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Healthy Lifestyle

Why We Get Sick

To tackle such a topic as why we get sick we first have to understand what is sickness? I’ve discussed this elsewhere so I’ll keep it simple. We generally understand illness and disease as some symptom or combination of symptoms that cause pain and discomfort or otherwise interrupts our daily life. At its most basic illness is a part of or process of the body that is not working normally or has been damaged in some way.

To address illness we then need to figure out what the damage is or what part or process is not working normally and in what way is it not working normally. Advances in our understanding of the body and it’s physiology coupled with technology that lets us view, measure, evaluate, etc has allowed modern medicine to help with all sorts of illnesses. In particular our understanding of the chemistry and inner workings of the body have led to the development of all sorts of treatments, particularly pharmaceutical. For instance, if someone has low energy, weight gain, and other symptoms we can take a small amount of blood and determine how much of the various chemicals of the body are present and understand why they have their symptoms. For instance, a blood test can show low levels of thyroid hormone and that patient will receive a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Since they have low levels of thyroid hormone they are prescribed a drug such as levothyroxine to make up for the body’s decreased production of thyroid hormone. In theory, this will fix their problems as long as they take the synthetic hormone. The End.

Or is it? Often the modern medical approach ends there – the problem (low thyroid hormone) was identified and the solution (synthetic thyroid hormone) was administered. But why was this person producing decreased thyroid levels in the first place?

It is this sort of thinking that provides the back bone of Chinese medical practice. We use the terms root and branch to discuss disease. To hopefully make an easier analogy I’ll use the terms root and flower. The flower of disease are it’s symptoms where as the root is the underlying cause; the flower we see, the root we don’t (until we apply various diagnostic methods). For most people they are only concerned with getting rid of the flower. For this analogy let’s use dandelions because they’re a weed and I don’t want to talk about destroy something nice like roses or other ornamental flowers.

If you have dandelions that you want to get rid of you can go mow the lawn or go pluck them and voila, no dandelions. Of course anyone who has had dandelions knows that this doesn’t get rid of them, the roots will just sprout new flowers, maybe not until next year, but they’ll be there.

To apply this analogy to our hypothyroid patient experiencing the symptoms is like noticing you have weeds. The diagnosis is like identifying those weeds as dandelions. Administering pharmaceuticals is like mowing the lawn and getting rid of the flowers. The reason I say it this way is because often times if the pharmaceutic treatment is stopped the symptoms come back, so it’s like mowing every day to prevent the flowers from growing. This is a perfectly good way of keeping your lawn free of dandelion flowers. Of course, it would be better to get rid of the roots instead so that you don’t need the daily mowing.

In Chinese medicine the goal is to try to understand the roots of disease so that we can give therapies to bring the body back into optimal health. Our treatments (acupuncture, herbs, etc) will usually simultaneously be treating the root and the branch/flower. So we immediately try to get rid of symptoms (dandelion flower) and then work on getting rid of the cause (dandelion roots). This strategy not only helps the patient get rid of that which is bothering them (flower) but also helps prevent the problem from recurring in the long run. In the ideal situation we also help the patient reach a state of health that also prevents the problems from rooting again. (After all dandelions haven’t always been in the ground, they came from somewhere else at some point in time).

Now lets look at how we develop diseases in the first place. Each disease, just like each different weeds that could grow in our lawn or garden, will have different causes. In Chinese medicine we can break up these causes into three main categories – heredity, environment/lifestyle, and emotion. Heredity on one hand is straightforward, there are various genetic diseases that can be passed from parent to child or caused by a genetic mutation, such as color blindness, down’s syndrome, or hemophilia. Chinese medicine has understood this concept long before we knew what genes or chromosomes were. However, the Chinese medical concept of heredity takes a broader view as well. The idea gets boiled down into the idea of “essence” the basic part of us that is inherited from our parents. In fact, eggs and sperm are seen as an expression of essence. This essence gets combined from our parents to create us. Therefore essence contains the idea of genetic inheritance, but it is also our starting point in life so to speak. Most of us start life healthy, though some of us start out with disease or other health challenges. This idea extends to that of constitution, our basic state that has tendencies towards certain imbalances. We stay healthy by keeping those imbalances in check through various means, and conversely our bodies can be pushed into certain disease states easier than others. One aspect of our constitution is hot vs cold. In a very generalized sense males tend towards more heat (yang) and females more cold (yin) and we are more warm as kids (yang) and colder as we age (yin). Therefore our age and gender can give us an idea of our constitution and this constitution can change somewhat over our lifetimes. Since we may each be closer to one extreme or other we are more likely to be affected by conditions that push us further away from neutral. These conditions come from the other two sources of disease.

