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How The Higgs Boson May Validate Acupuncture

By casey | Published August 3, 2012

This summer, physicists (tentatively) discovered the existence of the Higgs Boson. Sometimes referred to as “the God particle” (more on that terminology later) this particle lays the foundation for how matter was created during the Big Bang. Though this concept was formulated by 6 different physicists (including a fellow University of Rochester alum, Carl Hagen) over a half century ago it has taken time to develop the technology to detect these particles. This discovery provides the foundation upon which our understanding of the universe is based.

So what is the Higgs Boson all about? I’m not a physicist or mathematician by any stretch of the imagination, the only numbers I use on a daily basis are for accounting or for the numbering system used for naming acupuncture points but I will take a stab at explaining the concept according to my understanding of it. It has generally been accepted that the universe started at the so called Big Bang where an infinitely small point contained all of the matter of the universe which then rapidly expanded and became the universe as we know it. One of the issues physics has had to deal with is explaining how that mass was created. Enter the Higgs boson…

In July of 2012 researchers at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland observed a boson that is consistent with the previously hypothetical Higgs Boson, though it has not been conclusively identified. If this particle does exist then it would prove the existence of the Higgs field. The Higgs field permeates the whole universe and is the vacuum from which all else came. The Higgs boson is how energy in the Higgs field “condenses” into mass creating particles and therefore the matter that we are more familiar with. This particle started being referred to in the media as “The God Particle” after a title of a 1993 book by Leon Lederman. Many physicists are not fans of this name as there is nothing religious or mystical about the particle.

What does all of this fancy physics stuff mean to an ancient healing tradition like Chinese medicine? First of all it explains the universe, in modern terms, in much the same way it is described in ancient Chinese thought and it also gives us some insight into the “energy” (or “qi”) that is a central concept of Chinese medicine.

Every culture has their own creation myths. In the Judeo-Christian traditions it is the story of Genesis, God creates the world in six days, takes a day off on the seventh. In Taoism, a philosophy from ancient China which greatly influenced the development of acupuncture, the universe does not have a Creator in the same sense. The origin story of the universe comes from the Taoist text the Tao Te Jing (Dao De Ching) written by Lao Tzu around 300 BC. In it he says, (and I paraphrase), “From the one comes the two, from the two the three, and from the three the ten thousand myriad things”. I know, that’s kind of cryptic, so lets break that down.

The one refers to the Void (the Tao, represented by the Wuji symbol which is an empty circle). This is an undifferentiated whole. From this comes the two, or Yin and Yang (symbolized by the Taiji or Great Ultimate – the black and white symbol found in my logo). From the two comes the Three – Yin and Yang interact to create Qi or energy (it would probably be better understood as from the two comes the third). From the three comes the ten thousand myriad things, or in other words everything in the universe. Are you still with me?

Admittedly the Taoist explanation is more poetic than scientific, but lets look a little closer. The universe starts off as an undifferentiated “Void” from which everything else comes from. Sounds a lot like the Higgs field. From this we get Yin and Yang which would equate to the charge of particles. This interplay of polarity creates Qi. While commonly translated as energy we could also consider this to be the various forces (gravity and other forces) that holds particles together to create matter (the ten thousand things). So in just a couple of sentences the ancient Taoists may have been describing sophisticated concepts of particle physics.

