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Acupuncture Has Been Found to Treat Migraines

migraine-051214-smPeople who suffer from regular migraines know what it feels like to be in pain.  Many people just look for any over-the-counter medication to help take the edge off.  Others go to a neurologist for consultation and advice and prescription pills. What if a migraine could be effectively treated without the need for pills or costly specialist visits?  The good news for migraine sufferers is that acupuncture has been found to treat migraines, and is an affordable and worthy alternative to medicines and other potential treatment plans. continue reading »

When The Treatment Is Scarier Than The Illness

Recently a patient was asking me why some people need knee replacements even though they are not physically active and had no injury. “Do they just ignore the problem?” Not being an orthopedic surgeon I can’t definitively answer that, but certainly in many cases our health problems are made worse by not being proactive about treating them. Remember the old adage “An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure”?

As we continued to discuss the idea of being proactive my patient brought up a very good point. Maybe it is not that people are purposefully ignoring their health issues, but they are more afraid of the treatment than they are of the problem. I think he may be onto something.

The mindset in our country is that there is a “pill for every ill”. That’s all well and good but we’ve all heard the disclaimers on drug commercials. Certainly itchy eyes and runny nose is better than having a stroke. If it is a musculoskeletal issue then there is always the fear of needing surgery. For many people it is better to ignore a minor complaint than to deal with it and have to deal with possible risks or side effects. The problem with that strategy is not knowing when to stop ignoring the problem and deal with it. The longer it is ignored the bigger the problem may become and the scarier the treatments will get.

This may not seem like a big issue at first glance. Either people take care of their health or deal with it later and maybe have bigger problems. For myself and my fellow acupuncturists the problem is bigger. We know we can help these patients and we do our best work when the problem is still minor. However, our medical system still does not do a great job of offering alternative solutions. Doctors do not recommend them enough and insurance companies often do not cover them. We need everyone’s cooperation to help bring acupuncture out of the fringe and make it an option for patients.

For the patients and their family and friends – don’t ignore your health. Sometimes little issues do go away on their own and that’s great. Ignoring a problem, however, doesn’t make it go away. Those little aches and pains are a signal that something is wrong and needs to be fixed or something needs to be changed. Rather than ignore the issue see your doctors and other health care professionals and if they are recommending a treatment that might have some scary side effects ask them for more information about the risks. Seek out alternative methods. It might not be covered by insurance but treating an issue early with acupuncture might require two or three visits. Waiting and creating a bigger problem will make it more expensive to treat (regardless of how you treat it), more time consuming, and decrease the chance of a complete recovery. Speak up and let your healthcare providers know you want more options for treatment, write or call your HR department (or whoever determines your insurance options) and let them know you want policies with alternative treatments covered.

Follow Up to “Why We Get Sick”

In my last blog post (Why We Get Sick) I gave an analogy to illustrate how we need to identify the various things that can negatively impact our health. I broke those causes into 3 main categories – hereditary, environmental, emotional. One thing I did not talk about are ways we can uncover those underlying causes. So let me share a story with you about a recent experience and hopefully it can help us learn about emotional causes.

The short version of the story is that I had a really bad morning yesterday. By about 10:30 I found myself in a very foul mood. On this particular day I was at the office in Oneida and found out we were having internet problems. While this alone does not prevent me from doing my job it did make a few things a little harder to accomplish, such as scheduling. It was especially frustrating because I was planning on using a break in the day to catch up on some tasks, tasks which require an internet connection. Toss on top of that a couple of other minor things and voila, grumpy me.

So here I am with a challenge, an obstacle to being productive (no internet). However, because this caused a strong emotional reaction I became even less productive. Instead of finding other tasks to do (I had plenty) I was in a funk and was getting nothing done. I let my emotional state make a bad situation worse and it changed what could have been a fairly enjoyable day into a somewhat miserable one.

