by Mark Xu | Aug 27, 2015 | Chinese Medicine
Have you ever wondered why you feel so tired that you can’t complete normal daily activities?
While chronic fatigue syndrome has no known cause and is difficult to diagnose, its major symptoms can be treated. People with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) often feel so tired that they can’t do even half of what their routine requires of them. Unfortunately, the feeling doesn’t go away even with rest.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) symptoms usually start suddenly. But for some people, they develop gradually over weeks or months. Symptoms can change in a day, and may last a month, a couple of years, or many years. These symptoms can come and go. Interestingly, twice as many women as men are diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Below is a core set of symptoms that affect nearly everyone with CFS:
- Extreme physical fatigue, mental fatigue, or both. It can be constant, or it can come and go. This fatigue can be so severe that it interferes with your work, your play, and your social activities.
- Feeling unwell after being active. This can mean you feel ill or weak or your CFS symptoms are worse. There can be a delay before it starts. It can take more than 24 hours to feel better.
- Sleep problems.
- Pain, which can be widespread or in one place. CFS pain can be in one area, and travel to another.
Overall, chronic fatigue is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. But there are helpful measures that you can take to ease your symptoms and may relieve your symptoms all together.
Eating a healthy diet and using medicinal herbs as recommended may help reduce the symptoms of CFS, and may improve overall energy.
Several studies in China have shown acupuncture may help treat CFS. Western studies have found that acupuncture helps conditions with similar symptoms, such as fibromyalgia, depression, headache, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Evidence also suggests that acupuncture may help boost your immune system. It may also help people with CFS get a more restful night’s sleep, which is often key to turning the condition around.
Acupuncture patients with CFS are treated based on an individualized assessment of the excesses and deficiencies of qi located in various meridians. In the case of CFS, a qi deficiency is usually detected in the spleen or kidney meridians. But a deficiency may also be found in the lung or liver meridians. CFS does not have to be caused by a deficient condition. It can also be a symptom of excess in certain meridians.
Acupuncture patients may use moxibustion (a technique in which the herb mugwort is burned over specific acupuncture points) in addition to needling therapy, as it is thought moxibustion helps to provide a deeper and stronger treatment. Patients also may be recommended specific herbal medicines, as well as dietary changes.
Though it seems like CFS is something that is here to stay, it isn’t. You can change things starting now! There are options for people who want to fight Chronic Fatigue without the use of prescription drugs which could harm the body!
To learn more about CFS and Acupuncture please visit our Memphis Acupuncture Clinic
by Mark Xu | Jun 23, 2015 | Chinese Medicine
TCM Wellness Tea
We are ready for summer at Xu Wellness Center! We have changed our wellness tea to our summer blend! Those of you not familiar with our tea, it is a complimentary tea offered daily in our lobby for both our customers and anyone else who would like to stop by. The tea blends are seasonal and made for everyone to be able to enjoy!
During these Memphis Summer months, you have to really worry about the humidity and heat. Heat is a yang pathogenic factor while dampness is a yin pathogenic factor. With too much heat and dampness, the body tends to stop functioning as it should. The yin-yang balance becomes disturbed. When an excess of heat and dampness results, according to TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), it can be the root cause of many diseases.
As stated in The Medical Classic of the Yellow Emperor, “Yin in excess consumes yang, and yang in excess consumes yin.” “Yin in excess causes cold syndromes, and yang in excess causes heat syndromes.” Too much heat in the body causes dehydration and exhaustion. In TCM this is said to be a depletion of qi (bodily fluids).
To stay healthy this summer stay hydrated, eat foods that do not cause mucus/ dampness to accumulate in the body (i.e. dairy, gluten, alcohol, sugar), stay active (exercise pulls toxins and dampness out of the body), and drink our summer blend medicinal tea at least 5 days a week. Feel free to bring a thermos when you come in to stock up for the week!
by Mark Xu | Jan 8, 2015 | Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, TCM
What is rosacea?
