Wellness Blog – Page 18 – Medford Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic

Wei Qi-immune support

Written by Ann Zimmerman on November 2, 2016. Posted in Immune Health and Balance.

By Ann Zimmerman, LAc.

According to the wisdom tradition of Chinese medicine, our Wei Qi circulates on our body’s surface, protecting us from pathogens like bacteria and viruses. This can be loosely related to how Western medicine views the immune system. In Chinese medicine, the belief is that viruses, bacteria and other pathogens are always present and generally non-threatning to our health unless our Wei Qi has been compromised.

Compromised Wei Qi then leaves our body’s defenses weak against whatever pathogens one might be exposed to in daily life. If a person keeps a lifestyle, such as an unhealthy diet or inadequate sleep over time, then they will ultimately deplete their body’s Wei Qi. Thus leaving them very vulnerable to developing illnesses. In addition to how lifestyles can effect our Wei Qi is the variable factor of extreme weather or stress. Changes in weather, such as large swings in temperature, moisture or wind also weaken our Wei Qi. On a windy fall day, a person with a poor diet who is lacking sleep, will most likely be a person who dealing with some stage of illness.

Stress also depletes our Wei Qi by fatiguing our ability to rest deeply. Often causing indigestion, anxiety, increased pain and insomnia. One of the great bummers of stress is that it does compromise your Wei Qi, often leaving us overwhelmed and sick, at the same time.

Preventing disease has been the center of Chinese Medicine, since its inception.

In the ancient Chinese text, the Neijing states, “To administer medicines to diseases which have already developed is comparable to the behavior of those persons who begin to dig a well after they have become thirsty, and of those who begin to make their weapons after they have already engaged in battle. Would those actions not be too late?

The fall and winter time tends to be a much harder time of year to stay healthy. If you know that

you are headed toward winter with compromised Wei Qi, please be good to yourself and start repairing your health before you get sick. Start practicing better lifestyle habits; eat better, get more sleep, stay hydrated, exercise, and limit sugar. Start/resume taking vitamins and herbs that improve your health and reach out for help if you need it before you get sick. We have seen a couple rounds of illness already pass thru the valley, if you are sick now or still not fully recovered consider using Chinese medicine to help restore your Wei Qi. To your good health!

The Truth About Opioids

Written by Ann Zimmerman on August 19, 2016. Posted in Drugs, Pain Relief.

By Clark Zimmerman, LAc.

My grandmother was never a fan of air conditioning. I remember visiting her farm in the heat of summer and spending a lot of my time swimming in the pond, rather than sweating buckets inside the house. Though my mom insisted it was because she had lived through the depression and didn’t want to spend the money, grandma insisted that air conditioning made you more sensitive to the heat. “If you just learn to tolerate the heat, and drink iced drinks or go swimming” she reasoned, “than there is no real need for air conditioning.” I thought of my grandma’s wisdom while reading a recent study by Peter M. Grace and Linda R. Watkins of the University of Colorado. The study found that opiate pain medications, such as morphine, oxycodone, and Vicodin can have the “devastating consequences of making pain worse and longer lasting”. Like my grandmother’s opinion of air conditioning, it seems that rather than effectively treating pain, opioids often can help us feel more comfortable in the short term, but can cause lasting sensitivity to pain.

As opiate addiction continues to grow in the U.S., and deaths from overdose by opioids become more common, people are beginning to ask if the benefits of opioids are worth the risks that are involved. This recent study is the latest bit of evidence that something needs to change. The healthcare community is truly beginning to evaluate when to use opiate medications and when other treatment options would be more appropriate. This latest research suggests that the conditions that can benefit from opiate use are not as numerous as we once believed. In my practice, I have seen many people who began using opiate pain killers to treat a traumatic injury or a nagging condition with the belief that things would quickly improve and the pain medication would no longer be necessary. When the pain lingers because their injury is not properly addressed or because their lifestyle that contributes to their pain is not altered, they become dependent on the medication. This results in the unfortunate situation of needing more medication to achieve the same amount of pain relief, which can easily lead to opiate addiction. Another thing worth mentioning is that the body experiences pain to help get your attention. If, for instance, you tear a muscle lifting a heavy box, you feel pain so that we know to quit using that muscle until it heals. If you cover up the pain with medication, sometimes it allows you to keep doing physical work that your body cannot perform. This can often result in more damage to your body.

