Slow Down

So many people run around their lives like they are in a race to get as much done as they can before they die. This really tends to cause a lot of health destroying stress in their lives. Remember the old saying.... "Take Time To Smell The Roses", there is such wisdom in this lesson.

When I would teach classes in awareness, the first thing I would have a person do is SLOW DOWN. They would start to slow down and walk to the beat of Mother Earth's heartbeat, not the fast beat of modern society. When you slow down, and you really can see this in nature, you notice so much that you've missed before.

I see so many people that seem to be in a hurry in everything they do. They drive fast, walk fast, talk fast, but does this really help them? Even commercials today are selling people on every second counts. But really, if you're a little late in most things will it cause major distress? Sure deadlines are important, but those should come few and far between.

Don't live by crisis mode. That is the reactive life, not a proactive life. Plan, work slow but steady and you'll get where you're going. Fast isn't necessarily the best way. As they say, haste makes waste.

So slow down, experience life, actually experience those things around you, not just speed through them.

Kirstie Alley Does Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

Now the 57-year-old “Cheers” star has turned to an alternative medical procedure to curb her cravings and lose weight - a regimen featuring acupuncture and herbal medicines. She is going to the Chinese Healing Institute, which uses alternative medicine to treat a variety of health problems, including eating disorders.

“Kirstie has been going to the Institute a couple of times a week. She’s undergoing acupuncture to curb her cravings for unhealthy food, and receiving potent herbal medicines to suppress her appetite,” said her pal.

Acupuncture in Demand By Cancer Patients

Acupuncture for cancer patients is gaining popularity at a time when medical research on the complementary therapy is also on the rise nationwide, researchers say.

"There has been an explosion of research in the area of acupuncture," says Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor in M. D. Anderson's Departments of Behavioral Science and Palliative Care & Rehabilitation Medicine, and director of the institution's Integrative Medicine Program. "The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, for instance, awarded a number of grants this past fall to several acupuncture studies. This included a $5.9 million grant to Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, to use neuro-imaging to understand the mechanisms of acupuncture."

At M. D. Anderson, acupuncture services are expanding this month to meet a growing patient demand as well, says Joseph Chiang, M.D., an anesthesiologist and professor in the Department of Anesthesiology who also is an acupuncturist. For the last five years, Chiang has offered acupuncture treatments to patients through a weekly clinic at the cancer center.

To accommodate more people, acupuncture services are moving to the M. D. Anderson's Place of wellness. "The need is much higher than what we could handle before, and most people need more frequent treatments," Chiang says.

Side effects relief

Patients seek acupuncture, he adds, because it gives them varying levels of relief from the effects of cancer treatments.

Those side effects include:

• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Muscle ache
• Constipation and diarrhea
• Hiccupping (a side effect of radiation)
• Hot flashes (a side effect of chemotherapy)

"Acupuncture will not cure cancer, but it may improve immune function," Chiang says. "It helps patients with those treatment-related side effects so they can continue to receive their cancer treatment. Maybe some side effects can be treated by western medicines, but a lot of times patients are already on so many medicines that they don't want to take more drugs, plus the drugs can be more expensive."

Acupuncture is the practice of piercing specific points on the body with thin needles to unblock "energy" obstructions that can cause discomfort or pain. Touted for thousands of years as a successful traditional Chinese preventive practice and treatment, acupuncture is based upon an ancient practice of regulating qi (pronounced "chee") - the source of energy believed to circulate both inside and outside the body.

Patient issues

Some insurance companies cover the costs of acupuncture, but many do not. Another issue cancer patients need to be aware of is talking to their doctor before receiving acupuncture.

Previous research studies have shown that acupuncture is safe for cancer patients, but some people with special conditions may need to abstain, Chiang says.

Caution should be taken with patients in the following situations:

• Heavy chemotherapy dosages
• Infection
• Skin lesions
• Fever
• Flap reconstruction
• Bone marrow transplants

All M. D. Anderson cancer patients requesting acupuncture must receive a formal referral from their oncologist in order to receive the complementary therapy, Chiang says.