Now the title of this article is about the Higgs boson validating acupuncture so I think I need to go another step or two further. Chinese medicine and acupuncture rely heavily on the concepts of Taoism so if we can comfortably say that the Taoist cosmology is similar to our Standard Model of physics that is a big step in showing that what we talk about in acupuncture is describing the same things we talk about in physics, and by extension in biomedicine (though some would agree biomedicine is a bit behind modern physics in its understanding of the universe and the human body). The problem is we still have a lot to learn about our bodies before we can translate the ancient terminology into the modern. Many acupuncture skeptics point out that we haven’t proven meridians or qi and therefore the whole system must be false. I contend that we didn’t understand gravity for a long time (and certainly not in the same way we have understood it in the past 100 years) but humans still knew that if you drop something it will fall to the ground. Not knowing about gravity did not make its effects false. In the same way we still have work to do to fully understand the mechanisms of acupuncture but we can see the effects and know that something is indeed going on. To take one more stab at equating the two seemingly different models I will pass along a quote about qi (the “energy” that we manipulate in acupuncture to cause healing). I don’t know the source, so if anyone does please let me know. It goes something like this – “Qi is energy on the verge of becoming substance, and substance on the verge of becoming energy”. This concept is strikingly similar to the idea of the Higgs boson as the intermediary between energy and substance. As we deepen our understanding of the Higgs field and Higgs boson I think we will come to a better understanding of the mystical sounding concept of qi and a better understanding of the human body. Of course, if you ask me acupuncturists already have that understanding, we just need to make ancient terminology work with modern terminology, but to do that the modern terminology still needs to be developed.

Regardless of how we tackle the conceptualization of acupuncture and Chinese medicine with further scientific advancement I hope I have sufficiently shown you that the ideas of Chinese medicine really are not mystical and are in fact very well grounded in a deep understanding of our bodies (and universe) developed through thousands of years of observation. It is important to not get hung up on the words, as they are merely a tool for our understanding. Just like Shakespeare points out “What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet”. No matter how weird Chinese medicine may sound at times we are, in fact, describing the same exact body including it’s many functions and dysfunctions, as modern medicine.

 

 

Note – If you liked this article be sure to check out “The Tao of Physics” by Fritjof Capra. He goes into much more depth about modern physics and looks into other eastern traditions. I checked the index of his book after writing this article and it does not mention Higgs bosons or Higgs field. It has been around 10 years since I last read the book, before I knew anything about Taoism, so any similarities in content are unintentional.

 

Posted in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine | 1 Comment

Two new members of the “family”

By casey | Published August 2, 2012

August has finally arrived, though here in Syracuse it has felt like August for the past few months. For most August means the end of the carefree days of summer. For me it means the end of carefree days in general. I made an announcement in an earlier newsletter, but for those who missed it I will be welcoming a daughter, Eliana, into the world in about 2 weeks. I will be out of the office from August 13 -26 and back on the 27th.

Since continuing care is an important part of successful acupuncture I will have someone covering for me during those two weeks. Her name is Kere Paz and like me, is a graduate of the Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. In September, Kere will become a permanent member of the East Side Acupuncture team. Read more about Kere on her bio page – LINK

So I’m gaining a new member of my nuclear family, and a new member of my work family. This is really exciting for me in many ways. As a dad I will get to have whole new experiences. I know they won’t all be pleasant, per se, but will all be learning experiences. I will also be taking every opportunity to learn about pediatric acupuncture (don’t worry it’s actually aneedle-less technique), so if you know any young ones struggling with anything from ear infections and colic, to sleep problems or chronic illness give me a call.

Having another acupuncturist in the practice will also be a great benefit to not only me, but to you, our patients. We will be able to expand hours (evenings and possibly a weekend day). And as the saying goes “two heads are better than one” which means that we can offer even better quality care to you and your loved ones.

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Myths and Misconceptions About Acupuncture

By casey | Published July 2, 2012

Getting people to try acupuncture can be very difficult. Many people know what it is but know very little about it, so it just seems foreign and strange to them. There are many misconceptions about acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Sometimes this also makes patients afraid to even acknowledge that they receive acupuncture because they’re afraid their friends and family will think they’re weird. Below are some of the more common misconceptions and why they are not correct. So next time you find yourself in a conversation about acupuncture and someone brings any of these up, you’ll know what to say.

 

“Acupuncture is only good for treating pain”

While it is true that acupuncture is a great option for the treatment of pain from many different causes, it can also help with many other conditions. It works well for digestive disorders, menstrual problems, and infertility just to name a few.

