Health Conditions Archives - Page 3 of 8

Hearing, Tinnitus, and Chinese Medicine

About a week ago, I caught a head cold. It was the kind of cold where my nose ran continually, to the point that I felt like I was losing brain matter. Then for a couple of days my right ear plugged up, making everything sound like my head was trapped in a tin. I could handle the runny nose and gravelly voice without too much drama, but the ear thing made me a little crazy and very irritable.

It’s human nature not to think too much about things until something goes wrong, and ears are no exception. Lately, we’ve seen a number of patients in the clinic with issues either directly or indirectly related to their ears. While all things ear-related may seem pretty straightforward, there’s a lot to know about ears from the realm of Chinese medicine, including the following:

-As acupuncturists, we think of ear-related symptoms as having to do with your Chinese Kidney system. Your Kidney is the organ that’s responsible for your overall body constitution and the home to vital substances such as Yin and Yang. Each organ system has a sensory component, and for the Kidney that component is hearing and your ears. The Kidney is associated with growth, development, fertility, and even how well we age. When your Kidney is depleted, one common sign that often shows up is a loss of hearing or ringing in your ears (tinnitus). Conversely, if you were to come into the clinic with tinnitus or hearing loss, we would always want to talk about the health of your Kidney system.

-As you age, tinnitus and hearing loss may become a fact of life. It’s a sign that the steady decline of your Kidney Essence, or body constitution, has affected your ears. Tinnitus may be alleviated through Chinese medicine, but it can take a long time—mostly because our job is undoing years of burning the candle at both ends and working under unrelenting stress—both of which deplete your Kidney system.

-From a Western perspective, tinnitus is your brain’s way of compensating for hearing loss; it’s working overtime to help you hear. Think of it as turning on your stereo system and turning the volume onto high, but without any music. You can hear a buzz, because your speakers are ramped up, but no sound is coming out.

-It’s natural to experience some hearing loss as you age. However, that loss can be accelerated from exposure to loud noises. Loud traffic, living near the airport, and sitting in the front row at too many rock concerts can all damage your hearing.

-Taking too much aspirin can also make your ears ring. That’s because the salicylates in aspirin are excreted through the Kidneys, and stress to your Kidneys can make your ears ring. The good news in this case, is when you stop taking aspirin and it’s been completely excreted from your body, the tinnitus should stop.

-Ear problems can also arise from other causes. Clenching your jaws at night and temporal mandibular joint problems (also known as TMJ, which is the joint right in front of your ears) can affect your hearing and cause ear pain.

-Blocked Eustachian tubes can plug up your ears and affect your hearing. This kind of blockage should resolve within a couple of days if it’s caused by a cold or flu, but if you’re suffering from chronic ear or sinus problems, it’s likely that digestive issues are causing your body to build up phlegm and dampness.

-Also part of the sensory system of the ear is your inner ear, which is responsible for maintaining your balance and proprioception (your sense of where you are in space). Dizziness and vertigo are inner ear problems that tend to be diagnosed as internal wind in Chinese medicine. Essentially, wind is considered to be movement where there should be none, and beyond dizziness and vertigo, may include lightheadedness, tremors, twitches, and even numbness and tingling. In most cases, internal wind is caused by a Kidney Yin depletion, which is a little like being down a quart of moistening Yin, which causes active Yang to rise upward triggering your symptoms.

Fortunately, my ear symptoms were short-lived. I got over my cold, clogged ears, and irritability within a couple of days. While you don’t think much about your ears and hearing until something is up, avoid really loud noises and keep your Chinese Kidney system as healthy as possible is good prevention. Get enough rest, avoid long-term stress, and eat many darkly colored foods that you prepare yourself are good ways to start. Your Kidneys will thank you!

The Truth About Sciatica

Sciatica is literally a pain in the butt. And in the leg. And sometimes in the foot. If you’ve ever suffered from sciatic pain, you are no stranger to the deep nagging pain that radiates sometimes from your lower back, through your butt, and down the back or side of your leg. It makes your foot numb and sometimes it can take your leg right out from under you. No matter how you slice it, sciatica is a drag!

