Acupuncture
New Year’s Vision
January 9, 2012 | 
Author 
This time – don’t make a New Year’s Resolution. Resolutions such as ‘quit smoking,’ ‘lose weight,’ or ‘take up tennis’ don’t work. You know this from a personal perspective. You’ve made them, you’ve tried and you’ve failed. Instead, construct a New Year’s Vision.
Take the next 12 months and think about all the things you’d like to achieve. What does it look like? Who is with you doing these things? What does it smell like? Perhaps it tastes like something, too. Build up the most complete image in your mind and come back to it often.
The difference between a resolution and a vision is that a resolution doesn’t have any context. It’s just a statement. A vision has feeling – true emotion behind it. In simple terms, whatever we think about we bring about. So imagine if we didn’t just think about something coming to fruition but felt from the very core of our being with images, feelings, tastes and smells present. Wouldn’t that be something?
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Protect your neck to stay healthy – A Chinese Medicine Perspective
The ancients used different language and ideas to explain what happens to us when we get sick. Looking at the elements outside, we see Wind, Damp, Dryness, Heat, Cold and Fire. Thought to invade the body, Wind, Damp, Cold and Heat can combine in any fashion to make us feel ill.
Still to this day, in western medicine, we use the word ‘cold’ to refer to symptoms that include: body aches, stuffy head and/or nose, and the inability to get warm. This is called Wind-Cold in Chinese medicine. Flu refers to sore throat, thirst and fever. This is called Wind-Heat in Chinese medicine.
The key thing to notice is that Wind is the primary factor when bringing other elements into the body. Commonly, in September, the temperature changes due to wind bringing in a new season. It was theory that Wind can enter through a specific acupuncture channel, and what was thought 3000 years ago, I can still remember my grandmother telling me not too long ago. What was once common knowledge has gone by the wayside, but it’s important to bring it back.
Protect your neck – especially the back of the neck and head, but it is good practice to wear something to protect all around it. It is also important to protect the back, especially the lower back. Lastly, stay warm in the cold wind when sweating. Open pores also can lead to Wind entering the body.
What once was folk medicine still holds true today from Chinese to western culture.
Dog Day Foods of Summer
We’ve already seen a lot of heat out on the coast and we’re bound to see some more throughout the month of August and creeping into September. One of the biggest things to keep in mind for those hot days in the car or on the beach is to stay hydrated.
Water is the fluid of choice for everyone, but not everyone likes the taste. In order to increase my own as well as my family’s intake I like to do a couple of things to ‘sweeten’ the deal. Putting in about 1/3 or less of fruit juice is an easy fix to flavour the water without having to resort to flavouring packs full of aspartame, etc. Another personal favourite is squeezing some fresh lemon juice and adding a pinch of sea salt.
In Chinese medicine, there are two great foods that you can have on hand to keep you hydrated and cool. Watermelon is not only on everyone’s grocery list in the summer, but is one of the best foods in my line of work. While most people enjoy the pink/red portion due to its sweet-tasting nature, it’s actually the white part that is the most cooling for us. Another super-summer-food is cucumber. Also very cooling in nature (revered for its ability to cool puffy eyes), it’s a great treat to take with when you’re having your fun in the sun.
Naturopathic (In)fertility Care.
I hesitate to use the word “infertility”, even with my patients who are undergoing IVF treatments. It seems like such a negative word, which is why I prefer to use the term “fertility care”. It may be semantics, but I believe that words matter, so I choose to use positive words.
After almost 8 years of practice, I still feel honoured when asked to be part of patient’s journey to become a parent. As a parent myself, I understand the desire and drive to nurture a child, and have the utmost respect for those who travel great distances (emotionally, financially and geographically) to become parents. I have worked with patients in various stages of this journey, and thought a post outlining the various naturopathic options might be helpful.
Pre-Conception Care
As Naturopathic Doctors, we strongly believe in preventative medicine, and being prepared. A visit to an ND 3-6 months before trying to conceive is a good idea. This allows ample time to discuss fertility awareness, start basal body temperature monitoring, and address any cycle irregularities that may come up. If you are recently coming off of the birth control pill, this allows time for proper hormonal balance to be achieved. Our pre-conception care package includes 3 visits, with an emphasis on dietary analysis/interventions, and menstrual/BBT analysis.
