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Runners get addicted to the high. They run in nature and all their stress disappears. People say they have a zest for life. Their friends have bellies. They don’t.

However, they get injuries. O honorable runner, I am here to help you.

In other posts, I have talked about how acupuncture can help with multiple varieties of foot pain. Today, I’d like to talk about a common injury that runners get: achilles tendonitis.

Actually, today’s post might be a short one, which is fitting, because the treatment cycle for achilles tendonitis is also short: most patients tend to experience a full resolution of this injury in 2-3 weeks of twice-weekly acupuncture.

Needles are placed at various body points as well as at local points at the tendon. The local points are then stimulated with a microcurrent (feels like a pulsing and doesn’t hurt) for about 15-20 minutes twice a week.

Most patients report that the stiffness they experience in the morning resolves soon after the treatment has begun, and after 1-2 weeks, they can start running again without experiencing any pain.

Is acupuncture magic? Perhaps, but of course, when you release muscles near the tendon and stimulate blood flow to it, magic does happen.

And you, dear runner, get that smile back on your face.

When a patient comes in complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, brain fog, seasonal allergies, or skin issues, I will often test for “foreign invaders” in the GI tract. Sure enough, I usually find either a fungal, parasitic, or bacterial infection. Once this is treated, the symptoms disappear. It is for that reason that corticosteroids such as hydrocortisone (prescribed, say, to stop itching or rashes), are only a quick fix. We need to get to the source of the itch.

The ancient Chinese doctors experimented with thousands, if not tens of thousands of herbs through the centuries. One of them, coptis (or Huang Lian), is the perfect antibiotic (and is also used to treat other types of infections, including yeast, like candida albicans, and parasites).

Coptis is a root that is deep yellow (in fact, its name in Chinese means “Yellow Link”) and is originally from Western Sichuan. The classic doctors used coptis for three main purposes:

1) Gastrointestinal issues: diarrhea, dysentary, tenesmus, abdominal pain, nausea, acid regurgitation (GERD), etc.

2) Eye issues. Red eyes, eye pain, blurry vision, night blindness, conjunctivitis, etc.

3) Mood issues. Insomnia, anxiety, etc.

4) Skin issues: abscesses, burns, rashes, etc.

In modern times, researchers have found that one of the main active ingredients in coptis is berberine. Berberine can now be obtain as an isolated compound, usually in the form of berberine HCl. However, it is always better to use the herb in its natural state because the plant contains other compounds which enhance and moderate the effects of each other. In this way, side effects are minimized, and there results a synergistic effect. In the case of coptis, other compunds, such as coptisine, palmatine, xolumbamine, magnaflorine, etc., works together to obtain a stronger result than if we had just used berberine alone.

In Chinese medicine, inflammation and infection are viewed as “fire”. Antimicrobial herbs are viewed as “cold.” And so we can view coptis as a “fire fighter”. For those of you traveling who get traveller’s diarrhea, coptis pills are great to have with you.

If you feel out of sorts, with any of the above symptoms, you might just be dealing with a fire going on somewhere inside of you. Coptis will come to your rescue!

As always, don’t take Chinese herbs without being properly diagnosed by a professional herbalist. In most U.S. states, the certification for Chinese herbalists is a diplomate in Chinese Herbal Medicine granted by the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM). Look for the NCCAOM certification when consulting with your herbalist.

Any questions, always feel free to contact me. Happy healing!

You are at your uncle’s for a cookout and you’ve just had four hot dogs, a beer (well, maybe two), and three pieces of cake. You technically have had some vegetables if you count the relish, so you don’t feel so bad. However, later that evening, you pay for all the indulgence with that sore throat feeling, acid regurgitation, bloating, heartburn, and a tummy ache.

You have just been hit with GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), or acid reflux.

Traditionally, the solution to this problem has been antacids (such as Tums, Pepto-Bismol; these are what your parents and grandparents used) . In the last twenty years,  drug companies have introduced acid reducers (proton-pump inhibitors or PPI’s, such as Prilosec, which was introduced in 1990), which inhibit production of stomach acid as a method of prevention.

Unfortunately, neither solution is actually getting to the root of the problem. Don’t get me wrong, if you are suffering and need immediate relief, take them. But let’s get to the root of the issue, especially since reducing stomach acid (which our stomach are supposed to produce), has many negative consequences.

Nutrient Absorption

The first is its negative effect on nutrient absorption. Those taking traditional medications over the long term could be experiencing deficiencies in several key nutrients. These include: iron, calcium, folic acid, vitamin B12. In addition, when stomach acid is low, protein cannot be fully digested, which leads to amino acid deficiencies. One of the results is depression and anxiety because the happy neurotransmitter in your brain are made from, you guessed it–amino acids.

