The Arts and Aging

Researchers from the University College London found that arts engagement, either creating or enjoying art, can slow aging by 4%—commensurate to the degree that regular exercise also positively impacts aging.  In an NPR story on the study, the author reported the surprise of longevity expert Steven Horvath, developer of the Horvath aging clock, upon hearing the research findings.  Although scientists might be startled at the prospect that arts engagement can prolong our lives beyond simple stress reduction, this effect of making art and art appreciation on lifespan has been understood in China for millennia and is explained by Chinese medical theory.

Functional Organ Networks in Chinese Medicine

Before even the early beginnings of Chinese medicine 2,500 years ago, anatomical studies in China had determined the weight of the human heart and the length of the intestines.  However, with the rise of quintessential religious and philosophical movements—especially Confucianism—in approximately 500 BCE, Chinese society shifted its attitudes on human gross anatomy, resulting in a firm prohibition against dissecting the deceased.  This taboo persisted up until the 20th century.

So, unlike Western anatomy which scrutinizes bodily architecture, traditional Chinese medicine turned to the study of living individuals and the complex networks which exceed the limits of any one organ or group of interconnected tissues.  This functional approach to anatomy and physiology sharply distinguishes Chinese medicine from modern Western medicine.  In our clinic, we often explain the difference to our patients with a technological metaphor:  where Western medicine emphasizes the structural hardware of the human body, Chinese medicine focuses on its intangible operating system and software.

Creativity and Liver Function

Organ system function in Traditional Chinese Medicine corresponds to the phases of the five-phase theory;  liver pertains to the wood phase of spring.  In springtime, young sprouts, hidden within the soil, emerge into view and stretch upward and expand outward.  The physiology of the liver parallels this natural process of vegetal growth by pushing blood from the bodily interior up to the head and sending it out to the four limbs.  In the words of the 2,500-year-old Huang Di Nei Jing, “the eyes attain blood, and the eyes can see”; and “the hands attain blood, and the eyes can grasp”.  Thus, the function of the peripheral areas of the body depends on the liver’s distribution of resources that radiate outward from deep within the body’s core.

Chinese medicine holds that the body and mind are not separate but exist on a continuum.  Just as bodily physiology like vision and use of the four limbs are fueled by nutrients disseminated by the liver, creativity, which springs forth in our minds and takes form in our hands, is rooted in the liver system.  In Chinese medical theory, where military metaphors are often utilized, the statement “the liver governs the making of strategies” neatly expresses the role of the liver in both planning and execution.  This helps define not only the task of a military general but also illustrates the artistic process of internal inspiration followed by the external creation of artwork.

Maintaining Liver System Health

Many phenomena described in Chinese medicine are bidirectional and span the gamut from intangible to tangible.  In addition to being the source of artistic creativity, the liver system benefits from arts engagement that can support the physiological activity of that organ network.  The act of producing or experiencing the arts, which pulls our insights and feelings up and out to the surface and extremities where they will manifest physically, simultaneously draws outward substantive blood and body fluids needed to nourish and activate the senses of the head and face and facilitate the work of our hands and legs.

The liver as understood in Chinese medicine, however, has even a more systemic role in keeping all bodily function harmonized.  This is reflected in the statement “the liver governs free-coursing”. The phrase references the liver’s key role in distributing and regulating the substantive and energetic resources throughout all of the cells and tissues of the body. 

Conversely, when disrupted, the liver system has potential for great harm.  “The liver is the thief of the five viscera and the six bowels” warns the ancient Chinese medical classics.  Out of balance, the liver network can be the source of countless diseases; conversely, a well regulated liver, supported by emotional and mental equanimity that includes arts engagement, forms the foundation for health and vitality.  Over the course of a lifetime, healthy and unimpeded liver function can create a better and, with a little luck, longer life.

Your Right to Timely Medical Care

A number of years ago, a patient who came to our clinic reported progressive difficulty walking.  She was already scheduled to see a neurologist, but the appointment was still months away.  It was a grim irony that the patient might literally be unable to walk into the doctor’s office by the time of her scheduled appointment, leaving her both angry and frightened.  Unfortunately, the problem of not being able to receive timely healthcare is only getting worse—causing frustration, discouraging patients from seeking medical treatment, and, in worst-case scenarios, resulting in more severe disease, complications, and even death.

Surveys show patients in the U.S. are now waiting a month or more on average for new-patient, non-emergent appointments.  Some specialists are booking even further out.  According to one source, patients currently wait an average of 42 days to see an OB/GYN provider and 36.5 days for a dermatologist.  In busy metropolitan areas, the delays in receiving healthcare can be much, much longer: some patients wait up to 208 days to see a gastroenterologist in Detroit and as many as 175 days for a potentially life-saving visit with a cardiologist in Washington, DC. 

Is Lower Quality Care the Solution?

In family medicine, the wait times have actually dropped 30%.  This improvement is not due to an increase in the number of physicians* who are practicing family medicine, but is, instead, the result of shift in family medicine practice away from traditional clinical settings to retail clinics, urgent care centers, and telemedicine appointments—with much of this care provided by nurse practitioners or physician assistants.  Unfortunately, these novel healthcare settings can lead to more misdiagnoses and lower quality care due to inconsistent providers and abbreviated staff, equipment, and facilities.  Remote care, where the main diagnostic tool is interview, has its own innate limitations.

Regarding the massive trend towards replacing physicians with other providers with less training, a high-quality causal analysis published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that hospital stays in the Veterans Health Administration system rose 11% and 30-day preventable hospitalizations increased by 20% when NPs without doctor supervision provided the care rather than emergency physicians.  In the same study, the cost of care also climbed when nurse practitioners oversaw care.  Considering the fact that nurse practitioners complete 500-720 hours of clinical training compared to the staggering 10,000 to 16,000 hours physicians accrue by the end of their residencies, these disparities are not surprising and warrant further investigation to ensure that the quality of American primary healthcare is not declining as precipitously as the number of physicians.

The Hope for Timely CAM Healthcare

We have speculated in our previous blogs that your next option for primary care might be a Licensed Acupuncturist.  Of course, only a few states—i.e., California, Oregon, Washington, and Oregon—legally allow L. Ac.s to be primary care providers.  Nevertheless, faced with long wait times and persistent, sometimes debilitating symptoms, patients who are unwilling or unable to use the services of retail clinics and urgent care providers, but who want in-person healthcare, are naturally turning to acupuncturists and other CAM providers for practical solutions to their healthcare challenges. 

In the U.S. today, there is only one acupuncturist for every 52 MDs, so there is considerable room for growth in the traditional Asian medicine industry.  Not only does a significant percentage of the U.S. population lack ready access to Licensed Acupuncturists, many acupuncturists only maintain a part-time clinical schedule.  In fact, a survey performed a number of years ago found that the average acupuncturist working in Tucson only performs 17 total treatments per week—a patient load unlikely to generate a living wage.  From our personal experience, we have observed that many acupuncturists actually work a second job or rely on the income from a spouse or partner;  regardless of the reason, the bottom line for patients is that part-time acupuncture clinics, like mainstream doctor’s offices, may not be able to accept new patients or offer convenient appointment times.

Here at White Pine Clinic, we support your right to timely care and offer a full-time schedule with Saturday appointments.  If you are seeking relief but overbooked mainstream medical offices and part-time CAM providers just cannot accommodate you, we are eager to schedule you for timely, excellent, and affordable Chinese medical care—that fits with YOUR schedule. We look forward to seeing you soon.

*It is projected that by 2038 the United States will have 140,000 fewer doctors than we need to provide Americans with healthcare.

Acupuncture Is Magic

I first became interested in herbal medicine as a teenager.  While in junior high school, I planted a backyard herbal garden with multiple species. The selection even included comfrey, a purely medicinal plant whose invasive roots proved less than therapeutic for my parents once the offshoots infiltrated our lawn.  Decades later, when considering various potential careers while living abroad in Japan, the experiences of my youth delineated a path through Chinese medicine that would both utilize my degree in Asian studies and satisfy my strong interest natural medicine—and which together could help the people in my community.

Eager to learn Chinese botanical remedies, acupuncture was, if I am honest, actually more of a disincentive than a motivation to embark upon the study of TCM.  Not unlike most human beings, I had a natural dislike of needles, and a traumatizing experience blacking out in a clinic lobby after a routine blood draw had left me especially fearful of jabs.  Nevertheless, as the core component of our Chinese medical curriculum in the West, I embraced the study and practice of acupuncture. Half-a-million needles later, I am a true convert who values both sharing and receiving this remarkable form of care.

In fact, I think of acupuncture as magic.