Rosacea is a condition where facial blood vessels enlarge. It can be recognized with the frequent flushing of the face that makes it look like you are constantly in mid-blush. The redness can also make it appear as though you’ve been sunburned, and red, lumpy spots show up looking very similar to acne. Sometimes the spots go away after a little bit and other times they take much longer to disappear. Depending on how bad the rosacea flares up, tiny blood vessels under the skin can become quite prominent. Symptoms can also cause discomfort with your eyes, including, burning, stinging, itchiness, dryness, sensitivity to light, and eyelid problems.
What causes rosacea to flare up?
Triggers can include alcohol, heat, sun, wind, exercise, hot drinks, spicy foods, skin care products, stress, anxiety, and even overuse of steroid cream. What causes your rosacea to flare-up, might not bother another person at all. With so many different types of triggers, it might be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing you difficulty. A helpful thing to do might be to keep a food/drink diary and track what you take in. That way, if you get a flare-up, you’re not wondering what exactly you ate that could have made you have a bad reaction.
When cleaning your face, try to stay away from everything that has alcohol, acetone, or witch hazel in it, as it can cause burning and irritation. Get rid of harsh cleansers. Avoid rubbing or scrubbing your face. This could irritate your skin and make you even more uncomfortable. Heat and pressure can also aggravate your sensitive skin. Be gentle with your skin, after all, you wouldn’t powerwash a puppy!
Skin prone to rosacea is apt to be more sensitive in different weather conditions. So applying a natural, gentle sunscreen daily and a moisturizer without chemicals is a good way to go.
Acupuncture for rosacea
One of traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture’s main jobs is to reduce chronic inflammation, so it can help greatly in reducing the signs of rosacea.
Acupuncture three main healing benefits. They are pain relief, reduction of inflammation, and restoration of homeostasis.
Acupuncture, for overall pain relief, works by unclogging a person’s qi (chee). Qi is really a person’s energy and all bodily fluids. So, if your energy, your hormones, blood, and any other healing fluids in your body are clogged up or you’re unable to produce the right amount, you slowly start to feel unwell. Over time it becomes worse and that’s when people develop painful conditions.
Sometimes you can even have too much qi (bodily fluids that you don’t need) and sometimes it’s the exact opposite and you have too little. Either one isn’t ideal. Acupuncture helps to get your qi flowing properly. The needles are like guideposts that qi follows to heal your body or to maintain your health. Pain and inflammation is a big sign of your qi not functioning properly. The key is to get it back on track.
If you’re worried because acupuncture sounds scary, take heart! It’s not that frightening!
Comment below if you have anymore questions about how Acupuncture can help with rosacea!
by Mark Xu | Jan 8, 2015 | Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, TCM
Menopause is usually confirmed when a woman misses her period naturally for 12 consecutive months. Some may think, “Yay! Freedom!” but unfortunately, menopause can come with a whole set of problems that one isn’t prepared for.
What age can you start menopause?
The average age for menopause is around fifty-one, though it can even occur around forty. Sometimes it can happen sooner if a woman’s had her ovaries removed.
What are the symptoms of menopause?
Symptoms of menopause can be very uncomfortable and sometimes painful. They can include flushing, sweating, changes in sexual drive, dryness, poor concentration and ‘mental fog,’ anxiety, sleepless nights, frequent urination, incontinence, urinary tract infections, skin and hair changes, and mood swings.
While each of these symptoms is uncomfortable, one of the most difficult ones to deal with can be depression. Women are most susceptible to depression during and around menopause due to hormone imbalances.
If you’re feeling an intense sadness, loss of interest in the things you normally love, or you withdraw from people that you usually enjoy being around, and symptoms like these have lasted more than two weeks, you could be suffering from major depression.
Estrogen levels play a large part in regulating brain functions, especially with the chemicals that influence the mood, such as serotonin and cortisol. Among the many unhealthy symptoms of too much cortisol is your tummy getting rounder and sleeping habits changing.
What can too much cortisol do? Check out this interesting blog post by Lissa Rankin that explains it quite thoroughly.
