Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Loy Krathong/Light Festival
By lighting a balloon into the night, rids one of a year's worth of bad luck or regrets. Allowing for a new year of hopes and dreams. February 3rd, 2011 marks the start of the 'Year of the Rabbit', may it also bring good luck to you!
Acupuncture Treatment for Chronic Sinusitis
Chronic Sinusitis is a condition that affects millions of Canadians each year. It is a condition that involves inflammation of the paranasal sinuses due to; infection (bacterial, viral or fungal), allergies, or autoimmune disorders. Symptoms may include; nasal congestion, facial pain or pressure, headaches, tightness or fullness of the sinuses, pain when bending foward, and dizziness lasting longer than three months.
Chronic Sinusitis is typically treated with antibiotics, cortico-steroids or even surgery, but natural alternatives like acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine have proven to be very effective.
Regular acupuncture treatments can help ease the symptoms snd clear the root cause. Points located near and around the nasal cavity, aided with supplemental points are well known to dispel congestion and get the energy flowing more freely. Another technique known as 'Guasha' is also effective in helping ease and prevent chronic sinusitis.
Ruling out dietary sensitivities/allergies such as dairy or wheat may prove to be useful, as well as environmental factors such as temperature variations (damp cold) and mold.
With the use of a 'neti pot' , a small teapot helps to flush out the nasal cavity with a saline solution, by clearing congestion and aiding in breathing. The use of essential oils can be beneficial when doing a steam inhalation. Eucalyptus and Japanese Mint oil are well-known to improve sinus congestion, Thyme oil is excellent as an anti-sinusitis oil and is known for having anti-bacterial properties as well. Place five drops in a bowl of hot water. Place a towel over the head, inhale the steam and allow the sinuses to clear for approximately five minutes.
Natural alternatives can provide lasting relief from chronic sinus pain, which doesn't result in harmful side-effects. Contact your Registered Acupuncturist for more information.
Chronic Sinusitis is typically treated with antibiotics, cortico-steroids or even surgery, but natural alternatives like acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine have proven to be very effective.
Regular acupuncture treatments can help ease the symptoms snd clear the root cause. Points located near and around the nasal cavity, aided with supplemental points are well known to dispel congestion and get the energy flowing more freely. Another technique known as 'Guasha' is also effective in helping ease and prevent chronic sinusitis.
Ruling out dietary sensitivities/allergies such as dairy or wheat may prove to be useful, as well as environmental factors such as temperature variations (damp cold) and mold.
With the use of a 'neti pot' , a small teapot helps to flush out the nasal cavity with a saline solution, by clearing congestion and aiding in breathing. The use of essential oils can be beneficial when doing a steam inhalation. Eucalyptus and Japanese Mint oil are well-known to improve sinus congestion, Thyme oil is excellent as an anti-sinusitis oil and is known for having anti-bacterial properties as well. Place five drops in a bowl of hot water. Place a towel over the head, inhale the steam and allow the sinuses to clear for approximately five minutes.
Natural alternatives can provide lasting relief from chronic sinus pain, which doesn't result in harmful side-effects. Contact your Registered Acupuncturist for more information.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
2011: A New Year and New Resolutions
As 2010 comes to an abrupt halt, and a brand New Year is about to begin-- a time for new resolutions, promises for positive change usually happen right around this time.
What is your New Year's Resolution? Incorporating more exercise into a daily routine, eating less, eating better, less stress, and enjoying life more? Typically, resolutions are made to alter how we will treat our minds and bodies in the up-coming year. What better way to approach (and stick to) a New Year's resolution than with the help of a natural alternative? Let acupuncture help you to bring balance into your life by; aiding digestion, improving energy, regulating hormones and reducing stress. Acupuncture treatments also have a long term effect of boosting the immune system, relaxing the mind, and by helping improve will-power and motivation-- to help keep resolutions all year! Start 2011 on a healthy note, make this year an incredible one by exercising regularly, eating more organic fruit and vegetables, and adding acupuncture to your health routine.
