New Blog Location

I will no longer be posting my blogs here, but will be posting them instead on my new website which supports a blog.

Yep, you read it right, Thrive Acupuncture has a new website, and might I say... it's purrrty!

Check it out at http://www.ThriveAcupuncture.org/blog.html

Also make sure to check out the other exciting features of my new website!

• Online appointment booking
• Specials and Discounts
• Blog right in with the rest of the site (I know.. I'm starting to get with the times!)

Thanks for reading my blog here at blogger, and I hope you'll follow the continuation of it at my new website!

Birth Control

Before I start talking about how birth control affects women from a Chinese medical perspective, I want to say this:

I'm not anti-birth control for those who need it to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. It is FAR more detrimental to EVERYONE involved to carry, birth and care for through the age of 18, a child who isn't planned or wanted. What a horrible existence, knowing that you weren't wanted (and yes, children can sense this, whether you say it out loud or not, there's no fooling them).

The birth control use that I'm going to be talking about is for those women who are prescribed birth control for non-birth control reasons. There are probably millions of you out there. Some common reasons are : acne, irregular periods, PMS, mood stabilization, severe cramping or heavy bleeding during your menstrual cycle and many more.

So, let's start.

Throughout a woman's month, the Spleen, Kidney and Liver each play their own part in controlling her menstrual cycle. The Liver plays it's biggest role between ovulation and menstruation. During this time, the Liver's energy will start to surge in preparation for helping the woman's body to release the uterine lining, if she has not become pregnant.

This is often why women will experience Premenstrual Symptoms. The Liver, when it is not functioning properly, can create symptoms such as breast tenderness, cravings, bloating, and the dreaded mood changes.

So let's take a moment now to look at hormonal birth control from a Chinese Medical perspective. In my clinical experience, hormonal birth control is like adding a boost of Liver energy to a woman's system. In a woman who is already struggling with a Liver that isn't moving her energy properly, this will only aggravate her health problems. It's no wonder side effects associated with hormonal birth control consist of weight gain, mood changes, headaches, digestive complaints, etc. All of these complaints relate to an improperly functioning Liver!

Now what about those few women out there who are actually helped by hormonal birth control, you may ask? I've treated some of these women as well, and what I have found is that these women, at the point they start taking hormonal birth control, are deficient in Liver energy (this is SUPER uncommon, as the Liver almost always exists in excess, but there are those out there who don't have enough!). So their symptoms get better for a while. However, what I've seen, is that this symptom relief is temporary, or they develop new symptoms. Yep, they've been supplementing with Liver energy, and all of a sudden they have too much, and like many other women, start suffering from the standard PMS symptoms, as well as a host of other health complaints.

So, if you're a woman who suffers from PMS, headaches, migraines, digestive complaints, insomnia, etc. - Think back to when you started taking birth control. Did these symptoms exist prior to taking birth control? Did they start after starting birth control?

Everyone has to make the right decision for themselves regarding birth control, their health and the necessity to not have children. But we also all need to be aware of the side effects of hormonal birth control that biomedicine usually dismisses as "normal." These symptoms are not normal, they are a sign of imbalance, and can be alleviated by acupuncture and Chinese herbs.

Take Responsibility

It's time that we, as a nation, learn to take responsibility for our health. We have relied too long on a system of medicine that is not meant to keep us healthy, but to keep us from dying. While that's a GREAT goal (the last I heard, dying is a BIG change from living), *I* want to be healthy, not just to survive.

We all know when we're doing something unhealthy, and occasionally, that's not a problem. Had a piece of cake at your best friend's wedding? Not a problem. Have a doughnut (or two) every morning instead of a proper breakfast? A problem. We don't need to be lectured.

What prompted this blog post was an article I read today by Dr. Mercola, citing a study done in Europe showing that living a healthy lifestyle is the KEY to preventing the diseases that are often (mistakenly) associated with aging. Diabetes, Heart Disease and cancers are not a part of the natural aging process, they are the consequences of not leading a healthy life. In the study, 23,000 Germans and their lifestyles were examined. In those leading a healthy lifestyle, (not smoking, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight) there was a 36% decreased risk of ALL cancers, a 93% decreased risk of Diabetes, and an 81% decreased risk of Heart Disease. How incredible are those results?

We are not destined to disease just because we're getting older!

But what this means is that it's time for some major reform! We are on the verge of having a national health care system, one in which all Americans will get the life-saving medications and procedures that they need to live, without worrying about the financial consequences. However, this system can't work if we are sabotaging it from the get-go. No health care system can out-repair the damage that we are doing to ourselves. We must not rely on medication to cover up the fact that we have treated our bodies poorly.

I find the European study very motivating. We CAN live disease-free. We CAN be that person in their 60s, 70s or better who takes no medications and who still goes hiking on the weekends. We CAN live lives that, while they may not be longer in years, are spent being able to do all of the things that we want to, without being debilitated by disease.

It's time we take responsibility for our own health.

Chinese herbal first aid

Today's post is about the Chinese herbal formulas that every household should keep on stock.

Disclaimer: Of COURSE if any of the below-mentioned situations happens to you, SEE A DOCTOR. These herbal formulas are NOT meant to take the place of emergency medicine. If you are pregnant or nursing, do not take the following herbal formulas without first consulting your licensed Chinese medical herbalist.

Jin Gu Die Shang Wan - This is a GREAT formula to take orally for keeping the swelling, bruising and pain associated with sprains, strains and broken bones to a minimum. First run of the season and you pushed yourself a little too hard? Jin Gu Die Shang Wan. Playing basketball and landed on someone else's foot, spraining your ankle? Jin Gu Die Shang Wan. Fell down rollerblading and broke your arm? Jin Gu Die Shang Wan. While this formula is great for treating traumatic injuries, this formula is not to be used for any other types of pains. It is only meant for acute bodily injury.


Yunnan Bai Yao - This formula goes with my family on all of our camping and backpacking trips. Yunnan Bai Yao can be used in an emergency to stop bleeding, both internal and external. So this example might be a bit extreme, but it's a proper use for this formula - if you're hiking and a member of your party falls down a cliff, and you can give them Yunnan Bai Yao to take by mouth (assuming they're conscious, of course) to help control any bleeding that you see coming from the skin, but also to help minimize potential internal bleeding. Additionally, this formula can be used topically (it usually comes in capsules that can be opened and the powdered herbs applied topically) to help stop bleeding. I've even used Yunnan Bai Yao powder to stop the bleeding of my dogs' toenails if I accidentally trimmed them too short. Anyone who has ever "quicked" their dog knows that those suckers can bleed!

Gan Mao Ling - This formula is used at the first signs of a cold. If taken promptly, Gan Mao Ling can be effective at shortening the duration of the cold, keeping symptoms to a minimum, or even keeping the cold from ever taking hold!

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a disorder that is thought to be due to the impingement of the nerves, specifically the median nerve, running through the wrist. Symptoms include pain, numbness and tingling and weakness in the hand or wrist. It's not uncommon for this group of symptoms to be due to other causes, such as nerve or blood vessel impingement in the neck, shoulders or other parts of the arm.

According to Chinese medical theory, these symptoms are due to a lack of proper flow of Qi and Blood to the area, causing the area to be malnourished.
From a biomedical point of view, acupuncture can be extremely useful in treating the inflammation that's often associated with such symptoms, as well as helping to relax any muscles that may be the cause of the impingement.

Vitamin B6 has also been found to be helpful in treating Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and related nerve disorders. Ask your doctor or natural health care provider if this is a possible treatment for you and your symptoms.

Sugar and your Spleen

Who doesn't love sugar? Our favorite treats contain it. We crave it. (Some of us more obsessively than others) So what could be so wrong about it?