Environment and lifestyle is a big source of our diseases. Environment is of course things like the climates we live in and the weather we deal with day to day. Those of us living in Central New York are going to be dealing with different challenges to our health than someone living in San Diego for instance. Environment also includes indoor conditions as well as pollution and exposure to various things that can make us sick such as viruses and bacteria. Understanding what we are exposed to and eliminating those things that push us out of balance is an important part of being healthy.

Lifestyle, of course, is also another big source of our diseases. For this discussion lifestyle primarily includes diet, exercise, and sleep. I won’t go into too much depth about these because we all know how these factors impact our health. I will say that diet can be a misunderstood aspect. We usually think of diet in terms of weight gain/loss or how it impacts cholesterol and blood pressure or how it may cause nutrient deficiencies. These are, of course, quite important, but it is additionally important to understand that various foods can cause imbalance when consumed in excess. Often when people talk about food there will be comments of this is healthy or that is not healthy, a very black and white approach. This can be very misleading. On it’s own there are few foods that are so black and white and foods need to be judged within the larger context of one’s diet. In excess, foods that most of us would consider “healthy” may in fact contribute to disease. A great example is salad. Most of us consider salads to be a healthy food, but if we eat the same salad for lunch every day of the week for weeks on end is that still healthy? Maybe and maybe not depending on our constitution and the rest of our diet. Likewise we all know it is important to exercise, but there is a point where too much exercise, or improper exercise, can do more harm than good. There is a lot of information out there about how to eat or exercise properly but not a lot of information about how to decide what is right for you as an individual. That is why it is important to learn how to listen to the signals your body gives you and make use of health professionals (I know a great acupuncturist that can help you – wink wink) that can help you determine what is right for you.

The last major cause of disease is emotion. In many ways emotion will overlap with the other categories. While not necessarily genetic, emotional tendencies can be passed from parent to child. If we have a stressful job or a busy lifestyle that will also pre-dispose us to certain emotions. The emotional category can be one of the trickiest to understand and manage, but also one of the most powerful. One of the most common emotional causes of disease is stress, which can come from our lifestyles or environments. However, I separate the emotional component out because we may only have so much control over our environment but we can gain control of our emotions. But first we need to understand how emotions create disease.

In Chinese medicine we categorize all of the different parts and processes of the body into one of 5 major systems of the body. These 5 systems correlate to the 5 elements – fire, earth, metal, wood, water – which create a way of understanding the body that is both simple and accessible to every but it can also be very intricate and complex. These 5 elements have a variety of correspondences including organs and emotions. What this means is that our internal organs are influenced by our emotional state, but also that the health of our body can influence our emotional state. In other words a healthy person maintains emotional balance and an emotionally balanced person stays healthy. For anyone who has a stressful life, short temper, is anxious or depressed, etc you will quickly realize it is a lot easier said than done to control our emotions. Learning how to do so is well beyond the scope of this article.

I’ve finished explaining some of the major causes of disease in a very general way, but now what? How do we use this information to help us. The first step, and what I’m hoping to accomplish with this article is to bring awareness to the areas of our life that can contribute to our diseases. If we can start identifying the parts of our life that cause disease we can take steps to change them or prevent them. In cases such as heredity or environment we may not always be able to change them, but knowing our basic starting point helps us make better decisions and avoid the things that can push us out of balance. Hopefully I’ve been able to trigger some deeper thinking, but in reality most of us don’t fully understand how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. It took me years of graduate level education to learn a lot of this (and I still have more to learn), so I would not expect everyone to have some sudden realization based only on this article. This is one way in which getting a few acupuncture treatments a year can be a good way to promote health. An acupuncturist’s job is to determine your imbalances and correct them with an acupuncture treatment. We can also help shed light on what your constitution is and what sorts of things in your life are pushing you out of balance. The acupuncture treatments help correct the imbalances and return you to a healthier state, but the knowledge that we can impart can help you find ways of living a healthier and happier life.

