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Eating Disorders and Chinese Medicine

From time to time we’re asked whether acupuncture can help someone with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or obsessive overeating. As with any condition, there is no one size fits all—everyone is different and heals at their own pace and in their own way. That said, at Acupuncture in the Park, we have worked with a number of patients who have suffered with eating disorders and who have been helped—sometimes dramatically so—from acupuncture.

Each person with an eating disorder comes with a unique set of circumstances, and can have one (or more) of a variety of imbalances in Chinese medicine. However, whether the condition is anorexia, bulimia, overeating, pathological food restriction, or night eating, in Chinese medicine the following organs are affected by eating disorders:

Heart. While you tend to think of your Heart as something that primarily pumps blood and is prone to heart attacks as you get older, the Heart organ system in Chinese medicine houses something called the Shen. The Shen is the home to your mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit. While these functions are attributed to the brain in Western medicine, we tend to intuitively know that the Heart is also an organ of feeling. (Think valentines, having a “broken heart” or heartfelt thanks.)

As an organ of emotion and spirituality, there is always some level of Shen imbalance in people who are struggling with an eating disorder. We believe that your approach to eating mirrors your approach to life, and if you’re binging, vomiting, not eating, or unhealthily restricting your food intake, your heart and spirit are as out of balance as your physical body. In Chinese medicine, an eating disorder would be considered a Shen disturbance.

Liver. Your Chinese Liver system is also concerned with emotions. The Liver is responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body, including your emotions. When what you desire is very different from the reality of your life, it can evoke strong feelings of anger, frustration, and low self-worth. When those feelings are constantly suppressed, Liver energy becomes stuck and can show up as irritability, angry outbursts, and yes, pathological eating. In some people, especially those with eating disorders, strong emotions are turned inward and may also become depression and anxiety. In the patients we’ve treated with eating disorders, there is always some element of Liver stagnation.

Spleen. The organ system most damaged by eating disorders is your Chinese Spleen. Paired with the Stomach, your Spleen is responsible for the process of taking in food, digesting it, and converting it into the energy and nutrients your body needs to function on an everyday basis. Your Spleen is also in charge of holding things in and up in your body.

An eating disorder can damage your Spleen in a couple of ways. First, the digestive process can be impaired, even years after an eating disorder, causing symptoms such as stomachaches, gas, heartburn, constipation or loose stools, and even lack of energy or fatigue.

In addition, we have seen in a couple of women in our clinic who have recovered from their eating disorder, but who have damaged the holding function of their Spleen. This has shown up in an ability to become pregnant, but a tendency towards miscarriages (an inability to “hold” the fetus). Another sign of damage to the Spleen is easy bruising, as the blood isn’t being “held” in the vessels very well, and chronic diarrhea as…well, you get the point.

Kidney. Your Chinese Kidney is the home to all the vital substances in your body—Yin and Yang, Qi and Blood, and Essence, which is kind of like your DNA and body constitution all wrapped into one. Your body constitution is a gauge of how healthy you are, and it’s affected by how you live your life. For example, you may be a big, strong and healthy person who damages your health by partying, eating poorly and skimping on sleep—all things that can deplete your body constitution. In contrast, you may be smaller and not be as strong, but if you guard your health by eating well, sleeping, etc. you may live to reach a ripe old age.

My point is this—eating disorders damage your body constitution, and as a result, the health of your Chinese Kidney.

The good news is that if you are suffering from an eating disorder or have a history of an eating disorder, all is not lost. First, you need help from a mental health professional who is skilled in treating people with eating disorders. Then, when you are ready to get your body back into balance and repair the damage, Chinese medicine, through the use of acupuncture and herbs, can help by calming your Shen, soothing your Liver, strengthening your Spleen, and rebuilding and strengthening your Kidney.

Teenage Mental Health

At Acupuncture in the Park, we have found that treating pre-teens, teens, and young adults to be some of the most satisfying work that we do, primarily because they respond so quickly to the acupuncture, and the results can be life-changing. Not only have we treated our share of young patients with aches, pains, and soccer injuries, but also we have worked with kids who were struggling with depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, and stress.

Not long ago, this letter to the editor about teen mental health appeared in our local newspaper:

Many parents may relate to the July 5 article “Worried about a moody teen?” An acquaintance told me recently that the severe anger of her middle son had caused problems in the family. She decided to try alternative medicine and took him to an acupuncturist. After one visit, the change in the 11-year-old was amazing. A local acupuncturist told me that acupuncture in pre-adolescents and adolescents can be extremely effective. It could be worth a try. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Monday, July 12, 2010)

As the letter states, acupuncture can be incredibly effective for adolescents. This is true for a number of reasons. First, for the most part, they are young and healthy. Acupuncture tends to be far more effective for someone who is healthy and able to heal quickly, as opposed to someone in their seventies or eighties who has been ill for a long time.

The second reason that acupuncture works so well for adolescents goes back to Chinese medical theory. The Chinese say that children are considered to be pure Yang. Compared to the nourishing, cooling, substance of Yin, Yang is warm, active, and transformative. And that’s what kids do—they transform. They are growing and changing almost daily, and it seems that as soon as you have one stage figured out, they have moved onto the next. This is a good thing on the healing front. Because kids are growing so quickly, they also heal quickly. This is both good news and bad news, especially when we’re talking about adolescents.