As a drug-free, non-surgical option, the wide range of patients with diverse complaints helped by acupuncture is staggering.  While most patients see benefits from acupuncture, some past cases stand out:  a couple that conceived after a decade of failed IVF; the Vietnam vet who found relief from back and hip pain which started during the war; an individual whose blinding migraines disappeared without drugs; a patient lacking viable sperm who became fertile; the individual with a serious pulmonary diagnosis, classified as terminal by doctors, who now works a tough physical job and enjoys life largely without any supplemental oxygen; and the patient whose dangerous manic episodes disappeared into emotional constancy and contentment free from depression and agitation.  This is just a tiny sample of the innumerable successes in our clinic during the last 25 years, some so impressive as to be truly magical.

But the story does not end there.  Unlike mainstream medicine, the effects of acupuncture are not limited to fixing the complaints that come through the clinic door; in fact, the real magic of acupuncture is enhanced general wellness.  During a session, patients typically become deeply relaxed, often to a point where, as chronic tension drains from the face, their appearance visibly transforms.  Muscular and emotional stress lifted, the systems of the body can function at optimal levels, and patients see positive shifts in their quality of life, far exceeding any main complaint.  This often leads to the familiar question, “Can acupuncture do that?”. Or, more specifically, “Could treatment be helping me sleep better?” “Can acupuncture make my vision better?” “Could acupuncture possibly the reason I have been feeling happier recently?”

Yes. All this and more. Expert acupuncture care, as it turns out, can be a solution to problems which we are not even seeking to solve, or might not even recognize. In other words, acupuncture is an ancient Chinese secret which makes life more enjoyable.

Safer Treatment Options for Menopausal Hot Flashes

While some comedians make light of menopausal hot flashes, for the 85% of perimenopausal women who experience these storms of intense heat frequently accompanied by sweating, chills, anxiety, or palpitations lasting for up to 30 minutes, these episodes are no joke.  Although hot flashes eventually resolve on their own, the condition is unrelenting and chronic, with meta-analyses finding a mean duration of 4 to 7.4 years.  Even a decade after menopause, approximately one third of women still reported having hot flashes, and one study found that about 8% of women struggle with these symptoms as long as 20 years after menopause.  Hot flashes at night can prevent restful sleep, causing sleep deprivation with fatigue which can lead to other serious healthcare challenges.*

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Like so many medical conditions which affect women, hot flashes have historically been under researched, and treatment options have been limited.  The first, and still most effective, pharmaceutical treatment is hormone replacement therapy (HRT).  HRT was first developed in the 1940’s and gained popularity in the 1960’s as a way to manage menopausal changes.  HRT not only reduces hot flash episodes; it can also help prevent accelerated bone density decline as well as other conditions related to the drop in estrogen. 

Unfortunately, HRT can also raise the risk of breast and endometrial cancers.  From lessons learned early on, estrogen is now routinely combined with progesterone, improving safety.  Subsequent to the tragic outcomes with unopposed estrogen, however, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study found significant cancer risk with HRT remained, resulting in a marked nationwide decline in prescriptions.  Although more recent research has challenged the findings of the landmark WHI study, the website for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the nation’s premier cancer hospital, states that HRT can raise the risk of cancer and advocates screening for all candidates.

Antidepressants

Researchers theorize that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRI’s—primarily utilized to treat depression—reduce the severity and frequency of menopausal hot flashes by modulating the brain’s thermoregulatory center.  Compared to HRT, SSRI’s deliver faster relief from hot flashes but do not offer the same benefits for bone density or the other conditions which occur during menopause.  Furthermore, many patients have considerable difficulty stopping antidepressant medications, with rates of AWS (antidepressant withdrawal syndrome) ranging anywhere from 15% to 56%.  Not surprisingly, use of these drugs can also lead to emotional and mental side effects, including mood swings and emotional blunting.

NK Inhibitors

Elinzanetant (Lynkuet) and fezolentant (Veozah) are two newer drugs designed to treat menopausal hot flashes.  Both medications inhibit neurokinin receptors, which helps to normalize the regulation of sleep and temperature.  Although more effective than placebo in managing hot flashes, approximately 20% of the study participants in the Lynkuet clinical trial reported the adverse effects of headache, fatigue, and dizziness, while the most common side effects with Veozah were abdominal pain, diarrhea, and insomnia. Reminiscent of HRT, animal studies of Lynkuet show an increased risk of cancer.  Although no cancer risk was found with Veozah, the FDA mandates that the drug include a black box warning for potential liver damage or failure.

Understanding Menopausal Symptoms in Chinese Medicine

According to Chinese medical theory, the organs of the human body mature by age 5 or 6 and begin producing abundant resources—storing a significant portion for physiological changes of puberty.  From the age of 14 for girls and 16 for boys until age 35, our bodies function at the peak level needed to procreate.  Once we arrive at the watershed age of 35 (corresponding to the Western designation of advanced maternal age), nature decelerates to a glide, and the creation of bodily resources gradually decreases.  Finally, by age 40, slowing function reaches the kidney system—the foundation of physiological activity in Chinese medicine—and we embark upon the quieter, golden years of middle age.

For women, the decade from age 40 until 49 typically brings about a major life change.  Unable to sustain fertility and monthly blood loss due to the age-related changes, the innate intelligence in a woman’s body will either abruptly cease menstruation or begin skidding to a stop, sometimes smoothly but more often irregularly.  The systemic deficiency of blood and other basic resources can act similarly to insufficient water in a radiator, resulting in episodic hot flashes and thermal dysregulation.  Chinese medical strategies to reduce the severity and duration of persistent menopausal hot flashes include supplementing insufficiencies and heat dissipation.

Chinese Treatment of Hot Flashes

ACUPUNCTURE

Although acupuncture is not considered first line therapy in China for menopausal hot flashes, multiple studies have demonstrated that acupuncture is capable of effectively tempering hot flashes and improving sleep duration and quality.  As a nonpharmaceutical treatment, acupuncture avoids the potential risks of liver damage, drug dependency, and cancer.  Research has demonstrated that acupuncture can disperse heat, and acupuncture sessions can be optimized to simultaneously address other concerns, like stress or chronic pain.  For best results, begin with two or three treatments each week (similar to the frequency of treatment used in studies) and adjust the number of visits as your symptoms improve. 

When combined with Chinese formulas, acupuncture is even more beneficial.  If your budget allows, begin with a custom prescription for the best effect.  Alternatively, our sister business Serenity Herbs can provide you with a natural, over-the-counter capsule or tablet based on our clinical assessment which offer convenient support for your acupuncture care.

CHINESE FORMULAS

Chinese medicinal formulas have been used for thousands of years to help ease the transition into menopause.  In most cases, the emphasis of these formulas is nourishing the yin, adding to the reservoir of cooling fluids to keep body temperature in check. Due to the interdependency of yin and yang, however, some patients need additional support for yang function—especially those women who experience decreased libido, cold feet, or nighttime urination—while patients experiencing unusually high levels of stress may require formulations which break up both emotional and physical stagnation.  It is the job of Chinese doctors to comprehensively assess each patient in order to create bespoke prescriptions, based on classic formulas, which are modified to meet specific needs and deliver targeted care.

Some patients express interest in learning more about the scientific chemistry of Chinese formulas.  This is an enormously complex topic, as formulations are comprised of many components, and each single ingredient may feature a significant number bioactive constituents (Coptis chinensis, for example, has over a hundred).  Common formulas modified for treating hot flashes contain natural phytoestrogens (plant estrogens), but the concentrations are low.  Surprisingly, some of the substances used in Chinese medicine have notably complicated chemistry which can regulate hormones depending on the levels in the blood—a form of dynamic therapy not normally possible with drugs.

Traditionally, Western society had suggested that women just resign themselves to menopausal hot flashes as part of the physiological burden of being female.  Chinese medicine, on the other hand, not only acknowledges that menopausal women need support to manage these distressing symptoms, it has also provided safe and effective care for centuries. Fortunately, Western patients are now able to utilize these time-tested and research-proven treatments.  While Chinese medicinal teas and acupuncture may not always be as convenient as drugs, they provide effective relief that is cheaper and safer;  in fact, rather than causing serious, even life-threatening, adverse effects, the Chinese medical solutions for menopausal hot flashes can actually benefit wellness. Side benefits rather than side effects.

If you are experiencing disruptive menopausal hot flashes, seek out a licensed acupuncturist who can prescribe custom formulas and help you experience a cooler change of life.

*These statements are provided for informational purposes and are not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease.  We recommend consulting a qualified Western healthcare and Chinese healthcare professional to review available treatments and choose the best care for your needs.

