About Acupuncture Archives - Page 4 of 4

Understanding Tongue Diagnosis

By Lynn Jaffee, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.

You may be surprised to find that during an acupuncture appointment, your practitioner will ask to look at your tongue. This may seem like an odd request, and is probably the first time a health care provider has asked you to stick our your tongue. However, in Chinese medicine, a practitioner can garner quite a bit of information about you and your condition, simply by taking a look at your tongue.

When your practitioner looks at your tongue, he or she is looking at the shape, color size, coating and positioning or movement of the tongue, each of which offers a piece to the diagnostic puzzle.

The shape and size of the tongue tends to address the status of fluids in the body. For example, a very large, puffy, or scalloped tongue suggests that fluids are not being properly metabolized in the body. In contrast, a very small, short tongue may indicate dryness, a deficiency of fluids, or deficiency in general. In addition to shape and size, any movement of the tongue can indicate a deficiency of energy or the presence of an internal wind pathogen.

Tongue color varies widely from person to person, but is a good indicator of the overall nature of what is going on in the body. A red tongue indicates that there is heat present in the body, and the redder the tongue, the greater amount of heat present. A tongue that is pale indicates a deficiency of qi and blood or the presence of cold. A purple tongue tells your practitioner that there is stagnation somewhere in the body.

Tongue color may also vary on different parts of the tongue. For example, a tongue that is red at the very tip indicates heat in the Heart, as the tip of the tongue correlates with conditions of the Heart. Just behind the tip corresponds to the Lungs; the sides of the tongue are associated with the Liver; the center of the tongue with the Spleen/Stomach or digestion; and the back of the tongue is associated with the condition of the Kidney.

A coating on the tongue can also give your practitioner information about your health. The thickness of a coating is an indicator of the severity of the condition being treated. A thin coating, one in which you can see the tongue through the coating, indicates that any pathogen present is mild or on the exterior. A thick coating that obscures the tongue tells your practitioner that the condition is deeper and more serious.

The condition of the coating also speaks to the condition of fluids in the body. A moist or wet coating indicates poor fluid metabolism, and a dry coating indicates depleted fluids. A coating that is peeled off, either completely or partially, indicates some kind of heat or damage to the Stomach, possibly a depletion of Stomach Yin, or damage to Stomach Qi.

Tongue coatings also vary in color. In general, a thin white coating is normal, but can also appear in diseases associated with cold conditions. A yellow or brown coat indicates heat, and a gray or black coat indicates an extreme condition. It’s also important to note that foods such as red wine, orange juice, and coffee can alter the appearance of the coating. Needless to say, food dyes can dramatically alter the color of the tongue. In more than one instance, I have had a young patient stick out their tongue, only to see a bright blue, green, or pink coating!

The condition of your tongue will change as your health changes, but in general those changes appear on the tongue slowly. One exception is during a cold or flu when the patient has a high fever, a very red tongue will appear fairly quickly.

Tongue diagnosis can be a subtle art. To try it yourself, observe the variations of your tongue and compare it to that of friends or family members. After you have looked at a few tongues, you will see that they differ widely, and with a little study can tell you a lot about the overall health of a person.

Transformations Require a Smooth Flow of Qi

By: Lynn Jaffe

My first conscious brush with Stagnant Qi occurred during my first semester in school to study Acupuncture. I was returning back to school for a master’s in Oriental medicine after having been away from the academic world for years (okay, maybe decades). I can remember thinking at the time, “How hard could this be?” Much to my surprise, it was hard. I had classes during the day and studied every night and weekends. I was working part time and my husband traveled for his business. My kids were still in grade school and junior high, and they weren’t happy with my return to school.