What most people don’t know about sciatica, is that it’s not a diagnosis, but a symptom–a way of describing pain that runs along the trajectory of your sciatic nerve. There are three major causes of sciatic pain:

-A disc injury of some kind. Your discs are fibrocartilaginous joints between each vertebra in your spine. They act as a shock absorber, hold your spine together, and allow for a little bit of movement. Discs can get injured, bulge, rupture, and just degenerate over time. The resulting displacement and inflammation, especially to disc in your lower back, can press on your sciatic nerve, causing pain not only in your back, but along the entire pathway of the nerve.

-Spinal stenosis. This is the narrowing of the channels through which your spinal cord or spinal nerves travel. This narrowing causes compression on one or more nerves, including your sciatic nerve, causing pain, numbness, and weakness. The most common cause of stenosis is degeneration due to the aging process.

-Piriformis syndrome. Your piriformis muscle runs deep in your butt from your sacrum (at the base of your spine) to the greater trochanter of your femur (your hip, at the side and top of your leg). When your piriformis muscle goes into spasm, gets tight, or is just cranky in general, it can press your sciatic nerve against the pelvic bone causing classic sciatic pain. Because your piriformis muscle is a core stabilizer, the more you walk, the worse your symptoms get.

In Chinese medicine, sciatic pain is considered a blockage in your Gallbladder meridian, an energetic pathway that runs along the side of your entire body, including your leg and into your foot. A typical treatment plan would include acupuncture, heat, and bodywork to relieve pain and increase circulation along the trajectory of the pathway.

That said, not all sciatic pain is created equal, in that some cases are much easier to treat than others. I have found acupuncture for piriformis syndrome to be effective, as it involves getting the muscle to calm down to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve. If your sciatic pain is caused by a disc problem, reducing the inflammation in the area of the disc is the goal of acupuncture, which can also be effective. Spinal stenosis can be a little trickier to treat, because the source of your pain in structural in nature. In cases of spinal stenosis, the goal of treatment is pain relief.

I personally have suffered from sciatic pain, but luckily only once. It was after a kayaking trip which left me unable to walk and in a great deal of pain. Apparently my piriformis muscle had seized up from sitting in a cold kayak for the better part of a week. And while that may not sound like good news, it actually was fairly easy to treat. With some acupuncture, heat, and a little bit of physical therapy, the muscle relaxed, and in a week or two I was back to walking like a champ.

Sleep Apnea, Menopause, and Acupuncture

When I think about sleep apnea, I picture in my mind’s eye some big dude sawing wood, snoring up a storm, and thrashing around all night long. What I don’t picture is a woman going through menopause and struggling to get a good night’s sleep.

While it’s true that more men than women have sleep apnea, women do in fact suffer from this sleep disorder. Sleep apnea is an airway obstruction that occurs while you’re sleeping, forcing you to wake up and catch your breath. People with severe sleep apnea may wake up dozens of times during the night, making it impossible for them to get the deep restful sleep needed for good health. Congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, and daytime exhaustion are some of the health problems associated with sleep apnea.

For women who have sleep apnea, many of them develop it during or after menopause. A decrease in the hormones estrogen and progesterone are thought to be the culprit, as they help regulate and promote sleep.

In the clinic, I see women with sleep issues related to menopause who describe a pattern in which they can fall asleep easily. However, they wake in the wee hours and “surf” restlessly between sleep and wakefulness the rest of the night. This pattern is also similar to that of apnea, which is at its worst during the deepest REM sleep, when the work of breathing becomes a little more difficult. Ironically, since most REM sleep occurs during the last third of the night, apnea sufferers also find it the most difficult time to get sufficient deep sleep. The bottom line is that once REM sleep kicks in during the latter half of the night, apnea begins, causing frequent waking.

