Garbage In--- Garbage Out: Food, Digestion and Pooping
“Garbage in-Garbage Out” is the modern day shorthand for “you only get out what you put in.” This chapter is for those people who eat. I thought about addressing it to those with digestive disturbances, but many folks who have those don’t know who they are because symptoms haven’t gotten so bad yet, or the symptoms don’t directly appear to be digestively related. It’s also about consciously doing what is good for your digestion, anyway. This and the next couple of posts are going to be about how to think about eating and improving your digestion, as well as how the digestive process is affected by (and effects) your life.
The body is a “transformer”: it transforms your food and drink into flesh, blood, enough energy to make your heart beat and your other organs perform their daily tasks. If the food you take in is not right for you (even if it is “good food” by all other standards) and if the food is not consumed in the correct circumstances or is the wrong temperature, then the “output” will be flawed.
As your acupuncturist, I can honestly say that without your help in this arena I don’t have a shot at getting or keeping you well, especially if what ails you is chronic. I need your partnership to tend yourself between treatments, so that treatment isn’t always starting at zero, trying to pull you out of the muck. What you do between treatments is much more important that what needles you get.
One of my first clients was a patient of a retired acupuncturist. This patient had been having treatment weekly for about 4 years, with little to no improvement in her condition. Puzzled, I questioned her about her diet, and she told me that she consumed Twinkies and a Coke while driving to work in the morning, and then ate nothing again until dinner. This is where we started. After a prolonged struggle that included denial, anger, and other stages of loss, she finally decided to “try” to eat better. We just picked a few simple things to get her started, rather than overwhelming her with dietary rules that would scare anyone away.
So this equation (of production equaling input) can start with food, and then be carried over to the other dimensions of your life.
What you eat:
All food has an energetic character. Lettuce, for example, is light and airy. Beef is heavy. Chicken is lighter than beef, but heavier than lettuce. When we want to achieve certain results, it follows that we should eat the things that create the results we want. Want to lose weight? Eat lighter food. Want to have enough substance to make a baby? Eat red meat. Your acupuncturist should be able to give you some guidance for your specific goals. However, below I have outlined some suggestions that will help you make some decisions on tending yourself in a way that supports your digestive processes.
Some Guidelines to assist your digestive organs:
1. Eat regular meals. Eating at the same time of day helps your body anticipate nourishment, and keeps you from getting very hungry.
2. Establish regular times for elimination. Get to know when your body wants to eliminate. It will help you schedule your day. The best time of day to have a bowel movement is between 5 and 7 am. All of our organs have a two-hour window of peak operating efficiency, and this is the time of the colon’s peak efficiency. This gets rid of yesterday and makes room for today. Your stool should have no evidence of undigested food and should not be overly watery, liquid mush or too hard to pass easily.
3. Eat breakfast between 7 am and 9 am. (Yes, eat breakfast even if you are not hungry!) Between 7 and 9 am is the time of the Stomach. Calories taken in at this time are burned most efficiently. Eat a hearty breakfast. Your entire day depends on the nourishment that fuels it in the morning.
4. Eat smaller meals as the day progresses. While the stomach is most efficient at between 7 and 9 am, it is LEAST efficient between 7 and 9 pm, when most of us are sitting down to dinner. Culturally, we eat rather large dinners and then go to bed, leaving the stomach to hold and process all that food when we are supposed to be resting. This is a recipe for indigestion and incomplete use of food (ie: weight gain, indigestion, constipation, etc.). Eating much more lightly at night will help you use your food much more efficiently. And try not to eat anything at all after 7 pm., giving yourself time to digest BEFORE you lay down.
5. Don’t eat while reading, watching TV, or driving. Relax and enjoy your food, taking your time to eat, chew, and digest. Don’t eat mindlessly. Being social at a meal is fine, and probably good for your stomach.