The pure Yang thing can also work against kids, especially during the pre-teen and teen years. Good health, or balance, in Chinese medicine is all about smooth flow, and for the most part, our kids grow and flow smoothly. Unfortunately, as kids go through adolescence, they begin changing even more quickly. On top of the physical growth, kids are faced with increasing stress of school and peer relationships. Then Mother Nature throws in a dark cocktail of hormones to make that transformation even more…uh, interesting. For some kids, this sudden growth, plus hormones, plus stress creates a perfect storm that can block the smooth flow of energy and emotions, causing a wide variety of mental health symptoms.

Finally, acupuncture works for emotional health issues because it affects brain chemistry. Researchers studying the effects of acupuncture have determined that acupuncture causes an increase in production of endorphins and other feel-good chemicals in the brain, causing a calming effect. For this reason, acupuncture can effectively treat emotional conditions including stress, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.

Many parents don’t know where to turn when their adolescent is struggling with anger or depression. Understandably, they’re hesitant to medicate their teen, but they also know that their child needs help.

The good news is that in these healthy, ever changing adolescents, acupuncture can be a life saver, which is so aptly expressed in the letter above. If your teen is struggling, consider giving acupuncture a try.

Twitches, Tremors, and Dizziness and Chinese Medicine

One of the best things about practicing Chinese medicine is explaining how it works to people who have never had acupuncture. Most people understand my explanations about Qi and Yin and Yang, stagnation and depletion. However, a couple of times in the past week I have tried to explain the pathogen called wind, only to be met with very blank stares. And to make matters worse, the more I tried to explain, the blanker the stare.

It’s hard to understand how a weather condition could be causing such misery. But it’s true, in Chinese medicine wind can be the evil force behind tremors, dizziness, numbness, and twitches. It can also cause seasonal allergies, colds or even the current flu that’s going around.

Let me explain.

First of all, wind is considered a pathogen, or something that makes you sick. Many of the concepts of Chinese medicine are based on the natural world, and what makes you sick is no exception. Pathogens are a little bit like bad weather in your body. When you have a fever or inflammation, you have heat; when your arthritis flares up during the cold weather, you have a cold pathogen; and when you retain lots of water, you have dampness. (This is a very simplified explanation.)

Wind is considered movement where there should be stillness. As a pathogen, wind is dry, light and active. It tends to be Yang in nature—like the sunny side of the hill—it’s slightly warm, and it generally moves upward and outward.

There are actually two kinds of wind—internal and external. Internal wind tends to affect your body on a deeper level. It’s frequently associated with a malfunction of the Liver system to control the smooth flow of energy in your body, and can cause symptoms associated with movement—vertigo, tremors, twitches, and seizures. Wind is usually the dark cocktail behind illnesses such as Meniere’s and Parkinson’s.

While frequently related to a Liver system malfunction, internal wind can also be caused by systemic dryness or malnourishment. Much like a dry tree, the brittle leaves at the top rattle in the wind.

Wind can also be external, affecting the outer layers of your body, which is the pathogen behind everyday colds, flu, allergies, and viral infections. In addition, the cause comes from your inability to fight off outside “influences”, such as viruses, bacteria, and pollen. True to its nature, the wind associated with a cold tends to affect the upper part of your body and move around—first you have a sore throat, then your nose is stuffed up, and then your cold sinks into your chest. External wind can also cause itching, hives, and rashes.

External wind tends to be associated with your Lungs, which encompasses your respiratory system and skin. In Chinese medicine, your Lungs are considered the most external of your organs, because with every breath, you come into contact with the outside world. So, external wind tends to affect the outermost part of your body—your Lungs and skin.

External wind usually teams up with other pathogens, such as heat, cold, or dampness. For example, if you have the flu with an extremely sore throat and a high temperature, you have external wind plus heat. If you get a cold that makes you feel achy and chilled, you likely have external wind plus cold.

Treatment for wind conditions depends entirely on the circumstances. Is it internal or external wind? Has it paired with other pathogens? What’s causing the wind in the first place? Your acupuncturist needs to take all of these factors into consideration before developing a treatment.

Because internal wind conditions tend to be caused by depletion, a treatment plan would entail building up the depleted substance(s), such as Yin, Blood, or Qi (energy), which would ideally relieve the symptoms of wind. This would likely be done using acupuncture, Chinese herbs, choosing the right foods, and getting adequate rest.

If you’re suffering from external wind, acupuncture combined with herbs would be a likely treatment protocol. For early stage external wind, when you feel like you’re coming down with something, you can sometimes head it off with herbs you have at home. Boil grated ginger and chopped scallions in a cup of water. You can add a little broth or flavoring if you like. Drink it down, wrap yourself up, and go to bed. The idea is that these warm herbs open your pores, causing you to sweat, which expels external wind.

Chinese Medicine for Asthma

If you suffer from asthma, you’re no stranger to the shortness of breath, chest tightness, coughing, and wheezing that go with this condition. Over 16 million adults and 7 million children in America suffer from asthma, and it kills about 5,000 people a year.

