Health Conditions Archives - Page 2 of 8

Snuff Out Sinus Infections

I’m not prone to sinus infections, but the few I’ve had in my life have been doozies. What sticks in my memory is painful pressure when bending down to tie my shoes, constant post-nasal drip, and running a fever. Also known as sinusitis, sinus infections can exhibit a wide variety of symptoms such as overall fatigue, headaches, tooth pain, coughing, sore throat, stuffiness, and lots of funky-colored phlegm. Yuck!

Your sinuses are great little air purifiers. They warm and moisten the air you breathe and filter out bacteria. Unfortunately, a cold, flu, or allergies can cause the lining of your sinuses to swell, clogging things up. Congested sinuses can create a back-up of mucous, causing bacteria to breed, ultimately triggering a sinus infection.

In Chinese medicine, a sinus infection is always considered to be a kind of blockage, as in Western biomedicine. However, the Chinese make a little more distinction when it comes to diagnosing and determining how to treat this condition. At the most superficial level, sinusitis always involves a diagnosis of phlegm, but there’s usually more to the picture than that. Phlegm plus cold often presents as stuffy and clogged sinuses, but not necessarily an infection. In this case, you would not be running a fever, and if you are able to blow your nose, the phlegm is likely to be clear or white. Phlegm plus heat is a straight up sinus infection. The mucous will be yellow or green, you are likely to feel like you’ve been hit by a bus, and in many cases you may be running a fever.

The beauty of Chinese medicine is that it looks a little deeper into why you are having phlegmy sinuses in the first place—and there are a number of reasons. A common cause is that your immunity is low and you’re getting a lot of colds, which can wreak havoc on your sinuses. In Chinese medicine, this is a function of your Lung system, which keeps outside invaders like bacteria, viruses, pollen, and molds from making you sick. In order to keep your immune system strong, you need to be in good health and have enough energy to fight off invading pathogens.

A second common cause for sinusitis, especially if it’s chronic, is your diet. This take a little more explaining, but in general too many sweets, fatty foods, dairy, and rich meals can bog down your digestion to the point where it creates a condition called dampness. What this means is that your body becomes less able to metabolize fluids and you form something similar to puddles. These puddles may appear in the form of water retention, yeast infections, athlete’s foot, and even excess weight. When dampness sits around long enough, it can congeal and form phlegm. When that phlegm congregates in your sinuses, the conditions are ripe for sinusitis.

Using Chinese medicine to deal with your chronic sinus problems can be effective because your practitioner has a number of tools to help deal with this condition. First, they can perform acupuncture to open up your sinuses fairly quickly, while also treating the underlying cause of your problem. In addition, Chinese herbs are also extremely helpful, as some have antimicrobial properties, some can disperse phlegm, and others can be used to strengthen your immune function. Finally, if your diet is the culprit behind your sinus problems, your practitioner can help you develop a diet that’s based on your needs.

There are also some things you can do at home too, to help keep your sinusitis under control, including:

-Use steam to keep your sinuses open. While it may seem counterintuitive to use moisture when your sinuses are so clogged with phlegm, keeping your sinus passages moist will actually keep the swelling down and help to keep them clear. Get into a hot, steamy shower twice a day, put a pot of boiling water on the stove and breathe the steam (careful not to burn yourself), and get a humidifier for your home.

-Along the same line, make sure you stay hydrated. Drink plenty of fluids, and if you’re nursing a sinus infection, go for soup, which hydrates as well as steams your sinuses.

-Clean out your sinuses by either using a Neti pot (follow directions included) or sniff up some water and then blow your nose. For a nasal wash recipe, dissolve one teaspoon of salt and a pinch of baking soda into two cups distilled water.

-Apply some moist heat to your sinuses. Wet a washcloth with warm water and place it over your sinuses. Keep it there until it cools. Repeat. The heat will help expand your sinuses and help get things moving.

-Go easy on the decongestant nasal sprays. While these products shrink the tissue lining your sinuses at first, they quickly cause a rebound reaction, making things worse in the long run.

-Choose spicy food. Acrid, spicy foods cause your nose to run, and that’s what you want in order to get your sinuses to drain. Dishes that contain garlic, scallions, horseradish, and hot peppers can be your friend during a sinus infection.

-Rest. When you’re sick and your body is trying to heal, it takes a great deal of your energy. While you may want to power through a sinus infection, you will heal faster and feel better if you give your body the rest it needs.

Can Acupuncture Treat My Gout?

People who suffer from Gout will tell you that the pain is like nothing they have ever experienced. It often wakes you up in the middle of the night, slowly getting more and more painful, until even the weight of the bed covers feel like torture. While many people think of Gout as a sore big toe, it can be excruciating, limit your mobility, and affect the quality of your life.

Long ago, Gout was considered to be the disease of kings, because it is associated with a diet of rich and fatty foods. Far more men than women suffer from Gout, and one of the most common sites to be affected is the base of your big toe. That said, women also get Gout, and any joint in your body can be affected.

The cause of Gout is a buildup of uric acid crystals, which your body is struggling to eliminate. Uric acid is a metabolite of purine, a chemical found in high concentrations in rich foods like organ meats, oily fish, shellfish, yeast and beer. Interestingly, purines found in plant-based foods don’t tend to build up and cause Gout as commonly as animal based foods.