Effective Strategies for Impactful Eating

So much is said about eating to lose weight, but some of the most effective weight loss diets are not actually good for general health.  Nor are the impacts of food choices limited to personal wellness;  in fact, the way each of us eats can affect not only our fellow human beings but the entire planet.  As the late Dr. Jane Goodall observed, every time we make a choice, there can be broader consequences, good and bad.  Given the huge effects of food production on the natural world, the global prevalence of food insecurity, and the close relationship of diet to health and healthcare, eating smarter, not just dieting, is one of the best ways to try to make the world a better place each and every day.

But how can we modify our eating habits to support individual and collective wellness?

Meal Time

In 2017, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was given to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for their study of circadian rhythms, research which opened new doors in medicine, specifically in the fields of endocrinology and psychology.  For those familiar with the history of medicine, it is a rather embarrassing turn of events for Western science which long discredited, at times even ridiculed, the concept that function in living organisms is governed by a sophisticated internal clock.  Of course, for those of us in Chinese medicine, these new developments in what is now known as chronobiology just confirm ancient principles which have been utilized for millennia by traditional societies.

Recent research has taken circadian rhythms one step further by demonstrating their relevance to the microbiome in the gut.  The primary takeaway from these findings is to follow the old adage “eat your breakfast alone, share lunch with a friend, and give your dinner to your enemy”.  In Chinese medicine, we explain the importance of eating breakfast by observing that the stomach channel used in acupuncture is most active from 7 AM to 9 AM, allowing for optimal digestion.  During the rest of the day, we advise meals be regularly spaced, with any evening eating before bed kept consciously small and readily digestible—suitable for a period of rest and inactivity. The current term for this scheduling of meals, inspired by nature, is circadian eating, and it is one of the best possible ways to get more nutritional bang for your buck.

Freshening Up

Freshness is often discussed in terms of palate appeal, but eating the freshest possible foods is also indispensable for good health.  To understand why Chinese medicine views freshness as necessary for wellness, it is helpful to consider the Chinese idea of the six flavors which facilitate optimal food choices while also playing a key role in formulating Chinese medicines.  We translate the names of these six basic flavors into English as acrid, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and bland.

When food is at its freshest, it should be aromatic or pungent—a synonym for acrid.  Like all of the six flavors, acridity is seen as directly affecting the human body.  Specifically, acridity moves, dissipates, and disperses, meaning it can activate and stimulate physiological functions.  In the digestive tract, the acrid flavor of fresh food supports and encourages complete digestion, allowing for better absorption and utilization of all the nutrients in the food.

This principle applies equally to ingredients, like vegetables and meat, and to complex prepared foods like bread. Imagine, if you will, the smell of home baked bread, wafting temptingly from the kitchen, compared to that of a store-bought loaf that is too old to smell like much of anything.  The exciting fragrance of fresh foods actually reveals an abundance of enzymes, active proteins that catalyze chemical reactions.  To make the most of these dynamic properties of freshly made food, you are encouraged to enjoy it within the first 24 hours.  Once day old, Chinese medicine views prepared foods as “wrecked”, so use the freshest ingredients and eat dishes as soon as possible after they are served.

What You Buy Is What You Eat

It is a simple fact:  most of us buy all of the food we eat, either in the form of ingredients or as ready-to-eat foods.  So, while we may talk about the bad decisions made during momentary impulses, the choices about what to eat or not to eat actually occur when we shop for groceries.  In fact, if you make up lists before you shop, your decisions about eating actually happen even before you have bought anything.

Since we are generally less motivated by cravings when shopping than we are, for example, at one in the morning rummaging through the refrigerator, we can set ourselves up for successful eating that benefits us and the planet.  Consider how you aspire to eat and make shopping lists that match your dietary objectives. If you think it is appropriate to reward yourself, you might include a goodie or two on the list to help your resolve when at the store.  Also, ask yourself where you can readily get the foods you need to achieve your goals with less temptation to buy those things you prefer to minimize.  If you go shopping in a store where you find yourself surrounded by “bad choices”, you may be asking for trouble. These modern psychological strategies are actually also part of traditional Chinese thinking, where 意 yi or intention is seen as the foundation that determines the nature of all action.

Once you have habituated yourself to eating well with hearty and nutritious breakfasts, fresh ingredients, and the foods your better self wants you to eat, wise choices that can make you healthier and happier and support communal wellness will become easier and easier.  It is true that you are what we eat, so make sure that you eat in a way that reflects a vision of you at your best. In the process, you will be efficiently and mindfully utilizing more local, or at least regional, real, farm-fresh food—and that is good for everything that lives on planet earth.

Staying Healthy and Balanced This Fall

People complain that the four seasons do not exist in the Sonoran desert. Some divide the year into the persistent heat that starts in late spring, often lasting into November, and the cool but rarely cold days and nights we enjoy from November through March. Longtime residents come to understand, however, that subtle shifts do occur, and that southern Arizona has its own quiet version of fall.

Retreat and Contraction in the Fall

Chinese medicine identifies cycles of expansion and contraction that alternate according to a regular schedule. The hours of the day, for example, are seen as a time of growth and increase from midnight until noon, referred to as the “time of the living breath”, followed by an equal period of deceleration and decrease from noon to midnight—the “time of the dying breath”. Recognizing these cycles is useful and can help determine, for example, the best times to eat, exercise, or sleep.

The seasons of the year follow a similar pattern: spring and summer see universal expansion, while all things naturally slow and contract during the autumn and winter months. Arizona’s searing desert heat may force us to stay inside during the hottest summer months, but we still experience longer days and more natural light in our homes than in fall and winter. With these obvious changes in our external environment, our internal physiology also shifts, and, as the Chinese learned over the course of millennia, altering daily routines to stay in balance with the seasons is one of the best ways to stay healthy.

Specifically, Chinese medicine recommends sleeping in a bit later in the fall. Try downshifting from more vigorous physical workouts to gentler, slower paced activity and stretching. Introduce more soups into your diet, brimming with plenty of hearty vegetables. Pull warm scarves or high collar jackets out from closets to guard against the autumnal winds. And make sure to take strolls in natural settings, stopping to admire fall colors if you live in an area where the leaves turn vibrant golds and reds.

Avoid Invasion by External Dryness

According to Chinese medical theory, every season is marked by a climatic factor which can disrupt bodily harmony. During the fall, we are cautioned about dryness and should avoid any dry winds and air which can result in unproductive cough and feelings of dryness and heat. Due to the fact that the high heat of summer—especially in the desert—can tax bodily resources and leave us vulnerable in autumn, it behooves us to take steps to minimize exposure to external threats like pollen, dust, and viruses that can lead to malaise and illness in the fall.

Desert living also necessitates actively replenishing bodily fluids during the dry, windy weather of autumn that follows the baking heat of summer. Nature is infinitely wise and will often provide exactly what we need. To insure that our bodies, in particular our lungs, remain moist and nourished, we should indulge in the bounty of ripe, fall fruits. Pears, whose skin is included in medicinal teas prescribed in the fall, are ideal for restoring moisture in the lungs, while other autumnal delights like apples and figs can also help to rehydrate at the cellular level after a long, hot summer.

The Metal Phase

In Chinese Five Phase Theory, autumn represents the metal phase and suggests the use of a scythe to reap the harvest of a productive spring and summer. Autumn is also the perfect time to make use of the metal of acupuncture needles to rebalance and restore. During the fall, our clinic assesses and regulates the defensive qi which is traditionally seen as protecting us against seasonal infections and allergies. We also evaluate each patient’s yin, blood, and body fluids which may have become depleted during hot, sweaty summer days. For optimal wellness, these individuals often benefit from a formula that can support dietary changes and help to bring yin fluids back to a healthy level. Think of these treatments as way to help “winterize” your body to ensure a harmonious and joyful fall and a secure and peaceful winter.

Effective Treatment of Sciatica

During my 25 years in practice, many patients who have come to our clinic report sciatica. It is a problem I am quite happy to tackle as the special needling method I use provides good outcomes in a situation where mainstream medical options tend to be limited. The benefits of Chinese acupuncture for patients who complain of sciatica were recently confirmed in a JAMA Internal Medicine article featuring a Chinese study which found acupuncture outperforms sham in relieving chronic sciatica.

Western Medical Analysis and Treatment of Sciatica

The sciatic nerve, which originates in the lower lumbar spine, is the largest nerve in our bodies. Functionally, the sciatic nerve allows for both sensory and motor function of the muscles of the thigh, leg, and foot. Neuralgia or nerve pain affecting the sciatic nerve is common, with up to 43% of people experiencing this condition at some time in their lives. Although sciatica resolves with time in many patients, 20%-30% experience pain lasting more than one year, and some patients suffer severe complications which can impair walking and even cause incontinence.

