In Chinese Medicine, the summertime is a time for maximum activity and symbolizes the greatest yang energy.

It is a time of heat, being outgoing and getting out into nature and enjoying the feeling of the Sun on our bodies.  As a season, it is time to nourish and pacify the spirit while finding joy in our movement outdoors on those hot summer days and warm summer nights.

Cool Down with Chinese Medicine

Fire is the element that is engaged with Summertime.  This element of fire corresponds to the heart and small intestine organs and affects them directly.  The South is the direction, the color red, feeling happiness and joy, the sound of laughter, bitterness as its taste and the smell of burning things.  Fire, as an element controls the blood vessels and we see its influence on the body in the face and complexion.

Signs that the fire element is in balance include a strong and healthy heart, a calm mind and the ability to sleep soundly. When the fire element is imbalanced, we may either lack joy (depression) or have an excess of joy (mania). Indicators of an imbalance in the fire element also include agitation, nervousness, heartburn, and insomnia.

To have this element in balance we must have a healthy heart, a calm mind and we sleep soundly without excessive dreaming.  When this balance is not maintained, we may lack joy, thus having depression or have an excess of joy which results in a manic state of being.  Being fire, signs of burning are also an indicator of imbalance such as heartburn, agitation and nervousness.

For those of you who like to get treatment quarterly to maintain balance in your life, now is the time to get your summer treatment.  Give a call today!

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/06/yoga-feminism-melanie-klein/

Gazing up at my legs, glistening with sweat in shoulder-stand, I realized that I wasn’t searching for signs of “imperfection” or scrutinizing my body with the negative self-talk that too many of us have with ourselves on a daily basis—the abusive dialogue I had with myself most of my life.

For the first time I could remember since early childhood, I wasn’t critical of myself.

I wasn’t looking for parts of my body to control and change.

Thanks Melanie!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37166304#37166304

Click here to view the embedded video.

From their website:

Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) provides immediate disaster relief and recovery to communities that are in crisis resulting from disaster or human conflict. AWB is committed to creating alliances with local community based organizations and treating all who have been affected – survivors, first responders, emergency personnel and other care providers.

AWB uses community-style acupuncture to provide caring, compassionate treatment in a group setting. This model of treatment allows everyone treated to experience relief from stress and trauma together. When the entire group feels calm and quiet, hope, determination and resiliency rises powerfully within it.

I have made a donation to their great work, if you like acupuncture and support the work of these great folks, please consider making a donation to them today, you can do so here.

To be, or not to be…. Well.

What are your days like this winter?  Do you get up each day, tired and wondering if today you are going to get the office plague, have you spent the entire (albeit beautiful) Portland rainy winter hoping you don’t get H1N1?  Do you spend a good portion of your time working out various ways to avoid being ill and tired, avoiding digestive problems and other maladies?  How many of these problems do you have on a regular basis?

Here’s the real question:

How many of these health problems give you that niggly, squicky feeling in your head that there’s really something more serious going on?

Do you move toward health or away from illness?

Avoiding sickness holds a certain mindset.  It means expecting the illness and seeking only to move away from the pain and suffering it causes you. We continually worry that we may become sick and this worry undermines our immune systems.  We have to take time off of work to make emergency trips to our physician so that they can provide us with medications to alleviate our pain and problems, which again, undermine our purposes and goals.  Lost time at work and not being at our best, not to mention over use of antibiotics can really keep us from fully succeeding and living our lives to the fullest!

Your ideal health

What would it be like to seek health?  To continually look to the future and obtain a healthy body? A body that, in its natural state seeks homeostasis and ease?  What if you could lose the swings of good/bad and simply be amazing? What if the glass wasn’t half full or empty, but filled from a constant source of renewed health?

How would you think differently?  How would you act differently?  How would your life’s plans and goals change?

A winter full of health with no colds.  A life without the seasonal blah-blahs, no missed work, missed deadlines or missed goals.  A life where you are out of pain and have time to achieve your goals and still have time  for intimacy in your relationships.  What would happen then?

Your plans will change, your relationships will change, your life will change.  You’ll do something new, you will move toward and engage in, health.

All alternative medicine is based on seeking health, rather than running way from illness.  There is no glass half full or half empty, it is always being filled by a renewable source of life force and energy.  Chinese Medicine embraces and treats the  the whole body.  It succeeds in motivating you toward a whole new state of health.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Tuina, cupping and nutritional counseling can all help you to start to look for and move toward ways to make your life better.  Acupuncture has been shown to boost immunity, relieve depression, relieve chronic pain, help you lose weight and give you an over all sense of well being.