What does this mean to you? Well my bad day probably does not mean much to you, but I use it to illustrate how emotions can get the best of us. Above I’m just using a snap shot of one day. But for many people our emotions dictate how we operate all the time. We live in a high stress society with lots of frustration to deal with. Most of us will let one or two small problems cascade into lots of larger problems. There is also a tendency to “pass it on” – we take our stress out on other people, especially loved ones. Sometimes we take it out on complete strangers (road rage is a great example of this). Not only do we let emotions ruin our day, but it becomes toxic and can ruin the days of those around us. I have noticed particularly on gray, rainy/snowy, and/or cold days that a lot of people will be in a bad mood. A yucky day is not the end of the world, but we tend to additionally feed off the negative emotions of those around us.

Ok, emotions ruin our day, but now what? Now we have to learn to properly deal with emotions. Much easier said than done, but possible. First and foremost I want to say that the goal is not to stop emotions. Quite the contrary, emotions can be a fantastic thing, even the bad ones. They are part of what make us human. Emotions can convey lots of information, to ourselves, and to others. A good first step is to just acknowledge the bad emotions as they occur, and then use them as a learning tool. Try to figure out why you feel a certain way, determine if the emotion really matches the cause, and maybe think about how to avoid the things that cause negative emotions. This simple exercise will often be enough to break the chain reaction that emotions can cause because you interrupt the emotional part of the brain by making use of the analytical part of the brain. Also you will probably realize that a lot of times there isn’t necessarily a reasonable cause to your negative emotion. In my case, was not having the internet really a big deal? Nope – I was still able to treat my patients (I definitely don’t need internet for that) and I still had plenty of things to do to stay productive during down time. There was really no need to be bent out of shape. The other little things that also occurred that morning that contributed to my bad mood were just that – little things. On any other day I would not have thought twice about them and they wouldn’t have put me in a bad mood. Yet on this day they contributed to the snowball effect.

Another key point is about passing on the negative emotions. Some days we can’t help but be in a bad mood. We’re human, it happens. On those days it’s a good idea to put focus on how we interact with those around us. If we’re rude or mean to those around us, particularly co-workers and family, we can cause them to have a bad day. And many times they’ll toss some of that negative emotion right back at us making our day even worse. Ideally, tomorrow is a new day, but when we involve those around us we can set up a pattern that contributes to more bad days. This creates stress and tension and after a while (sometimes only a few days) this can build up and start to contribute to a variety of physical symptoms – headaches, poor sleep, upset stomach, muscle aches/pains, high blood pressure, etc.

This brings me to my major point – recovery. When life hands us bad situations we need to learn how to recover quickly. In an ideal world the process of event, emotional reaction, and recovery would only take seconds. For most of us if we can get past the issues in a few minutes or even an hour, we’re doing pretty good. As I said above, this requires us to acknowledge the emotion, identify the cause, evaluate if our reaction matches the cause, determine if it can be avoided in the future, then move on. To get this process down to an automatic response that takes just a few minutes takes a lot of practice. It also often requires us to be able to remove ourselves from the situation which is not always an option.

I think one of the best ways to learn how to manage our emotions is through meditation. Most people think of meditation as sitting cross-legged on the floor chanting “Om”. That is just one form of meditation. There are lots of different ways to meditate, both still and moving. Still forms, usually sitting, would be things like Zen meditation or even prayer (any faith). Many yoga practices incorporate both moving and still meditation. Other moving meditation includes Tai Chi and Qi gong/Chi Kung. I’ve written about both of these elsewhere on my blog and include some posts on my facebook page (just search for East Side Acupuncture on facebook and be sure to “like” it). Simply put these are practices that combine deep breathing and simple light movement (qigong can also involve sitting or standing postures) to help focus and calm the mind.

Qigong in particular is very easy to learn and can be done in a short amount of time. I try to do qigong every morning. Curiously enough on the day I mentioned above I did not do my qigong routine in the morning. There is no definitive way to know, but I suspect my emotional reactions would have been much less intense had I not skipped the exercises that morning. Keep your eye open on the website and facebook if you’d like to learn more and I intend on putting up more resources on qigong. I will also be starting a monthly newsletter soon which will hopefully have videos and/or articles on qigong so that you can learn it to. I’ll be posting a sign up form for the newsletter in the next week or so. If you find that you have strong ups and downs in your emotions, have a short temper and/or a lot of stress then I strongly encourage you to learn and try these exercises on a daily basis. Not only will they help you deal with negative emotions and improve quality of life, but because emotions can have a negative impact on health these exercise can help you lead a healthier life.

