How do you avoid Antibiotics when you're sick? Do Herbs REALLY work?

There are many common problems I treat quite easily with Herbs & Acupuncture that many folks don't realize they can not only heal but prevent through natural treatment .  Here's a short list of issues I have successfully treated:

• Bladder Infections
• Urinary Tract Infections
• Upper Respiratory Infections (Colds/Bronchitis)
• Constipation
• Sore Throat 
• Flu
• Recovery after Cold & Flu
• Yeast Infections
• Rashes & Skin issues
• Recovery after surgery (eyes, leg, knee, shoulder, and more)
• Sexual dysfunctions
• Menstrual disorders

Something I treat a lot in my practice is weakened digestive, immune, and urinary tract issues from over use and prescription of antibiotics.  These drugs, which can be real lifesavers, have become a cultural crisis.  We aren't getting there - we are there.   And unfortunately this isn't an over exaggerated statement from your local Hippie Acupuncturist - this is something the American and Global Medical Establishment understands and has warned about for many many years now.

Yet, if you walk into most doctors offices, they still prescribe antibiotics very loosely and freely, making the Z-Pack a common place and frequent part of our "stay healthy" regiment.   Doctors are simply using a tool they have had for some time and their patients have become accustomed to getting them with little resistance.   With not much else to offer even though most doctors know better, it is a hard habit to break and it is hurting us.

Please check out these articles below for more information about the Anti-biotic crisis, or Google the topic for more information.

http://theweek.com/article/index/252858/the-antibiotics-crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-rather/the-antibiotics-crisis_b_807887.html

While I don't want you to stress about the larger issue, it is important to be informed regarding your own health options and choices for you and your family.  There are other options!  

Without antibiotics how do we overcome those really nasty infections?  

Well, believe it or not, HERBS can be very effective when you get to an acute stage.  Sometimes this is very very difficult for American's to understand or believe.  We think that because we live in the greatest country on earth, we have surly heard of and have access to, everything.  Unfortunately, this is not the case.  When it comes to non-pharmaceutical options we are woefully uninformed.   Many hospitals around the world use herbs in IV drips and as prescription medication for colds and flu all the way up to cancer treatment (cancer treatment with herbs is not allowed in the US).

If you are tuned in and catch symptoms early (don't go into denial!) it is a very good bet some herbs can cure what ails you.  You can also get tips and learn about what to look out for from people like me... there are almost always very early signs many of us ignore because we don't recognize the cycle until it becomes a pain, ache, or sniffle.  

Go to your Acupuncturist to learn how to become a better health detective!  Most of us want to teach you, and want you to see us when you're well so we can keep you that way.

Brief Case Studies : Woman with Chronic Bronchitis & Pneumonia

Patient comes to see me after 15 years of reoccurring bronchitis and pneumonia.  She knows when it is coming and how it will hit her body, like clock work it comes every year about the same time or when she is really stressed.   Green, dark yellow, and brown phlegm, barking cough.  Typically it starts in her throat and moves fast into the chest.   She was on antibiotics when we met and had a great deal of digestive difficulty.  She realized the digestive trouble was from over use of antibiotics.

At the first meeting, we worked on her digestion and agreed she may very likely get hit again with the upper respiratory infection in the next season change. So I told her to look out for those early signs and get in to see me quickly.  She did, and within the 24 hours prior to seeing me it has already progressed from a sore throat to green mucus in the nose.  She was very scared, but agreed to give herbs a try for a day or two before starting her revolving prescription to antibiotics.  I could see and hear her skepticism of an herbal formula knocking out such an intense and chronic infection.

Guess what?  They worked.  4 years later not only has this patient been off antibiotics ever since, but, that was the last time she got bronchitis or pneumonia.  Why?  The cycle of damage to the immune system caused by the antibiotics had been broken.  With the power of anti-virtal and anti-biotic based herbs we killed the infection without weakening the body, thereby strengthening her bodies immune response.  The herbs themselves also provide support to the organ functions along with killing the infection - so the body came out stronger.

3 Recent Patients with Chronic UTI

Short and sweet.  All 3 of these patients had recurring UTI infections. 2 of the 3 had them for more than 5 years and all 3 patients were on antibiotics or, had taken them for a long time.  Yeast infections were also an issue in 2 of these patients because the antibiotics wiped out the natural flora and pH balance causing this common double whammy.