 

“Acupuncture hurts” or “I’m afraid of needles”

While its true many people are afraid of needles the needles used in acupuncture are much different in design and size than those used in a doctors office. It is mostly painless and certainly does not feel like what many people would expect. For more on this check out my VIDEO

 

“You need to believe in acupuncture for it to work” or “I don’t believe in it”

Most people think acupuncture only works because of the placebo effect. Oddly enough most people don’t really know what the placebo effect is, and recent research is causing the medical community to rethink their prior opinion on what the placebo effect is. A great demonstration of why belief is not necessary is veterinary acupuncture. Many animals get acupuncture and are noticeably better after treatment. Do dogs believe it will work for them and that’s why they’re better?

Also saying you don’t believe in it is kind of like saying you don’t believe in gravity. Acupuncture works and has demonstrable effects in the body. You may not believe in some of the underlying theories such as qi or vital energy and the energy pathways or meridians, and that’s ok. The terminology used in Chinese medicine can seem a little “out there”. We are talking about the same body, just with different terms and concepts. And honestly, the stripped down version often presented in the media is like describing a cake only by talking about the color of the frosting. There is much more to it.

 

“Acupuncture is religious” or “It is against my religion”

The practice of acupuncture involves no religious beliefs, plain and simple. During its history it was certainly influenced by the philosophies of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism but it does not conflict with other religious beliefs. It is merely a form of medicine and is no more or less religious than modern “Western” medicine.

 

“Acupuncture is expensive”

Paying out of pocket for health expenses is a foreign concept for many of us accustomed to only paying a small co-pay for our doctor visits or prescriptions. The truth is that acupuncture is a very cost effective medical therapy. Because of that insurance coverage is becoming more common. Most assume it’s not going to be covered by their insurance but it is always worth calling to find out. And if you don’t have insurance coverage currently, talk to your HR rep or who ever is in charge of purchasing your healthcare and let them know you want acupuncture as a covered service.

 

“I’ve already seen several doctors/tried several medications/had several procedures. None of them helped me, so how could acupuncture help?”

This usually indicates a bias for Western medicine and the idea that the “more technologically advanced and scientific” form of medicine we are all familiar with is the superior one. I’m not saying it is or it isn’t. In fact there are many times where patients have had no luck with Western medicine, maybe not even being able to get a diagnosis for their issues from their doctor, but still have fantastic results with acupuncture.

 

“I tried it once and it didn’t work”

The key word here is once. One acupuncture treatment is not enough to judge its effectiveness. Many people will notice a change in their symptoms after their first treatment and the results may only last for a day or two at first. With continued treatment the results get better and last longer. To try one acupuncture treatment and say it doesn’t work is like taking one dose of a medication and expecting it to suddenly change everything.

 

“There is no proof that it works”

I’ve got 2,000 plus years and millions of people as proof it works. When someone makes a statement like this they are usually trying to say there are no double-blinded, randomized control trials showing effectiveness for acupuncture (there are also no double-blinded, randomized control trials demonstrating the effectiveness of parachutes at reducing injury or death in high altitude falls, but if I ever have to bail out of a plane at 30,000 feet I don’t think I’m going to be skipping on the parachute). 10-15 years ago there were not a lot of studies done that indicated acupuncture was effective (mostly due to poor study design). A lot of research has been done in recent years showing that acupuncture works well for a variety of conditions. We still don’t understand all of the various mechanisms by which it works, but we’ve come a long way.

 

“I’m healthy/nothing is wrong with me, I don’t need acupuncture”

This is probably one of the more common reasons people don’t use acupuncture. This even applies to patients who have received care and resolved their issues. Just like our cars need regular maintenance even though it may be running just fine, so do our bodies need the occasional “tune-up”. Acupuncture is a great way to stay healthy and is very preventative in nature. It doesn’t require a lot of treatments to have this benefit, one a month or so is often sufficient.

Posted in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine | 3 Comments

Follow Up to “Why We Get Sick”

By casey | Published May 31, 2012

In my last blog post (Why We Get Sick) I gave an analogy to illustrate how we need to identify the various things that can negatively impact our health. I broke those causes into 3 main categories – hereditary, environmental, emotional. One thing I did not talk about are ways we can uncover those underlying causes. So let me share a story with you about a recent experience and hopefully it can help us learn about emotional causes.

