Calm in the Chaos

“Every adversity carries with it a seed of greater benefit.” If anyone knows me, they would tell you that this is my daily tag line. I read it for the first time 10 years ago in a book written by Napolean Hill but didn’t really understand it until adversity slapped me in the face, knocked me to the ground and dragged me through the streets of NYC’s financial district on September 11, 2001.

I entered the twisted, internal psycho-emotional world of Dante’s Inferno, otherwise known as Post Traumatic Stress. It wasn’t pleasant to be afraid of the sounds of trucks backfiring, or having panic attacks while sitting on a subway train or contemplating how I might stop my scalp from forming bloody plaques of psoriasis brought on by stress.

I had no idea that the beneficial “seed” of a 5,000 year old origin was taking root in a classroom in the middle of the same great city that imposed on me my biggest adversity. One day before 9/11, I began my official academic quest into the eastern healing art of Oriental Medicine. The words art and medicine are rarely ever found in the same sentence however I learned early on in my career as an eastern practitioner that there is indeed a need for creative interpretation of someone’s symptoms of complexity. The human landscape is complicated, diverse, highly individualized with each of us beings holding our own unique set of blueprints.

It is quite fascinating to learn that Oriental medicine is an intricately woven thread of philosophy, culture, mysticism and empiricism. What appears to be as simple as the insertion of one needle into an appropriate acupuncture point on the skin, it could become the actual compass that points you on the direction of internal balance. When a mind-body and spirit-mind are equilibrated, the dance of life is rhythmically in tune with being healthy and well.

So, I ask you, could you be open to finding the calm in the middle of your chaos? Could you allow yourself to become the architect of your own life by being ok with the scaffolding and infrastructure that you were given? Could you welcome the needle that might in fact direct your very own “true north”?

ABC News Acupuncture For Low Back Pain

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=6838907

http://tinyurl.com/n7xkgz

By Dr. Jay Adlersberg

NEW YORK (WABC) -- People who suffer with back pain often try many treatments to get relief--like acupuncture. Now, a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine looked at this ancient Chinese treatment as a way to help aching backs. The study found it worked better for chronic back pain than standard physical therapy and exercise. What's not clear however is if the relief is permanent.

For sufferers like Elizabeth Dobney-Hoch acupuncture sometimes works almost immediately. But what caused her aches and pains is unclear.

"It was one of those things where I was sitting in the same position for a few hours and i got up and said "uh-oh," said Elizabeth. .

She found relief from acupuncture when a month of standard physical therapy and exercise failed. Interestingly, the acupuncture study found the same thing: acupuncture compared to standard therapy worked better for cramped back muscles. .

"Going into tissue with needles allows the muscle to relax and release," said acupuncturist Bianca Beldini. .

In addition, acupuncture may also release endorphins, natural pain killers. .

The acupuncture study looked at over 600 people and there was also an unexpected finding. Doctors used toothpicks, not needles, on the skin of one group of patients and they improved as much as those treated with acupuncture needles. .

If toothpicks work, does that mean acupuncture's effect is all in head, just a placebo effect? There may be another explanation: the toothpicks may stimulate acupressure points. .

So for now, there's no answer to how the needles work, or even if they do anything more than toothpicks, but just that toothpick touching itself may be healing. .

"There may be a place for that, it may be placebo like but if it reduces pain, it may have a place in medicine," said Robert Gotlin with Beth Israel Medical Center. .

In just two acupuncture sessions, Elizabeth said her back muscles relaxed and the pain disappeared. The study authors concluded that acupuncture and other similar treatment can be better for back pain than standard methods, especially when the standard approach fails.

Huffington Post May 27, 2009

written by Sharon Glassman

Women who have trouble sleeping will often report that they wake up during the night and can't back to sleep.

This experience, to quote an old Kris Kristofferson song, "makes a body feel alone."

A PR exec named Judy Schramm responded to my request for experts on the topic to say that she's an expert on the subject of mid-night waking...

Hi Sharon, Boy, if you find the answer, I really need it.

I have been having that waking up at 2am or 3am and staying up for
2 hours problem for YEARS!

I thought I was the only one.

The good news, for those of us who greet the dawn at 1 am, is that we are far from alone. But that's small comfort when we're tossing and turning in the dark -- again.

Why does this happen? we may wonder. And whether we're sleeping alone, or not wanting to wake the sleeper next to us, there's really no one around who can offer answer.

Enter the experts.


Some MDs I've heard from ascribe women's ongoing wake-up to our being at a low-point in our sleep cycle or possessing bladders in need of emptying.

I don't know about you. But "answers" like these leave me searching for better answers. Not sleeping because I'm not sleeping strikes me as a no-win diagnosis. And I'm not the gallon o' Gatorade before bed type.