Each patient had a different diagnosis and needed different formulas, 2 of the 3 also required a round of acupuncture treatment to strengthen the organ systems that had been weakened over time.  All 3 successfully got off antibiotics.  1 patient has been off them for 2 years, another, for just over 1 year and the latest patient, just had a reoccurrence and the herbs immediately knocked the infection out.  Yup.

Sometimes you need the MD

I am not opposed to western/allopathic medicine.  Emergency care as well as epidemic diseases are what they do best. But prevention and wellness are not a hallmark of this part of our care system.  We want  and need to save the big guns for the big diseases.  For daily health, care and wellbeing, try out your local Acupuncturist & Herbalist.  Not only will you get better, you can strengthen your body to avoid many of these illnesses altogether.  

• Questions about this?   Come to my talks at Kinesis and become more informed about how Eastern Medical care can improve your health and habits regarding wellness and health.  Set up and appointment to learn more and get treatment.

• Know you are prone to certain issues like cold and flu?  Let me know and I will be sure to keep formulas in stock so they are on hand when you need them.

CBS News & 60 Minutes. Women & Drugs. Yin & Yang theory

I'm watching my favorite morning show right now, CBS Morning News.  As usual, when the Medical stories are featured I am arguing with the flat piece of plastic and light on my wall in exasperation.  What inspired me to sit down this morning was this quote from a 60 minute preview.  "We've assumed all along that men and women are the same... that assumption was fundamentally wrong".

Come on, I'm losing it over here!!!

Yin and Yang theory in Chinese medicine, the medicine I get up and think about everyday, the one that pays my bills, knows this.  This theory is a method and a school of thought that pulls the lens of life way back and provides insight into our bodies, the universe, and everything in between.  This insight is totally absent in western medical thinking, and it is a terrible shame and a waste.

Western medicine zooms in close up and very often misses the big picture.  The other problem with western so called 'scientific' thinking is that it makes many such assumptions based in cultural, gender, and economic bias to name a few. For decades, women were not used in medical studies or considered in any way as relevant or necessary. Yet when it comes time to sell the products of those studies, women are very necessary to buy them.

Nearly all drugs, surgeries, medical guidelines and risk factors are crafted while thinking only of men and while this flaw is being recognized here and there, the problem is still rampant and the solution, still elusive.

So called 'scientific' thinking has no big picture lens or filter, so biases are often missed and become assumed by the researchers, practitioners, and consumers.  This isn't an ideologue dead end argument or point, this is actually a problem that is hurting us and making us less healthy and safe in medicine.  This is a problem with a solution - if we could just learn to work together. Open up, talk about it, listen, and stop assuming Western 'scientific' thinking is The only way.

Yin and Yang theory, while seemingly very simple, can get quite complicated and difficult as anyone who's studied it can attest.  When this theory is applied to modern questions about drugs, health, and studies it can shed quick light on potential problems, and open up complex discussions for deeper review and consideration.  Fundamentally men and women and all the shades in between, (yes, there are shades between everything, including sex and gender), are very different.

Yin is substance Yang is movement.  Yin and Yang engender each other and they are interdependent, from Yin comes Yang and from Yang comes Yin.  One cannot exist without the other.  Without night, we would not know what day is, without women, we would not know what men are.

Microscopic science and thinking is important and has great usefulness but so is big picture thinking, one is not more important than the other, both are equally important, helpful, and necessary.  

Gayle King asked this morning, "why don't we know these things?" when speaking about men and women.  Guess what Gayle?  'We' DO know but  mainstream American news and discussion never considers or reports on Chinese Medicine, a medicine which by conservative estimates is 2,000 years old.   How can 'We' so casually overlook this, especially when uncovering and asking such important questions, exposing such deep and troubling flaws.

Let's start opening our minds and getting smart America (and CBS news)!  Let's start accepting or at least investigating the wisdom of the amazing thinkers who came before us and outside of our not even 300 year old nation.  I can't take another morning of this lopsided and short-sided western thinking.

Pick someone relatable and well spoken to speak on your show who can represent another way of viewing health and the body, we will all learn something and be better for it.  This isn't exactly untested stuff.  2,000 years and counting does count as research, even if our medical system stubbornly disagrees.  After all, until today, they thought men and women were the same, outside of a uterus.

My yang is rising over here, its not a healthy condition for my natural balance.

