Staying Healthy Archives - Acupuncture in the Park

Natural Help for Night Sweats

Night sweats can be very frustrating because they’re uncomfortable, can interrupt your sleep, and may occur several times during the course of a night. They’re described as profuse sweating while you’re sleeping or hot flashes that occur at night and that happen repeatedly. Night sweats can leave you, your nightclothes, and sheets soaking wet, and can be a major contributor to loss of sleep. A single occurrence doesn’t qualify as night sweats, nor does a room that’s too hot or sleeping with too many blankets that cause you to wake up hot.

If you’re experiencing night sweats, there are a number of reasons why this may be happening. One of the most common causes is hormonal changes that occur with the onset of menopause. However there are other conditions that can cause night sweats, and they can occur in men as well. Night sweats can also be caused by infection, illness, and the side effects of some medications. If you’re experiencing night sweats accompanied by other symptoms, such as fevers, weight loss, heart palpitations, or overwhelming fatigue, it’s time to get checked out by your doctor.

Chinese Medicine on Night Sweats

In Chinese medicine, there are also a number of reasons behind night sweats, but the most common is an imbalance between your body’s Yin and Yang. Like the Chinese character for the sunny side of the hill, Yang is warm, bright, energizing, and transformative. In your body it acts a little like a pilot light that keeps you warm and fuels metabolism, digestion, and other transformative processes. In contrast, Yin is represented by the character of the shady side of the hill. Yin is cooling, calming, moistening, and nourishing. While Yang is warming and transforming, the actual substance of all your organs, tissues, and fluids are considered to be Yin. Yin acts like a nutritious coolant in your body that balances warm and active Yang.

When Yin becomes depleted, it’s like being low on the coolant that keeps Yang’s warmth in check. As a result, Yang burns freely and can cause symptoms of heat—most notably in the form of night sweats. In addition, the heat from depleted Yin/excess of Yang occurs during the backdrop of night, which is the most cool, restorative, Yin time of day. Depleted Yin is also associated with a certain amount of dryness, and may also cause you to wake up with a dry and sore throat, have dry skin or hair, or feel thirsty.

While depleted Yin is the most frequent cause of night sweats in Chinese medicine, there are other patterns that may also cause them to occur. Blood depletion, which is a little like anemia in which the nourishing quality of your blood is low can also cause night sweats. Also, excess heat triggered by blockages can also be an underlying reason for sweating at night.

Many women experience night sweats and the resulting loss of sleep during menopause. That’s because many of the hormones that are decreasing during menopause are Yin in nature—they’re nourishing and moistening. The drop in these hormones are considered to be a drop in Yin substances, which causes the imbalance between Yin and Yang. Other factors that can cause depleted Yin include your diet, body constitution, stress, working too hard, or becoming run down.

For many people, Chinese medicine can be an effective way to treat night sweats. If you should choose to go that route, your practitioner will likely use acupuncture, but may also supplement your treatment with Chinese herbs. There are a number of formulas that contain specific herbs to nourish Yin, cool heat, and calm your spirit to ensure a better night’s sleep. Food therapy may also be a helpful strategy if you’re experiencing night sweats due to depleted Yin. Your practitioner can help you choose foods that are nourishing, moistening, and cooling in order to supplement Yin. The bottom line is that while night sweats can be uncomfortable and mess with your sleep, they can occur for a variety of reasons, and Chinese medicine can be an effective and natural way to get them under control.

Nine Ways to Prevent Joint Pain

If you’ve never experienced joint pain, consider yourself lucky. We all know someone who has knee problems, had a hip replaced, suffers from shoulder problems, or is hobbled by back pain. As you age, it may seem like joint pain is inevitable; but that may not be the case. In Chinese medicine, the health of your joints is explained by more than just blind luck.

According to Chinese theory, your joints are related to the internal organs of your Kidney and Liver. Your Chinese Kidney system regulates your overall body constitution; how you grow, how healthy you will be, and how well you’ll age. Your Kidney is also responsible for the health of your bones, which includes your joints. In fact, a cardinal sign of a depleted Kidney system is weakness and pain in your lower back or knees. In contrast, your Chinese Liver governs the flow of all the systems and energy in your body. Your Liver system is also associated with joints in that it’s associated with the health of your ligaments and tendons. A healthy Liver system translates into strong but flexible ligaments and tendons.

