April 2013
14 posts
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Why I am not a fan of total Raw Food Diets
Chinese medicine considers each ailment in the context of the individual person who is exhibiting the symptom. No diet, herb, or treatment is ‘best’ for everyone.
When I hear of a person who does well with a raw diet, I’m glad for them. And I wonder - was it just that they eliminated all the unhealthy processed food, and factory-farm meat? Having detoxed from the...
“To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is...”
– ~Mary Oliver
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Meghan Telpner on Sustainability in the Yoga...
There is much to be said for what we do on our mat.
We know it goes well beyond the physicality of our practice in connecting us with our truest, sweetest being. Somehow, however, we often put up a block to what else we can be doing to strengthen the practice of yoga.
It’s not always about logging more hours on the mat, or getting more training.
Sometimes, the deeper practice comes from...
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Study: Saccharin And Sugar Found More Addictive... →
Our findings clearly demonstrate that intense sweetness can surpass cocaine reward, even in drug-sensitized and -addicted individuals. We speculate that the addictive potential of intense sweetness results from an inborn hypersensitivity to sweet tastants. In most mammals, including rats and humans, sweet receptors evolved in ancestral environments poor in sugars and are thus not adapted to high...
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Defeating Sugar Cravings
Source: Body Ecology
Are sugar cravings simply a matter of willpower?
As it turns out, your daily sugar fix may have more to with biochemistry than desire.
Anyone whose inner ecology is out of balance will crave:
Sugar
Breads
Dairy
Fruit
Your inner ecology is made up of bacteria, yeasts, cells that line the intestinal wall, and cells that make up the immune system.
When the inner ecology...
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Six Science-based benefits of Acupuncture
Article from Rodale.com
Has your doctor ever prescribed you a round of acupuncture? Probably not. Alternative treatments often get short shrift in standard healthcare because doctors are generally unaware of the science showing that they really are effective alternatives to drugs and medication. But a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine may (hopefully) change that.
The researchers...
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Too Busy To Eat? Consider these superfoods →
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FDA Investigates Cancer Link to Popular Diabetes... →
Pharmaceuticals carry much larger risks than our casual use of them would lead you to believe. The article at the link discusses many recent examples and predicts some the author expects to see in the future.
“The study in question, published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that azithromycin increases your chances of dying from a cardiovascular event by 250 percent within...
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Sally Fallon on the subject of the Paleo Diet
Excerpt: “The real problem with grains and dairy, she said, is that people’s guts are damaged.
“We now have the third generation of children growing up on a modern diets – low cholesterol, low saturated fats – and their guts are not being formed properly, so they can’t digest grains,” she said. “And of course we’re not preparing the grains properly, so all of a sudden grains have become a...
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Acupuncture's Power in Combating Stress
GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
Needles may not seem like the best tool for treating stress, but acupuncture could be tapping into basic biological systems that keep stress under control.
Reporting in the Journal of Endocrinology, researchers led by Ladan Eshkevari, assistant program director of the nurse anesthesia program at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, mimicked...
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Healthy Habit: Start the Day with Warm Water &... →
1. Improve Your Immune System
2. Maintain an alkaline state
3. Promote healthy liver function’
4. Support your blood vessels (and perhaps lower your blood pressure)
5. Help reduce cholesterol and aid in digestion
6. Help detox the body by promoting urination
7. Support the lymph system
Read the article by clicking on the headline (above)
March 2013
47 posts
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Wondering If You Should Try Acupuncture? New...
Having a condition that is not treatable via a standardized, formal route (fibromyalgia) has led to me seeking out alternative means of treatment. Rheumatologists and other doctors have recommended for me to try everything from fibromyalgia-specific medication to water therapy, massage therapy to muscle relaxants, dietary changes to vigorous exercise routines. While I’ve tried many of these,...
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“Acupuncture is quickly helpful to all forms of acute and recent bronchitis, as...”