Bacterial Overgrowth

Secondly, reducing stomach acid can result in bacterial overgrowth, as acid in the stomach kills many types of harmful bacteria. Over the long term, bacterial overgrowth taxes the immune system. One type of bacteria, h. pylori, is linked to stomach cancer.

Asthma

In addition, it has also been found that most people who experience asthma are low in stomach acid, so many people with acid reflux also happen to have asthma or allergy symptoms.

The Solution

So, what to do? Every time you eat chocolate, spicy foods or drink wine or coffee, your symptoms return. Your symptoms are usually under control using the traditional drugs. However, you would like to be a normal person again. You would like a permanent solution to GERD!

Enter acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. In my practice, I use a combination of these two modalities, in addition to diet and lifestyle counseling, to help my patient return to health.

Acupuncture and GERD

In Chinese medicine, when stress is high and the nervous system becomes imbalanced, the classical texts say that the digestive system may become affected. In some people, this is where stress affects them. (Others, for example, get chronic neck or back pain.) Because acupuncture serves to balance the autonomic nervous system, it is very effective at reducing the symptoms of GERD. Some patients recover fully with acupuncture alone after 4-8 weeks of treatment and subsequently come in once a month for preventative treatment.

If you are worried about the needles hurting, see my post, “Do Acupuncture Needles Hurt?”

Herbal Medicine and GERD

Other patients, whose condition is more chronic and advanced require the addition of herbs. The focus of prescribing herbs is threefold: 1) reducing bacterial overgrowth, 2) soothing the lining of the GI system, and 3) relaxing the nervous system.

In addition, I work with all patients on diet and lifestyle changes. This allows patients to speed up the healing process. After being treated and experiencing an 80% improvement in symptoms, I will ask patients to “push the envelope” at their next cookout or wedding. And of course, the vast majority, who have been so committed to their treatment, report that they were able to indulge without a problem!

So, if you have GERD, here’s to your return to good health.

Acupuncture can be effective in turning babies in breech presentation. I have seen this in my clinical experience and there is an Italian study showing acupuncture’s effectiveness for this problem.

If your baby is breech, give acupuncture a try. You come in once to my clinic, where I will instruct you on how to use moxibustion daily to help turn the baby. Moxibustion involves lighting herbs in the form of a moxa pole (it looks like a cigar) and heating an acupuncture point on your feet. You do this 20 minutes a day until the baby turns.

Moxa, by the way, is the Japanese word for mugwort, in Chinese, aicao. Mugwort burns at a high temperature and delivers penetrating infrared heat into the muscle layers.

My patient recently took some time off to vacation in a sunny place and didn’t get acupuncture during this time. Her blood pressure readings started going up and down. Systolic would vary between a high of 160 and low of 100. Her doctor recommended some anti-hypertensive medication but I asked if she would like to try acupuncture for two weeks before going on more medication.

We increased visit frequency to twice a week. The patient recorded her blood pressure readings every day and during the course of two weeks her blood pressure stabilized.

Her doctor was impressed and so was she. The power of acupuncture.

For more information on acupuncture and hypertension, you can check this article out.

My patient used to get hay fever, bronchitis, and sinusitis every spring. With regular acupuncture treatments, changes in diet, and herbs, allergies are now a thing of the past for her.

People ask me how acupuncture works. Is it voodoo? Do I pray to the Buddha while the needles are in my patients and hope for a miracle? I don’t think so, as you will see.

One of the ways acupuncture works is through the immune system. Do you think I could put thin threads of stainless steel through your skin without your body’s immune defenses kicking in? This is why, sometimes,  a small patch of redness develops around the spot where I put the needle. This redness is caused by the release of cytokines and histamines from mast cells and basophils.

You know working out at the gym is a good way of exercising your heart. Doing Sudoko puzzles is good exercise for your brain. And acupuncture is GREAT exercise for your immune system, which is why people who get regular acupuncture lose their allergies and don’t get colds as often.

Sound good?

Before you come in for acupuncture, there are some things you can do to prevent your seasonal allergies from being so severe this season.

But first, let me ask you a question. Do you have central heating and air conditioning? Do you replace your air filters regularly? What happens if you don’t? If your cousin starts surreptitiously throwing old socks filled with feta cheese into your vents, do you think that might cause a problem with your home’s HVAC system?

Of course, you would have problems. And likewise, you WILL have problems with allergies if you are not keeping YOUR body’s HVAC system clean. For those who experience seasonal allergies, I recommend removing wheat, dairy, and excess sugar from your diet. What? You could never do that?

The question, then, is how badly do you want to get rid of your allergies? How about trying not eating these foods for 6 weeks and seeing what happens?

