsure of what to do, I went to my primary care doctor. He suggested I go to a dentist to address my bruxism (grinding teeth at night). “I suggest you practice meditation and go see a dentist.”

The young dentist suggested I pay $600 for a custom mouthguard. I balked at the price.

“You could try OTC mouthguards, but they’re not as good.”

“Wait. Whether I spend $60 or $600 for a mouthguard, will it get to the root of the issue?”

“Well, no… but it will protect the enamel in your teeth.”

Angry and disappointed, I headed to CVS to pick up an OTC mouthguard. That night, in addition to my usual sleep troubles, I was drooling all over the pillow. After a fitful rest, I woke up and somehow decided to go to an acupuncturist. I had tried once, when I lived in NYC, to address my anxiety, in a small clinic in Chinatown. But I wasn’t really open to that kind of care just yet.

A quick yelp search led me to see Jillian Wang at Acupremier Acupuncture in Redondo Beach, who would later inspire me to become an acupuncturist myself. During my first visit, she put a few needles into my jaw, and a few needles in my hands and feet. After a couple treatments, my TMJ was resolved and I was no longer waking up in agonizing pain. I was stunned.

So I started to ask her a LOT of questions. “Why did that work?” “How did you know where to put the needles?” “What do they do?” “What’s Qi?”

Some time later, I opened my eyes in the morning after a night of sleep and woke up to searing pain in my right eye. I turned toward the window and it became ten times worse. I shut the window and closed the blinds. I looked at my phone – and again – I was hit with searing pain.

So I texted Jillian instead of my primary care doctor. Something shifted where I began to trust my acupuncturist as my point of care rather than my MD. She asked me to come in and started to treat my pain. She asked me, “have you been through anything emotional lately?”

“Lately?” I laughed. “Well, my dad passed away in January.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, and, he was a bit of an abusive alcoholic. So the grief has been very complicated.”

“I see. You know, emotions can really affect the body.”

“I think I’m starting to see that,” I answered, deep in thought.

Eventually, we were able to address my eye pain, which had turned out to be Iritis, or inflammation of the Iris. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, the eyes are related to the liver channel and organ. And anger is associated with the liver as well. So, did I have a childhood of repressed anger? Check. Years of living in NYC binge-drinking on the weekends while working myself to death trying to please an perpetually unimpressable father? Check. Complicated grief that transformed into anger? Check.

All of that was stored in my liver, it turns out. And it manifested in grinding my teeth at night, anxiety, depression, insomnia and, in the most painful manifestation yet – eye inflammation. I was living like a vampire.

But with Jillian’s help, and – this is key – the help of prednisone (steroidal) eye drops to lower the pressure in my eyes, I was able to heal my eyes and soothe my liver. The ophthalmologist who prescribed the eye drops, well, he was a cocky bastard. And he refused to talk to my acupuncturist even though I had wanted them to work together to address my case. But he did prescribe the medicine I needed in the moment, even if he could have had way better bedside manner and communication.

In medicine, there is the concept of root and branch. The root refers to the root cause of disease and the branch or branches are the symptoms and manifestations of the disease. The root was years of emotional repression, anxiety and depression. The branches were the insomnia, panic attacks, jaw pain and eye inflammation.

Eventually, I was sleeping better, free of panic attacks and crippling anxiety. And I didn’t have to live like a vampire anymore.

Jillian recommended I start reading a book called The Spark in the Machine because I was so curious about Traditional Chinese Medicine. This book, written by a Dr. Daniel Keown, a western medicine who also studied in China, explains TCM through the lens of embryology. After becoming inspired by the book, I eventually started taking a couple classes at Emperor’s College, an acupuncture school which used to be in Santa Monica, before moving to Culver City, and eventually, sadly, closed in early 2025. There, I received my Masters in Traditional Oriental Medicine.

I now practice in Redondo Beach, California, treating patients for all sorts of conditions, including, but absolutely not limited to, post-stroke symptoms, neurodegenerative conditions, orthopedic pain conditions, anxiety, depression and so much more. In my spare time, I’m an avid beach volleyball player, musician, and lover of science fiction and fantasy.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Yes and no. Yes, in that, once I spiritually committed to becoming a TCM practitioner, the passion for the medicine started growing rapidly. And that kind of passion is what gets you through triple-shifts in the school’s community clinic, or even studying hundreds of herbs and acupuncture points and biomedical conditions for licensing exams. It feels easy to love what I do because I feel that, naturally, I’m made for this kind of work. I may not be a MD, but I feel like I have the heart and mind of a doctor.

But I think everyone, initially, struggles with imposter syndrome. That still hits me sometimes, but my confidence grows with every needle I insert. Some conditions feel relatively straightforward to treat, but others are incredibly complex. I am currently treating a patient for a rare and incurable type of dementia called Supra-nuclear Palsy, and I am also treating their partner for post-stroke complications. These patients are incredibly dear to me, since my father died of post-stroke complications and he never got this type of care. I saw how difficult it was to navigate the complexities of chronic diseases in the elderly, and I see how difficult it is for my patients now. So I am just constantly hoping that I am impacting their lives in a positive way.

And then I pinch myself because I’m doing work that I love, for the kinds of people I really want to help.

It’s also really fun to treat volleyball players for their sports injuries since I’ve been playing volleyball since I was younger and, less fun, have dealt with chronic knee injuries since college.

But everything I have experience informs me for the future. It’s all learning. And it’s all growth.

We’ve been impressed with Dharma Acupuncture & Wellness, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Dhruv Jagasia, L.Ac. is a Licensed Acupuncturist who graduated with a Master’s in Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College in Culver City, CA. He also received his MBA from Marlboro Graduate School in Brattleboro, Vermont and holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

He has studied acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine, gua sha (scraping) and tui na (massage) for cosmetic, orthopedic and internal medicine conditions at China Medical University in Taizhong, Taiwan, and at clinics and hospitals in Taipei, Tainan, Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok.

He specializes in Sports Medicine, but also provides expert care for a wide range of conditions-including all types of orthopedic pain, as well as anxiety, depression, digestive disorders, and more.

He is an avid beach volleyball player, having played for the Rutgers University New Brunswick indoor club team as a Middle. He currently competes in local beach competitions in the South Bay, and has played all around Asia, including in China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Thailand.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Empathy and compassion. Without these two, which are deeply connected, I can’t connect to my patients. It’s with a big heart that I entered this medicine, and it’s with a big heart that I practice the level of care that I seek to provide to my patients.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://tcm.dharmaco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dharma.acupuncture/