Seasonal Allergies – 7 points to help yourself

Here is a nice article from AcuTake describing a simple self-care method for dealing with seasonal allergies.

7 acupuncture points that can save your life this spring

Also, be sure to check out my Spring newsletter (lower right corner of Home page titled “Acupuncture and Spring”). It has other good tips and tricks for dealing with Spring and allergies.

And if you suffer from seasonal allergies, start getting acupuncture before the symptoms start! Call today for more info.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Wrist Pain

Many people suffer from wrist and hand pain. Often this is due because of repetitive use from our jobs and/or hobbies. Since so many of us use our hands and wrists during our work day having wrist and hand pain can be very difficult to deal with. When wrist pain sufferers go to the doctor they usually end up with a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome.  Carpal tunnel syndrome is a compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel of the wrist. However, for many who are diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome the problem is not in the wrist but is in the forearm.  Specifically, through repetitive use, people will develop trigger points in the muscles. These trigger points cause pain that can often mimic carpal tunnel syndrome which is why they often get misdiagnosed.

The first course of treatment for these conditions is usually painkillers and cortisone shots.  These may temporarily relieve the pain but do not address the underlying cause. Bracing can help true carpal tunnel syndrome but does not help with trigger points. So the next step for these patients is often carpal tunnel surgery. Obviously if the problem is in the forearm then operating on the wrist doesn’t make sense but it happens with surprising frequency.

Luckily acupuncture offers a great alternative to surgery.  When the problem is caused by trigger points acupuncture is the best choice of treatment. Not only does acupuncture give immediate pain relief but it also addresses the root cause so that there can be long-lasting relief.  And since it is much safer (and less expensive) it is a great option.  After all, if acupuncture doesn’t help you can always try surgery after, but you can’t undo a surgery that did not help. In some cases a structural problem exists that does require surgery. In those cases acupuncture can still help with post-operative pain, improve recovery, and help deal with trigger points that might develop post-op in scar tissue and surrounding tissue.

If you are dealing with wrist pain consider trying acupuncture as a first step, not as a last resort.

For more information about acupuncture and wrist pain read this article – http://acutakehealth.com/everyone-and-no-one-has-carpal-tunnel

Acupuncture and Weight Loss

I’m often asked the question if acupuncture can help with weight loss. Sticking a couple of needles in someone isn’t generally enough to lose weight, but acupuncture along with proper diet and exercise and other lifestyle changes can help you lose weight. With an obesity rate of 23.9%, New York certainly has enough people who need to lose weight (Onondaga County is just under 29%). Add in the number of people who are not obese but overweight and that’s a lot of people looking to shed some pounds.

 

Americans spend over $40 billion a year on weight loss – diets, books, pharmaceuticals and supplements, etc. How can we spend so much money on a problem and still have almost a quarter of our population be obese? I don’t have an answer but my suspicion is because there are a lot of people who are just not willing to make the necessary lifestyle changes to effectively and safely lose and maintain an appropriate weight. I also think there are several things that are often overlooked in the process, some simple changes that can make a weight loss plan work better.

 

First we need to understand what causes excess weight. This way my recommendations will hopefully make more sense and you will be better able to make decisions for yourself. I’ll assume that most readers have an understanding of what causes weight gain from the Western perspective, so let’s take a look at the relevant concepts in Chinese medicine.

 

In it’s most simplest form weight loss involves burning more calories that you consume. Therefore diet and digestion play a big role in effective weight loss. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) digestion is ruled by the stomach and the spleen systems. The stomach stores the food and the spleen controls digestive processes and metabolism. (You may be asking yourself how the spleen is involved at all. Note that I’m using the term spleen system, in TCM we think of organs as being more than just the physical body part and think in terms of a collection of different physiological processes. The spleen system also includes the pancreas which is important for glucose metabolism.) In the realm of weight management the spleen system is very important.