Studies have found surgical interventions for sciatica generally offer poor results, so many patients agree to drugs with adverse effects, regular steroid injections (which can damage tissue), or months of physical therapy. Making matters worse, the deadly opioid crisis has dramatically changed pain management strategies, leaving many people struggling with sciatica with little to no relief from pain. Fortunately, Chinese medicine offers practical, effective treatments for patients looking for good solutions to alleviate their discomfort and improve range of motion.

Using Chinese Medical Care for Sciatica

Acupuncture is based on a network of connections in the body that are referred to as channels. In the case of sciatica pain, the areas often affected are along the course of the gallbladder, stomach, and spleen channels. Depending on the location of the pain and how far down the leg the discomfort radiates, the specific acupuncture points used vary. When working with a qualified and experienced Licensed Acupuncturist, your entire health history will be assessed, and the findings will be utilized to target not only the pain but its underlying causes.

As with any medical condition, the results depend on the specifics of the case. For example, chronic or severe cases of sciatica can be harder to treat than the mild, short-term cases. In our clinic, many sciatica patients leave after just one acupuncture treatment already feeling better. Recently, one patient told us that she felt so much relief two days after her first visit for acupuncture that she sat up in bed and cried tears of joy. If you or someone you know has been dealing with painful and debilitating sciatica, please call our clinic to schedule a treatment.

Better Health During the Cold And Flu Season

Healthcare authorities are once again ringing the alarm bell about the uptick in cases of COVID-19. Meanwhile, in addition to the all too familiar seasonal risk of catching a cold or the flu, we are also learning more about the dangers of RSV. Vaccination is one option to reduce the chances of seasonal ailments, but many people either choose not to be vaccinated or are unable to tolerate vaccines.

Fortunately, there are time-tested natural strategies to help increase the time that you are able to enjoy the holidays with your family and friends instead of lying in bed sick and miserable.*

Regular Maintenance for Your Body

In our clinic we often hear about, or see, the remarkable benefits of regular Chinese medical care for supporting health and wellness. When Chinese Medicine is used as a complete system of medicine by a qualified, Licensed Acupuncturist, patients are evaluated and treated holistically, restoring healthy balance to all bodily systems. This includes improving our natural defense mechanisms. According to Wang (2023), “In addition to dramatically regulating immune cells and molecules, including innate and adaptive immune responses, acupuncture can stimulate and support immunological responses that are anti-inflammatory and anti-infectious.”

Ancient Chinese Wellness Secret

For 800 years, Chinese doctors have used an herbal formula called Jade Windscreen Powder to improve the overall wellness of patients who tend get sick, either from allergens or viruses, during the fall and winter seasons. The immune harmonizing effects of this classic combination have recently been confirmed by modern science. In their study, Du et alia (2013) reported that Jade Windscreen Powder showed a “bi-directional immune-modulatory role(s)…in regulating the releases of cytokines from macrophages.” Other studies have indicated that this Chinese formula may also help those with COPD or other respiratory complaints.

When it is determined to be safe and appropriate for our patients, we recommend starting this remarkable formula prior to the cold and flu season and continuing it throughout the peak time. Astragalus, the key ingredient in Jade Windscreen, is not only known for keeping people healthy, it can also increase energy levels without the use of a stimulant. Our sister business, Serenity Herbs and Supplements, offers several different versions of the Jade Windscreen formula, so please reach out to us to learn what would work best for you.

Play It Safe and Be Smart

In the martial arts we are taught that it is always better to avoid a fight than risk getting injured. Similarly, while boosting resistance to respiratory infections is helpful, it is best to minimize your exposure whenever you can. We know that COVID-19 spreads rapidly when large numbers of people congregate indoors, and these situations can also increase your chances of contracting other types of viruses. By avoiding problematic environments, wearing a mask as needed, and limiting the time you spend in high risk situations—supported by regular Chinese wellness care—you will spend more time rejoicing than recovering during the holidays.

*We do not promote Chinese wellness care as a substitute for FDA recommended measures. These statements in this article have not been approved by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease.

Western Medicine is Starting to Catch Up

This week marked the 100th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter. Carter has survived many challenges in his century of life, with the most recent being melanoma that metastasized to his liver and brain. The diehard Nobel-prize winner was first diagnosed at the age of 91, but thanks to surgery and innovative cancer care, he has lived nine years since cancer was found. The 39th President’s survival is specifically attributed to novel immunotherapy, a newer weapon in the arsenal to fight cancer.

The drug that has kept Carter alive was only approved a year prior to his diagnosis, and scientists had only learned about the potential of the human immune system to combat cancer ten years before the drug became available. Remarkably, Chinese medical expert Pan Mingji had been working on similar strategies in Chinese medicine decades prior to these Western scientific breakthroughs of the early 2000’s. Even more incredibly, Dr. Pan’s groundbreaking research is built on ancient Chinese medical theory stretching back 2,000 years or more.

Chinese Medicine’s Balanced Perspective

The discipline of medical anthropology largely derives from the core idea that every system of medicine is a product of its culture. Even Western scientific medicine reflects shared beliefs which emphasize certain perspectives on healthcare while deemphasizing others. Not surprisingly, these differences create a unique set of strengths and weaknesses in each system of healthcare.

Western medicine has always been, and continues to be, a medicine categorized by offensive attacks against pathogens. Culturally, this perspective naturally derives from our Western nomadic and colonial history where violent conflicts with other groups were commonplace. Although we are seeing a shift in recent decades, Western medicine continues to overwhelmingly favor remedial treatment over proactive prevention.

Chinese medicine, however, has always seen health as a balance between the competing forces of righteous normalcy and pathogenic disruption. It is a basic precept in Chinese medicine that diseases will only develop in individuals whose bodily function is impaired and whose defenses have failed. This astute viewpoint has resulted in a nuanced approach to healthcare that not only seeks to isolate the factors causing illness but also assesses and improves any declining bodily function as necessary.

The Role of Wellness in Cancer Prevention

Most cancers occur in older patients (although there is a disturbing recent trend towards cancer in younger individuals). The explanation of why cancer is so much more likely in the elderly primarily relates to the inevitable decrease in immunity as we age. For this reason, it is imperative that we think more about the role of the human immune system in preventing and controlling cancer cells and discover how to leverage this insight in the war against cancer.

The immunotherapy that has bought Jimmy Carter another decade of precious time to spend with family and friends is one way of using new scientific knowledge of how our immunity helps keep cancerous cells in check. The next logical step in modern Western healthcare—borrowing a strategy used for thousands of years in Chinese medicine—is to harness the power of immunity for cancer prevention. In the words of a well-known Chinese idiom, “it is too late to dig a well once you are already thirsty”. Modern science now understands enough about the causes of many types of cancer to acknowledge what Chinese physicians have known for millennia: the best oncology treats cancer before it even occurs.

Chinese Herbal Treatment for Acne

Many, if not most of us, experience acne as adolescents. Some will suffer from severe acne in their teens, which can have a devastating effect on our self-confidence and may result in permanent scarring. Others find that acne lingers into adulthood and can even persist for decades.

Recently, some disturbing studies have demonstrated that benzyl peroxide, commonly found in over-the-counter acne medications, can degrade into cancer-causing benzene, but benzyl peroxide is not the only acne treatment with serious adverse effects. Topical retinoids raise sun sensitivity, possibly leading to UV skin damage which can set the stage for skin cancer. Antibiotics, topically or internally, disrupt natural skin and intestinal flora and predispose us to a variety of chronic medical conditions. Topical azelaic acid and dapsone irritate and dry skin, while the use of oral contraceptives, anti-androgen medications, and isotretinoin are associated with serious side effects including but not limited to reproductive system cancers, inflammatory bowel disease, depression, and severe birth defects.

Sounds scary? Fortunately, there is a safe option for clear skin.

Effective Chinese Skin Formulas

For those seeking relief from the mental and physical distress of acne, Chinese internal herbal formulas with topical herbal support offer a safe and effective alternative to rolling the dice with Western medical treatments with potentially lethal side effects. A 2021 study published in Medicine (Baltimore) describes the inhibitory effects of the Chinese herbs scutellaria baicalensis and cortex phellodendri on the bacterium found in acne lesions. In the February 2016 issue of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, a review of the literature led the authors to conclude that many Chinese acne formulas contain herbs with anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-androgen, and even skin whitening effects. And a study in the British Journal of Dermatology discovered that Chinese licorice root, when included in formulations, resulted in 90% less acne after 12 months.