In addition, in Chinese medicine, when you have joint pain of any kind—whether from a traumatic injury, arthritis, or simple wear and tear—you have something called a Bi (pronounced Bee) syndrome. A Bi syndrome is basically a painful blockage in the joint in the form of poor circulation, swelling, and reduced range of motion.

While you can’t rebuild lost cartilage in your knees or undo arthritis in your back, there are some things you can do—or things to avoid—that can help you prevent some kinds of joint pain. Among them:

1) If you’re overweight by more than 20 pounds, know that the excess weight is putting a strain on your joints. The weight is unduly stressing your feet, knees, lower back, and may be altering your posture. I know it’s easy to say and hard to do, but losing excess weight may save you a world of pain in the long run.

2) Choose good footwear. High heels are a common cause of problems in the joints in your feet; most notably bunions and hammer toes. They also throw your spine out of alignment, which can be a source of back pain in the long run. Flip flops can also cause joint problems, in that most offer no arch support and are a common source of knee pain. Worn out shoes that no longer support your feet can mess up your posture, also raising your risk for joint problems.

3) Check your posture. In the past three decades, neck, upper back, and shoulder pain has become epidemic due to the amount of time many people spend hunched in front of their computer or looking down at their phone. Good posture means that when you’re standing up, your ears, shoulders, and hips stack up.

4) Also under the heading of posture, if you regularly carry a shoulder bag, even if it’s worn across your body, you’re putting your back out of alignment. A backpack or handheld bag is a better choice when it comes to aligning your body and saving your joints.

5) Sleeping on your stomach is a nightmare. When you sleep on your stomach, you’re twisting your spine and neck for hours on end, opening the door for arthritis, tight muscles, and joint pain in your neck and upper back. A better choice is to sleep on your back or side.

6) When it comes to healthy joints, the adage “use them or lose them” is accurate. Moving your body lubricates your joints and improves your range of motion.

7) However, know that overuse is a common cause for all kinds of joint pain. Whether it’s tennis elbow, runner’s knees, or a sore back from gardening, know when to call it quits. A good rule of thumb is to stop when something starts to hurt.

8) Stretch. You may think that stretching is only about your muscles, but it increases your flexibility overall, lubricates your joints, and helps you to maintain your range of motion.

9) Think about acupuncture and Chinese medicine. If you struggle with joint problems, your acupuncturist has a number of healing tools to help relieve the pain and strengthen your Chinese Liver and Kidney systems for healthier joints.

Joint pain isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion. With some preventative care and the help of a good acupuncturist, you may be able to improve the health of your joints and avoid painful joint conditions.

Grow Your Own Food

Growing your own food is good for you in a number of ways. Last year, due to a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes, I was able to go outside, pick a tomato, and cut it up while it was still warm from the sun. Not only was it delicious, but it was incredibly satisfying eating a food that I had grown from a seed or tiny plant. Whether it’s a garden plot, the raspberry patch along the back fence, or pots of herbs on your patio, growing your own food can improve your health. Here’s how:

-It’s local. You know food from your own garden wasn’t picked before it was ripe or spent three days in a truck. When you grow your own, you know exactly where it came from, what went into growing it, and that it was picked at the right time. Furthermore, eating locally grown food, whether from your garden or a local farm stand, saves energy. It wasn’t transported, refrigerated for days, or packaged.

-You’re eating according to the seasons, and this is important in Chinese medicine. Your body changes energetically with each season, and the local foods change, too. During the summer, the produce in season is cooling and full of moisture, such as cucumbers, watermelon, and lettuce; just what you need during the hot and humid weather. However, as the weather turns cold, what’s ripe changes too. Root vegetables, squash, beans, and apples are in season, which keep longer and are more calorie-dense to get you through the winter.

-When you grow your own food, you know exactly what you’re getting. In Chinese medicine, a source of illness is eating food that has been wrecked. Thousands of years ago that meant food that has spoiled due to lack of refrigeration. Today that means eating food that has been doused with pesticides, fungicides and chemical fertilizers. Don’t want chemicals on your peppers? Grow them yourself. It certainly beats trying to figure out which vegetable is “cleaner” at the grocery store.

