I have long held an interest in eastern practices. I am fascinated with Chinese medicine and acupuncture. At a recent fair, I subjected myself to a very painful neck and shoulder massage from a small, but incredibly strong, Asian man that had me feeling terrific soon after the pain subsided.
And feng shui? Perhaps my longest unrequited fascination. How can energy flow through a house, an office, or even a room or even even even a desk, make such a difference to wealth, health and relation ships. I have read monumental claims from feng shui practitioners and read incredible testimonials from clients whose lives have changed by moving furniture.
I am a lover of Asian food and a frequent diner at many Chinese restaurants around town. One of my favourite haunts was owned by a man named Mr Lee. He sold the business, but he ran his very successful restaurant for more than 25 years. I asked him was he always so successful. He told me that years earlier, he had nearly lost it all. When he was about to lose it all, he was told of a famous Feng Shui master who was visiting Australia. He decided to make contact and arranged for the master to visit his ailing business.
The appointed time came and Mr Lee had borrowed the $8,000 fee to have this master attend his restaurant. The master walked in, took a quick look and said, ‘you move cash register from there to here,” as he pointed to the opposite side of the restaurant. The master turned and left, with Mr Lee chasing him. Mr Lee was very upset that he paid $8,000 to be told simply to move his cash register, but he got no further satisfaction and no refund!
Another $8000 in debt and nothing more to lose, Mr Lee moved his cash register…. and never looked back! his restaurant became profitable and Mr Lee became very wealthy.
So I thought to myself, why not experience some feng shui for me. I found a ‘master’ and viewed her website. I sent an email asking a specific questions and unfortunately, she ignored my questions, preferring to promote her own ‘feng shui’ seminar at $148 as her desired method of making my acquaintance.
Naturally, I questioned her motives. I was then made to feel guilty. Of course she was not wanting my money. I asked her why she did not answer my questions. Sadly, I have had no response. What the feng shui was that all about? I have to ask myself. That’s one ‘master’ who moved her cash register into my face in lieu of giving me a straight answer. In lieu of giving me any answer.
I’m looking for a great feng shui practitioner in Sydney Aus. One who has enough Qi to answer simple questions and have me as a client.
Fat bastard – out
Originally Written by: Ramakrishnan, MMBS, MFHom, PhD.
Dr. Ramakrishnan is a medical doctor from Madras, India, who specializes in homeopathic medicine. He has offices in Madras, Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Washington, San Francisco and Toronto. He is chairman of the Homeopathic Education and Research Foundation and joint chief executive of the International Homeopathic Medical Association. He has conducted many research projects and delivered papers at major international conferences for over twenty years.
SAMUEL HAHNEMANN
Homeopathy was discovered by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann about 200 years ago. He actually stumbled upon the discovery of homeopathy. He was reading about the properties of quinine in curing malaria, and he wondered what property in quinine was specific for malaria. Quinine is extracted from cinchona bark as you all know. Hahnemann’s enquiring mind wanted to know more about this stuff, so he powdered the cinchona bark, put it in a little alcohol and drank it himself. Lo and behold, he produced all the symptoms of malaria; he had 104 degree temperature, colic, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, shivering, just like malaria. So he began to realize that this substance which is specific for malaria produced all the malarial symptoms in him when he took it in a healthy state. Therefore he proposed the theory “that which it can cause in a healthy state, it can cure in a sick state”, and he began to prove one medicine after another. He took every medicine, drank it himself and produced the symptom, recorded the symptom and matched it to the symptoms for which it is known to be a remedy.
POTENTIZATION
I will give you a common example. You have all seen the effect of an onion. When you chop an onion, what happens? Your eyes water, your nose waters, you have the perfect picture of a cold. Now the same onion in a homeopathic potency is a wonderful cure for colds. When you walk through a jasmine garden, you have all the symptoms of hay fever, and that jasmine given in homeopathic potency is a wonderful cure for hay fever. It is a specific. But you ask, “If I take the crude substance, don’t I get worse?” Sure you will get worse if you already have a cold. It has to be given in a homeopathic dose, in a micro dose that is subjected to a process called potentization. It is refined, detoxified, and taken to a sub-molecular level. It is beyond 1012 dilution where there is no molecular substance left. We go much beyond that in a process that potentizes the properties of the physical substance and transfers them to the solvent at an energy level, at the subtlest level.
THE VITAL LIFE FORCE
Homeopathy has had a glorious history in curing mankind. It has enjoyed a lot of popularity in European countries, England, India and southeast Asia, and now there is a growing interest in the North American continent. Its fundamental strength is in its holistic approach. It recognizes our ability to cure ourselves because we each have a God given inborn endowed ability to defend ourselves, and maintain our health, but for which we would all be dead in two seconds. It maintains this equilibrium; it is the profound force within us, the self-defence mechanism, the immune system, or whatever name you may call it. It is that system, that vital force which we must recognize and help in its endeavour.
What is this energy, this life principle, which keeps you going? That energy which is the preservative energy of the body takes care of not millions or billions, but trillions and trillions of functions in the body. All we know about our body is that we can take a piece of bread and eat it. Once we swallow it, we don’t know thereafter what happens to it, but it gets broken down by starch, protein, fat and then is digested, sent to the intestine, is assimilated, and goes into the blood stream and becomes haemoglobin. We must address that vital force and that is what homeopathy addresses.