What can you do for menopause and menopausal related depression?
Well, taking medication is always an option, but not exactly one of the healthiest ones. Medications can make you develop symptoms that aggravate the issues you are already going through. Even regular painkillers have the potential to be hazardous to your health.
So, is there a way to reduce these distressing symptoms without resorting to something that’s going to harm you?
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine do not have the numerous complications that medications can provide, and fortunately you won’t overdose on it.
Working by boosting the production of endorphins, acupuncture and Chinese medicine have the happy talent of helping your body to manage all your symptoms to give you the relief you need.
Traditional Chinese beliefs consider depression a circulation problem. Qi (healing fluids and energy) isn’t moving around freely like it should.
Acupuncture addresses the mind, body, and spirit. If any of these three are out of order, the others can easily slip out of place making recovery quite difficult. Since acupuncture doesn’t just work as a Band-Aid to cover up a symptom of a deeper issue, it can have a lasting effect.
If you have any questions or are unsure if acupuncture could help you with what you are going through, please give us a call!
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by Mark Xu | Jan 8, 2015 | Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine
One of the most common things to do when you’re in pain is to pop an over the counter medicine. In all reality, these medicines aren’t very safe.
Acetaminophen even has an antidote for if you end up overdosing on the stuff. Scary. . .
Even at the doctor’s office, it’s a hit or miss when taking the medication. There are almost always some kind of side effect you are exposed to and that could lead to major discomfort. Chronic pain makes it necessary to get relief all the time. This makes your exposure to the side effects even more possible. Is there a way to get out of taking medications that might make you even sicker than before?
Acupuncture
Acupuncture has very little side effects and the benefits can be massive.
It’s been reported that over a period of time with regular acupuncture, chronic pain subsides. No long-term side effects that could ruin other parts of your body or your mind.
How is this even possible and can it really help chronic pain?
As I wrote in this blog post “What is Acupuncture?” acupuncture has three main healing benefits.
- Pain relief
- Inflammation reduction
- Restoration of homeostasis
Inflammation
Inflammation is a big part of the body’s natural defense system and it works to protect our body. Unfortunately, inflammation can also be deadly to our bodies if they are left in that state for too long. That leads to chronic inflammation, which can be difficult to treat, since most inflammatory medications are targeted at a general level. Not to mention, as stated above, these medications can cause even more problems on top of the illness you might already be experiencing. Chronic inflammation can also lead to serious illness. Almost all chronic conditions have been linked to inflammation.
Here’s an interesting article about acupuncture’s anti-inflammatory effect. Check it out!
What does homeostasis have to do with staying healthy?
Homeostasis is the Greek word for “staying the same.” Our bodies are always working to stay regulated. Our heartbeat, respirations, blood glucose, blood pressure, and body temperature are some of the things that need regulating. But a lot of things can throw these different functions out of whack. Stress, alcohol, starvation, overeating, loss of sleep, are only a few. Personally, I can admit to being stressed, or occasionally going without food when I need it.
Some diseases that are a result from an imbalance are diabetes, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, gout, and most any other disease that is caused by toxins in the blood.
Acupuncture, for overall pain relief, works by unclogging a person’s qi (chee). Qi is really a person’s energy and all bodily fluids. So, if your energy, your hormones, blood, and any other healing fluids in your body are clogged up or you’re unable to produce the right amount, you slowly start to feel unwell. Over time it becomes worse and that’s when people develop painful conditions.
Sometimes you can even have too much qi (bodily fluids that you don’t need) and sometimes it’s the exact opposite and you have too little. Either one isn’t ideal.
Acupuncture helps to get your qi flowing properly. The needles are like guideposts that qi follows in your body, to heal or maintain your health.
Pain and inflammation is a big sign of your qi not functioning properly. The key is to get it back on track.
If you would like to learn more about pain relief and inflammation please contact our Memphis Acupuncture Clinic
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by Mark Xu | Jan 7, 2015 | Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, Fertility, TCM
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 10% of women in the United States, at peak bearing ages, are unable to get pregnant or carry the child to full term. It’s quite a large problem in thousands of women’s lives. And not only for women, but men also, as a large number of them can also suffer from infertility.