Acupuncturists, however, see the women-and-night-sitch differently.

Bianca Beldini, an acupuncturist in NYC, explains women's late-night, early-morning awakenings as a result of imbalanced Yin and Yang energy. (I know, that sounds kinda of Woo-woo. But please, bear with me for another line or two.)

The "do-do-run-run-run!" outward energies of the day are Yang. The "let-it-Zzz" of sleep are Yin, in this model.

In a perfect sleep set-up, our outer buzzy mode would transition into a calm, restful mode, in a living version of the Yin-Yang symbol's light into dark (and back again).

But when our daily Yang invades our nightly Yin, the imbalance forms an unwanted wake-up call at a specific time of night.

Here's Bianca:

The internal organ systems [...]relate to a specific "time" of the 24 hour clock and the Liver is most active during 1-3am. It is stated in classic Oriental medical texts that when you are healthy, the Qi and Blood return to the Liver at night because it no longer has to nourish the muscles to act as your armor and defense system. However, if the energy is stuck (lack of free flow) it will become turbulent, thus causing awakening of the body during this particular time of night leading to insomnia.

Acupuncuturist Becca Seitz seconds this idea.

I love that you mention the specific times of the morning when women tend to wake. According to Chinese Medical theory, each organ has a 2 hour segment of the day where it is functioning the strongest (12 organs, each with 2 hours = 24 hours of the day) The Liver's time of the day is from 1am to 3am. If a woman is experiencing an imbalance of Liver Qi, symptoms will tend to be exacerbated during this time.

Common symptoms of Liver upset are: sleep disturbances, eye problems, stress, fatigue, diarrhea, emotional irritability, PMS symptoms, menstrual cramping and SO many more!"

That last exclamation point could feel like a needle in the soul to those of us with sleep disruptions. But having identified the problem, our resident acu's offer a solution:

Says Bianca Beldini:

Some strategies that I have used in my clinical practice that work for insomnia:

Soaking your feet and ankles in hot water right before bedtime. In reflexology and Vitaflex charts, the reproductive system resides around the inner ankle bones. By soaking the feet in water, it "relaxes" these areas thus causing a calming effect on the nervous system. As mentioned earlier, the reproductive system relates to a woman's uterine blood which is controlled by the energetics of the Liver. If the Liver is calm, the reproductive system runs smoothly and a woman is feeling balanced.

A variation on this tip was suggested by stress management author Debbie Mandel:

From Chinese herbal medicine - to help you unwind before sleep: Put feet in a pot of hot water ( you can tolerate) for one minute and then alternate in pot of cold water for 30 seconds. 3XThis releases toxins from your feet - the body's foundation. The heat circulates the blood and the cold water reduces the swelling. The cold pulls out toxins in the contractive phase and the heat brings blood and nutrients in the expansive phase.

Can bathing our feet before bed stop the mid-night wake-ups?

I'd love to know. But so far, I haven't found out. Asomeone who doesn't think about not-sleeping until she bolts awake at 4 am, I haven't been able to schedule a foot bath into my pre-bed routine. And, interestingly, I'm not alone.

None of the Boulder Media Women testers of non-pharma sleep tips has opted to do it, either. I'll keep you posted as volunteers arise.

If you're willing to test out the tip and Comment back below, I'd love to hear what you find.

ps: I received a rather, er, zesty comment from a gentleman wanting to know why the (&(*&@ I am focusing on women and sleep in this series as opposed to Humans and Sleep.

The short answer is that I was inspired by the number of women I know who report sleep problems. And it seems I'm not alone in my observation.

A representative from Duke sent me a link to a study by Edward Suarez, an associate professor studying the issue of women and sleep specifically.

Why?

"The study suggests that poor sleep - measured by the total amount of sleep, the degree of awakening during the night, and most importantly, how long it takes to get to sleep - may have more serious health consequences for women than for men."

"Suarez says that while women are twice as likely as men to report problems with sleep, most sleep studies in the past have focused on men, a phenomenon that has been slowly changing in recent years."

Positive change on the women and sleep front. Sounds dreamy to me!

Lavender Lemonade in the NEWS!

Summer is here! I just found this...enjoy and lets get cooking and drinking LAVENDER!!!
July 11th, 2009 is Lavender Harvesting time at the Young Living Farm in Utah...anyone up for a 5k run through the Lavender fields?

To order this therapeutic grade Lavender, find the YL link on my website: www.sacredspaceacupuncture.com

The Path...