6. Restrict your consumption of raw/uncooked foods. If you are having digestive problems, you should know that uncooked food is making your stomach work many times harder. If you are eating cold foods, the stomach has to first “cook” the food that you send it, before it can break it down and use it. If you are getting headaches, have bad breath, indigestion, diarrhea, stomachaches, flatulence, fatigue, feelings of heaviness, or odd bodily odors, for example, it could be that you are sensitive to particular foods OR that you are intolerant of the way they are prepared and eaten. You will actually get more nutrition (fuel) from steamed or slightly cooked foods than you will from raw foods, because the net result of eating raw foods is that so much energy goes to your body’s need to cook and digest rather than to performing life’s tasks. This is not to say that your shouldn’t enjoy a limited amount of seasonally correct cold foods (salads, raw fruits, etc.) But if you do eat a cold meal (sandwiches or salads) have a cup of hot tea with it, to help the stomach in its “cooking” process. However, if you do have chronic problems such as diarrhea, prolapses, hernias, hemorrhoids, easy bruising, undigested food in your feces, “heavy feeling” arms and legs, foggy thinking after eating, then eating hot food is likely going to help you. This brings me to another of my favorite recommendations to clients: crockpots (also known as slow cookers). These handy devices save energy, cook meals while you are busy doing other things, make the food very digestible to your system, and essentially are a “must have” for anyone with digestive problems.
7. Wean yourself off of iced beverages. Eating a hot meal is counter-acted by following it with a glass of ice water. Learn to drink water/other beverages hot or at room temperature. The stomach’s responsibility, remember, is to cook your food, and it can’t do it efficiently in ice cold water!
8. Make sure that you are hydrated. The stomach cannot efficiently operate if it is dry. This does not mean drinking with meals, however. You can try drinking water both with and away from meals, and see which your body prefers. Most of us are dehydrated. Use the following formula to roughly determine if you are drinking enough water:
Body weight in pounds = # of fluid oz. of water daily
Divide this number by 2
PLUS: Add 8z of water for each carbonated beverage
Add 8 oz of water for each caffeinated beverage
Add 8 oz of water for each alcoholic beverage
Are you drinking enough water?
8. Notice your cravings. Give in to some (with mindful limitations), because your body is telling you that you need something. However, when a craving becomes an addiction, it is time to find out what exactly is going on. You might need medical testing or some kind of input about how certain foods affects your body, mind and spirit.
9. Reduce caffeine. Caffeine is a drug. It has no calories, and so the “energy” that it produces in you comes from your vital stores of energy (qi). It robs your kidneys (in Chinese medicine; the adrenals in western medicine) to give you the “buzz” that you seek. After a prolonged period of caffeine use, it follows that you will age faster, become dehydrated and have more illness and weakness than you would otherwise.
Next Post: Phlegm and Dampness: what happens when the digestive process is compromised
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Summer, Sun, Sex and Basketball
Today we celebrate the summer solstice. The longest day; the shortest night. The height of summer.
In the west, this is known as "the first day of summer," but actually summer has been going on for at least a month; we are halfway through!!
This is the time when the universe is in love with all of us: we co-mingle our fluids by sweating and swimming. We take in the warmth of the season by going naked in the sun (or at least as naked as the law will allow.) It is a time of full expansion—of the light and of our energy. If we don't get enough sun and warmth in this season, we will suffer in cold of winter. We store the warmth in our bones.
The season of Fire (summer) is at the apex of the year. Imagine one of those incredibly graceful professional basketball players who glide across the court and leap into the air, positioning for a dunk. At the top of the arc, he seems to pause—freeze in place—as he suspends himself in the air in order to land the ball in the bucket. It seems like magic, that pause. The apex of the arc is characterized by stillness, that moment of suspended animation.
In the tai chi symbol, there is the upward white wave next to the downward black wave. At this moment we are at the exact top of the circle, where there is a little black dot in the white side of the wave. That little black dot is the seed of winter which gets planted today. It is the "seed of the opposite." The ancients slowed activity on the day after the summer solstice to symbolically sow the seed of winter: to recognize in thought and action that the days are now getting shorter.
