Strengthen Your Wei (Defensive) Qi

The cold and flu season is getting close rapidly. Dead leaves, mold pores in the air brought on by damp November rain, and airborne viruses and bacteria affect millions of folks who suffer from chronic sinus issues.

Your first line of defense against the flu, or any other illness, is to strengthen your immunity.

Allendale Acupuncture and Nutrition Center

When it comes to staying healthy during cold and flu season, Acupuncture and Oriental medicine have a lot to offer. Acupuncture and Oriental medicine can help prevent colds and flu by fortifying the immune system with just a few needles inserted into key points along the body’s energy pathways.

In Oriental medicine, disease prevention begins by focusing on the protective layer around the exterior of the body called Wei Qi, or defensive energy. The Wei Qi involves acupuncture points known for strengthening the circulation of blood and energy to boost your body’s defenses.

Acupuncture and Oriental medicine can also provide relief and faster healing if you have already come down with a cold or the flu by helping to relieve symptoms you are currently experiencing, including chills, fever, body aches, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, and cough. While bringing some immediate relief, treatments will also reduce the incidence of an upper respiratory tract infection and shorten the length of the illness.

Seasonal acupuncture treatments just four times a year also serve to tonify the inner organ systems and can correct minor annoyances before they become serious problems.

Call us at 201.760.8811 to see how we can help you stay healthy this season!

Strengthen Your Digestive Health with Acupuncture

Our gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) starts from the mouth and ends at the anus. There are a number of diseases associated with our GI tract ranging from excessive gas build-up, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea to more serious conditions such as acid reflux (GERD), ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Crohn’s disease. Most of these conditions are chronic, although some conditions of ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease can be life-threatening.

Early Chinese medical texts state that “The origins of any chronic disease can be traced back to compromised digestive function.” In other words, Chinese medicine views digestive health as the foundation to total health.

digestive health

According to Chinese medical theory, most digestive disorders are due to disharmony in the spleen and stomach. In fact, it’s not so much the stomach that holds the key in maintaining optimal digestive function, it’s the SPLEEN.

Unlike Western medicine that views the spleen as not-so-vital, Chinese medicine considers the spleen an extremely important organ, not only for digestive functions, but for reproductive health, immune functions, and vascular strength.

The spleen (which includes the pancreas in Chinese medical theory) takes a lead role in the assimilation of nutrients and maintenance of physical strength. It turns digested food from the stomach into usable nutrients and Qi (energy).

digestive health 2

The liver also plays a critical role in the digestive process. When the spleen is weak, the liver cannot move smoothly, so that the combined effects of weak spleen and liver often result in serious digestive disorders.

In addition, the large/small intestines, the gallbladder, and the kidneys are intricately involved in our digestive process. Therefore, maintaining optimal digestive heath always requires a holistic approach that takes into a whole body into account, not just the organs associated with the GI tract.

Five Most Common Causes of Human Diseases

***As published in naturalawakeningsnj.com – see original article here.

The fundamental premise of alternative/complementary medicine is centered on the notion of treating causes of disease instead of treating symptoms, and in the attempt to identify these root causes, thousands of testing procedures, treatment protocols and techniques have been developed. Nonetheless, finding the true cause of any disease is extremely difficult because our bodies are made up of so many layers, organs and tissues, all of which affect each other at all times. It is more akin to detective’s work, and often the findings appear to be irrational, unlikely, or even absurd.

Outside of stress, which may well be the single most important cause, there are five major causes of all human diseases, regardless of age, geographic location and DNA disposition. They are food sensitivity, pathogens, metal toxicity, chemical toxicity and scar tissue. The root cause of any disease can be found among these five factors.

  • Food sensitivity: Certain foods wreak havoc on our health. Foods that can cause major troubles include wheat, sugar (including fruit sugar and honey), dairy, nuts, eggs and certain seafood. GMOs, animals being fed on growth hormones and antibiotics and the dumping of chemical and medical waste into soil and water have made many foods incompatible with our DNA. Gluten intolerance is a merely an outcry of the body telling us that it hates chemically-processed proteins. Not only wheat, but grains like barley, soy, corn, rye, millet and rice, as well as many different vegetables, are grown out of GMO seeds.

food sensitivity

  • Pathogens: Our bodies are inundated with many types of pathogens, notably viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungus/yeast. Many of these pathogens are buried deep inside our tissues and never leave our bodies. Among all pathogens, overgrown Candida (fungus/yeast) is perhaps the most challenging medical issue in modern times.

pathogens

  • Metal toxicity: Heavy metal toxicity is usually caused by lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium. We absorb metals through exposure to industrial products, polluted air and water, medicine, paint products and jewelry. When it comes to heavy metal toxicity, the most notable is mercury poisoning caused by amalgam tooth fillings (made of 50 percent liquid mercury and another 50 percent a powdered alloy composed of silver, tin and copper).

metal toxicity

  • Chemical toxicity: We are exposed to hundreds of different toxic chemicals. The water we drink contains fluoride, chloride, medical waste, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and dioxin. The air we breathe is mixed with toxic fumes, chemical sprays and other harmful chemicals. All kinds of plastic materials, food coloring, dry cleaning materials, paints, heavily scented lotions and shampoos contain chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. The most harmful chemical toxin is in nail polish remover, commonly known as acetone.

chemical toxins

  • Scar tissue: Scar tissue formed by surgeries or injuries essentially blocks the flow of energy and blood in our bodies. Scar tissue that has not healed properly continuously excretes body chemicals that can be extremely harmful to surrounding tissues and organs.

scar

Using a cookie-cutter approach based on conventional medical knowledge and previous research findings to determine the main cause of any medical condition among these five common factors can be dangerous and costly, because each individual has a uniquely different genetic makeup, diet and medical history. Even if two people demonstrate almost identical symptoms, what one person’s body needs can be vastly different from what the other individual needs.

However, we can find the deepest cause of any medical condition through applied kinesiology. When done properly, applied kinesiology yields extraordinarily accurate information about our health by allowing us to tap into our body’s “infinite intelligence”. Regardless of the severity and length of illnesses, at any given moment, our bodies are ready to point out the areas needing the most attention. Once the root causes are known, diseased bodies can be effectively treated by using real-food-based nutrition programs. When being fed with the right amount and type of nutrients, our bodies never fail to utilize their incredible self-healing power.

Dr. Susanna Eun, LAc, Ph.D., offers free seminars on nutrition response testing every month. For more information, visit AllendaleAcupuncture.com, or call 201-760-8811.