As the weeks progress I am getting back into the swing of being a student. It is a different feeling having to take my work home with me, and have it consume my every day life again. Well, the hotel industry can be very consuming as well, but being a student is consuming in a different way. Learning all about living Anatomy has been fascinating, and I am happy to report that I got a 92 on my first mid term! Grades don't matter very much at OCOM as it is a pass or fail program, but I still have my ego attachment to getting good grades :) It will be no surprise to anyone that I am loving the more practical classes, although there is a lot of memorization. The one class I seem to be struggling with is Qi Gong. I don't love it, I get much more out of Yoga than I do Qi Gong. To me Qi Gong seems so esoteric, and as you all know, I am very fidgety. I have a hard time being still, I don't like slapping myself in the self massage Qi Gong, I don't like sitting there with my hands in still motion for 1000 hands Buddha. I feel annoyed and bored all class, and I am admittedly no good at meditation. I don't want to Practice Qi Gong outside of class, and I resent that I feel badly about not practicing. I want to love it, because I do believe it is good for you, I believe that people feel better after doing it, I just personally don't. I guess this all means that I should be practicing it, and that through the discomfort and "suffering" of it I could gain something. We will see how the next 3 years goes.
OAAOM
In other news I did just join the Oregon Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine as a student member. I think this will be a good way to network within the pretty saturated Oregon market, and become a part of this community. This will also help to keep me informed as to new legislation regarding the Acupuncture scope of practice in Oregon etc. With my membership I will also be able to audit conferences open to licensed practitioners, which I will be sure to be writing about when I do attend :)
That is all for now.......
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Dealing with Food Allergies
As most everyone who has any experience can tell you, I have many food allergies and sensitivities, that I sometimes neglect to pay attention to, but that I am very aware of, and are a great source of discomfort for me. I believe they are a main source of my hormonal fluctuations, and acne. I have tried everything, I do yoga, I do cleanses, I wash my face, I use moisturizer, I try to eat foods that are good for my gut etc, etc. It has always seemed to me that my sensitive system has just gotten worse with all my efforts.
Well my friends I am happy to report I am trying something new to heal my gut, and heal my food sensitivities, and hopefully, vanquish acne to some extent. What is it I am doing.... well acupuncture of course. I was introduced to a woman named Shelley Laurey. She works part time in Hawaii, and part time in Oregon. I thought this was a nice touch, as she knows about the environment I am coming from. She is also an OCOM graduate! So, she knows about the environment I am now in. She has been an Acupuncturist for 35 years, and she deals specifically with food allergies! I am very excited about this new prospect, and optimistic for a positive outcome. Here is how it works: Shelly listened to what I had to say, then looked over my body for tell tale signs. She did some muscle reflexology as was able to determine that I have leaky gut syndrome, and parasites. This is causing me to build up food sensitivities that become increasingly aggressive as my leaky gut persists. We determined that I have a sensitivity to Gluten, and Corn, and an allergy to Eggs, and Dairy ( which I already knew from my last allergy test). She has me on an herbal supplement for the parasites which she says many girls in Hawaii have, from all the sushi we eat there. We are working on fixing me all up with a few acupuncture sessions. As many of you can imagine, this sounds much better than just never eating dairy, eggs, gluten, etc. again. Of course once I have done all this healing I have to be proactive and not mess up my gut again, but I am a pretty healthy person anyway so that should not be such a problem. I will report back in a few months with my progress!
As far as school goes, I am learning a lot. Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory is kicking my butt, and living anatomy is a lot of memorization, but I am loving every minute of it. I am so happy I have made this investment in myself, and I really feel this is a wonderful fit for me. :)
Well my friends I am happy to report I am trying something new to heal my gut, and heal my food sensitivities, and hopefully, vanquish acne to some extent. What is it I am doing.... well acupuncture of course. I was introduced to a woman named Shelley Laurey. She works part time in Hawaii, and part time in Oregon. I thought this was a nice touch, as she knows about the environment I am coming from. She is also an OCOM graduate! So, she knows about the environment I am now in. She has been an Acupuncturist for 35 years, and she deals specifically with food allergies! I am very excited about this new prospect, and optimistic for a positive outcome. Here is how it works: Shelly listened to what I had to say, then looked over my body for tell tale signs. She did some muscle reflexology as was able to determine that I have leaky gut syndrome, and parasites. This is causing me to build up food sensitivities that become increasingly aggressive as my leaky gut persists. We determined that I have a sensitivity to Gluten, and Corn, and an allergy to Eggs, and Dairy ( which I already knew from my last allergy test). She has me on an herbal supplement for the parasites which she says many girls in Hawaii have, from all the sushi we eat there. We are working on fixing me all up with a few acupuncture sessions. As many of you can imagine, this sounds much better than just never eating dairy, eggs, gluten, etc. again. Of course once I have done all this healing I have to be proactive and not mess up my gut again, but I am a pretty healthy person anyway so that should not be such a problem. I will report back in a few months with my progress!
As far as school goes, I am learning a lot. Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory is kicking my butt, and living anatomy is a lot of memorization, but I am loving every minute of it. I am so happy I have made this investment in myself, and I really feel this is a wonderful fit for me. :)
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Nutrition Plug
Wedding Yay!
I took last week off as I was attending my friend Merlyn's wedding in Colorado. It was a wonderful trip, but I did miss a few classes and had to play some catch up upon return. However I am happy to report that I did well on my first two quizzes, and now have 5 more staring me down for next week. Despite the stress of trying to cram everything quickly into my brain, as well as working and trying to maintain a small semblance of a social life, I am still feeling really good about school, and thinking I made the right decision in coming here. The more that I begin to delve into the theory of this medicine, as well as the history of it, I realize how much it really does have baring here in the west. Many of the basic principles apply when thinking of Homeopathic medicine as well as Naturpathic medicine. As I have said before, I do believe that people in the west are beginning to have a stronger urge to pursue more holistic forms of health care, as it is becoming increasingly more clear that our current strategies for health care are not fixing the problems with the degenerative diseases of aging and of course the obesity problem as well.