So tomorrow, pause for a period of time, suspend your animation. Then resume your celebration of summer. Sweat, swim, bond with the universe, and maybe play some basketball.
In the west, this is known as "the first day of summer," but actually summer has been going on for at least a month; we are halfway through!!
This is the time when the universe is in love with all of us: we co-mingle our fluids by sweating and swimming. We take in the warmth of the season by going naked in the sun (or at least as naked as the law will allow.) It is a time of full expansion—of the light and of our energy. If we don't get enough sun and warmth in this season, we will suffer in cold of winter. We store the warmth in our bones.
The season of Fire (summer) is at the apex of the year. Imagine one of those incredibly graceful professional basketball players who glide across the court and leap into the air, positioning for a dunk. At the top of the arc, he seems to pause—freeze in place—as he suspends himself in the air in order to land the ball in the bucket. It seems like magic, that pause. The apex of the arc is characterized by stillness, that moment of suspended animation.
In the tai chi symbol, there is the upward white wave next to the downward black wave. At this moment we are at the exact top of the circle, where there is a little black dot in the white side of the wave. That little black dot is the seed of winter which gets planted today. It is the "seed of the opposite." The ancients slowed activity on the day after the summer solstice to symbolically sow the seed of winter: to recognize in thought and action that the days are now getting shorter.
So tomorrow, pause for a period of time, suspend your animation. Then resume your celebration of summer. Sweat, swim, bond with the universe, and maybe play some basketball.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
An Herbal Walk with Jim Duke: Sat. May 30, 2009
Walking with Jim Duke in his Green Farmacy is a treat for an herbalist's sweet tooth. Dr. James Duke, for those of you who may not know him, earned his Ph.D. in Botany from the University of North Carolina, and is a world-renowned for his numerous publications on botanical medicine, including the CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs. He is notable for developing the Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases at the USDA. He is the author of the ultimate compendium on healing herbs, entitled "Green Pharmacy." In his "retirement" he is an adjunct faculty member of the Tai Sophia Institute (where I am Faculty Emeritus). This working botanical laboratory is a stone's throw from the school: 90 plots of land actively growing healing herbs. Specimens are arranged by illness: from Alzheimers and Arthritis to Sciatica and Vaginosis.
Wearing a huge woven sombrero to ward off the sun, Dr. Duke met us in the small driveway sporting bare feet, and a big walking stick which was used not so much for ambulation but for reaching plants and pointing out the herbs growing on the hillsides. This softspoken gentleman farmer with the slow southern drawl is a walking database on herbs, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and diseases. We strolled for over two hours, with Jim pointing out the plants that are used as spices (all the plants here are medicinal, and today's featured plants are used to spice up culinary recipes, which was the theme of today's tour.) Reaching for samples of each plant, we tore off pieces, smelled them, "bruised" them (smashed them between our fingers), and chewed them. (I felt better immediately!)
In this haven, chairs and tables dotted the landscape to provide sunny and shady spots for scattered groups engaged in hands-on study. A black snake rested on a hot rock at the side of the pond lined with the mucilaginous herbs, undaunted by the two-leggeds walking by. Content to share the space, I wondered if this wild thing had learned to be tame enough to rest in the knowledge that nothing here could hurt him.)
This visit is one of many offered by the community education department of Tai Sophia Institute. Each season brings a different tour, with different themes. If you want an amazing experience in the Green Farmacy, go to the school's website: www.tai.edu, and look under the community programs link and sign up for one of these popular Herb Walks. Right here in our backyard we have a natural wonder well worthy of your time and small donation.