About two months into the semester, I began to get this funny feeling in my throat. It felt like a lump stuck somewhere below my Adam’s apple and above my sternum that made it hard for me to swallow and very uncomfortable to eat. After lots of antacids and a trip to my doctor, I ended up in the Chinese medicine teaching clinic at my school. Within the framework of Chinese medicine, my symptoms were easily diagnosed. I had something called Plum Pit Qi, which sounded exactly like what I was feeling—a plum pit was caught I my throat. I learned that Plum Pit Qi is a kind of stagnation of Qi, or energy, and occurs as the result of a situation that is figuratively too difficult to swallow.

While the acupuncture and herbal treatments at the clinic were very effective, I also had to acknowledge that I had taken on too much. I had to either quit school or find a way to balance all the commitments I had taken on. After retooling my life somewhat, quitting my job, and studying when my kids were occupied or in bed, I managed to get through that first semester and ultimately, three years later, complete my master’s degree.

Perhaps what was most startling to me from this whole episode was how powerful the physical symptoms were from stress that was purely emotional. In Chinese medicine this phenomenon is related to the smooth flow of Qi throughout the body. Qi can be described as life energy or the energy necessary for transformation to occur. The smooth flow of Qi in the body is most closely related to the Liver, the organ system associated with the element of wood. This may mean the hard wood found in trees, but the color associated with the Liver is green or blue/green, suggesting younger plants and their slow, steady growth upward toward the sun. If some obstacle inhibits that growth, then the plant will grow crooked and become deformed.

While the Liver is responsible for the smooth flow of Qi, it also has a strong relationship to the smooth flow of emotions. When our emotional state is even, Qi will flow evenly throughout our body. However, during emotional upheaval or unrelenting stress, our Qi tends to stagnate. This stagnation is much like turning on the water to your garden hose and then being it until the flow is cut off. This blockage of Qi can cause numerous physical symptoms, from my Plum Pit Qi, to insomnia, headaches, gynecological problems, and pain.

Ultimately, even emotions equal smooth Qi. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. We have all, at one time or another, become caught up in the way we think things should be and have trouble accepting what really is. For many of us this feeling is constant, and when the feeling becomes overwhelming, our Qi becomes bound up and begins to stagnate. This feeling can take the form of too many things to do and not enough time, a job we don’t like, people who annoy us, or anything that makes us unhappy, uncomfortable, frustrated, or angry.

On a daily basis, we see people attempting to move Qi, some more successfully than others. On any given weekend morning during the summer, we see thousands of people outside running, biking, rollerblading, and walking. They usually feel better after having exercised, because physical activity moves Qi. However, practitioners of Chinese medicine would caution that excessive exercise can be depleting.

Drinking a cup of coffee speeds things us and also moves Qi, too. However, coffee is a diuretic, and excess can also be depleting. Like coffee, chemical use/abuse is an attempt to move stagnant Qi and feel better, but the depleting effects of such uses are obvious.

Perhaps the most successful ways of dealing with stagnant Qi, and ultimately the emotions, are some of the Eastern practices, such as taiqi, qigong, or yoga. These combine gentle exercise with breathing techniques that allow us to even out emotions, nourish our bodies, and smooth Qi. Through proper breathing and quieting the mind, meditation is also an excellent way to calm the emotions and allow the Qi to move freely.

When these practices aren’t enough, or when stagnant Qi begins to manifest as illness, acupuncture can help bring relief. Many people believe that acupuncture is best used for relieving pain. However, it’s also very effective in treating stress-related disorders such as irritable bowel, headaches, PMS, depression, and insomnia.

Like the “Plum Pit” caught in my throat, many physical symptoms that make us uncomfortable are actually a barometer to our emotional health. Often, when we have ignored the obvious signs that we are doing too much or need to make an emotional change, this discomfort finally gets us to stop and take our lifestyle into account.