Update – right after posting this on my website I found the following picture from another acupuncturist.  This helps explain the correlation between emotion and organ health.

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.

13 Things Diet Experts Won’t Tell You About Weight Loss

http://gma.yahoo.com/13-things-diet-experts-wont-tell-weight-loss-170358888–abc-news.html

Above is a link to a quick article from ABC News about dietary advice.  It’s a quick summary from “The Diet Digest”, a new book about weight loss and healthy living.  I have not had a chance to read the book yet, but I really liked the article from ABC News. I agree with most of it, the exception being #3 – Dairy promotes weight loss. I don’t disagree with the research, I just disagree with this being appropriate advice for everyone trying to lose weight. In a lot of my patients that are trying to lose weight I think dairy is overconsumed. Otherwise this is a great article for anyone to read if they are trying to lose weight.

Treating Hot Flashes With Acupuncture

Two studies recently published show that acupuncture can be an option for treating hot flashes.  Hot flashes are a common problem for menopausal women and as any woman who has suffered from them can tell you they can be very uncomfortable and have a significant impact on quality of life, particularly with sleep.  I have seen great results treating hot flashes/night sweats in my patients. Results can be dramatic, some patients were having several a day before their first acupuncture treatment and had none or only an occasional occurrence after their first treatment.  In some cases this was even with patients who had previously undergone hormone replacement therapy to treat their menopausal symptoms with no relief.

For more information check out an article summarizing the research here

Are vitamins and supplements good for you?

Recent research has shown that dietary supplementation can be dangerous and lead to an increased risk of death. Here are two articles about this topic – BBC News   and  LiveScience.com.  The research was only done on women and the death rate in women who took supplements versus those who did not was fairly small. However, research like this does call into question some of the daily health decisions we make.  Obviously getting our nutrients from food is our best option, but most people think taking a dietary supplement to be a good way to prevent vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

I’ll admit to taking multi-vitamins at times. I’m sure many of you reading this take a multi-vitamin as well as other supplements. I’m not adding this post to discourage people from taking multi-vitamins or other supplements. However, I think it is important that people understand the consequences of their decisions. When it comes to supplementation it is best done at the recommendation of your doctor or other health care professionals. And definitely take any claims from the supplement manufacturers with a grain of salt.

With that said supplementation can sometimes be very useful. The herbal medicines I recommend to patients are considered “dietary supplements”. This is merely a legal definition and it is important to realize there is a difference between the supplements I recommend and the supplements being discussed in the research cited above. The articles I linked to are specifically discussing the dangers of taking excessive levels of vitamins and minerals, which over the long term, can build up to toxic levels in the body. Herbal supplements can also be dangerous to take long term, which is another reason to seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional rather than just buying your supplements online or at your local grocery or health food store. Any supplementation also needs to be tailored to an individual’s needs, so be wary of recommendations that are aimed at a broad audience.

How cooked food made us human

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/09/30/how-cooked-food-made-us-human/#more-53719

This is a link to a little article about how cooking food was an important evolutionary step. Personally I’m not a big fan of the raw food diet or the similar “paleo-diet” that is becoming a fad in the diet world. Humans are meant to eat cooked food and eating a lot of raw food can be unhealthy, no matter how healthy those raw foods may otherwise be. Veggies are very important for a healthy diet but consider cooking them, at least steaming or stir-frying which does not ruin a lot of the nutrient value. This small change can mean a big change in metabolism and overall energy levels. For dieters increasing cooked veggies vs raw veggies can actually help weight loss.

Painkillers or just plain killers?

