Family Acupuncture Log
 

with Kay Madsen, Licensed Acupuncturist
 

July 2013
Edition  



"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain."

 

Joseph Campbell  





Q & A With Kay

In each issue of the Family Acupuncture Log, I will answer a question from a reader.   Submit your question here.


Q:  "I have suffered debilitating migraines for years and nothing really helps, at least not for very long.  I'm at my wits end and my neurologist literally asked me why I was in his office again, because he can't do anything more for me.  A friend told me that acupuncture can help, but frankly I'm a little skeptical.  How could it possibly help?"

  Helen G.


A:  Hi Helen,

First, I am very sorry to hear that you have suffered so much.  Unfortunately, it is a story I have heard all too often.  Migraines are one of those problems that Western medicine doesn't cure. Migraines do, however, tend to respond very well to acupuncture treatment.  Individual cases vary, but migraines and other headaches are typically attributed to what we call rising Liver Yang.  This is when the Qi rises very forcefully into the head, but does not complete a circuit back down, thus creating a menacing headache.  Because the Liver channel connects with the eyes and governs vision, migraines often come with visual sensitivities and disturbances.  Acupuncture can correct this pattern, thereby returning the proper flow of Qi and alleviating pain.  Additionally, acupuncture treatment can correct any underlying causes of the migraine pattern so that a person simply no longer gets them at all.  Certainly one better than the prescription drug route, which, as you have discovered, doesn't cure migraine syndromes and sometimes doesn't even offer good symptomatic relief.

 Exactly how acupuncture works can be less than obvious.  For a more complete explanation, visit my web site.








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July 3, 2013
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Greetings!

     Unbelievably, we have already reached the apex of summer!  As we discussed in last months log, summer is the season of joy, relaxation and fun.  I hope that you are finding that in your summer plans.

    As for me, summer is turning out to be an abandonment of the notion of a "normal" work schedule, pushing it all into one long day plus a couple of evenings.  I've decided that my daughter deserves to have a really fun summer - just like the kind I used to have.  That sense of carefree fun has been lost for many kids today, especially those in an urban or suburban environment.  Kids her age by and large just can't be left to run around on their own, like I did, so they need an adult chaperone to have fun.  I decided against sticking my girl in a boring day camp, where they seem to boil the kids like cooked lobsters and give them only one hour of pool time a week.  Instead, we are running our own summer camp at home with her and a couple of her close friends.  They do art projects on the deck, throw water balloons at each other in the backyard, swim and hunt crayfish in a local stream, have cookouts in the firepit, and eat home made ice cream as an afternoon treat.  Best of all, they aren't glued to their electronic devices!  From the looks of things, my daughter is experiencing utter bliss.  (And as a mom, her bliss is directly contagious to me.)

   As a family, we will soon be pursuing more bliss, as we head to Yellowstone for a week of camping.  Then it's off to northern Idaho to spend more time with my family.  Fishing, boating, hanging out all day in an isolated bay on the lake, swimming in water so clear you can see every rock on the bottom 15 feet down.  I may even consume an adult beverage.  This scenario certainly wouldn't be everyone's idea of bliss.  But, as I reveal in the feature article below, for me, I expect its healing powers to overcome any damage I do to myself from over indulgences!

May you have a great summer and be well!

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Can Joy Vaporize Cancer?
  
joy
 Last week, I had a truly wonderful conversation with a patient.  It stimulated such  powerful images of healing, that I feel I must share it.  She relayed to me a story she had seen on the news about a man who had been diagnosed with stage IV cancer.  Turns out this man was a mega fan of the Washington Capitals hockey team.  Due to some high placed connections, he got a terrific surprise gift from the team owner.  The gift included a signed Alexander Ovechkin jersey and a letter inviting him and his family to a game, which they ultimately attended.  Apparently, this experience was the thrill of his life time and it touched his heart very deeply.  As the story goes, some time after receiving this gift, the man's cancer disappeared.  Vanished.  Gone.  What, she wanted to know, did I make of that?

      

SKEPTIC OR BELIEVER?     

 

     As it happens, I did not see the news report and can't say much about the details.  And of course, the skeptics in the crowd will well note that this man's miraculous recovery may or may not be causally linked to his rapturous experience over hockey.  I'm sure he had chemotherapy, radiation, and all the other medical treatments that don't cure stage IV cancer, but get the credit for it when nothing else explains a spontaneous remission. 