As with everything in life, too much of anything, isn't good. When we eat a lot of sweet foods, we run the risk of damaging our Spleens. (our Chinese medical Spleen, not our biomedical, physical spleen) The Spleen is in charge of many jobs in our bodies:

• Digestion of food
• Water metabolism
• Aspects of women's menstrual cycles
• Controlling our sense of worry, or being at peace with ourselves

Those are some pretty important jobs, wouldn't you say?

A weak Spleen may result in some of the following symptoms:

• diarrhea
• extra weight
• acne
• fatigue
• lack of motivation
  
• depression
• lack of appetite
• increased sensitivity to stress
• light or heavy menstrual flows
• irregular menstruation
• vaginal discharge
  
• and may be a contributing factor in MANY more health complaints!

When we eat too much sugar, it tends to damage the Spleen, which leads us to crave more sugar, which in turn leads to more damage to the Spleen. It's a rather nasty cycle!

While I don't always recommend that people go on a no-sugar diet (except those with diabetes), I have found that it can help the Spleen regain health MUCH more quickly if people will cut out the "bad" sugars from their diets. This includes:

• Sodas (yes, even diet! The sweetness is still there and damaging your spleen!)
• Candies & Chocolate
  
• Pastries of all kinds
• Sugared cereals
• Ice cream
  
• etc. You know the kinds of things that have sugar in them.

What you may see missing from this list is fruit. Dieticians will argue that these have TONS of sugar in them, and yes, they do, but natural fruit sugar seems to react differently with the Spleen.

So how does one go about cutting sugar from their diet? Many of us have experienced the regular sugar cravings that can be strong enough to compel us to run to the store to get something sweet! How the HECK do you conquer THOSE?

Here are some tips that have worked for me and many of my patients:

• Stop eating sugar cold-turkey. This is one case where trying to wean yourself off won't work.
• Get rid of all the "bad" sugars in the house. If it's not there, it can't tempt you. You'd actually have to go out of your way to get something sweet to eat. Make sure to not be tempted by sweets at the store. KEEP them out of the house!
• Do not go grocery shopping while hungry. Hunger is often confused with sugar cravings, leading to purchases based on these cravings, not what is nutritionally needed.
  
• Have fruit around you at all times. Repeat after me, "AT ALL TIMES!" And make sure it's something completely delectable, not a grainy apple or a tasteless orange. It's got to be NUMMY. My favorite right now is a juicy nectarine with that perfect balance between sweet and sour. This "bad" sugar substitute will trick your body into thinking that it's getting the "bad" stuff and make you stop craving the sweet. Eat AS MUCH fruit as it takes to keep you from seeking out a sugary snack.
  
• If the cravings are still getting to you, put a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar in an 8oz. glass of water and drink it down. It'll take about 10 minutes to take effect. I know it sounds strange, but it works! Try it!
• Know what you're going up against. The strong sugar cravings will likely last anywhere from a week to two weeks. Many people aren't aware of the addictive qualities of sugar and don't realize that it will take that long! It does. Trust me.
• Notice the positive changes that happen in your body. Use these as motivation! My patients have noticed that they feel less "foggy" in their heads. Their thinking is clearer. Some may notice changes in their weight (mostly water weight, but an important part of the Spleen becoming stronger). Less sinus congestion as well as a decrease in post-nasal drip. Notice how much CLEANER your body feels when it's not bogged down by a weakened Spleen!

This will be one of the hardest things you do in your life. Addiction of any kind is multi-faceted, including physical needs for it, emotional needs for it and social temptations.

While cutting sugar from your diet can be extremely difficult, the benefits to your health can be very rewarding! It's incredible how differently you feel about sugar when you've broken the addiction cycle. Several of my patients have even said that they no longer even WANTED sweets anymore.

Do any of you have more secrets to help stop the cravings for sugar?

Cravings

Ask the biomedical world why we crave the things that we do, and they're not really sure. Could be hormones. Could be some sort of nutrient deficiency. Could be that your mother only showed her love to you through food as a child.

Cravings are kind of a cool subject when looked at through a Chinese Medical perspective. Cravings are brought on by imbalances in our organs and emotions.

Every organ is associated with both an emotional spectrum and a flavor.

• Heart - Sorrow or joy and Bitter
  
• Spleen - Over-thinking/worry or being at peace/centered and Sweet
  
• Lung - Grief/a feeling of alienation or feeling connected with the world and Acrid
  
• Kidney - Fear/apprehension or will-power and Salty
  
• Liver - Anger/frustration or being flexible and Sour

When we experience too much of the emotions on the negative side of the emotional spectrum, this tends to damage the associated organ.

So, for example, if you tend to be a worrier, it can damage your Spleen leading to symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, fatigue and sugar-cravings.

For those who crave salt, they may have a history of being afraid or apprehensive in their lives. They may also experience symptoms such as incontinence, early aging, and low back pain.

If we're talking about pregnancy cravings, this tends to be a little different, since it is a healthy state, not one of imbalance. If a woman craves sour (think pickles or citrus) it is likely because her baby is growing, with Liver being the organ associated with quick growth. Remember my post on Liver being associated with wood? Think of the baby as a little seedling. Seedlings tend to change very quickly in their early stages - this is a quality of Wood energy.

If a pregnant woman craves sweet things, it's possible that her Spleen energy (or energy associated with digesting and processing foods to convert to Qi) is a bit weak due to the new, greater demand on her system. Tonify the Spleen and she should see a decrease in her sweet cravings!

As is the way of life, too much of a good thing can be bad for you. If one over-indulges in their cravings, they can further damage the associated organ. It's all about moderation!

Don't be too busy!

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools. -- Spanish Proverb

"YES!" (I actually said that out loud when I saw this quote float across my screen on Twitter one day. Good thing only my daughter was around to hear me!)

I have so many patients who have spent their lives not paying attention to the needs of their bodies. They don't eat regular meals. They don't get enough sleep. They work too hard.

Then they experience a health crisis.

Hopefully, this is a wake up call for them to start taking care of themselves. Too often, though, it's not. They don't even allow their bodies to recuperate from their current health crisis before they're back working 60-hour weeks, barely 1 week after a major surgery. And on top of that they don't take the time to see the physical therapist as was recommended by their surgeon.

Over and over, I hear, "I don't really have time for that, I fell very behind at work, and I've got a lot of catching up to do."

If you don't take care of your health now, it won't be there, ready for use, tomorrow. You may not GET to work again, if you don't prevent your next health crisis.

Now is your chance to take care of yourself, not tomorrow, or next week, or at the turn of the new year. If you wait to make health a priority for you, you will find that so much of it has already slipped away. Not that it can't be regained - the body is INCREDIBLE at healing itself - but it will be that much more difficult to get back. Better not to lose it in the first place.

I want you to take responsibility for your health. Make YOU a priority.

Think of your health as that beautiful, chromed-out, all-original vintage car that we all drool over as we pass it on the street. It, too, was new once. Someone paid a pretty penny for it. They made the investment, and strove to keep it in original condition. Keep your health in original, mint-condition and watch everyone drool over you!

Medical Schools offering electives in Integrative Medicine

Yay! I was really excited to read this article in Acupuncture Today.

More and more biomedical schools are teaching elective courses on integrative medicine. As of November 2008, 113 of the nation's 126 medical school have such electives available! These courses are designed to bring to our future doctors information about what types of therapies their future patients are going to be using to improve their health.

Integrative medicine is the practice of combining the best of all of the medical fields (biomedicine, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, etc.) in order to get the best results for a patient with the least amount of intervention.

If acupuncture will help your back pain? Great! If not, maybe another therapy will. Maybe your only answer will be pain medications. However, let's start with something like acupuncture, massage or chiropractic medicine to see if they'll work.

If you've got pneumonia, let's not mess around with herbs (while they CAN work, they're not as effective as antibiotics), let's go straight to antibiotics, get you better, then use acupuncture and Chinese herbs to help your recovery time and address underlying deficiencies that may have predisposed you to illness in the first place.