Basic Fertility Care
The generally accepted definition of (in)fertility for those under 35 is lack of pregnancy after 12 months of intercourse without contraception. For those over 35, 6 months is the cut off. Most women who I see have recently met these criteria, and are either in limbo (waiting to see a reproductive endocrinologist) or are starting ART (assisted reproductive technologies).
For those waiting for a referral, we proceed on a path similar to those seeking pre-conception care. We review diet, health history, menstrual and basal body temperature charts. In some cases, we may suggest saliva testing to help uncover any underlying hormonal imbalances. We then attempt to correct any underlying issues (luteal phase defect, high FSH, long follicular phase, etc) and hope that the referral is never needed. Many women respond very well to a combination of herbal medicine and acupuncture, so the two are often combined. As long as you aren’t taking clomiphene (or other similar drugs), there are no contraindications to using herbal medicine as part of your treatment plan.
Fertility Care and IUI/IVF
A number of patients who are undergoing IUI or IVF seek acupuncture support during their cycle. A number of studies (more here) have highlighted the benefits of acupuncture, especially with IVF cycles. Ideally, a course of acupuncture is started 6-12 weeks before the cycle begins. But, we often get calls from women who are days away from egg retrieval, and will always do our best accommodate couples in these circumstances. But, if you are considering acupuncture during your IVF cycle, it’s best to give us a call as soon as you know the details so we can schedule you in. Our ART package may be of interest to you. Typically, visits are once a week. Special attention is paid to the pre-retrieval and post-transfer visits, as these are very important. Once embryo transfer has taken place, we like to see patients within 24 hours. Often, patients come to our clinic directly after transfer.
Not sure where you fit in?
Some patients have had the referral to a fertility specialist, but aren’t sure if proceeding with ART is right for them. In these situations, we would do our best to present you with alternatives, which would be along the lines of our pre-conception care plan. Naturopathic Medicine emphasizes balance, and sometimes a little balance is all that is needed.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for more information.
A Chinese Medicine approach to seasonal allergies.
Allergies in Chinese medicine are closely tied to what we practitioners call Wei Qi (pronounced ‘way chee’). Wei Qi is a theory that we have a protective energy that wards away evil influences. This can include naturalistic factors such as Wind, Cold, Heat and Damp (which may cause symptoms associated with cold and flu). This also protects us from the energies of other people (think about people who try and pull you into their mood or drama).
When the Wei Qi is weak, it allows us to become affected by these external influences and for some this occurs at different times such as allergy season. When treating allergies, it’s a two-track treatment strategy. On the one hand we have symptom relief – which needs to come first in order for the patient to resume normal life functions. On the other hand we have a long-time deficiency in the Wei Qi department that must receive treatment at the same time. As we can imagine, symptom relief doesn’t take that much time at all while jacking up the Wei Qi takes longer.
So no matter whether you are experiencing a flare-up of allergy symptoms or you want to get ahead of them before the season is upon you, Chinese medicine can help.
Chinese Medicine and Emotional Health
In this 5000 year old system, we practitioners believe that there are many causes of illness. Injury, poor dietary choices, lack of exercise and organ dysfunction can all contribute to physical problems. However, the Seven Emotions can cause a direct injury to the bodily processes. The Seven Emotions are: anger, fear, fright, grief, joy, worry and pensiveness. Let’s take a look at how these emotions interact with the energy of the body:
1. Anger moves upward. I’m sure we can all confirm this as many of us feel a rush to the head or get a headache when we are angered. Other symptoms that can occur are raised blood pressure, blurry vision, dizziness and/or even stroke.
2. Fear moves downward. We’ve seen in movies where someone gets scared and wets themselves. Fear can also affect other systems reflecting in anxiety and/or confusion.
3. Fright moves in all directions (scatters). This can be seen in depression, confusion, lack of courage and/or can lead to outbursts of anger.
4. Grief makes us weak. When we are sad, we feel weak and vulnerable. This can also cause shortness of breath, excessive crying, frequent colds and/or skin conditions.
5. Joy is not a problem per se. Excessive joy, or over-excitement/mania, surprisingly slows everything down. Symptoms include: palpitations, insomnia, unclear thinking and heart attack.
6. & 7. Worry and pensiveness tie us up in knots. Overthinking, brooding and rumination all lead to a weakening of digestive processes and what they represent. Poor digestion, prolapse of organs and poor sleep are some of the symptoms that can occur.
As we can see, Chinese Medicine closely relates emotions with health and wellbeing. When treating patients, I can’t help, by nature of the acupuncture points, but not treat a person on a physical and emotional level at the same time,