by Cameron McCrea (Christina's daughter)
I have been having acupuncture since... Well, since I can remember, which is when I was a newborn. Now I’m nine years old, in fourth grade, and I still get treatment. Every time I get a cold or stomach ache, or if I can’t sleep, I’ll get some acupuncture. It helps me stay healthy and strong, and I love getting it, too. While the needles are being put in, I can feel this amazing sensation that is hard to describe. It feels calming, and at the same time like tension and energy that I’ve been holding in is being released. While lying down with the needles in, there’s another sensation: like I'm floating in the air, maybe in some other dimension where you heal by going into a deep, relaxing doze. Until you have had acupuncture, you probably have not felt this before. I look forward to it every time I get treatment. In fact, I love having acupuncture so much that I want to do it for my job when I grow up!
ECA is happy to announce that Denise Fiedler joining us at the clinic starting November 2nd. Denise is a licensed acupuncturist and has over 20 years experience helping people feel better. She will be at the clinic Thursday afternoons from 3:00 to 6:00, taking over from the Friday clinic hours. Take advantage of her deep experience and schedule a treatment with her today.Denise worked with athletic injuries as a trainer for years before she decided that acupuncture was the modality that was right for her. Denise’s background in athletic injuries allows her to use the best of Western and Eastern medicine to treat her patients effectively. Denise also works with women’s health issues treating them for PMS, infertility and menopausal symptoms. She uses acupuncture, massage, moxa, sound and heat therapies to help her patients heal at her private practice in North Bend at Shendao Acupuncture.
The seasonal change is upon us and with it comes the rise of colds and flus. In the Chinese medical system, the fall is the time of the lungs. It is a time to strengthen the body’s lung energy for the prevention of lung problems including colds and flues later in the winter. It can also be a time when people with lung issues often experience an increase in symptoms.
Our bodies are exposed to viruses and bacteria all day, every day, everywhere we go. Why do some of us get sick all the time, and others rarely fall ill in the same environment? It turns out that it takes more than just using more hand sanitizer (although washing hands is certainly important). Over the course of 17 years in healthcare, I have seen that a key factor lies in the strength of our lung energy.
Keeping the lungs strong
Here are some indications or symptoms of lung imbalance...
colds or flues more than twice per year; chronic coughs; sinusitis; asthma; hay fever, allergies or easily experiencing allergic responses; eczema; acne; dermatitis; shortness of breath without exertion; sweating easily without exertion; not sweating with exercise; excessive grief or sadness; trouble getting a deep breath; sensitivity to climate changes such as cold or damp; difficulty dealing with extreme hot or cold weather; difficulty protecting oneself physically or emotionally from outside influences
As a preventative measure, getting acupuncture or herbal treatments in the fall that focus on the lungs has certainly countless patients strengthen their lunch chi (energy). There is an established protocol of treatments given in the fall to prevent the frequency and severity of cold, flu, allergies or other lung problems later in the year.
One factor to also keep in mind is antibiotics. The discovery of antibiotics has saved more lives than any modern medical discovery. However, the use of antibiotics for more minor, non-life threatening conditions poses a more serious risk to the patient. Our body is populated with more than 500 different microorganisms in our digestive system that compromise a crucial part of our immune system. Antibiotics kill the bad bugs that cause our illness, but they kill beneficial bacteria as well. Recent research has shown us that one simple course of antibiotics will increase a patient’s susceptibility to antibiotic resistant bacteria for two years! This can compromise your immune system and cause you to be more prone to illness.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be just as effective as antibiotics for treating colds ,flus, and sinus infections. Even walking pneumonia can be treated with antibacterial and antiviral herbs, without harming your vital intestinal flora and adding long term damage to your immune system. A good rule of thumb is herbs aren’t helping your system within 24 hours, then take antibiotics.
Exercise has been proven to be one of the best immune strengthening factors we have. It increases circulation, gives us energy, releases endorphins, makes us happier, helps us sleep better and can dramatically cut cold and flu susceptibility. It doesn’t need to be intense, it just needs to be regular. 30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3 times per week that raises your heart rate and helps you to break a sweat is enough. Even a 20 minute walk around the block on a daily basis is beneficial.
Another vital component of health getting sufficient sleep. The benchmark is 8 hours per night. Even a short term amount of sleep deprivation makes you more susceptible to colds and flus. Think you need less? Ask yourself, do I wake without an alarm and feel rested and energetic through the day without caffeine or other stimulants with this amount of sleep? If so, then that is the right amount of sleep for your body.
We should always try to be eating to build our immune system, of course. A beneficial diet would include eating a lot of fruits and veggies, warm and cooked in the winter, protein sources like meat stews and chicken soup, as well as nuts and seeds and whole grains to support your immune system. And of course, it’s always good to limit sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and processed food.
If possible, we should try to reduce unhealthy stress in our lives. Excessive and prolonged stress challenges our immune system on an ongoing basis. Incorporating relaxation time or activities into our daily lives can make a big difference.
