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Chinese Medicine

Stress management – Alternative medicine

Overworking and staying super busy is important in our times. It seems that if you look relaxed it is because you are lazy or not doing your job. What is happening is that we are immersed in a culture of overachieving at a very high cost to our health, our family and our social life. I do not have the answer to how to handle that, but I do have some recommendations of alternative methods I make to my patients to help manage stress, other to have acupuncture sessions on a regular basis.

Meditation

There are many different types of meditation techniques such as guided meditation, mantra meditation and mindfulness meditation.   You can do guided meditation by forming mental images in your mind of places that you find relaxing and using as many of the five senses as possible to experience those places.  Another type of meditation is the Mantra meditation, where you silently repeat a word in your mind to help you to avoid distracting thoughts and stay focused. Find more at How meditation can help with stress.

Finally, there is mindfulness meditation which is a way of increasing your acceptance and awareness of living in the present moment not being distracted by the future or the past and you do this by expanding your conscious awareness, which is done by  focusing on the flow of your breath, as the Mayo Clinic website explains.

Yoga

Yoga is a way of doing a series of different postures and stretches to help promote a flexible body and a calm mind.  The poses used in yoga need to be done with concentration and balance and meditation is a key part to yoga because meditation helps center your body to help perform the yoga stretches that will most benefit you in the long run. Yoga is also a low-impact form of exercise, to there would be no added tension or stress to the body’s joints or muscles, when done under proper supervision to ensure proper postures to avoid harm to your body.  Yoga and meditation go hand in hand, with each other because meditation is incorporated to the yoga and is the essential part of yoga.

Tai chi

This is a form of gentle Chinese martial arts. In tai chi (TIE-CHEE), you perform a self-paced series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner while practicing deep breathing  Find more of the Tai chi story.

Other ways of taking care of yourself when your busy is finding time to to play sports and eat healthy. In order to do so you should be able to manage your time in balancing your work life and your personal life to take care of yourself.

 

Disclaimer: This website and posts do not constitute or substitute medical advice.

Dealing with Menopause with Alternative Methods.

Hot flashes

Most women suffer menopause symptoms at the end of their reproductive lifespan between the ages of 40 and 55. Those hormonal changes cause imbalances in the hormonal interplay between the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, and the ovaries.

The menopausal symptoms include missed or irregular periods, hot flashes, night sweats, palpitations, moodiness and depression, headaches, memory loss, insomnia, loss of libido, vaginal dryness and dry skin, among others.

Eastern Medicine has several ways to address those menopausal imbalances, depending on the patient preference and particular situation.

According to our experience most patients refer immediate reduction of hot flashes, stabilize their mood and improve their sleep after few acupuncture sessions, although we usually recommend a series of 8 weekly sessions and at least one monthly session thereafter. In some cases we also recommend a customized herbal formula to complement the treatment. Results vary from person to person and can not be warranted.

Acupuncture has shown to be effective in reducing menopausal symptoms, lasting for up to 3 months as described on an article of The Journal of the American Menopause Society, where they studied the effect of acupuncture on hot flashes and sweating episodes after menopause, indicating that “Acupuncture significantly affects hot flashes and sweating episodes after menopause, with effects persisting at least 3 months after the end of treatment.” Read the abstract

For more information, call our office for an in-person or TeleHealth appointment here or call our office.

Disclaimer: This article contains general information about health topics and it is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. If you have any questions related to your condition you should contact your doctor or healthcare provider. If you think you may be suffering from any medical condition, you should seek immediate medical attention.

Menstrual cramps?

Do you suffer from menstrual cramps

Have you ever questioned if it is “normal” to have menstrual cramps? I never questioned that, I thought it was the way it should be, except for very few “lucky” girls who were the exception!

Now, after many years of using pharmaceutical products for myself to make my life somewhat manageable during menstrual periods, I found that suffering menstrual pain is not “normal”.

According to Chinese Medicine, whenever an obstruction occurs it manifests itself in pain. That is the basics of acupuncture, where the goal is to facilitate the flow of qi (“chee”) within the body.

It is important that your doctor rules out physical diseases that need medical attention, though such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Pelvic Inflammatory disease, Endometriosis, to mention some. When they are ruled out and you want to try a different approach. I can help you to regulate your menstrual periods to make them more regular, with little or no pain using acupuncture and/or Chinese herbal formulas. If you are afraid of needles, we have other pain-free techniques to use.

Schedule your appointment for a free 15-minute consultation to see if we can help.

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