The Professional Standard in Chinese Dermatology

As with every specialty in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), the professional standard for internal, Chinese herbal medicine is a formula customized for the needs of the individual patient. While acne is fundamentally caused by a pattern of imbalance described as lung channel wind-heat, the specifics of each case necessitate adjusting the formula for optimal results and safety. For example, when acne lesions occur along the jawline, herbs must be added to clear heat from the stomach and the intestines. If the patient has any scarring, many doctors will include ingredients to quicken the blood, while cystic acne, with painful and deep eruptions, may require the inclusion of phlegm-tranforming or toxin-clearing herbs, depending on any other symptoms. By modifying the formulation to best meet each patient’s needs, better outcomes, in less time, can be achieved.

If you are ready for help with a stubborn case of acne but hesitate to resort to dangerous topical or internal Western medications, please call us today to schedule an acupuncture session (which includes a complimentary herbal consult) or just book an herbal consultation without acupuncture. After a thorough review of your health history and a workup that will assess your tongue, pulse, and symptoms, we will compound a Chinese herbal formula specially designed for you. In addition, we can offer advice on simple dietary and/or lifestyle changes which can deliver clearer skin faster, and with more long-lasting results (hint: minimizing junk food is a good start).

Stay Healthy and Comfortable During the Summer

Chinese medicine, the product of an agrarian society, adheres to the rhythms of nature, advocating changes to lifestyle and the diet and adjusting treatment to harmonize with the seasons. Especially here in Arizona, where temperatures will soar into the blazing triple digits during the summer months, optimal wellness can be improved by following some simple guidelines. Below we offer you some tips to ensure that you feel your best and maintain your health during the dry, hot days preceding the monsoons.

Smart Cooling

In Southern Arizona, either AC or a swamp cooler is an essential for life during the hot summer months. Nevertheless, the Chinese have long considered wind to be a primary source of disease, and, in our 23 years in practice, many of our patients have reported malaise or pain after prolonged exposure to drafts of cold, refrigerated air. We recommend you avoid positioning yourself directly in the path of frigid, moving air and suggest that you set your thermostat to the highest temperature that still provides comfort. By minimizing the temperature extremes, you will acclimate better to the differences between indoor and outdoor temperatures.

The Thermal Nature of Food

Many ancient cultures recognized the thermal nature of foodstuffs. Put another way, some foods stoke metabolism, warming us up in cold weather, while others depress physiological activity and cool us down. Based on the Chinese classification of foods (and herbs) as cold, cool, neutral, warm, and hot, you can select the right foods for your constitution and the seasonal weather.

Books like Bob Flaws’ Tao of Healthy Eating offer lists of foodstuffs with their thermal nature, but an alternative to memorizing or looking up the properties of every food to try to eat our foods in season, as Mother Nature often gives you exactly what you need. For example, watermelon and eggplant, classic summertime crops, are naturally cold and cool, respectively. Another cold summer veggie is Chinese bitter melon. Very bitter in flavor, this strange looking produce can usually be found in Asian grocery stores, and, if prepared properly, becomes mildly bitter and delicious.

COOLING SUMMER FOODS AND DRINKS

• Mint tea and chrysanthemum tea—Both of these herbal teas clear heat, especially from the head and face.

• Mung bean sprouts—Bean sprouts are a famous cooling food which can be used raw or cooked in the summertime.

• Tofu—Tofu helps cool down the body and can be eaten raw (the Japanese eat it raw with spring onions, ginger, and soy sauce) or used in cooked dishes.

Head for the Hills

The oppressive summer heat of the Sonoran desert not only takes a toil on many of us physically, it can also be psychologically difficult to get through the long summer season in Arizona. Mentally, you may benefit from a change of scenery, whether it be a long vacation to a different part of the country or world or a day trip into the mountains. In Japan, it is even popular during the summer to visit aquariums or haunted houses at amusement parks with the idea that the sight of cool water or the icy chill of fear, respectively, will offer psychological respite from the hot temperatures of the season.

Warm Tea on a Hot Day?

Most of us are accustomed to drinking ice-cold drinks. While lightly chilled beverages can be refreshing, drinking room temperature or even warm drinks is a strategy to avoid temperature extremes and supports good digestion and circulation. And it is always smart to avoid eating any physically cold food so quickly that it actually gives you a headache or “brain freeze”.

Tea, specifically traditional varieties from the camellia sinensis plant, is actually a diaphoretic herb that encourages sweating. Sweating is an innate physiological mechanism to lower body temperature which can help cool you off. As counterintuitive as it may sound at first, we encourage you to enjoy a cup of warm tea on a hot day and see if it does not make you, in fact, feel cooler (if maybe slightly sweaty).

Instead of just dialing the thermostat down to a low setting, consider some of these innovative ways of staying cool. You might find that these suggestions are not only healthier (and cheaper) than relying solely on AC, but that they also keep you more comfortable than the refrigerated air alone. And may nature bless Southern Arizona with a year of early and productive monsoon rains!

A Different Approach to Cancer

According to cancer.org, the current lifetime risk of being diagnosed with cancer in the United States U.S. is roughly 40%, with men at slightly higher risk than women. Most of us are surprised to learn this grim statistic, and many are also unaware of the recent trend of troubling rising rates of cancer among the young. In fact, despite all of the advances in our understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, Americans today are actually more than twice as likely to die from cancer than in 1900, almost 125 years ago.

Shifting the Focus to Causes

Well-known Chinese proverbs state that it is “ too late to dig a well after you are thirsty” and “too late to forge weapons after the battle has begun”. In terms of cancer, these sayings could describe the many forms of cancer considered incurable but preventable. Cancer care often degrades our quality of life and is usually incredibly costly, but the suffering and financial burden of cancer treatment would both be greatly reduced if medicine shifted its emphasis from treatment to prevention.

Granted, identifying the causes of cancer is challenging. One of the predominant findings of cancer research is that cancer often results from multiple factors in combination rather than a single cause. For example, a genetic predisposition could make one more vulnerable to a carcinogen, while a lack of exercise as well as an unhealthy diet might further raise the risk by decreasing immune function. In fact, it is unusual to be able to definitively point to a singular “smoking gun” in most cancer cases.

Using the Cardiovascular Model for Cancer Prevention

Cardiologists are increasingly turning to formulas to determine the risk of a cardiovascular event and better understand how necessary it is for a patient to take a medication or have a certain procedure performed. Risk factors, including weight, age, family history, and blood pressure and cholesterol levels, are used to calculate the potential for a stroke or heart attack, for example, to improve the quality of treatment planning. This approach save lives.

Similarly, healthcare providers could actively assess cancer risk as part of regular care. Currently some testing is done for women with a family history of breast cancer, but there is a need for many more patients to receive genetic and blood testing to evaluate cancer risk. Test results should then be considered in light of other factors—age, weight, diet and lifestyle, and family history, for instance—to identify those patients at high risk.

Recognizing and Avoiding Carcinogens

Especially for those individuals with multiple cancer risk factors, it is good preventative healthcare to minimize exposure to carcinogens that could tip the scales and lead to cancer. This includes avoiding the usual suspects of smoking and alcohol, but other cancer-causing agents should also be considered. For the high risk patient, the best strategy is to err on the side of caution and play it safe.

Unfortunately, there is always tension between industry, which has an economic stake in continuing to market, and avoiding the liability for, agents that may be causing cancer. For example, although the FDA considers BPA to be a proven carcinogen, industry websites continue to argue with the science, offering alternative studies that purport to show their safety. Since the latency period—the time from exposure to a carcinogen to a diagnosis of cancer—can be years or even decades, it can be challenging to prove the cancer link beyond the shadow of a doubt.

A Natural Strategy

With as much as 70% of the chemicals in daily use untested for their long-term affects on human health, we advise our patients to choose the most natural options available. This not only includes selecting organic foods as much as possible, but also opting for the safest and most non-toxic products for use in the home, kitchen, office, and car. While this lifestyle change may be essential for those with numerous risk factors for cancer, getting back to basics with simple products, free of harsh, synthetic ingredients, can improve anyone’s quality of life and reduce the likelihood of many serious, chronic diseases.

Artificial Wisdom & Atomic Bombs

We hear a lot these days about Artificial Intelligence, and, in fact, AI is already here. Post on eBay, and the site’s AI feature will write a grammatically flawless and persuasive description that only needs tweaking. Meanwhile, the full potential of AI looms menacingly in the distance, with the possibilities scaring European leaders enough that some have called for legislation to regulate what they view as a threat to the very stability of society. For alarmists, a dystopia not unlike The Matrix lurks just around the corner.