As a clinic manager, I'm often hard-put to explain exactly why acupuncture has worked for so many people for literally thousands of years. I get needles put into my skin, and I get better? How's that exactly?In the medical research world, the work is understated and framed in the parameters of possible effectiveness, what can result. So here's an interesting article at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) on how acupuncture may relieve pain in relation to how three different institutions "evaluated the effects of acupuncture on brain activity following active stimulation." Full article
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Daniel McCrea, Eastside Community Acupuncture eastsidecommunityacupuncture.com On April 7, 2012, in recognition of U.N. World Health Day, Issaquah’s Eastside Community Acupuncture (ECA), along with nine other clinics of the Seattle Community Acupuncture Network (SCAN), will be offering free acupuncture to new patients at its downtown location on Front Street. World Health Day is a global campaign inviting everyone from global leaders to the public to focus on a single health challenge with global impact. The ECA clinic was started by licensed acupuncturist Christina Jackson and partner Daniel McCrea to increase access to effective acupuncture on the Eastside. Like over 200 community acupuncture clinics around the country, ECA provides acupuncture on a sliding scale to treat a variety of patients, chronic pain and health conditions. Christina has been in private practice at the Center for Tiger Mountain Acupuncture in Issaquah for over 16 years. The Seattle Community Acupuncture Network (SCAN) is comprised of a growing number of clinics in the Greater Seattle area dedicated to offering affordable acupuncture (we use a low cost sliding scale) to people in a comfortable community (group) setting. Individuals and families can book their free treatment online at eastsidecommunityacupuncture.com. Along with Issaquah's ECA clinic, the following area clinics are offering free acupuncture to new patients on World Health Day: CommuniChi (Beacon Hill) www.communichi.org (206) 860-5009 Community Acupuncture at New Seattle Massage (U-district) (206) 632.5074 Community Acupuncture Project of Columbia City www.acupunctureforall.org (206) 760-6064 Community Acupuncture Project of West Seattle www.acupunctureforall.org (206) 933-7891 Grassroots Community Acupuncture (Fremont) www.grassrootswellness.com (206) 659-4990 Greenpoint Acupuncture (Queen Anne) greenpointacupuncture.com (206) 313-0961 North Seattle Community Acupuncture (Northgate) www.northseaforme.com (206) 524-6428 Purple Dragon Healing Arts (Ballard) www.purpledragonhealingarts.com (206) 397-4135 The Pin Cushion (Capitol Hill) www.thepincushionclinic.com (206) 324-3650 Shoreline Community Acupuncture www.ShorelineAcupuncture.org(206) 542-1700
From the article: Acupuncture is one of the most common alternative medicines in the United States, practiced by about three million people — mostly adults — every year. But it is also used with growing frequency in children to relieve pain, migraines and other complaints. About 150,000 children in the United States underwent acupuncture in 2007, according to government estimates. Whether acupuncture poses any particular hazards to children, however, has not been entirely clear. In the latest study, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada focused specifically on children, combing through data from 37 international studies. The authors cast a wide net, pooling data from high-quality randomized trials conducted over the past few decades as well as single case reports of injuries. More at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/acupunture-is-safe-in-children/?ref=acupuncture
The documentation of getting relief from migraines with acupunture has become well established. If you get migraines, you may have realized that conventional medicine has limits in completely relieving the pain, nausea and sensitivity to noise and light that can accompany a migraine. As this article points out, "Studies that compared acupuncture to drug treatments found that acupuncture was effective at reducing the number of headache days participants experienced. The intensity of the pain they experienced was also reduced." You can find out more at http://www.naturalnews.com/033201_acupuncture_migraines.html
Most everyone gets them, and some of us get them a lot or even get the dreaded migraines. This article cites that about 45 million Americans suffer from chronic headaches. Especially if you happen to get headaches frequently, a few acupuncture sessions have been known to be effective for treatment. You can read more about the research here.
I recently had the experience of spending a weekend with a group of community acupuncturists, which included a panel discussion of acupuncturists and patients from community clinics around Washington State. I want to share with you some of the comments I heard regarding the benefits of community acupuncture vs. the way acupuncture has traditionally been practiced here in the US.
Patient Comments:
"I really like being able to bring a friend with me to acupuncture who needs it. Its affordable enough, I can even pay for her treatment so she will try it. "
"I never liked being left in a room alone with needles with traditional acupuncture. Even though we don't interact with one another, I like having other people around me when I have the needles in"
"The healing effect seems exponential when you are in a room full of people who are all experiencing a group healing energy from their acupuncture compared to when I had acupuncture in a room alone."
"Its affordable enough for me to come when I need it, instead of getting better, and then having to wait till I'm sick again to be able to afford to be treated again."
Acupuncturist Comments:
"I really like being able to recommend a treatment plan each patient based on what they really need, not what they can afford, or what their insurance company will cover."
"I enjoy practicing acupuncture the way I was trained in China."
"Because of the frequency of treatment for patients compared to my traditional practice, I am seeing better treatment results that I saw before in my more traditional practice."
"I like getting out of the way and letting the acupuncture do the work. In this model the focus is on the patient and the acupuncture. the patient-practitioner relationship is much less important."
To say the least, I left the weekend inspired and full of ideas for our Eastside Community Acupuncture clinic.
- Christina Jackson, L.Ac.
This is a recent piece just written by Rosenfeld for the popular news site Huffington Post on the overall applications of acupuncture. He's been working on three films, one on the science of tai chi, the second is about the science of meditation and the third is about the science of acupuncture. I like how he gives big-picture perspective on where he thinks medicine is going these days: "Pushed along by cultural and financial forces, American medicine is evolving. Old prejudices are giving way to open minds. The new model of integrative medicine is patient centered, and embraces any and all effective solutions to the patient's health problems."
|
RSS Feed