In Chinese medicine, menopause is most closely tied to your Chinese Kidney, which is responsible for your body constitution, growth, maturation, fertility, and how you will age.

Your Kidney system also houses the vital substances of Essence, Yin, and Yang, which frequently become depleted during menopause. This depletion is the underlying cause behind hot flashes, night sweats, and disturbed sleep.

There is good news in that sleep apnea that develops during menopause may be a temporary thing that resolves itself after the transition of menopause is over. In addition, if you are struggling to get a good night’s sleep, there are some things that you can do. Among them:

-Get a sleep study. Contact your health care provider to find a sleep clinic near you. They will measure the quality of your sleep and your breathing to determine if you are suffering from apnea. If you are, they can suggest solutions that will help you sleep better, which might include a CPAP machine to keep your breathing steady while you sleep.

-Sleep cool. Keep the room where you sleep cool, wear light moisture-wicking pajamas, and open a window if possible.

-Enlist some help from Chinese medicine. Many people use acupuncture to help them sleep better. In addition, Chinese herbs can help nourish your Chinese Kidney and offset some of the side effects of menopause. Interestingly, in some cases herbs can be more effective than acupuncture, as they are better at the job of nourishing your vital substances and regulating hormonal changes.

-Chinese food therapy may also help. Your practitioner can suggest foods that nourish your Kidney, as well as cool some of the heat of hot flashes or night sweats.

The bottom line is that while you may think that women don’t snore or have apnea, the reality is that they do, and it kicks in for many women during menopause. The quality of your sleep is important, because it affects your health in a number of ways. If you believe that you have obstructive sleep apnea, get some help.

Can Acupuncture Help Rotator Cuff Injuries?

Your shoulder is an amazing thing. It can carry groceries, throw a fastball, high five a pal, comb your hair, and shrug when you don’t know the answer. It’s one of the most versatile joints in your body, able to move in almost any direction. That versatility comes with a price, however, which is that shoulders are prone to all kinds of injuries.

One of the most common kinds of shoulder injuries is damage to the muscles and tendons that make up your rotator cuff. Your shoulder is a ball and socket joint, like your hip. However, your shoulder has a very shallow socket, in order to allow for that flexibility of movement. This means that your shoulder depends on the surrounding muscles and tendons to hold it together. Many of those muscles and tendons make up the rotator cuff, or a kind of sleeve that holds your arm in place in the socket.

Many people talk about the rotator cuff as if it were a single entity, but in reality it is a group of four muscles and tendons that converge near the top of your shoulder. For anatomy geeks, those four muscles are supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and subscapularis–easily remembered by the acronym SITS. Interestingly, the rotator cuff muscles live behind your shoulder, around your scapula (your chicken wing). However, the tendons to those muscles are anchored at the front of your shoulder, enabling a wide range of motion.

Shoulder injuries are common, and can be caused by repetitive movements of the arm, injuries, trauma, muscles tears, swelling of the tendons, and aging. Symptoms of rotator cuff injuries include pain, especially in the front of the shoulder and down your arm; weakness; problems moving your shoulder; the sensation of a “catch” when lifting your arm; noise with movement; and the inability to sleep on the affected shoulder.

If you are experiencing shoulder pain, the first order of business is to give it a rest. If your pain is from overuse, this means you need to quit doing the activities that have been stressing your shoulder out. I am also a big fan of physical therapy for shoulder injuries, as a good therapist will give you exercises and stretches to increase your range of motion and over time, strengthen the involved muscles.

Can acupuncture help rotator cuff injuries? In many instances, it can. I have found that the majority of shoulder problems originate at the supraspinatus muscle, which sits at the top of your scapula and runs under the AC joint (where your collar bone ends at your shoulder) to anchor at the front of your shoulder. Pain can be from a weak or partially torn muscle, tendinitis, or swelling as the muscle passes under the AC joint. A sign that the supraspinatus is involved is the sensation of a painful catch when you raise your arm upward from your side.