The short version of the story is that I had a really bad morning yesterday. By about 10:30 I found myself in a very foul mood. On this particular day I was at the office in Oneida and found out we were having internet problems. While this alone does not prevent me from doing my job it did make a few things a little harder to accomplish, such as scheduling. It was especially frustrating because I was planning on using a break in the day to catch up on some tasks, tasks which require an internet connection. Toss on top of that a couple of other minor things and voila, grumpy me.

So here I am with a challenge, an obstacle to being productive (no internet). However, because this caused a strong emotional reaction I became even less productive. Instead of finding other tasks to do (I had plenty) I was in a funk and was getting nothing done. I let my emotional state make a bad situation worse and it changed what could have been a fairly enjoyable day into a somewhat miserable one.

What does this mean to you? Well my bad day probably does not mean much to you, but I use it to illustrate how emotions can get the best of us. Above I’m just using a snap shot of one day. But for many people our emotions dictate how we operate all the time. We live in a high stress society with lots of frustration to deal with. Most of us will let one or two small problems cascade into lots of larger problems. There is also a tendency to “pass it on” – we take our stress out on other people, especially loved ones. Sometimes we take it out on complete strangers (road rage is a great example of this). Not only do we let emotions ruin our day, but it becomes toxic and can ruin the days of those around us. I have noticed particularly on gray, rainy/snowy, and/or cold days that a lot of people will be in a bad mood. A yucky day is not the end of the world, but we tend to additionally feed off the negative emotions of those around us.

Ok, emotions ruin our day, but now what? Now we have to learn to properly deal with emotions. Much easier said than done, but possible. First and foremost I want to say that the goal is not to stop emotions. Quite the contrary, emotions can be a fantastic thing, even the bad ones. They are part of what make us human. Emotions can convey lots of information, to ourselves, and to others. A good first step is to just acknowledge the bad emotions as they occur, and then use them as a learning tool. Try to figure out why you feel a certain way, determine if the emotion really matches the cause, and maybe think about how to avoid the things that cause negative emotions. This simple exercise will often be enough to break the chain reaction that emotions can cause because you interrupt the emotional part of the brain by making use of the analytical part of the brain. Also you will probably realize that a lot of times there isn’t necessarily a reasonable cause to your negative emotion. In my case, was not having the internet really a big deal? Nope – I was still able to treat my patients (I definitely don’t need internet for that) and I still had plenty of things to do to stay productive during down time. There was really no need to be bent out of shape. The other little things that also occurred that morning that contributed to my bad mood were just that – little things. On any other day I would not have thought twice about them and they wouldn’t have put me in a bad mood. Yet on this day they contributed to the snowball effect.

Another key point is about passing on the negative emotions. Some days we can’t help but be in a bad mood. We’re human, it happens. On those days it’s a good idea to put focus on how we interact with those around us. If we’re rude or mean to those around us, particularly co-workers and family, we can cause them to have a bad day. And many times they’ll toss some of that negative emotion right back at us making our day even worse. Ideally, tomorrow is a new day, but when we involve those around us we can set up a pattern that contributes to more bad days. This creates stress and tension and after a while (sometimes only a few days) this can build up and start to contribute to a variety of physical symptoms – headaches, poor sleep, upset stomach, muscle aches/pains, high blood pressure, etc.

This brings me to my major point – recovery. When life hands us bad situations we need to learn how to recover quickly. In an ideal world the process of event, emotional reaction, and recovery would only take seconds. For most of us if we can get past the issues in a few minutes or even an hour, we’re doing pretty good. As I said above, this requires us to acknowledge the emotion, identify the cause, evaluate if our reaction matches the cause, determine if it can be avoided in the future, then move on. To get this process down to an automatic response that takes just a few minutes takes a lot of practice. It also often requires us to be able to remove ourselves from the situation which is not always an option.

I think one of the best ways to learn how to manage our emotions is through meditation. Most people think of meditation as sitting cross-legged on the floor chanting “Om”. That is just one form of meditation. There are lots of different ways to meditate, both still and moving. Still forms, usually sitting, would be things like Zen meditation or even prayer (any faith). Many yoga practices incorporate both moving and still meditation. Other moving meditation includes Tai Chi and Qi gong/Chi Kung. I’ve written about both of these elsewhere on my blog and include some posts on my facebook page (just search for East Side Acupuncture on facebook and be sure to “like” it). Simply put these are practices that combine deep breathing and simple light movement (qigong can also involve sitting or standing postures) to help focus and calm the mind.