Some people are more prone to developing Gout than others. Risk factors for this painful condition include having a family history of Gout, being overweight, being over the age of 45, and having other health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or renal disease. In Western biomedicine, the first line of treatment for Gout is dealing with the pain through the use of NSAID’s such as ibuprofen. However, if you suffer from frequent attacks of Gout, there are other medications available to help stabilize the levels of uric acid in your body.

In Chinese medicine, Gout is diagnosed as a Bi Syndrome, which means that there is an obstruction of some kind causing your pain and swelling. In most cases, Gout is an obstruction caused by a combination of dampness, heat, and wind. While this may sound like bad weather, heat, dampness, and wind actually describe Gout well. Most cases of Gout present with a warm, swollen, and painful joint. The warmth accounts for the diagnosis of heat. When there is swelling, it’s caused by a build-up of fluid in the area—called dampness in Chinese medicine. Gout is also characterized flares and remissions, and may move from one joint to another, which is a characteristic of wind.

While most cases of Gout are warm and damp, in some instances patients experience a pattern of wind, cold, and damp. In these cases, their symptoms are aggravated by the cold and damp weather.

The source of Gout in Chinese medicine comes from your digestion, or what we would call an imbalance in your Stomach and Spleen. Poor digestion can be a cause of Gout, but in most cases the cause is overeating the wrong foods. Rich, fatty, sweets, fast foods, and alcohol are all offenders when it comes to Gout.

As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, my plan for treating gout, especially during a flare would be to use acupuncture to move the blockage, enhance circulation in the area, and relieve the pain. However, between episodes of Gout, my strategy is to work on resolving the underlying cause by combining acupuncture with Chinese herbs, and dietary changes to address the source of your Gout and prevent any further flare ups.

If you struggle with Gout, there are a few things that you can do for yourself to help prevent future episodes, including:

-Stay hydrated, as it helps flush the uric acid out of your system.

-Avoid alcohol. Not only does it make you dehydrated, but it also aggravates your Gout.

-Educate yourself on which foods contain high levels of purines, and do your best to avoid eating those foods in large quantities.

-Avoid rich and fatty foods.

-Stay clear of high fructose corn syrup.

-Some people report that drinking tart cherry juice daily helps to keep Gout symptoms under control. It’s worth a try to see if it works for you.

Treating Asthma with Chinese Medicine

Over thirty years ago I moved to Minnesota from Hawaii. My husband and I had spent a couple of years in the islands swimming in the ocean, biking endlessly, running in the humidity, and spending Saturday afternoons sitting on the beach near our house.

Needless to say, moving to Minnesota was a shock on so many levels, but I was determined at the very least to continue running throughout the winter. In those early years, my lowest temperature limit was fifteen below. I would bundle up, cover my face and go run a couple of miles. Somehow it made me feel a little self-righteous and invincible to be running outdoors when it was so cold.

A couple of years into my cold weather running craziness, I began to struggle with shortness of breath. Whenever I was physically active, regardless of the temperature outside, I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. To make a long story short I had developed exercise-induced asthma. It was my body’s way of telling me to lighten up on my lungs and ditch the icy workouts.

About 25 million people in the US have asthma, or about eight percent of the population. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, with about half of sufferers experiencing an asthma attack in the past year. Asthma may present as shortness of breath, coughing, or wheezing. However, during an attack, the muscles surrounding the airways tighten (bronchospasm) and breathing becomes difficult. For some, an asthma attack can be severe enough to be life threatening. Treatments for asthma from a Western biomedical perspective include rescue inhalers for acute attacks, and long term medications, such as inhaled steroids, beta agonists, and leukotriene modifiers.

In Chinese medicine, the cause of asthma is something called “enduring phlegm”, which means that there is always an element of phlegm obstructing the lungs in people who have asthma. However, digging a little deeper, the underlying cause of any kind of phlegm in your body comes from issues with poor water metabolism.

In simple terms, water is metabolized at three levels in your body. In your Lungs, water is processed through respiration. If you breathe onto a mirror, you will see that the moisture from your lungs will make the mirror mist up. At the mid-level, your Chinese Spleen is responsible for metabolizing water through the digestive process. And at the lower level your Kidneys are responsible for the balance of fluids in your body, but also for elimination of water that’s not needed.

An imbalance in any of these three organ systems can lead to a buildup of water, which over time stagnates and thickens and becomes phlegm. The most common culprit is poor diet or digestion, in which eating too many rich foods, sweets, or dairy foods can bog down your digestion, to the point of generating phlegm.

Because problems with water metabolism can come from your Lungs, Spleen, or Kidneys, there are a number of patterns in Chinese medicine describing the source of your asthma. For example, you can have a Lung depletion, phlegm and heat in your Lungs, internal cold, a Spleen depletion (poor digestion), or a Kidney depletion. In addition, the pattern describing your asthma may change dramatically during an acute attack compared to when your asthma symptoms are relatively calm.