KARMA PHILOSOPHY How do we assist this natural mechanism? When a man dies does that profound vital force just stop? Is it something like an automobile engine or a light switch that you can turn on and off? In this universe, no energy can be destroyed. Something can never become nothing, and you cannot get something out of nothing. It is only a different manifestation at a different plane at a different wave length. So this vital energy is nothing but a continuum of forces. That is where karma philosophy comes in. A life force goes through the body from beginning to end and accumulates all the experiences of life, what we call in Sanskrit, sanskaras. So you may say, how can you influence the karma? How can you influence the life force with homeopathy? You don’t sit and helplessly watch whatever is happening in your life. It is subject to your governing it, disciplining it, channeling it, understanding it and handling it properly. It can be governed by your intelligence, your mind, your discipline, by good living, proper medications and proper understanding of medicine. If you injure yourself with all sorts of chemicals and toxic materials, you are going to be worse off. We are not dealing with chemicals. Homeopathy deals with a very subtle energy level, with the subtlest of subtle energy forces, so subtle that it matches the vibration of your vital force which is karma.
MODERN MEDICINE
Unfortunately, modern medicine today looks upon fever, headache, diarrhea, any symptom, pain or discomfort, as an enemy. But it is only a symptom put there by your body forces in the process of defending itself. Whether its a bacteria, a virus or an inflammation, your defence mechanism is trying to eliminate that bug or that irritant, and in that process is developing all the symptoms. It is a doctor’s duty to help that defense mechanism, that subtle energy that you have inside you, just to stimulate it to accomplish the job all by itself, to assist the body’s natural mechanism.
Today in this modern world, everybody is in a hurry. The patient is in a hurry – the doctor is in a hurry. The patient goes to the doctor and says, “I have this problem. Fix it in 24 hours. Tomorrow I have to be in New York.” And the doctor is also in a hurry because he has a long line of patients, and he wants to just get rid of the symptoms and go on to the next patient. So the patient is in a hurry, the doctor is in a hurry, and they are made for each other. It works beautifully. But it is only palliative, and later on, there comes a stage where there is a difficult problem which is sometimes irreparable. Man, in his pursuit of wealth and fame and popularity and all the material happiness, is spending his health in the first half of his life, and in the second half he has to spend all his wealth to get back his health, and he may not be able to get it back. That is the situation man is driving himself into.
STRESS
Stress occurs in every one of us because of our attitude towards life. Unless we develop a sense of detachment from this world, which is easier said than done, this stress eats us up. However careful we may be in avoiding all the other carcinogens, this stress factor that we subject ourselves to is going to cause trouble. With homeopathy, we are able to bring this stress factor down.
CANCER
As a preventive measure, at a premalignant stage for people who have family histories of cancer, we have done great work with prevention with homeopathy. I have used carcinosum for cancer. We give this when there is a family history of cancer in the patient’s evaluation, even if they have come for something else like a headache. I use it specifically in cases which are predisposed to cancer but no cancer is found. So I will use it at a non-diagnosable level of cancer. Post-operative management can be done with homeopathy which is far superior to chemotherapy or other orthodox managements. I have been practicing homeopathy for the last 25 years, and very few people have come to my clinic with stage one cancer, only as few as 240 cases. People seek alternative systems of medicine only after they have exhausted the regular orthodox system. In the later stages of cancer, homeopathy can only offer a better quality of life and give pain relief.
BREAST CANCER
I have analyzed as many as 300 cases of breast cancer, and I should say that in 90% or more of them, there has been a disharmony in the marital or domestic situation. Galan said as early as 200 AD that melancholia predisposes to cancer.
CARCINOGENS
In Sanskrit, a language which is 5,000 years old, we are told to watch what goes into us through the five senses: the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and touch. Even seeing horrible things and listening to loud, bizarre, unhealthy sounds can be carcinogenic. It is not only the hydrocarbons, chemical fertilizers and insecticides that we are already aware of, but harmful sight, sounds and smells and anything that we ingest, because we are sensitive to all these things. There is also the sixth sense which is also important and which is also something which goes into you.
HOMEOPATHIC DEFINITION OF DISEASE:
People ask: if the solutions and preparations we are dealing with are so minute in matter, how could they possibly affect the system?
The first thing I want to say is that we must divorce ourselves from a preconceived notion of illness, and a preconceived notion of the action of drugs. We have previously been led to believe that medicines are chemically oriented preparations that affect the biological processes only on a material scale. This is not so. The reality is that to be curative a medicine must have energetic content. Since every human being has electrical current flowing through their system, which we can measure, (We also emit light, and electromagnetic fields, and frequencies) we therefore have an electromagnetic field. Conventional medicine has ignored and completely disregarded this principle, and so disease has been defined by them as the manifestation of certain symptoms.
However, the homeopathic definition of disease is that when something goes wrong at the electrical level, the electromagnetic field is altered. As a result of that imbalance, there is a manifestation of ulcers, migraines, cardiovascular disease, etc. So homeopathically, we correct the energetic imbalance. This used to be done qualitatively. Now it can be done very precisely and very quantitatively.