– Bronchitis – Smoother Breathing with Acupuncture! | ctacupuncture
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Health Benefits of Tea
A recent Australian study linked black tea to a modest lowering of blood pressure. Here are some other health benefits of green, white, black, and herbal tea:
(Source: http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/blogs/10-possible-health-benefits-of-drinking-tea)
1. Green tea has cancer-fighting properties: A catechin called EGCG found in green tea has been linked in various studies to a reduction...
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Why is American Health Care So Ridiculously... →
Here’s where public policy has a role: “In some countries, government sets a lower price and doesn’t charge patients for marketing and margins. “
Here’s what I’m doing: I am treating a huge variety of conditions, safely and naturally, using only acupuncture. There’s no profit in this, except the narrow margin between what I charge and the cost of doing...
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Acupuncture for Anxiety
Why My Anxiety Led Me To Chinese Medicine
By Kate McClafferty
I’d to think that I could have been the type of person who knows nothing about anxiety. I practice yoga. I have a pretty solid spiritual practice. I have faith in something bigger than me. Why, then, do I worry that the ground is about to crumble beneath me?
When I look at my life right now I can’t help but feel grateful. It’s...
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“Have the nerve-damaging properties of statin drugs now been confirmed? There are...”
– “There are over 300 adverse health effects associated with the use of this chemical class of cholesterol-lowering medications known as statins, with myotoxicity (muscle-damaging) and neurotoxicity (nerve-damaging) top on the list. When will the FDA step in and warn the public, as proof of the...
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High-dose statins 'raise risk of serious kidney... →
“Taking strong doses of simvastatin, atorvastatin or rosuvastatin increases the risk of being hospitalised with a condition called acute kidney injury, or AKI, by 34 per cent on average, found the Canadian team.
AKI is when the kidneys “suddenly fail to work as they should”, according to the Kidney Alliance, and causes anywhere between 62,000 and 210,000 deaths a year in Britain.
It is...
Bone Broth for Health →
A surprise spring snowfall made me glad I had made a bone broth over the weekend. Click on the headline to learn more about the benefits of bone broth:
Minerals strengthen the immune system
Gelatin improves digestion
Nutrients reduce the need for protein
Collagen helps smooth wrinkles and cellulite
Bone Broth Recipe
MAKING A GOOD BONE BROTH
Bone broth contains collagen to make your skin...
TV Ads for Statins Drive Overdiagnosis and... →
I always ask my patients to give me a detailed list of what medications they are taking, including the dosage. Why? Acupuncture, even three times per week, may seem ineffective if it is trying to combat the side effects of a medication that someone is taking daily.
You can read the full article if you click on the headline above. Also, please do not discontinue taking a prescribed...
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Are your organic foods listed here? A guide to... →
http://www.cornucopia.org/carrageenan-2013/
Carrageenan 2013
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Manage your Stress (from Chris Kessler, L.Ac.)
Manage Your Stress
Source
Of all the 9 steps, stress management is probably the most important. Why? Because no matter what diet you follow, how much you exercise and what supplements you take, if you’re not managing your stress you will still be at risk for modern degenerative conditions like heart disease, diabetes, hypothyroidism and autoimmunity.
I see this every day in my practice. I have...
How to Know that You Need Acupuncture: Signs of...
In acupuncture theory, humans are viewed as microcosms of the natural world that surrounds them. Seasons—particularly the transitional periods, when we move from from one season to the next—factor significantly into how we feel.
Each season is linked with an organ system in the body, and spring’s system is Liver. This means that the Liver, as it adjusts to taking over the seasonal reigns, is...
Chinese Medicine: What is Cupping? →
There’s a video at the link (click on the headline) that you could watch if you were curious. And, if you want to know if it works, you *could* read studies. Many athletes use it, including Olympic athletes, because they have found it works. I use cupping for muscular complaints, and in my opinion, it is better than the best massage I’ve ever had. I am a huge fan of deep tissue...
Stephen Brill: Why Medical Care (even with...
Steven Brill tells Jon Stewart why medical care costs too much.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/extended-interviews/424076/playlist_tds_extended_steven_brill/424058
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us ... →
You can read the article by clicking on the headline.