Many cancer patients, in general, feel encouraged to undergo acupuncture treatments due to research that has confirmed its benefits. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference conducted in 1997, in fact, stated that clear evidence supports the positive effects of acupuncture in the control of chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.

As findings from acupuncture research continue to grow and become public, they fuel interest in cancer patients and the general public. "Every time I speak about acupuncture at M. D. Anderson I receive lots of calls and requests," Chiang says. "In the past I had to turn people away because I didn't have the time to see them. With our added services, now we won't have to do that."

More Good Press for Acupuncture

Acupuncture May Aid In Vitro Fertilization

Needles Seen To Help Implantation In Studies

Sticking needles in women to help them become pregnant may sound far-fetched, but a scientific review suggests that acupuncture might improve the odds of conceiving if done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb.

The finding is far from proven, and there are only theories for how and why acupuncture might work. However, some fertility specialists say they are hopeful that this relatively inexpensive and simple treatment might ultimately prove to be a useful add-on to traditional methods.

"It is being taken more seriously across our specialty," and more doctors are training in it, said Dr. William Gibbons, who runs a fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, La., and is past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. "I have not seen proof ... but we wouldn't mind at all" if it turned out to work, he said.

The analysis was led by Eric Manheimer, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and paid for by a federal agency, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Results were published Friday in the British medical journal, BMJ.
Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant, Manheimer said.

The analysis pools results from seven studies on 1,366 women in the United States, Germany, Australia and Denmark who are having in vitro fertilization, or IVF. It involves mixing sperm and eggs in a lab dish to create embryos that are placed in the womb.

Women were randomly assigned to receive IVF alone, IVF with acupuncture within a day of embryo transfer, or IVF plus sham acupuncture, in which needles were placed too shallowly or in spots not thought to matter.

Individually, only three of the studies found acupuncture beneficial, three found a trend toward benefit and one found no benefit. When results of these smaller studies were pooled, researchers found that the odds of conceiving went up about 65 percent for women given acupuncture.

Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof that acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF results in pregnancy about 35 percent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 percent, the researchers said.

The authors include doctors from the Netherlands and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. One is an acupuncturist but had no role in any studies that were analyzed.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has no policy on acupuncture. "There's been a lot of conflicting research" on its usefulness, said spokeswoman Eleanor Nicoll.

"It looks like, from the body of evidence out there, that some patients benefit," said Dr. James Grifo, head of the infertility program at New York University.

However, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of infertility treatment at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said other studies, reported at recent medical meetings and not included in the published analysis, did not find it helped.

"The jury is still out," he said, but added, "It's unlikely that acupuncture does any harm."

Dr. Ann Trevino, a 37-year-old family physician who recently moved to Houston, is pregnant and a believer. She had three unsuccessful pregnancy attempts with intrauterine insemination before trying acupuncture with IVF at a fertility clinic in San Antonio where she used to live.
"I had been reading about acupuncture, probably like every other patient on the Internet. I was just willing to do anything possible to improve our chances," she said. With acupuncture, "I just felt very warm and relaxed" when the embryos were placed.

Dr. Francisco Arredondo, who runs Reproductive Medicine Associates of Texas where Trevino was treated, said he started offering acupuncture in October, after patients requested it and because some studies suggested it helped.

Acupuncturist Kirsten Karchmer said she places about a dozen needles in the ears, hands, feet, lower legs, abdomen and sometimes the lower back. It costs $500 a month for treatments twice a week, and patients typically go for three months, she said.

IVF costs around $12,000 per attempt, so a treatment that improves its effectiveness might save money in the long run, Manheimer said.

Why I Have Problems With Western Drugs

A lot of people ask me why I have so many issues about Western medicine, and why I say it's not Health Care. Well, don't get me wrong, Western Medicine does do a lot of good in many instances, but that's to medicate people that need it because their health is so poor, or to do surgery again when it's necessarily due to severely poor health. However, it's not about HEALTH. This blog gives a good example of what I mean.