THE ACUPUNCTURE SYSTEM AND THE MANIFESTATION OF DISEASE:
In acupuncture, the Chinese stumbled across the fourth circulatory system of the body, which is the electrical system. And it is at the electrical level of the body that the disease is caused. They discovered that there were three basic circulatory systems, the blood, the lymph, and the nervous system. Each of them has a massive network. But the fourth system, which is the most crucial system of all, is the electrical system, otherwise known as the acupuncture system. Within this we have an electrical network connecting every part of our body, from the dermal areas of the skin to the deeper tissues, and we can actually plot where these different circuits go. Every one of us has them. And when they are cut or incised, problems will develop.
It used to be fashionable at one time for women, when they had operations, to be very careful and let the surgeon know that the cut should be a horizontal one lower down so that it wouldn’t be noticeable, rather than a longitudinal one. This caused more problems in the 50’s and 60’s that we didn’t even come across until the late 70’s. Because these meridians are going up and down the system (vertically), when they are cut horizontally, there is tremendous damage to the circuitry of the system. And we’ve had more women with severe allergies and severe endocrinological problems as a result of that. So just as a side note, remember if anyone ever has to go into surgery, please go in for the vertical cut, which will do minimum damage, rather than the horizontal.
So there are basically twelve main meridians or arteries of electromagnetic energy. In these twelve, you constantly have a free flow of energy. If an energy block develops in one of these meridians, you have a problem. And what causes that block? It is all the garbage we have in our air, in our water, and in the food we take, however careful we are, and especially it is a result of the drugs that we’ve been taking since we were children: from the vaccinations to the analgesics, anti-depressants and antibiotics. They have all managed to accumulate and cause a problem, which results in this block. The Chinese figured that these blocks affect the electromagnetic structure, and cause disease.
There is a level of toxicity and a physiological effect that each virus and bacteria can manifest. So long as you are kept ordered at the electrical level, none of this will invade you. Take for example an epidemic of influenza. All around you people are falling sick. They’ve got the bug, but you’ll always find one or two people who don’t get it. If the virus is in the air, and we’re all breathing it, and we all have it, why doesn’t everyone come down with it? Because there is a certain arrangement required for the activity of that virus. And some of these people are naturally healthy and they have natural resistance.
HOMEOPATHIC TREATMENTS:
Well, homeopathy does not treat with antibodies. Homeopathy deals with the same substance.
INSOMNIA: You know that coffee which has caffeine, keeps you awake at night when you drink too much of it. Well in homeopathy, the classic treatment for insomnia is crude coffee in potentized form. Very, very effective.
HEAVY METAL POISONING: Another very fascinating area, where homeopathy is effective, is in the treatment of heavy metal poisoning. Where there are dietary deficiencies, these can be made up by taking extra vitamins and minerals. But when you have heavy arsenic, heavy cadmium, or heavy mercury in the system, what can you do? There is no other medical system that can handle it, and people become severely ill, especially their central nervous system. Their coordination goes. If metals are in the blood, chelation can work but if it’s in the tissues, chelation will not work that well, and you will need homeopathy.
LEAD: For instance, lead in your system can be very effectively treated by Plumbum Metalicum, which is a homeopathic preparation made from lead. We have documented that a person who shows high levels of lead in their tests, after 120 to 160 days of taking the preparation of Plumbum Metalicum, has eliminated it from the tissues, from the liver, from the fat around it, and it’s out of the system.
PESTICIDES: The same is true for pesticides. And that is my main concern right now, because our air has become so full of at least 14 different kinds of pesticides that have been used, such as malathion, paraquat, and 245 tiesta, and every year it’s getting worse and worse, and people are coming down with multiple sclerosis and alateral sclerosis. These are symptoms related to pesticide poisoning. And we’re having excellent results using homeopathic forms of the same pesticide to treat them.
RADIATION SICKNESS: When a person accumulates radiation, essentially X-Rays or emanations from radioactive substances, there is obviously toxicology related to radioactivity. When you prepare the homeopathic form, you take a diluant, which is a water-alcohol system, and you bombard that with X-Ray radiation to the point where it becomes heavily saturated with it and you can measure it. Nobody touches it now – it’s a potent, lethal substance. Then this is diluted and potentized to a point just like with other homeopathic preparations, and we get potencies so dilute you cannot quantifiably measure them, and a tremendous amount of reverse energy is created in the vehicle. We can now give you back in precisely this negative form something that will balance out your radioactive levels. So in this way you can remove the effects of radiation.
We are finding that especially with our airline pilots and stewardesses. Most of them who are flying all the time eventually are exposed to enough milliCuries of radiation up in the atmosphere, and they all come up with the central nervous system phenomena which is related to radioactivity. And we have treated many pilots for this. A lot of pilots die around the age of 60 of cancer, and we have been able to document this study.
HOME REMEDY KIT: For you at home, we drew up some combinations which we have found in our experience to be very valuable. We have a service where the highest quality of homeopathic medicine is made, both in combination form as well as single remedies. For those of you who do not know of a place to get it, by all means write to our service. They can tell you where you can obtain homeopathic remedies, or they’ll be happy to send them directly to your home. Our idea, with these home combinations, is to stay on a preventive program. Ninety percent of problems can be taken care of right in your home, with the householder playing the doctor, as it should be, as it used to be a long time ago.
