Hi Again All of You,  

I hope you have been enjoying the beautiful month of October!

This month I am talking about TCM treatment for sciatica, filling us in about HOW best to eat our food, showing you a video about proposed legislation in California to standardize insurance reimbursement for acupuncture, and taking you to Bastrop with Acupuncturists Without Borders as they are out there now providing services to those affected by the fires.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for forwarding it on to any parties you think might be interested. Keep Chinese Medicine in mind for anything that ails you, and for prevention, relaxation and stress busting as well.

Enjoy what's left of our beautiful Fall and I will check in again in another month.

Best to You All,

Beth

Chinese Medicine and Sciatica    

I see a ton of folks with sciatica and thought I would finally write about it here. For those of you unfamiliar with this condition, sciatica is the pain, weakness, tingling, and/or and numbness of the buttock, hip, leg, and/or foot caused by injury to or pressure on the sciatic nerve which starts in the lumbar vertebra and runs down the leg to the foot. It is relatively common, and can be very painful and a big drag.

Many folks see this as purely a structural problem and seek treatment from chiropractors and pain management doctors and don't realize that acupuncture and herbs can be very effective treatment.  

Not all sciaticas are created equal. Chinese Medicine acknowledges three types of sciatica which may all be treated slightly differently. Some are more rheumatic conditions, some involve constitutional body weaknesses, and others are indeed structural issues that run the gamut from mild to severe. Of course these causes can overlap.

So anyway, there is hope! If you are interested in more details about how Chinese Medicine understands this condition, please click here.

Bouncing off the bit I wrote last month about the importance of eating breakfast, I would now like to include what Chinese Medicine has to say about HOW we eat. This information should be common sense, but in this era of fast food and eating on the run or in front of the TV, it apparently is not, and deserves some discussion.

The Spleen and Stomach are the primary organs of digestion in Chinese Medicine. (And please always remember the definition and function of these organs is much different from their western counterparts.) An efficient digestion creates the "fundamental substances" of qi and blood which determine our energy level, immunity, general health, and so on. So what we eat is of course important, but how we eat it is as well.

Some people routinely see stress manifested in digestive symptoms such as gastric reflux or abdominal pain or in constipation and/or diarrhea. Others of us have had the occasional experience of eating while angry or otherwise upset to find that food just does not go down well. In order to digest efficiently and effectively assimilate nutrients, Chinese Medicine recommends we eat sitting down and with attention to our food. This includes chewing thoroughly and tasting what we are eating, making food a pleasure and a meditation rather than purely a functional necessity. Any significant distractions should be avoided.

Medical theory recommends we don't skip meals either, with the intention of starving ourselves into weight loss, as this approach often backfires, making the digestion lazy and ultimately slowing down the metabolism to increase weight gain or decrease our  vitality later.

Although Chinese dietary therapy ultimately addresses each individual differently, it is a general truth that the bulk of food for most of us should be eaten warm and cooked. Cold congeals things and slows down circulation (think ice). Too much cold or raw food can also slow down the metabolism making digestion inefficient and again creating conditions for weight gain and poor vitality.

There is always more to say but I will leave it here for now. Happy meditating on dinner!   

I especially like this video from California Assemblyman Mike Eng as he is sponsoring a bill in that state to make it standard for every health insurance policy to cover acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He acknowledges that acupuncture is now a part of mainstream American, that it is indeed beneficial, and that it deserves recognition and insurance reimbursement. I agree entirely and perhaps Texas will soon follow suit. And, the featured story that is part of this video is taken from the documentary film 9000 Needles which I own and am happy to loan out. (And please keep in mind the needle technique employed for this particular patient is pretty intense and not at all the standard gentle technique most of us employ.)

 This month we are checking in again with Acupuncturists Without Borders as they are now close to home in Bastrop delivering treatments to those affected by the fires.

We all likely know some folks who lost their homes. One of my closest friends did, and I am thinking of two or three of you who I know receive this newsletter who likely did too. (So sorry, I hope you are doing okay.) Thanks so much to Acupuncturists Without Borders and the Academy of Oriental Medicine too for being out there and providing this wonderful service. To see more click here.