There are a number of triggers for your asthma symptoms, again depending on the underlying cause of your asthma. One of the most common triggers is inhaling cold air or being in the cold, and less frequently breathing warm, humid air. In addition, changes in the weather, pollen, smoke, and pollution may also act as triggers for asthma attacks. Internal factors that can trigger symptoms include having a cold or the flu and even stress.

Treatment for asthma in Chinese medicine involves determining the source of the problem. Where is there a water metabolism problem? What are your triggers for an asthma attack? What is your overall body constitution like? Your practitioner would incorporate acupuncture and most likely a Chinese herbal formula to treat your asthma. However, if you are having an acute attack with difficulty breathing, it’s imperative that you are under the care of a Western doctor, too. Chinese medicine can be a powerful tool in treating chronic asthma, preventing attacks and bringing your water metabolism back into balance, but Chinese medicine and Western medicine are not mutually exclusive when it comes to treating asthma.

Looking back, I realize that my running in the very cold weather was irritating to the point of disrupting the water metabolism in my Lungs. However, my asthma story has a happy ending. First, I quit running when it was so cold out. My lower limit today is about ten degrees above zero, and even then my face is covered. I also had to use a rescue inhaler for a year or two when it became difficult for me to breathe. I also incorporated some acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and breathing exercises into the healing process. Today, I don’t think about asthma and haven’t had that elephant sitting on my chest in years.

Natural Relief for Rib Pain

Why Do Broken, Cracked, or Bruised Ribs Hurt So Much?

Last week I did something really stupid. In our acupuncture clinic we have a water cooler/heater that takes five gallon water bottles. Loading full bottles into the cooler means lifting over 40 lbs. of bulky awkwardness, turning it over, and inserting it into the cooler—a job that usually takes two of us. However, last week I decided that I could hoist the container myself, which I did, but in the process dinged my second rib, just under my collarbone. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but as the day went on the pain increased and spread throughout my chest like a developing Polaroid photograph.

By the time I got home that night, not only did the spot I hit hurt, but the trajectory of the rib—my collarbone, shoulder, and upper back—was sharply painful. To make it worse, every breath I took intensified that pain. I don’t believe that I broke or even cracked the rib; the hit wasn’t hard enough, but clearly it was bruised and not very happy.

I’ve known a lot of people who have broken or cracked ribs, and they describe the pain as excruciating. They talk about pain that seems to last forever, and then after about six weeks, it starts to calm down.

So why does a rib injury hurt so much? First, because so many things are attached to your ribs—muscles, tendons, cartilage, ligaments, and fascia. And second, all of those body parts that are attached to your ribs move when you breathe, laugh, sneeze, or blow your nose. Like a bellows or an accordion, your rib cage expands and contracts every time you breathe, and when your ribs are injured every breath is painful.

What Can You Do for Rib Pain?

First of all, if you suspect a broken rib, get an X-Ray. This is mostly to look for complications from a rib fracture, not necessarily for the fracture itself. If you feel breathless after a rib injury (not to be confused with pain on inhaling), seek out emergency treatment as soon as possible, as the rib may have damaged one of your lungs.

The bad news is that there’s not much your doctor can do for a broken, cracked or bruised rib, except to let it heal. In the past, it was recommended that people with rib injuries tape the area to limit movement, thus reducing pain. However, taping it is no longer recommended, because the lack of movement increases the risk of developing pneumonia. Your doctor may prescribe a pain medication while your rib injury heals. In addition, he or she is likely to tell you to limit your activities to avoid further injury to your ribs.

Can Acupuncture Help with a Rib Injury?

While acupuncture can’t undo a broken or cracked rib or fix structural damage to your rib cage, research studies have documented that it can help in the healing process. Here are a few ways in which acupuncture can be an effective treatment for rib injuries:

Acupuncture can be effective for pain relief
It can relax muscles that are in spasm from the injury
Acupuncture can reduce inflammation locally
A series of acupuncture sessions increases circulation in the area to speed up the healing process

With a rib injury, your instinct is to limit yourself to shallow breathing because of the pain. However, it’s important for the health of your lungs to take some deep breaths several times throughout the day. The best (read: least painful) way to do this is stop what you’re doing and slowly inhale to fill your lungs as completely as possible. Slow, deliberate, deep breathing tends to be less painful and get the job done.

As for my rib incident, I spent a number of days struggling to breathe without pain. Lying down hurt, and getting up hurt more. I tried to run on about day three, and was immediately shut down by the pain. I did a little acupuncture plus rest, and am slowly feeling better each day. When you’re in the middle of a rib injury, it’s important to remember that it will heal; it just takes a long time. In the meantime, just breathe.

Can Acupuncture Treat Facial Pain?

Acupuncture and a Toothache

I love nuts and eat a lot of them. However, about a year and a half ago I crunched down on an almond and felt a starburst of pain in one of my teeth. My dentist found no crack or decay in the tooth, but it never quite healed and was cranky for months. After simmering on low for about a year, the tooth finally blew up, and I had to have a root canal. I won’t go into details other than to say it was a necessary evil that ultimately took care of the problem. However, there were a couple of days of post-root canal pain that were really uncomfortable. During that time, it seemed like acupuncture was the only thing that really gave me much relief.