Acupuncture can relieve the pain in your shoulder, reduce inflammation, and speed up the healing process. An acupuncture treatment involves taking a history of the injury, mapping the pain, and determining the muscles and tendons that are involved. In many cases, the pain is coming from one of the rotator cuff muscles in your back. Patients are often surprised to find that a couple of well-placed needles in their back can actually provide a great deal of relief and healing in their shoulder. If you’re suffering from shoulder pain, set up a time for a free consultation to see if acupuncture can help you!

Five Things to Know About Back Pain

Like a lightning bolt out of the blue, back pain seems to strike at the most unlikely of times. It can be set off by some seemingly harmless activity like reaching for soap in the shower, trying to grab something from under the bed, or simply by putting on your shoes. When it happens, the pain is sudden and sharp and can’t be ignored. When my back goes out, the episodes of pain are intense, short-lived, and muscular in nature. I realize that I am lucky when it comes to the health of my back. There are millions of people with back issues, who struggle with chronic back pain on a daily basis, often for years at a time.

If you suffer from back pain, here are a few things you might not know:

-In many cases, stretching can not only help with the pain, but it can help prevent injuries in the first place. Stretches to flex and extend your back, open up your sacrum, low back, and hip flexors can be invaluable in keeping back pain away.

-Most people believe that there is only one single cause of their back pain, when in reality, there may be a number of things going on. Like a perfect storm, issues like tight muscles, inflammation, trauma, muscle imbalances, misalignment, and inactivity may all be contributing to your pain. We have found that many patients come to us with a diagnosis of disk problems who have found a great deal of relief from our work on soft tissue (muscles).

-Similarly, while many people look for the one answer to their back pain, it may actually take a combination of therapies to get the job done. I have seen patients who have stopped all therapies except one, so they could see which was working for them. The reality is that a

combination of physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, stretching, and heat may work better to relieve back pain than any single one therapy one its own.

-Diet may also be a player in back pain. While what you eat and the condition of your back may seem to be unrelated, the reality is that your diet plays a role in back health on a couple of levels. First, when you blow out your back, either from a muscle pull, bulging or ruptured disk, or any other injury, inflammation is involved. Eating a diet geared toward reducing inflammation can help reduce the pain and the time it takes to heal. In addition, your spine needs a good supply of blood to bring vital oxygen and nutrients to the area. Unfortunately for many people as they age, the arteries to their spine are blocked with atherosclerotic plaques (blocked arteries) that inhibit blood flow. The end result is that vertebrae and disks that need nourishment to heal are increasingly cut off from an adequate blood supply.

-In Chinese medicine, low back pain is associated with your Kidney organ system. Your Chinese Kidneys are responsible for your body constitution—things like how healthy you will be, how you will mature, fertility, and how you will age. A chronically achy lower back is a sign that your Kidney system is depleted. A trip to your acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese medicine can help with acupuncture, food therapy, and lifestyle tweaks to get you back on track.

-Finally, even though acupuncture can’t change the structural causes of your back pain, it can help with pain relief in a couple of ways. First, acupuncture alters your brain chemistry by increasing the circulation of feel-good endorphins, up-regulating your body’s own opioid system, and limiting pain signals to your brain. Acupuncture also has the effect of increasing circulation, and that increase brings inflammation-reducing white blood cells to the area to support healing and reduce pain.

The bottom line is that even though you may have a diagnosis of a structural problem in your back, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be pain-free. Often, increasing the circulation to the area, relaxing the surrounding muscles, and calming down the inflammation can effectively help to relieve your back pain.

Rx for Fall Allergies

When I was a kid, allergies were something that was not on my radar. I grew up in a large family, and one of my sisters seemed to suffer for all the rest of us. She walked around the house with red eyes, a stuffy nose, and a tissue in hand. I know she was miserable, but I couldn’t relate.

