Immune Health and Balance – Page 6 – Medford Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic

Cell Phones: our new security blanket

Written by Ann Zimmerman on September 22, 2015. Posted in Immune Health and Balance, Mental and Emotional Health.

By Clark Zimmerman, LAc.

When my teenage niece came to visit last year, she was shocked to find that our mountain home had no cell service. While we could have given her our wireless password, her dad had requested that we say we forgot it, so she could have a little vacation from her phone. Needless to say, she was not pleased. Though she could still use the internet to email friends, or look at social media, the fact that she couldn’t use her smart phone at our house caused several meltdowns. Though most of us don’t react as severely as my niece, it is becoming more and more common to see our phones as a sort of security blanket.

While technology provides many benefits, there also is a certain price that is becoming more apparent. The moments of stillness and quiet that used to exist between different parts of our day are disappearing; being replaced with more texts to return and more business to attend to. It is like we are all “on call” now. In my medical practice I have noticed the effect that this is having on most people. People feel more rushed, further behind and more anxious. I have patients who come in for an hour acupuncture treatment “to relax” who insist on having their cell phones on just in case there is an emergency. This way of thinking almost expects tragedy. The same technology that was supposed to make our lives easier, is now serving to make people less capable of being comfortable with a moment of silence. When we are expected to be readily available at any moment, this not only takes away from the little bits of downtime that we used to get, it makes us prone to feeling that if nothing new is coming in on our feed that we are somehow missing out on something.

Our grandparents could sit for half a day on the front porch and watch the birds, and now most of us can’t sit still for 15 minutes without some sort of stimulation. We have begun to collectively move away from valuing the reflective, quiet, contemplative time, and are choosing to replace it with constant stimulation, constant news, and constant conversation. It makes me wonder, what is daytime without night? What is summer without winter? What is activity without rest? Science says that if you go long enough without sleep that psychosis ensues. We are running a grand experiment, it will be interesting to see where this all leads…

Can American’s practice preventative medicine?

Written by Ann Zimmerman on August 6, 2015. Posted in Immune Health and Balance.

by Ann Zimmerman, LAc.

Preventative medicine is taking action toward improving your health before you have any symptoms of illness or responding to the beginning symptoms of your body being out of balance. Every family has a health history and genetic tendencies toward weaknesses in certain areas of the body. We also know that these genetic tendencies are highly influenced by the lifestyle we live.

There is a famous saying, “If you continue to do what you have always done, you will continue to get what you have always gotten.” If you are not feeling well, chances are that you could list off a few things that you know could be improved in the way you manage your health. This speaks to the larger picture of paying attention to the choices we make and listening to the feedback our body is giving us. In general our sense of wellness and health is a pretty fine tuned feedback loop.

As Americans we typically struggle with the idea of prevention. Culturally we tend to satisfy ourselves in the moment and put other priorities before our health. We like to see how much gluttony we can get away with before our symptoms are yelling loud enough to make us change our habits. We tend to be very good at going to the extreme and doing even what could be healthy choices, such as exercise to excess. Each of us have made successful changes at different points in our lives, each of us have fallen off whatever good routine we had going, and its likely each of us have a couple of ideals we still are striving for to improve how we feel.

So what does it look like then to actually practice preventive medicine? I believe it is taking a honest look at how you run or react to your life. It is also bringing awareness to what kind of quality of life you want to enjoy and expect from you day to day. Perhaps, the expectations you have for your health are much higher than the amount of effort you are willing to put toward maintaining yourself or conversely you may have grown accustomed to having low expectations for ever really feeling good again.

What to do? Meet yourself in this moment . Start paying attention to your the cause and effect of the choices you make. Choose to notice how your actions and thoughts effect the way you feel. It takes a lot of personal motivation and discipline to make changes in your life. Try to look at your life from the prevention model versus reaction. If you are having trouble shifting this paradigm in general or regarding something specific ask for help from a friend or a healer. Each moment we are given another chance to do things differently.

Cheers to preventative medicine!

Caution vs. Fear: When concern goes too far

Written by Ann Zimmerman on January 10, 2015. Posted in Immune Health and Balance, Stress and Fatigue.

By Clark Zimmerman, LAc.

My Step father just retired this year at the ripe age of 81. During his career as an OBGYN, he commonly spent a lot of time in the hospital preforming surgery or helping women give birth. During my entire childhood I never once remember him calling in sick. A few years back I asked him how he managed to pull this off, considering he often missed sleep, ate hospital food and spent his days in a place full of sick people. He credited his good genes a little, but he mostly attributed his good health to his lack of worry about getting sick.

In this day of media bombardment and sensational sound bites, you could easily think that all of the world is a frightening place. That we simply live one event away from major catastrophe. While it pays to be informed and cautious, at what point does too much worry become a problem? It is good to be cautious. Caution can keep us safe by limiting our exposure to potentially dangerous situations. However when caution becomes fear or paranoia, it can have a negative effect on our life. Fear has very noticeable physiological effects on your body. It can effect your appetite and digestion, mental health and sleep in ways that are not only uncomfortable, but can also make you sick. Stress and worry lower your immune function, making you less resistant to illness and disease.