These electives are not used to teach students HOW to use complimentary therapies, but rather when to refer to the appropriate complimentary medical specialist. Kudos to these medical schools for finally getting it. No one can be the Jack-of-all-trades healer. We WANT practitioners who are experts in their field who communicate with other experts.

It's all about the communication and knowing that there are many ways to help people thrive. We all need to help our patients find the treatments that work best for them.

Go ahead and swear!

Go Ahead and Swear! A study published in NeuroReport shows that uttering your favorite curse word helps ease pain. In this study, the participants held their hand in an ice water bath while repeating a curse word. They then held their hand in the water a second time while repeating an everyday neutral word. They reported their pain levels for each "bathing," and it was found that the participants reported a lesser pain experience while being allowed to repeat a curse word.

In Chinese medical theory this makes a certain amount of sense. Pain is caused by our Qi not flowing smoothly. Stress is caused by our Liver Qi not moving properly (Liver being related to the emotion of anger or frustration). Swearing can help release our Liver Qi, freeing it. Perhaps swearing also has an effect on not just our Liver Qi, but all of the Qi in our body. Free Qi movement equals reduced pain!

So, if you bang your thumb with a hammer, or are a pregnant woman going through labor, feel free to mutter (or scream!) that favorite curse word. You'll feel better for it!



*I'd like to apologize for the lack of posts lately, the kiddo has ceased taking naps recently, making me reconfigure our schedule and trying to figure out when to get some writing done. I hope to get back on the writing wagon now that things have settled down a bit! Thanks for being patient with us!

What is Reflexology?

Reflexology is believed to have been used in China, India and Egypt as long ago as 5000 years. It was brought to the US by Dr. William Fitzgerald during the 1920s, and has continued to flourish as a treatment option to this day.

Reflexology theory holds that your entire body is mapped out onto your feet. When certain points are massaged, corresponding areas of your body will be effected. All treatments involve a Chinese Medical diagnosis so that appropriate areas can be massaged for each individual patient. Much like other forms of Chinese medicine, Reflexology is a system that treats the body as a whole, not just the symptoms of a biomedical complaint.

Reflexology has been shown to be an effective treatment for digestive disorders, headaches, various body pains and more!

If you receive a reflexology treatment, always make sure to drink plenty of water following treatment as uric acid that has settled into your feet due to gravity will be released during your treatment! Much like after a massage, if these chemicals are not diluted by water you consume, you may experience feelings of nausea or muscle aches.

Problems with Chinese medicine scientific studies

We've all seen the contradicting studies: acupuncture does work for this condition. Acupuncture doesn't work for the same condition. What's going on?

The problem with these scientific studies is that many of them are not being designed properly to match how the medicine works. Science is FABULOUS for pulling things apart to understand how every little cog works. However, Chinese medicine is about the whole machine. You can't remove one piece and study it alone.

In many studies I see have a conclusion that sounds something like this: "Acupuncture shown to be ineffective for treating X, Y or Z." Then, when I read farther into the study, it's because they used a single acupuncture point in all of their study participants. I always have to giggle at this. Acupuncture is not a system where all people with X biomedical disease end up having the same Chinese medical diagnosis. For example, knee pain isn't just knee pain. It could be due to Kidney Qi Deficiency, Kidney Yang Deficiency, Kidney Yin Deficiency, Cold Bi Syndrome, Hot Bi Syndrome, Qi and Blood Stagnation among the basic few. What one needle may work great for Kidney Qi Deficiency knee pain may actually exacerbate knee pain due to Qi and Blood Stagnation! So of course, when all of these patients with knee pain are grouped together and treated like they have the same disease, the researchers get poor/mixed results! Not to mention that most styles of acupuncture do not use a single-needle approach (there is a Japanese style in which a single needle is used - the PERFECT needle for that patient on that day at that moment).

I'm not saying get rid of the science. We need the science in order to validate our medicine in this society. We need the science to validate our medicine so that insurance companies will be willing to cover services that could greatly benefit a huge number of Americans suffering from debilitating disease processes. But what we need most of all is studies that are designed with the idea of how Chinese medicine works in mind, otherwise we're just wasting time and money on studies that aren't actually testing the medicine as it is used.

Researchers out there who may stumble upon this blog (okay, so I may be dreaming big here ;) ), please make sure you have an acupuncturist help you design your study. And I'm not talking about a biomedical doctor who has gone through "medical acupuncture" training, because that's not the same thing as an acupuncturist. An acupuncturist will be able to help point out when you're missing an aspect of how Chinese medicine works so that you can get the most true-to-life results possible!

Lastly, I want to point out that if/when a drug is shown to be ineffective, it isn't concluded that pharmacology, as a whole, doesn't work. Why, then, do we say that acupuncture, as a whole, doesn't work, when one point is found to be ineffective for a single diagnosis?

Preventive Medicine

I was reading an article today about biomedical health care and its outrageous costs. This isn't what I'm going to talk about today, however. In this article it mentioned that if people would use preventive medicine, it could greatly decrease the cost of health care overall by preventing the BIG health care costs such as bypass surgery, diabetes, etc. I agreed with this statement UNTIL it qualified what it meant by "preventive medicine."

Preventive medicine, according to this author, was the use of medications to prevent further disease. The example that was given was this: If a patient with high cholesterol would simply take statin-drugs to lower their cholesterol, they could likely prevent heart disease which can lead to further complications and further costs.

I sighed when I read this. While the above statement is true, it's missing the point. We, as a society, still haven't seemed to have figured out what preventive medicine is. It doesn't mean taking a pill for the rest of our lives to cover up a symptom. While this can be a valid step in making sure irreparable damage isn't done, it isn't preventive medicine.

Now, don't get me wrong. It is often necessary for someone to take a pill while their body learns to take over the function that the pill is meant to mimic. In the above case, it is extremely important to get high cholesterol under control, and a drug may be necessary to achieve this quickly to avoid damage to the vascular system. However, there are further steps that are required! Diet and exercise changes among the basic of these.

The end goal of ANY branch of medicine should not be to merely get bloodwork numbers within an acceptable range, but for the patient to be able to sustain those numbers on their own at some point.

(Disclaimer: I'm not saying that all people should live medication-free. Some health concerns are uncontrollable without chemical intervention. However, in an ideal world, these patients are still keeping their medication doses as low as possible by using preventive medicine.)

Preventive medicine should be seen as medicine that teaches and allows the body to function properly without chemical intervention on a permanent basis.

What is Qi?

Ooooh, this is a fun question! Biomedicine has been wondering this FOREVER! (Or, at least since they learned of Chinese Medicine and Qi.)

I like to tell my patients when they ask, that Qi is what makes the difference between being alive and being dead.

Biomedicine doesn't know what makes us alive vs. dead, and they don't know what Qi is. Coincidence? I think not!

One textbook definition of Qi is "The fundamental substance of which all matter in the natural world are composed. All matters in the natural world are formed by the change and movement of Qi." (Advanced Textbook on Traditional Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology, Vol. 1. New World Press, Beijing, China, 2002.)

Another textbook similarly describes it as "The fundamental substance constituting the universe, and all phenomena are produced by the changes and movement of Qi. Qi is both the essential substances of the human body which maintain its vital activities, and the functional activities of the organs and tissues." (Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, China, 2003.)

Free, smooth movement of sufficient amounts of Qi is essential to health and vitality. When this is not the case, we begin to experience unhealth. Acupuncture is certainly not the only way to achieve free and plentiful Qi. Health CAN be retained and regained through healthful living, but Chinese medicine can speed the process back to health. In addition, Chinese medicine can PREVENT disease by ensuring that the amount of Qi that one has is always in adequate supply and moving properly throughout the body.

So what does Qi feel like? To me, as a practitioner, when I needle a patient and I'm aiming for the Qi, it often will feel like the tip of my needle is bouncing on the surface of a balloon. When I "get the Qi" it feels as though this balloon has let the needle in. I've heard other practitioners describe it as a gentle tugging sensation on the tip of the needle.

