Man Experiencing Energy Medicine

Conquer Migraines Workshop

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Conquer Migraines Workshop

Man Experiencing Energy Medicine

A FREE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
presented by Jon-Erik Lido, L.Ac.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Woodcroft Professional Building
Durham, NC

Do you or someone you care about suffer from migraine headaches?

What if you could reduce or eliminate your need for expensive prescription drugs for treating migraines, and all of the side-effects that come with them?

Conquer Migraines is a FREE hands-on community workshop where you will discover how to regain control of your own health.

What you’ll learn:

  • Simple yoga postures, when done in a very specific way, which can reduce stress, restore lost energy, and reduce the frequency and severity of migraines. These poses will be taught by a registered yoga teacher!
  • Five enjoyable drug-freeapproaches to preventing migraines.
  • Prevent stress headache triggerswith practical stress reduction techniques. Lots of options for everyone!

Event details:

Thursday, August 21 from 7-8:30 p.m.
Woodcroft Professional Building
5501 Fortunes Ridge Dr, Suite K
Durham, NC 27713

RSVP to reserve your spot!

https://www.facebook.com/events/342902045865193/
(919) 228-8448
info @ bb-acu.com

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An image of nerves of the nervous system, a posterior view.

Does Acupuncture Use Nerves?

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An image of nerves of the nervous system, a posterior view.Does acupuncture use nerves? Believe it or not, it’s a very common question I get goes something like this, “Does acupuncture have something to do with nerves?” The short answer to this question is, “No. Not in the way you are probably thinking.” Let’s see why.

There is a prevailing view, outside of the acupuncture community at least, that acupuncture clearly has something to do with nerves. The thought behind this is that nerves exist all over the body, and are able to transmit very powerful signals to the brain very quickly (via afferent nerves). So since “medical science” has no other explanation for how acupuncture works (and sometimes works very quickly), nerves must be involved.

For certain acupuncture points, this makes reasonable sense. A point like Nei Guan (labeled “PC 6” in this chart) lies above the median nerve and unsurprisingly often elicits a very “nervy” sensation when needled. Other important acupuncture points do not have a close association to major nerves, so this hypothesis breaks down.

The effects of acupuncture cannot be explained with our current understanding of “western medicine”. Acupuncture uses points that lie on acupuncture channels (often inaccurately called acupuncture meridians) which may or may not correspond to nerves.

Truly integrative medicine, combining the discoveries of the eastern and western systems into a unified medicine is ultimately where I hope and believe we are headed. This unification will be a long road, however and it is important not to jump to hasty conclusions. We must proceed scientifically, just as each of these systems were derived scientifically. Nerves simply fail to fully explain the many effects of acupuncture.

If you’re interested in learning more about acupuncture, simply schedule an appointment at our location in Durham, NC. To schedule an appointment call 919-228-8448, or use our online scheduling system.

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Sleep Helps Weight Loss

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Night time is the time of day when our bodies regenerate. For millenia the Chinese have known the importance of quality sleep in the regeneration of the “yin”, or most substantive aspects of the body. Western medical research is starting to discover what Chinese Medicine has been telling us about the importance of sleep all along.

A recent study of 472 obese adults shows that well rested people loose more weight. This finding is completely unsurprising through the lens of Classical Chinese medical theory.

When the yin aspect of the body is not nourished with sleep the body naturally desires to balance the internal aspects of yin and yang. Sleep deprived people often turn to food as a source of yin in lieu of the yin regenerated through sleep. As you can imagine:

  1. food is a terribly poor substitute for sleep
  2. more food (particularly the high-carb, high-fat foods people crave) leads to more fat and weight gain

If you have not yet read my “tips for falling asleep” article, I encourage you to do so. Without proper sleep you are likely to find meeting your body weight goals to be more of a challenge. Acupuncture and effective sleep habits can make achieving quality sleep possible. Reaching your target weight is hard enough; why make it harder?

To see if acupuncture might be right for you, give us a call at our Durham location or you may call us at 919-228-8448. If you find it easier to make an appointment online, you can simply click here to use our online schedule to set up a free face-to-face consultation.

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Acupuncture for Menopause

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Acupuncture for Menopause

Every once and a while a study of acupuncture comes out that has me take notice. This time it was a study on post-menopausal women who were experiencing symptoms such as hot flashes, irritability, depression, and decreased libido.

First I want to point out that I am not big on studies of acupuncture. Almost never are these studies well designed or conducted by people who understand that acupuncture is a science of the particular. In real acupuncture each person needs to be diagnosed treated independently and given a treatment appropriate for their exact condition. This doesn’t match well with western-style studies which usually involve attempting to test a single variable.