A lot of my patients are coming to me to treat chronic pain conditions. There are over 116 million people suffering from pain in the US. The estimated cost of treating pain in the US is around $300 billion with another estimated $300 billion in lost productivity. Clearly as we try to find ways to reduce health care costs pain is a big factor.

With so many people suffering from chronic pain it’s no surprise that pain killers are one of the most used classes of drugs there is. Just about every household probably has at least one bottle of over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers in their medicine cabinet. Some people take them on a daily basis to help with their chronic pains and headaches. Many people take OTC medications and assume they are safe since no prescription is needed. But in fact, OTC pain meds are very dangerous especially with long term use. Pain meds actually account for a frighteningly large number of deaths in the US every year but it is often not included with the other causes of deaths such as heart disease and cancer when statistics are compiled.

There are many different drugs on the market for pain. One of the most common is acetaminophen, which is the main ingredient in Tylenol. Then there are all of the different non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen. There are also prescription opioids such as oxycontin, vicodin, and hydrocodone. Most people are aware of the addictive nature of opioids, and because of this they are highly regulated drugs. Despite the extra caution most doctors take in prescribing opioids they still account for about 14,000 deaths annually.

The bigger problem, in my opinion comes from acetaminophen and NSAIDS. Acetaminophen is the main ingredient in Tylenol products, but can also be found in NyQuil, Sudafed, Alka-Seltzer, as well as many cold/flu and allergy medications. It’s also in vicodin and percocet. Not many people are aware of that so they end up taking too much acetaminophen because they take Tylenol for their headache, then when they’re sick add in the Sudafed and other products. Major risks of excess acetaminophen use is liver toxicity and kidney failure. A 1994 study by Johns Hopkins showed that patients who took 105-365 pills per year increased their chance of kidney failure by 40%. Over 365 pills a year caused a 270% increase. Over 1000 pills in a lifetime showed a 100% increase of kidney failure. So someone who takes just one Tylenol a day for a whole year means they dramatically increase their chances of kidney problems. Excessive doses of acetaminophen in a 24 hour period can damage the liver. The recommended maximum daily dose is 4 grams (eight extra-strength Tylenol). This amount can easily be exceeded by someone taking Tylenol at the same time as cold/flu medications. Add in some alcohol to the picture and liver damage becomes a very likely problem. Liver damage from acetaminophen use is thought to cause 50,000+ ER visits a year and accounts for 42% of all liver failures. Around 500 deaths annually are thought to be caused by acetaminophen.

NSAIDS can also cause damage to the kidneys, though the correlations are less clear. More of a concern with NSAIDS, such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, is gastrointestinal problems, particularly stomach bleeding. In 1998 the American Journal of Medicine reports over 100,000 people were hospitalized due to NSAID related gastrointestinal problems. They are also believed to have caused over 16,000 deaths per year. One place I saw that statistic specifically mentioned 16,500 deaths in rheumatoid arthritis sufferers who use NSAIDs, so the actual number for the general population would be higher. Even at 16,500 that’s a scary number. The American Gastrointestinal Association reports that 60 million people regularly used NSAIDs and they state that around 120,000 hospital admissions each year are due to stomach bleeding from NSAID use.

I’m not completely against painkiller use, they have their time and place. But in my opinion they’re only appropriate for short term use in acute situations. For chronic pain other alternatives need to be better utilized. Clearly I’m biased in favor of people using acupuncture to treat their chronic pain. On a daily basis I see how well it can help people with chronic pain. But just as important I think the population as a whole needs to be better educated on the risks of taking over-the-counter pain medications so that they can make appropriate decisions. If you frequently use painkillers to deal with your chronic pain give me a call and find out how acupuncture can help you. And if you have friends or family who frequently use painkillers for their chronic pain, talk to them about the risks and let them know there may be alternatives for them.

 

 

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.

Beat the Heat!

It’s a hot day in Syracuse today.  For a city that gets yearly snowfalls in the three digits it can be tough to deal with temperatures in the three digits. My memories of waking up to over a foot of snow are much fonder than they were a couple of months ago.