My patients often say that Qi feels like someone pressing on their skin at the site of the needle. Some patients will feel this same sensation of pressure run along the channel after the needle has been inserted. Some people will feel the Qi as a mild warm or cool sensation at the needle.

Perhaps it's this inability to even describe the sensation of Qi that has led so many to be skeptical of its existence? Okay, maybe it's due to the fact that there are no biomedical tests that can prove that it exists.

Regardless, Chinese medical practitioners can feel the Qi in your pulse, can see it reflected on your tongue and in your face, and can feel it through the needles. Thousands of years of patients and practitioners and positive results can't ALL be wrong.

One of my biggest pet peeves

We hear it all the time. "It couldn't hurt." It sounds innocent enough, and REALLY it is a sign that things are changing in the biomedical field. Doctors are starting to accept the fact that even though acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine don't test well under "standard double-blind, placebo-controlled studies" (watch for a future post on the problems with this style of testing of Chinese medicine), they are seeing that their patients often get relief from non-biomedical medicine.

Here is my problem with hearing the words, "It couldn't hurt:" It COULD hurt if done improperly, and may not do any good. A licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist goes through a 4-year program of learning in GREAT depth all of the intricacies of this style of medicine. In many states, doctors are allowed to practice acupuncture without ANY training because it is considered a "medical procedure" and thus falls under their scope of practice. Luckily, the doctors who practice acupuncture without ANY knowledge of the system are few in numbers. However, the "training" that many doctors receive should not be considered training, but a brief introduction. 100-300 hours of instruction just isn't enough to learn the ins and the outs of such an intricate system of medicine. Kudos to those doctors who have the conscience to get at least SOME knowledge, but this doesn't make you an acupuncturist.

Unfortunately, through programs to teach "medical acupuncture" there isn't enough hands-on training, and this is where the problems lie, in my opinion. There are proper angles and depths at which needles are inserted at each of the acupuncture points (of which there are over 500 commonly-used points). If needles are inserted improperly, such injuries can occur as tendonitis, neuritis, pneumothorax, peritonitis and more. An acupuncturist spends an entire YEAR learning just proper needle insertion, let alone the other aspects of the medicine.

"Medical acupucnturists" aren't given enough training in the art of Chinese medical diagnosis. For example, back pain, in Chinese medicine can have one of several different diagnoses that is leading to the patient experiencing pain in their back. Many medical acupucnturists use a standard set of acupuncture points (kind of like following a recipe to bake a cake) to treat back pain, regardless of the Chinese medical diagnosis. Doing so may lead them to use a point that, at best will have no effect, or at worst, exacerbate the complaint.

Another downfall to a lack of hands-on training is a lack of the concept and perception of Qi. Now, I know this may sound like a silly thing to be concerned with, but I assure you, it's not. (I will note here, that not believing in, or being able to feel Qi, at least isn't DIRECTLY harmful, just a waste of a patient's time, money and trust in the medicine). Medical practitioners who learn "medical acupuncture" are not taught to feel Qi. To me this is missing the entire point of the medicine! If you can't feel the Qi, or don't believe that it exists, how can you manipulate it in order to get the healing response that is desired?

Again, I applaud doctors for opening their minds to the possibilities that other styles of medicine can work. However, unless you're willing to dedicate your time to getting full training, please refer your patients to a specialist. Let's all stick to what we're good at, and refer our patients to each other. They will be the major benefactors, which is what should have gotten us into medicine in the first place.

Helping Benny

Benny is a LOVELY guy. A giant, big-hearted teddy bear of a pup. Benny came to see me after rupturing his cruxiate ligament. Poor guy hurt his knee and was hobbling around like an old man! (Benny's only 7 years-old, by the way, he's got a LONG time left of playing with his pet and human family!) You see, Benny had done what MANY other dogs do during this time of year. It's FINALLY nice outside and when you get the chance to run after a long, shut-in winter, you RUN. Benny was going to have to wait with hurting knee for a month for his surgery because of all the other dogs ahead of him in line!

The vet gave him pain meds to help get him through the pain until surgery day, but his treat-hander-outer was hoping to keep him on lower doses of the medications. So we started doing acupuncture twice a week to keep his pain under control and to prepare him for his upcoming surgery. Benny also went home with an herbal formula that would do the same.

During the time prior to surgery, Benny's treat-hander-outer noticed that he was in good spirits! He was also in very little pain, which required lower doses of pain meds, just like they were hoping.

Benny's surgery day finally came and went and when I saw him for the first time after (a week after his surgery) I couldn't believe my eyes! Not only was he walking on his knee, he wasn't limping very much, either. On his second visit post-surgery, Benny waltzed right in with barely a hitch in his giddyup! The surgery that Benny had is pretty extensive, including reshaping of the bone in his knee. I've seen many pets who've had this surgery (while working at a vet clinic that performed such surgeries), and I've NEVER seen a dog with such a speedy recovery before!

I think this is a great case where biomedicine and natural medicine have worked together. While there was nothing that acupuncture could do to repair the torn ligament, acupuncture and Chinese herbs significantly reduced the amount of pain that was experienced, as well as prepared Benny's body for the surgery. His energy was already flowing smoothly pre-surgery, so it took very little to get back to that point.

Now, if only acupuncture could help keep this rearing-to-go pup calmer while his knee completely heals!

How to get your pet to take his or her herbs

Yesterday, I offered some ways to make it easier to take herbs yourself. Today I'm going to talk about the tricks I have up my sleeve for getting herbs into your pet.

Some pets are pickier than others. We all know the cat who will give you scars you'll remember for the rest of your life, or the dog who will very carefully extract even the smallest pill from a big glob of peanut butter. Here are a few tricks for making sure they get the herbs that will keep them happier and healthier for longer:

• If your pet is taking teapills and your pet isn't too picky, hide the teapills in something delectable. Typically, peanut butter or a slice of hot dog will do the trick. There is also a product called Pill Pockets that are special treats for hiding pills in. They come in several different flavors and sizes, and work for both cats and dogs. Many pets LOVE the taste of these!
• If your pet still won't take their teapills, you can crush them and sprinkle them on canned food. This works for many pets who then can't "pick out" a pill.
• If you pet STILL won't take their teapills, they can be dissolved in warm water (no more than a tablespoon) and fed to your pet using a syringe. Most vet clinics can give you a special syringe for doing just this.
• If your pet is taking a granule formula, try sprinkling, or mixing it in with some tasty (read: stinky) canned food. For many pets, this will suffice.
  
• If your pet isn't a fan of the granules contaminating their food, you can encapsulate the granule formula and give the herbs as you would any other pill. (see the first 2 bullets for tips)
• If your pet still won't take their granule formula, dissolve it in just enough water to be able to suck it up with a syringe, and feed it to your pet via the syringe, just like you would with the dissolved teapill.

Pets can be a little tricky to get herbs into, but what I have often found is that once a pet learns that the herbs make them feel better and don't have any side effects, they are MUCH more cooperative about taking them. I've had several pet patients who would come running to their owners when they said, "Okay, it's time for Becca's pills!" and then gobble them right down!

Hopefully one or more of these tricks will help you get herbs down your pet in a more relaxed, less-stressful way!

Tricks for getting those herbs down

If you're getting acupuncture done, chances are you're taking some form of herbs. They're not always pleasant tasting. They've been described as tasting, depending on the particular formula:

• earthy/dirty/muddy
• bitter/bile-like
• sweet
• sour
• blech/yucky/gross/&$#@!/etc.

Today I'm going to give you a few tricks that I've learned over the years from teachers, patients and through my own trial and error.

If you're taking a bulk formula (one where you're given the raw herbs and you make your own "witch's brew"), try making it a little more concentrated so that you don't have as much liquid to drink in the end. Once you have this smaller amount of liquid, try mixing it with your favorite juice. Many of my patients have found cranberry juice to be the must disguising of them all. Experiment and see what works for you and with your particular formula.