What is your New Year's Resolution? Incorporating more exercise into a daily routine, eating less, eating better, less stress, and enjoying life more? Typically, resolutions are made to alter how we will treat our minds and bodies in the up-coming year. What better way to approach (and stick to) a New Year's resolution than with the help of a natural alternative? Let acupuncture help you to bring balance into your life by; aiding digestion, improving energy, regulating hormones and reducing stress. Acupuncture treatments also have a long term effect of boosting the immune system, relaxing the mind, and by helping improve will-power and motivation-- to help keep resolutions all year! Start 2011 on a healthy note, make this year an incredible one by exercising regularly, eating more organic fruit and vegetables, and adding acupuncture to your health routine.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Christmas Gift Certificates!
Stumped with what to get that special someone who has everything? Tired of giving more stuff? Give the gift of health this holiday season!
With every Acupuncture gift certificate, recieve a 20 mL bottle of Hagina Japanese Mint oil --FREE!
Japanese Mint Oil is a great stocking stuffer that has a multitude of uses. From easing headache pain to muscle cramp relief, it's a great natural liniment that smells good too.
Come into Klinik to finish your Christmas shopping today!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Stay Healthy this Winter with 5 Easy Tips!
Winter tends to be the time for cold and flu season. With colder temperatures and more rain-- our bodies are more suseptible to lingering pathogens, compounded by busy holiday schedules, unhealthy habits and stress, that can make your body feel worse. Try the following tips for a healthier holiday season and find more time and energy to spend with family and friends instead of sick in bed!
1. Avoid colds and flus by washing hands thoroughly. This alone will combat so many viruses and prevent transmission of unwanted germs.
2. Drink plenty of fluids-- Ginger root tea helps to warm the body and flush out toxins. Grate a thumb's size amount of ginger into 2 cups of boiling water and drink. Not only will this help with colds and flu, it's also great to help nausea.
3. Get plenty of sleep -- adequate and undisturbed rest will help promote a healthy immune system, and help fight off lingering pathogens that much faster.
4. Practice healthy stress prevention techniques --even though the holidays can be a busy time of year, it is important to manage stress properly with regular relaxation techniques. Trying meditation, yoga, or breathing techniques are so much better for your system than reaching for that sugar cookie or the last beer, as refined sugar can weaken the immune system. Regular exercise will also help strengthen the immune system.
5. Visit your Registered Acupuncturist BEFORE symptoms appear. Acupuncture works very well to help boost the immune system and diminish stress even before pathogens have a chance to strike, boosting one's energy to combat germs naturally with no side-effects. Visiting your acupuncturist once the cold or flu has already set in, will help reduce symptoms and speed up recovery time.
*Remember! Colds are caused by viruses, there is no medication available for the 300+ viruses that can cause a cold. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to go to the Doctor to be given a prescription for antibiotics that can cause harmful side-effects. Antibiotics treat bacteria. With adequate rest and liquids, diminished stress, it will eventually go away on it's own. A visit to your acupuncturist will speed this process along so you can get out of bed and enjoy the Winter season!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Protecting the 'least among us'
By Brian Lindstrom and published by the Oregonian, 11/9/2010
I was recently in Germany and Denmark documenting innovative uses of acupuncture in the treatment of mental illness and drug addiction. What I encountered brought into sharp focus what would be available to us if we as a society prioritized the well-being of children and people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
About an hour outside of Hamburg, a man by the name of Wolfgang gave me a tour of the residential drug treatment center he runs. It resembles a quaint boarding school, possessing none of the institutional drabness I've come to expect after filming in Oregon, Washington, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Wolfgang's clinic uses only acupuncture-no medications- in treating drug withdrawl. Through an interpreter, a 35-year-old female crack addict told me this approach "calms and focuses me, greatly reduces my symptoms and cravings, and makes me think the answer to healing my addiction is within me, and is accessed through acupuncture."
I asked Wolfgang how long addicts typically had to wait for admission into his clinic. He didn't understand my question, so I asked again. As I was about to ask a third time, it dawned on me the confusion wasn't due to language, but to Wolfgang's inability as a physician to comprehend why any patient should have to wait for treatment.
I explained to him that in Portland, people sleep outside every night of the year in hopes of being admitted to Hooper Detox the following morning. Because of space limitations, many are turned away. It's common for an addict to try five or six times before getting admitted. Wolfgang looked at me in stunned silence, then sadly shook his head.