Basic Nutrition from the Anatomy and Physiology Lecture
On the topic of obesity, we did talk a bit about nutrition, here are some things we spoke of in the anatomy and phsyiology lecture yesterday.
Lipids: Fat, important for vitamin absorbtion, and brain function. We as humans can only synthesize 5 of the 10 must have fats that we need in life. Anything that is listed as an essential fat, or essential fatty acids are those of which we must consume to acquire. This means eat avocados and nuts and fish. This does not mean eat fried food etc. and or starve your body of fat altogether. Learn about what are good fats and eat those, don't be afraid of them, and moderate the "bad" fats. As you all know I am a waitress, I had a woman the other day chomping on fried calamari who asked me to hold the avocado from her salad as she thought it was too fattening. That is a perfect example of nutrition ignorance, and I found it sad. So here is my educational plug on fats :)
Carbohydrates: Important because they are the bodies #1 preferred method of energy. If your body does not have this energy source, it will pull energy from protein, however protein has other functions it needs to be doing in and building in your body, if you are using up all your protein as energy, your body will be deficient in other ways. However, if you eat too many carbs, they will indeed be stored as fat. So, eat carbs, they are good. Eat sustainable carbs such as brown rice and wheat bread. Avoid white refined and processed carbs. Also, try to do at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, and you will use up those excess carbs and they will not be stored as fat. In other words, go for a run, it's good for you :)
Protein: essential for life, however not in the quantities that we as Americans are eating it. We now eat protein in major excess of what our forefathers did. Protein gets broken down and distributed by the liver and Kidneys. We never store protein in our body, all the protein we ingest either goes to some use in our body, or gets expelled in our urine. If we have excess protein our kidneys have to work over time to process and expel extra. This is why kidney failure patients can't eat protein and are on very low protein diets. You can actually cause your body to go into a state of ketosis or ketoacidosis, (acid kidney) which leads to kidney failure and death by eating too much protein (ie. atkins diet is bad). So eat protein, but not too much, and try to eat forms that don't have a crap ton of antibiotics and hormones in them (ie. stay away from factory farmed meat).
So that was my nutritional plug. This is all from my western medicine anatomy and physiology class for those of you who that means something to. Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned next week :)
I took last week off as I was attending my friend Merlyn's wedding in Colorado. It was a wonderful trip, but I did miss a few classes and had to play some catch up upon return. However I am happy to report that I did well on my first two quizzes, and now have 5 more staring me down for next week. Despite the stress of trying to cram everything quickly into my brain, as well as working and trying to maintain a small semblance of a social life, I am still feeling really good about school, and thinking I made the right decision in coming here. The more that I begin to delve into the theory of this medicine, as well as the history of it, I realize how much it really does have baring here in the west. Many of the basic principles apply when thinking of Homeopathic medicine as well as Naturpathic medicine. As I have said before, I do believe that people in the west are beginning to have a stronger urge to pursue more holistic forms of health care, as it is becoming increasingly more clear that our current strategies for health care are not fixing the problems with the degenerative diseases of aging and of course the obesity problem as well.
Basic Nutrition from the Anatomy and Physiology Lecture
On the topic of obesity, we did talk a bit about nutrition, here are some things we spoke of in the anatomy and phsyiology lecture yesterday.
Lipids: Fat, important for vitamin absorbtion, and brain function. We as humans can only synthesize 5 of the 10 must have fats that we need in life. Anything that is listed as an essential fat, or essential fatty acids are those of which we must consume to acquire. This means eat avocados and nuts and fish. This does not mean eat fried food etc. and or starve your body of fat altogether. Learn about what are good fats and eat those, don't be afraid of them, and moderate the "bad" fats. As you all know I am a waitress, I had a woman the other day chomping on fried calamari who asked me to hold the avocado from her salad as she thought it was too fattening. That is a perfect example of nutrition ignorance, and I found it sad. So here is my educational plug on fats :)
Carbohydrates: Important because they are the bodies #1 preferred method of energy. If your body does not have this energy source, it will pull energy from protein, however protein has other functions it needs to be doing in and building in your body, if you are using up all your protein as energy, your body will be deficient in other ways. However, if you eat too many carbs, they will indeed be stored as fat. So, eat carbs, they are good. Eat sustainable carbs such as brown rice and wheat bread. Avoid white refined and processed carbs. Also, try to do at least 20 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, and you will use up those excess carbs and they will not be stored as fat. In other words, go for a run, it's good for you :)
Protein: essential for life, however not in the quantities that we as Americans are eating it. We now eat protein in major excess of what our forefathers did. Protein gets broken down and distributed by the liver and Kidneys. We never store protein in our body, all the protein we ingest either goes to some use in our body, or gets expelled in our urine. If we have excess protein our kidneys have to work over time to process and expel extra. This is why kidney failure patients can't eat protein and are on very low protein diets. You can actually cause your body to go into a state of ketosis or ketoacidosis, (acid kidney) which leads to kidney failure and death by eating too much protein (ie. atkins diet is bad). So eat protein, but not too much, and try to eat forms that don't have a crap ton of antibiotics and hormones in them (ie. stay away from factory farmed meat).
So that was my nutritional plug. This is all from my western medicine anatomy and physiology class for those of you who that means something to. Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned next week :)
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