Qigong in particular is very easy to learn and can be done in a short amount of time. I try to do qigong every morning. Curiously enough on the day I mentioned above I did not do my qigong routine in the morning. There is no definitive way to know, but I suspect my emotional reactions would have been much less intense had I not skipped the exercises that morning. Keep your eye open on the website and facebook if you’d like to learn more and I intend on putting up more resources on qigong. I will also be starting a monthly newsletter soon which will hopefully have videos and/or articles on qigong so that you can learn it to. I’ll be posting a sign up form for the newsletter in the next week or so. If you find that you have strong ups and downs in your emotions, have a short temper and/or a lot of stress then I strongly encourage you to learn and try these exercises on a daily basis. Not only will they help you deal with negative emotions and improve quality of life, but because emotions can have a negative impact on health these exercise can help you lead a healthier life.

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Why We Get Sick

By casey | Published May 24, 2012

To tackle such a topic as why we get sick we first have to understand what is sickness? I’ve discussed this elsewhere so I’ll keep it simple. We generally understand illness and disease as some symptom or combination of symptoms that cause pain and discomfort or otherwise interrupts our daily life. At its most basic illness is a part of or process of the body that is not working normally or has been damaged in some way.

To address illness we then need to figure out what the damage is or what part or process is not working normally and in what way is it not working normally. Advances in our understanding of the body and it’s physiology coupled with technology that lets us view, measure, evaluate, etc has allowed modern medicine to help with all sorts of illnesses. In particular our understanding of the chemistry and inner workings of the body have led to the development of all sorts of treatments, particularly pharmaceutical. For instance, if someone has low energy, weight gain, and other symptoms we can take a small amount of blood and determine how much of the various chemicals of the body are present and understand why they have their symptoms. For instance, a blood test can show low levels of thyroid hormone and that patient will receive a diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Since they have low levels of thyroid hormone they are prescribed a drug such as levothyroxine to make up for the body’s decreased production of thyroid hormone. In theory, this will fix their problems as long as they take the synthetic hormone. The End.

Or is it? Often the modern medical approach ends there – the problem (low thyroid hormone) was identified and the solution (synthetic thyroid hormone) was administered. But why was this person producing decreased thyroid levels in the first place?

It is this sort of thinking that provides the back bone of Chinese medical practice. We use the terms root and branch to discuss disease. To hopefully make an easier analogy I’ll use the terms root and flower. The flower of disease are it’s symptoms where as the root is the underlying cause; the flower we see, the root we don’t (until we apply various diagnostic methods). For most people they are only concerned with getting rid of the flower. For this analogy let’s use dandelions because they’re a weed and I don’t want to talk about destroy something nice like roses or other ornamental flowers.

If you have dandelions that you want to get rid of you can go mow the lawn or go pluck them and voila, no dandelions. Of course anyone who has had dandelions knows that this doesn’t get rid of them, the roots will just sprout new flowers, maybe not until next year, but they’ll be there.

To apply this analogy to our hypothyroid patient experiencing the symptoms is like noticing you have weeds. The diagnosis is like identifying those weeds as dandelions. Administering pharmaceuticals is like mowing the lawn and getting rid of the flowers. The reason I say it this way is because often times if the pharmaceutic treatment is stopped the symptoms come back, so it’s like mowing every day to prevent the flowers from growing. This is a perfectly good way of keeping your lawn free of dandelion flowers. Of course, it would be better to get rid of the roots instead so that you don’t need the daily mowing.

In Chinese medicine the goal is to try to understand the roots of disease so that we can give therapies to bring the body back into optimal health. Our treatments (acupuncture, herbs, etc) will usually simultaneously be treating the root and the branch/flower. So we immediately try to get rid of symptoms (dandelion flower) and then work on getting rid of the cause (dandelion roots). This strategy not only helps the patient get rid of that which is bothering them (flower) but also helps prevent the problem from recurring in the long run. In the ideal situation we also help the patient reach a state of health that also prevents the problems from rooting again. (After all dandelions haven’t always been in the ground, they came from somewhere else at some point in time).