COLD & FLU SELF HELP

As they say, cold and flu season is in full swing.  I have seen two types so far in my office.  One is more upper respiratory related, attacking the lungs and head, the other is more digestive, attacking the stomach and the large intestine.  

Both 'bugs' can be fierce and feel terrible zapping your energy.  There are a few remedies you can try at home.  Here are some details:

Vomiting and Diarrhea.   Grab some FRESH ginger and use a carrot peeler to slice thin pieces you can eat.  Eat it raw and fresh.  Start slowly with just a few, never eat more than you can handle comfortably - over medicating will not help.  

Ginger will help to stop both vomit and diarrhea and calm your stomach.  It can help to kill certain organisms that might be causing the problem.  If it is a bit too spicy for you, you may take a taste of raw honey with it, 1 tsp. or less.

If you have been vomiting or have had diarrhea, you must then follow up with pure coconut water.  This will quickly and efficiently replenish your electrolyte balance and fluids in a way water cannot.  If you don't like the flavor you can water it down or think of it as medication, its for your health.  Speedy recovery will ensue.  

Upper Respiratory phlegm, cough, or chest tightness.  Once again, Ginger can be your friend.  This time, get the RAW fresh herb, slice 3-4 pieces about half an inch thick and boil in water for 5 minutes.  This will make a spicy tea.  You may add a tea spoon of honey if you prefer it.  (No sugar though)  

Get yourself a bundle of FRESH mint from the market.  Tear off a handful and in warm/hot (but not boiling) water, steep the mint for 5 minutes, drink this all day.  The mint is cooling and will help open up the chest and the eyes.

The truth is, colds and flus are around all year but they spread more rapidly at this time for a couple of reasons.   Our bodies energetic resources (i.e. parts of our immunity) go into a bit of a hibernation at this time of year.  

Pulses slow down and we go to bed earlier, it is harder to wake up.  It is winter, things slow down.  Our jobs and lives in this culture do not change however so we are expected to maintain the same rigors.  For this reason, we become weaker and less able to fight off the elements and "bugs".  We are pushing our bodies in ways not natural for the time of year, and our bodies can't take it.

#1 Rule:

If you feel a bit tired and run down, REST, STOP.  Give your body a chance to catch up, you may help it fight something early and avoid prolonged illness, or any illness simply by resting!

#2 rule:

Start eating herbs in your food, drink teas with fresh herbs (not tea bags) and take note of small body changes.  Are your eyes tired?  Does your neck feel achy or stiff, does your back hurt, do you have a headache or a heavy feeling?  A tickle in your throat?  If you do, STOP.  Take action before things progress.  

#3 rule:  

Always listen to your body and intuition.  Flu and cold have the potential to be very serious.  If you have prolonged or agressive symptoms do not delay going to an ER.  Dehydration and Pnemonia can hit fast and swift under the right conditions.  You are your best doctor if you listen to your body, only you can feel what it is telling you.

Dietary Considerations - Eat with the season

Don't eat summer foods, it is winter time and those foods grow for a reason.  They are in sync with natural forces that rule nature and our bodies.  Use them, they are medicine!

Broths, soups, stews.  Warm comforting foods that include all of the tips above.  They contain herbs, broth, and vegetables and meats that are appropriate for the season.  AVOID raw and cold foods and if you do eat them, limit the amount using them early in the morning only (such as juicing).

Get a sweat on!  Foods that can open pores and help the body push out toxins are helpful if you're feeling a bit under the weather.  Cinnamon, onion, garlic, ginger, spicy peppers, these open the senses and help the body purge.  

For prevention beyond home treatment your local holistic medical provider has remedies much stronger than what is available to you at home.  Herbs, Gua Sha, Cupping, and Acupuncture, treatment will vary on your condition.   Even if you miss the window to stop or slow the onset, there are herbs and treatments available to assist with a more rapid recovery.   

 

Stay Healthy!  Be Well!

Miss Arizona Credits Acupuncture in Beating Tourette's

I just finished reading this article about Miss Arizona and her personal health struggle with Tourette's Syndrome.  Western Medicine left her exhausted and considering brain surgery.

Thankfully, before she went to this extreme treatment that offered no promises, she tried drug free, negative side effect free Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs.  She found near total relief and is now an advocate for Turret's awareness and is spreading the word about her experience with Eastern Medicine.