Asthma occurs because the airways in your lungs tighten, become inflamed, or become filled with mucous. Asthma symptoms may be frequent or occasional, and they may be mild, severe, or even life threatening.

In Chinese medicine, there is always some element of phlegm associated with a diagnosis of asthma. In fact, the Chinese use the term “abiding phlegm” in talking about asthma, meaning that even when you’re not having symptoms; phlegm is always an underlying cause of your condition. In Chinese medicine, asthma may be caused by the environment, strong emotions, poor diet, stress, overwork, and being depleted by chronic illness.

There are a number of underlying patterns, or Chinese medical diagnoses, that are associated with asthma. A couple can be by-products of a bad cold or flu, in that the asthma flares up when you’re is sick. The patterns include:

Wind/Cold. This is the kind of asthma you get when you have a cold and it sinks into your chest, making it hard for you to breathe. Typical symptoms include a headache, aches and pains, a low grade fever, mild chills, a sensation of feeling cold, chest tightness, and coughing of thin, white phlegm. While this pattern is usually associated with a cold or the flu, it can occur without your ever being sick. In that case, allergies, cold air, wind, or even exercise may be triggers.

Phlegm Heat. If you don’t get over your cold right away, your chest may remain congested and you may wheeze and cough up thick yellow phlegm. (Gross!) Inflammation or infection is a player in this pattern, so you will also feel hot and thirsty, you may run a fever, and feel dry and constipated. Again, this pattern doesn’t necessarily have to be the by-product of a cold or the flu. There are some people who have asthma that is hot and inflamed all the time whose asthma would also fall under this pattern.

Lung Deficiency. This tends to be a less severe form of asthma. Symptoms include shortness of breath, a weak voice, a forceless cough, wheezing, sweating (not necessarily associated with feeling hot), and thin white or clear phlegm. Lung deficiency sounds exactly like what it is—weak lungs.

Kidney Deficiency. How could your Kidney have anything to do with asthma? Well, your Chinese Kidney is associated with your body constitution, the strength of your health, how well you age, and the strength of your energetic reserves. A weak Kidney system is associated with an overall depletion of energy; you’re run down. This is the type of asthma that is frequently triggered by exercise, exertion, or cold. Other symptoms include shortness of breath, difficulty inhaling, fatigue, feeling cold to your core, and cold extremities.

Treatment for asthma, according to Chinese medicine is two-fold. During the acute stage (an asthma attack), the first order of business is to calm the attack and promote smooth respiration. This would be done using acupuncture and herbs. It needs to be said here that if your asthma is not under control, an attack is serious and could even be life-threatening. This means that you need to be under the care of a doctor who can prescribe medications, usually as an inhaler, for emergency attacks.

The second level of treatment is to alleviate the underlying cause of your asthma when you’re not having symptoms. For example, if Phlegm/Heat is causing your asthma, then treatment would focus on reducing or drying the phlegm and clearing your heat. Again, a combination of acupuncture and herbs, combined with food therapy and lifestyle changes would be used.

A few tips that may be helpful in controlling and alleviating your symptoms include:

-Avoid triggers that cause your symptoms. These may include cold, exercise, allergens, and certain foods.

-Stay out of smoky rooms.

-If you also suffer from heartburn, know that a flare up can aggravate your asthma. Deal with the heartburn to help your asthma.

-Keep your neck and chest warm, especially if cold is a trigger for you. Wear a scarf; they’re fashionable even if it’s not winter.

-Take it easy on the dairy products. They tend to produce phlegm.

-Try breathing exercises. Take a Yoga, Tai Qi, or Qi Gong class. Otherwise, breathe to a 4-7-8 count. Inhale to the count of 4, hold to the count of 7, and exhale to the count of 8. Do a set of 4 a couple of times a day. Personal note: Breathing exercises completely alleviated my exercise-induced asthma.

-It’s great to go the alternative medicine route, but don’t be stupid. Use your inhaler if you’re having an attack.

-If you get caught without your inhaler, try some caffeine. It acts like the asthma drug Theophylline. Also, a cup of coffee or tea before your workout may also keep exercise-induced symptoms under control.

-Try some Vitamin B6. 50 mg. a day may help with the severity of your symptoms.

-Keep in touch with your lungs. This is so touchy-feely, but it’s important to recognize patterns so you can head off an attack. (Like pain, it’s much easier to manage if you try to control it early.) See your doctor if your symptoms seem to be getting worse or harder to control.

Acupuncture for Panic Attacks

If you have ever had a panic attack you know how scary it can be. First, your attack seem to come out of nowhere—unexpected and unprovoked. Second, the mere idea of having another one in the future is enough to produce disabling anxiety.

In the throes of your first panic attack, you’re sure you’re dying right here and now, and for good reason. The symptoms of a panic attack can include a rapid or pounding heart, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, paralyzing anxiety, sweating, shaking, and hot flashes. If you’ve ever had a panic attack, it’s clear—you don’t want to experience another.

So what’s happening during a panic attack? Your body is experiencing the fight or flight response, but on steroids. Your adrenal glands are pumping out hormones, including adrenaline, and the physical sensation of overwhelming fear is similar to being in sudden and immediate danger.