Actually I couldn’t relate until I was about 30 and living in Colorado. One spring I found myself completely stuffed up with itchy eyes, ears, and entire face. I felt like my brains had been removed and replaced with cotton. Could this be allergies? As a grown-up?

Turns out that you can develop allergies at any time in your life. And it also turned out that for me it was the Russian Olive trees in bloom that were making my life a living hell.

Lately, I’ve been thinking lots about seasonal allergies. It’s the end of summer and drying out here in Minnesota, which means two things: no mosquitoes (good) and a bumper crop of ragweed (bad). I see the golden-yellow spikes of ragweed in full bloom in the empty fields and marshes throughout the countryside. While it adds color the the landscape, ragweed is like kryptonite to anyone who suffers from hay fever.
We practitioners of Chinese medicine consider allergens to be external pathogens–invaders from the outside that can make you sick, especially if you’re susceptible to them. However, you have a defense system called Wei Qi that guards the exterior of your body like a protective bubble or shield. When Wei Qi is weak, all kinds of pathogens, usually carried by the wind, can get into your body and cause colds, flu, and allergies.

Wei Qi is connected to your Lung system in Chinese medicine, because in most cases it’s the first organ that’s affected when pathogens attack. You may have a cough, sore throat, or runny/stuffy nose–all considered to be symptoms associated with your Lungs. In addition, your Lungs are the most exterior of all your organs, because they are constantly in contact with the outside world through the air you breathe. So you can say that your Lungs guard the exterior of your body, and weak Lungs are the primary cause of weak Wei Qi.

The solution to dealing with allergies is two-fold in Chinese medicine. On the superficial level, you need to deal with the pathogens (allergens) that are causing your symptoms. At a deeper level, you will need to strengthen your protective Wei Qi, which can be done through a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and in some cases food therapy.

The short-term fix is to think of pollen as a toxic dust that settles on your clothes, hair, carpet, and even your pets. If you can get rid of the pollen, you can decrease your symptoms dramatically. Here are a few steps:

-Close your windows, especially when the weather is dry and windy.

-Shower in the evening to get the day’s toxic dust off your skin and out of your hair.

-Wash your hands after handling a pet that’s been outside. Wipe down your pet with a moist towel when it comes indoors (and wash your hands!).

-Get a really good vacuum, as pollen is extremely fine and will settle on your floors and pretty much everywhere else. Dusting is good, too. And you really should get someone who does not suffer from allergies to dust and vacuum for you.

-Change your clothes after you’ve been working outdoors.

-Get a Neti Pot and use it. (It’s a small pot to help you cleanse your nasal passages, and can be found at most drug stores.)

-A good time to go outdoors during allergy season is just after it has rained. The moisture washes away some of the pollen and causes it to settle for a day or two.

I still suffer from allergies for about two weeks in early June when the Russian Olives are blooming. However, here in Minnesota, there are far fewer of these evil trees. During those two weeks, I stay inside, take a lot of showers, and wait it out.

Why Am I So Tired?

As a practitioner of Chinese medicine, I work with many patients who are flat out tired. They struggle to get out of bed in the morning, poop out at night, or don’t have the energy to do the things they want to do throughout the day. Some come to me because exhaustion is their chief complaint; for others fatigue is a secondary symptom of something else going on. Regardless of how it manifests, there are many, many tired people just trying to get through the day.

I know all about exhaustion. Several years ago after major surgery, I was sent home to heal. After a couple of weeks, I was up and about and feeling pretty chipper, with one exception. Every evening after dinner, I experienced exhaustion so profound that that I could barely move. The only thing I could do was go to bed and crash. This fatigue lasted for almost a year after the surgery, but when it finally resolved, I knew that my healing was complete.

