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The Pessimist’s Guide to Gratitude

By admin | Published December 24, 2012

Your mother was right–say thank you.

Scientists have now proven what your mother always knew–it’s good to be grateful.  Being grateful is more than just politeness; it’s actually good for your health and well-being.

In a study by Robert A. Emmons, of the University of California, and Davis and Michael E. McCullough, of the University of Miami, people who kept gratitude journals showed higher levels of health and well-being than people who journaled neutral events or counted hardships.  After 2 months, the people who journaled their gratitude felt more optimistic and happier than their control counterparts. They reported fewer physical problems and spent more time working out.  People with neuromuscular problems who did the same thing fell asleep more quickly, slept longer and woke up feeling more refreshed.  Even their spouses noticed the difference!

How can you cultivate gratefulness even if you’re a glass-half-empty person?

Read the rest here…

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9 Healthy Holiday Eating Strategies

By admin | Published December 10, 2012

Pie.  Cookies.  Chocolate.  Eggnog.  Champagne.

The holiday season is filled with good foods.  You eat and drink with your friends and loved ones to celebrate how much you care about them.

But we all know that too much of a good thing is no longer good.  Too many rich foods can lead to extra pounds, digestion upsets, mood swings and a generally “yucky” feeling.

It’s all about balance.

Good, healthy holiday eating can make the difference between an enjoyable holiday season and a miserable one.  The trick is to enjoy treats without overdoing them.  Make a healthy holiday eating strategy and plan to enjoy the holiday celebrations without feeling bad the next day.

See some healthy holiday eating strategies below the fold…

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The Key to Staying Healthy

By admin | Published November 26, 2012

Your car came with a maintenance schedule that is designed to optimize the life of the car. If you care about your car, it means that you take all of the necessary steps to protect your investment by following the maintenance schedule and taking care of other needed repairs as they come up.

You, on the other hand, did not come with a maintenance schedule. The sad truth is that many people take better care of their cars than they do themselves because they do not prize their own health and wellbeing as much as they feel they need their transportation. Sometimes, the car’s main function seems to be just getting you to all of those doctors’ appointments.

Depending upon your current health status, you may visit your doctor/s often or hardly at all.  Either way, a good question to ask yourself is “What am I doing to stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can?” You can do more than just taking pills with their potential side effects.

The reality is that most of the top killers today are lifestyle related, regardless of your family history. In other words, it’s about the lifestyle choices that you make. Just because you inherit certain genes doesn’t mean that you have to continue with a lifestyle that is detrimental to your health.

Cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disorders…all of these conditions are greatly impacted by stress, diet, lifestyle habits, depressed nervous systems, our home environments, etc. Until we change our focus from the curing of disease and the alleviation of styptoms to the propagation of optimal health, we will continue to fall short of our potential wellbeing.

In most cases, your body has the capacity to heal itself as long as there is the proper balance and flow of energy (life force). According to acupuncture and Chinese medicine, your body has a meridian system (invisible pathways in the body) that delivers energy to every body part right down to the cellular components.  When this meridian system is properly functioning, it reduces inflammation, relieves pain and promotes good health. With the focus of this article on your health, you should know that true health is much more than the mere absence of illness or symptoms. It is also not limited to your body. In addition to a healthy body, it includes mental and emotional fitness.  

True health includes a general optimism along with good physical fitness and a well-balanced energy system.  So, the key to staying healthy is not to depend on pharmaceutical solutions from the outside, but rather to stimulate your innermost healing layer (your meridian system) first and then optimize it with layer upon layer of healthy, productive lifestyle habits that honor your body and mind and their capacity for optimal health.

Rmember, your car can be replaced if it stops working. What about you? If your body is like a broken down old jalopy and you’d rather be more like a well maintained and smooth running car, then consider taking some extra steps in your life to create better health for yourself and your loved ones. Everyone will be happier for it.

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What is health?

By admin | Published November 12, 2012

Did you ever ask yourself what it means to be healthy?  For most people, health is just a vague concept of not feeling sick or the absence of illness.  True health is so much more.  It is a state of optimum physical, mental, emotional and social well-being.  It’s not about living life just barely above the doldrums, or hoping against hope that you won’t get sick or that you’ll finally feel better someday.

Understand that your body was designed to be healthy and in balance.  This is your natural state.  If you are struggling with your health, you have most likely, throughout the course of living, allowed your body and mind to get out of balance.  It’s easy enough to do in our task driven society where the to-do list never ends and the demands of life seem endless.

For many, the solution is found in taking one drug after another.  Sometimes there is no alternative.  But, just taking medicine to treat symptoms will never create balance within the body.  And we all know that drugs come with side effects that can build up over time.  Everyday each of us is one day older and our window of opportunity to turn our health around closes just a little bit more.  Even if you must take drugs, you can take other steps to improve your health.

Acupuncture works with your body and mind to return it to its natural state of balance so that it can heal from the inside out.  If you’re serious about taking care of your headaches, insomnia, acid reflux, anxiety, low back pain or other health problems, don’t delay.  Your best health possible doesn’t deserve to be on the back burner.  Everyday that you put off your getting your health back on track is another day in which you are not living up to your life’s potential.  So get out and exercise, start eating right, find ways to reduce stress and consider acupuncture as a means to recover the very best that your health can be.

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Plantar Fasciitis and Heel Pain

By Craig | Published June 11, 2012

Plantar Fasciitis, (PF) is a painful inflammatory process of the plantar fascia, which is the connective tissue on the sole of the foot beginning at the base of the heel and spreading across the foot toward the toes. Although there are exceptions, it most commonly affects two distinct populations: athletes who use their feet a lot and heavier people whose feet bear the brunt of the excessive weight. Those who are suffering with PF, and there are as many as 2 million Americans who go through this each year, experience pain in all or part of this region. The pain is often at its worst as they get out of bed in the morning and can often be exacerbated by flexing the muscles in the toes to bring the toes closer to the shin (referred to as ‘dorsiflexion’).

PF can trigger many other problems including heel spurs caused by the chronic inflammation in the region causing the calcification, as well as knee and back pain caused by gait changes associated with the pain from the feet. Where these other conditions exist they can be treated simultaneously.

Acupuncture is very effective in remedying this problem and can be performed as a stand alone treatment or in conjunction with other modalities such as stretching, custom orthotics and physical therapy. It tends to perform much better, long term, and with fewer side effects than steroid injections.

Research/Articles

A British study from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry concludes that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of plantar heel pain. The researchers note that acupuncture treatment clinical outcomes are comparable to the use of medications, night splints and stretching as evidenced in multiple studies. The researchers also note that results demonstrate that acupuncture has more significant improvements in both pain relief and the restoration of function than a standard regime of care that includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Based on these findings, the researchers formally recommend acupuncture for the treatment of plantar heel pain.

A Greek study entitled, Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis in Recreational Athletes: Two Different Therapeutic Protocols,  found that:

Acupuncture should be considered as a major therapeutic instrument for the decrease of heel pain in plantar fasciitis (PF) . . . Scores for pain and mobility/function were significantly smaller [indicating improvement] in the acupuncture group after two months of treatment.

A British study, from the Orthopedics Department of a Bedford hospital, on the effects of acupuncture for non-responsive plantar fasciitis concluded that,

Our study demonstrates that acupuncture is effective in treating patients with chronic heel pain due to plantar fasciitis and that the addition of trigger point acupuncture in poor or non-responders may be useful.

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