This article appeared in Essential Wellness, January, 2005

Listen to Your Body’s Wisdom

By: Lynn Jaffe

I am a runner, and have been for over 25 years. Before I picked up the running habit, I was pretty sedentary, and while I wasn’t exactly a couch spud, regular exercise was not something I ever thought about. However, shortly after I began to run I noticed some changes in my health that were pretty dramatic. I started to crave healthier foods, and even dropped a few pounds. I felt better conditioned, had more energy and I even slept a little better. However, the most important change I noticed was not physical or even very describable. It was a change in the relationship between my mind and my body. I began to notice things. For example, I noticed how different foods impacted my energy, how my actions affected my health, and I became aware of the physical effects of stress.

I think this happened because when I began running it was extremely difficult. I was overweight and out of shape, so I gauged my runs based on how miserable I felt. I would monitor how difficult it was to breathe, whether my shins ached, or if my head was pounding from being overheated. Monitoring how I felt eventually became a habit on the road and off. As I continued to run, I noticed a lot of body signals even when I wasn’t running that I had never noticed before. Things like how awful I felt after a night with too little sleep, or how low my energy would become when I ate poorly started to appear on my radar. These may seem obvious to most people, but back then, I was out of touch and out of control. If I had a stomachache, I would never have made the connection between my discomfort and the fries and chili dog I had picked up at the mall.

I continued running and paying attention, and I became healthier. It took a while, but when I made the connection between how I felt and my diet, sleep, and exercise habits, I made some better choices.

I have seen this same transformation occur in some of my patients. However, it doesn’t happen because I make them start running; I don’t. I ask them questions about their health that they have never thought about before. More often than not, a patient will come back to me and say something like, “I have been thinking about what you asked at my last visit, and now I notice that…”, and I know that that patient has started to change how they view their body and their health.

This is a good thing, because it also signals a new level in taking responsibility for your health. It goes beyond eating well, exercising, and hoping for the best. It means that you now have the owner’s manual for your particular model, which is one of a kind. It also means that, for the most part, you no longer need to be bewildered as to why you feel poorly or why you feel really well. Your body will tell you, if you listen and make the connections.

For most of us, despite eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly, we still get sick, or at the very least, don’t always feel our best. This is because, while we are taking really good care of ourselves, sometimes we lost touch.

We either foget to listen, or choose to disregard the messages we are receiving, even when our bodies are speaking to us very clearly. For example, how often have you been workingin the garden or around the house and suddenly get a pain in your back, neck, shoulder, or wherever? And how often do you ignore the pain until you get the job done? I’ve done it myself, where I’ve heard the pain message loud and clear, but ignored it until I’d finished the job. The end result is an injury that might have been avoided if I had stopped working at the first whisper of pain, instead of working until the pain itself made it impossible for me to continue.

A second example of how we often fail to listen to our bodies relates to stress. It’s unfortunate that most of us live fairly stressful lives, and have for many years. Starting in school, where we were pressured to achieve good grades,, and into our work and family lives with an infinite number of pressures and conflicts, many of us simply feel overwhelmed. And yet, because this stress had been going on for so long, we tend to ignore it because it is “white noise”; it’s always there. A second reason we tend to ignore stress, is that it’s stressful trying to figure out how to or find the time to deal with it. The end result, like the example above, is that our body breaks down in one way or another, until we are forced to take some time out and deal with our health.

So, do you need to start running to be able to better listen to your body? No, but physical activity of some sort can help. All you really need to do is take some time each day to run through a mental checklist of how you’re feeling. Are you getting sick frequently? Are you tired? Now sleeping well? Do you feel better than you ever have before? Try to relate these things to what you are doing and what’s happening in your life. Remember, if you listen, your body will tell you exactly what it needs.

From Essential Wellness, July 2005

Increase Your Vitality through Chinese Medicine

By: Lynn Jaffe

In a previous career, I spent my time conducting research on the health of physically active women for the Melpomene Institute in St. Paul. As a runner of a certain age, one research project still sticks in my mind. It focused on the impact of running on women’s experience of menopause. Our theory was that if a woman were active, she might have fewer menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes. In fact, the study really became an examination of the impact of menopause on women’s running! The most startling change reported by the study participants was pervasive fatigue and a complete loss of energy.