 

The spleen system controls the transformation of food into energy (in TCM that would be qi) to support the body. Secondly it determines what happens to the fluid content of our food and of the body as a whole. This concept of fluid metabolism is a major part of weight management in TCM. When we don’t properly process fluids in the body they start to build up forming what we call phlegm-damp. Fat is basically just an accumulation of phlegm-damp. It just hangs out waiting for the spleen system to deal with it. If given the right circumstances the spleen system will eventually process it appropriately allowing us to lose weight. Therefore, to lose weight we must make sure the spleen system is able to properly do it’s job of managing digestion and fluid metabolism.

 

Now let’s look at some things that you can do to support your spleen system to improve your metabolism and help your body lose weight: (Please note these recommendations are generalized for the types of patients I typically see in my clinic who are trying to lose weight. There is rarely a one-size-fits-all approach, especially in Chinese medicine. For a more individualized weight loss plan please call me – or if you are not in the Syracuse or Oneida area, find a qualified practitioner near you.)

 

Eat a warm breakfast – I think we all have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In TCM that is definitely true. After being dormant for several hours it is important that we wake up the spleen system which is best done with a hot meal. Notice I’ve specified a warm meal. The spleen system likes warmth and has an easier time digesting warm foods. So skip that bowl of cold cereal or that cup of yogurt and instead think of trying oatmeal or some eggs for breakfast. Add a little cinnamon to the oatmeal, especially in winter, to make it a little more warm in nature.

 

Cook your food – a very common mistake I see from people trying to lose weight is that they start to eat more raw vegetables, especially salads I know that seems odd since vegetables are very healthy and important in losing weight. But notice I specified raw vegetables. Uncooked veggies are harder to digest which causes the spleen system to get backed up in it’s metabolic duties. What does it do when it gets back up? It stores it away until it can deal with it later – in the form of fat. So eat plenty of veggies but keep the raw to a minimum and at least steam or stir-fry your veggies. Think of it as using the heat to pre-digest some of the food. You don’t necessarily want to go too far in the other direction and overcook the veggies either like when making a stew. This can actually break down the nutrients in the food.

 

Cut back on the dairy – right up there in popularity with salads is yogurt. In recent years yogurt has been marketed as this super-healthy food. I’m not saying it is or isn’t healthy. Rather in the context of losing weight it is not a good option. Remember how I said that in TCM fat is phlegm-damp? Have you ever noticed what your throat feels like after eating a lot of dairy? (If not, ask most singers and they will tell you that you will get a lot of phlegm and mucus in your throat). Dairy is a very cold food and it produces phlegm in the body. I’m not saying you need to cut dairy out completely but instead of a cup of yogurt for breakfast or some cheese as a mid-afternoon snack keep it to a minimum in your meals. Also note that soy products also act in the same way as dairy. Soy milk is not a good substitute and if you eat a lot of tofu you should consider cutting it back some.

 

Exercise – this one is pretty straight forward. Burn more calories than you consume and you will lose weight. At least theoretically that is true. Many people will tell you they’ve done that and still didn’t lose weight. Possibly they were making some of the mistakes I pointed out above. But recent research shows that inactivity during most of the day is not necessarily balanced out by vigorous exercise after work for a short period of time. In my opinion there needs to be a good balance of activity levels. Start the day with some light exercises to get the metabolism going (along with your warm breakfast). Qigong, tai chi, and yoga can be great for this. Begin with lighter activity and build up to more vigorous activity. You don’t need to go run 5 miles, just get the muscles moving and the blood pumping. The most important part of the equation is during the day. Many people have jobs that require them to be sitting at a desk for hours at a time. Make sure you get up and move frequently during the day, even if it’s just to get up and stretch a little. If you spend a lot of time on the couch, consider getting up during commercial breaks and walk around the house (if you have DVR resist the urge to just fast-forward through the commercials). Not only is this good for metabolism but it also helps prevent some chronic pains. Then throw in some good vigorous exercises during the week and you’ll be good to go.

 

Reduce stress – this is a good idea whether or not you are trying to lose weight. The chemicals our bodies release in response to stress encourages fat storage. Stress also contributes and/or makes a lot of other health problems worse. Acupuncture can do a great job in relieving stress and there are many other good ways to reduce stress in your life. The important part to remember is that taking time to do a stress-relieving activity is not a nicety but a necessity. No matter how busy you are you can always set aside 15 minutes for yourself.

