A good research article

So, people like to ask how acupuncture works.  When asking this question, one can come up with a variety of responses ranging from scientific to totally esoteric.  I prefer a blend of the two myself.  I like to hear about the science and I like to revel in the magic, all at the same time. However, when a good research study comes into your hands it's pretty mind blowing.  I like this research article as it talks about the anatomy of the back shu points. These are points that the ancient Chinese found by experimenting and observing a persons response to having needles put into this certain point.  Back then they did not cut animals open, keep them alive and stick needles in them and write everything down according to the scientific method, yet they still found points that caused physiologic changes in a person, then they deciphered what the changes meant.  In this day and age of the scientific method we find that these points (I am specifically talking about the back shu points of the bladder channel) line up with axons and dendrites of the nervous system along the spine, and thus by manipulating these points you are indeed causing a response to the nervous system that affects target organs and induces a physiologic response in the body.  I find this both logical and magical myself.  Here is the article I am talking about, please read if you are interested:

http://www.neuroanatomy.org/2009/032_035.pdf

Thanks Minda

A dear friend of mine recently sent me an article from the New York Review of Books, entitled The crazy State of Psychiatry, by Marcia Angell. I found this article very interesting, and a kind of reassurance to why I choose the subject that I am currently studying, TCM.   The beginning of the article starts with the subheading, "The Epidemic of Mental Illness, Why?".  The statistics under this subheading show that people who Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance increased "nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007- from 1 in 184 Americans to 1 in 76.... and a thirty five percent increase in the same two decades for children" (Angell, M. 2011). The main theme of the article is why? If we have some of the best psychiatric drugs on the market, why do we see more today than ever before.  The article continues to postulate that the drugs on the market are indeed, not the best things people with mental illness could be given, but instead, more detrimental, and causing more illness.  Further more, there is an idea that the criteria for mental illness are becoming less rigid, and opening more and more symptoms up to be interpreted as a sign for mental illness.  Psychiatrists themselves are moving away from psycho analysis, and talk time with patients, and moving toward relegating symptoms to drug categories, and simply prescribing haphazardly.  The article is very open minded in the sense that is concedes that there are some people, and some illnesses that do benefit to some of these drugs, but that mostly pharmaceutical companies are the main benefactors of these drug sales, and not the other way around.  Here is a quote from the article.

When Minnesota and Vermont implemented "sinshine laws" that require drug companies to report all payments to doctors, psychiatrists were found to receive more money than physicians in any other specialty. The pharmaceutical industry also subsidizes meetings of the APA and other psychiatric conferences. About a fifth of APA funding now comes from the drug companies" (Angell, M, 2011). 

Big business generally does not spend money if they do not gain from it in some way, I think most people can agree big business, especially pharmaceuticals has never been known for it's amazing works of philanthropy. The article then explores the effects of anti-psychotics, and anti- depressants on the brain. These drugs over time cause the brains pre-frontal cortex to "slowly atrophy", causing lifelong damage. Obviously I am paraphrasing this article immensely and would suggest that anyone who is interested in this topic read the article, as it is very thought provoking. Mostly what I got from the article is an idea or more confirmation I should say, in our diseases medical system, but also the public's loss of belief in their bodies natural abilities to heal itself, and an emotional dependency on pills.  I had begun to loose my belief as well, when dealing with even benign issues such as acne, so I can't imagine how daunting it must feel to people who are dealing with mental illness.  SO I choose to study natural health, and I do firmly believe there are better alternatives to drug cocktails for almost everything.  The article spoke largely of children who are now being given anti-psychotic drugs, some "500,000", and "ten percent of ten year old boys" take medication for ADHD. These    statistics make me think of my dad.  My father was a drug addict his entire life.  He grew up in a household with one alcoholic parent and one who was emotionally unstable and a pill popper.  He was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, and given something akin to Ritalin.  It is my opinion that he probably needed love and attention a little more than he needed drugs, but sadly his was a highly dysfunctional household so drugs was what he got the most of.  It is no wonder to me, that for the the rest of his 50 years of life he was never able to feel normal without some sort of chemical intervention, and he never did learn to love or believe in himself, his body, and all of his abilities.  This is the reason I choose TCM, I want to help foster a belief in one's body, and a more holistic and natural approach to Health.

Back At It.

I'm back!
I took a little break as it was finals week, then I was on vacation from school, then I needed to get myself back in the mode of being in school. So, now I am trying to maintain my blog and dedicate myself to posting about once a week again.  So this is what's new with me.....

1. I switched to the 4 year track at OCOM. I feel that this will help me create more of a school, life, work balance.  I don't want to quit my job, I don't know how I could live just off of student loans, plus I like my job so why quit.  Also, on the 4 year track I will be able to take more elective courses that I would be too busy to take on the 3 year track.  Speaking of elective courses.....

2. I signed up for a beginners mandarin class.  In school we have to learn so much in Chinese, names of things, that we don't understand.  I think having even a rudimentary understanding of the language will help me a lot.  Also, I like languages.  Which reminds me I need to practice my German way more :(

3. I am still trying to work on balancing my life a little more, giving myself some free time, spending time with loved ones, doing well at school, doing well at work.  I feel like I can have it all, so I am working on making that possible for me!