Acupuncture for my tooth pain involved a couple of needles in my cheek, near the site of the pain, as well as a few points in my hands. I understand that some people will be a little squeamish about receiving acupuncture in the face, but the reality is that it’s not painful and can be incredibly effective. Beyond treating toothaches, here are a number of facial conditions for which acupuncture can bring relief.

Treating Trigeminal Neuralgia with Acupuncture

Anyone who has ever suffered from Trigeminal Neuralgia will tell you that the pain is exquisitely excruciating. It’s intense, with nervy electric zaps that can last anywhere from days to months. The pain is caused by a blood vessel that is impinging on the Trigeminal nerve, causing the nerve to painfully misfire. There are a number of triggers that can activate a painful episode, such as wind, cold, applying makeup, talking, shaving, or tooth brushing—essentially any contact with the face.

The pain from Trigeminal Neuralgia is almost always one-sided, and can affect one or all three branches of the nerve. Depending on how the nerve is impinged, the pain can be near your eye, cheekbone, in front of your ear, near the side of your mouth, or just above your jawline—or all of those.

Western treatments for this condition include medications to block the pain, such as anticonvulsants or gabapentin, as well as surgery to treat the impingement in extreme cases. Acupuncture can also be helpful in calming the pain associated with Trigeminal Neuralgia. There are several patterns in Chinese medicine that may cause trigeminal pain, so careful diagnosis is key. An acupuncture treatment would include local points around the site of the pain, as well as additional body points that are chosen based on your particular pattern and symptoms.

Help for Bell’s Palsy

Another condition that occurs only in your face is that of Bell’s palsy. Caused by inflammation of the nerve that controls the muscles in your face, Bell’s palsy is best known for causing drooping of one side of the face. There are, however, a number of other symptoms associated with this condition, including excessive tearing from the affected eye, drooling, loss of taste, pain in or behind your ear, and facial numbness.

The cause of Bell’s palsy is not caused by a stroke, but thought to be the result of a flare of the herpes simplex virus. Interestingly, symptoms occur on the right side in almost two-thirds of cases, and symptoms can last from a few months to a year. In some cases, symptoms may become chronic, without much improvement over time. Western treatments for Bell’s palsy may include the use of corticosteroid or antiviral medications.

In Chinese medicine, Bell’s palsy is considered to be something called Zhong Feng, or an attack of wind. Similar to a cold or the flu, Bell’s palsy is the result of external wind due to depletion. This simply means that it comes from outside of your body (a virus) and flares up because you’re run down. Over the course of months or even years, behaviors like not eating well, working too hard, not resting or sleeping well, and stress wear you down to the point that pathogens move in, take hold, and make you sick.

There are several research studies that point to the effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in treating Bell’s palsy. Your practitioner would likely combine acupuncture treatments to reduce your facial symptoms with strategies to help replenish your body constitution.

Acupuncture for Sinus Pain and Sinusitis

Sinus infections can cause a great number of symptoms, and sometimes those symptoms don’t clearly point to your sinuses. I have seen a number of patients over the years who know they have sinus problems only because they feel completely run down. More common symptoms, however, include facial pain, headache, a runny or stuffy nose, loss of the sense of smell, fever, bad breath, and pressure behind your forehead or cheeks.

Acute inflammation and infection of your sinuses tend to last from two to four weeks, and symptoms can be severe. An acute sinus problem is often caused by congestion from allergies or the common cold. Lasting for months or longer, chronic sinusitis frequently is the result of structural issues, such as nasal polyps, a deviated septum, blocked nasal drainage, and even a chronically stuffy nose.

Western treatments for sinus issues usually involve medications (antihistamines, antibiotics, corticosteroids, etc.) or surgery to repair and/or open your sinuses. In Chinese medicine, treatment is focused on opening and draining up your sinuses, as well as dealing with phlegm, which is usually the underlying cause of the problem. Often accumulations of phlegm come from seemingly unrelated sources, such as poor digestion, decreased immunity, or the inability to metabolize fluids well. Sinus problems are a condition that Chinese medicine can treat exceedingly well with a combination of acupuncture, herbs, heat therapy, diet, and lifestyle modifications.

Tooth Clenching as a Source of Facial Pain

Also called bruxism, tooth clenching or grinding can be the source of facial, ear, head, tooth, and neck pain. Clenching is caused by the tightening of the masseter muscle, which is found at the corner of your jawline. It’s also the most common cause of TMJ (Temporal Mandibular Joint) issues. Pound for pound, the masseter muscle is the strongest muscle in your body, and when it becomes tight and irritable, it can cause a whole host of problems.

Because most tooth grinding and clenching occurs at night, many people are unaware that they’re doing so until they have seemingly random facial and neck symptoms. Acupuncture is effective not only to release the masseter muscle, but also to reduce inflammation in the TM Joint, relieve head and neck pain, and alleviate stress, which is likely the root cause of clenching in the first place.

Think of Acupuncture

You may not always consider acupuncture when you’re experiencing facial pain, but you should. I admit when it came to my toothache, I didn’t think of getting treatments until late in the game, but when I did, the results were impressive. Beyond Bell’s palsy, Trigeminal Neuralgia, sinus problems, and clenching, acupuncture can also be used for eye problems, migraine headaches, and even cosmetic anti-aging treatments.

