It surprise me to see how many people suffer from the neck and shoulder problems. In my own practice or in the school clinic  where I teach, more common than not, the patients invariably have neck and shoulder problems. These includes auto accidents injury, stress, computer uses(which is like every body), migraine patients, elderly, sports injury. Not to mention patients who suffer from fibromyalgia or patients who just under the cold spell.

Acupuncture is amazingly effective in treating such problems. You can literally watch the pain disappear and the range of motion improves. This is no surprise. We know that the most authoritative text of Traditional Chinese Medicine is Yellow Emperor Cannon( Huang Di Internal Classic, published in about 100 B.C.) . It consists two volumes, one called Su Wen, or Essential questions , the other is called Ling Shu.  Ling Shu literally means magical pivot. This volume is about acupuncture. It implied that acupuncture therapy is like looking for the magical pivot point to rid body of illness. With right choice the effect is instantaneous.

There are many ways to treat neck and shoulder problems. Every practitioner has his or her preferred approach. Over the years, I have developed a protocol that is extremely effective. I  taught students in my classes how to use this protocol over the years and have lots of great feed back.  The result is very effective and fast. Not only patients love it. It also strengthen the confidence of students on the acupuncture  and improve their enthusiasm.

Teaching is an interesting undertaking. It seems each class has it is character. Sometimes it is very enjoyable. Sometimes, it is kind of stuffy, depise the fact that I handle them the same way.

These pictures were from one of the school clinic shift that I taught. The pictures were taken by one of the student , Ms. Georgia Good.

Allergy is a very pervasive health problem.  The severity of symptoms could vary from minor discomfort to life threatening. People with the later problem would always carry cortisone shot just in case of the emergency.

Bio-medically, the focus is on the protein molecules( so called allergen) that are capable of provoking the histamine reaction. This is unfortunate, because  it blind-sided the instigators focus, leading to a narrow chase, so called allergic test. The results tend to be not too useful. The person may be told that he or she is allergic to certain items when in fact, in site of all the precaution, the allergic reactions continue or the list is so long that it is difficult to live in the ordinary environment.

In truth, the situation is more complicated. The proteinous allergen is only a small fraction of the possibilities that cause allergy sufferer’s misery. One often been neglected factor is  the change in environment a person is under. That is enough to cause allergic reaction to certain people. These change include the wind, the heat, the coldness, even the warm damp air. These factors are been called external pathogens in the Traditional Chinese Medicine. They were attributed the reason people got sick in the old times. Unfortunately, the advance of modern science leads people to think on the germs as the culprit. Have you heard of people who have a rash in the hot shower or have a rash after swimming, after wearing wet suit, inflammation at the knuckles in the cold weather.  Yes, they all exist. The list goes on and on. One thing is clear, such environmental factors that provoke such reactions varies from one individual to another. Furthermore, it also depends greatly on the individual body condition at a given time.

To make it more complicated, the non-environmental factor such as stress in the emotion can create allergic response in may people. Case in point, people who is the sufferers of Psoriasis can tell you, their condition worsen so dramatically when in emotional stress.

Without recognizing these factors- environmental as well as the emotional stresses, we would be at a lost in spite of all the newest discovery in the modern bio-science. We would be confronting with ever-increasing list of so-called auto-immune diseases with no cure in sight.  We will be misguided in devising the treatment strategy.  It is not surprising that majority of the approach in modern medicine in this regard is to suppress the immune system. Which not only works for a short period of time at the risk of decreasing body’s defense.

On the contrary, if a person is to pay close attention to the sign the body is sending to us with regard to the environmental factors as well as keep our emotional stress in check, we would decrease these suffering significantly. such approach is in line with the Yin-Yang balance concept in the Traditional Chines Medicine.

Allergy is a very pervasive health problem. To a sufferer, the severity of symptoms could vary from minor discomfort to life threatening. People with the later problem would always carry emergency syringes just in case.

Two factors are involved for creating such problems: the unchecked body immune system and the provoking environmental factors. The environmental factors that provoke such problem varies from one individual to another, although there are a few items that are common to many people . These include cat’s saliva protein, peanut skin protein, shell fish and many others. They also include pollens from plants.

One aspect of environmental factor that is often been overlooked is simply the environment: the wind, the heat, the coldness, the warm damp air even food item,  the emotional stress. Most allergy sufferers got into trouble unnecessarily because they do not pay attention to such environmental factors. They are not properly educated about the risks.

What kind of symptoms are there? It varies: stuffy nose, swollen eyes, headache, rash, wheezing, asthma attack, fever, difficult breathing. Indeed, it makes the people so miserable. Underlying these symptoms is our body’s attempt to fend of the perceived external invaders- increase the body temperature to kill germs, increase mucous  secretion to wash and neutralize the invading toxins, increase the blood circulation through the heart rate and the vascular sizes( which causes severe headache) to mobilize the body function. All of these body responses makes a person miserable. It is simply a bodily mistake.

In traditional Chinese medicine, because of it sudden nature and feverish symptom as well as the close relationship with environmental issue, it is called Wind Heat attacking the body. The treatment  is therefore to clear the Heat modulating the unruly immune response and rid of Wind, the environmental factor. If there is too much of the secretion, it is called dampness in the body and should be treated for such as well. These objectives can be achieved through acupuncture as well as through the herbal formula. Either one is very effective.