Despite the spotlight on AI, it is worth nothing that no one seems to be suggesting Artificial Wisdom (AW). This total lack of interest in AW is not too surprising, however, if you stop to consider how little time modern people spend aspiring to wisdom—a quality which once enjoyed a lofty position in the hierarchy of virtues. Of course, we do not know if Artificial Wisdom would even be feasible, if humanity ever did decide to explore the possibility. All of which begs the question, “What is wisdom, exactly, and how does it differ from intelligence?”.

Wisdom Versus Intelligence

The Cambridge Dictionary online defines wisdom as “the ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgements”. This definition does not bode well for the creation of a wisdom correlate to AI: the possessive pronoun your intimates a living, breathing human being, while the caveat of experience might be understood to exclude a computer sitting in a building. If we accept these basic parameters, then wisdom is exclusively human, the product of living life, and one which a computer would not be able to replicate.

On the other hand, one might ask, “if AI has the ability to learn (one of the defining characteristics of Artificial Intelligence), does that not suggest the use of experience to improve the process of decision making?” It is a fair question. And, yet, the odds appear stacked against AI’s becoming wise, just as we cannot expect that solving a tough problem in math will confer wisdom on the mathematician.

What the Wise Say About Wisdom

Wisdom is not the product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it. —Albert Einstein

Wisdom is the power to put our time and knowledge to the proper use. —Thomas Jefferson.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. —Issac Asimov

These quotations from three great thinkers round out the dictionary definition by concluding that wisdom is, indeed, the product of our lived experience, and that wisdom must also lead to appropriate, or righteous, action. While not stated explicitly, experience denotes the consequences of a lifetime of decisions, the product of learning lessons in the school of hard knocks. Wisdom apparently demands skin in the game, feeling the joy of our good decisions and suffering the pain of our bad ones. In other words, emotional investment is a prerequisite for wisdom—bad news for any AI which might strive to become wise. AI may correct mistakes, but it cannot feel personally (emphasis on person) responsible for its errors.

Jefferson and others also posit that wisdom presupposes a sense of right and wrong. Certainly, a programmer can provide AI with a set of ethical rules and expect that AI will exactly adhere to those programmed mandates. But making the right choice, the ethical choice, cannot always be determined by using a rubric and needs to be performed on an ad hoc basis. Deciding whether something is right or wrong depends on multiple variables and, once again, comes back to compassion for the other human beings who will shoulder the consequences of the decisions which we make. Ultimately, the process requires a person who can envision himself or herself in someone else’s shoes—something a device or system, no matter how advanced, cannot do.

The Manhattan Project

This year Christopher Nolan’s epic Oppenheimer, a retelling of the important story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s journey to develop the atomic bomb, is set to sweep the Oscar’s. The movie chooses to focus on Oppenheimer as its protagonist, but it tells the bigger story of a team of extraordinary minds, arguably the greatest think tank ever assembled, that produced an invention so terrible that it hangs ominously like the sword of Damocles over humanity even today. In our current advanced computer age, the creation of a first atomic bomb would probably be aided by AI, but the decision of whether or not, and how and when, to use it, would be just as problematic in 2024 as it was back in 1945. As the rational scientists who created the A-bomb discovered, the somber prospect of detonating atomic bombs in cities teeming with people would preclude dispassionate problem-solving.

In the spring of 1945, Leo Szilárd, a Hungarian-American physicist, delivered a letter to Secretary of State James F. Byrnes. Signed by 70 prominent scientists involved in designing the atomic bomb, the missive encouraged the President to inform Japan of its intention to use the new weapon, allowing them a chance to surrender. In their eloquent letter, the authors even foresaw the future Cold War and the potential impact of the bomb not only on the Japanese, but on all human beings in perpetuity, writing

Thus a nation which sets the precedent of using these newly liberated forces of nature for purposes of destruction may have to bear the responsibility of opening the door to an era of devastation on an unimaginable scale.

Since Secretary of State Byrnes, who paid little attention to experts from the State Department and would later be accused by Truman of trying to set White House foreign policy, decided not to pass the letter on to the Oval Office, the President never heard the scientists’ plea. In August of the year the letter was written, two atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 130,000 to 230,000 people in an inconceivable storm of annihilation.

Today, the letter, dubbed the Szilárd Petition by historians, rests in the National Archives, immortalizing the thoughts and opinions of some of the most brilliant scientists of the 20th century. It is not, however, a testament to their intelligence, but, rather, proof of their collective wisdom. Szilárd himself, along with his colleague Wigner, another signatory on the letter—both Jews who left Germany just as the Nazis had begun rising to terrifying power—understood all too well the suffering humanity is capable of inflicting on itself. Their learned experience, and the cumulative learned experience of the other 68 people who drafted the letter, afforded them the human compassion to try to change the trajectory of human history. Due to the actions of a hawkish Secretary of State, however, what might have happened if Truman had actually heard the plaintive case of those who invented the nuclear bomb, will never be known.

Whether or not the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th of 1945 were right or wrong continues to be discussed to this day, a lively debate centered mainly around the question of how necessary the atom bombs were to end the war. Nevertheless, the compassion, and morality, of the team of scientists who drafted the Szilárd Petition are beyond dispute, and, today, the letter, fragile and yellowed with age, endures as a courageous act of human, and deeply humane, wisdom. It is an accomplishment that no Artificial Intelligence, regardless of its sophistication, could ever endeavor to achieve, as computers may have CPUs, but only human beings are gifted with the human heart.

The Newest Weight Loss Miracle

People have been searching for a magic weight loss pill for a long time. In the modern era, the story begins with doctors’ prescribing thyroid medication to their overweight patients in the 1920’s. Once it became apparent that HRT resulted in hyperthyroidism in many patients without a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, however, hormonal supplements were replaced by a new weight loss medication called DNP (2,4-dinitrophenol) in 1933. Due to adverse effects including fatal hypothermia and cataracts, DNP would also fail, with the FDA prohibiting the human consumption of DNP in any form just 5 years after its introduction (it was later repurposed as a pesticide but would ultimately be banned even for agricultural usage in 1998).

As DNP was being taken off the market for serious safety concerns, another class of medications was already becoming popular for weight loss. Amphetamines, and the many adverse effects and addictive qualities associated with these potent stimulants, would become synonymous with the term “diet pill” for decades. In the late 1960’s, Congress finally passed stricter laws restricting access to these notorious weight loss drugs. Today, amphetamines are much less likely to be used by adults hoping to drop some weight than they are to be taken by children with trouble concentrating.

While stories of weight loss medications from the early through the middle part of the 20th century may strike us as anachronistic and quaint today, the cautionary tale of fen-phen is disturbingly recent. By combining phentermine, originally approved by the FDA back in 1959, and fenfluramine, FDA approved in 1973, a new weight loss aid was born. Two separate studies demonstrated that fen-phen effectively assisted participants in shedding pounds, leading many to demand the drug from healthcare providers. By 1996, more than 18 million prescriptions were being written. Unfortunately, like all of the weight loss pills approved by the FDA in the 20th century, the evidence of adverse effects—in this case, valvular heart disease in up to 30% of patients—would eventually outweigh proof of benefits, and fen-phen, too, was banned in 1997.

GLP-1 Analogs — The Next Generation

Recently celebrities and influencers have shone the spotlight on the latest and greatest development in pharmaceutical weight loss, the GLP-1 analogs. Originally approved for the treatment of diabetes, these medications activate receptors found on the pancreas and in the brain that control blood sugar by stimulating insulin secretion. Not only is blood glucose lowered, food intake also decreases, allowing patients to painlessly and, in a relatively short time, lose weight.

With benefits which include better blood sugar, less cardiovascular illness, improved mood in patients with depression, and reversal of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, this novel class of medications is becoming popular, and, like fen-phen, the number of patients using these drugs has soared. Cost can be prohibitive, since a pen with enough doses for a month runs $935 (despite a production cost of $4-$8 for the 1.5 ml contained within). Safety is another serious consideration with these drugs, with preliminary data suggesting adverse effects ranging from hair loss to thyroid cancer. Like all of the other weight loss drugs of the last century, will we discover that the pros of GLP-1 analogs come with severe, even potentially fatal, cons?