 

     So then I come to this point.  Who cares if the story is unconfirmed medically, misleading or even inaccurate?  It raises fascinating possibilities about the role of unfettered joy in eliminating disease, specifically cancer. 
 

 

CHINESE MEDICAL VIEW OF CANCER  

 

    To better understand my own intrigue with this topic, I have to explain a bit about how we look at cancer from a Chinese medical perspective.  A tumor or mass of any kind is deemed a "phlegm stasis," which essentially means an accumulation of impure substance.  A malignant tumor is considered a phlegm stasis that has further generated what we call "fire toxins."  The story of how this comes to pass is complicated, both in terms of the underlying stasis and the fire toxins.  At the risk of gross oversimplification, it has to do with a combination of internal deficiencies and toxic accumulations.

 

  THE POWER OF THE HEART

 

     Many years ago, I attended a continuing education seminar about Chinese medicine and the treatment of cancer.  Out of all the information I gathered over the weekend, there were two statements that resonated with me so deeply that they stand out in my mind to this day.  The first came in the context of discussing the potential sources of toxic exposure.  The usual suspects were listed - mercury, heavy metals, radiation, industrial pollutants.  And then our instructor paused and casually said something I found astonishingly profound.  We were also to take into account emotional toxicity and that sometimes the people in our lives are toxins.  It was a powerful reminder about the role of love, or lack thereof, in our physical well being.    

 

     The second statement was a bit more technical in nature, but no less profound.  In discussing treatment strategies, we reviewed what Qi systems can be utilized to deal with phlegm stasis.  Lung Qi expels phlegm. Spleen Qi transforms it.  Kidney Qi dissolves it.  So far, a pretty mundane review of traditional Chinese medical concepts, including the related acupuncture and herbal strategies.  Then he blew my mind with his next statement.  Heart Qi vaporizes phlegm stasis, which would otherwise be known as a spontaneous remission.  A hushed gasp went through the audience.  That wasn't in any of our text books!   

 

   

FINDING YOUR BLISS 

 

   It's mind boggling to imagine the ramifications of this concept.  What if we could literally vaporize cancer cells by activating our Heart Qi? (In medical jargon, this would be referred to as apoptosis, or natural cell death.  It's something cancer cells don't do on their own.)  Wouldn't this be the silver bullet we are seeking in our war on cancer?   

 

     The critical question is then, how do we activate the Heart Qi?   Certainly, we can use acupuncture and herbs to help our hearts be more pure and open and physically function better.  This vaporizing effect of Qi activation may, however, be all that plus a bit more.  The key is in accessing a state of unfettered joy, the emotion said to be housed by the Heart.    

 

    Emotional status and manipulation is tricky business, so it's important to understand what we mean.  The sense of therapeutic joy we are looking for here is pure and unadulterated by other emotional influences.  We might think of this as a state of bliss.

 

     Of course, joy is in the heart of the beholder.  I can pretty much guarantee that the hockey miracle wouldn't work for me.  Likewise, sleeping in a tent and staring at rocks at the bottom of a very cold lake might not work for you.  It is therefore incumbent on each of us individually to define and find our own bliss.

 

     As we dwell in the apex of summer, the season of the Heart, may you seek your bliss, whatever that means to you.  Consider your bliss as a form of medicine.  Take a dose of it as often as you can.  

 

 

 

    

 

ABOUT ME

After leaving behind a decade of practicing as an attorney, I received my Masters of Acupuncture in 2002 from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland.  It certainly was an interesting career shift!  Every day I am increasingly grateful to do this amazing work.  I guess I still use some of my old attorney skills to piece together every patient's experiences to create a new picture of their health concerns from a Chinese medical perspective.  From there we fashion a strategy toward healing together.  It never gets old to watch a person's sufferings unravel.  Sure beats interpreting government regulations for a living!

I keep balance in my own life by sharing my love of outdoor experiences with my husband and daughter.  Camping, hiking and critter watching are much loved family activities.  It's important to me to see that my daughter learns to attune herself to the movement of the seasons and the many lessons they offer, so that she can appreciate balance from an early age.


 
Family Acupuncture Center | 240-393-5420 | [email protected] | 13415 Connecticut Ave.
Suite 204
Silver Spring, MD 20906

Kay Madsen, M.Ac., L.Ac., Dipl.Ac. (NCCAOM)
Licensed Acupuncturist
13415 Connecticut Ave.
Suite 204
Silver Spring, MD 20906
(240) 393-5420



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