對 於 一 個 對 科 學 有 修 養 的 人 士 ﹐ 陰 陽 的 觀 念 是 很 討 厭 的 。 一 個 主 要 原 因 是 沒 有 辦 法 用 數 字去 衡 量 的 。 而 整 個 科 學 就 是 建 立 在 衡 量的 基 礎 上 。 想 想 ﹐ 連 宇 宙 的 大 小 ﹐ 都 可 以 用 數 字 表 示 出 來 。 科 學 多 麼 偉 大 。 陰 陽既 然 沒 有 辦 法 用 科 學 方 法 去 研 究 ﹐ 那 不 就 是 不 科 學 ﹖

到 底 陰 陽 的 觀 念 科 學不 科 學﹐ 當 然 可 以 爭 論。 可 是 一 般 人 比 較 有 興 趣 的 ﹐ 不 在 於 爭 論 上 。 而 在 於 擁 護 或 者 反 對 上 。

About Acid reflex(胃 液還 流 )

Many American are having a condition called Acid Reflex. The stomach acid bubbles up into the esophagus(食 道 ) and causes a burning sensation- so called heart burn. Oriental people seemed to suffer less of such condition. Excessive acid produced in the stomach is suspected.

In truth, the acid production is not to blame. The real culprit is the inability of the stomach to empty its content into the intestines腸 . This can happen when the pyloric sphincter 幽 門 is misbehaving. Or, things in the intestinal area are not moving down.

Often the problem is the result of stress in life or a chronic pain in the abdominal area. So, learn to reduce the stress, keep the bowel movement regular. Regular massaging the area is most helpful, warm treatment is good, avoid staying on sitting position for prolonged time.

Acu-Moxa therapy(灸 )﹐ herbal treatment 草藥  are all effective as well. The acupu point He Gu (合 谷) is the best point to help such condition-(massage or acupuncture.)

酸性鹼性的食 物 說 法 我 是 不 支 持 的 。 不 但 科 學 上 沒 根
據 ﹐ 古 人 也 沒 觀 察 到 。
有人 說蔬菜是鹼性﹐蛋白質是 酸性的。不對。 蛋白質是氨基酸合成﹐有酸性有鹼性。在腸子裡﹐多 半蔬菜的成份是 不被 消 化 ﹐不吸收。能吸收的﹐消 化了後﹐大半成 了 身 體 裡 的 碳 “ 酸 ”。當然是酸性的。

蔬菜的優點﹐就是多 半 不 消 化 ﹐不吸收。不太增加體重。在物質豐富的的地區﹐很好。如果是身體虛弱的人﹐那就不能吃太多.

According to UPI news , a young woman in California died shortely after entering drinking contest.

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_9055-Woman-Dies-After-Water-Drinking-Contest.html

It is a tragic event that should not have happened.

Water drinking has become a fad in health industry. It is being promoted as a necessary step in maintaining a good health. Water bottling industry has prospered so fast in the last few years. Is there any medical study done to support it? I don’t think so, because it is bound to fail.

As we drink in water, immediately, our blood volume increase. The concentration of all components in the blood is diluted. Notes that we have about 4-5 liters of blood in the entire body. If we drink one liter of water, our blood will be diluted 1/4 to 1/5 in less than half an hour. The concentration of every components of blood, like electrolytes, blood cells all would be diluted. We will be very sick if we don’t get rid of it within this period of time.

This is what happened to this poor woman.

喝多水, 行嗎﹖

身體健康的人﹐多喝水﹐ 馬上(20-30分)﹐水就從尿道排出。我們的身

體是沒辦法貯藏多餘水的。

上吐下泄時﹐ 排出的是電解質-鈉﹐鉀等。 只喝白開水﹐會稀釋血中

的電解質﹐造成紊亂。會有休克的危險。

昨天在美國就有一個年輕女人比喝水。只喝了四瓶(32 once)。 幾個小

時後就死亡了。

In the Far East, childern are raised to avoid eating or drinking cold stuff. As kids grow up and spend more and more time watching television﹐t hey are exposed to a different value system in which “cool” is good, and icy cold is exciting. They begin to question the validity of the tradition.  Afterall, ice cream tastes so good and  icy drink tastes so satisfying. What can possibly be wrong?

Many things happen when our body is exposed to cold: blood flow slows down, muscles contract. Therefore, if we ingest large amount of cold food, our intestine motility slows which increases the absortion of foods. This tends to increse body weight. Worst off is often the coldness decends to the lower abdominal area and causing dysfunctions of ovaries and uterus of females. One typical problem is the painful menstruation.

We are not saying cold stuff can not be used at all. Knowing the consequences, for most people, moderation is the rule of the thumb.

Stiff neck and shoulder is very common, especially with people over 30 years of age. Some have soreness. Others more have more severe situation such as restricted rotation of the neck.

It is impotant to relaize that any problem at the neck and shoulder can impact the circulation to the head and resulted in numerous problem for the time being or some time in the future.