Wearing a huge woven sombrero to ward off the sun, Dr. Duke met us in the small driveway sporting bare feet, and a big walking stick which was used not so much for ambulation but for reaching plants and pointing out the herbs growing on the hillsides. This softspoken gentleman farmer with the slow southern drawl is a walking database on herbs, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and diseases. We strolled for over two hours, with Jim pointing out the plants that are used as spices (all the plants here are medicinal, and today's featured plants are used to spice up culinary recipes, which was the theme of today's tour.) Reaching for samples of each plant, we tore off pieces, smelled them, "bruised" them (smashed them between our fingers), and chewed them. (I felt better immediately!)
In this haven, chairs and tables dotted the landscape to provide sunny and shady spots for scattered groups engaged in hands-on study. A black snake rested on a hot rock at the side of the pond lined with the mucilaginous herbs, undaunted by the two-leggeds walking by. Content to share the space, I wondered if this wild thing had learned to be tame enough to rest in the knowledge that nothing here could hurt him.)
This visit is one of many offered by the community education department of Tai Sophia Institute. Each season brings a different tour, with different themes. If you want an amazing experience in the Green Farmacy, go to the school's website: www.tai.edu, and look under the community programs link and sign up for one of these popular Herb Walks. Right here in our backyard we have a natural wonder well worthy of your time and small donation.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I love it when....
I love it when I find out, sometimes years later, that I helped someone.
I was in Lowe's recently, and ran into an "old" client whom I had not seen for years. I had thought that acupuncture mustn't have done so well for him, since he hadn't returned for treatment. He greeted me with great gusto, like an long-lost friend, and proceeded to tell his wife that I was the one who saved him from surgery. He went on and on, singing the praises of acupuncture (and me). I hadn't heard this before. He never returned to my office to let me know. (Note to professionals everywhere:It's a good thing I was wearing clean clothes, since this was a great marketing event: a bystander asked for my card!)
Soon after, I received a call from a regular client who left a message on my voicemail that I had "cured" her sinus infection. (I never use the word cure, and take no credit for "curing" since nature does the healing, not me.) But it was great to hear and very thoughtful for her to call to tell me.
And a colleague whom I treat just told me that her acupuncture treatments this winter really helped speed the healing from pneumonia, an illness that has had the tendency to linger for her in the past.
Then, a long-since-vanished client called to make an appointment after a 15 year absence, and we talked like we had seen each other only yesterday, like there was hardly a lapse in time. I recognized his name and voice immediately. He has an appointment this week, and I eagerly await his return.
These communications all came to me within a week's time. Perhaps the universe heard my silent musings of my occasional doubts, my wondering if it's time to retire, my fear of what will happen to acupuncture as health care delivery is overhauled in the near future, and my apprehension as money continues to tighten for my clients.
I know that I really needed to hear these things. And I decided to call the people who helped ME in the last several years to let them know how much their service meant to me. Sometimes we just forget to do it in the moment, forgetting that even the experts need the feedback.
I was in Lowe's recently, and ran into an "old" client whom I had not seen for years. I had thought that acupuncture mustn't have done so well for him, since he hadn't returned for treatment. He greeted me with great gusto, like an long-lost friend, and proceeded to tell his wife that I was the one who saved him from surgery. He went on and on, singing the praises of acupuncture (and me). I hadn't heard this before. He never returned to my office to let me know. (Note to professionals everywhere:It's a good thing I was wearing clean clothes, since this was a great marketing event: a bystander asked for my card!)
Soon after, I received a call from a regular client who left a message on my voicemail that I had "cured" her sinus infection. (I never use the word cure, and take no credit for "curing" since nature does the healing, not me.) But it was great to hear and very thoughtful for her to call to tell me.
And a colleague whom I treat just told me that her acupuncture treatments this winter really helped speed the healing from pneumonia, an illness that has had the tendency to linger for her in the past.
Then, a long-since-vanished client called to make an appointment after a 15 year absence, and we talked like we had seen each other only yesterday, like there was hardly a lapse in time. I recognized his name and voice immediately. He has an appointment this week, and I eagerly await his return.
