herb drops

reach for the sky

The latest issue of the Wheatsville Breeze is out, and I am sad to report that we didn’t make this issue. But hey, we have been featured in the last 3 issues as a staff favorite, so I am not complaining.

While cruising the staff notes on vitamins though, I noticed noticed the Rainbow Light Just Once multivitamin made the cut. I want to take a moment to second this nomination. From personal experience, I can tell you that I tried many different prenatal vitamins and the Rainbow Light vitamin was the only one that I never regurgitated with my rather inconvenient morning sickness.

Never mind the goofy name, they make a good product.

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Now that's a bad day

Back in my days of living the financial services life in Boston, I had a friend, Andy, who worked on the sales team for a computer security company. Think of the kind of security measures banks put in place to keep hackers from taking all their clients’ money with a few keystrokes.

One of Andy’s sales team cohorts, Joe, was a former FBI field agent. At one point the whole team was working to seal the deal with a really big client. They were almost done when a small snag threatened to undo the whole sale and consequently the entire sales team’s annual bonuses. Andy was pretty well losing his stuffing but Joe remained his typical collected, calm self.

Andy said, “Joe, how come you are always so calm? Why aren’t you freaking out now?”

Joe answered, “Andy, in the course of my previous career, I had a loaded gun held to my head by someone who seriously wanted me dead- on multiple occasions. Do you really think it’s going to freak me out if a contract is 30 minutes late getting signed?”

Andy confessed to me later that Joe’s answer provided some much needed perspective on the situation.

The classic Chinese herb formula, Xiao Yao San, on which we base our Decompress formula, is colloquially described as “good for stress.” People ask me how that’s possible, suggesting quite correctly, “Taking herbs can’t make stressful stuff stop happening.”

No doubt, neither Xiao Yao San nor its American cousin can stop stressful stuff from happening.Your boss will still be an ineffectual idiot Read the rest of this entry »

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Chinese herbs are good for what ails you! I came across this study review on Huang Qin Tang. I myself have only taken Huang Qin Tang once and for only a short time during a particularly nasty GI virus. I won’t lie to you- the taste is not for the faint of heart. But I am guessing if you are trying to treat colon cancer like the mice in this study,

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It's really fun when you're young

I married relatively late in life. And before I found my terrifically reliable husband, let’s just say that I had a somewhat colorful dating life, filled mostly with escapees from the Island of Misfit Toys. One boyfriend in particular was an amazingly bad boyfriend, and though I will save the details for my tell-all memoir, I think it’s fair to say you wouldn’t want your daughter dating him. But, he did have two redeeming qualities

• He drove a really cool motorcycle
• He periodically spouted profound and useful life advice

At one point during our relationship he told me, “If you are in a situation that’s not working for you, you can either change the way you react to the situation or you can leave the situation. But you can’t change the situation.” I’m afraid it came as a great shock to him when I took his advice, realized he was the situation that wasn’t working for me, and then left it. Still, it’s excellent life advice with lots of other applications.

In my clinical practice as an acupuncturist, I listen to a lot of patients complain about various aspects of their western medical treatment. Read the rest of this entry »

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In traditional Chinese medicine, there is no concept of independence between mental health and physical health- instead the two are inextricably linked. Thoughts, emotions, traumas and joys all effect the physical health. And conversely, the physical activities, toxins, disease,  and yes, our favorite, herbs all effect mental health. It is not possible to effect one without effecting the other.

I have said it before and I will say it again, I am privileged to know Ragen Chastain, who does an extraordinary job of having the right attitude (in this case mental) to achieve her goals (you guessed it- physical), and, more importantly, inspires others to do the same. This week I particularly enjoyed her guest post My Feet Hurt

My favorite bit:

I try to live my life out loud and I keep finding that everything I hold back ends up holding me back.

Oh, and Ragen, for those aching feet, we have herbs for that.

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Is this hanging on your metaphorical tree?

In the summer I find it entirely too hot to run outside, and so confine my training activities to the treadmill at the gym. Lately I have been going in the mornings, and have noticed that one of the many televisions intended to distract me from the unsatisfying pursuit of what is essentially running in place has been consistently showing infomercials for health related products. Some of these I find inspiring- like the set of DVDs that promise I will have Marine worthy abs in only 90 days. Some of these I find intriguing- could making my own juice everyday really change my life or just blow my grocery budget? And some of these I find just plain silly- really, that special devise/ colon cleanse/ air filter will rid my body of 35 years of accumulated toxins in a matter of weeks?