She is now on maintenance with a very inexpensive and common formula she takes during more stressful times in her life along with seasonal Acupuncture tune ups, according to the article.

In my experience as a practitioner, patient, and active observer, this is not a unique experience.  Difficult and complex disease processes that stump western medicine and treatments are often treatable using Chinese Medicine.  Find your local Acupuncturist & Herbalist today!

Click below to read about her story, published in Acupuncture Today.
Miss Arizona Uses Acupuncture & Herbs To Win Her Life Back

Wisdom from my Hairdresser

I got a haircut today from my fabulous hairdresser in Los Feliz, I drive a long way by LA standards for the "perfect" cut, and she and I had a really great conversation about our feelings on a lot of current topics in life and culture, LA style.

It just so happened that about 30 minutes prior to me leaving the house a shooting took place at LAX. I was driving at least 30 minutes on LA freeways so like an informed Los Angelino, I checked the traffic reports to see how much time to give myself and I saw the news.  I left quickly, not knowing what I was about to encounter, I expected a nightmare but luckily was catching traffic the right direction.

When I sat down for my make-over, I mentioned what I'd just heard about and how I saw several police cars going to the airport on my drive.  From that comment followed a conversation about the stress in watching the news and then to her recent month long vacation to France.

What I loved about what she said, and wanted to share with you, was how she really let go on her trip.  She said in Los Angeles, she is so focused on getting her workout in and eating the right things and being "In Control" all of the time.  On her vacation however, she decided to let herself do what she wanted, when she wanted, and to be present in each moment and true to what she was feeling.

She told me how she ate French Fries, croissants, drank wine and walked all the time instead of her regular strenuous workouts.

"I lost 5 pounds!" she proudly shared with me.

Her comment on the entire experience was, "We really don't realize in this country how much our emotions affect our health."

I could not have been more excited to hear her say this.   One of the pillars of health the Chinese write about in the classical materials is that the root of much, if not all of disease stems from our emotions and how we process them.

This might sound silly or 'wu-wu', but I have found in clinical practice, so far, there is a great deal of truth to this.  Whether the problem is Chron's, back pain, headaches, PMS, or even Cancer, emotions play a role that isn't just under recognized but ignored all together by most people.  We can eat right, sleep right, exercise properly, but at the end of it, we are emotional (I would argue spiritual) beings having a physical experience here on earth.  You don't have to be religious to know this, although, if you are religious, isn't this exactly what you are supposed to believe?  Do you?

When we get caught up in our emotions, anger, fear, sadness, and worry about things like the shooting today, or the Nuclear spills, or the latest school shooting - how do we process that?  Some people choose to ignore these things, choosing to live with blinders on.  Others get consumed and eaten alive by the never ending stream of what is bad and wrong in the world.

I have a post about Sandy Hook from last year.  I tend to write around big and tragic events a lot.  For me, these events are reminders and check in points for my own life.  How am I doing?  Am I living my truth?  Am I telling those I love that I love them?  What can I do in my own life to reflect the changes I'd like to see.  Writing is one way I cope with the inevitable harshness of life, and one way I choose to process through my emotions.  It keeps me healthy.

Poor health is a progression, not a quick hatchet.  Like water torture, one little drop at a time over days, weeks, months, years, maybe even decades, emotions take a toll.  What starts as unseen thoughts and feelings, unattended to these feelings become seen, the emotional becomes physical.  Thoughts are things, and our bodies teach us this.  Thoughts and feelings become disease.  Yes, they do.

One of the things I love best about what I do is that I get to talk with people and mirror for them all that is going on in their mind, body, and spirit and then give them time to just rest and be with themselves as they start to feel their body in a new way.  When I see people light up at the connections between their symptoms and their job, or their personal life struggles, I see people change and heal.  It is a wonderful thing to witness, and a great reminder for myself.

Acupuncture is Scary

Last night my husband came home from work frustrated with his office mates.   "You have to believe in Acupuncture for that to work" was the comment that got him.  

One of his office mates underwent Chemotherapy over the last year and Damian (that's my Hubby), mentioned that I had worked at a Cancer Hospital and also had cancer patients under my care.

He was telling me all about this conversation and how ultimately, he realized there was just no way they would listen to what they were steadfastly opposed to.  He is not an argumentative person and tends to go with the flow and I think he wisely choose to let that conversation go.