4. I moved to a new house and the tiniest angel is going to come live with me soon! Yay, here is a picture to show you all what an angel she is!

And that is me in a nutshell for now.  I will try to post once a week again with things that I am learning and just life in general :)
D.

Winter is Coming

Or winter is here rather, and I have found myself in a quandary.  What do I eat in the morning?  I don't want to eat bread, and I tend to steer clear of dairy and eggs, so what to eat?  My lovely roommate Charli makes green smoothies for herself every morning, and while I was loving them in the summer, I found that it is too cold for me in the morning in the winter.  This would make sense from a Chinese Medicine standpoint.  Summer is the Yang season, and is fire, so cooling foods would serve the body well.  However, winter is Yin, and our bodies need warming foods to  keep our internal yang strong and for our bodies to function properly.  So, I have been having a hard time with this, until my friend Rachel suggested I add some warming spices to my smoothie such as ginger or cardamom.   I thought this sounded like a good idea, and so I tried it, and low and behold I felt much better.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself, then I went to theory........ According to Chinese medicine theory, your body does not like raw in winter, and over time eating a bunch of raw food will cause Phlegm, which no one wants.  SO, again I was stumped.  I decided this rule sounded a little stringent, and honestly felt a little offended for my beloved green smoothie, I felt that I needed to defend it's virtue and get to the bottom of this, could my green smoothie really cause Phlegm?  I should add physical manifestations of Phlegm are no fun, they include cysts, goiters, sluggishness, lethargy, weight retention to name a few.  Well I have consulted some admirable sources (one of my professors and my acupuncturist, both of whom are brilliant) and this is what I have come up with.

During winter we want to avoid raw food. We want to feed ourselves warm nourishing meals, including warming spices into our diets such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, garlic and I would throw tumeric in there because I think it is a magical root.  However, the everything in moderation rule will apply, so if you have one raw green smoothie in the am, it is not going to give you goiters :) It is however, a good idea to amend your smoothie for the winter weather. It makes sense that the same smoothie that serves you in the summer, would not be the best in the winter.  Fortify your green smoothie with warming spices and add some fat to it, such as coconut milk in order to help and feed your body in the winter.  Other than that, drink ginger tea to help your stomach fire, and have the rest of your meals be cooked, nourishing meals.   :)

The End...... For Now.

Bad Medicine Talk

I have, in my life, run into many people that think some of my faith in holistic health, is unfounded.  I even once had someone tell me that acupuncture is a sham, and that it can all be explained by the placebo effect.  I appreciate other peoples skepticism, and input.  However, I would like to remind people that all the studies out there are not always totally truthful, and that when considering a claim, one must also consider the source, who funded the writing that is making this claim etc. This statement goes for both holistic claims as well as western medicinal claims and or refutes.  In essence I would like to remind people to keep an open mind about everything, even those ideas that seem foreign to them.  I recently watched a ted talks that talks about bad medicine, and I have to say Ben Goldacre MD. can speak to the flaws of publications better than I can.
Enjoy:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_battling_bad_science.html

Hypochondria

I took a week off of blog posts.  I have been rather busy, and just couldn't seem to take the time to post.  However, I am back! Lately in school I have observed that I am feeling like every symptom mentioned pertains to me.  Theory class is especially bad for this, as we are talking about the Organs of the human body, and how they can cause pathology when out of balance, the Zhang Fu organ theory.  I am now convinced that all of my Organs are out of balance and I am a big mess, while still maintaining decent health from an outward perspective.  And my teachers say the imbalance will only get worse in school because I am going to be working so hard, and not be able to pay attention to the rhythms my body wants.  But, at least in the end, I will know how to heal myself a bit better! :)

Though the study of Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory (TCM Theory), I have been feeling reaffirmed in why I chose this medicine to study.  I like the holistic nature of it.  I like the idea that a pathology in one area affects all other areas of the body in one way or another.  I like the notion that this medicine derived from centuries of observation, and trial and error.  This medicine has a very scientific approach even if it wasn't always written down in the jargon of "double blind study", or "case study". Ancient Chinese philosophers organized data from doctors, found patterns, and compiled them in huge texts such as the Huang di Nei Jing for future practitioners to use and study. It is funny to me that people in this modern age disregard this medicine just because they can't understand the theory of it, and most of those people that I have met, have never taken the time to try and read about or understand the theory themselves.  This makes me want to understand the theory well, so that I may be able to bridge the gap for people as a practitioner.

A few things I have noticed my first term at OCOM are:
 1. I feel a tremendous pressure to understand all of my classes well because they are all so relevant, the western medicine classes just as much as the eastern medicine classes. In undergrad I was pretty sure some of the classes I was being forced to take as pre-req's were total B.S. and I just needed to pass a test then I could forget it.
2. Whenever I have free time, or even when I am at work, I think to myself, "I should really be studying right now", I didn't so much feel that way in undergrad.
3. Getting used to being in a college that is pass, fail, it is still hard to detach my ego from the concept of a high GPA. :)

More to come later.....

School so far

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.......