These communications all came to me within a week's time. Perhaps the universe heard my silent musings of my occasional doubts, my wondering if it's time to retire, my fear of what will happen to acupuncture as health care delivery is overhauled in the near future, and my apprehension as money continues to tighten for my clients.
I know that I really needed to hear these things. And I decided to call the people who helped ME in the last several years to let them know how much their service meant to me. Sometimes we just forget to do it in the moment, forgetting that even the experts need the feedback.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Another East/West Difference
As a westerner who believes that talk therapy can be extremely useful to "turn the light on in the darkened soul" I find myself, as an acupuncturist, at odds with the modality that permits clients to perseverate on their illness, repeating the damage done to them in the past and re-living it with each telling.
The client who undergoes therapy and somehow finds himself "stuck" in the past ("My family is to blame for how I turned out"; "I can't be different because of what happened to me," etc.) often wants to share with me the etiology of their suffering. While it's interesting from a human-to-human, compassionate point of view, as an acupuncturist I find that repeating the story of their hurts is NOT useful in my treatment room since my work is geared toward helping them discover their own potential and finding ways to change their lives and their emotional experiences.
Imagine a person on a clear, linear trajectory that gets "bumped" off his/her path by a life event. Abuse: bump!--off target. Hurt or loss: bump!--jolted off again. By now, the person is "lost" and desperately trying to be back on the original path to the divine. With each verbal repetition of the events, especially without some kind of resolution in the immediate telling, then the body experiences the assault or loss as having occurred AGAIN! If the telling happens often, the body believes it to be true NOW just as much as it was true THEN. But NOW is not "THEN": it may be 20 years later, and the person isn't moving on as an adult, but is re-living "past-life" again and again. Energetically, that's STUCK!!
As an acupuncturist, if I permit the client to tell, re-tell, and essentially re-live it all, I am permitting illness to deepen right in front of me. I must stop the conversation, AND I have to look for a healthy moment in which to needle---to ask the body to find its way BACK to the divine path that the universe intended. I have to help the client find ANOTHER WAY. I feel that if I put the needle in while the patient is living in the past (during the re-telling) I am anchoring the past into his/her body.
I expect to encounter anger, sadness, grief and all the other emotions. Those are normal and, believe it or not, fleeting and ephemeral. To "solidify" them with a STORY about the past-- a time that does not exist anymore-- is to ask the body to return to that time and place and re-experience it. Acupuncture asks the body to find it's way back to the ideal, to health, to a path of destiny where the client isn't stuck, but is moving toward their future in a balanced, easy way.
This is really the meaning behind the title of this blog: moving the qi. Not "getting stuck." (That was an acupuncture joke.)
The client who undergoes therapy and somehow finds himself "stuck" in the past ("My family is to blame for how I turned out"; "I can't be different because of what happened to me," etc.) often wants to share with me the etiology of their suffering. While it's interesting from a human-to-human, compassionate point of view, as an acupuncturist I find that repeating the story of their hurts is NOT useful in my treatment room since my work is geared toward helping them discover their own potential and finding ways to change their lives and their emotional experiences.
Imagine a person on a clear, linear trajectory that gets "bumped" off his/her path by a life event. Abuse: bump!--off target. Hurt or loss: bump!--jolted off again. By now, the person is "lost" and desperately trying to be back on the original path to the divine. With each verbal repetition of the events, especially without some kind of resolution in the immediate telling, then the body experiences the assault or loss as having occurred AGAIN! If the telling happens often, the body believes it to be true NOW just as much as it was true THEN. But NOW is not "THEN": it may be 20 years later, and the person isn't moving on as an adult, but is re-living "past-life" again and again. Energetically, that's STUCK!!