When I first began to study Acupuncture, Herbalism, Eastern Medical theory,  and diagnosis I was very impassioned.  I would engage in hot debate with my friends and family members - trying to convert and convince them of the amazing knowledge I had stumbled upon and everything they didn't understand!

Now, 7 years after that journey began my passion for the practice of medicine still burns brightly, but like Damian, I no longer argue or try to sway or convince.   My understanding of how people come to "believe" is that they must have a need and a curiosity that is stronger than their skepticism.

Skepticism can destroy the best treatment plans.  Even western medicine is aware of this phenomenon.  We are so powerful with our thoughts, that if we believe enough something won't work, guess what?  It won't!   Even the most curable cancers will kill you if you believe hard enough that they will and that you are doomed.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (just the words!) can be very scary to us Americans.  It sounds like a cult practice, or a weird ritual, maybe even a near religious type of experience that, like my husbands office mates said, you have to believe in for it to work.  Even in Los Angeles, liberal central (as many of my midwestern friends and family would say) this opinion and feeling is not difficult to encounter.  Pop culture images of acupuncture are scary and it is always the ridiculous that makes its way into the mainstream because it is entertaining.

Have you seen Kung Fu Panda?  Or the YouTube video of the guy who has needles all over his body (something that would NEVER happen!), and then there is a fire and he has to jump out  a window with the needles in?  HellRaiser also comes to mind.  These are the images people get in their head.  Thanks Media!  :-)

Acupuncture helped my husband to lower his blood pressure, for him it is a practical matter of health care that has improved his life and his understanding of his own body and health.  He doesn't believe in anything new, but he is more aware and awake to his own body.  He doesn't have to take drugs and he maintains his health.

I often also have people tell me they have referred friends, family, office mates, and told everyone they know how much they have been helped and how good they feel.  I often see their frustration when they hear their referrals haven't called me.  I always smile, and say something like "people call when they are ready", and that's true.  When we suffer enough, we sometimes choose to try new things that might stop our suffering.

I've come to learn and understand that Acupuncture is scary for a lot of people.  And I can't blame them!   How would anyone know what it is, how it works, or who to trust about it?

I had no idea about this medicine until I choose to study it - it all seemed very weird, maybe even fake or some kind of hocus-pocus to me.  There is no authority that we see in the morning news or appointed medical government official who knows.  Even our MD's, when open minded about the medicine have to concede that they haven't studied it so they don't know.  

How this medicine works is weird to us in the United States!  It is different, and it is not intuitive to how we think of health or treatment of disease.  Treatment of illness using our own bodies potential energy?   This can be very hard to grasp, until you try it and feel it working.  We are a culture of drugs and surgery and "wait until I'm sick" to get treatment thinking, prevention or treatment without extreme methods seems impossible.   At one point, we also thought the world was flat and a round globe was blasphemy.  Knowledge is power.

The rest of the world is a bit ahead of us on this but we are slowly starting to catch up.   As those practitioners, like me, start to blog more, grow our practices, and educate our communities, the demand will grow into our hospitals and insurance coverage plans.  It will grow because we will start to demand it because it works and it makes us healthier.    No need to believe.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is scary, until you try it.  If you want to know about Acupuncture and how it feels and heals, ask someone you know.

Dung Beetles & The Milkyway

So, I am a pretty simple girl.  Born and raised in Western Michigan.    I worked in Corporate America as well as start up companies during the Internet boom after college and as fate would have it, I ended up studying and practicing Chinese-Eastern Medicine.

I often get asked "how did you end up doing this?", to which there is no simple answer.  I can tell you I did not have a odd Aunt, Uncle, Parent, or Grandparent who talked about energy, herbs, crystals, or oils.  This was a very foreign world to me when I began and I had a lot of skepticism of what I did not know.

It has been about 6 years since I've been in this field of "energy" medicine using the bodies own forces to heal itself as well as herbal medicine to interviene when that is not enough.  Overtime, as I have watched people heal and experienced my own healing, I have come to stop questioning if this is true and instead begun a deep process of learning, observing, and continual amazement.

In short, I have come to see, experience, and understand that we are all profoundly connected.  Every micro-organism on our planet and beyond.  We are truly apart of something amazing and awe-inspiring.

This story below I heard yesterday on NPR, was a reminder of that profoundness and simplicity.  All around us, connecting everything, affecting our every moment and day.  Enjoy!

NPR -Dung Beetles Use The Milkyway