Acupuncture, Heartburn, and PPIs

There’s nothing that can put a damper on a delicious meal faster than knowing that an hour or two later you’ll be suffering from heartburn. If you’ve ever experienced heartburn, or GERD (Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease), you know that diving into a favorite dish often means suffering the fiery aftereffects.

Heartburn occurs when your esophageal sphincter, the valve at the top of your stomach, becomes relaxed. This allows stomach acid to move upward into your esophagus, causing a burning sensation at the base of your throat or the top of your chest. Over time, chronic heartburn can deteriorate the base of your esophagus, causing a precancerous condition called Barrett’s Esophagus.

An estimated 60 percent of people in the United States will suffer from heartburn over the course a year, and 20 to 30 percent of Americans suffer symptoms on any given day. Those kinds of statistics put heartburn in the realm of epidemic proportions.

In Western medicine, the first line of defense for heartburn in the past has been antacids—medications like Tums or Tagamet that neutralize the acid causing your symptoms. However, it has become common practice to turn to a class of medications called Proton Pump Inhibitors, or PPIs. Commonly prescribed PPIs include Prilosec, Nexium, Prevacid, and Protonix.

PPIs work by blocking the enzyme in the lining of your stomach that produces acid, and may be prescribed to treat not only heartburn, but also stomach ulcers and infections from h. pylori. And while PPIs can be effective in treating these conditions, they come with a long list of side effects—some of them pretty scary. Common side effects of these drugs include headaches, nausea, stomachaches, bowel changes, and drowsiness. Over time, however, researchers have also linked PPI use to an increased risk for clotting strokes, and possibly even heart attacks.

Furthermore, while reducing the amount of acid your stomach may sound like a good idea, doing so also interferes with your ability to digest the foods you have eaten. As a result, the malabsorption of several key nutrients, such as calcium, magnesium, Vitamin B12, iron, and zinc, may become a problem. Osteopenia and osteoporosis from poor calcium absorption has been linked to PPI use. Other adverse reactions that have been associated with PPIs include infections, kidney damage, dementia and Alzheimer’s, and blood disorders.

So can Chinese medicine and acupuncture help if you’re struggling with heartburn? The answer is maybe. In Chinese medicine, heartburn is diagnosed, based on a system of patterns. If you were to come to an acupuncturist to treat your symptoms, you would likely be diagnosed as having either a Liver/Stomach disharmony, or Stomach Heat. A Liver and Stomach disharmony is best described as strong emotions upsetting your digestion, and is common in people who are very stressed and overwhelmed. Stomach heat is a sensation of heat (hence the name heart burn) in the area of your stomach. And like all heat, it moves upward—in this case into your esophagus. It is commonly accompanied by feeling hungry all the time, thirst, and a dry mouth.

Depending on your specific diagnosis, a practitioner of Chinese medicine would treat your heartburn with acupuncture, Chinese herbs, dietary therapy, and possibly some lifestyle tweaks. With a Liver and Stomach disharmony, they would also incorporate stress relief/emotional health into your treatment plan. If your diagnosis was Stomach heat, your treatment would focus on clearing heat and repairing your digestion. Your practitioner may also work with you if you were in the process of discontinuing PPIs.

While it may seem like an obvious solution to simply quit taking your PPI to reduce associated side effects, most people will find that it’s not that easy. That’s because Proton Pump Inhibitors are notorious for having a strong rebound effect when you stop taking them. For many, the rebound heartburn that flares up when they stop taking a PPI makes it incredibly difficult to get off of these drugs. That said, it can be done, and I have worked with a number of patients who have successfully done so.

If you have been taking a PPI for an extended period of time and would like to stop, here are a few tips that might help:

-Get off very gradually. Work with your prescribing doctor to stair step down in dosage. A good rule of thumb is the higher the dosage you are on, the longer the time it will take to taper off. Decrease your dosage by small increments and give your digestion time to stabilize at each level.

-Use antacids as needed. Zantac may be a good first choice. While Tums and Maalox will also do the trick, these calcium-based antacids if taken in large doses can flood your system with calcium, throwing blood levels out of balance.

-Before meals, experiment with agents, such as Prelief, which is aimed at decreasing the acidic effects of food. You may also want to try deglycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) prior to meals.

-Avoid mints, mint flavored chewing gum, and mint tea. While mint is a beneficial herb in some cases, it is not helpful if you have heartburn. Mint has the effect of relaxing your esophageal sphincter, making your heartburn worse.

-Try some Throat Coat tea (made by Traditional Medicinals). It contains licorice, marshmallow, slippery elm, and chamomile—all herbs that can help calm inflammation in your throat and esophagus.

-Take a good probiotic to help repair your digestion and repopulate your gut with good bacteria.

-Remove foods from your diet that trigger your heartburn. Common offenders include alcohol, onions, citrus fruits, tomatoes, strawberries, and chocolate. Instead, eat lots of the foods that you know are “safe”.

-Don’t get discouraged. Remember that it’s common to have rebound symptoms after discontinuing a PPI. It can take a few months to get off this medication completely, and it may take another couple of months for acid production to calm down. The good news is that many people have successfully been able to wean off PPIs and live their life heartburn-free.