Many years later, as a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, the results of that sudy make complete sense to me. According to Chinese Theory, menopause and agine are not considered diseases, but rather normal life transitions. How you age and live in your later years depends on your lifestyle in the preceding years. There are many factors, some you can control and some you can’t, that affect how you will feel as you age.

To understand aging from the traditional Chinese framework, an understanding of the Kidney organ system is necessary. It is important to note that from the Chinese standpoint, when talking about an organ system, one is not necessarily referring to the actual organ, but a system of functioning and body processes.

The primary functions of the Kidney are the formation of urine and the storage of Essence. Essence is one of the most important substances in the body, and is responsible for birth, growth, development, and maturation. It is also the foundation for all other substances in the body.

We inherit one kind of Essence at the moment of conception, called Congenital Essence. Congenital Essence is not only responsible for growth and maturation, but also genetic traits and constitution. As we age, Congenital Essence becomes depleted, and when this Essence is completely used up, according to Chinese theory, we die. While Congenital Essence cannot be replenished, it can be used judiciously through good lifestyle habits, and it can be augmented by another kind of essence, called Acquired Essence.

Acquired Essence is made up of nutrients from the food we eat, and can be built up by eating well. Good health, strength, and high levels of energy manifest an abundance of Acquired Essence. Any excess of Acquired Essence is also stored in the Kidney, along with Congenital Essence.

The Kidney is also related to the bones and by extension, the teeth. It also governs marrow, which relates to actual bone marrow, but also to the brain, which is considered the “sea of marrow”. In Chinese medicine, each organ nourishes one of the senses, and the sense associated with the Kidney is hearing.

The gradual depletion of Kidney Essence is the mechanism responsible for aging. It can be seen in weakening and brittle bones, loss of teeth, hearing loss, confusion, and memory problems—all manifestations associated with the Kidney. Weakness and lack of energy is also a common condition of depleted Kidney Essence, along with lumbar pain, as the Kidney is housed in the lower back.

Eat Well

So how, according to Chinese Medical theory, does one preserve Kidney Essence to age well? While there are many factors, good diet is the most obvious. Chinese dietary therapy is a whole discipline by itself, and many books have been written on the subject. One focus of Chinese dietary therapy is on eating and preparing foods in a way that they are easily digested. Foods that are difficult to digest use up energy, or Qi, and over a long period of time can deplete Essence. Some guidelines for eating well include:

-Avoid spicy or greasy foods.

-Avoid very cold foods, such as ice cream or iced drinks.

-Drink fluids that are room temperature or warmer.

-Lightly steam or stew vegetables and fruits, as raw foods can be difficult to digest.

-Avoid drinking too much alcohol.

-Talk to a practitioner of Chinese medicine about what foods are best suited to your specific condition or constitution.

Manage Your Stress; Be Moderate

Managing stress is another way to protect our health as we age. Unfortunately, many of us find stress an acceptable by-product of the busy, and often overwhelming lives we lead. Some of us don’t even realize that we are under incredible amounts of unrelenting stress because we are so busy trying to get everything done. In either case, stress exhausts us physically, disrupts relationships between organ systems, creating unhealthy imbalances, and depletes essence.

Equally exhausting to our internal organs, especially the Kidney and the Spleen, is overwork. This means long hours spent working or studying without adequate rest. Damage due to overwork can also be caused by excessive exercise. Therefore, working in moderation and getting adequate rest is essential to preserving Essence.

Moderation is also key with regard to your sex life. Because the Kidney is responsible for reproduction, according to Chinese medicine, sexual practices can also affect Kidney Essence. Having too many children too close together, or having sex too frequently can deplete the Essence and cause premature aging.