If you're taking a granule formula, you have several more options:

• Put the granules into capsules. Make sure to have your acupuncturist translate the dose of your herbs into number of capsules. There are encapsulating machines that you can find at your local health-food store for relatively cheap. This is a little time-consuming, but you'll be more likely to take your herbs, so you'll be feeling your best in no time flat!
• Put the granules directly onto your tongue and use your favorite juice to get them down. Some people really like this method, they find it's best to just get it done and over with.
• Mix the granules in your favorite juice, much like the bulk formula idea described above. Make sure to not use much juice, or else you'll just be drinking a TON of "off-tasting" juice. "Chase" your herbs with more juice.

If you're taking teapills, just take them ;)

Remember, you've paid for these herbs, you've invested not only your money, but time and your future into becoming healthier. Make sure to take your herbs as prescribed, and you're on your way to THRIVING!

Do you have any other tricks for taking herbs? I'm always looking for more ways to help my patients take their herbs!

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Omega 3 Fatty Acids (O3FAs) are an important nutrient that is somewhat overlooked. I find that there are several "types" of patients that I tend to strongly recommend O3FAs to.

• Anyone with allergies of any kind. Environmental (hayfever, trees, pets, etc.), Foods (including sensitivities, not just true allergies), and Skin allergies.
• Anyone with a skin condition of any sort. Eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, etc.
• Anyone with arthritis.
• Anyone with heart disease/cholesterol problems.
  

O3FAs are great for breaking the cycle of inflammation. This is why they get recommended to so many of my patients! While they don't work quite like an anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen, over time they can be extremely useful for reducing the amount of inflammation in your system. They have even been used in higher doses as an anti-histamine to break the cycle of allergic inflammation often associated with hayfever!

O3FAs have also been found to be useful in reducing the inflammation associated with heart disease and in lower "bad" cholesterol levels.

So where does one get O3FAs. The best, of course is if you can get natural, whole food sources of O3FAs. Some common sources are:

• The flesh of fish - particularly the gray area between the skin and the "regular" flesh.
• Flax seeds
• Walnuts
• Soybeans - including, in lesser amounts, tofu

If you don't feel like it's doable, or enough to just eat a diet high in O3FA foods, you can take it in liquid or capsule form. There are vegetarian forms, usually made with flax seed oil, and fish sources. If you decide to take the fish-sourced oil, make sure to look for one that is certified heavy metal free (heavy metals would certainly counteract the whole point of taking the O3FAs in the first place!).

As always, talk with your acupuncturist or other health care provider about appropriate doses for you.

Elimination Diet

Okay, so an elimination diet doesn't really fit into the realm of Acupuncture & Chinese medicine. However, it is something that I occasionally recommend some of my patients to do.

What is an elimination diet? An elimination diet is a diagnostic tool to determine if someone reacts unhealthfully to a certain food or foods. Here are some instructions on how to do it. I'll give you the short version here. Basically, you eat only non-allergenic foods including rice, turkey, and certain fruits and vegetables. You eat only these foods until your symptoms have gone away. Once you are symptom-free, gradually add in one of the allergenic foods at a time and see if you react. If you do - BINGO. If not - on to the next allergenic food.

Once you have found which foods you are sensitive to, you now have some decisions to make. How important is it to your health that you completely avoid this food forever from now on? Are your reactions minor? Are the reactions that you have to the particular food worth suffering through for the food?

Here are a couple of examples:

Female patient in her early twenties has been nauseous, vomiting and experiencing explosive diarrhea non-stop for three years. She and her doctor did all of the biomedical tests and exams to determine the cause. No cause was found. Because of her desperation, she was willing to try ANYTHING at this point and started receiving acupuncture and herbal treatments. She had some limited results - a decrease in the episodes of vomiting and her nausea. At this time, it was recommended that she consider trying an elimination diet. She agreed. She found that she was sensitive to dairy and wheat. Once she discontinued eating these foods, her symptoms disappeared completely within two weeks. After some experimentation with her diet, she discovered that she could have small amounts of wheat if it was organic and preservative-free.

Female patient also in her early twenties has difficulty breathing, with a sensation of being "stuck under a blanket and unable to absorb enough oxygen." She had seen several doctors who determined that it wasn't asthma, but offered no other explanations. She was advised to take benadryl every day, thinking that it was some sort of allergic reaction. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs brought some relief, but only for a a few days at a time. At this time it was recommended that she try an elimination diet and she too found that she was sensitive to gluten and dairy. Each food caused different symptoms in her. Gluten was the culprit behind the difficulty breathing. Dairy was behind a chronic post-nasal drip. After some experimentation with her diet, she decided that it was never worth eating gluten - even the slightest of contamination would lead to a week of symptoms. Dairy was okay as occasional treats for holidays, but she would know to expect her post-nasal drip to return for a couple days.

The most exciting part about elimination diets is the amount of knowledge that is gained! To all of a sudden understand where your symptoms are coming from, and to have the power to control when, if at all, you'll experience them!

Elimination diets aren't the answer for everyone, but what if it IS the answer for you? Talk with your acupuncturist or naturopath to see if it's right for you!

Acupuncture as treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries

The study "Acupuncture's Effects in Treating the Sequelae of Acute and Chronic Spinal Cord Injuries: A Review of Allopathic and Traditional Chinese Medicine Literature" has shown that electro-acupuncture can be useful in mitigating many of the symptoms associated with a spinal cord injury. The studies that were reviewed included studies that looked at all Spinal Cord Injury problems, bladder problems, pain issues and dysreflexia (spasms that can cause high blood pressure).

Electro-acupuncture is the application of a small electric pulse through acupuncture needles. Electro-acupuncture typically is very mild, and has been described as causing a "tapping" sensation. When electro-acupuncture is applied to the site of the Spinal Cord injury, relief from many of the above mentioned symptoms are lessened.

There have also been some studies from China showing some nerve regrowth in rodents with Spinal Cord Injuries. The regrowth is still slow, but quicker than the natural regrowth that does occur. This could potentially be very useful in patients with incomplete Spinal Cord Injuries.

What might this mean?

In terms of money, the medical costs over the lifetime of a person with quadriplegia totals more than three million dollars. For a person with an incomplete spinal cord injury, one in which they likely retain some motor functions, the total is still a staggering $680,000! This is if we're only talking about the medical costs. If you factor in lost wages, decreases in productivity on the job, and fringe benefits, the totals can be an additional $62,000 per year. That's a LOT of money! If some of the medical costs are reduced due to fewer infections and less pain, how much could be saved?

In terms of life improvement, medical problem occurrences are reduced. Can you imagine being in constant pain? How about frequent bladder infections because you have to be catheterized? What if these can each be reduced? Fewer infections and less pain could mean a very different outlook for many!

From a Chinese medical standpoint, a Spinal Cord Injury is just another stagnation of the flow of Qi. Remember the car accident on the freeway analogy? A Spinal Cord Injury is a MAJOR blockage to the flow of Qi, but small improvements CAN be made, which may mean BIG improvements in quality of life for someone living with such an injury.

Chinese Medicine and Cancer

You're sitting in the doctor's office and they've just said it. The "C" word. Cancer. How can a single word represent such a devastating and life-altering diagnosis?

I want you to know that your acupuncturist is there to help get you through this incredibly difficult time in your life. Cancer treatments are often radical and rarely without extreme side effects. It's not uncommon for someone with cancer to be unable to even get through these potentially life-saving treatments because they can be so harsh. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help you get through your biomedical treatments by reducing such side effects as nausea, dry-mouth, decreased energy and so many more.

I've had people ask if it's safe to do acupuncture while someone is going through cancer treatments. The answer is yes. Acupuncture alone will not interfere with radiation or chemotherapy.