Cloudy With a Chance of Aches and Pains

I love the early days of autumn! It’s still hot during the daytime, but the nights are beginning to cool off. The oppressive humidity of July and early August is gone, and in its place are dry, sharp days with a deep blue sky and nights with a cool edge that is perfect for sleeping. While the end of summer dishes up perfect weather, there is one downside, and it’s that you can feel a hint of winter coming. The cooler nights and darker mornings are enough to trigger mild depression and low energy in some weather-sensitive people.

While seasonal transitions are stressful on your body, the transition from summer to fall can be one of the most difficult. While an increase in light and warmth is a welcome change in the spring, moving into the dark days of fall and winter can be a tough transition. And while you might not think that what’s going on outdoors as stressful, the reality is that we are all affected by the weather and seasonal changes to some degree.

In my practice, I see many patients who are deeply affected by the weather. They may be suffering from arthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, sinus issues, headaches, or allergies. Changes in barometric pressure, temperature, humidity, or precipitation all have the ability to aggravate their symptoms.

In Chinese medicine, if you have any kind of symptoms that fluctuate with the weather, it is considered to be an external issue—meaning that what’s bothering you is coming from the outside or is affecting your body at a superficial level. Colds, flu, and allergies are categorized as external conditions, but so is your arthritic knee or sinus headache that’s triggered by a change in barometric pressure. In contrast, internal conditions are those symptoms and illnesses that are triggered by imbalances deep within your body. Autoimmune illnesses, hormonal issues, and digestive problems almost always come under the heading of internal disease.

The nature of your symptoms are a little bit like bad weather affecting your body and give us practitioners key information about how best to help you. For example, if your arthritic knees blow up during the hot and humid weather, it’s likely that your diagnosis is related to heat and dampness. However, if you’re more achy when the weather gets cold, your symptoms would be classified as cold (and most likely damp, too). Pathogens that may affect your symptoms include:

-Heat. You may feel hot overall, your symptoms are worse in the heat, and your joints or headache may also feel hot. Often migraines, arthritis, and inflammation fall into this category.

-Cold. If you’re symptoms are worse in the cold weather, chances are good that there is an element of cold to your diagnosis. Cold contracts and feels stiff and achy.

-Dampness. This is your body’s inability to metabolize water well. It may manifest as swelling, heaviness, or edema. Almost all joint pain has some dampness associated with it, and symptoms are worse when the weather is humid or damp. You can have damp plus cold, in which the cold rainy weather aggravates your symptoms, or damp plus heat, in which the hot and humid weather lights things up.

-Wind. In almost every case, the wind is not your friend. When you have an external wind pathogen, your symptoms may come and go, move around, and even be itchy. Wind is also the pathogen behind most colds and flu.

In Chinese medicine, dealing with external conditions takes a dual approach. Your practitioner will work to strengthen your exterior. This is a little like bumping up immunity, but in Chinese medicine, immunity is more like a protective bubble that keeps external pathogens like heat, cold, or damp from making you sick. The second order of business is to deal directly with what pathogens are involved in your symptoms—clearing heat, drying dampness, warming cold, or extinguishing wind. This is done through a combination of acupuncture, herbs, diet, and even lifestyle tweaks.

If you struggle with external pathogens, there are couple of things you can do for yourself to help minimize symptoms including:

-Eat to reduce inflammation. Keep your sugar consumption to a minimum, avoid packaged foods, and choose lots of vegetables and fruits as well as healthy plant-based fats (nuts, seeds, olives and olive oil, and avocadoes).

-Also, eat to ease your particular pathogen. You’ll need a little help from your practitioner here, but in general, look for warm foods (like ginger, garlic, horseradish, and cinnamon) to help with cold pathogens, choose cooling foods (mint, bananas, cucumbers, and melons) for hot conditions, and drying foods (barley, celery, mushrooms, and onions) to drain dampness.

-Pay attention to not only the weather, but your physical reaction to it. If you’re feeling achy on a cold rainy day, use a heating pad to warm your body up. If the heat and humidity is aggravating a health condition, turn on the air conditioning—it will cool things off and dry out the air.

Back in the Swing: Treating Golfer’s Elbow with Acupuncture

Over the years in my acupuncture practice, I occasionally will have a patient who wants to know if acupuncture can help their golf game. One came to me for a bad case of the yips. Apparently every time he swung the club, he would tense up or twitch, throwing his game out the window. Another patient who was seeing me for an unrelated health condition found that she was playing the best golf of her life. But really, I don’t pretend to believe that your golf game can be improved by acupuncture, except in the case of golfer’s elbow.

Like tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow presents as pain in the elbow, but with one difference: tennis elbow pain occurs on the outside of the elbow, and golfer’s elbow pain is felt on the inside of the elbow. In reality, tennis players, golfers, or anyone who grasps repeatedly with their hands or fingers can develop golfer’s elbow.

Also known as medial epicondylitis, golfer’s elbow is almost always caused either by overuse of your hand and wrist, or improper form when lifting, throwing, or hitting. In most cases, your wrist should be in a neutral position (not bent in either direction) on impact, and repeated bad form only aggravates the tendons and ramps up the pain.