Now lets look at how we develop diseases in the first place. Each disease, just like each different weeds that could grow in our lawn or garden, will have different causes. In Chinese medicine we can break up these causes into three main categories – heredity, environment/lifestyle, and emotion. Heredity on one hand is straightforward, there are various genetic diseases that can be passed from parent to child or caused by a genetic mutation, such as color blindness, down’s syndrome, or hemophilia. Chinese medicine has understood this concept long before we knew what genes or chromosomes were. However, the Chinese medical concept of heredity takes a broader view as well. The idea gets boiled down into the idea of “essence” the basic part of us that is inherited from our parents. In fact, eggs and sperm are seen as an expression of essence. This essence gets combined from our parents to create us. Therefore essence contains the idea of genetic inheritance, but it is also our starting point in life so to speak. Most of us start life healthy, though some of us start out with disease or other health challenges. This idea extends to that of constitution, our basic state that has tendencies towards certain imbalances. We stay healthy by keeping those imbalances in check through various means, and conversely our bodies can be pushed into certain disease states easier than others. One aspect of our constitution is hot vs cold. In a very generalized sense males tend towards more heat (yang) and females more cold (yin) and we are more warm as kids (yang) and colder as we age (yin). Therefore our age and gender can give us an idea of our constitution and this constitution can change somewhat over our lifetimes. Since we may each be closer to one extreme or other we are more likely to be affected by conditions that push us further away from neutral. These conditions come from the other two sources of disease.

Environment and lifestyle is a big source of our diseases. Environment is of course things like the climates we live in and the weather we deal with day to day. Those of us living in Central New York are going to be dealing with different challenges to our health than someone living in San Diego for instance. Environment also includes indoor conditions as well as pollution and exposure to various things that can make us sick such as viruses and bacteria. Understanding what we are exposed to and eliminating those things that push us out of balance is an important part of being healthy.

Lifestyle, of course, is also another big source of our diseases. For this discussion lifestyle primarily includes diet, exercise, and sleep. I won’t go into too much depth about these because we all know how these factors impact our health. I will say that diet can be a misunderstood aspect. We usually think of diet in terms of weight gain/loss or how it impacts cholesterol and blood pressure or how it may cause nutrient deficiencies. These are, of course, quite important, but it is additionally important to understand that various foods can cause imbalance when consumed in excess. Often when people talk about food there will be comments of this is healthy or that is not healthy, a very black and white approach. This can be very misleading. On it’s own there are few foods that are so black and white and foods need to be judged within the larger context of one’s diet. In excess, foods that most of us would consider “healthy” may in fact contribute to disease. A great example is salad. Most of us consider salads to be a healthy food, but if we eat the same salad for lunch every day of the week for weeks on end is that still healthy? Maybe and maybe not depending on our constitution and the rest of our diet. Likewise we all know it is important to exercise, but there is a point where too much exercise, or improper exercise, can do more harm than good. There is a lot of information out there about how to eat or exercise properly but not a lot of information about how to decide what is right for you as an individual. That is why it is important to learn how to listen to the signals your body gives you and make use of health professionals (I know a great acupuncturist that can help you – wink wink) that can help you determine what is right for you.

The last major cause of disease is emotion. In many ways emotion will overlap with the other categories. While not necessarily genetic, emotional tendencies can be passed from parent to child. If we have a stressful job or a busy lifestyle that will also pre-dispose us to certain emotions. The emotional category can be one of the trickiest to understand and manage, but also one of the most powerful. One of the most common emotional causes of disease is stress, which can come from our lifestyles or environments. However, I separate the emotional component out because we may only have so much control over our environment but we can gain control of our emotions. But first we need to understand how emotions create disease.