What’s interesting to me is that almost every patient I see is clueless as to why they’re so tired. This may be because the underlying cause can be seemingly unrelated to a patient’s symptoms. Most people think lack of sleep is the most common reason that they’re tired. While poor sleep can make you feel exhausted, there are many other causes of of fatigue. Here’s my short list:

-A recent illness or surgery. Your body is programmed to heal, but it takes a lot of energy to do so. It’s common to feel exhausted after an accident, illness, or surgery because all of your energy reserves are going toward putting you right. In addition, if there was blood loss involved, as in the case of surgery, it’s more likely that you will feel fatigued for some time–even years–afterward.

-Childbirth. Like an illness or surgery, it takes many months to regain your energy after giving birth. The actual event, coupled with blood loss and sleepless nights can leave new moms exhausted for as long as the first year of their baby’s life.

-Poor diet. You get your energy from the food you eat. If you’re not eating well, it’s like putting bad gas in your car’s tank–you won’t run well, either.

-Poor digestion. Your body converts food into nutrients and energy through the process of digestion. You can eat the best food in the world, but if your digestion is funky, it can leave you feeling depleted and tired. Signs that things aren’t going well gut-wise include heartburn, gas, bloating, stomachaches, nausea, loose stools, constipation, and lack of appetite.

-Overwork. Considered to be an underlying cause of illness and depletion in Chinese medicine, working long hours without a break can lead to exhaustion. Even when you’re getting enough sleep, working, studying, caretaking, or overexercising can translate into exhaustion.

-Stress. Unrelenting stress affects everything from your muscles to your mood to your digestion. Over time, stress has the ability to deplete you at the deepest level, causing an exhaustion so profound that it can take months to recover.

-Stagnation. This is a term in Chinese medicine in which your energy just isn’t moving well. Stagnation is a little like a car’s engine that is seizing up, and can be the cause of a host of different symptoms. Physically, stagnation causes pain, poor digestion, menstrual symptoms, and muscle tightness. Emotionally, stagnation manifests as stress, frustration and depression. The link between stagnation and fatigue is simple: if your energy is all bound up, it’s not available to fuel your daily activities.

If you can’t muster the energy to get through the day, Chinese medicine and acupuncture has a lot to offer. At Acupuncture in the Park, our first order of business is to identify the cause. Our goal is to eliminate what’s wiping you out as well as to rebuild your energy stores. We have a number of tools to work with, including acupuncture, Chinese herbal formulas, food therapy, heat therapy, and lifestyle changes. You don’t have to walk through life like a zombie–acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help!

Acupuncture for Post Traumatic Stress – PTSD

When I was a teenager I witnessed a scary incident that involved a panicky young horse that was injured while being moved to his new home. Fortunately, the accident looked far worse than it was, and the horse arrived at his new digs shaken and bruised, but able to make a full recovery.

However, it was not as easy for me to shake off the incident. For several weeks after, I kept rehashing the scene in my mind, was unable to sleep, and felt shaken to my core. When I look back now, I realize that what I was experiencing during that time was a mild episode of post traumatic stress, or PTSD.

PTSD is a common disorder that develops after a frightening ordeal that involves physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The sufferer of PTSD may have been personally harmed or may have witnessed a harmful episode that happened to another. Many people experience PTSD after military combat, but it also frequently occurs to victims of violence, such as childhood abuse, rape, muggings, accidents, or natural disasters.

PTSD occurs because our bodies are wired to respond to danger through the activation of our sympathetic nervous system. This reaction is called the fight or flight response, in which our bodies are flooded with a cascade of chemicals, including cortisol, adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine that enable us to react quickly to the danger at hand. For people with PTSD, this normal reaction has been altered in some way, in that they feel danger and the accompanying stress even during times when they are not in danger. The symptoms of PTSD include recurrent and persistent memories of the traumatic incident, nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, acute anxiety, and reactivity to stimuli that remind them of the original trauma.

In Chinese medicine, each organ system is associated with an emotion. Fear at the deepest level is the realm of the Chinese Kidney, which is the deepest of the organs and governs your body’s overall health and vital substances. In addition, your Chinese Kidney is the organ system most damaged by chronic stress. Other organs affected by PTSD include the Spleen, which governs digestion and is associated with excessive worry and rehashing of ideas (think of indigestion of the mind in which ideas keep repeating.) The Heart organ system may also be involved in PTSD, in that it is the keeper of emotions, memories, and consciousness.