When it comes to Chinese herbal medicine, the answer is a little more gray. To be honest, there isn't enough research on Chinese herbal medicine, particularly in combination with chemo or radiation to make a statement. It is thought that some herbs may interfere with radiation treatments. The most important thing is to ask your oncologist what they feel comfortable with. Feel free to have them speak with your acupuncturist about Chinese herbs and the potential for interactions as well as relief from side effects.

If you or a loved one has just been diagnosed, give yourself the best shot at survival and recovery. Consider acupuncture and Chinese medicine to help get you through your cancer treatments.

Flu

Yeah.. I said it... the F-word! The Flu! I know everyone is going through a bit of a panic with the recent swine flu news, so today I'm going to give you some natural tips to keep you and your family healthy!

1. Don't PANIC! When you stress out about getting sick, it prevents your Qi from moving smoothly. This in turn prevents your Wei Qi (pronounced "Way Chee" - your immune system) from being able to properly attack any invaders. So, in effect, when you stress out about maybe getting sick, you greatly increase your chances of doing just that! Don't do that to yourself!
2. Wash your hands frequently. It's the same old advice every time. If you wash your hands frequently, you're preventing much of the transmission of airborne disease. You don't need to use antibacterial soaps, either. The lather will lift the germs off of your skin and rinse them away down the drain. No need for the over-kill of antibacterial soaps. If you're unable to wash your hands frequently, consider using an antibacterial hand cleanser. But again, there's no need for this over-kill tactic if you have access to a sink with water.
3. Keep yourself rested. If you're rested, your body will be more ready to defend itself against flu-invaders! If you're exhausted, you can't put up the fight against germs!
4. Stay hydrated. If you're dehydrated, your Qi can't move smoothly, preventing your Wei Qi from getting where it needs to go to fight off the flu. It's like a river with no water - a boat can't move without it!
   
5. Consider getting Acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Your acupuncturist can help balance your body ahead of time to make sure you're functioning at full strength. If you do manage to catch the flu, make an appointment right away! Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can often stop the flu in its tracks! If the flu isn't completely avoided, your acupuncturist can help ease your symptoms and shorten the life-span of the flu as well as decreasing the severity of your symptoms. All of this can be done without the side effects of standard cold and flu medications such as drowsiness, foggy-thinking and over-drying or the mucous-membranes. You'll be back to your old self in no time!

The main idea here is to stay calm and be prepared. If you're as healthy as can be before an exposure to the flu, you're much less likely to succumb to its evil grips! And if you do catch the flu, make sure to follow the above advice to put your immune system in the best position to defeat this unwelcome invader!

Your health is an investment

I want you to know that natural medicine isn't a quick fix. You can't get acupuncture and know that within 30 minutes your symptoms will be gone. (Okay, sometimes you can, headaches and other body pains can be relieved on the table, but one treatment still doesn't keep the symptom from reappearing later.)

Chinese medicine is a system that addresses the source of the problem. It doesn't just cover up your suffering. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we could use some ibuprofen to get rid of that headache now, but what would your life be like if you didn't experience headaches everyday? What if you didn't even need to BUY ibuprofen?

Doesn't that sound like a better existence?

I want you to know that there is a possibility out there of living a life where you're NOT constantly hiding from symptoms. Yes, this takes an initial investment in time and money, but think of the long term consequences. You no longer need that prescription which is costing you $200 a month! You end up SAVING money because you don't wind up with heart disease, diabetes or any number of surgeries which all have HUGE bills attached to them! You are able to go on that 3 hour hike! You don't have to wonder which event is going to be missed out on because you weren't feeling well enough!

What a RICH life!

So I want you to stop thinking about natural medicine as this expensive service that you have to go to every week for a while. Think of it as an investment. An investment in your health. An investment in your life. An investment in your future.

The reason I treat pets using acupuncture

Growing up we had this cat. We called him Sargie. Why "Sargie," you may ask? Sargie was born to a stray momma who decided to birth her kittens under my aunt's back deck. Momma was a manx (no tail) as well as most of the kittens. Because having no tail is a deformity of the spine, there can often be other problems located anywhere else on the spine.

As a kitten, Sargie was very slow in developing. While his brothers and sisters were walking around, romping and playing, Sargie wasn't. We wondered if he would ever walk, be able to get to his food, water and litter box. He was about a month behind the others in getting going, but when he finally did, he did what looked like an army crawl. You've seen the movies with the guys at boot camp crawling under the barbed wire... that's how Sargie got around as a kitten. Because he was now able to get to his food and litter box, we decided we didn't care how "normal" he was, he could have a great life in our family. Soon enough Sargie was walking normally. It seems that it just took him some time to gain the strength to walk correctly.

Sargie was a GREAT cat. He was extremely loving (even to the dogs, whom he LOVED to rub up against). He was so laid-back that he even allowed momma-less Humane Society foster kittens to suckle on him! This earned him the nickname "Unkie Sarge."

When Sargie was about 8 years old we started noticing that he seemed stiff and was cranky with the other pets in the house. We took him to our vet to see what was going on. It turns out he had pretty advanced arthritis because of his deformed spine. Upon x-rays, we found that he had missing vertebrae, some that were fused and some that were just deformed. All of these abnormal changes were causing Sargie a lot of pain. It was suggested that we get him started onglucosamine and chondroitin to slow the advance of the arthritis.

The vet also suggested that we let him do acupuncture on Sargie.

This was after our family had had some significant life changes because of acupuncture (see my story here) so this sounded reasonable. However, we never expected the results that we saw!

After going home from Sargie's vet appointment where he received his first-ever acupuncture treatment, he was a new cat! He was once again playing with the other cats rather than growling at them! He was rubbing up on the dogs once more! He was back to normal!

We took Sargie back for acupuncture treatment every week for about a month, then every other week for about 4 more visits, and then as needed for his pain. On average, after his pain was under control, we took him in about every 3-6 months for what we called "Sargie's Tune-Up."

After seeing these results, and my path came clear that I was going to become an acupuncturist, there was no way I was going to miss out on treating pets as well! They respond so much quicker than their human counterparts. Is it because they're more sensitive? Do they have less stress? Do they not internalize the stress? I'm not sure exactly why they respond so well to treatment, it's probably some combination of the above ideas. I do know that I love having the opportunity to help pets be their happiest and healthiest!

Photo Courtesy of The US Department of Defense

It's not just about getting dirty

Our family is putting a vegetable garden in our backyard. This is something we've wanted to do for a long time now and it just didn't ever seem to happen. We're super excited about it and look forward to our bounty! We're going to keep it simple this year - plants that pretty much grow like weeds - tomatoes, zucchini, beans, etc.

I'm not sure which part of it I'm most excited about.

Our backyard had been destroyed by the dogs, so we're really getting it put back together this year. That makes the organizer in me pleased. This is the metal in me.

I'm excited to get my hands in the dirt and to connect with the soil directly. I love being in the dirt. Being soild. This is the earth in me.

I look forward to watching all of our little plants change daily and to watch them reach for the sky. They're so adventurous! This is the wood in me.

The sun beating down on my back while I tend to my garden, absorbing that heat, that warmth - can't wait to bask in it! To let it empower me! This is the fire in me.

To water my little plantlings and watch the water snake its way around the garden, to watch it soak down through the earth, finding resistance, finding a way around, a way through - whatever it takes to make it to the roots of those little plants. This is the water in me.

Gardening can fulfill so many needs - exercise, sustenance, a breath of fresh air. Who knew it could also fulfill so many elemental needs as well?

Placenta as a Chinese herb

Alright, if you're a little queasy, you may not want to read much further. There is no picture included today, because I couldn't find anything appropriate that would be safe for all stomachs.

Placenta was first mentioned as a Chinese herb in a Materia Medica in 741 AD. So, why would anyone want to consume their placenta? In Chinese medical theory, the process of bearing and birthing a child is very exhausting on the mother's Qi and Blood supplies. She literally gives of herself to form this new life. After birth, a mother is very deficient and will often experience symptoms such as extreme fatigue, insufficient milk-production, depression, insomnia, anemia, headaches and many more. It has been found that if a mother consumes the placenta following birth, her Qi and Blood levels will be greatly improved, improving any post-partum symptoms she may be experiencing. How many cases of post-partum depression could be avoided? How many babies could more easily be successfully breast-fed?