There are a number of theories as to why people suffer from panic attacks. There may be a hereditary component, and triggers may include a major life transition, illness, stress, and medications that increase activity in the brain related to fear reactions.

In Chinese medicine, there are three organ systems that are related to panic attacks; the Heart, Spleen, and Kidneys. The Heart is home to the Shen, or the spirit, according to Chinese theory. Its function is similar to the brain in Western thinking. As such, the Heart is the home to consciousness, memory, emotions, and thinking. Whenever someone suffers from any kind of emotional upset or condition, the Heart is always involved.

The Chinese Spleen is an organ system of digestion. It sifts and sorts what has been ingested, takes what is useful and turns it into nutrients, and gets rid of what is not needed. While the Spleen primarily digests foods, it also plays a role in the sifting and sorting of ideas. The emotion associated with the Spleen is worry—essentially, not being able to sort through and let go of unnecessary ideas. Worry is a kind of unhealthy rumination. When it gets out of control, worry can produce anxiety and fear—the foundation of panic attacks.

Finally, the Chinese Kidney also plays a role in panic attacks in two ways. First, the emotion related to the Kidney is fear, which is the underlying component of panic. Secondly, the Kidney is the deepest and most nourishing of our organs. It’s responsible for how well you age, your underlying body constitution, and is the source of all the fundamental substances in your body. Your Kidney is the organ system most damaged by stress and anxiety. The Western condition of adrenal fatigue (from stress, anxiety, overwork, etc.) correlates to a severe Kidney depletion in Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine and acupuncture can offer a number of strategies to help someone suffering from panic attacks. An acupuncturist would work by first calming your Shen, relieving anxiety, and minimizing stress. This is an effective first line of defense, as research has documented the positive effects acupuncture has on brain chemistry. This effect accounts for the relaxing and calming sensation patients feel both during and after their treatments.

A practitioner of Chinese medicine might also address your panic attacks by nourishing your Spleen and restoring your Kidney health. Beyond acupuncture, you may be prescribed an herbal formula, some dietary suggestions, and strategies for stress relief.

Finally, some practical advice if you suffer from panic attacks:

Realize that your body cannot sustain this mega-fight or flight response for more than a few minutes. It will pass.
When you’re having a panic attack, you might think the best thing to do is sit down, relax, and let it pass. However, if you get up and move around, go for a walk, do some jumping jacks, your body will metabolize the adrenaline faster.
Avoid caffeinated drinks and any other foods that you think might trigger an attack.
In almost every instance, stressful situations or circumstances are at the core of anxiety and panic conditions. Do what it takes to get your stress under control. Take regular walks, meditate, go fishing, take a Yoga class, play video games, change your circumstances, or whatever else it takes for you to eliminate stress.
Seriously consider acupuncture. It can be a very safe, effective, drug-free way to eliminate anxiety and panic attacks.

Improve Your Memory with Chinese Medicine

Do you sometimes walk into a room and forget what you went there for? Have you ever drawn a blank on a close friend’s name? Do you routinely forget common words? If you worry that your memory is going, join the club. These little episodes are embarrassing and frustrating, but are you on the fast track to Alzheimer’s? Probably not.

Memory loss can the result of a number of factors, the most common of which is your age. However, hormonal changes, diet, stress, and simply trying to do too many things at once can also mess with your memory.

There are a couple of organ systems in Chinese medicine that are related to memory. The first (that I can remember) is your Heart. The Chinese Heart is home to your consciousness, spirit, feelings, thoughts, and…yes, your memory. Memory loss is one of the hallmark signs of a Heart disharmony.

Your Chinese Spleen is the organ closely related to digestion. Good digestion helps something called clear Yang to rise upward allowing for mental clarity. When your digestion is funky, you may experience fuzzy thinking and memory problems, along with digestive symptoms, such as heartburn, stomachaches, low blood sugar, gas, bloating, poor absorption of foods, and diarrhea or constipation.

The Kidney system is also a player in memory. One of the important functions of your Chinese Kidney system is how well and healthfully you will age. As you get older, your Kidney gets weaker as a matter of course, affecting everything from your hearing to the strength of your bones, and your mental function/memory. Along with aging, your Kidney also controls things like growth, sexuality, and reproduction. When women go through menopause, their Kidney system is affected, which is why memory seems to take an additional hit during this time.

So the question is: Can Chinese medicine and acupuncture help with memory loss? There is no simple yes or no, depending on the source of the problem. However, in many instances, Chinese medicine can help. For some people, memory problems are directly related to the amount of stress they’re experiencing, and in others, the memory issues began as part of menopause. For older adults who are beginning to show the signs of senile dementia, it may be too late to reverse their memory loss.

According to Chinese medicine, there are some things that you can do to safeguard your memory. This includes:

-Simplify your life. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, your brain is full. At a certain point, you just can’t hold onto any more details, so you start to forget them.

-Jettison the stress. Stressful situations cause you to be preoccupied, making it difficult for you to remember anything except details about what’s stressing you out. Do whatever it takes, whether it’s steps to resolve the stressful situation, or a Yoga class, meditation, taking up a hobby, or carving out quiet time to yourself.