Several studies have shown acupuncture to be effective in treating the symptoms of PTSD, and the Veterans Administration is using ear acupuncture in some settings to treat this illness. While acupuncture and Chinese medicine can play an important role in treating PTSD, combining acupuncture with behavioral or talk therapy, and in many cases medical intervention may be most effective.

Some ways to begin the healing process from PTSD include:

-Educate yourself about the symptoms and treatment options for PTSD. The more you know about this illness, the better you will be able to make important decisions in the healing process.

-Understand that dealing with and managing the symptoms of PTSD is not the same as eliminating it altogether. The memories of past trauma will not go away completely; the healing process is aimed at altering your reactivity those memories.

-When you are feeling anxious, pay attention to your breathing. In stressful moments, we tend to breathe shallower and faster, which only makes things worse. Try inhaling for a count of four, holding your breath for a count of four, and exhaling for a count of four.

-Stay in the moment when you are feeling stressed or anxious. Think about what you are doing right now, and pay attention to the sights, sounds, and smells that are in your immediate environment right now.

-Find small moments and activities that bring you joy.

-Try writing about your feelings. For some, expressive writing—taking some quiet time to journal about what you are feeling can be therapeutic.

-Be kind to yourself. Eating well, connecting with supportive people, and getting adequate rest are important components of the the healing process.

-Find a good support system. Look for someone or several people in whom you can confide and feel comforted by.

-Get help! PTSD is very real. Find resources in your community—physicians, groups, acupuncturists, therapists, or other care providers who have treated PTSD and can provide you the therapeutic help that you need.

Upper Back and Shoulder Pain and Our Evolving Bodies

About a month ago I attended an acupuncture symposium, at which the keynote speaker talked about treating musculoskeletal injuries and pain. Early on in his presentation he made the remark that the bodies he treated thirty years ago are very different from those he treats today.

It took a minute for me to understand how profound a statement this was, because my first thought was, sure…we’re all getting older, so of course our bodies are different. But what he meant was that collectively our bodies are changing. We are evolving right before our very eyes.

So what’s happening, and why are we changing? A few things:

-For starters, we didn’t use computers thirty years ago in the way we do today. The vast majority of people around the world are sitting at a keyboard typing away at work, on social media, and even watching TV. Thirty years ago, typing was delegated to the office assistant or secretary. Today, both your boss and your eight-year-old type.

-In addition, we text today…hunched over a phone firing off witty messages with our opposable digits.

-Have you watched kids heading off to the school bus lately? They are wearing backpacks loaded down with books, folders, and school supplies. The weight of those packs cause most kids to lean forward to stabilize that weight.

-Even more than thirty years ago, women carried handbags. These were purses, or where I grew up, pocketbooks, with a short handle. The idea was that they were to be carried in your hand. Today, most bags come with a shoulder strap and are meant to be worn over one shoulder. And if you’re like me, worn over the same shoulder all the time, causing one shoulder to be perpetually higher than the other.

So why are these changes a big deal? The answer is that the biomechanics of our daily lives have changed. Today our backs are hunched, shoulders are rolled forward, and one side is frequently elevated above the other. It becomes a big deal in that I see a lot of patients with rotator cuff muscle injuries, neck pain, shoulder pain, and headaches caused from this forward roll of our collective shoulders.

Here’s where acupuncture comes in. Though the use of some strategically placed needles, we can get those tight muscles to release, those painful shoulders to relax, and relieve the pain from chronic overuse and plain bad posture. In addition, your practitioner can give you some specific stretches and exercises to strengthen and stretch the muscles involved. There are also things that you can do to help relieve the tightness, pain, and forward roll. Among them:

-Change your biomechanics. Can you work some of the time standing up? Our devices are now small enough that we can move them to just about anywhere. When I have the chance, I work standing with my iPad at chest height, which helps my posture dramatically.