-You’re eating healthier when much of your food comes from the garden. The Mediterranean Diet and eating to reduce inflammation are diets that scientists have found can lower your risk for a number of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis, and may even help your aging memory. Both diets are heavy on plants, beans, nuts, and olive oil, but low on animal products, sugar, and refined grains. Growing your own produce is a good way to get more plants in your diet.

-Gardening counts as exercise and is good for your soul. Tending your garden can be strenuous, especially when the weeds have a mind of their own. In addition, just being outside, tending plants, and watching nature do its thing is actually relaxing. It helps reduce stress, can relieve depression and decrease your blood pressure.

-When you grow your own food, it can be as easy or as hard as you want. You can work a large garden with a variety of vegetables, or tend a few pots of tomatoes and basil on your deck. Either way, the satisfaction level is the same, and the food tastes great!

Honoring Spring with Chinese Medicine

Spring is here, and Chinese medicine has a lot to say about it! I know that it seems like this past winter would never end, with the bitter cold and the endless snow. But spring is inevitable, and there are ways to embrace this season beyond moving your winter clothes out of the closet. Embracing the personality of each season is a path to physical and mental health, as well as balance. Here are a few things to know about this amazing time of year:

-The nature of spring is that of expansiveness. The days become warmer, the sun is shining longer, and it compels to go outdoors. Gone are the dark winter days of hunkering down beside the fireplace; spring lures you outdoors. Like a seed that’s been planted in the dark earth that moves upward toward the sun, you are also coming alive from long months of cold and inactivity and being drawn out by the light. The theme for spring is growth; it’s a great time to start something new!

-Spring is also a time of going from inertia to movement. You’ve been pinned down indoors by the cold days of winter, but the weather is calling for you to come outdoors and play. Take a walk, get on your bike, or take a hike in a nearby park.

-It’s incredibly healthy for you to watch nature’s shift from frozen to green. Marking the return of the red-winged blackbirds, watching the trees bud, and finding tiny wildflowers poking up through the ground all put you in touch with nature, and that’s a good thing for your health. Spending time in nature or walking in the woods can lower your blood pressure, decrease your stress, and improve your immunity. There’s a great deal of research that has documented these effects. Being out in nature is calming and puts you in touch with something larger than yourself.

-Spring is associated with the element of wood—not only the hardwood of grown trees, but also the small shoots of plants sprouting up through the earth. Hardwood trees are strong but flexible. If one becomes dry, brittle, or rigid, it will bend and break. Also, while wood seems to be stationary, it is actually in a state of constant flow and growth. Sap is flowing, plants are growing, flowers are blooming, and trees are bearing fruit. Likewise, in Chinese medicine maintaining flow, flexibility, and the ability to take changes in stride all help you maintain your physical and emotional health.

-Not surprisingly, the color associated with wood and the season of spring is green. In Chinese food therapy, eating foods that are local and seasonal are also a pathway to good health, and this time of year, they’re green. This means that eating sprouts, shoots, baby greens, and lettuces that are the first vegetables ready to harvest are a good way to honor both your health and the season.

-Where growth and expansion and the color green come together is in your garden. Whether you grow vegetables in a garden plot or pots of vegetables and flowers out your back door, now is the time to think about getting some plants into the soil. From ideas and planning to harvesting vegetables or cutting flowers, gardening is another manifestation on the spring’s theme of expansiveness and growth.

-I think about spring as a time of new starts, activity, going outside, and getting in touch with nature. It’s a time to get your internal sap flowing, welcoming change, and broadening your ideas. Spring is a reminder that we’re all a part of nature, and embracing nature is good for your health.

Secrets to Aging Well

I know a number of patients, friends, neighbors, and parents who have lived a long time; some well into their nineties. Many are healthy, engaged, and vibrant, while others are struggling with mobility, cognitive issues, or ill-health. I have always wondered why some people seem to remain healthy and functional even as they approach 100, while others don’t. Certainly, I want to live a long life, but with it I want to be able to enjoy a level of cognitive awareness and activity. So is there a secret to healthy longevity, and if so, what is it?

In the framework of Chinese medicine there are a number of factors that contribute to how you age, but one of the most important is the idea of Essence. Believed to be one of your body’s vital substances, Essence is a little like your body constitution and DNA all wrapped into one. You’re born with something called Pre-Natal Essence, which like DNA, is passed down to you from your ancestors. It determines how healthy you will be during your lifetime, as well as how you grow, mature, your fertility, and how quickly and healthfully you will age. As you get older, this kind of Essence becomes depleted, and when it’s completely used up, your life is over.