This means none of the following: pasta, bread, milk, yogurt, cookies, cakes, soft drinks, candy, etc. Some gluten-free foods are allowed, of course, but I would emphasize good quality proteins and lots of vegetables. Easy on the fruit, which contains sugar, albeit in its natural form. Can you say PALEO diet? More about the paleo diet can be found by Googling it or going to Amazon.com.

In addition to acupuncture and dietary changes, herbs help as well. A patient of mine who is allergic to cats told me she was going to spend a few days with friends who have cats. After taking the herbs (they are in pill form and all VERY safe, manufactured with high quality controls in Taiwan and the U.S.–not mainland China), she came back and told me she had NO reaction to the cats (except for maybe thinking they are cute).

Wishing everyone a happy Spring!

In acupuncture school, when I first began interning, I was surprised at how many patients were on antidepressants. It was then that I first learned how prevalent antidepressants are prescribed in our society. Astoundingly, as reported in this Harvard publication, 23% of women in their 40s and 50s take antidepressants, a higher percentage than any other group (by age or sex).

Personally, I feel that antidepressants, like antibiotics, are overprescribed. And like antibiotics, sometimes they are necessary–for the short term.

Our society is one that looks for quick fixes, from liposuction to ambien. But usually the taking the quick-fix route means we lose out on something. In the case of liposuction, we lose out on the exercise, the responsibility, the feeling of achievement, and the character-building that comes from working out.

In the case of Ambien, we might be losing out on something our soul wants to communicate to us. One patient I treated, after taking Ambien for over 10 years, started developing a phobia of driving in cars and had to start walking everywhere. She was sleeping well, though!

Likewise, I believe that the self-examination and the character-building we go through while dealing with normal life challenges might be missed out on when antidepressants are overprescribed. Please keep in mind, I am talking about cases when the med is overprescribed in cases of mild mood disturbances.

Obviously, in cases of severe depression, I believe that the temporary use of pharmaceutical may be called for (e.g., in a crisis situation when severe depression strikes and the patient needs to “hold it together” in his role in his company, family, etc.).

However, if our healthcare system were focused on prevention and education, people might not get to this point. Were people to learn about stress and relationship management (actually, we all need “thought management”), the prescribing of antidepressants would be far less prevalent. (And big pharma executives would be far less rich, but I digress).

Another problem with antidepressants is their side effects, which include the following:

• nausea
• increased appetite and weight gain
• loss of sexual desire and other sexual problems, such as erectile dysfunction and decreased orgasm
• fatigue and drowsinessinsomnia
• dry mouth
• blurred vision
• constipation
• dizziness
• agitation
• irritability
• anxiety

So, what to do? Psychotherapy has long been considered a viable alternative that is side-effect free. In fact, in a landmark study published in 1979 (1), it was found that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy was more effective at treating depression than pharmaceutical drugs.

Now, with the popularity and availability of acupuncture, another tool without side-effects is available to help alleviate depression. In this recent study, it was found that acupuncture can provide significant relief of depression, at rates similar to psychotherapy and antidepressant drugs.

In my practice, I often work with patients who are aware of the downsides of taking antidepressants and want to reduce their reliance on them. I work with the patient and their doctor (who has experience in giving a reduction schedules to patients to reduce the dosage of their antidepressants) to help make the transition to a drug-free life more smooth.

As we practitioners of holistic medicine say, “Your body doesn’t have a Prozac deficiency.” Bodies and minds that are working well naturally produce the right neurotransmitters and don’t need to rely on pharmaceutical drugs to do this. Acupuncture and herbal medicine both do this–so you can get on living the life you want to live.

I recently was on a flight to the West Coast.  The woman next to me was drinking a Diet Coke. I looked around and it looked like lots of Diet Cokes were being consumed. So, I thought, time to write another post about this.

I will give you the punch line first, as if you don’t already know: diet soft drinks are BAD for you. Yes, a very technical pronouncement.

The research shows that first of all, the artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame, and saccharin) used in diet drinks are toxic. Here is a great article summarizing the toxicity of each. It’s unfortunate that well-meaning people who are trying to lose weight are imbibing poisons. If you know one of them, please let them know about this blog post.

It has also been discovered that because artificial sweeteners are low in caloric content, they promote hunger at later times after they have been consumed (see article). After the results of this research, I have seen articles suddenly proclaiming the opposite. Funny how that happens, and I would be wary of those studies.

If that is not enough reason for you to stop drinking diet drinks, recent research has shown that diet drinks are linked to increased risk of type-2 diabetes.

