Stay Healthy This Fall

The season of autumn is now in full swing have you been feeling it creeping in?

In Chinese Medicine Autumn corresponds to the Lung, the most delicate of organs. It is believed that colds and flu attack the body from wind blowing on the neck. Think about the progression of a cold: stiff and achy neck and shoulders, sore throat, stuffy nose, headache, fever or chills. If you were struggling with colds in the spring and did not harmonize way back then your body may be at a greater disadvantage now that the weather is again changing.

Some simple things you can do to protect your body:

Wear a scarf or shirts/turtlenecks that do not expose the chest and neck, layers are a plus and all of these are the latest fashion anyway! Avoid direct contact from an open window or fan when you are sleeping. This is when the body is most susceptible to wind invasion.

Get an Acupuncture tune-up session acupuncture helps harmonize the body to adapt to its environment and has only positive side effects. Refer back to How Can Acupuncture Help My Cold?

Massage the space between your thumb and index finger on both hands as well as the space between your eye brows. LI4 and Yin Tang acupressure points are a great preventative for colds. Massage until the area you are rubbing feels achy and turns slightly pink/red. Don't wait to feel sick, start this now and do it everyday.

Adjust Your Internal Clock Bears hibernate for the winter and so should you! Go to bed early and use this time to slow down and rest after a hectic summer.

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 E Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 874.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

Herbal Remedy For Burns

Great Wall Brand carries an amazing burn cream that is inexpensive and extremely affective.

Ching Wan Hung is a topical ointment that can be used for burns caused by steam, boiling water, raging fire, hot oil, molten steel or chemical substances and radiation burns. Patients at Whole Health Acupuncture have also reported its great for sun burns/poisoning, 2nd and 3rd degree curling iron burns, sores that don't heal and other skin irritations. Ching Wan Hung can also be used for hemorrhoids and bedsores.

The function of the herbs in Ching Wan Hung burn ointment help to clear heat, increase circulation to repair the damaged tissue, and relieve pain.

A great thing to keep in your medicine cabinet, like a good girl scout always be prepared. Pick some up the next time you stop in for acupuncture.

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

Natural Remedy for Muscle Cramping, Charley Horses and Sore Muscles

If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night to a seizing calf or toe muscle cramping or worked out a little too hard too soon this blog is for you.

A simple and readily available remedy: detox bath. The therapeutic value of baths has been around for centuries and you might have just about everything you need to make it already in your home.

If you fear your tub or your water heater is too small to fill up a tub of warm water I will give a few options.

What You Need:

1/2 cup of Epsom salts

1/2 cup sea salt

1/2 cup baking soda

Where to buy? Epsom salts are easy to find especially at places like Walgreens and health food stores and are relatively inexpensive. I would recommend unscented salts if you are looking for detoxing qualities as many added scents are toxic. To scent your salts use therapeutic grade essential oils like YoungLiving.

Fill your tub with warm bath water and when you are ready to soak pour the above ingredients into the tub with the water still running. Soak for at least 15 minutes or for as long as you wish.

If you don't have a tub or its just not a comfortable size for you, a foot soak is just as good. Grab a large dish tub from a dollar store, Target, or Walmart and fill with warm water and the above ingredients and let your feet soak for as long as you like.

This is a great ritual to practice for preventative measures and simply because it feels good.

Especially helpful for:

>> muscle cramping

>> period cramps

>> cysts

>> insomnia

>> achey, sore, tired muscles

>> swellings or bruises

>> after a workout

>> after a massage

According to this article Epsom salts can also be used to remove excess oil from your hair, as a hair volumizer, to remove splinters and more.

Let us know what benefits you discover!

Sarah Zender

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 E. Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

Natural Remedy for Edema or Swollen Ankles

A patient recently passed along a great tip for swollen ankles and I thought I'd share it here. It's simple and easy to do (and I've heard it makes your house smell wonderful).

What you need:

1/2 gallon of water

2 bunches of parsley

Bring 1/2 gallon of water to a boil and add 2 bunches of parsley.

Let simmer for 2 hours.

Strain the parsley and drink water as needed.

**Drink 16oz to start and then a glass every two hours till the batch is gone. Be careful not to drink too close to bed time or you might be releasing that extra fluid into the wee hours. :)

Let us know how it works for you!