That’s not the end of the story, however. There’s a second kind of Essence called Post-Natal Essence, which can augment the Pre-Natal Essence that you were born with. The strength of this second kind of Essence is determined by what you do during your lifetime to support your health. It sounds a little confusing, but simply put the Pre-Natal Essence you were born with gets depleted over the course of your life, but Post-Natal Essence can safeguard it, effectively extending your life and protecting your health. Kind of like a Post-Natal checking account to preserve your Pre-Natal savings.

The key to guarding your Essence in order to extend your healthy lifespan is through living well and healthfully. This translates into eating good food, balancing work with rest, moderate sexual practices, keeping stress and strong emotions under control, and living moderately in general. Overwhelming stress, working exceedingly long hours, partying too hard, and eating too often from the drive-through window only serve to deplete your Essence.

While I have learned from studying Chinese medicine that moderation is key to aging well, I try to learn from the healthy older folks I know to find out if there actually is a secret—a trait or habit—they all have in common that can account for their vibrancy, even as some approach the century mark. While it seems that there is no magic secret, spending time with these elders point to a number of factors that are in play:

-Their spirit is strong. In Chinese medicine there is a saying that if the spirit is strong in a sick patient they are likely to survive. If their spirit is weak, even if the illness isn’t serious the prognosis is poor. The healthy older folks I know have a sparkle in their eyes showing that their spirit is strong, they’re present, and engaged.

-A sense of humor is important. In speaking with older people, the ability to laugh, not take themselves very seriously, and being able to poke fun at life’s absurdities are a key to good mental health and healthy emotions. Stress and strong negative emotions can impact your health in a number of ways from decreased immunity to poor digestion. In contrast, a positive mental outlook is actually protective when it comes to your health and longevity.

-All of the healthy oldsters that I know are engaged with other people. They spend time with family members and mutual acquaintances, and many continue to volunteer in their community. Most are happy to stop, talk, share a few stories, and connect. In Chinese medicine, this engagement and connectedness speaks to a strong Heart—the source of Shen, the spirit, and emotions. This willingness to engage only enhances mental and physical health.

-Staying active is also a key to longevity. The saying “Use it or lose it” is even more applicable when it comes to aging. Whether they’re taking daily walks, attending an exercise program, or just covering some ground with the use of a walker, active older people stay functional because they just don’t quit moving.

-Most people in their eighth or ninth decade will tell you that there is no secret to aging well. They don’t necessarily do anything to extend their lifespan. They don’t have special diets, miracle foods, wonder supplements, or a special exercise regimen. They just live their life and 85, 90, or even 100 just seems to happen.

While I realize living healthfully into old age is a crap shoot for each of us, I believe that there are factors that can increase your chances. If you stop and spend some time with healthy older folks, you will find that they live moderately, keep their sense of humor, keep moving, and don’t worry too much about the fountain of youth.

Acupuncture, Cold Weather, and Your Health

It’s winter in Minnesota, and let’s face it, the sub-zero temperatures are getting old. We’ve had enough of wearing layers, trying to heal cracked fingertips, wearing earmuffs, and hunkering down.

Don’t get me wrong—I love winter. I can appreciate the beauty of the first snowfall, tramping through the winter woods on snowshoes, and actually needing hot chocolate to warm up. It’s just that it’s so…cold. In the southern climes, you don’t have words in your vocabulary like wind chill, subzero, black ice, and polar vortex, so you can’t quite relate.

In Chinese medicine, cold has an additional meaning, as it’s considered to be a pathogen—a way to describe an illness or a pattern of disharmony. You can be cold, damp, hot, or windy—any of which are a bit like bad weather in your body. However, cold is a pathogen that doesn’t get much airtime.

There are a number of different ways cold can show up in your body. You can have external cold, which is the stuff of colds and flu. It begins with a light fever (or none at all) and lots of chills, aches and pains, and upper respiratory symptoms. It’s considered to be an external problem, because in most cases your body shrugs it off fairly quickly. Treating external cold in Chinese medicine involves acupuncture and herbs that relieve your symptoms, strengthen your immunity, and help you fight off the virus or bacteria at hand.