By adhering to the principles of Chinese medicine, I believe that the fatigue and loss of energy reported at midlife by the women runners in the Melpomene study could have been avoided. We can draw some parallels between the women in the study and most of us, in that we live busy, stressful lives, and tend not to take good care of ourselves. However, proper diet, adequate rest and moderation in all things can go a long way toward aging with energy, vitality and good health.

This article appeared in Essential Wellness, October, 2004.

How to Choose an Acupuncturist

by Lynn Jaffee

Choosing an acupuncturist can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never had acupuncture before. It’s important to ask some questions before you book an appointment for acupuncture treatment to make sure you’re getting the right practitioner for you and your particular needs. The following are some questions to ask a prospective practitioner before you book your first appointment, to help you choose the right one.

Are you a licensed acupuncturist? What is your education in acupuncture?
This is an important first question to ask anyone before they perform acupuncture on you! All too frequently consumers are led to believe that any practitioner who is trained or certified to practice acupuncture is highly qualified in the art of diagnosis and treatment using the principles of Chinese Medicine. Don’t hesitate to ask a prospective practitioner about their credentials and training.

Physicians are only required to have 50 hours of training in the technical use of acupuncture prior to using it as a treatment. This is considered “medical acupuncture”.

Many chiropractors advertise that they offer acupuncture. It is important to know, however, they are only required to have 100 to 150 hours of unspecified training in acupuncture. They take a test sponsored by the local Chiropractic Board and pay a fee to become “certified”. Chiropractors who perform acupuncture call themselves “Board Certified Acupuncturists”. In addition, they are legally limited only to acupuncture treatments that augment chiropractic adjustments.

Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc) in Minnesota are required to have a minimum of 1,800 to 2,400 hours of education and clinical training. They must also be board certified with the NCCAOM, a national regulatory agency governing Oriental Medical education and credentials, and they are licensed by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice.

Licensed Acupuncturists (LAc) practice internal Chinese medicine, which focuses on the underlying source of the problem rather than just treating symptoms. As a result, their treatments go beyond simple pain relief offered by most chiropractors and medical acupuncturists.

Most Licensed Acupuncturists must also have a Masters degree in either Acupuncture or Oriental Medicine. The distinction between the two is that a practitioner with a Masters in Acupuncture is trained primarily in acupuncture. A practitioner with a Masters in Oriental Medicine is trained both in acupuncture and diagnosis and treatment using traditional Chinese herbs.

Do you have a specialty? What is your experience and success with my particular condition?
Some acupuncturists treat any and all conditions. However, many specialize in treating certain conditions, such as muscle and joint pain, stress and anxiety, infertility, or women’s conditions. It is important to ask whether a prospective practitioner has had some experience in treating your condition.

What kind of acupuncture do you practice?
Most people don’t know that there are many different kinds of acupuncture, such as Traditional Chinese acupuncture, Ear acupuncture, Japanese style, Korean Hand acupuncture, cosmetic acupuncture, and scalp acupuncture. Some of these different kinds of acupuncture are more effective for specific conditions. For example, Ear acupuncture is especially successful for addictions, such as quitting smoking and weight loss, and scalp acupuncture might be more valuable for conditions affecting the nervous system. Be sure to ask what conditions are best helped by your practitioner’s kind of acupuncture.

How many treatments will I need?
This is actually a trick question. No practitioner should answer this question on the phone before they have seen you, taken your health history and made a diagnosis. In fact, everyone heals at a different pace. Your condition may be resolved in one or two treatments, or it may take many more, especially if it is a long-term chronic condition.

Do you accept insurance?
Most health care plans currently don’t pay for acupuncture treatments. As a result, many acupuncturists are fee for service providers. If you think your health insurance plan may cover acupuncture, check with them to be sure, and make sure the acupuncturist you ultimately choose will accept your insurance as payment.

If you have a health savings plan, acupuncture qualifies for reimbursement. Be sure to ask your acupuncturist for a receipt.

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Share and Enjoy !

Share and Enjoy !

Share and Enjoy !

Share and Enjoy !