To seek or to avoid?  One is open, full of possibility and future, one is reactive, constricting and full of fear.  Which are you?  Which will you choose for yourself this year?

Not sure about acupuncture just yet?  Read 5 Myths about Acupuncture

Picture is Marc Forrest’s via flickr

As a child I suffered from a great fear of being left alone and as an adult I would compensate for this by always being overly social, to the point of never allowing myself to be alone.  Learning new behaviors was helpful, but the base, bodily need I had to alleviate this fear never went away until I focused on treating the imbalance in my water element through Chinese Medicine.

Here’s a great article on acupuncture and fear:

Anxiety, Fears and Phobias

How has acupuncture helped your fear?

Gan Mai Da Zao Tang (甘麦大枣汤 – Licorice, Wheat and Jujube Decoction) is first mentioned in the Jin Gui Yao Lue (Essentials from the Golden Cabinet) by Zhang Zhong Jing (220 AD). It is in chapter 22 “Pulses and Patterns of Complicated Women’s Diseases”.

Zhang Zhong Jing says “Women suffering from anxiety are affected by sadness and crying, they are like lost souls and yawn frequently: use Gan Mai Da Zao Tang.”

I use this formula for depression and anxiety when the patient has a constitutional weakness or deficiency.  It is one of the most effective formulas in Chinese Medicine, often transforming anxiety almost immediately.  It is a powerful herb, yet its simplicity is profound.

Ingredients:

This formula only has three ingredients and herein lies its beauty. They are: Gan Cao, Fu Xiao Mai and Da Zao, in their own right are powerful herbs, but all are very mild and are even considered as food supplements. Gan Cao is the herblicorice, which is mild and harmonious, tonifying the spleen and stomach, regulating digestive disorders and alleviating pain.  Gan Cao is most used for its harmonizing properties, and many, if not most herbalists use it to harmonize and bring together the qualities of all of the herbs in a formula.

The next ingredient, Fu Xiao Mai, helps to stop any excessive sweating in patterns of deficiency, nourishing the heart, calming anxiety, resolving insomnia and relieving irritability.  It is literally unripe wheat grain, a food, with great nourishing and healing properties.

The last ingredient, Da Zao, is a Chinese Date.  Sweet in flavor, it is nourishing and tonifies the spleen, nourishes the blood and helps to relax restlessness and resolve emotional disturbances.

Individually, they constitute what many herbalists would call “Mild” herbs, with few if any side effects, and little strong reaction.  When put together, they become an incredibly powerful formula to resolve uncontrolled anxiety and depression.

Can it help you?

The best patient for this formula is one who has regular bouts of anxiety, depression with other symptoms such as frequent crying or feelings of always needing to cry, restless sleep, possibly night sweats, frequent yawning and possibly stomach problems.

Traditionally this formula is discussed under the heading of women’s disorders, for “restless organ syndrome”.  This organ was considered to be the womb by You Zai Jing, however another Chinese Master, Wu Qian, believed this organ to be the Heart.  This explains why this formula is good at treating emotional problems when presented on a background of menopause, PMS or Post-Partum issues, as well as why it is very helpful to men having anxiety problems presented on a background of possible deficiencies.

With the appropriate diagnosis and set of symptoms, this simple and powerful formula is able to treat such problems as:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Premenstrual syndromes
• Postpartum depression
• Palpitations
• Hysteria
• Neurosis
• Emotional issues during menopause
• Bed wetting
• And many others!

How do you handle anxiety and stress?  Is anxiety and the subsequent constant fatigue that accompany it a problem for you?

Make an appointment today to see if this formula, or another, equally powerful formula would be useful for you.

Read more about Kim Knight, MAcOM, LAc and her Chinese Herbal and Acupuncture practice

Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day (AOM) is observed each year by acupuncturists around the world. On this day we are rallying to help spread the word about how amazing acupuncture really is, how it can help resolve long term pain and short term illness.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a component of the National Institutes of Health estimates that 36% of all U.S. adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine or CAM.  Among these common therapies used are Acupuncture, Acupressure, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Tuina massage, Cupping, Guasha, Tai Chi and Qi Gong.

Celebrate Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Day

Nearly one in ten adults have received acupuncture at least one time and over 60% said that they would readily consider acupuncture as a treatment option for their illnesses.  Nearly half of these individuals who had received acupuncture were extremely satisfied with their treatments and felt they had gotten significantly better.  One in five of the survey respondents reported that they had utilized some other form of Oriental medicine as well.  (NCCAOM)

In addition, Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine is affordable health care for many without insurance, providing them with health care they would not otherwise have. Insurance companies are falling into line quickly, accepting acupuncture as an approved benefit as well.