Internal cold is a different story. Your body has something akin to an internal pilot light, which we practitioners call Yang. It keeps your body warm, fuels digestive fire, and keeps your metabolism running smoothly. When you have an imbalance described as Yang depletion, you’re likely to feel cold to your core that no amount of warm clothing can change. You may retain water, have problems with your digestion, struggle with an underactive thyroid, and feel sluggish or tired most of the time.

There are a number of reasons why your Yang pilot light can become diminished. Becoming run down, burning the candle at both ends, stress, eating foods that make your body cold, and even stress can play a role in chronic Yang-depleted cold.

Treating a pattern of internal cold is a significant undertaking and takes more time than dealing with an external pattern of the flu or an upper respiratory infection. If your Yang has become depleted, treatment would likely involve a combination of acupuncture, warming herbs, food therapy, and even warming your body from the outside. It takes longer to treat, because in most cases your pattern of internal cold was a long time in the making

A third kind of cold pathogen in Chinese medicine is called a cold strike. This is when cold affects your body directly in the form of muscle pain, muscle cramps, joint pain, or even a hernia. I experienced a cold strike several years ago when I was on a kayaking trip. Sitting in a wet kayak for hours on end caused a muscle in my butt to seize up to the point that I couldn’t walk. It took several weeks of acupuncture and physical therapy to recover.

Cold strike usually comes from being out in the cold, and often manifests as a spastic muscle or a very cold and achy joint. Think about it: cold causes everything to contract, including your muscles and joints. Treatment for cold strike is pretty straight-forward and involves a combination of acupuncture and heat.

In Chinese medicine, we practitioners are big fans of keeping warm. If you run cold, there are a number of things you can do at home to help stoke your internal pilot light. Among them:

-Warm your core from the outside. You can do this by using a heating pad, hot water bottle, or heated rice bag applied to the small of your back or your abdomen right below your navel. Do this for 15 or 20 minutes several times a day until your body begins to feel warmer.

-Add some warming herbs to your meals. Ginger, garlic, mustard, cayenne, pepper, and cinnamon are easy to add to your diet and are very warming in nature.

-If you have muscle or joint pain that is worse with the cold weather, applying heat can help relieve the pain and loosen it up.

-Dress appropriately when you’re spending time outdoors in the cold (and the wind). Cover your head and ears, and wear a jacket that is long enough to cover your lower back and butt.

-And finally, if you are constantly cold to your core, struggle with pain that’s worse in the cold, or seem to catch every cold or flu that’s going around, enlist the help of a practitioner of Chinese medicine. They have a number of tools that can help warm you up and strengthen your immunity.

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.

Work, Rest, and Chinese Medicine

Is it possible to work so hard that it affects your health? According to Chinese medicine, it definitely is. When I was in graduate school studying acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I spent my days in class, came home and took care of my family, and then studied late into the evening. When I finished school, it took me several months to recover my physical and mental energy to the point where I could actually open and maintain an acupuncture practice. The bottom line is that I was working too much and not resting enough.

This balance between work and rest is simple to understand but often tricky to navigate. When you work or exercise you are using energy; when you’re resting you are restoring it. Using too much energy is depleting, and over many months or even years this depletion can dramatically affect your health. In Chinese medicine, this kind of depletion is called overwork, and is considered to be a common cause of symptoms and ill health. There are a couple of different kinds of overwork:

-Physical overwork in the form of manual labor is often what springs to mind when we talk about working too hard. Physical overwork depletes your Chinese Spleen, which is responsible for generating new energy in the form of Qi. In addition, it can damage your muscles, tendons, and the nourishing quality of your blood—something akin to anemia. It is also possible to overwork one part of your body, such as your lower back when you’re doing a lot of gardening or your arms is you’re painting.

-Mental overwork comes from long hours of studying, analytical work, or intense concentration. It’s usually compounded by stress, poor nutrition, and meals eaten on the run. Mental overwork depletes your energy and affects your entire body.

-Over exercising or over training also depletes your energy, and can cause symptoms such as fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability, and injuries. Over exercise in adolescent girls may also cause a delay or absence of menses. Similar to physical overwork, it is possible to over exercise one part of your body, causing stagnation, inflammation, and injury to that part. A few examples are knee and hip injuries in long distance runners, low back pain from weight lifting, and wrist or elbow problems in tennis players. A good choice of activity if you are depleted is Yoga or Tai Qi, which are gentle and don’t further damage your energy.