In Copenhagen, I filmed Mette, a psychiatric nurse and acupuncturist as she visited "social psychiatric" organizations - neighbourhood homes turned into drop-in centers - using acupuncture to treat mental illness. The acupuncture, often done in small groups, and the homey atmosphere help create a sense of warmth and community. At one of the homes, a woman was in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate her first bridge crossing in four years -- an important victory over one of her phobias. Later, she shared the cake with another woman who, after giving birth to her third child, suffered such severe post-partem depression that she couldn't adequately care for her newborn. Now, after the benefits of social psychiatry, she is able to mother her baby.
The next morning, Mette and I drove her 13-year-old son, Jakob, to school. The school started like any other, with all the students (ranging in age from 5-15) and the teachers in the gym for morning assembly. "Smoking is Crap," a song written by one of the classes, was sung by the entire assembly. Next the principal, a vibrant woman in her 60s, called a 13-year-old boy to the front of the gym. She warmly put her arm around him and extolled a detailed list of his virtues and accomplishments. Then everyone sang him "Happy Birthday". He smiled deeply, hugged the principal and sat down. Next, a five-year-old girl stood up and explained that she had lost a ninja turtle toy and would like it returned in case any one found it. You could tell it was hers, she explained, because she wrote her name on the toy turtle's foot.
I was struck by the focus and calm of the assembled students, who numbered about 75. There was no name-calling, no texting or disciplinary problems, and the maturity of the older students was demonstrated by the 5-year-old girl's complete confidence that her missing toy alert would be taken seriously. And it was.
The classes at the school have no more than 20 students, and music, art and P.E. are required daily. In summer, there is a six-week vacation. I asked Mette what it costs to send Jakob to the school, bracing myself for Catlin Gabel-like numbers. "Two hundred dollars a month, " she answered. I resisted the urge to inquire about Denmark's immigration policy.
My wife and I are self-employed. We paid more than $14,000 last year in health insurance and medical bills. One of our two children sees an occupational therapist for one hour a week. Our insurance company just informed us that it will no longer cover any such visits for the rest of this year. Paying out of pocket, our bill will be $425 a week, but the visits have helped our child make great strides in both fine and gross motor skills.
The relevant question here isn't: "What should my wife and I do?" or "What should you do?" The question that must be asked is why are any of us content with health care and educational systems that make a mockery of what seems to me to be the purpose of any worthwhile government or society: to protect the "least among us," in this case of our children and people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
I'm reminded of the old Talmudic saying: "If I am not for me, who will be for myself? If I am for myself only, what am I? If not now, when?"
Brian Lindstrom is a Portland filmmaker and director of the upcoming documentary: Alien Boy: The death and life of James Chasse.
In Vancouver, we do have social programs available for addicts and those who suffer with severe mental illness. The sad fact is that typically the wait-list is so long, many people can't access the help they need. There are a few community-based acupuncture clinics in and around Vancouver that offer accessible treatments within an open space. This type of acupuncture utilizes distal points in a community environment at a fraction of the price. Quite often the NADA five-needle protocol is used along with other supplementation points. NADA has had very good results with treating addictions, helping calm the mind and allowing the patient to focus better. Treatment involves five points on the surface of the ear (shenmen, sympathetic nerve, kidney, lung and liver), administered by a NADA "acudetox specialist". Klinik is not set-up for community acupuncture but the NADA protocol is offered to those patients who are looking for an alternative -- and treatments are available on a sliding scale to those who can't afford to pay for full treatments.
I was recently in Germany and Denmark documenting innovative uses of acupuncture in the treatment of mental illness and drug addiction. What I encountered brought into sharp focus what would be available to us if we as a society prioritized the well-being of children and people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
About an hour outside of Hamburg, a man by the name of Wolfgang gave me a tour of the residential drug treatment center he runs. It resembles a quaint boarding school, possessing none of the institutional drabness I've come to expect after filming in Oregon, Washington, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Ohio. Wolfgang's clinic uses only acupuncture-no medications- in treating drug withdrawl. Through an interpreter, a 35-year-old female crack addict told me this approach "calms and focuses me, greatly reduces my symptoms and cravings, and makes me think the answer to healing my addiction is within me, and is accessed through acupuncture."