-Open up your chest through stretching. One of the easiest is to stand in a doorway with your forearms in the frame and stretch your chest open. Do this with your upper arms in a “T” position, and then raise them and stretch in a “Y” position.

-Put a note on your computer to check your posture. It will take repeated reminders to change how you sit.

-Check your stress. Like the hackles on an alarmed dog, we tend to carry our stress in our shoulders and at the base of our neck. Whether it’s meditation, yoga, fishing, or taking a long vacation, do what it takes to get your stress under some kind of control.

-Shrug it off, really. Bring your shoulders up to your ears in a classic shrug and hold it there for a few seconds. Then very consciously let go of the shrug–it works wonders in loosening up a tight neck and shoulders.

-Deal with your shoulder bag. Either get a handbag with a short handle or wear your shoulder bag around your neck and across your chest. Either solution will help any imbalance you’ve developed from a handbag perpetually perched on one shoulder.

Hangover Help Using Chinese Medicine

Hangovers are an exercise in regret. No matter how much fun I had last night, when the room is spinning, my head is pounding, and my stomach is in turmoil, I always regret that last drink…or two…or three. There is always the wish that I could go back in time and have a do-over. Then there’s the moment when I realize I am hungover to remind me never to do that again, which for me, is pretty effective.

So you’ve got a hangover. Does Chinese medicine have anything to offer in this arena? Well, in Chinese medicine, the action of alcohol is warm, dispersing, and in large amounts, toxic. In both Chinese and Western medicine, alcohol is metabolized by your Liver. The warm and dispersing action of the alcohol dries you out, depleting Liver Yin, which is the nourishing coolant in your body. As a result, Liver Yang, which is warm and active, rises upward creating all kinds of symptoms that you’d rather not have. The overall dryness and heat rising gives you a killer headache, upsets your stomach, and makes you feel miserable in general.

Here are a few things that you can do to be a little less miserable while you’re learning your hangover lesson:

-Rehydrate. This one is simple, as many of your symptoms are the cause of being dehydrated. That said, what you drink makes a difference. Steer clear of coffee, tea, or any other caffeinated drink, as they are also warming and dispersing, which will only make your hangover worse. In addition, don’t even think about having another drink. That advice is most likely coming from your drinking buddies, not anyone who cares about alleviating your hangover symptoms. What they should have told you is to down a couple of glasses of water before passing out in bed last night; you’d be feeling a lot better in the morning.

-As for what to drink, choose warm or room temperature water, herbal tea, or a not-very-sweet sports drink. Even better is Sprite. After studying dozens of drinks, researchers have concluded that Sprite is the most effective drink to reduce your hangover symptoms. That’s because it speeds up the metabolism of acetaldehyde, which is a by-product of alcohol that’s responsible for most of your symptoms.

-For your upset stomach, drink a little ginger tea or ginger grated into warm water. One of the primary actions of ginger is to calm an upset stomach. You can buy ginger root at the grocery store and keep it in the freezer.

-Apply cool compresses to your head or neck. Remember, your headache is coming from a kind of energetic heat rising upward, so help cool it off; you’ll feel better.

-What to eat? When your stomach has calmed down enough to want food, take it easy at first. My go to choice is a congee, which is a kind of rice porridge/soup that’s very gentle on a cranky stomach. Simmer one part rice to seven parts water or broth until the rice is tender. You can add grated ginger, scallions, and a protein of your choice, like an egg, tofu, or chicken. As a breakfast food, add nuts, raisins, and cinnamon, and use a bit of brown sugar instead of broth for flavoring.

By actively rehydrating, cooling your headache, and treating your upset stomach with TLC, your hangover should be a thing of the past in short order. In addition, savor the regret you have for how much you drank last night; it can decrease your risk for hangovers!

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