The theory of Oriental Medicine goes like this…you and I were created through the intricate weaving of the threads of our Ancestral Essence. In our mothers belly we relied on the perfection of what is called the “Extraordinary vessels” to guide our way through nine months of incubation. These “vessels” transport energetic information to us during our time of growth and development and they are extraordinary because they enforce our flawlessness in body, mind and spirit. The moment of birth releases us from our core support system and with our first breath we begin creating a protective screen to the outside environment while we drift farther away from our state of pure grace.

The shield of armor that we all possess is unique to each of us. It is our energetic thumbprint. It is fueled by the strength of our own personal Qi (vital life force).

We start our journey without mapquest, without street signs, without any language to communicate that we might be lost. We stop to eat and sleep along the way because we somehow know that this is the only way to refuel. We live in the wonderment of the present moment enforced by a circus of sensory delights and we are not aware yet that there is an illusion that waits for us. This illusion is called LIFE.

The paradox is this…the more aware you become of the outside world (fueled by thoughts and emotions) the less connected you remain to your extraordinary self. The illusion plays a funny trick with us by sending us down paths that might have trick doors, funhouse mirrored walls, glass ceilings or floors that seem to be made of squeaky wood.
Every bump, turn, jug-handle, u-turn or dead stop that we make in this journey causes us to lean on those vessels that originally made us perfect. We do have access to the ancient roadmaps of our very own existence however most of us have chosen to drive on the roads of life with blurred vision.

Stop and visually take in your surroundings daily...
Breathe in deeply to open the senses of smell...
Pause after you listen to someone’s words to clear your ears to hear...
Wrap your arms around someone to enliven the touch receptors on the tips of your fingers...
Chew slowly and savor the flavors of prepared nourishment from Mother Earth...

Although the USA is touted as being the most progressive society, it is also a mecca of poor eating habits and refined and adulterated foods. The oil companies, genetic engineering companies and the chemical companies all seem to be snuggled together under the same blanket (I would also throw BIG Pharma under the sheets with them too if I had my druthers). Also, most of the soils being farmed upon have lost their nutrient density due to overuse and chemical pesticides.

I happen to work in New York City. A metropolis, which sits on a small island of hustle and bustle. There are at least 4 restaurants on every city block and maybe more on each avenue. There are ethnic neighborhoods including those cultures from remote areas of the world and the possibilities of finding foods that seem unique and strange are sometimes easier than finding the simple epicurean delights.

Even within a city offering many nutritious food possibilities, many people are still suffering from symptoms that are caused by vitamin deficiency. After studying fat-soluble vitamins (Vit A, E, D, K, F), it is made clear to me that for the past 20 years, our “dieting” society has gotten it all wrong believing that LOW FAT DIETS could possibly be healthy. What has become even more clear, is how important it is to eat healthy fats (olive oils, fish oils, flax oils, raw butter, raw dairy, etc) since fat soluble vitamins NEED fat in order to be processed through the system! And this processing means: neuron communication, brain function, joint lubrication, digestive health, cardiovascular health and REPRODUCTIVE health! So, throw that “fortified Vit D skim milk” out into the trash because guess what? You are getting little to no Vit D in that milk if it is skim or low fat!

Vitamin A happens to be known as the “eyesight” vitamin. It is found in animal foods (meat, milk and eggs) and in plant foods (carrots are what we probably associate as the most common vegetable with beta carotene). Unfortunately many things inhibit the absorption of Vit A, included are: MINERAL OIL (aka BABY oil or Petroleum jelly), coffee, fluorescent lighting, xrays, broad spectrum antibiotics, antacids and alcohol.

The typical symptoms of Vit A deficiency include: poor sense of taste and smell, acne, hardened bumps of keratin found on the upper back of the arm, poor digestion, ear infections, peeling or ridged nails, eye infections, poor vision, dry eyes and eye strain. Poor night vision is the first symptom to usually occur due to a lack of seeing the color purple. So, break out the Cod and halibut Liver oils (1 tsp p/day) BUT make sure it is from a reputable source that does not use fish filled with heavy metal toxins! I have been using www.drrons.com for their combination Cod Liver oil and Butter oil. If you can’t do the fish oil, start munching on ½ cup of raw carrots daily!

Vitamin E is actually a group of fat-soluble compounds also known as tocopherols. The gamma type is most commonly found in foods and is the most easily absorbed by the body. It functions to help boost our anti-aging possibilities, heals skin and scar tissue, supports reproductive health, reduces the need for insulin in diabetics, protects the thymus gland, protects the eyes and helps to boost the immune system.

In order for the body to absorb Vit E, it is imperative once again that the diet is not low in fat! Other things that could contribute to poor absorption are the use of birth control pills, chlorinated water, air pollution and cooking with rancid oils. Deficiencies of Vit E typically include poor reproductive health, heart disease, dull hair, muscular disorders and increased fragility red blood cells.

To ensure proper daily intake of Vit E, the best is 1 TB of wheat germ oil daily.