-Not enough exercise. No discussion on the balance between work and rest is complete without mentioning damage to your body from under exercising. While physical work and exercise use up your energy, it also enhances your circulation and keeps your internal organs healthy, especially your lungs and heart. Lack of exercise can be a source of poor circulation, stagnation, weight gain, and dampness.

The concept that work uses energy and rest restores it is simple. However putting it into practice in a way that enhances your health can be a little more complicated. Some work is good, but too much can impair your health. Rest is restorative, but too much also can negatively impact your health. Finding the right balance means working an appropriate amount, getting some exercise, getting adequate sleep and eating well in order to replenish your energy.

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.

Surviving Winter with Chinese Medicine

Winter is hard. It’s cold, messy, and takes some getting used to. Every fall, I get into a little funk thinking about what’s to come in the months ahead—the snow, lack of sunlight, and chipping ice off my windshield. When you really think about it, winter pretty much sucks.

However, it also serves a purpose. In Chinese medicine winter is more important than simply being a season to get through. Each season has an inherent task, and while in the fall we are meant to eat the harvested bounty to prepare for the coming cold, in winter our job is to conserve and consolidate our energy, as well as look inward—it prepares us physically and emotionally for the coming spring and year ahead.

While you may think of staying healthy during the winter in terms of not catching every cold or flu that’s going around, there is actually more you can do to improve your health as you get through the cold and dark days of winter. Among them:

-Conserve your energy. There are a number of jobs that your body undertakes, and all of them require energy, or Qi. It takes energy to keep warm, digest food, power your immune system, and keep your muscles moving. Just the simple act of maintaining your body temperature in the winter demands more energy than at any other time of the year. So slow down, get a little more rest, and make sure you’re getting plenty of good quality sleep.

-Help your immune system out. When it seems like everyone around you is coughing and sneezing, wash your hands. A lot. Wash them even if people aren’t sick. And try to keep your hands away from your face—your eyes, nose, and mouth act like a special delivery conduit for any viruses or bacteria lingering on doorknobs and keyboards. In addition, if you’re feeling especially run down, stressed out or overwhelmed, take good care by eating well and taking a little more time for yourself.

-Take care of your Chinese Kidney system. In Chinese medicine, each organ is associated with a season. Winter is the time of year most associated with nourishing your Kidney, which is the organ system most closely linked with your overall body constitution. Your Kidney becomes depleted by chronic stress, working too hard, lack of sleep, and burning the candle at both ends. Symptoms associated with Kidney depletion can include overwhelming fatigue (adrenal fatigue) a stiff or achy lower back and/or knees, hair loss, hearing problems, osteoporosis, and premature aging. The single most important thing you can do to keep your Kidney healthy is to deal with highly stressful situations in your life.

-Eat for the season—and the health of your Kidney. In general, foods that are cooked longer are easier to digest and more warming energetically. A salad full of greens and raw vegetables is fine during the height of the summer, but in the winter a stew or hearty soup will serve you better. In addition, choose foods that are a little more substantial like root vegetables, squash, and beans. Black foods, such as black sesame seeds, sea vegetables, darkly colored vegetables, black or kidney beans, and walnuts are especially beneficial to your Chinese Kidney. Be sure to include warming herbs, such as ginger and cinnamon in your recipes, and opt for warm drinks like tea or warm cider.

-Stay warm. If you’re like me and go through winter feeling chronically cold, try warming your core. The easiest way is with a heating pad or heated rice bag placed either at the small of your back or right below your navel. Heating for five or ten minutes a couple of times a day can stoke your internal pilot light and actually make you feel warmer.

-Pay attention to the light. During the day, try to make some time to get outside or sit in a sunny window. If that’s not possible, enlist the help of a full-spectrum light. In addition, respect that the longer nights are nature’s way of telling you to get a little more sleep.

-And finally, take some time to look inward. Reflect on the events of the past year and the choices you’ve made, and look forward to the coming year and the return of the light. This time of contemplation is often the impetus for making changes and resolutions in the year to come.

The theme for surviving winter is to rest a little more, eat a little heartier, stay warm, look inward, and conserve your energy. In a few months you’ll need that energy to get outside and enjoy the longer, warmer, more expansive days of spring!

Chinese Medicine on Night Sweats

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