We have developed a homeopathic remedy for DIARRHEA, both for elderly people, as well as for children. COUGHS are another problem. Everybody comes down with coughs, and rather than take different depressants, which numb the nervous system, there’s a homeopathic remedy which can do it very nicely for you. HEMORRHOIDS and PILES: Every third person on the street is now suffering from one form or other of hemorrhoids. We have a preparation for that. NERVOUS TENSION, INSOMNIA, HEADACES, NEURALGIA, GLANDULAR DROPS, TEETHING FOR CHILDREN — preparations for all of these things were developed for your convenience. One last medicine is for the treatment of OBESITY. Appetite depressant drugs will not do it because a big person thinks differently from a thin person. We can convert this homeopathically to where this fat man now loves celery.
Homeopathic remedies are a beautifully gentle form of treatment. There are no side effects. For chronic conditions please go to a doctor.
CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered to be part of conventional medicine. While scientific evidence exists regarding some CAM therapies, for most there are key questions that are yet to be answered through well-designed scientific studies—questions such as whether these therapies are safe and whether they work for the purposes for which they are used.
So says the US National Institutes of Health about ‘complementary and alternative’ medicine. What the NIH doesn’t tell you is that some people get quite ratty, and indeed irrational, when talking about it. It also fails to point out that that if something doesn’t work it can hardly be called ‘medicine’, so the phrase ‘complementary and alternative medicine’ is a bit pointless.
Yes, I know: CAM means anything that isn’t ‘Western’ medicine, the stuff that often has huge amounts of evidence behind it and that actually makes people better. Or maybe anything that isn’t pouring money into the coffers of multinational pharmaceutical companies—as if that’s somehow worse than pouring money into the coffers of those who offer sugar pills and countless different vitamin formulations.
Anyway, the point is that anything that claims to be a medicine can be tested, to see if it actually does make people better. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do? Anyone who tells you that a CAM therapy can’t be tested is lying to you, and by the way, when did you last see your wallet? The endpoint for all medicines or treatments is really quite simple: does someone who is unwell get better as a result? Where things get complicated is in the testing protocols you use: in defining ‘better’; in the appropriate choice of controls; in statistical analysis; in dosage; and indeed in defining what ‘unwell’ means in each case. (It’s trivial to feel a bit run down, take some supplement or do yoga and feel better again, and say that the intervention worked; when in fact you had just had a couple of bad nights’ sleep. This is why the plural of ‘anecdote’ isn’t ‘data’.)
More problems arise when people start getting lazy and lumping together things like herbalism and acupuncture with homeopathy. One of those involves chemicals extracted from plants, one involves a surgical procedure; and one nothing at all. It makes no sense at all to compare them as equals. (Now you might say that homeopaths treat the patient and not the condition, and you might well be right; but conventional medicine also has that. It’s called ‘bedside manner’ and it’s very powerful.) Now, I have no particular beef with homeopathy per se: if educated, well-informed people want to try it, then that’s their lookout. But when people in positions of authority or responsibility actively deny access to ‘conventional’ medicines that actually work, in favour of witchcraft, I get a bit tetchy.
We talked a week or two ago about a study that looked at a herbal remedy; chamomile. There, chamomile came out as beneficial in cases of mild anxiety. This was a nicely done trial, with a result that wasn’t really surprising. After all, people have been using it for ages (and noticed an effect; presumably if they hadn’t they’d stop buying it) and there’s actually some chemical in it that has a chance of being biologically active. Chamomile tea might well be classified as a CAM, and it works. We can call it ‘medicine’, therefore, even if it’s not prescribed or ‘conventional’.
A study reviewed on f1000 this week examined acupuncture in the management of post-operative pain in children. Again, actually doing something to people had an effect; and this is with anaesthetized patients (so you might think that patient bias is reduced). This reminds me, parenthetically, of my favourite placebo story. Back in the Fifties a particular treatment for angina involved ligating certain arteries. When people did the proper experiment, they found that a sham procedure (under sedation, not anaesthetic) was just as effective, at least in the short term. Rather than say “hey, we’ve discovered something odd here” the surgeons stopped doing the procedure (that’s because they were medics, I presume. Were they scientists they might have played with the observation a bit). This also is not too surprising: acupuncture seems to work. We might not know how it does, but at least we can guess that the mechanism involves stimulation of certain nerves or release of endorphins, or something testable (but probably not some mysterious ‘life energy’):
For short-term outcomes, acupuncture showed significant superiority over sham for back pain, knee pain, and headache. For longer-term outcomes (6 to12 months), acupuncture was significantly more effective for knee pain and tension-type headache but inconsistent for back pain (one positive and one inconclusive).
…
The accumulating evidence from recent reviews suggests that acupuncture is more than a placebo for commonly occurring chronic pain conditions. If this conclusion is correct, then we ask the question: is it now time to shift research priorities away from asking placebo-related questions and shift toward asking more practical questions about whether the overall benefit is clinically meaningful and cost-effective?
And then we have the homeopaths. Bless them: although they say we can’t, or shouldn’t, test homeopathic ‘treatments’ like we test other CAM, sometimes they’ll go ahead anyway. And they’ll say things like
Piglets of the homeopathic treated group had significantly less E. coli diarrhoea than piglets in the placebo group (P < .0001).
Which, if true, would be brilliant.
But it’s not, is it? This is why they’re publishing in Homeopathy and not somewhere like Nature (because believe me, if it were true this would be Big News). Even so, that’s a remarkable claim, and I had a look at the paper to see what was going on.