Vitamin D is known as the “Sunshine Hormone”…yes, it considered both a HORMONE and a vitamin! Vit D is actually a family of related compounds that are important for normal cellular growth, regulation of the immune system, assimilating and regulating calcium and phosphorous blood levels, protecting against food additives, leads and pesticides from entering the blood stream and helps to balance the thyroid and parathyroid glands.

The best form of Vit D is called SUNSHINE! The average American living above the horizontal line bisecting Georgia is not getting nearly enough (UVB ray) sunshine thus causing us to become Vit D deficient. The advent of the scare of skin cancer and the overuse of sunscreen (by the way, SPF 8 is enough protection, provided you do not sit in the hot sun for hours and hours wishing to become a bronzed god(dess), has led us to be even more deficient.

Vit D is super important for bone health so one very common deficiency symptom seen in this country is osteoporosis in adults and poor bone formation in children.

So, get on those walking shoes, try to expose at least ¼ of your skin to the sun and get outside for at least a minimum of 20 minutes per day!

Mineral Oil: OH NO!

I was thrilled to have been asked to give a lecture to RN's a few weeks ago about the Efficacy of Essential Oils in the Health Care Model at Fairleigh Dickinson University. I just finished my Certification in Aromatherapy and spent countless hours creating a highly visual and enlightening power point presentation. Unfortunately my 2 hour talk happened right after lunch in a dimly lit room. As any teacher knows, this is the hardest time to keep students interested as they are often going into a carbohydrate slump. Fortunately, I had my Peppermint Essential Oil and passed it around for a sniff every 1/2 hour to help boost alertness!

As I was preparing for this lecture, I found myself sidetracking into reading about the non vegetable and non nut oils that we put on our skin daily and how these are wreaking havoc.

Most people do not understand that our skin is like a sponge. They do not realize that when you apply lotions and use hair products that the chemicals in them seep into the superficial blood stream and then get carried throughout the body and the organs alike.

Here is a good test about skin absorption if you are willing to possibly smell like an Italian Restaurant :-)

Take a few cloves of peeled garlic and place them into a vat of hot water. Soak your feet for 10 minutes in the garlic water. You will notice that 20-30 minutes after your soak, the pores of your skin will begin to emit a garlic odor. That is how fast it takes garlic to make its way through your body! Luckily the chemical constituents of garlic (allium sativum) is excreted in a natural way.

I want to shed some light on Mineral Oil. This is also known as Petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and mineral oil laxatives. It is even more well known as the branded name of BABY OIL. Mineral Oil is a byproduct of the distillation of gasoline from crude oil. It is considered a "left over" liquid and is readily available and very inexpensive. It has been used in the cosmetic industry, personal care and baby products and the baking industry (think additive for glazing in white breads/doughs). I am including a link from the FDA about Mineral Oil http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-g040.html

Mineral oil DESTROY Vitamin D in the body. This petroleum byproduct interferes with the absorption of Vit D.

Let me explain what Vit D is, just in case you don't know.

Vit D is actually considered both a vitamin and a HORMONE! It is imperative for normal cell growth and proliferation. It helps to regulate the immune system. It assists in regulating blood levels of calcium and phosphorus from the GI tract (which is why it is important for its role in preventing tooth decay and keeping bones strong). It regulates the function of the thyroid and parathyroid glands!

The best way of getting Vit D into your system is through natural sunshine! 20 minutes of exposure per day is ideal! We have now become a society in fear of the sun. We slather on the sunscreen in fear of Skin Cancer, but we need to keep two things in mind: 1. Is our sunscreen riddled with mineral oils? 2. If we keep ourselves fully blocked from the sun, we are not receiving adequate amounts of Vit D. Now, this is in no way an intent to tell anyone to burn themselves or to lay in the sun for hours without a protectant! It is just me playing the "what if we don't buy into the commercial machine" game.

My suggestion...instead of using commercial lotions filled with chemicals that we can't pronounce or eat for that matter, use a vegetable based oil or nut oil to use on the skin to help keep it soft and supple if you are plagued with winter dry skin.
Obviously if you have a nut allergy, keep away from the nut oils! You can replace them with vegetable oils!

I keep a bottle of organic Sweet Almond oil in my bath tub. After showering, with my skin still wet, I put about 1 tablespoon of almond oil into my palms and rub it into my skin. I then pat dry. Almond oil mimics the human sebum and is a very thin oil, so if used correctly, it will absorb into the skin and not cause any staining on clothes. I then add different Essential Oils to the almond oil base depending on my mood that day!

Keep yourself informed! Read the labels in all of your body products for Petrolatum, Petroleum or Mineral Oil.

If you have any questions about this post, please send me an email!