Welcome Welcome to Acupuncture and Herbs by Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG)
Karen Vaughan
Karen Vaughan Acupuncture and Herbs
253 Garfield Pl Apt 1R
Brooklyn
,
NY
,
111215
(718) 622-6755
Pet Alive Natural Products
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As you may have noticed, the Mexican government has closed schools and asked people to stay home because of a new more virulent swine flu that has killed as of this writing 68 people. One characteristic of this is that it strikes and kills healthy young people- this also happened inthe 1921 flu pandemic which killed huge numbers of people. Cases have been found in Kansas and New York. Do your best to avoid it:
Avoid close contact with people who are sick. When you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too. Avoid crowds during epidemics- the 200 children in Queens who have probable swine flu got exposed in one school.
Stay home when you are sick. If possible, stay home from work, school, and errands when you are sick. You will help prevent others from catching your illness.
Cover your mouth and nose. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing. It may prevent those around you from getting sick.
Avoid sugar. Sugar can decrease your immune system almost immediately.
Eat raw garlic daily. I find it helps to finely mince the clove of garlic in place, or smash it with a garlic press, then coat with a local honey and take it off of a spoon held upside down in your mouth. Chase with a glass of water and a sprig of parsley for odor control. (If you have no other sugar, this won’t hurt you and it helps assimilation.) Cooked or [...]
The H1N1 Swine Flu may operate in two ways, one of which acts like seasonal flu except is more widespread, and the other which causes the immune system to produce the most damage. What is not clear is whether the current flu is a cytokine storm type flu where you are better off with a low immune response, or a more normal flu where you are better off with a strong immune system. According to Wikipedia:
“A cytokine storm, or hypercytokinemia is a potentially fatal immune reaction consisting of a positive feedback loop between cytokines and immune cells, with highly elevated levels of various cytokines.[1]..The primary symptoms of a cytokine storm are high fever, swelling and redness, extreme fatigue, and nausea….When the immune system is fighting pathogens, cytokines signal immune cells such as T-cells and macrophages to travel to the site of infection. In addition, cytokines activate those cells, stimulating them to produce more cytokines. Normally, this feedback loop is kept in check by the body. However, in some instances, the reaction becomes uncontrolled, and too many immune cells are activated in a single place. The precise reason for this is not entirely understood but may be caused by an exaggerated response when the immune system encounters a new and highly pathogenic invader. Cytokine storms have potential to do significant damage to body tissues and organs… If a cytokine storm occurs in the lungs, for example, fluids and immune cells such as macrophages may accumulate and eventually block off the airways, potentially resulting in [...]
A brief review of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the problem with excess degraded corn in our diet.
November 29th 2006 – For anyone who hasn’t run across Michael Pollan’s Book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I highly recommend it. He denounces the Corn Industrial Complex which puts corn into virtually every food (one quarter of the 45,000 foods in a typical supermarket contain corn)and seems to be in a symbiotic relationship with petroleum. Oil goes into the fertilizer which goes into corn which goes into us and makes us sick. One gem is his send up of a McNuggets dinner:
“The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the 38 ingredients it takes to make a McNugget I counted 13 that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself, the cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono, tri’ and diglycerides (emulsifiers which keep the fat and water from separating) ; dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that leaches out in processing); yellow corn flour and modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler), vegetable shortening; partialy hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative.” He then goes on to list the synthetic and petroleum-derived ingredients.
It isn’t all doom and gloom. He also tracks an organic farm where cattle are rotated to new grass each day with flexible fencing, a connestoga wagon like chicken coop follows them three days later to eat the [...]
Many people ask why they shouldn’t go to an MD for acupuncture if they can find it. Isn’t that the best of both worlds?
Acupuncture needles in hypodermic needle.
Simple answer: most MDs aren’t appropriately trained. They may do some simple neuromodulation with needles (which real acupuncturists are also trained to do,) but they never learn the diagnosis that is the genius of Chinese medicine.
Chinese medicine has featured an almost obsessive attention to cataloging the clinical treatment of patients for thousands of years. We can go back to doctors Zhang Zhong Jing or Sun Si Miao and read their prescriptions and exactly what patterns of diagnosis they apply to. Having been cured myself of a nasty case of cellulitis with a 1500 year old formula (after my MD missed the problem) I have great respect for the classical formulas. These things are never studied in a 100-300 hour video course that a medical doctor (and in some states a Chiropractor or Podiatrist) will take to call himself a “Medical Acupuncturist.”
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Paleo Diet in A Nutshell Eat
1. Pasture raised or wild meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and any natural animal fat
2. Vegetables, including leaves, stems, bulbs, roots
3. Fruits and berries (includes avocados and olives)
4. Nuts such as almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, coconut, etc.
5. Herbs and spices
Avoid/minimize
(in order of importance)
1. Sweeteners, including sugar (white, brown, organic, whatever), maple syrup, rice or agave syrup, etc.
2. Vegetable oils other than extra virgin olive, avocado, palm, and coconut.
3. Cereal grains and flour or grain products (bread, pasta, pastries, etc.) Especially avoid glutinous grains like wheat, barley, rye or triticale.
4. Dry legumes (beans and peas, including soy and peanuts)
5. Dairy products. If you take them, use goat or raw or both.
(thanks to Rachel and Donald Matsez, authors of The Garden of Eating)
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And Organic Berries
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