 

Sleep – a lot of people do not get enough sleep. Make sure you give yourself enough time to get 8 hours of sleep and if you have some other problem preventing sleep that should be dealt with as well (acupuncture can help in a variety of cases).

 

Stay hydrated – this may seem a little contradictory after what I said about fluid metabolism in the body but keeping the body hydrated is important for overall health. Water is the best choice, of course, but tea can also be a great beverage. Studies show that green and oolong teas help support weight loss and also have a variety of other health benefits. Pay attention to the caloric content of your beverages. It is very easy to consume a lot of calories in beverages, but it is also an easy place to reduce your caloric intake.

 

So how does acupuncture fit into the equation? Since weight gain is caused by an imbalance in the body acupuncture can help restore the balance to encourage weight loss. When using acupuncture a big focus of treatment is supporting the spleen system for the reasons described above. There is also a great 4 point protocol that can be used. The points used help deal with stress, digestion, hormone balance, and appetite control. Most people who are overweight have an issue with 2 or more of those areas. Acupuncture is also great at reducing pain and increasing range of motion in injured joints. So for people who are unable to get the appropriate amount of exercise due to injury or chronic pain the acupuncture treatment may also focus on pain relief to allow them to get more exercise. The recommendations given above can be a great way to start losing weight and on their own may be sufficient while adding acupuncture can help improve results and remove any obstacles that may be preventing you from reaching your weight loss goals.

The Mystery Illness

I just found this blog entry about a woman’s experience with an unknown pain condition. http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/ay-mama/2011/05/the-mystery-illness.html

I have heard many similar stories from my patients over the years: the pain started slowly and continued to get worse. Doctors and specialists were seen, tests were run, but no definitive diagnosis given. Pain meds get prescribed and offer only minimal and temporary relief. Or worse yet surgery was performed and the pain was the same or worse afterwards.  After trying “everything” the patient finally gives acupuncture a try and are amazed when leaving the office after the first visit with little or no pain.

Too often acupuncture is seen as a “last resort” type of treatment after all other options are exhausted.  This is unfortunate because acupuncture is effective, safe, and relative to many other treatments very inexpensive.  Hopefully doctors and patients alike will start to think of acupuncture as a beginning point for treatment of both pain and a variety of other conditions, especially since it can be done along with any other therapies including medications.

Like the story linked above indicates acupuncture can still be effective even when doctors are unable to diagnose the problem. Since traditional Chinese medicine (which acupuncture is a part of) uses its own diagnostic system an acupuncturist can still evaluate and treat patients. So whether you have tried “everything else” or are just starting to deal with an illness consider using acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine now.

Spring is here!

According to the calendar it’s spring.  Though looking out the window this morning and seeing snow fall puts some doubt in my mind.  Regardless I am excited knowing that warm, sunny weather is almost here.  Some people are not as excited because spring means allergy season.

Most people do not associate acupuncture with allergy treatment but it can be a great tool in the fight against the runny nose, itchy eyes, sneezing, fatigue, etc that comes along with allergies, particularly seasonal allergies. In traditional Chinese medicine we view allergies as being caused by a weakened immune system. To treat it we use acupuncture and/or herbs to deal with the underlying cause and boost the immune system and the body’s natural defense mechanisms.  We also help alleviate the more obvious symptoms associated with allergies, which can vary from person to person.

In contrast the typical allergy treatment uses antihistamines to reduce the overactive immune response that is the hallmark of allergies. This type of treatment only works on reducing symptoms and does not do much to address the root cause.  Also, whereas antihistamines can cause side effects such as grogginess or dry eyes, acupuncture and Chinese medicine does not cause side effects.  This can make it a good treatment option for anyone who cannot risk the drowsiness of antihistamines because of their job.

Though allergies can be treated at any time now is a great time to start treatment if you suffer from spring-time allergies.  Starting now means that there is time to boost the body’s immune system before the symptoms kick into high gear and hopefully avoid the symptoms altogether. That way you can look forward to, and enjoy, the nicer spring weather.

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