As an acupuncturist, if I permit the client to tell, re-tell, and essentially re-live it all, I am permitting illness to deepen right in front of me. I must stop the conversation, AND I have to look for a healthy moment in which to needle---to ask the body to find its way BACK to the divine path that the universe intended. I have to help the client find ANOTHER WAY. I feel that if I put the needle in while the patient is living in the past (during the re-telling) I am anchoring the past into his/her body.
I expect to encounter anger, sadness, grief and all the other emotions. Those are normal and, believe it or not, fleeting and ephemeral. To "solidify" them with a STORY about the past-- a time that does not exist anymore-- is to ask the body to return to that time and place and re-experience it. Acupuncture asks the body to find it's way back to the ideal, to health, to a path of destiny where the client isn't stuck, but is moving toward their future in a balanced, easy way.
This is really the meaning behind the title of this blog: moving the qi. Not "getting stuck." (That was an acupuncture joke.)
The LA Times just published a story about the efficacy of using ginger to curb the side effects of chemotherapy. While I am delighted that the public is learning that simple herbal substances can have an affect on health, it concerns me that articles like this will often lead some readers to follow this advice blindly. So here's the original story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-nausea15-2009may15,0,3896541.story
The upshot is that scientists have discovered that a teaspoon of ginger daily will help to curb the nausea of chemotherapy. Actually, Chinese herbal medicine uses ginger for upset stomachs, but there are some caveats: if the patient has a lot of heat already present in the stomach it may not be a great idea. (Those who are on multiple rounds of chemo will often have eroded stomach lining, and the chemo slows or stops the creation of more epithelial cells. That's why the hair falls out and mouth soreness happen, too.) Ginger can be warming to the stomach, and when the stomach is "hot" then it could make things worse. A LITTLE ginger could go a long way, and too much,....well....
This reminds me of a client who came in about a year ago who had successfully used acupuncture to help control his blood pressure, among other things. All of a sudden, he started getting high BP readings at home and at his doctor's office. After questioning, I discovered that he, too, had read an article in some health magazine about how cinnamon helps to prevent heart attacks. The article stated that 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon per day was tested and found to be efficacious, and ended by saying "at least it won't hurt you." So my client thought, "Well, if a little won't hurt, then more would be better." He began taking 1 teaspoon of cinnamon per day. Nobody told him (and it wasn't in the article) that cinnamon can raise BP!! The mystery was solved, his BP is now under control again.
While these substances are "natural" remember that "natural" doesn't always mean safe for YOU. It's possible to overdose on any natural substance, and even without an overdose, some substances may not be good for all people under certain conditions. So if you have questions about that article you read in the most recent edition of the health magazine (or even the LA Times) go online to check or ask your acupuncturist or local qualified herbalist.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-nausea15-2009may15,0,3896541.story
The upshot is that scientists have discovered that a teaspoon of ginger daily will help to curb the nausea of chemotherapy. Actually, Chinese herbal medicine uses ginger for upset stomachs, but there are some caveats: if the patient has a lot of heat already present in the stomach it may not be a great idea. (Those who are on multiple rounds of chemo will often have eroded stomach lining, and the chemo slows or stops the creation of more epithelial cells. That's why the hair falls out and mouth soreness happen, too.) Ginger can be warming to the stomach, and when the stomach is "hot" then it could make things worse. A LITTLE ginger could go a long way, and too much,....well....
This reminds me of a client who came in about a year ago who had successfully used acupuncture to help control his blood pressure, among other things. All of a sudden, he started getting high BP readings at home and at his doctor's office. After questioning, I discovered that he, too, had read an article in some health magazine about how cinnamon helps to prevent heart attacks. The article stated that 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon per day was tested and found to be efficacious, and ended by saying "at least it won't hurt you." So my client thought, "Well, if a little won't hurt, then more would be better." He began taking 1 teaspoon of cinnamon per day. Nobody told him (and it wasn't in the article) that cinnamon can raise BP!! The mystery was solved, his BP is now under control again.