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

How Does Acupuncture Work?

Chinese Medicine is a completely separate way of looking at the body from western medicine. While your acupuncturist might speak of organ systems this does not necessarily relate to your physical organ. In Chinese Medicine we look for patterns that relate to the balance of nature. This system began with observation and is the foundation. The Chinese saw the elements of nature existing not as separate but as dependent on one another. Each element supported the other to achieve harmony.

Fire created Earth

Earth created Metal

Metal created Water

Water created Wood

Wood created Fire

When one element went out of alignment it was not affected separately. Instead each element would also be impacted, the severity would depend on how long or how strong the imbalance was.

Fire melts Metal

Metal chops down Wood

Wood invades Earth

Earth invades Water

Water doses the Fire

From this simple understanding the outside world was seen as a Macrocosm and the body was seen as a microcosm. Organ systems were assigned an element and several other associations. This entire system is a community of support with checks and balances.

Fire:

Organs: Heart/Small Intestine

Color: Red

Taste: Bitter

Pathogen: Heat

Season: Summer

Emotion: Joy

Sense/Tissue: Tongue and blood vessels

Earth

Organs: Spleen/Stomach

Color: Yellow

Taste: Sweet

Pathogen: Dampness

Season: Late Summer/Transitional periods between all seasons

Emotion: Worry/Over thinking

Sense/Tissue: Mouth, Muscles

Metal:

Organs: Lung/Large Intestine

Color: White

Taste: Pungent

Pathogen: Dryness

Season: Fall

Emotion: Grief

Sense/Tissue: Nose, Skin and Hair

Water

Organs: Kidney/Urinary Bladder

Color: Black

Taste: Salty

Pathogen: Cold

Season: Winter

Emotion: Fear

Sense/Tissue: Ears, Bone

Wood

Organs: Liver/Gall Bladder

Color: Green

Taste: Sour

Pathogen: Wind

Season: Spring

Emotion: Anger

Sense/Tissue: Eyes, Tendons

After looking at these associations you can see that from the Chinese Medical view point that dis-ease originates from essentially 2 places.

External factors: wind, heat, cold, dampness, dryness (caused from the outside environment or the nature of the foods consumed in excess)

Emotions: anger, joy, worry, fear, grief.

The associations of each organ system are important when observing a patient from an eastern perspective because they offer us clues. Many times the patterns of Chinese Medicine will not seem relevant. For example offered times patients with low back pain (a symptom) have Kidney Qi Deficiency where they feel low back pain and weakness that is worse in cold weather, wake up to urinate in the middle of the night, crave salty foods, and are easily frightened, they may also have hearing issues or fragile bones. So while we will address the main complaint of low back pain the patient might also notice they no longer wake up in the middle of the night to urinate, their back feels stronger, they no longer crave salty foods, are less fearful and cold weather does not bother them as much. It is also interesting to note that Kidney Qi Deficiency is not the only cause of low back pain and so each patient is treated to their individual health needs.

What is important to understand is that if the body is healthy and all organ systems are supporting one another these external factors will be able to be controlled without illness and if emotions are expressed in a healthy way in a healthy body they too will not cause dis-harmony. Basically everything you do either contributes to your health and harmony or lack there-of. The healthier you are the easier it is to bounce back when you over indulge, go through a stressful period of life etc.

Chinese Medicine is a complete system of health that was designed for the prevention of illness and includes:

Acupuncture

Herbal Medicine

Diet

Exercise

Meditation

Fung Shui

Astrology

Your first line of defense to maintain a healthy body is diet. While piles and piles of books have been written on proper nutrition I will say in this blog posting that it is most important to eat real food. Anything that can live longer on a shelf than you can should not be consumed. Fresh fruits, veggies that are grown locally and are in season are best to eat. Diet should reflect the season. Soups and beef stews in the fall and winter and lighter foods in the spring and summer.

Herbal Medicine is really an aspect of diet. You are familiar with adding herbs to your favorite dishes, this is a form of medicine. Chinese herbs can be added to recipes, brewed as teas or taken as tinctures or pills. Many pharmaceuticals that are used today are based off of plant materials.