In Chinese medicine we categorize all of the different parts and processes of the body into one of 5 major systems of the body. These 5 systems correlate to the 5 elements – fire, earth, metal, wood, water – which create a way of understanding the body that is both simple and accessible to every but it can also be very intricate and complex. These 5 elements have a variety of correspondences including organs and emotions. What this means is that our internal organs are influenced by our emotional state, but also that the health of our body can influence our emotional state. In other words a healthy person maintains emotional balance and an emotionally balanced person stays healthy. For anyone who has a stressful life, short temper, is anxious or depressed, etc you will quickly realize it is a lot easier said than done to control our emotions. Learning how to do so is well beyond the scope of this article.

I’ve finished explaining some of the major causes of disease in a very general way, but now what? How do we use this information to help us. The first step, and what I’m hoping to accomplish with this article is to bring awareness to the areas of our life that can contribute to our diseases. If we can start identifying the parts of our life that cause disease we can take steps to change them or prevent them. In cases such as heredity or environment we may not always be able to change them, but knowing our basic starting point helps us make better decisions and avoid the things that can push us out of balance. Hopefully I’ve been able to trigger some deeper thinking, but in reality most of us don’t fully understand how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together. It took me years of graduate level education to learn a lot of this (and I still have more to learn), so I would not expect everyone to have some sudden realization based only on this article. This is one way in which getting a few acupuncture treatments a year can be a good way to promote health. An acupuncturist’s job is to determine your imbalances and correct them with an acupuncture treatment. We can also help shed light on what your constitution is and what sorts of things in your life are pushing you out of balance. The acupuncture treatments help correct the imbalances and return you to a healthier state, but the knowledge that we can impart can help you find ways of living a healthier and happier life.

Update – right after posting this on my website I found the following picture from another acupuncturist.  This helps explain the correlation between emotion and organ health.

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Seasonal Allergies – 7 points to help yourself

By casey | Published March 28, 2012

Here is a nice article from AcuTake describing a simple self-care method for dealing with seasonal allergies.

7 acupuncture points that can save your life this spring

Also, be sure to check out my Spring newsletter (lower right corner of Home page titled “Acupuncture and Spring”). It has other good tips and tricks for dealing with Spring and allergies.

And if you suffer from seasonal allergies, start getting acupuncture before the symptoms start! Call today for more info.

Posted in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Diseases, Healthy Lifestyle | Leave a comment

13 Things Diet Experts Won’t Tell You About Weight Loss

By casey | Published March 21, 2012

http://gma.yahoo.com/13-things-diet-experts-wont-tell-weight-loss-170358888–abc-news.html

Above is a link to a quick article from ABC News about dietary advice.  It’s a quick summary from “The Diet Digest”, a new book about weight loss and healthy living.  I have not had a chance to read the book yet, but I really liked the article from ABC News. I agree with most of it, the exception being #3 – Dairy promotes weight loss. I don’t disagree with the research, I just disagree with this being appropriate advice for everyone trying to lose weight. In a lot of my patients that are trying to lose weight I think dairy is overconsumed. Otherwise this is a great article for anyone to read if they are trying to lose weight.

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Constipated?

By casey | Published March 21, 2012

Bowel movements are generally not a topic of conversation in polite company. Yet if you were to ask around you would find that a lot of people suffer from constipation, frequent diarrhea, or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I’m not encouraging you to ask around, I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it.

 

One thing I find common amongst people dealing with constipation is the use of senna leaf (main ingredient in brands such as Senokot, Ex-Lax and Swiss Kriss). Many of these products market themselves as “natural” and “gentle”. What many people do not see on the label is that they are intended for occasional constipation, and is for short-term use. All to often I see patients who have chronic constipation and use senna based products for long periods of time. This can create a dependency on the laxative because the bowels lose their ability to function normally. Senna can also cause nausea, stomach cramps/discomfort, and in severe cases rectal bleeding.

 

More serious effects are possible as well. Senna contains chemicals called anthraquinone glycosides. Long-term use can cause damage to the large intenstine and liver and cause loss of electrolyte (specifically hypokalemia). It is also suspected to cause kidney damage.