Some people are willing to eat their placenta raw (which is optimal). Some people are willing to eat it cooked as the meat in a recipe (do a Google search and you'll find TONS of recipes!). Now, I know what you may be thinking, "I'm not a cat/dog/cow/animal, there's no WAY you're going to get me to eat that!" For those of us who aren't likely contestants for Fear Factor, there are other options for ingesting placenta and boosting our Qi and Blood following the birth of our child that may be a little easier to stomach.

There are companies who will send you the materials to dry, grind and encapsulate your placenta so it's no different than taking your daily prenatal vitamin! One such company is PlacentaBenefits.info. They will also complete the encapsulization process for you if you're not interested in the laborious process after you've already labored enough, thank you very much!

For those of you who still can't stomach the thought of eating your own placenta, speak with your Chinese herbalist. The placentae used in herbal formulas today come from pigs and cows, which may be a bit more do-able for you!

Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's always safe!

I hear it ALL the time. "It's natural, so it's safe, unlike 'x,' 'y' or 'z' medication." Just because it's natural doesn't mean that it's safe. Many natural substances are, in fact, poisonous. Occasionally we have learned a safe dose range, but that still doesn't mean that it should be used by everyone for everything.

For example, Foxglove is a very poisonous plant - beautiful, but poisonous. It has been used for many years, in the form of digitalis, to correct some heart rhythm problems. However, digitalis has a VERY narrow range of safe dosing, and isn't appropriate for all people with heart problems.

It makes me very nervous when I over hear people talking about how excited they are that they're treating themselves with "such and such" herb, without their doctor's consent, without discussing their use with any herbal professional and often without telling any of their health care providers that they are using said substance.

Some herbs have interactions with medications and these interactions can be very dangerous. Some medications may have their effects negated. Some medications may have their effects multiplied. In both cases, imagine the consequences being equivalent to not taking the medication or taking more than the prescribed amount. The results could be catastrophic for some patients!

Some herbs are not meant for all presentations of a symptom. For example: ginger. Read my personal story of Why you have to be careful with home herbal remedies, and you'll see how the side effects can be very uncomfortable and avoidable. I was lucky that I eventually recognized the problem, but what if you weren't aware of the possible side effects? You might suffer needlessly! Some people are even prescribed medications to counteract such side effects. This is so unnecessary!

It's great to use natural products, because the chance of side effects, when used properly and under knowledgeable supervision, is greatly reduced when compared to biomedicines. However, natural substances should be considered as medications, something that is prescribed with assistance from a trained professional.

Feel free to talk with your acupuncturist about any natural substances that you are taking or are considering taking. At least, you may save yourself some unnecessary side effects, at most you may save your life.

How long does this stuff take to work?

So, you've had your first acupuncture treatment and now you're wondering, "Okay, so when am I going to feel blissfully different, like everyone talks about?"

The short answer? It depends. I know, you probably don't really like that answer. But don't worry, I'll give the long answer next.

We're all different. This is the basis for Chinese medicine. We're all different, so we all get different treatments. We all heal at different speeds. Also, the speed to which we heal can depend on how long we've been experiencing our unhealth. A sore back that was caused by working too hard in the garden last weekend will heal much faster than a back that was injured 20 years ago on the job and flares up periodically.

Now, this isn't to say that a chronically injured back can't heal quickly. That all depends upon:

• Your genetic make up. Some people are more prone to back injuries than others, so it will be necessary to counteract not only the back pain, but the propensity for back pain. This will take more time
  
• How well you and your acupuncturist work together, energetically. We all have different energy patterns, and sometimes two energy patterns don't mesh well for healing. If this is the case, it may be difficult to get lasting results. This doesn't mean that acupuncture can't work, it just means that that practitioner's acupuncture may not work for you.
  
• And at least partially, your mind set. You have to be in the mindset that you are going to get better. If you continue to tell yourself that you're never going to be healthy again, guess what, the Universe will grant your wish - you will never be healthy again. Start by telling yourself that this is just another block in the, road. You can get past it, like many others in your life. You will get past it.

Okay, but what does all of this mean in real-time? Some conditions are easily affected by one treatment and you may see results on the table. Some people don't feel any changes for a couple days after the treatment - like they have to "sleep on it" for it to kick in. Some people may require more treatments to begin feeling any differences. On average, I find that people start noticing SOME sort of change by the fourth treatment. This isn't to say that they're healed by four weeks (though some are!), they're just noticing some changes in the positive direction. With a really complex condition, it may take several months to get the desired results.

If you're wondering how long it may take for you to get healthy again, please talk with your acupuncturist. They may be able to give you a ball-park idea of how long it may take. After a couple of treatments, your acupuncturist can usually give you a better idea of how long it will take based on the early changes you experience.

Pulse Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine is a medicine that evolved somewhere between 3000 and 5000 years ago (at least that's the best guess, some think it may be even older!). This was all before the time of MRI's, x-rays and blood tests. In order to get an accurate diagnosis, the Chinese medical practitioners of ancient times looked very carefully at the body to gather as many clues as possible.

One of the methods of looking at the body closely evolved into pulse diagnosis. Now, we've all sat at the doctor's office and had them count the number of times our heart beats per minute. They commonly take this reading at wrist on the radial artery. Chinese medicine took this a step further. Not only does an acupuncturist or herbalist count the number of beats per minute, they also can get an overview of what's going on in your body by feeling the quality of your pulse.

Each wrist has three pulse positions. On the right wrist, the energy of the Lung, Large Intestine, Spleen, Stomach and Kidney Yang can be felt. On the left wrist, the energy of the Heart, Small Intestine, Liver, Gall Bladder and Kidney Yin can be felt. Each organ can be assessed by feeling the qualities of the pulse at its position on the wrist.

The qualities or textures of the pulses that can be felt at each position on the wrist are:

• Wiry - This pulse feels like a guitar string is coming up and hitting your finger. You can very easily feel the sides of the artery as the blood passes through it.
• Slippery - This pulse has been described as "feeling a pearl in a bowl." To me, it feels like a bubble is passing through the artery under my finger.
• Soft - This pulse feels a little like the slippery pulse, but has a "mushy" feel to it. It has been described as the feeling of "pressing into a wet cotton ball."
• Weak - This pulse can be difficult to find and is easily lost if you're using too much pressure to feel the pulse.
• Deep - This pulse takes a lot of pressure to feel. The pulse is hidden deeply.
• Thin - This pulse is very narrow and weak. You can easily lose this pulse with too much pressure.
• Thready - This pulse feels kind of like a wiry pulse, but is much thinner and weaker.
• Rapid - This pulse has more beats per minute than an average pulse and often feels hurried.
• Slow - This pulse has fewer beats per minute than an average pulse and often feels sluggish.

Pulse diagnosis, is a valuable way to get a peek into your health or unhealth, and when combined with tongue diagnosis and the gathering of your health history completes the picture of you!

Tongue Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine

If you've been to an acupuncturist, you've heard the line "Okay, now I'd like to take a look at your tongue." If not, you may be wondering what the HECK an acupuncturist would want to see your tongue for? Our tongues mirror the health of our bodies, and by looking at your tongue, an acupuncturist can get helpful clues as to what's going on inside you.

When your acupuncturist is looking at your tongue, they're looking at several things:

1. General shape of your tongue: Is your tongue a nice "U" shape? Does it have a thin pointy tip? Does it look like your tongue is scalloped or that you've taken bites out of the edges of your tongue? If your tongue is a "U" shape, this is a pretty good sign of overall health. If you've got a pointy tip to your tongue, you probably have some sort of yin deficiency. If your tongue is scalloped, you probably have problems with dampness and Spleen Qi deficiency.