I believe that opiate pain medications are often prescribed when other treatments such as ice/heat, rest, massage, acupuncture, chiropractic/osteopathic manipulations, physical therapy, or herbal preparations would be a better choice. These treatments attempt to address the underlying problem that is causing the pain, rather than cover up the pain in general. It seems that we are coming to a point as a society where this issue cannot be ignored any longer. Opiate pain treatments do have a place, but only in very specific situations of severe and otherwise untreatable pain, and only under the close supervision of a skilled and attentive medical practitioner. Not only is widespread opiate medication creating problems in our communities, it now appears that it is largely ineffective.

Grief: moving thru the pain

Written by Ann Zimmerman on June 14, 2016. Posted in Mental and Emotional Health.

By Clark Zimmerman, LAc.

broken heart

A few years ago I suffered a huge loss: I was completely overwhelmed. Though I had always considered myself to be a optimist who could put a positive spin on difficult events, none of my tools were enough to pull me out of my profound grief. I found it nearly impossible to function. All of life’s regular activities, such as meals and work seemed so meaningless. Food lost its flavor, joy became a faint memory. I had been down before, but this time was different. It was my first real taste of deep grief. If given a choice, many of us would make joy our permanent abode. We live in a culture that loves joy. We “smile for the camera,” or click the “like” button. Life is not always joyful though. Some cultures are much more attentive to grief: They wear black, they have lengthy, culturally recognized periods for grieving a loss. We do our best to minimize the pain that accompanies grief, and we try to move through it as quickly and quietly as possible.

Grief doesn’t heal if we don’t help it to heal. In fact, pushing it away or minimizing a loss actually makes it worse. It can make us chronically sick or depressed; It can drive us to medicate with alcohol, drugs or food. According to Chinese Medicine, grief is one of the five emotions. Along with joy, anger, worry, and fear; grief is a powerful signal that our body’s give us to implore us to pay attention to a situation and work on healthy ways to acknowledge and express our feelings. According to Chinese medicine, grief is related to the lungs and the metal element. This is why so often we cry or even sob when we grieve. Moving the lungs is the bodies method of moving grief through the body. If we stifle this expression, we often develop lung related illness. I can’t tell you how many patients I have seen who have not properly grieved only to develop lung cancer or frequent bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis.

So what can a person do if they are feeling grief? The first step is to grieve and do so without a care for how your grief appears to others. It is not your job to make others feel comfortable when you are in a state of grief. Secondly, seek out help. Find a good therapist, join a grief group, spend time with friends who can hold your grief and all its darkness. This doesn’t mean you should find someone who will help you cover up your grief or try to talk you out of it, but someone who can hold space for your process. Third, get body work, including massage or acupuncture. We store emotion in our bodies and bodywork is a great way to address the somatization of our emotions. Acupuncture in particular has very specific protocols that are remarkably helpful in clearing grief from the body. Fourth, consider herbs, supplements or essential oils to help the body manage the effects of grief. Since grief can effect different people in different ways, it is helpful to speak with a professional who can recommend specific things to address your individual situation. Lastly, breath work or singing also move the energy of the lungs and helps with the stagnation that can occur when we are grieving.

It is also important to realize that there is no time table to the grieving process. It can take years to feel that something has healed. Often we carry a noticeable scar for the rest of our life. These experiences of grief have so much to offer us as we move through them and integrate their lessons. We can use our experience of suffering to develop more empathy and understanding, ultimately becoming more caring human beings.