 

A great alternative way to treat constipation is with acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Acupuncture alone can regulate the bowels to help with constipation (as well as IBS and diarrhea). There are also various Chinese herbal formulas that help move the bowels without the use of stimulant laxatives (such as senna) making them safer for longer term use.

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Acupuncture for your retirement planning

By casey | Published January 16, 2012

If a financial planner told you not to bother saving for retirement and that you can “worry about it when you get there”, you would probably think he was crazy. Most of us know the importance of putting money into 401(k) plans and other investments while we are working so that we can enjoy our golden years. If a doctor told you not to worry about your health and that “we will fix it when it becomes an issue” would you think that doctor was crazy?

For many their attitude towards health is just like the statements above, a “I’ll worry about it when I have a problem” mentality. In some ways health and finances are similar.

Let’s try out this analogy:

When it comes to finances some of us inherit money, some are born into poverty. Some of us get good paying jobs, while others struggle to get by. Some of us make smart decisions and plan for the future while others live paycheck to paycheck and scramble to pay bills when they empty their bank account and/or need to rely on assistance from the government or others.

In health some of us inherit good healthy genes while some of us inherit genetic diseases. Some of us grow up in a healthy environment while some of us are exposed to dangerous chemicals. Some of us take care of ourselves and make healthy decisions while others wait until they are sick to start making changes in their life and/or need to rely on outside intervention to help them.

 

Whether we are talking money or health don’t we all want to be in the first group of each statement? Unfortunately we don’t have any control over the situations we are born into or our genetic inheritance. Those circumstances also determine to some extent what obstacles we do or don’t have to overcome later in life. We do, however, have a lot of control over how we live our lives and the decisions we make every day. Making poor decisions in either health or finances will eventually catch up to us.

 

Just like with retirement planning, the sooner you start working on your health the better you will be down the road. If you wait until you get older it is possible to still be healthy into your “golden years” but it will take much more work (and expense). The groundwork for our adult health is laid during childhood, and many chronic diseases that become a problem for older generation are to due changes that start to occur as early as adolescence.

 

Unlike most medical treatments you do not have to wait to be sick to start using acupuncture. It is perfectly safe and suitable for healthy individuals. When added to a healthy diet, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep it can be a great way to keep oneself healthy. So if you have not tried acupuncture before consider giving it a try and start contributing to your “401(k) of health” today.

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Wrist Pain

By casey | Published November 15, 2011

Many people suffer from wrist and hand pain. Often this is due because of repetitive use from our jobs and/or hobbies. Since so many of us use our hands and wrists during our work day having wrist and hand pain can be very difficult to deal with. When wrist pain sufferers go to the doctor they usually end up with a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome.  Carpal tunnel syndrome is a compression of the median nerve within the carpal tunnel of the wrist. However, for many who are diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome the problem is not in the wrist but is in the forearm.  Specifically, through repetitive use, people will develop trigger points in the muscles. These trigger points cause pain that can often mimic carpal tunnel syndrome which is why they often get misdiagnosed.

The first course of treatment for these conditions is usually painkillers and cortisone shots.  These may temporarily relieve the pain but do not address the underlying cause. Bracing can help true carpal tunnel syndrome but does not help with trigger points. So the next step for these patients is often carpal tunnel surgery. Obviously if the problem is in the forearm then operating on the wrist doesn’t make sense but it happens with surprising frequency.

Luckily acupuncture offers a great alternative to surgery.  When the problem is caused by trigger points acupuncture is the best choice of treatment. Not only does acupuncture give immediate pain relief but it also addresses the root cause so that there can be long-lasting relief.  And since it is much safer (and less expensive) it is a great option.  After all, if acupuncture doesn’t help you can always try surgery after, but you can’t undo a surgery that did not help. In some cases a structural problem exists that does require surgery. In those cases acupuncture can still help with post-operative pain, improve recovery, and help deal with trigger points that might develop post-op in scar tissue and surrounding tissue.

If you are dealing with wrist pain consider trying acupuncture as a first step, not as a last resort.

For more information about acupuncture and wrist pain read this article – http://acutakehealth.com/everyone-and-no-one-has-carpal-tunnel

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