-Eat good food. It sounds simple, but it’s not always so easy when you’re running from meeting to meeting or getting your kids from one activity to another. Sometimes the only solution seems to be something quick—and not so good for you. Take the time to plan what you’ll eat, and bring it with you if necessary. Good food is whole food, unprocessed, whole grains, lots of vegetables, and a little protein, with very small amounts of red meat, if any. Ditch the sugar, as it messes with your blood sugar levels and can be a direct contributor to fuzzy thinking. Remember the Twinkie defense?

-Digest that good food you’ve eaten. Take the time to sit down and eat. Chew your food and sit up straight. In addition, cooked foods tend to be easier to digest, and ice cold foods and drinks bring your digestion to a halt.

-Protect your Chinese Kidney. How? Well, slow down, for one. Overwork can be a direct cause of illness and depletion in Chinese medicine. Also, excessive partying, while fun, weakens your Kidney system and sends you into your senior years in less than optimal health.

In addition to Chinese medicine, Western doctors and scientists are looking for ways to protect memory as we age. They have been conducting research on memory and the various factors that may help slow memory loss. Among them:

-Get moving. Data from a study that began in the 1930’s shows that moderate exercise (as little as two times a week!) can lower your chances of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

-If you’re a smoker, quit now. While you can’t completely undo the damage in terms of degeneration to your brain, the sooner you quit the better.

-Drink green tea. Results from a 2006 study indicate that as little as a cup or two a day of green tea, which is packed full of antioxidants, can cut your risk of cognitive problems by 50 percent.

-Make lists. Memory lapses can be the by-product of simply trying to do too many things at once. At a certain point, your brain just can’t hold any more details. Make lists of the things you want to do or remember to get rid of some of that brain clutter.

-Play mind games. Crossword puzzles, soduku, trivia quizzes, or even learning a new skill or language can keep your brain exercised and can slow memory loss.

The good news here is that small changes can be enough to yield big results as long as you keep them up. A few cups of green tea, acupuncture to relieve stress, exercising a couple days a week, and moderate changes in your diet can be enough to lower your risk of age related memory problems.

Tips for Healthy Aging

We all want to live a long time, just as long as we can stay relatively healthy. Unfortunately, more and more often when we get together with friends, talk turns to a recent colonoscopy, cholesterol medications, or acid reflux. While there are no guaranties, there are some things you can do to stack the deck in your favor in the healthy aging game.

Here is a list, in no particular order, compiled from what we’ve learned from our patients, Chinese medicine, the scientific community, and some just plain common sense:

1) Eat for good digestion. In Chinese medicine, your digestion is every bit as important as what you’re eating. You can eat the healthiest foods on the planet, but if you don’t digest them well, you might as well be doing the drive through at Burger Doodle. Slow down, chew your food, and avoid the rich and greasy chow. Choose more cooked vegetables than raw, and go easy on the frozen foods and drinks.

2) Laugh. It feels good, it’s invigorating, and actually releases chemicals in your brain that are good for your health.

3) Go outside. Get in touch with the nature around you. This is the foundation of Chinese medicine, in which the natural world is reflected in your body. Slow down in the winter, eat new green shoots in the spring, be especially active in the summer, and check out your locally harvested produce in the fall (well, all year round.) Know also, that extreme weather conditions have the ability to make you sick, whether it’s a dry sore throat in the fall or heat exhaustion in the summer.

4) Quit smoking. This is a no-brainer. It may seem obvious, but if you’re a smoker, quitting now is the single most important step you can take to improve your health and increase your life span.

5) Make sure you’re getting enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D may sound like the magic supplement du jour, but D boosts immunity, helps with depression, and offers a whole host of health benefits. And most of us aren’t getting enough. You can get your serving of D through 15 minutes of direct sunlight, or by supplementing with Vitamin D3. Those of us who live far from the equator may not be able to get adequate D from the sun year round. So think about supplementing if you own and use long underwear more than a few times a year.

6) Exercise. I can’t say this enough. It’s the fountain of youth if there were such a thing. Physical activity keeps your heart and lungs in shape, your muscles toned, your bones strong, your butt tight, and studies are indicating that it also may slow or reduce the progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

7) Exercise your mind, too. Play word games, do puzzles, or learn a new language. The adage “use it or lose it” also applies to your mind.

8) Change the behaviors that are making you sick. You know that stress, junk food, and toxic relationships aren’t good for you. If you want to feel good and live long, now’s the time to jettison those negatives in your life.

9) Stand up straight! Poor posture can mess with your digestion and breathing, and can give you back and neck pain. Stand and sit tall; your body will thank you.

10) Get enough sleep. Your body rejuvenates, heals, and recharges while you sleep. Go to bed with enough time to get seven to eight good hours. Slow down before trying to sleep. If you struggle with insomnia, get some help. Ahem…acupuncture is pretty effective in treating sleep problems.

11) Get regular health screenings. You can laugh all you want at your friends’ colonoscopy stories, but you had better be keeping up with your own. Make sure you’re getting regular mammograms, Pap tests, blood pressure checks, mole screenings, etc. based on the guidelines for your age and risk factors.

12) Calm down. The Chinese say that the emotions are the cause of 100 diseases. That means that staying angry at your obnoxious neighbor or stressing out about a nosy co-worker will only make you sick. Do whatever it takes to defuse and de-stress.