The Real Risks of Chemical Weight Loss

Only time will tell if GLP-1 analogs are sufficiently effective and safe, and, for some patients, these injections may be their best options. It is, however, undeniable that for many overweight people, any form of chemical weight loss is dangerous. By offering weight loss without exercise or diet modification—a body “hack” of sorts—healthcare providers are enabling an unhealthy lifestyle. A patient loses 15, 20, even 30 pounds, but without improvements in their core strength or better nutrition, resulting in a thinner, but weak and malnourished, body. Can this be considered “healthcare”? Even as treatment for diabetes, GLP-1 analog injections are little more than a substitute for the real diabetic cure of healthy diet and exercise. We seem to have simply given up on good life choices in favor of a medicated America where the future of health for many of us, and even our very survival, may ultimately depend on a daily cocktail of drugs.

Chinese Medical Treatment for Alzheimer’s Patients

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating disorder that affects 50 million people worldwide and 6% of the elderly. Unlike vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s tends to progress rapidly from simple memory loss to a wide variety of symptoms. Not only do patients suffer, Alzheimer’s will also impact patients’ families and friends as normal recognition and communication decline.

Currently, diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease are both difficult. No diagnostic test is definitive, and the treatment options available only target the symptoms. Due to the enormous monetary costs and emotional trauma, extensive efforts are being made to improve diagnosis and care. Recently, a novel diagnostic test has been developed, and new research, like the study from McGill University researchers published yesterday that links H pylori gut infections and Alzheimer’s, provides hope for tackling this terrible disease.

Benefits of Chinese Medical Treatment

Chinese medicine offers some clear advantages in the treatment of Alzheimer’s patients. First, unlike Western medical treatment that relies on a specific and accurate disease diagnosis, treatment in Chinese medicine is based on a pattern comprised of symptoms, tongue inspection, and pulse palpation. Regardless of Western disease diagnosis, as long as the patterns are correctly identified, Chinese medical treatment can be helpful in improving the patient’s quality of life. Studies of gingko biloba, an herb used in Chinese medicine for centuries, support this assertion, as gingko is the only substance which has been shown to benefit both Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia sufferers alike.

One of the challenges of Alzheimer’s is the wide variety of causes and clinical symptoms. Alzheimer’s has been linked to everything from head trauma to diet, and it now seems likely that many cases are the result of multiple causes. Similarly, each Alzheimer patient faces a unique group of problems, depending on the individual case and the duration of the illness. One patient might alternate between sorrow and joy, while another could be more prone to anger and violent outbursts. Some patients may report pain, but others find themselves very weak. Alzheimer’s might make a patient mute, or the speech may come out garbled and unintelligible.

Given the various clinical scenarios, Alzheimer’s patients require a treatment appropriate for their unique situations. Chinese medicine, based on complex pattern groupings rather than a singular Western disease diagnosis, identifies more than half a dozen basic patterns in Alzheimer’s. Patients may present some combination of these patterns, and additional patterns may be differentiated by the skilled practitioner. Customized Chinese medical care which can address all of the systemic issues simultaneously offers Alzheimer’s patients a sophisticated and personalized care regimen which is unlike pharmaceutical treatment.

A Chinese Medical Care Plan

Options for effective Chinese medical care for Alzheimer’s patients include acupuncture, herbal teas, and diet and lifestyle counseling. Acupuncture is a safe, drug-free treatment, but it is only appropriate for patients who will permit insertion and lie still while the needles are retained. Generally, a caregiver needs to be present throughout the acupuncture treatment.

Herbal teas are another treatment choice and may be more suitable as the disease progresses. For some patients, drinking a tea may be easier than taking pills, so herbal decoctions may be preferable. In other cases, an over-the-counter formulation or an encapsulated custom blend can improve compliance for those who experience difficultly swallowing liquids.

Finally, as a system with many effective self-help methods to offer, Chinese medicine can evaluate each patient and give caregivers a program that includes targeted dietary advice, simple exercises, and acupressure and gentle massage techniques. While not every home care recommendation will be appropriate for all patients, these time-proven care methods can be effective and cost-free aids to help to control symptoms and improve life quality. If you are a caregiver for someone dealing with Alzheimer’s, we would love to work together with you to craft an individualized treatment plan.

Acupuncture Treatment – The Future of General Practice?

When I opened my practice 22 years ago, I shared space with an MD who had been in practice for decades.  Although he specialized in cardiology, he basically served his patients as a family medicine practitioner, continuing a grand tradition of compassionate general healthcare.  The patients trusted him implicitly and would consult him even on non-medical matters.  He was always available when needed and would still make a house call.  Late into his 80’s, the cardiologist finally retired, but for years, every now and again, one of his faithful patients would show up and stand in front of the empty office until being told that the clinic had closed.

Today, of course, general practice is very different.  MD’s who still practice family medicine normally have very heavy patient loads that necessitate abbreviated appointments and lengthy wait times to get in to see the doctor.  Much of general practice has been relegated to Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants—healthcare providers with significantly less formal training than is required of an MD. As as healthcare corporations have bought out our hospitals, urgent cares, and clinics, the economic incentive to employ an NP or PA at a third of the yearly salary of a Medical Doctor has led to a dramatic shift in hiring practices, while MD’s, bedraggled and burned out, have fled the profession in droves, unable to sustain an impossible workload. The beloved family doctor of decades past is now an endangered species.

Interestingly, many of our patients comment that their acupuncture sessions recall old school, mainstream medical family practice. In contrast to the MD’s who have now moved into group practices with shared facilities and large clinical and clerical support staffs, most Licensed Acupuncturists maintain modest, personable practices that create strong bonds between patient and practitioner. While many doctors now spend only 10 minutes or less with each patient, most acupuncture appointments last a generous hour, giving time not only for assessment and treatment, but also opportunity for patients to be heard. Finally, since traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis does not require lab tests or imaging, patients enjoy interacting firsthand with their acupuncturists who utilize observation, questioning, and physical exam to directly determine the best course of care.

Experts are predicting a future where urgent care clinics will replace our own personal doctors for general care services. Not only does this evolution of family practice promise to be dehumanizing, it will greatly impact the continuity of general care. Fortunately, for those patients who prefer a more traditional personal relationship with a healthcare provider, CAM practitioners in general, and Licensed Acupuncturists specifically, offer a reassuring alternative to walk-in services at an urgent care clinic.

Lungs in a Time of COVID

Recent research proves that asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 may be much more widespread than previously assumed. Even more unsettling, a new study shows that even patients who are unaware of having ever been infected may develop a pulmonary abnormality, specifically a phenomenon known as ground-glass opacity or GGO. In radiological imaging, this aberration of the lung tissue appears as hazy infiltrates or spots. While benign in some individuals, GGO in other cases may be a precursor to deadly lung cancer.

Traditional Chinese Medicine states that “the lungs are the delicate organ”. This perspective is generally supported in modern Western medicine which recognizes both the fragility of the thin walls of the lungs, a mere 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick, and the vulnerability of the lungs which can be permanently damaged even by a single episode of minor illness. Research over the last few years has demonstrated that polluted air in our urban environments may be as detrimental to respiratory function as chain smoking, raising grave concerns about the possibility of a widespread future epidemic of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Enter SARS-CoV2, a virus with the ability to ravage our lungs and set into motion degenerative changes even in asymptomatic cases. On the bright side, the primary risk factor for lung cancer, cigarette smoking— which makes an individual 15 to 30 times more likely to eventually develop malignant lung tumors—has declined 65% in the last 50 years. The bad news is that vaping is on the rise, and, given that pulmonary cancers on average occur 55 years after first being exposed to carcinogens, the real risks of vaping may not be clearly understood anytime soon. This fact is especially troubling in light of surveys which have shown that 25% of 12th graders and, even more shockingly, 5% of middle school students report having tried vaping.

With more than 20,000 cases of non-smoker lung cancer annually and the new potential risk factors for lung cancer of COVID-19 and vaping, it pays to take steps to maintain healthy lungs. There are several things you can do which may help reduce the risk of lung cancer in the future as well as other severe, chroniclung conditions—chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), for example. Measures worth consideration include

• Monitoring for asymptomatic COVID-19 infection with regular testing, especially for high-risk individuals and even for those who have been vaccinated (at least until evidence shows that vaccines prevent asymptomatic disease).

• Daily low-impact aerobic exercise, including tai ji, yoga, cycling, or swimming, to strengthen and stimulate lung function.

• Eating pears, recommended by Chinese medicine, for improved lung health in drier climates, while those who live in humid areas are advised to consume warming, spicier foods like cilantro and daikon radish.

• Receiving professional help for conditions of persistent, chronic grief, which, according to Chinese medical theory, may impact pulmonary health.

• Taking a dietary herbal supplement, like Serenity Herbs’ Herbal Defender, which contains herbs traditionally used to protect the lungs.