While these substances are "natural" remember that "natural" doesn't always mean safe for YOU. It's possible to overdose on any natural substance, and even without an overdose, some substances may not be good for all people under certain conditions. So if you have questions about that article you read in the most recent edition of the health magazine (or even the LA Times) go online to check or ask your acupuncturist or local qualified herbalist.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Joe Biden Was Right
Joe Biden was right
This week, a flourish of backpeddling by the Obama administration tried to make up for the “gaffe” that VP Joe Biden made on morning TV, saying that he wouldn’t advise members of his family to use airplanes, subways or other “enclosed spaces” as a prevention for the spread of the swine flu.
In an age where the airlines are losing money, and public transportation saves air quality, the administration doesn’t want panic on behalf of those industries, and doesn’t want to incite even more fear in the public.
So what are the facts? Any place that re-circulates air also re-circulates viruses of all types. This includes your car, your home or your office building when the windows are closed. Most of the time, our immune systems and general health can handle it. So Joe wasn’t doing anything but truth-telling to a public in desperate need of the truth.
So is it time to panic? No.
Most of us are healthy enough to withstand a virus doing battle with our bodies. If we do get the swine flu, it is likely that most cases will be mild, because we are healthy and can fight this battle easily. If your immune system is compromised, you should be concerned about exposure (including being in closed spaces), and should take precautions to prevent contracting the flu. You have probably heard about hand washing ad-nauseum, but it is the most effective strategy for prevention of contracting the flu AND for limiting the spread of the virus to your family and friends.
WebMD’s website is a wonderful resource to let us all know about further steps to take to limit the spread and keep us from getting sick. Here’s the link for a slideshow about the swine flu: http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/slideshow-swine-flu. The CDC also has an informative website that is updated constantly. This one is about prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm.
Now back to Joe, and his admonition about “enclosed spaces.” We can’t always avoid enclosed spaces, such as office buildings whose windows don’t open, public transportation, hospital visitation, etc., but we CAN use the precautions advised by t he CDC and keep ourselves as healthy as possible. This is a social (ie: public health) problem, and it takes everyone doing his/her part to protect all of us.
Generally prevention is so much easier than fighting an infection once it has come aboard. So if you want to consider measures in addition to those recommended by the CDC, here’s what this acupuncturist advises:
1. Eat right. You should know what this means for you. Often, lots of fruits and veggies, limited fats, little if any sugar, food that you brings you joy and good health.
2. Get necessary sleep.
3. Be with friends. Don’t eliminate your social life because of fear. Be responsible, however, and think about having a picnic outdoors rather than in the office basement lunchroom.
4. If you must travel by public transportation, then use common sense. Anti-bacterial wipes will clean the tray table and arm rests on a plane. Anti-bacterial lotions can clean your hands after touching the pole in the subway. And don’t touch your nose, eyes or mouth (entryways to your insides) before you have had a chance to wipe your hands clean.
5. Wipe down all surfaces that you commonly touch or breathe on. Examples: your cell phone, telephone, computer keyboard, remote controls, desktops, doorknobs, etc.
6. Use some Vaseline or other “sticky” product at the entryway of your nose. When you breathe in, you can trap particulates (viruses, bacteria, pollen, etc.) and they won’t get into your lungs.
7. See your acupuncturist. Regular treatments can optimize your immune responses. And generally good health limits the receptivity of your body to disease.
8. Take precautionary supplements. Maybe some additional Vitamin C? Make sure your Vitamin D levels are up to snuff (this might require testing by your doc.) And your acupuncturist may have some herbal supplements that will help you ward off invading viruses. If you don’t have an acupuncturist handy that can prescribe the appropriate supplements, you can get Airborne at the drugstore. It will chase off many viruses that make us sick.
9. And lastly, don’t let fear grip you unnecessarily. We have the best healthcare in the world, which brings together the gifts of the ancient medicine of the first century AD and the modern scientific advances of the 21st century AD. It is VERY unlikely that Americans will suffer the degree of illness, overall, that has already been found in Mexico because of the quality of our healthcare, and the better overall health of our citizens.