So, as I tell all my patients, you should only be drinking water and tea throughout the day. If you would like to sweeten your beverage, use stevia. And using honey, molasses, agave, brown rice syrup, or maple syrup, even though they contain sugar are all better alternatives to artificial sweeteners. Even refined sugar is better than the articificial sweeteners.

In Chinese medicine, the sweet taste soothes the Liver system, which in Western biomedicine corresponds to the part of the nervous system that controls the mood. Put simply, we crave sweets to manage stress.

So, if you are craving sweets, you might want to look at the stressors in your life and find solutions to help you deal with them. More about that in another blog post.

In the meantime, wishing you much natural sweetness in your life.

Some of my patients work out at the gym 4 times a week with heavy weights and then do aerobic exercise. The look strong, but when I feel their pulse, there is something wrong.  It is weak.  And of course, they have some kind of health condition and are not just coming in to chat and show off their toned muscles.

So, for these patients, I often prescribe reducing the time and intensity of their workouts. While overtraining feels good (especially when you don’t have any apparent injury after your workout) and reduces stress, it can lead to acute injuries and chronic health conditions.

Don’t get me wrong, some weight-bearing exercise and aerobic exercise are great. I can be seen in the local gym doing such exercises. I might even take a Zumba class one day. But since I am a practitioner of Chinese medicine, I follow the Golden Mean (中庸之道), which means I can be found every morning in Arlington practicing tai-chi outside. The local high-school students watch me practice on their way to school and I wonder if they say to each other: “If you aren’t nice to me, I am going to get that kung-fu master outside to beat you up.”

So, today I am going to recommend moderate exercise to everyone. If there is a studio where you can learn tai-chi, go and inquire about taking a trial class. Tai-chi has been proven to increase flexibility, reduce high blood pressure, help sleep, increase bone density, prevent stroke, and more. For more, you can read this article from Harvard.

Moderate exercise, such as tai-chi will help improve blood circulation and strengthen the muscles while keeping you flexible and will not tax your reserves so that if you are dealing with a chronic issue, it will heal more quickly. In contrast, overtraining will delay your healing.

Happy exercising to all, and remember, don’t overdo it.

Often, women who come to my clinic for treatment of infertility, are in a big rush. I actually expect this and have no judgment. You are 35, have had three miscarriages in the last year, have tried (and paid for) IVF with no success, and you just want to have a baby as soon as possible. After all, some of your high school friends already have several kids who are entering elementary school.

In Chinese Medicine, we say that a miscarriage takes more out of the body than an actual live birth. The ancient doctors recommended waiting one year after the miscarriage to try to conceive again. In my practice, it is rarely this long, but varies based on the health of the mother. And so, I have the patient come in for several months, give her acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, as well as counsel her on food and lifestyle choices. At a certain point, the patient is ready. She and her husband can go for it. And in my experience, the result is a beautiful baby (or sometimes “babies”, as in the case of twins).

Today, I would like to share two stories related to this topic. The first comes from China.

There once was a farmer. He wanted his shoots to grow faster really badly but didn’t know how to make that happen. One day he had an idea: “I’ll just pull them all up a little. This way I will help them grow faster!” So he pulled up the shoots.

When he came home that day, he told his son and wife about his smart idea. “Listen to the good news”, he said, “I helped the shoots grow today!” His son got excited and ran over to the field to see for himself. But when he arrived there, he found all the shoots dead.

So now the Chinese say “pull the shoots up to help them grow” when someone is damaging something by applying too much pressure.

If you would like, watch the YouTube video showing this story (in Chinese).

The second story comes from the famous Brazilian author, Paul Coelho:

A man spent hours watching a butterfly struggling to emerge from its cocoon. It managed to make a small hole, but its body was too large to get through it. After a long struggle, it appeared to be exhausted and remained absolutely still.

The man decided to help the butterfly and, with a pair of scissors, he cut open the cocoon, thus releasing the butterfly. However, the butterfly’s body was very small and wrinkled and its wings were all crumpled.

The man continued to watch, hoping that, at any moment, the butterfly would open its wings and fly away. Nothing happened; in fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its brief life dragging around its shrunken body and shriveled wings, incapable of flight.

What the man – out of kindness and his eagerness to help – had failed to understand was that the tight cocoon and the efforts that the butterfly had to make in order to squeeze out of that tiny hole were Nature’s way of training the butterfly and of strengthening its wings.

Sometimes, a little extra effort is precisely what prepares us for the next obstacle to be faced. Anyone who refuses to make that effort, or gets the wrong sort of help, is left unprepared to fight the next battle and never manages to fly off to their destiny.

Hope you enjoyed these stories. Whether you are preparing to have a baby or not, hope they are of benefit to you. Wishing you all patience, perseverance, strength, and prosperity.