I asked Wolfgang how long addicts typically had to wait for admission into his clinic. He didn't understand my question, so I asked again. As I was about to ask a third time, it dawned on me the confusion wasn't due to language, but to Wolfgang's inability as a physician to comprehend why any patient should have to wait for treatment.
I explained to him that in Portland, people sleep outside every night of the year in hopes of being admitted to Hooper Detox the following morning. Because of space limitations, many are turned away. It's common for an addict to try five or six times before getting admitted. Wolfgang looked at me in stunned silence, then sadly shook his head.
In Copenhagen, I filmed Mette, a psychiatric nurse and acupuncturist as she visited "social psychiatric" organizations - neighbourhood homes turned into drop-in centers - using acupuncture to treat mental illness. The acupuncture, often done in small groups, and the homey atmosphere help create a sense of warmth and community. At one of the homes, a woman was in the kitchen making a cake to celebrate her first bridge crossing in four years -- an important victory over one of her phobias. Later, she shared the cake with another woman who, after giving birth to her third child, suffered such severe post-partem depression that she couldn't adequately care for her newborn. Now, after the benefits of social psychiatry, she is able to mother her baby.
The next morning, Mette and I drove her 13-year-old son, Jakob, to school. The school started like any other, with all the students (ranging in age from 5-15) and the teachers in the gym for morning assembly. "Smoking is Crap," a song written by one of the classes, was sung by the entire assembly. Next the principal, a vibrant woman in her 60s, called a 13-year-old boy to the front of the gym. She warmly put her arm around him and extolled a detailed list of his virtues and accomplishments. Then everyone sang him "Happy Birthday". He smiled deeply, hugged the principal and sat down. Next, a five-year-old girl stood up and explained that she had lost a ninja turtle toy and would like it returned in case any one found it. You could tell it was hers, she explained, because she wrote her name on the toy turtle's foot.
I was struck by the focus and calm of the assembled students, who numbered about 75. There was no name-calling, no texting or disciplinary problems, and the maturity of the older students was demonstrated by the 5-year-old girl's complete confidence that her missing toy alert would be taken seriously. And it was.
The classes at the school have no more than 20 students, and music, art and P.E. are required daily. In summer, there is a six-week vacation. I asked Mette what it costs to send Jakob to the school, bracing myself for Catlin Gabel-like numbers. "Two hundred dollars a month, " she answered. I resisted the urge to inquire about Denmark's immigration policy.
My wife and I are self-employed. We paid more than $14,000 last year in health insurance and medical bills. One of our two children sees an occupational therapist for one hour a week. Our insurance company just informed us that it will no longer cover any such visits for the rest of this year. Paying out of pocket, our bill will be $425 a week, but the visits have helped our child make great strides in both fine and gross motor skills.
The relevant question here isn't: "What should my wife and I do?" or "What should you do?" The question that must be asked is why are any of us content with health care and educational systems that make a mockery of what seems to me to be the purpose of any worthwhile government or society: to protect the "least among us," in this case of our children and people suffering from mental illness and addiction.
I'm reminded of the old Talmudic saying: "If I am not for me, who will be for myself? If I am for myself only, what am I? If not now, when?"
Brian Lindstrom is a Portland filmmaker and director of the upcoming documentary: Alien Boy: The death and life of James Chasse.
In Vancouver, we do have social programs available for addicts and those who suffer with severe mental illness. The sad fact is that typically the wait-list is so long, many people can't access the help they need. There are a few community-based acupuncture clinics in and around Vancouver that offer accessible treatments within an open space. This type of acupuncture utilizes distal points in a community environment at a fraction of the price. Quite often the NADA five-needle protocol is used along with other supplementation points. NADA has had very good results with treating addictions, helping calm the mind and allowing the patient to focus better. Treatment involves five points on the surface of the ear (shenmen, sympathetic nerve, kidney, lung and liver), administered by a NADA "acudetox specialist". Klinik is not set-up for community acupuncture but the NADA protocol is offered to those patients who are looking for an alternative -- and treatments are available on a sliding scale to those who can't afford to pay for full treatments.
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