So Joe was right. Just not politically correct.
This week, a flourish of backpeddling by the Obama administration tried to make up for the “gaffe” that VP Joe Biden made on morning TV, saying that he wouldn’t advise members of his family to use airplanes, subways or other “enclosed spaces” as a prevention for the spread of the swine flu.
In an age where the airlines are losing money, and public transportation saves air quality, the administration doesn’t want panic on behalf of those industries, and doesn’t want to incite even more fear in the public.
So what are the facts? Any place that re-circulates air also re-circulates viruses of all types. This includes your car, your home or your office building when the windows are closed. Most of the time, our immune systems and general health can handle it. So Joe wasn’t doing anything but truth-telling to a public in desperate need of the truth.
So is it time to panic? No.
Most of us are healthy enough to withstand a virus doing battle with our bodies. If we do get the swine flu, it is likely that most cases will be mild, because we are healthy and can fight this battle easily. If your immune system is compromised, you should be concerned about exposure (including being in closed spaces), and should take precautions to prevent contracting the flu. You have probably heard about hand washing ad-nauseum, but it is the most effective strategy for prevention of contracting the flu AND for limiting the spread of the virus to your family and friends.
WebMD’s website is a wonderful resource to let us all know about further steps to take to limit the spread and keep us from getting sick. Here’s the link for a slideshow about the swine flu: http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/slideshow-swine-flu. The CDC also has an informative website that is updated constantly. This one is about prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm.
Now back to Joe, and his admonition about “enclosed spaces.” We can’t always avoid enclosed spaces, such as office buildings whose windows don’t open, public transportation, hospital visitation, etc., but we CAN use the precautions advised by t he CDC and keep ourselves as healthy as possible. This is a social (ie: public health) problem, and it takes everyone doing his/her part to protect all of us.
Generally prevention is so much easier than fighting an infection once it has come aboard. So if you want to consider measures in addition to those recommended by the CDC, here’s what this acupuncturist advises:
1. Eat right. You should know what this means for you. Often, lots of fruits and veggies, limited fats, little if any sugar, food that you brings you joy and good health.
2. Get necessary sleep.
3. Be with friends. Don’t eliminate your social life because of fear. Be responsible, however, and think about having a picnic outdoors rather than in the office basement lunchroom.
4. If you must travel by public transportation, then use common sense. Anti-bacterial wipes will clean the tray table and arm rests on a plane. Anti-bacterial lotions can clean your hands after touching the pole in the subway. And don’t touch your nose, eyes or mouth (entryways to your insides) before you have had a chance to wipe your hands clean.
5. Wipe down all surfaces that you commonly touch or breathe on. Examples: your cell phone, telephone, computer keyboard, remote controls, desktops, doorknobs, etc.
6. Use some Vaseline or other “sticky” product at the entryway of your nose. When you breathe in, you can trap particulates (viruses, bacteria, pollen, etc.) and they won’t get into your lungs.
7. See your acupuncturist. Regular treatments can optimize your immune responses. And generally good health limits the receptivity of your body to disease.
8. Take precautionary supplements. Maybe some additional Vitamin C? Make sure your Vitamin D levels are up to snuff (this might require testing by your doc.) And your acupuncturist may have some herbal supplements that will help you ward off invading viruses. If you don’t have an acupuncturist handy that can prescribe the appropriate supplements, you can get Airborne at the drugstore. It will chase off many viruses that make us sick.
9. And lastly, don’t let fear grip you unnecessarily. We have the best healthcare in the world, which brings together the gifts of the ancient medicine of the first century AD and the modern scientific advances of the 21st century AD. It is VERY unlikely that Americans will suffer the degree of illness, overall, that has already been found in Mexico because of the quality of our healthcare, and the better overall health of our citizens.
So Joe was right. Just not politically correct.
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