Here is the final bit:
“None of these suggestions will come as a revelation to the policy experts who put together Obamacare or to those before them who pushed health care reform for decades. They know what the core problem is — lopsided pricing and outsize profits in a market that doesn’t work. Yet there is little in Obamacare that...
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Acupuncture Relieves Stress: New Understanding Of...
Acupuncture is good for that. And by that, I mean stress, and ALL the diseases that are caused or aggravated by stress. Read on:
Good news, acupuncture fans: It really does help relieve stress. And now, a new study is giving a closer look at why.
The new study explores the biological mechanisms involved in acupuncture’s stress-relieving abilities, something science has yet to fully...
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Acupuncture Helps With Tummy Troubles →
If you suffer from issues of the digestive system, acupuncture can help.
Of course you’d want to rule out any issues with your MD, but any licensed acupuncturist can help. Find out if your practitioner is an officially licensed by checking here. If you’d like to come see me, click here to read more about me and my practice.
“The growing practice of integrative medicine,...
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Avoiding the flu without a vaccine ( from Dr...
Avoiding a serious case of influenza is not about vaccination but more about maintaining a healthy, well functioning immune system. By following these simple guidelines, you can help keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to acquire the infection to begin with or, if you do get sick with the flu, you are better prepared to move through it without...
New Studies Reveal How Acupuncture Works : Healthy... →
Acupuncture for your Digestive Health
More than 95 million Americans suffer from digestive disorders ranging from constipation, diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome to more serious conditions such as acid reflux (GERD), ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. In fact, more than 35 million physician office visits a year are due to gastrointestinal complaints. Reports confirm that acupuncture and Oriental medicine can offer...
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Arianna Huffington's new book: Stress has risen... →
Acupuncture is a fantastic therapy for the ubiquitous stress in our lives. Stress is at the root of so many of our chronic and deadly diseases, from stroke to heart attacks to high blood pressure.
If you want to give acupuncture a try, come see me in Richmond, VA.
“For everybody, stress has gone up—in the last 30 years, self-reported stress has gone up 25% for men and 18% for women. And...
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Acupuncture Sought for Allergy Relief →
Acupuncture for allergies (seasonal allergies in particular) really works! You do need to come in frequently at first for it to be effective quickly (I’m talking 2-3 times per week as the ideal), and you should come in weeks before your allergies generally hit. With the way the seasons are shifting forward slightly, and plants blooming earlier, there’s no time to waste.
If you...
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Placebo Effect
So often, when people finally come to acupuncture, they have tried many other therapies, but none of which has worked well enough to resolve the problem. Thus finally they come to try acupuncture, and it very often works, even as a last resort.
Some people dismiss this as due to The Placebo Effect.
I have to ask, how is it the placebo effect if all the other surgeries, and therapies, and...
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Reducing Toxins in your Body →
A lot of people drink bottled water, because they think it is cleaner than tap water. It may, or may not be (research this to see what you find!). I now carry my own Thermos water bottle that is made of stainless steel and only the cap is plastic.
Avoid plastic beverage bottles. Completely. Most plastic bottles leach endocrine-disrupting chemicals into your water and other beverages. Switch...
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Leafy Greens are best to improve and maintain Bone...
My mother had very healthy bones until she had a kidney transplant and was required to be on high doses of steriods. Then her bones became increasingly brittle and severely affected her quality of life, her levels of pain, and her ability to walk and live independently.
Two lessons from this:
1) avoid steroids (including prednisone) if at all possible
2) eat leafy greens to support bone...
Five Common Conditions that Respond to Acupuncture
Natural Healing: 5 Common Conditions that Respond to Acupuncture
by ColleenG
Source (click here)
Though acupuncture has been practiced for nearly 2,000 years, it’s only recently seen a surge in popularity in the Western world. By stimulating certain points on the body with hair-thin, virtually painless needles, the process unlocks life energy, known as Qi, allowing it flow freely. When...