I once had an acupuncture patient, a real estate agent, who came to see me weekly for his nasal allergies. Over the course of treatment, his symptoms were improving- that pesky chronic sinus infection finally cleared up and his daily symptoms were lessened- but they just weren’t completely resolving. One day Real Estate Dude asked me about some special foot patches he had seen on late night TV that were supposed to rid your body of toxins overnight, while you sleep, that would miraculously cure your health complaints. He wanted to know if I had any opinion on this topic.

I told Real Estate Dude quite honestly I suspect that yes, there are lot of things in our daily environment that crud up our bodies- air pollution, water pollution, and so on- and then our bodies don’t function optimally. And probably there is some scientific validity to the idea that those toxins can be encouraged to leave the body through the soles of the feet. After all, the pores on our skin will release all sorts of stuff with sweat and the soles of the feet have tremendous ability to sweat.

But then I went on to suggest that perhaps low-hanging fruit are the way to go. Read the rest of this entry »

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Don't let the badly translated English fool you- they're serious

When I was in China in 2005, the topic of using endangered species, particularly animals, met with seriousness. The photo here is one that I took of the signage at the herb market in Chengdu. Although some of the more jaded Americans I talked to claimed that such signs were merely for show, I also heard terrifying stories of people being imprisoned for possession of illegal exotic herbs. And from what I could gather, Chinese prison is not a place I would ever want to spend time. Eric Brand’s latest discussion on CITES Listed Herbs in Chinese Medicine leads me to believe that the Chinese government has cracked down even more, stepping up protections for plants as well as animals. Seems to me this is a step in the right direction. It’s not just about saving endangered species, it’s about preserving an endangered medicine tradition.

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Garlic- it's good for what ails you

The other day a mommy friend of mine called me freaking out. She had received one of those emails that, while inevitable when you send your kid to daycare, still makes that primordial part of your brain go, “Eeeewwww!” The email subject line said simply, “****pinworm alert****”. Basically, one of the other kids at the daycare had been diagnosed and was being treated for pinworms, and toddler hygiene being what it is, the daycare center had taken the appropriate action of alerting the rest of the parents. My friend, whose child was showing no symptoms of pinworms incidentally, wanted to know if there were any good Chinese herbs she could dose her kid with, you know, just in case.

After consulting Chapter 17- Herbs that Expel Parasites of my extremely dog-eared and thoroughly annotated Chinese Herbology Student Study Guide, I found the copious notes I had written on raw garlic. The fabulous anti-parasitic, anti-fungal, and antibiotic properties of this pungent bulb were  detailed, with instructions for use either internally or as an enema. Read the rest of this entry »

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But look what happened to the cook!

Austin, Texas is currently swept up in the backyard chicken craze. Experts on the practice tout the benefits of fresh eggs and a reduction of table scraps in the land fills. I am told that chickens particularly love watermelon rinds. Even my son’s wonderful pre-school has a flock of egg producing hens and one lone rooster that the children visit as part of their education in animal husbandry. I like the idea of having backyard chickens, but like even better the idea of having someone who has backyard chickens already and wants to repay me some favor in fresh eggs. I do appreciate a really good omelet.

Of great popularity at the moment are a breed known as Ameraucana chickens. They are prized for the blue-grey shells on the eggs they lay. But if you have only ever seen pristine commercially farmed eggs from the grocery store, they can be a little confusing.

My friend recently told me the egg-related story of being at her parent’s home while they were out of town. She wanted to make some eggs, and in the refrigerator she found a dozen of these funny blue-grey eggs. Confused by their color, Read the rest of this entry »

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Gravity: Just a Theory

As moderator of this blog, I get the privilege of sorting through real comments versus spam comments. The spam filter mostly does a great job, but periodically a few slip through. Usually I can tell immediately what is spam versus what is real because the authors of spam typically link to websites offering me a hot long night with my new laptop so I can work at home and make $12K a month in real estate. But this post comment has me confused enough that I let it through. Specifically, it says,

“Chinese herbs do work because it is time tested.”

If I was a betting women, and those of you who have played poker with me know I am, I would bet this is actually spam. The tells on this comment are:

• It’s a really old blog post and anyone who actually cared to comment did so a long while ago
• It contains a really basic grammar mistake that most native English speakers wouldn’t make
• As comments go, it’s just plain stupid.

So at the risk of offending Alexa Stewart, you’re wrong.

However, Alexa brings to my attention something that I hear more often than I would like, this notion that Chinese herbs “work because they are time tested.” (I’m sorry, I just could not leave that subject-verb agreement mistake alone).

This brings me to Isaac Newton. I know, it’s a jump, but hang in there with me. Read the rest of this entry »

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