13) Almost anything is okay—in moderation. According to Chinese medicine, a little sweetness may help your digestion, but eating a half of a cheesecake is a toxic food bomb. In the same vein, the right amount of exercise is good for you, but too much can cause your body to break down. Too much of anything over time can be damaging, so aim for variety.

14) Garden. Whether it’s a stretch of your back yard or containers on your balcony, growing your own vegetables outside is beneficial on so many levels. You’re getting the best kind of exercise, you’re connecting with nature, you’re growing your own organic food (if you lay off the pesticides), and you have the joy of going out your door to pick something you’ve grown yourself.

15) Get in touch. Connect with your sense of purpose through journaling and self-exploration, connect with others in social situations, and connect with the divine through prayer and meditation. In Chinese medicine, connection feeds your heart, which is the home to your soul.

16) Eat for the long run. Eat breakfast, don’t skip meals, and get a little protein at each meal. Try to get a variety of colorful foods into your diet each day, especially the darkly colored fruits and vegetables. Strive for a diet made up of lots of veggies, some whole grains, a little protein, a little fruit, and small amounts of everything else (Okay, maybe not hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup, but mostly every thing else.)

17) Just breathe. Breathing deeply opens up your lungs, oxygenates your brain for mental focus, and wards off fatigue and anxiety. In Chinese medicine, your lungs are an important component in immunity, so strong and healthy lungs translate into a strong ability to fight off colds and flu. Try taking a deep breath to the count of four, holding it for the count of seven, and releasing it to the count of eight.

18) Just say no. The ability to prioritize your life and say no to some of those annoying and unimportant things you don’t want to do and don’t really have to do is incredibly freeing. It helps decrease that stressful feeling of being overwhelmed, which can be exhausting and depleting.

19) Cultivate compassion. By being kind to others, you’re being kind to yourself. Kindness is embodied by generosity and service to others. Compassion and kindness dissolve anger, annoyance, and competition—all feelings which diminish both the quality and length of your life.

20) Cook and eat with joy. It has been said that how you approach food mirrors how you approach life. Do you approach eating and life with joyfulness or do you worry about every little thing you do and eat? Lovingly prepare your meals, sit down, and share them with people you love—as often as possible.

21) Listen to your body. Your body is infinitely wise. It knows what it needs, how to heal, and how to signal you when it’s in trouble. Listen to those little signs; headaches at work, an upset stomach when you’ve eaten poorly, an achy lower back, or fatigue.

22) Indulge in your passion. This is simple. Figure out what you like to do and figure out how to do it more often.

23) Go green. The cosmetics you put on your body and the products you use to clean your home have the ability to either enhance or harm your health. Become savvy about what’s in your shampoos, lotions, bathroom cleaners, etc., and if the ingredients are sketchy, find cleaner, greener alternatives.

24) Live in the moment. We spend most of our time rehashing the past or fixated on some future event. The reality is that the only moment that’s real is right now. Impatience means that we’re anxious to move onto the next thing—the next moment; however that next thing is a moment like this one. Slow down and enjoy right now.

Twenty Weight Loss Tips You Can Live With

Do you have certain articles of clothing in your closet that seem to shrink every winter? They fit when you wore them the previous summer, but after a long winter, does every pair of shorts you own betray you by not getting past your hips?

It’s hard to admit that you may have had a hand in this, and your clothes may not actually be shrinking over the winter. It may be hard to own up to the fact that you’ve eaten a few too many acorns over the winter. And, rather than buy a whole new wardrobe, you may need to drop a few pounds.

While losing a few pounds may sound simple on paper, we all know it’s not easy. Most of us have tried to lose weight at one time or another—some of us actually are successful; some struggle with weight on a daily basis; and some have just given up. Through personal experience and by working with many patients who have figured out how to lose or maintain their weight successfully, here are our best weight loss tips:

Eat breakfast. Get up in time to have a breakfast that includes whole grains and a little protein; it’s the best way to get through the morning without hunger pangs, sugar cravings, and low blood sugar.
Plan ahead. You know you’re going to come home from work hungry. It’s a given that you’ll eat lunch tomorrow. It’s not that difficult to plan for those meals and have something healthy on hand. Stock your refrigerator and pantry with healthy foods that you like. You can also make meals ahead of time and freeze them in meal-sized portions.
Watch what you’re drinking. For some reason, many people think that if they drink it, the calories don’t count. Think again. Fruit juice, alcohol, pop, lattés, and chocolate milk all have the potential to derail your weight loss efforts.
Make small changes you can sustain. While you may not be able to stick to a strict plan, you can cut out that pop you have every day with lunch. And while you may be too busy to get to the gym, you can take the stairs to your office on the sixth floor.
Think lifestyle, not diet. A diet is something you undertake for a limited period of time. When you reach your goal, you go off your diet. (And weight inexplicably reappears). However, if you think about making lifestyle changes, you will need to choose those that you can maintain for the rest of your life. This tip goes hand in hand with the one above—make only those changes that feel doable long-term.
Quit snacking. Or if you must snack, plan ahead and have healthy snacks on hand.
Pack your lunch. If you buy your lunch each day, you are eating one meal out of three in which you have no control over the ingredients, caloric content, preparation, portion size, or freshness. Think about it.
Get your emotions under control. Strong emotions, especially stress, cause an imbalance in a number of hormones in your body, including cortisol and insulin. These changes mess with how you metabolize food, cause you to gain weight around the middle, and cause cravings for those fat-laden sugar bombs that you always regret eating.
Get moving. Exercise is key to losing weight. It burns calories, relieves stress, helps you sleep better at night, and dampens your appetite. Bonus tip: Build muscle by lifting weights. Muscles burn more calories than fat.
Eat for good digestion. You may be eating the healthiest diet in the world, but if your digestion is funky, you might as well be ordering your meals at the McDonald’s drive through. If you have heartburn, gas, rumbling, bloating, constipation, loose stools, stomachaches, or nausea, your digestion could definitely be better. In Chinese medicine, poor digestion is one of the most common contributors to weight gain. The first step to better digestion is to slow down and chew your food. The second is to prepare your foods in a way that they will be better digested. Generally cooked foods, in the form of soups, stews, stir fries, and fruit compotes take less energy and are easier to digest than cold or raw foods.
Eat foods that are locally grown and in season. First of all, they taste better than something that’s been on a truck for the past week. Second, according to Chinese medicine, foods should be eaten during the season in which they are grown. For example, during the spring, your diet should be full of rich green shoots and baby lettuce. In contrast, during late summer and early fall, you should be eating the yellow and orange veggies, like carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and corn. Trust me on this—it’s better for you.
East mostly vegetables and fruits with whole grains, a little protein, and small amounts of everything else. This is the ideal diet according to Chinese medicine.
There are really no bad foods unless you eat them all the time. We tend to label foods as heroes and villains, and sometimes try cut out entire food groups we perceive as unhealthy. However, we need fat in our diet; we need carbohydrates; and we need protein. So, while you may want to beat yourself up over that doughnut you had at yesterday’s staff meeting, in reality, once in a while won’t kill you, so get past it.
Exception to the above tip: Grease-laden fast foods.
Set attainable goals. If you have a lot of weight to lose, it can feel overwhelming to set a goal to lose it all at once. However, if you set a goal to lose ten pounds, and once that’s done, then lose ten more, you’re less likely to give up, and more likely to feel successful with each goal you reach.
Don’t go to a party hungry. Ditto for the grocery store and out with friends. In every situation, your hunger will derail all your good intentions, especially when combined with cocktails.
Eat foods that haven’t been processed to death. There are a couple of tipping points here. If you look at the label on the package and it lists more than ten ingredients, put it back on the shelf. Also, if the food is unrecognizable as to what it once was, put it back.
Try something new. Check out some new recipes, try a food you’ve never eaten, rethink your meal menus, and try a new grocery store or farmer’s market. It will bring you new motivation to eat more healthfully.
There is no magic bullet or miracle food. There are lots of good, healthy foods, but there is no one single food that you can eat every day that will peel off the pounds, give you boundless energy, immortality, and keep you disease-free. For those things (except the immortality), you need an assortment of foods, with their variety of nutrients.
Eat as many differently colored foods each day as possible. This is especially true for darkly colored foods. The colors in natural foods represent their inherent nutrients. Think red peppers, tomatoes, cherries, grapes, blueberries, dark leafy greens, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, black beans, sea vegetables, eggplant, white mushrooms, turnips, and brown rice. You can’t go wrong.

Treating Anxiety with Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

If you suffer from anxiety or panic attacks, you’re very familiar with the symptoms—heart palpitations or the sensation of a racing heart, chest tightness, numbness and tingling in your hands and feet, feeling light headed, shortness of breath, and the general feeling of fear, or that you might die right now.

Anxiety can be a tricky thing. For some people it seems to come out of nowhere and creep up at unexpected moments. For others, anxiety is predictable and associated with certain events, fears, or situations. Things like driving on the highway, eating in restaurants, and spiders all have the potential to create anxiety.

There are a number of causes of anxiety. Traumatic events top the list. People who have been exposed to trauma, violence, emotional duress, or threats of any kind know the source of their anxiety. This includes unrelenting stress and worry over a life event or situation that’s not easily resolved.

Unfortunately, many people experience anxiety symptoms and don’t know why, which only makes the anxiety worse. These are the people who think they’re going crazy because they seemingly have no reason to feel anxious. However, it’s important to know that anxiety can be caused by physical problems, such as hormonal imbalances, digestive issues, heart problems, and drug side effects.

Anxiety can run in families. I have found that many of my patients who suffer from anxiety have either a parent or a child who also struggles with anxiety, too. This may be due to genetic makeup or how a particular family copes with stressful life events. Whether anxiety in families is due to nature or nurture, it’s not uncommon that family members will have similar triggers for their anxiety.

In Chinese medicine, there are three organ systems related to anxiety; the Heart, Spleen, and Kidneys.

The Chinese view anxiety as worry that has gotten out of control. Each organ system is associated with an emotion, and worry is the emotion associated with the Chinese Spleen. The Spleen is also your organ system of digestion. It sifts and sorts what you’ve eaten, takes what is useful, turns it into nutrients to fuel your body, and gets rid of what is not needed. While your Spleen primarily digests foods, it also plays a role in the sifting and sorting of ideas. While the emotion associated with the Spleen is worry, it is essentially the same as not being able to sort through and let go of unnecessary ideas. Worry is a kind of unhealthy rumination, and when it gets out of control, worry becomes anxiety and fear.