2. Color of your tongue: Is your tongue a baby pink color? Is it beet red? Is it purple? Or maybe it has pale sides? If your tongue is a baby pink color, you probably are pretty healthy with few complaints. If your tongue is red or beet red, you probably suffer from some sort of heat problems. Hot flashes often present with a bright red tongue. If your tongue is purple you're likely in some sort of pain or are very stressed out (or both!)

3. The coating of your tongue: Can you easily see the color of your tongue? Is it hidden by a thick, greasy-looking substance that you try to brush off with your toothbrush every morning? If you can easily see the color of your tongue, you probably don't have any dampness problems. However, if our tongue coating is thick and it masks the color of your tongue body, you likely do suffer from such complaints.

I'm not going to put pictures of tongues on here, because not everyone has the stomach for it. If you do have the stomach for it, ask your friends and family if you can see their tongues. You'll be surprised at how different tongues can be from one another!

Chinese Medicine cures for "Morning Sickness"

Alright, all you mommas-to-be out there, I'm going to give you some ideas for things to try at home to help with the dreaded Morning Sickness (or as I like to call it "celebrating your new pregnancy in the bathroom!").

Acupressure: You may have seen motion sickness bands advertised. They're often a wrist sweat band with a little button on it to stimulate the acupuncture point Pericardium 6. This point is extremely good for easing nausea due to any cause! You don't need to find and buy these bands, though, you can simply massage the point! Pericardium 6 is located on the inside of your forearm 3 finger widths down from your wrist crease. Massage the area and you'll soon be feeling as good as new! If you need longer lasting relief, you can tape a bean to the point, and it will work just like the motion sickness bands!

Herbs: Ginger is quite the all-purpose herb to ease nausea. It's extremely useful for calming the stomach! You can include it in your favorite recipes. It can be consumed in the form of ginger ale (my particular favorite!). The Chinese medicine way to do it is to take slices of the fresh raw ginger root and steep them in boiling water for about 5-10 minutes and drink this "tea." Please be careful with consuming too much ginger, as it can cause insomnia.

Chinese Medicine: There is a lot more that can be done for nausea, but requires an acupuncturist or herbalist in order to diagnose you and then treat you accordingly.

Nausea can be one of the more uncomfortable aspects of your pregnancy, but with a little help can be greatly reduced! Do you have any other favorite ideas for easing morning sickness? Comment and share your tips!

Chinese Herbal Formulas 101

Welcome class, take a seat and get comfortable! Today, we're going to talk about Chinese herbal formulas. There are three forms of herbs that you can take, each has its benefits and drawbacks.


Let's start with the simplest: Tea pills.
Teapills are little pills (about the size of BBs) that are pre-made in standard formulas. Because the herbs are already mixed and put together into these pills, there is no room for customizing the formula EXACTLY for each patient. Don't worry, though. Tea pills are often a pretty darn good match for many people, and most people won't experience any side effects from them. The best thing about tea pills is their convenience. You can take them with you, they're not messy and there's no preparation. There have been problems with tea pill formulas coming from China that include pharmaceuticals or heavy metals so make sure that the formula you are given is made in a Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) Certified factory.


The next step is the granular formula.
Granules are a substrate (a grain of some sort) that has been ground finely and had a Chinese herb decoction sprayed onto it. These granules can be single herbs or whole formulas. Because you can mix and match granules, you can customize the formula to each patient allowing for an exact match and no side effects. Granules are either dissolved in water and then swallowed, or some people prefer to place them on their tongue and "chase" the formula with water or their favorite juice. Granules are pretty convenient. You can bring them with you so that you can take them at the prescribed times. Granule formulas tend to have an "earthy" taste to them, with the exact flavor depending, of course, on the particular herbs used in the formula. A caution for those with food sensitivities: the substrate may be an allergenic grain (corn, wheat, rye, barley) so be sure to ask your practitioner if this is a concern.


The final type of herbal formula is a decoction.
A decoction is kind of like a tea that's made by boiling the actual dried herbs yourself at home. When I cook my herbs, I often find myself saying "Double, double toil, and trouble..." (and cackling. But hey, I'm an herb nerd!) However, you won't find eye of newt or toe of frog here - you'll usually find sticks, twigs, leaves, flowers, seeds, roots and berries. The ingredients are boiled for usually around 30 minutes, the herbs are scooped out and the liquid is what is consumed. Herbal decoctions are by far the strongest preparation of Chinese herbs, but they can take some time since you'll need to boil up a new batch of herbs everyday for the duration of the treatment. If you're vegetarian or vegan, and would prefer to not have animal products used in your formula, make sure to inform your practitioner, because there are occasionally animal products used in extreme cases.

No matter the type of Chinese herbal formula, make sure to talk with your practitioner about what will work the best for you. Remember, if you don't take your herbal formula because you didn't have the time to make it, that's not only money wasted, but health wasted!

Leave the magic alone!

So I did a search on Google for acupuncture today and was reading through some articles. Some were on the latest research. Some were on a new clinic that just opened up somewhere on the east coast. Some were written by acupuncturists who went through "Medical Acupuncture" training. This last group were the ones that caught my eye today and have spurred on this post. First off, I want to write a little bit of a disclaimer. I'm getting ready to hop up on my soapbox here, so if you're not interested, just close your browser window now ;)

And now, let the games begin!

First off, a little background on "Medical Acupuncture." Medical acupuncture is the result of biomedicine taking acupuncture and using it for their own purposes. They've seen that huge amounts of people get acupuncture done on a regular basis. They've seen that these people have had sometimes miraculous results. They've taken acupuncture and stripped it of its system (because Qi, Yin and Yang are faniciful, magical theories that can't exist) and turned it into a set of recipes. For pain you do this set of points. For nausea - this set. For diarrhea yet another set. There isn't a great amount of attention paid to the Chinese medical diagnosis, as there is to the symptoms. Biomedicine has found through research that certain points are used often in treating certain conditions and feels that all of the "magical" theory of Qi, Yin and Yang can be discarded. Sounds familiar, right? That's what biomedicine does! They want to find the active ingredient in order to turn it into a marketable pill. Forget that there may be other ingredients that are working with the active ingredient to make it even more powerful!

For the record, I don't actually have a problem with "Medical Acupuncture." People who practice this style of acupuncture get results and patients DO feel better!

However. Yes, there's a however. (You should know me by now!) This system of acupuncture has been watered down, and I think the results get watered down in the process as well. By ignoring the theories of Chinese medicine, you leave out its main purpose - to treat not just the symptoms, but the body as a whole.

Chinese medicine has been in existence for at least 5000 years. The system has been tried and true and is still used as a MAJOR form of healthcare in China. Can't we just leave it at that? Do we HAVE to know HOW it works? We know from reasearch that acupuncture releases endorphins. We know that it effects our nervous system. However, science still can't explain HOW it works. Acupuncture may effect nerves and endorphins, but it goes beyond that, and science can't figure out what "that" is!

I'm not saying stop the research. Not at all. What I'm saying is that researchers and those reading the studies need to understand that there's more working here than endorphins and neurons, and that the system doesn't work by using just one point! When you read a study that says, "this point doesn't work for that symptom," please keep in mind that no point is meant to work in isolation. Acupuncture is a system, not a pill. Also, "that point" may not work on everyone with "that symptom," because not every patient has the Chinese medical diagnosis that calls for "that point;" they may need another point that is also good for "that symptom."

When you take a system that is not based on science (though science often CAN support that it works) and try to look at it through your scientific lens, you might not get to see it for what it is. When you boil that system down to try to find what makes it tick, you lose the magic that holds it together. You lose that which makes it work. Don't ignore the stuff that makes it work. Let's not forget that Qi and Yin and Yang and all of the theories of Chinese medicine ARE Chinese medicine. Let there be some scientific unknowns. Let there be magic!