• Spending time in the mountains near streams and lakes—areas preferred by ancient Daoists and shown by modern research to be rich in healthy, negative ions that supercharge your lungs.

Finally, remember to breathe and be assured that the pandemic, too, shall pass!

Cases High in Israel Despite Widespread Vaccination

We are all anxious to get back to some semblance of normalcy. In response, our government officials have begun easing restrictions and reopening shuttered businesses and suspended institutions. Similarly, healthcare authorities have started advising Americans about how completing immunization might allow us to relax and return to more intimate human interaction.

Meanwhile, 7,000 miles away, Israel leads the world with 40% of the population and an even higher percentage of older citizens already vaccinated. While these current figures satisfy the lower estimates for full herd immunity, at the breakneck pace of Israel’s efficient vaccination program—an impressive 1% to 2% of the total country daily—even the loftiest targets for herd protection are just weeks away. Israel has become the proverbial canary in the coal mine, foreshadowing the future for the rest of the world as we scramble to catch up with the prodigious Middle Eastern nation.

Unfortunately, there is an alarming conundrum: despite the large percentage of the Israeli population who have already received the vaccine, new cases remain twice the number per capita in the U.S. (only partially explained by more testing), and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 appears to be declining less than expected.

In contrast to recent studies which have shown good outcomes in Israel, the broader epidemiology is indeed troubling. Like trends in many countries, Israel is seeing a predictable gradual drop in both cases and fatalities following a steep post-holiday spike, but the precipitous fall in numbers that demonstrate clear vaccine efficacy has not yet occurred. With so many Israelis already inoculated, one might expect the epidemiological curve to be markedly distinct from other countries.

One explanation that has been offered blames human behavior, the primary confounding variable in the analysis of the pandemic. In accord with the precedent followed around the globe, Israel began its massive vaccination roll-out with jabs for its healthcare workers and the elderly. Some experts speculate that this may have led to younger citizens indulging in risky behavior, inadvertently increasing the spread of disease and dampening the overall effectiveness of the vaccination program.

It is also conceivable that herd immunity does not lie at 50% or 60%, but will ultimately require, as Dr. Anthony Fauci has proposed, 85% of the population to be vaccinated. If true, here in the U.S.—where only 10% of Americans have been inoculated—we have a long way to go before we can even begin to let down our guard. Not only must we greatly improve the logistics of vaccine roll-out, we are also faced with convincing the overwhelming majority of vaccine-hesitant individuals to submit to a jab.

A third, more disheartening, possibility exists: if drug companies, as some critics have argued, distorted their research with questionable research practices, our high expectations for vaccine efficacy could be grossly inflated. In the case of the Pfizer study, for example, the vaccine advisory panel discussion indicated that volunteer bias may have resulted in recruitment of a population unusually predisposed to hyper vigilant behavior, significantly reducing their viral exposure. Furthermore, since many vaccine recipients report telltale reactions to the vaccine and in light of the fact that testing was ordered by investigators based on subjective identification of participants who appeared to have contracted COVID, it is also possible that clinical trial findings were wildly skewed by a confirmation bias. Similar issues could have impacted the Moderna research which yielded outcomes curiously analogous to the Pfizer study.

Assuming the Israelis can sustain their laudable rate of vaccination, we may have some answers to these burning questions before the end of this month. In the meantime, the dip in U.S infections and deaths from a combination of some degree of natural herd immunity and the passing of time since super spreader events in December and early January is finally giving Americans a glimmer of hope for a brighter future in 2021. We will, however, still have to be patient as the now familiar, pervasive, and maddening uncertainty about the future of just about everything continues a bit longer.

Providing Continuity of Care

In the early days of the pandemic, 77% of U.S. acupuncture clinics made the decision to just close their doors. Faced with conflicting information on the virus and the legal requirements of their states, many felt the most prudent course was to hunker down for several months until normalcy returned and patients could be treated safely. Unfortunately, the pandemic has progressed through fits and starts, leading to the current, and most severe, third wave of transmission that has paralyzed the nation. Normality has never been restored, mask-wearing, social distancing, and frequent hand-washing are now more necessary than ever, and some acupuncture clinics will, sadly, never reopen.

The healthcare industry, including acupuncture and traditional Asian medicine, has an advantage over other businesses in that principles and procedures to prevent infection are part of standard professional training and practice. Although the specific routes of transmission for the SARS-Cov2 virus were unknown (and are still being examined), the universal precautions followed by all healthcare professionals can be modified for the setting, nature of the pathogens, and the specific patient population. This allows for continuity of care while controlling and reducing risk.

White Pine Clinic has operated without interruption and is pleased to announce that we have avoided even a single case of transmission within our clinic during the pandemic. Our patients deserve much of the credit as they have shared their symptoms honestly with us and many have made responsible decisions about when to stay at home. For any healthcare provider, careful triage is always the best way to keep everyone safe.

Meanwhile, we have maintained our early safety measures and have added to these procedures as our understanding of COVID-19 has evolved. Despite evidence that fomites—contaminated surfaces—may only play a minor role in disease transmission, we continue to disinfect the common points of contact after use by each individual. Once researchers determined that the main avenue of transmission was respiratory droplets, we implemented new strategies to enhance airflow in both treatment rooms and common areas. It is hard work to maintain a practice while protecting our patients and ourselves, but we remain committed to providing our community with effective traditional Asian medical healthcare.

COVID Vaccine Update

While the media lauds two vaccines now approved by for emergency use as light at the end of a long tunnel, some healthcare experts remain circumspect. Earlier this week, the WHO (World Health Organization) warned of a possible six more months of severe disease spread in the Americas. Meanwhile, roll out of the Pfizer and Moderna products is facing both logistical hurdles and new questions about safety.

Shaky Scientific Basis

As mentioned in previous blogs, multiple concerns remain regarding the design and methodology of the Pfizer clinical trial. A variety of questionable research practices have been identified in the study including confirmation bias, volunteer bias, optional stopping, and lack of blinding. Far from the wild speculation of fringe conspiracy theorists, these research flaws have been pointed out by respected medical experts such as Peter Doshi, Assistant Editor of the British Medical Journal. Whether or not the study findings were skewed by volunteer bias was even a subject during the FDA vaccine advisory panel meeting, but Pfizer representatives responded with the claim that researchers cannot control who is recruited for clinical trials.

If the Pfizer research—which was stopped halfway to the estimated date of completion—was hurried, the findings announced by their competitor Moderna almost 2 years early were far more premature. During a second FDA vaccine advisory panel meeting convened to decide whether to recommend Emergency Use Authorization for the Moderna jab, a vigorous discussion revealed significant gaps in the company’s science. The panel of advisors, however, apparently took vaccine guru Dr. Paul Offit’s plea to simply ignore numerous questions unanswered by Moderna scientists to heart, voting unanimously to recommend the experimental shot for immediate public use by all adults 18 and older.

Early Days and Adverse Events

Within 48 hours of the first public vaccination administered in the UK, two recipients had already experienced life-threatening anaphylaxis after being vaccinated. Another serious adverse event occurred in Alaska, soon followed by a report of four recipients of the Pfizer jab in Libertyville who seemed to suffer severe allergic reactions. In the last case, Advocate Condell Medical Center temporarily suspended giving the vaccines, but the program was quickly reinstated.

The suggestion that some individuals might have a sudden adverse response to vaccine products appears to have blindsided both Pfizer spokespeople and healthcare officials. The drug makers insists that its study did not identify any severe allergic reactions. Meanwhile healthcare officials on the ground have speculated that the issue may involve bad batches of vaccines rather than the safety of the drug itself.

Compared to many pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines generally boast a reasonably good safety profile. As with any drug, however, a risk of adverse events does exist. Despite familiar claims to the contrary, no vaccine is “perfectly safe”, and the emerging pattern with Pfizer’s investigational COVID jab warrants closer analysis and further study. In the meantime, all vaccine recipients should be fully informed and asked to stay vigilant and communicate clearly with their healthcare providers.

Sending the Wrong Message

Even if the remarkable claims of efficacy over 90% are accurate, Pfizer and Moderna have only demonstrated that their vaccines prevent symptomatic disease. Asymptomatic vaccine recipients could still be spreading infection, and, in the studies from both companies, a small percentage of those who were vaccinated did become infected and showed clinical symptoms (Pfizer confessed to failing to further investigate these 8 cases). If public health officials and media outlets continue to tout vaccine benefits without strongly urging the public to continue employing all recommended NPI measures including mask wearing and social distancing, those who receive the vaccine might let their guard down and the number of cases and deaths could climb even higher.