So it is with some surprise that I’m sharing a study that Consumer Reports Health (of all places!) brought to my attention. The poor doctor who wrote the Consumer Reports article couldn’t even spell “yin” right, but at least he found this fascinating study.

The study, published in BMJ, studied the effect of acupuncture on postmenopausal symptoms and reproductive hormones. They made sure to pick experienced acupuncturists for the study, which impressed me. But what I really like here is that they measured both improvements in symptoms and in the hormone levels of the participants.

Acupuncture has always been a great substance-free choice to treat health concerns related to menopause. In perimenopause- the years of transition into menopause the body is looking to find a new kind of balance as it adjusts to changing hormone levels. Helping the body find a homeostatic balance is what I feel that acupuncture does best. This is exactly why I called my practice Balanced Being Acupuncture.

To see if acupuncture might be right for you, give us a call at our Durham location or you may call us at 919-228-8448. If you find it easier to make an appointment online, you can simply click here to use our online schedule to set up a free face-to-face consultation.

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Artificial Sweeteners Are Not For Fat Loss

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The sweet flavor from a dessert adds insulin to the blood, making weight loss difficultArtificial sweeteners are not for fat loss.

There is a concept in Chinese Medicine that refers to the energetic impact that the flavor of food imparts. The ancient doctors called this the impact of the Five Sapors (Wu Wei), or flavors. This idea has been essentially ignored in “the west” until recently. If you are trying to lose weight (fat) or are diabetic you will want to take note. You will see why diet drinks and artificially flavored foods are not your friends!

The ancient Chinese identified five flavors and associated these with the energetic system that they most affect:

  • Sour – Wood
  • Bitter – Fire
  • Sweet – Earth
  • Pungent – Metal
  • Salty – Water

For example, this means that if I eat a sour food that it will increase the Wood energetics in my body. They went further than this to say that the taste of the food, without even swallowing it, would immediately start to impact the body.

Flash forward a few thousand years to 2008 where a study was conducted on “Cephalic phase insulin response after taste stimulation“. In the study human volunteers tasted various solutions which contained either sugar, artificial sweetener, plain water, starch, etc. The subjects then spit out the solution.

Chinese Medicine would predict that the sweet solutions, the sugar and artificial sweetener, would impact the Earth energetics resulting in increased insulin release and other earth-related effects. So what did they find?

A significant increase of plasma insulin concentration was apparent after stimulation with sucrose and saccharin. In conclusion, the current data suggest that the sweeteners sucrose and saccharin activate a CPIR even when applied to the oral cavity only.

Surprise, surprise. As soon as the tongue sensed the sweet flavor, even if it was from an artificial sweetener, the pancreas started dumping insulin into the blood. This is one of the reasons artificially sweetened foods aren’t especially helpful for people looking to reduce fat on their bodies and loose weight. Your body doesn’t much care if it is getting real sugar or fake sugar. Extra insulin will be released and that’s going to make you hungry. Your body will require that you eat those missing calories one way or another. Sweet is not your friend if you are looking to loose fat.

To see if acupuncture might be right for you, give us a call at our Durham location or you may call us at 919-228-8448. If you find it easier to make an appointment online, you can simply click here to use our online schedule to set up a free face-to-face consultation.

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Pomegranate Juice Highlights Prostate Energetics

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Pomegranate for anti-cancer - illuminating acupuncture theory

Pomegranate seeds

Pomegranate Juice

Highlights Prostate Energetics

In a recent post on Dr. Andrew Weil’s blog he writes about new research into the chemical biomechanics of how pomegranate juice inhibits the progression of prostate cancer. What intrigued me in these research findings is what it highlights about the relationships between the body’s systems.

Chinese Medicine and acupuncture define five main energetic systems in the body – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. The prostate essentially belongs to the “water” energy. The type of cancer that affects the prostate naturally has the water “flavor” as well, as it comes from these cells.

This new research shows how pomegranate juice inhibits a bone-marrow protein. This protein promotes the migration and propagation of prostate cancer cells into bone, allowing the formation of new tumors there. But why does prostate cancer tend to move into bone, instead of, say, the lymphatic system?

Chinese Medicine theory illuminates this dynamic. Bone also belongs to the body’s “water” energetics. Since these cancer cells are already imprinted with this “water” signature, they are compatible with bone tissue, and metastasize there more easily than to tissue of a different energetic signature.

Even at the cellular scale this research supports the relationships described in the classic texts of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine many centuries ago.

To see if acupuncture might be right for you, give us a call at our Durham location or you may call us at 919-228-8448. If you find it easier to make an appointment online, you can simply click here to use our online schedule to set up a free face-to-face consultation.

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