Acupuncture addresses the body's energy system by inserting fine needles into acupuncture points to maintain smooth flow of blood and energy circulation helping to readjust the body when imbalances occur and most importantly keep the body healthy to fight off imbalances before they start.

Exercise from a Chinese Medical stand point is slightly different than extreme cardio and weight lifting in the west. Exercises like Tai Chi, yoga (chinese medicine's sister), and Qi Gong all help to improve circulation and flexibility of the body in a way that calms the nervous system whereas many forms of cardio exercise excite the body's fight or flight response that can tax the body long term.

Meditation helps to quiet the mind. There is a saying "clean house, clean mind." Your body can not work optimally if your thoughts are constantly swinging around like a monkey. The benefits of a clear mind are numerous like better quality of sleep, memory, concentration etc.

Fung Shui and Astrology are slightly esoteric. Both are related to your environment and how it impacts your health. Again that saying "clean house, clean mind." How can your body work best in a work or living space that is dirty or cluttered? Think back to the last time you cleaned out your closet and got rid of things you weren't using or no longer needed and could find everything again.

In the classic text Nei Jing it is written over 2000 years ago that Chinese Medicine offered a way for people to live a healthy life to the age of 100. Even back then, 2000 years ago, the concern was that people ate too much, worked too much, and the environment was too polluted. These were the tools offered to the people for a high quality life. Prevention is key in Chinese Medicine which is a very different idea than our current idea of health care today. Many people talk about being your own advocate for your health. Chinese Medicine is one way to start that is simple and inexpensive.

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

Why Does My Acupuncturist Feel My Pulse?

Feeling pulses on both wrists is a simple diagnostic tool used by an acupuncturist to assess how the body is working. Like the tongue, the pulses offer a plethora of information and are seen as a road map.

Three pulses are felt on both wrists as seen in the picture above.

The left wrist represents Heart, Liver and Kidney (yin). The right wrist represents Lung, Spleen, and Kidney (yang).

A western medical practitioner will feel the pulse to count beats per minute. An acupuncturist will feel each wrist with the pads of her left index, middle, and ring finger.

These 3 fingers will assess a pulse: heart and lung pulses with the index finger, liver and spleen pulses with middle finger, and kidney pulses with ring fingers. The acupuncturist is looking for not only the rate of the pulse but also the depth and quality.

Many things can be determined by the pulse and can include: emotions, pain, a women's menstrual cycle, if a cold is coming on, or how old or new a condition is to name a few.

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com

What is Gua Sha?

Gua Sha is an accessory technique often used in addition to acupuncture and/or tui na (chinese massage) treatments. It is especially helpful in relieving pain as well as recovering from colds.

Gua Sha means to "sand scrape" in Chinese or "to scrape away disease". It is a relatively simple procedure that requires a little bit of oil or rubbing alcohol and a Chinese soup spoon or other smooth surface tool like the ones pictured above.

Its theory is close to that of cupping however this technique is more accessible in terms of equipment needed (a lubricant or rubbing alcohol and a soup spoon) and areas of the body able to benefit by it (just about anywhere there has been trauma or pain). A treatment of Gua Sha will last roughly 5 minutes and the results can offer immediate relief.

Gua Sha is preformed over an area of pain by first applying some oil to lubricate the area. Then the spoon is scraped along that area until it turns red, brownish, or purplish. The scraping continues until no more redness or purple appears. It is believed this scraping helps bring the stagnant blood or trauma up to the surface allowing for fresh blood to come in and repair the area as well as improve circulation of qi and blood. The redness or bruising can last up to a week and then dissipate. However, it will not feel like a bruise.

Gua Sha is preformed using rubbing alcohol and light scraping over the back "shu" acupuncture points that stimulate the lungs, dispel wind, and relieve wheezing for the treatment of initial wind-cold attacks. For more information on acupuncture and the treatment of colds refer back to How Can Acupuncture Help My Cold?

Gua Sha's modern counterpart is known in chiropractic offices as Graston Technique where various stainless steel instruments are used to achieve the same effect with a western medical explanation of its use and benefit.

Sarah Zender LAc

Whole Health Acupuncture 50 Turner Ave Elk Grove Village IL 847.357.3929

www.wholehealthprograms.com