Acupuncture is often used in treating infertility, even during western medical treatments such as IVF procedures. There are documented successes.
What can acupuncture really do for infertility?
Acupuncture isn’t a quick fix. We love getting what we want now. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but right now. But it’s important to remember that acupuncture works in a way that helps your body to produce the proper hormones and healing fluids. The goal with acupuncture is to get your body to start healing itself. Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the health of your body as a whole, instead of treating only the symptoms. So you need to be committed to it.
Stress relief
Almost everyone can say that they’re under some kind of stress. Whether it be from work, school, or family no one is really immune to it. Chronic Stress can change your hormones, sending them spiraling out of order and causing a disorder known as Stress Induced Reproductive Dysfunction. Acupuncture can help combat and regulate the changes in your hormones due to stress, helping to promote a healthier body. Here are some tips on natural ways to relieve stress.
Hormonal changes
We talked a bit about hormones in the stress section, but I think it’s important to note that hormones can be flung out of balance by more than one thing. And unbalanced hormones can make fertility a big problem. What other things can cause hormone imbalances?
Soy: Though it’s sold as being healthy for us, soy contains phyto-estrogens. These chemicals fight with the hormones your body produces naturally, messing up the natural flow for men and women. Sarah C. Corriher wrote “In essence, the birth control pill is very similar to soy, because it provides estrogen in order to prevent pregnancy” in an article titled “Getting Pregnant, Curing Fertility, and Balancing Hormones”Obviously, if you’re trying to get pregnant, taking the pill is the last thing you want to do. And to make matters worse, most soy in the United States is genetically modified.
Tap water: It can contain pharmaceuticals, chlorine, lead, fluoride, arsenic, pesticides, and herbicides that have the potential to imbalance hormones.
Cosmetics: The chemicals in make-up, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, cologne, and lotion can do serious damage to how in balance you are. Even ones that say “all-natural” or “organic” have to be read over carefully. With cosmetics, if one ingredient used is organic, then they can label the entire bottle as such.
For further reading on hormones and infertility, I would suggest checking into Sarah’s awesome article!
Acupuncture can increase blood flow
Increased blood flow means improved circulation to the ovaries, which also means the ovaries have a better chance of producing healthier eggs. The chances of the uterus lining being strong enough to hold the eggs to full term are greatly increased if it has been supplied with a sufficient amount of blood.
Acupuncture decreases inflammation
If there is inflammation present in the pelvic organs, acupuncture is a good way to reduce or get rid of it. At the heart of many sicknesses is inflammation. Your body knows when something’s wrong and that is one way it tries to tell you.
Acupuncture can reduce anxiety that leads to unhealthy mindsets
It’s easy to see infertility as your fault and spiral into a mindset of blame and defeat. But that’s not the way to live. Blaming yourself, past choices, or your spouse doesn’t propagate a mindset that allows you to grow and reach past negative thoughts that cause stress and anxiety. Negative thoughts and anxiety drain you of energy and can also put more stress on you. Using acupuncture as a way to relax can help you see just how negative thought patterns are affecting your life and behavior. Surround yourself with positive people and stop following people who always spout off negativity. It can improve your mood and help lighten your thoughts.
A way to promote positivity is to create your own personal affirmations of success and wellness. Check out this post on how to write your own affirmations that suit your needs! How To Write Affirmations
Infertility is such a big opposition. It can be hard to know where to turn or what to do. You have the strength to get through this.
Keep in mind these four things:
- Surround yourself with supportive/positive people.
- Do your research. (Because knowledge is power)
- Be open to alternative methods.
- Change negative thought patterns to promote a healthy mind.
The road to wellbeing can sometimes be difficult. The key is to realize that you’re worth it and that giving up isn’t the answer!
Have you thought about acupuncture to treat infertility? Interested in Visiting our Memphis Acupuncture Clinic? Click to learn more
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