It’s really rather simple. They treated (observer-blind, apparently. I guess the pigs didn’t know what they were getting) sows with either an homeopathic preparation or a placebo (or maybe vice versa. Hard to say). And then they scored the offspring of these sows for E. coli-caused diarrhoea. The piglets that had diarrhoea that wasn’t caused by E. coli didn’t get counted. Funnily enough, those pigs were all in the treatment group, which is how the authors managed to get a sixfold decrease and that rather splendid-looking p value. And how did they determine that those pigs weren’t suffering from that particular form of the squits? Well, it wasn’t by microbiology:
Faeces were cultured to identify enteropathogenic E. coli, E. coli K99 and Salmonella. None of these were identified as present in the faeces sample. This does not per se demonstrate that enteropathogenic E. coli were not present at the farm at that moment. It was a relatively small sample size of three litters, which would not necessarily include the infective agent. Because treatment with Coli 30C had worked before, and E. coli diarrhoea generally can be distinguished based on day of appearance and colour, this was not further investigated.
Translation: “We believed there was E. coli in these pigs. We failed to prove it, but that doesn’t matter because we are strong in the Force, and you should believe it too. And there was no way we were going to check the whole batch, because then we might find an inconvenient absence of what we want to prove.”
And seeing as they didn’t publish the raw data, who are we to argue anyway?
It’s hardly any wonder, with work of this ‘quality’ finding its way into the literature, that homeopaths are still making a fast buck through the gullibility of ordinary people. So I heartily commend to you the 1023 ‘Overdose’ event on Saturday 30th January. This is where a bunch of community-minded people are going to, en masse, swallow a whole bottle of some homeopathic pills to proof they’re ineffective. And to reward you, loyal reader, for making all this way to the end, here’s a joke:
Did you hear about the homeopathy patient who died of an overdose?
I was still suffering and without hope when I decided to write this book, the day I brought home some dog-eared, yellow-highlighted books from the house of a deceased woman I had never met. I had stopped at an estate sale only to find that the woman who had lived there was a 56-year-old woman with fibromyalgia. The neighbors who were there weren’t sure how she died; perhaps an overdose, they suggested. Maybe a heart attack. I bought most of her books even though I already owned many of them. I wanted to feel close to her. I could sense her desperation as I turned the pages, as she highlighted various remedies, every one a highly popularized course of action for reversing the disease. I decided then that I wanted to tell the truth about the hopelessness that FMS patients feel when their doctor’s explanations and lectures fail and about what happens when you have tried every therapy in print and still can’t control the pain. I was angry that conventional doctors had not diagnosed me correctly and ignored some of the early signs of FMS. When I complained of insomnia, wakefulness in the middle of the night, headaches, daytime sleepiness, aches, and pains, I think my doctors attributed it to the fact that I was female, menopausal, thin, and working at a high stress job. I was given antidepressants and Valium. I spent years paying for the advice of doctors who knew less than I did about FMS. Even after I was diagnosed with FMS, I spent hundreds of dollars looking for answers in many books that generally prescribed light exercise and a healthy diet. Finally I found the people who could help me – doctors who had done their homework, acupuncturists you could trust physicians who understood chronic pain and treated patients like human beings. An enlightened pain doctor once told me that she was confident that doctors would soon find a way to treat FMS, if they could only keep the patients alive long enough. At the time, I didn’t know she would be one doctor who was right. Too many patients have been sent to their deaths by an absolute inability to endure more pain, aided by well-meaning, but ill-informed, doctors who failed to help them by dismissing their symptoms, withholding pain medication, and failing to do a complete search for underlying causes. FMS isn’t listed on a death certificate as a cause of death, but it can be deadly. FMS patients die from drug overdoses, lethal combinations of drugs, heart attacks and strokes caused by unendurable pain, withdrawal from drugs, and other causes linked to FMS. Sure, it would be easier for me to write that we are all going to recover completely immediately. Too many times, the helpful books I read (and there are some that were not) didn’t seem to address the panic, helplessness, despair, and severity of pain I was feeling. “If we can just keep our patients alive long enough to find a treatment,” my pain doctor said once, sighing as she handed me a prescription for Percocet. This is the story of staying alive.
Although the passing of Solstice signals that we are beginning to move out of the dark days of Winter, we still have a few months of cold before us. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Winter is the most yin of the seasons. A time when life has returned to its deepest inner aspects. Now, many animals are hibernating or have moved to warmer climates, plant life has returned to its roots, and people are staying indoors to escape the cold.
According to TCM, the Kidneys are the organs associated with Winter. In Chinese medical theory, the “Kidneys” would include not only their function of blood filtration, but also the adrenal glands that sit atop them. At this time of the year, the Kidneys are more active and potentially more vulnerable to depletion than at other times.
In TCM it is believed that by harmonizing oneself with the seasons, you can avoid illness and promote great health. Therefore, during the Winter it is a good time to focus on strengthening the Kidneys.
In the cold months, Man’s energy moves inward, our subconscious mind following old, instinctual patterns as we tend to focus on thoughts of survival. On one hand, this can lead to a rise in levels of fear based emotions such as generalized anxiety. This is very natural considering that for all of our history, Winter has traditionally been a pretty tough time for humans with regard to survival. But as a result of this stress, the Kidneys can be overly taxed – unless one does something to mitigate the effects.