Chinese medicine is all about balance within the body. One major thing we want to keep in a balanced state is our “temperature”.  I put that in quotes because I do not necessarily just mean the number on a thermometer, but rather the various characteristics of body functions and attributes.  When the body (or parts of the body) are too hot or too cold there can be health problems, both short term and long term.  There are many different things that can contribute to our bodies level of heat vs cold but the main ones are environment and diet.  We can’t change the weather outside, but we can seek places that are more comfortable.  On a day like today it may be wise to hold off on mowing the lawn for just a few more days.  Diet can be another way to help us beat the heat. Foods like cucumber and watermelon are very cool and refreshing.  Go to the homepage of my website and click on the box in the lower right hand corner that says “Acupuncture and summer”. There is some good information on page two (see the sidebar) about cooling foods and even has a recipe for a heat balancing salsa.

It also essential that you stay hydrated on warm days like this as your body is constantly losing moisture, even if you don’t feel sweaty. Proper hydration is important year-round but be more conscientious of it today. Not only will you be healthier but it will help you prevent overheating.

So stay cool Syracuse, and enjoy the summer while it lasts.  It won’t be too long before I’m blogging about cold weather and ways to stay warm.

Vacations

This weekend my wife and I enjoyed a nice get-away in Connecticut at a beautiful bed and breakfast (www.19rockhallroad.com). It was only two nights but it was just the kind of vacation we needed – simple and relaxing. This morning as I prepared to tackle another week “at the office” I started thinking about the importance of vacations in relation to our healthcare.

Regardless of the main reason a patient comes in to see me in the first place I find that a majority of my patients report high levels of stress. I don’t believe that stress is necessarily the cause of most diseases, but it certainly contributes. It can also be an obstacle in the healing process. Therefore managing stress is a great way to improve health and quality of life.

I think a great way to reduce stress is to take a vacation.  It can be a two week trip to Europe or a two night stay somewhere near by.  As long as you can remove yourself from those parts of life that cause you stress it doesn’t matter.  But here’s the catch: many of us bring our stress with us on vacation.  That could be literal if your kids cause you stress. Or maybe your boss calls you three times a day and you feel like you never left the office even if you are sitting on a sunny beach.  Sometimes it isn’t that obvious – maybe instead of relaxing you are thinking about some of the problems you will be facing when you get back home. Or maybe with every dollar you spend you stress out about your financial situation.

So maybe travel vacations are not a great way to manage stress. But let’s think of vacations in a broader sense.  The definition of vacation according to Merriam-Webster dictionary: “1: a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission. 2a:  a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended.”  In these definitions travel is not required. All that is needed is a break from the everyday hustle and bustle of life.

Instead of planning elaborate week-long adventures a vacation can be something you do every day. Great options are meditation, yoga, tai chi/qigong.  They don’t need to take up a lot of time and with the exception of taking classes are not expensive. Many people find exercise to be a great stress reliever too.  Hobbies are also a great way to take a daily “vacation”.  Regardless of what you do the important part is to give yourself 15-30 mins a day of “me time”. Turn off the cell phones and let your family know that you are not to be disturbed.

This strategy may seem counter-intuitive when a busy schedule is the cause of stress. But give it a try for a week or two. You may find that de-stressing for 15 minutes of the day earns you an extra productivity because you will be able to handle your busy schedule better without the stress.

And, of course, consider incorporating acupuncture into your stress management routine, maybe every few weeks or once a month. Most people wouldn’t think of acupuncture as being a relaxing activity, mainly because of the whole needle thing.  But the reality is that most of my patients find their treatments to be very relaxing.  The needles don’t hurt and the treatment stimulates the release of endorphins, the body’s own “feel good” chemicals. And being in a quiet room with soft music playing with no distractions just increases the sensation of tranquility.  It makes for a great vacation from day to day life.

When I treat patients with high stress (either their main complaint or secondary to other health issues) they often report within the first few sessions that they handle stress better. Those inescapable realities of life are still there but instead of creating stress and ruining a day, those issues can be dealt with (when possible) or just don’t impact them the same way anymore. They are happier, more productive, and also important – they are less quick to anger or snap at their loved ones so the whole household is happier.

So next time you find yourself getting stressed out ask yourself if it’s time for a vacation.

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