HS-ACUPUNCTURE.COM's STRATEGIES & TOOLS for COLD & FLU SEASON

 

By frequent request, and in time for cold weather, I have compiled my favorite Cold and Flu prevention and treatment tips and created convenient little care packages that are available in my office. 

Each package contains the asterisked items below, as well as my Top Ten recommendations, also below.... These little packages could make great gifts, so let me know if you're interested in ordering a few.

*1) HERBS -

Pour contents of 1 silver packet into a mug of hot water & drink (repeat 3xday)

a) if your cold starts with a runny nose, start with the bag marked GZT (Gui Zhi Tang)

b) if your cold starts with a bad sore throat, start with the bag marked YQ (Yin Qiao)

*2) ESSENTIAL OIL -

Drop 3 drops of Eucalyptus EO into a mug of hot water (do not drink). Put a towel over your head, as a tent, with the mug under your nose, and breathe in the steamy vapor. Alternatively, use EO as a chest rub.

*3) LOZENGES -

To soothe a sore throat, or at the first sign of a cold, try a manuka honey and bee pollen lozenge (1-2xday, or as needed, but no more than 5xday; it's medicine, not candy)

4) DRINK HOT LIQUIDS -

Sip throughout the day: herbal teas, hot water with a slice of lemon, miso broth (ideally with chopped scallions), or chicken soup 

5) GARGLE WITH SALT WATER -

This old-fashioned technique can soothe a sore throat and cleanse the throat tissues

6) USE A NETI POT -

With slightly salted warm water in order to clear and soothe the nasal passages

7) KEEP YOUR NECK & FEET WARM -

Wear a scarf or turtle-neck shirt and double up on warm socks

8) SWEAT -

Breaking a slight sweat at the early stages of a cold, especially behind the neck, can stop the cold from progressing

a) Take a hot bath (consider adding epsom salts) & make sure to keep hydrated/drink fluids

b) Wear extra clothes & put additional blankets over you

9) SLEEP -

Rest and more rest; getting sick is often an indication to slow down and catch up on self-care

10) GET ACUPUNCTURE -

Make an appointment. Getting a treatment can help stop a cold or help you heal from it faster. (Gua Sa technique can be key. If you have a tool at home, consider this a reminder to use it.)

Plus, there are additional herbs that may be better suited to your specific symptoms, whether a cough, fever, nasal or ear congestion, or laryngitis.

Other things I like:

- Elderberry tincture

- Airborne – includes Chinese herbs, vitamins, minerals and amino acids (it's available almost everywhere)

For questions, appointments, or to share your favorite strategies, call/text: (207) 266-8633.

Be & stay well this season!

"Healthy," But...

Have you ever been to your doctor, been told that you were healthy, and yet known that something was not quite right?

In Chinese medicine, the level of intervention can be well before a disease process occurs -- at that moment when you begin to notice that something feels just a little off, in fact. For example, the optimal time with Chinese medicine to catch a cold from developing is when you first feel chilled or a tension in your throat.

As acupuncturists, we identify patterns that are out of balance in our patients (and ideally oursevles) and seek to restore optimal equilibrium or homeostasis, potentially long before a real problem arises.

Put another way, if you were driving down the highway and your car pulled to the right, chances are you would pull over and have a look at your right tire. That's how acupuncture works, before your tire blows out on the highway. Doctors and hospitals are great when your tire blows out. Chinese medicine with acupuncture and herbs can help prevent it from happening in the first place.

At the same time, Chinese medicine can also offer lasting healing within the context of disease once it has already evolved. To do so, the underlying pattern must be addressed. For example, a cancerous tumor can be cut away in an allopathic setting such as a hospital, but if the pattern that gave rise to the tumor in the first place has not changed, it could grow back.

In short, illness is an invitation to change. Whatever we have been doing that resulted in the condition needs to be done differently. Illness is the body's notification system that tells us we need to do things another way. Often this can relate to our lifestyle, diet, exercise, sleeping, stress, relationships, work and how we find meaning in life and meet life's challenges. Looking honestly at these circumstances can be the hardest part of true healing and yet can also offer the greatest reward.

The last time I went to the doctor's, I was struck by how the focus is in such a different place. According to the doctor, I was a picture of health, but from a Chinese medical perspective I knew I had plenty to work on, whether in the realms of treament, prevention or optimization of good health. There are always stagnations to treat, the immune system to bolster in order to overcome the unknown elements we face in a day, as well as the opportunity to become the best version of ourselves.

What interests you more: the treatment of something that is bothering you, the prevention of a particular condition, or the realization of your fullest potential?

Tongue Diagnosis Revealed

Click here to enlarge image.

Most acupuncture treatments begin with a short conversation, where the patient may provide an update on symptoms and/or life experiences.

Sometimes patients even set an intention for the treatment, stating what they hope to get out of the experience that day with their needles in place.

This initial exchange can be helpful in the determination of effective treatment, but the real decision of which acupuncture points to needle during a treatment, for the Licensed Acupuncturist, is informed by the process called diagnosis.

Diagnosis can be summarized in several ways.

In the Five Element tradition, factors used for diagnosis include C-O-S-E: color, sound, odor and emotion. (I will save elaboration on each of these for a future post.)

In TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, the focus might be viewed along the categories of inspection, palpation, hearing and smelling, and questioning. 

In either tradition, pulse diagnosis provides an in-depth understanding of the interior workings of the body. (I will expand on this topic in a future post, too.)

The tongue provides equally important information about the state of the body and the influences, to which it may be responding.

Sometimes we categorize these influences into climactic qualities like heat, cold, wind, dampness, damp-heat, and dryness. Lifestyle choices like diet and exercise, even the emotions, impact what we are able to diagnosis on the tongue.

So it is with pleasure that I share with you the above diagram. May it at least in part help to answer what patients so often inquire of me, after I inspect their tongues: “What do you see?”

Let me know if you ever look at a tongue the same again.