On the other hand, the positive side is that it is the perfect opportunity to look deeply into our selves to reflect on the past year, understand our present, and prepare for the coming year. Meditation, prayer, journaling, goal creating exercises,
counseling, coaching and other techniques that reveal our deeper desires to our conscious mind can be very helpful. These tools support Kidney energy and have the ability to calm our emotions, relax the mind and raise our spirit.
Other ways to tonify the kidneys would include Qigong, Tai Chi or Yoga exercises, balancing foods (see chart on the back) and herbs, and acupuncture. These methods can help keep the Qi flowing smoothly and support the body’s physical health. They also can be tailored to the season to specifically support the Kidneys. Consult your local acupuncturist, Tai Chi or Yoga instructor for an approach that works for you.
This year consider making a New Year’s resolution to harmonize with the seasons. By doing so, you will have a better chance of greater health and success throughout the year!
For more info on Traditional Chinese Medicine check out : www.hughsacupuncture.com
Chances are you, along with most Americans, are not very familiar with Acupuncture. It was introduced as “public knowledge” to the United States in the 1970’s, yet many people still have not tried it. The thought of being stuck with 10-15 needles (on average) can be a bit intimidating. If you have experienced it, you may relate to what I am saying. If you have yet to experience it, I am here to ease your worried or skeptical mind and encourage you to try this amazing medicine.
Available to you is a natural, age-old, proven method of healthcare: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM encompasses three (3) major components: Acupuncture, Tui Na Massage, and Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM). The current state of our healthcare system affects each of us differently. No matter how you are affected or what your views of our ever-changing health care system are, you have options.
I am here to ease your worried or skeptical mind and encourage you to try this amazing medicine.
In a nutshell, Acupuncture is the insertion of very small needles (hair thin) into specific areas of the body to achieve a therapeutic effect. Tui Na Massage is a type of therapeutic massage that can be used to treat everything from common colds to chronic pain. Chinese Herbal Medicine is the use of herbs that traditionally grow in China, are used in everyday life there, and developed into an effective and individualized form of medicine.
The theories and diagnostic system used in TCM are complex and thorough. This diagnostic system was created to see the body as a whole, not as an individual body system or set of symptoms. This is to identify patterns of disharmony and any underlying imbalances that may be contributing to the symptoms being experienced by the patient. This is what is known as treating the cause or “root” of the disease. It is a regular practice of mine to discuss with my patients their diagnosis and what that means to them in terms of lifestyle, course of treatment, and future maintenance.
This diagnostic system was created to see the body as a whole, not as an individual body system or set of symptoms.
Acupuncture is rarely a “quick fix” especially in cases of chronic disease and pain. Patients may experience relief of symptoms after one or two treatments; however, those results are rarely long lasting. Acupuncture works cumulatively, therefore each treatment will compound on the last to correct the imbalances in the body. As the patterns in the body begin to change, the patient will experience more lasting results of treatment. Even then, maintenance may be necessary every few weeks or months. This medicine is no different than any other; the best results take a course of therapy and commitment from the patient for lasting relief.
Acupuncture does differ from pharmaceutical based medicine in that treatment has little to no side-effects, making it safe and non-toxic to the body. The side-effects experienced most commonly include: skin bruising and slight bleeding. Pneumothorax (punctured lung) can occur, though it is an extremely rare complication. I am well trained to know the areas of caution, needle depth and insertion angles to avoid such instances. I use factory sterilized, one-time-use, disposable needles and the chance of infection is minute.
This medicine is no different than any other; the best results take a course of therapy and commitment from the patient for lasting relief
Besides increasing the odds of symptom eradication in a safe and natural way, acupuncture is a great stress reliever and can have profound effects on even the healthiest of people. One does not need to be experiencing symptoms or have a medical diagnosis (in most cases) to receive acupuncture.
I recently decided to seek out the care of an acupuncturist. My MDs and alternative therapists suspect that I have a pretty naughty, chronic bladder condition…that is difficult to diagnose and pretty impossible to treat. Since conventional medicine has nothing to offer me, I’ve sought alternative medicine.
I have been seeing a nutrition therapist for about 3 months, chiropractor for about a month, been under the care of a massage therapist for nearly 5 years and am now doing acupuncture. I am of the belief that the body will often times heal itself when it is taken care of properly. As my nutritionist says, “Food is medicine.” I have had a vast shift in my thinking in regards to my body over the last six months. I quit smoking. I stopped eating junk food. Why would I choose to put poison in my body? The temple where my soul (and God) reside? I was taking my life and my health for granted, and I pray that I am able to heal from this condition…that it is really a gift…to lead me to optimum health.
It’s tough. It takes a lot of hard work and self-will to eat “clean” and “anti-inflammatory”… fewer chemicals, less processing. I literally feel anxiety when I go to the shop – for nearly every container ends up back on the shelf. Nearly EVERYTHING has artificial sweeteners, colors, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils… It’s very frustrating and honestly seems like a conspiracy to kill us all. I have got to build a repertoire of healthy dishes to prepare for my family…a daunting task for a time-crunched, working, single-mom.
My real intent in writing this blog is to share my first experience with acupuncture, so that perhaps someone who has considered it might take the plunge and actually try it.
Prior to the visit, I was asked to complete a multi-page questionnaire about my past and current symptoms. Several of the symptoms on the list had what appeared to be “codes” beside them – such as 7a, 8, etc. I noticed that several of the things I ticked shared the same code….perhaps interconnected, although one wouldn’t think so.