I keep seeing these drug commercials on TV, and now they nicely state the side effects of their drugs, but some just really makes me wonder how they can even propose people take the stuff.

Recently I saw a TV commercial for a drug called Aciphex, and it's sold as a way to treat your acid reflux (or GERD). Well, actually it doesn't treat the disease but again just covers it up. What this drug actually does is reduces the acid levels (or pH) in your stomach, so that when you do experience your acid reflux it just doesn't hurt as much or at all. However you're still having the acid reflux, because it was never addressed. Then there are the side effects. They list that the most common is headaches, but can also include these major symptoms:

• hives
• swelling of your face, eyelids, lips, tongue, or throat, and trouble swallowing
• asthma (wheezing) or other breathing problems such as chest tightness or shortness of breath
• shock (loss of blood pressure and consciousness).

Now here is the whole list according to their materials:

Body as a Whole: asthenia, fever, allergic reaction, chills, malaise, chest pain substernal, neck rigidity, photosensitivity reaction. ~ Rare: abdomen enlarged, face edema, hangover effect.

Cardiovascular System: hypertension, myocardial infarct, electrocardiogram abnormal, migraine, syncope, angina pectoris, bundle branch block, palpitation, sinus bradycardia, tachycardia. ~ Rare: bradycardia, pulmonary embolus, supraventricular tachycardia, thrombophlebitis, vasodilation, QTC prolongation and ventricular tachycardia.

Digestive System: diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting, dyspepsia, flatulence, constipation, dry mouth, eructation, gastroenteritis, rectal hemorrhage, melena, ano-rexia, cholelithiasis, mouth ulceration, stomatitis, dysphagia, gingivitis, cholecystitis, increased appetite, abnormal stools, colitis, esophagitis, glossitis, pancreatitis, proctitis. ~ Rare: bloody diarrhea, cholangitis, duodenitis, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatitis, hepatoma, liver fatty deposit, salivary gland enlargement, thirst.

Endocrine System: hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism.

Hemic & Lymphatic System: anemia, ecchymosis, lymphadenopathy, hypochromic anemia.

Metabolic & Nutritional Disorders: peripheral edema, edema, weight gain, gout, dehydration, weight loss.

Musculo-Skeletal System: myalgia, arthritis, leg cramps, bone pain, arthrosis, bursitis. ~ Rare: twitching.

Nervous System: insomnia, anxiety, dizziness, depression, nervousness, somnolence, hypertonia, neuralgia, vertigo, convulsion, abnormal dreams, libido decreased, neuropathy, paresthesia, tremor. ~ Rare: agitation, amnesia, confusion, extrapyramidal syndrome, hyperkinesia.

Respiratory System: dyspnea, asthma, epistaxis, laryngitis, hiccup, hyperventilation. ~ Rare: apnea, hypoventilation.

Skin and Appendages: rash, pruritus, sweating, urticaria, alopecia. ~ Rare: dry skin, herpes zoster, psoriasis, skin discoloration.

Special Senses: cataract, amblyopia, glaucoma, dry eyes, abnormal vision, tinnitus, otitis media. ~ Rare: corneal opacity, blurry vision, diplopia, deafness, eye pain, retinal degeneration, strabismus.

Urogenital System: cystitis, urinary frequency, dysmenorrhea, dysuria, kidney calculus, metrorrhagia, polyuria. ~ Rare: breast enlargement, hematuria, impotence, leukorrhea, menorrhagia, orchitis, urinary incontinence.

Now don't you think these side effects are as bad or worse than what you're being treated for? And for what? Just to have your acid levels dropped so your reflux doesn't hurt. So you can have some major side effects (and if you didn't know it, a myocardial infarct means part of your heart muscle dies, and is another name for a heart attack), leading to a worse state of health and the issue you had in the first place hasn't even been treated.

So why Chinese Medicine? Because we don't just cover up your symptoms but treat the root cause and help the body to do it's own healing. The side effect is overall better health, vitality and longevity.