Golfers develop this kind of elbow pain from either gripping or swinging their clubs improperly or gripping too hard. I have also seen a number of patients who have developed golfer’s elbow from lifting weights—usually biceps curls with too heavy of a weight or lifting with their wrists curled inward. For tennis players, a bent wrist at the point of impact with the ball, or too much topspin can cause elbow pain. Household projects, such as painting, hammering, raking, and repeatedly turning a screwdriver can also be a source of golfer’s elbow.

Because golfer’s elbow is a kind of tendonitis, it can take a long time to resolve. The good news is that acupuncture can be helpful in speeding up the healing process. A few well-placed needles, some far infrared heat, electric stimulation, and Tui Na (a kind of bodywork) can help alleviate the pain associated with golfer’s elbow and get you back on the links, tennis court, or weight room.

Acupuncture is effective for this kind of injury for a couple of reasons. First, the circulation of inflammation-fighting white blood cells is increased locally where the acupuncture needles are placed. Second, acupuncture increases circulation in general, which helps speed up healing. And third, acupuncture helps block pain signals getting to your brain and ramps up your body’s own pain killing chemicals. So while tendonitis can be slow to heal, acupuncture can be a major player in how quickly it resolves.

In the meantime, here are a few things that you can do for yourself if you’re suffering from golfer’s elbow:

-Rest. While this may seem obvious, I have worked with a number of patients who couldn’t or wouldn’t give it a rest, only to make their golfer’s elbow worse.

-Try some support. I have found that a wrist support is helpful in cases of golfer’s and tennis elbow. By supporting your wrist in a neutral position, it allows you to give the cranky and overworked tendons that move your wrist but attach at the elbow a wrist.

-Ice…or heat. If your elbow is inflamed from being used, then by all means put some ice on it. However, if your elbow pain is chronic, my advice is to warm it up to increase the circulation in the area. In addition, if you are planning to exercise, warm it up before use to loosen the muscles and tendons up, then ice it afterward to calm the area down.

-Stretch your forearm muscles, but gently. A physical therapist or athletic trainer can set you up with some stretches, and when you’re ready, some gentle strengthening exercises to help rehab the area.

-Take it slow. It is human nature to want to test a newly healed area, but doing so often results in further damaging the injury. Let your elbow heal completely before you get back to a full menu of exercises and activities.

-An ounce of prevention…There are a number of things you can do to prevent golfer’s elbow in the first place. Among them:

Since poor form is one of the main causes of golfer’s elbow, work with a coach or instructor to make sure your form is spot on.
Make sure you have the right equipment for your sport. Make sure your equipment fits you and isn’t contributing to the problem. For example, a heavy tennis racquet or golf clubs can be updated for newer, lighter ones.
Work to keep your forearm muscles strong. Squeezing a tennis ball or lifting light weights to strengthen the muscles on both the front and back of your forearms can help prevent overuse or stress-related injuries.
Keep your wrist in a neutral position at the moment of impact. Whether you’re swinging a golf club, hitting a tennis ball, or doing biceps curls, keeping your wrist straight will help avoid elbow injuries.

Knock Out Knee Pain with Acupuncture

As a practitioner of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, there are some conditions that are a challenge to treat and some that are fairly easy. I like to see patients with knee pain, because acupuncture is an effective treatment, and those patients usually leave happy and feeling much better.

There are a number of causes of knee pain, some of which can be controlled and some which can’t. Here are a few common factors that can cause your knees to rebel.

-Sex. No, not that kind of sex, but whether you are a woman or a man. That’s because women tend to have wider hips, which create an inverted triangle shape between their hips and knees. This wider angle can put a strain on women’s knees, especially if they are very athletic. In contrast, because men’s hips are narrower, they don’t have the same kind of strain on their knees.

-Age. As you get older, the natural cushioning between the bones in your knees, called cartilage, wears away. This causes the bones to rub against each other, creating inflammation, pain, bone spurs, and ultimately osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the number one reason people undergo knee replacement surgery.

-Overuse. Doing the same motion repetitively over many years can injure or wear down your knees. Overuse injuries can run the gamut from osteoarthritis to runner’s knee. Most commonly, we see people with these kinds of injuries who are distance runners or who play racquet sports.

-Funky mechanics. Every once in a while, I will drive by someone riding a bike and want to yell at them to raise their bike seat. Bad mechanics, like an improperly positioned bike seat, irregular gait, and poor form lifting weights can be a recipe for serious knee pain. If you suspect that poor mechanics is the cause of your knee pain, consult an expert: get your bike fitted at a reputable bike shop, work with a trainer, or get your gait analyzed by a physical therapist or running coach.

-Weight. Your knees are the workhorses of your legs, and when you gain weight, your knees are taking the brunt of it. Think about it–if you were to walk everywhere, go up and down stairs, and get in and out of your car carrying a twenty pound barbell, your knees would start to complain. It’s the same thing when you gain twenty pounds. Your knees won’t be happy.