When I arrived, the therapist took me into a cozy room, where she asked me what my primary concerns were. She readily referenced things from my history that she remembered reading, which made me feel comforted and confident in her intent to treat.
I then laid on the table…my head on a pillow and a roll under my knees. I was clothed with the exception of my shoes, pant legs pushed up and belly exposed from the bra-line to the top of the panties. The insertion itself was virtually painfree. She “tapped” the needles in, and I could hardly feel them. She explained that they were inserted typically a “thumb’s-width” deep. She put about 3 in each leg, 3 in each foot, several in my abdomen, 1 in each hand and 1 in my forehead. The 2 in my hands (the fleshy part b/t the pointer and thumb) ached a bit when she pushed and rotated them, but it wasn’t agonizing by any means. She then heated the needles with a smokeless stick of mugwort…again…nice, no pain (not hot). She explained that she typically places an infared light over the patient to add warmth during the treatment, but her light was broken. I am looking forward to that next time.
After she left me in the room alone and I relaxed (w/ the needles in place) – tears began to pour from my eyes. I cannot tell you why… I wasn’t sad, upset, anything like that. It just happened. If I had to describe the emotion, I would say I was overwhelmed by relief… Relief that I was where I was supposed to be at that very moment in time. This has happened to me a couple of times in the past with massage. Also, when I closed my eyes I saw lots of color – mostly purples and blues w/ a little green. Big patches of moving color… much like the visions one would expect from some psychedelic trip. I know this is related to the energy work. Again, I felt this overwhelming sense of perfection. Perfect timing. Perfect place.
The therapist said that I might feel an insatiable urge to close my eyes during the treatment, but I didn’t. I felt rather relaxed and felt tingling and “chills” intermittently. She sd that I would begin to feel a deep calm, relaxation and sense of well-being later that day and for the next couple of days. That was Wednesday, and it’s now Friday. I can’t honestly say that I’ve felt those things… That afternoon I felt very “loopy”…unable to hold my train of thought…and that has persisted. I am certainly no less impatient with the children, and I have been sleepy the past two afternoons… which used to be a problem for me, but had gotten much better. Although I do believe that the acupuncture has effected me…perhaps just not in the ways that she described.
I was given a homework assignment to massage my midline from breast to pubis twice daily for 5 minutes. She encouraged me to try and find the tender spot and massage there…that it would be very powerful. I definitely have found the tender spots and feel a bit of an aversion to massaging there… It feels too invasion, but I am doing it. I go back in a week for treatment number 2.
I remain hopeful that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I have prayed that I be led to the people, the information that can help me heal from this condition. I have confidence that I am on the right path and will continue to ask for clarity, strength and guidance.
I first got the idea to get acupuncture done about a week ago after reading a thread on LHCF [Click Here] about raising your internal body temperature to help aid in hair growth. After reading that thread, it seems I am ‘conditonally cold’ I feel it easily in my hands and feet especially. I have to always be hot. The thought of eating cold foods make me feel cold. I thought “it was just me” and that living in cold London was simply the reason. I didn’t even know that this was something that could be corrected or was even caused by certain organs in the body.
Now aside from the hair growth benefits of raising my body temperature, I’m getting the acupuncture to help with a few things, removal of toxins via the cupping/massage, to raise my energy levels, improve my circulation, all of which will also be an added benefit to grow some hair. Upon doing a pulse check and looking at my tongue the therapist said I have low energy levels [from taking my pulse] and bad circulation [from looking at my tongue]. She was right on both counts. I always feel tired and cold.
“The Many Benefits of Chinese Cupping [Click Here]“
The Benefits of Acupuncture “Many people use acupuncture to help with specific symptoms or conditions. These might include anxiety states, arthritis, asthma, back pain, circulatory problems, depression, facial paralysis, fibrosis, high blood pressure, indeterminate aches and pains, infertility, menstrual problems, migraines, rheumatism, sciatica, skin conditions or ulcers. Acupuncture is a safe treatment for all. It has proved to be effective in pregnancy management and for the relief of pain in childbirth.
Acupuncture is also helpful for people trying to overcome addictions such as those related to smoking, alcohol, food or drugs.
Some people may have acupuncture as a preventive measure to strengthen their constitution, or because they feel unwell in themselves without being ‘ill’ in the Western sense. It can also be used alongside conventional medicine in the treatment of both acute and chronic disease.”
First of all let me just tell you a few don’ts before you go to get an acupuncture treatment.
DON’T…
…wear a thong/G-String. Make sure you wear regular panties. When you’re asked to turn over you want little on show as possible.
…wear any make up.
…even bother about making sure your hair looks all prim and proper before you get there, it won’t look the same when you leave.
…forget to shave/wax this is a full body experience.
…plan to go clubbing and wear a backless dress/top. Cupping will leave your back marked for a few days.
The whole process took just under 90 minutes including a consultation. The lady who I had the consultation with asked me right there on the spot if I mind having the treatment done with a male therapist. There I am in Jeans and T- Shirt not knowing I’d have to strip down to my underwear. How naive of me. But there was a towel covering up my special places. I was like whatever, my doctors are male and have seen the most intimate parts of me, this will be nothing.