It is clear that acupuncture is on the rise as a safe, effective treatment for many health care concerns.  Support your acupuncturist today by scheduling an appointment and spreading the word!  Share Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine with someone today and do your part in our health care crisis.

Share in the comments what you are doing to share Acupuncture with the world!

Migraines and headaches are debilitating to nearly 28 million people in the United States aged 12 and older - nearly 13 percent of the population.  (National Headache Foundation)  Those who suffer will generally try just about anything they can to relieve the pain. Very few of the Western methods work for any length of time and being a person who suffers from Headaches, it can be very frustrating.

Alternative treatment for Headaches Photo by Paul J Everett

Pain relief of headaches, using Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can come in many forms depending on the Chinese Medical diagnosis of the headaches.  Chinese Medicine diagnoses in a much different way than Western Medicine, and therefore is more equipped to find the root of the pain rather than simply attempt to alleviate the pain.  This is a more healthy way of addressing the problem because it gets patients off of drugs and pain relievers and able to live a healthy lifestyle without the added burden these drugs can put on the liver and kidneys which can lead to further health concerns.

Common Medical Treatments for Headaches:

• Pain relievers
• Suggestion of stress reduction
• Occasionally doctors will suggest dietary changes
• Anti-Depressants for migraines
• Occipital Nerve Stimulation

Diagnosis and Treatment with Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture:

Traditional Chinese Medicine does not recognize migraines and recurring headaches as one particular syndrome.  Each individual is looked at in terms of their constitution, diet, exercise levels and other lifestyle choices.  TCM works to treat the specific symptoms that are unique to each individual using techniques determined to help that individual, such as acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, tui na massage and nutrition.  The way that you are diagnosed will depend on many variables and your acupuncturist will ask you questions such as: Is the headache behind your eyes and temples, or is it located more on the top of your head? When do your headaches occur (i.e. night, morning, after eating)? Do you find that a cold compress or a dark room can alleviate some of the pain? Do you describe the pain as dull and throbbing, or sharp and piercing?

The answer to these questions can help your acupuncturist to determine the best course of treatment for you. You will likely receive acupuncture treatment at various points in the body corresponding to the actions and locations of your headaches and many patients report having immediate relief of the pain!

Acupuncture is highly effective for migraine headaches, but also works to alleviate tension headaches, cluster headaches, headaches caused by trauma and headaches that are related to disease such as sinus problems, high blood pressure and sleeping disorders.

Traditional Chinese Medicine can bring relief without the side effects of other methods, is effective and without side effects.

Research and Articles:

• Acupuncture may help tension headaches
• Study: Acupuncture for tension type headache
• Study: Treatment of Migraine by Acupuncture
• Acupuncture for recurrent headaches: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials
• Effect of acupuncture on headache measured by reduction in number of attacks and use of drugs

Make an appointment today and get the relief you need.  Don’t suffer anymore.

Bo He, one of the friendliest herbs in the Materia Medica.  One always imagines curling up with a nice hot cup of mint tea and reading a book.  We’ve always known it has some healing properties, but many people don’t realize just how useful it can be.

 

Bo He - Mint for common cold, sore throat and red eyes

Bo he is an herb that is pungent, aromatic and cooling, in Chinese Medicine Herbal Theory, it enters the Lung and Liver channels to treat conditions therein.

Uses:

• Bo He relieves the head, eyes and throat for cough, headache, red eyes and sore throat.
• In the early stages of rashes such as measles, Bo He assists in bringing them to the surface and speeding recovery.
• Assists to relieve pressure in the chest caused by stress, over work and anxiety.
• Is an assistant to other herbs that can help with stomach pains caused by too much hot, spicy, greasy foods which can bring about stomachache, vomiting and diarrhea.

History:

The classical text Transforming the Significance of Medicinal Substances, written in 1644 AD during the Ming dynasty by Jia Jiu Ru / Jia Suo Xue (贾久茹/贾莎学) states:

The flavor of Bo He is acrid, thus it disperses, cool in nature, thus it clears heat, unblocks, and facilitates the meting places of the six yang channels on the head.  It expels pathogenic wind in all fevers.  With its penetrating nature and light cooling, it excels at moving over the face and head: it treats loss of voice, mouth and teeth problems, and cools the throat.  With its aroma to facilitate the [opening of the] orifices, it excels at moving through the muscle layer of the exterior: it reduces fluid retention and disperses heat in the muscles.

Research:

• Chinese Medicine and the treatment of Atopic Dermatitis
• The Rediscovery of Ancient Chinese Formulas
• The Use of Herbal Formulas on Acute Respiratory Syndrome Epidemic