-Bad shoes. While your shoes are meant to support your feet, bad or worn out ones affect everything upstream as well–your knees, hips, and even your back. It’s important to buy good, supportive shoes and replace them when they become worn. In addition, if you love your feet and knees, you won’t wear cheap flip flops with no arch. And don’t even get me started on high heels.

-The nature of your physical activity. If you are a runner, your knees are subjected to a repetitive forward motion. In contrast, if you play racquet sports, your knees are stressed by quick side-to-side movements. Each has it own risks for different kinds of knee pain and injuries. This is also true of biking, hiking, swimming, dancing, and any other sport in which you’re on your feet. My best advice? Mix up your activities.

-Trauma. Unfortunately, this is one factor you can’t control. Whether it’s a fall, accident, or bad twist, trauma to your knees is a common cause of lingering knee pain.

At Acupuncture in the Park, we see many patients who have knee pain. Clearly, the nature of the pain and the underlying cause plays a huge role in the outcome of our treatments. While acupuncture can’t undo structural problems involving your knee, it can help manage the pain quite well, prolong the need for replacement surgery, and speed the healing process. After a detailed intake and health history, a typical treatment would involve acupuncture, the use of far-infrared heat, and electric stimulation to accomplish our goals.

While many people may not think about acupuncture for their knee pain, those who do are pleasantly surprised. A few sessions on the acupuncture table may be all it takes to get you on your feet again.

How to Calm Restless Leg Syndrome

You’ve had a long day, and you’re tired. You get ready for bed, crawl in, and wait for sweet sleep to arrive. Only instead of drifting off to dreamland, your legs come alive. You may want to sleep, but your legs want to dance, and twitch, and jump. This is the reality of Restless Leg Syndrome, which affects somewhere between 5 and 15 percent of the population.

While the cause is unknown, Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) is considered to be a neurological disorder. It’s characterized by an uncontrollable urge to move your legs, jumping, twitching, or a deep crawly or bubbly sensation in your legs. Symptoms are almost always worse at night when your legs are at rest. In most cases, both legs are involved, and the symptoms usually involve the lower legs and calves.

In Chinese medicine, restless legs are usually diagnosed as a Qi depletion or internal wind. Let me explain:

Qi Depletion. Your body runs on energy, which we practitioners call Qi. That Qi is responsible for keeping you alive by warming your body, protecting it from outside invaders (immunity), fueling movement, transforming food into nutrients, and holding things in place. With Restless Leg Syndrome, the holding function of your Qi is not up to par. Think about it–your blood is held in the vessels, your organs are held in place, and your bodily wastes are held until you’re ready to release them. As a practitioner, patients who bruise easily, have incontinence, frequent miscarriages, or prolapsed organs would be diagnosed as having a malfunction of the holding function of Qi. With restless legs, depending on accompanying signs and symptoms, you might be diagnosed as having a Qi depletion–or not enough Qi to hold your legs still.

Internal Wind. In Chinese medicine, wind is considered to be movement where there shouldn’t be any. In most cases, it comes from a depletion of Yin or Blood–both nourishing and moistening substances in your body. The moistening nature of both Yin and Blood balances the warmth, activity, and dryness of Yang and keeps it in check. When Yin or Blood become depleted, Yang obecomes overpowering and can create movement. Think of this imbalance as a dry farmer’s field. With any little movement or heat, the soil is whipped up into dust clouds and dirt devils. When either Yin or Blood become depleted, you might experience signs of dryness, such as dry skin, brittle nails, or dry hair. You are also likely to have signs of unwanted movement, such as dizziness, vertigo, twitches, tremors–and restless legs that want to move at night.

In treating Restless Leg Syndrome with Chinese medicine, your practitioner would first need to make an accurate diagnosis. With both Qi depletion and internal wind, the underlying imbalance comes from some kind of depletion, so the strategy would be to build your body back up. This is likely to include acupuncture, the use of an herbal formula, and food therapy, as rebuilding usually takes a many-faceted approach.

It would also be helpful to your practitioner if you kept track of what factors made your symptoms better or worse. Some things to try include:

-Try warming or cooling. For some people warming their legs with a heating pad seems to help their symptoms. For others, soaking their feet and legs in cool (not cold!) water before bed calms them down.

-Rule out a vitamin or mineral deficiency by taking a good multivitamin/mineral supplement. Suspected deficiencies include iron and folate.

-Don’t eat a large meal late in the day or right before going to bed. If you have a Qi depletion, all your energy will go toward digestion instead of calming and holding things still.

-Experiment with cutting out alcohol and caffeine. Alcohol can interrupt your sleep, and caffeine is an energetically warm and active food.

-Pay attention to the stress in your life, and if you’re ringing the stress bell, do something about it. The bottom line is that stress makes everything worse.

-Make sure you’re getting plenty of rest. Many people with restless legs say their symptoms are worse when they’re fatigued.

-To balance the rest/work cycle, make sure you’re getting some gentle exercise daily. Activities such as walking, biking, swimming, or Yoga help to get your body moving without depleting it further.

-Before bedtime, experiment with a short walk, stretching, or gentle self-massage. Some people get relief from one or all of these.

-Finally, while you’re in bed try changing sleeping positions when your legs are acting up. There are some people who only have restless leg symptoms in certain positions.

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