I lay on the table in a dimly lit room and the therapist started with the treatment.
He placed 3 needles on each leg. One needle on the foot, another above the ankle and the last one around the knee area.
He then applied some balm to my forehead and temples and began to give me a head, neck and shoulder massage.
During the massage a hot lamp was placed over my feet.
I was then given and arm and hand massage on each arm.
The bottom of my feet were massaged.
The therapist placed the hot lamp over my stomach and left the room for a few minutes.
When he returned he removed the needles and massaged my feet and legs.
I had to turn over [this was not my favourite part and where the violation began]. My underwear had to get ‘inched down’ and 2 needles were placed on each side of my butt cheeks. I’m face down on a table, I had no idea these were hooked up to some electrical pulse contraption. The next thing I know my butt is flexing on its own and it hurts. It was a very deep, pulsating feeling which I wasn’t comfortable with at all. This was to open up the channels to aid in circulation. I had to ask for him to turn it down a little as it was actually beginning to hurt.
Whilst the booty shaking was going on, the cupping began. The therapist used bamboo cups and I’m assuming used the flame method as I could hear and smell them being lit. I think about 8 or maybe more cups were placed on my back. This was a strange feeling. To some it would have been very uncomfortable but compared to what was going on in the ass region I was so grateful for this as it took my mind off the throbbing going on down below.
Whilst the cupping and the butt pulsating was in full effect I was given a neck and a foot massage. After this the therapist left the room for a few minutes. GREAT! I must look like a right idiot, 4 needles hooked up to some contraption and bamboo cups all over my back.
The cups and needles were removed! Thank you Jesus! I then had a leg, arm, back and neck massage
After all of that I was asked to sit in a chair and had another neck and shoulder massage.
Treatment over!
How do I feel after that?
Warmer, yes! My feet aren’t as cold as they usually are. Maybe it’s because all the blood is flowing around or I’m just paying more attention to my body right now writing this than I usually am.
I feel very relaxed. As soon as this blog post goes up. I’m taking a nap.
I have red cupping marks on my back which will take a few days to disappear. There’s a slight bruised feel to it as well, although nothing major or uncomfortable.
The therapist said I’d need about 6-8 treatments. She said you can have them twice a week. I don’t know about that, but I have booked another one for next Saturday at the same time. I may space my treatments after this one to once every 2 weeks.
I’m going to keep a firm eye on my body temperature, especially my feet, as the improvment in their temperature will definitely be a tell tale sign.
The cupping, massage and acupuncture cost £30. I went to a local place on my high street which is 2 minutes walk from my house. Chinese herbalist shops are pretty much everywhere. This particular shop didn’t advertise that they did acupuncture in the shop window, so if you have a Chinese herbalist near you pop in and ask. Chances are they probably do and also it will be much cheaper than finding a non-Chinese run location that will charge arounf £50-55 for the same treatment.
perhaps an overdose, they suggested. Maybe a heart attack. I bought most of her books even though I already owned many of them. I wanted to feel close to her. I could sense her desperation as I turned the pages, as she highlighted various remedies, every one a highly popularized course of action for reversing the disease. I decided then that I wanted to tell the truth about the hopelessness that FMS patients feel when their doctor’s explanations and lectures fail and about what happens when you have tried every therapy in print and still can’t control the pain. I was angry that conventional doctors had not diagnosed me correctly and ignored some of the early signs of FMS. When I complained of insomnia, wakefulness in the middle of the night, headaches, daytime sleepiness, aches, and pains, I think my doctors attributed it to the fact that I was female, menopausal, thin, and working at a high stress job. I was given antidepressants and Valium. I spent years paying for the advice of doctors who knew less than I did about FMS. Even after I was diagnosed with FMS, I spent hundreds of dollars looking for answers in many books that generally prescribed light exercise and a healthy diet. Finally I found the people who could help me – doctors who had done their homework, acupuncturists you could trust physicians who understood chronic pain and treated patients like human beings. An enlightened pain doctor once told me that she was confident that doctors would soon find a way to treat FMS, if they could only keep the patients alive long enough. At the time, I didn’t know she would be one doctor who was right. Too many patients have been sent to their deaths by an absolute inability to endure more pain, aided by well-meaning, but ill-informed, doctors who failed to help them by dismissing their symptoms, withholding pain medication, and failing to do a complete search for underlying causes. FMS isn’t listed on a death certificate as a cause of death, but it can be deadly. FMS patients die from drug overdoses, lethal combinations of drugs, heart attacks and strokes caused by unendurable pain, withdrawal from drugs, and other causes linked to FMS. Sure, it would be easier for me to write that we are all going to recover completely immediately. Too many times, the helpful books I read (and there are some that were not) didn’t seem to address the panic, helplessness, despair, and severity of pain I was feeling. “If we can just keep our patients alive long enough to find a treatment,” my pain doctor said once, sighing as she handed me a prescription for Percocet. This is the story of staying alive.
I first got the idea to get acupuncture done about a week ago after reading a thread on LHCF [Click Here] about raising your internal body temperature to help aid in hair growth. After reading that thread, it seems I am ‘conditonally cold’ I feel it easily in my hands and feet especially. I have to always be hot. The thought of eating cold foods make me feel cold. I thought “it was just me” and that living in cold London was simply the reason. I didn’t even know that this was something that could be corrected or was even caused by certain organs in the body.