While your Spleen is the organ of digestion, your Heart is the Chinese organ of feelings. We intuitively know that the Heart is an emotional organ. We feel things with all our heart, have our heart broken, or thank someone from the bottom of our heart. Your Heart is home to the Shen, or your spirit, according to Chinese theory. Its function is similar to that of your brain in Western biomedicine. As such your Heart is the home to consciousness, memory, emotions, and thinking. Whenever someone suffers from any kind of emotional upset or condition, such as anxiety, the Heart is always involved.

Finally, the Chinese Kidney also plays a role in anxiety in a couple of ways. First, the emotion related to the Kidney is fear, which is the underlying component of anxiety. Secondly, the Kidney is the deepest and most nourishing of our organs. It’s responsible for how well you age, your underlying body constitution, and is the source of all the fundamental substances in your body, such as Yin, Yang, and Essence. Your Kidney is the organ system most damaged by stress and anxiety. The Western condition of adrenal fatigue (from stress, anxiety, overwork, etc.) correlates to a severe Kidney depletion in Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine and acupuncture can offer a number of strategies to help someone suffering from anxiety. Your practitioner would work by first calming your Shen using acupuncture. This is an effective first line of defense, as research has documented the positive effects that acupuncture has on brain chemistry. It has been found that acupuncture increases the secretion of endorphins in the brain, the feel good substance associated with pain relief and runner’s high. This effect accounts for the relaxing and calming sensation patients feel both during and after their treatments.

A practitioner of Chinese medicine might also address your anxiety by nourishing your Spleen and restoring your Kidney health. Beyond acupuncture, there are a number of safe and effective herbal formulas that can help calm anxiety. Your practitioner can prescribe the combination of herbs that is most appropriate to your individual needs.

Food therapy and lifestyle changes may also be part of your treatment for anxiety. This may include at-home calming strategies, avoiding stimulants such as coffee or tea, dietary changes, and breathing techniques—all of which can be effective in relieving anxiety.

Acupuncture for Dizziness

If you have ever suffered from dizziness, you know how profoundly it can affect your life. Whether from Meniere’s disease, auditory nerve damage, high or low blood pressure, or an inner ear infection, severe dizziness can leave you pinned to one spot due to a fear of falling or aggravating your symptoms.

While a number of health condition may cause you to be dizzy, not all dizziness is the same. The severity of symptoms can run the whole gamut from disabling to mildly annoying. People who suffer from vestibular (inner ear) problems may describe their dizziness as the sensation of the whole room spinning, or vertigo, accompanied by severe balance problems. However, someone who has low blood pressure may feel temporarily light headed when they stand up. To make things worse, dizziness may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sweating, and even fainting.

According to the principles of Chinese medicine, dizziness is usually classified as some kind of wind. Wind is a tricky pathogen, in that it tends to move around (making you dizzy). It usually affects the upper part of your body, much like the wind outdside, and its effects are intermittant, just like strong gusts on a windy day. In Chinese medicine, wind is frequently the diagnosis not only in cases of dizziness, but also with tremors, some headaches, numbness, high or low blood pressure, and even itchy skin conditions.

The root cause of wind is almost always a deficiency of some vital substance in your body, such as Qi, Blood, or Yin. For example, anemia is considered a Blood deficiency in Chinese medicine and is a common cause of mild dizziness or light-headedness. Another example is a depletion of your body’s moistening and nourishing Yin, which can cause dizziness. In this case, your body is like a farmer’s field that has dried out to the point where the smallest breeze will make the dust rise.

Whatever the root cause or depletion, Chinese medicine has a lot to offer to effectively treat dizziness. The best known treatment is acupuncture, which involves the insertion of tiny needles into your body to stimulate healing. Also effective for dizziness is scalp acupuncture, Like it sounds, scalp acupuncture entails needling acupuncture points on your scalp to affect brain function, and can be used for neurological conditions. In many cases, Chinese herbal medicine—the use of a specific formula for a specific condition—can be effective, too.

Some dietary and lifestyle changes that you may try to help your dizziness include:

-Skip the cocktails. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, is dehydrating, and can aggravate your symptoms.

-Avoid hot, spicy foods, as the heat can actually make your dizziness worse.

-Avoid caffeine for the same reason.

– While you’re avoiding alcoholic drinks, be sure to drink enough water, especially in hot and dry climates or in dry indoor heating.

-Try mild physical activity to relieve your symptoms.

-When you’re dizzy, focus on a single fixed point. This gives your brain more visual information to calm the dizziness and help you keep your balance.

-Get up slowly. This is helpful for those of you with low blood pressure, as well as those who suffer from inner ear problems. By rising slowly, you give your body and brain time to catch up with the change of position

-Review your medications. Dizziness or light headedness can be a side effect of a wide variety of drugs. Talk with your doctor or pharmacist to see if any of the meds you’re taking could be causing your dizziness.

-In all cases, see your doctor if your dizziness is accompanied by chest pain, rapid heart beat, numbness, or blurred vision.

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