Acupuncture and Herbs

Why A Parasite Cleanse Can Make You Worse

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:38:25 +0000

Black Walnut Hulls

Spring is the time when people often indulge in a seasonal fast. And since Americans are prone to heroic fasting, many will decide that they should indulge in a parasite cleanse. Black walnut hulls, wormwood and cloves are traditional, often with a cayenne/fiber supplement. And the Hulda Clark devotees may use an electric “zapper” to kill parasites. There are a number of Chinese medicine antiparasite remedies. But if you have allergies, autoimmune disease or simply a weak immune system, a parasite cleanse can make you worse.

The word “parasite” shows our attitude towards even benign worms (“helminths”) that live in our bodies. We don’t like worms, which we usually only notice if they are in overgrowth. They are ugly and primitive. Although only 10% of the cells in our bodies are human, we resist thinking of ourselves as walking colonies in a superstructure. Commensuals (which merely inhabit us) or Symbionts (which benefit us) might be better terms.

Of course there are harmful worms which tax our organs or nutrient supply or which burrow into areas where they are dangerous. Or like pinworms which are itchy and contagious. But not all worms fit this definition. And I have long maintained that we most likely have larger organisms along with our probiotic organisms that are necessary to human health.

Some also refer to gut organisms like candida as parasites. I will speak more about that in another piece, but they are also symbionts that are only problematical in overgrowth.

Most people have heard of the [...]

Grow Your Own Drugs

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:08:12 +0000

It is almost Spring. Even if your garden is primarily ornamental, you can include medicinal herbs, many of which are lovely. And don't forget to eat the weeds, once you know what they are and what is safe! [...]

What is More Dangerous, Herbs or CT Scans?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:01:15 +0000

Do you think politicians or even the FDA could answer this question, posed by my friend Alan Tillotson?

Fact A : Herbs, vitamins and nutritional supplements caused zero deaths in 2008 [in most years actually]

Fact B: CT scans cause 30,000 new cancers and 14,500 deaths each year, with children being most at risk

Which of these answers is the correct political action to take?

A. We should crack down on the supplement industry

B. We should crack down on the CT scan industry

Government regulators seem to think choice “A” is best.

Radiation from CT Scans Linked to Cancer

USA Today reported on two research studies published in the December 15 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine revealing that CT scans deliver far more radiation than previously believed. In fact, the scans may actually be responsible for nearly 30,000 cancers each year and 14,500 deaths.

One study, led by researchers from the National Cancer Institute, estimated the number of cancers that might be caused by the scans. The other study found that patients undergoing the scans may be exposed to up to four times more radiation than previously estimated. Researchers studying 1119 patients at four San Francisco-area hospitals concluded that one CT scan could expose a patient to as much radiation as 74 mammograms or 442 chest X-rays.

Young people are at highest risk from excess radiation, partly because they have many years ahead of them during which radiation exposure can damage cellular DNA. For example, among 20-year-old women undergoing one coronary angiogram [...]

How to Make Burn Cream

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:37:08 +0000

Zi gen Lithospermum

Burn cream, known as purple cloud ointment or shiunko in Japanese medicine is traditionally used under direct moxa where small “rice grain” cones are adhered to the body with the purple cream. But it is also used for burns, skin rashes, psoriasis and eczema. The major herb used in the burn cream is lithospermum, also known as gromwell or puccoon, or in pinyin Chinese as Zi cao gen (purple herb root). Lithospermum is in the category of herbs that cool fire toxins, and both internally and externally. It is used in Chinese and Japanese medicine to cool fevers, reduce purple rashes, express measles (by helping get the toxins out through the skin) and topically to heal burns and rashes. Frances Brinker teaches that a whole plant tincture taken internally will inactivate LH (luteinizing hormone) helping reduce enlarged prostate glands.

Equipment needed:

Stainless steel pot with heavy bottom Chinese style strainer Stainless steel bowl Cheesecloth Silicon spatula Jars for final product

Material needed

500 ml (2 cups) of unroasted sesame oil 1/2 pound of grated beeswax 2 Tbsp clean lard or lanolin (makes cream silkier and better absorbed) 3 oz of dang gui (Angelica sinensis root) 3 oz of zi cao gen (Lithospermum root, aka puccoon or gromwell) 1/4 teaspoon vitamin E oil 1/4 teaspoon essential oil of lavender (not traditional but great for burns)

Heat up sesame oil in a heavy pot. Add in the grated beeswax and lard. When just melted and at a gentle bubble, add in 3 oz of dang gui and cook until the herb turns a golden [...]

February/March Herbal Blog Party: Emerging From Winter With Herbs

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:32:46 +0000

Kitty in Spring Snow by Peter Pateau

The herbal blog party for this month deals with herbs that help us emerge from Winter, making the transition into Spring. For me the promise awakens when the angle of bright sunlight changes to hit my back window, where buildings have blocked it all winter. The raised beds in the back may soon lose their snow so that the Jerusalem artichokes, anise hyssop and calamus can poke through. Meanwhile my sister in Seattle is surrounded by a riot of hyacinths and Rosie in Houston frets that she won’t have time to harvest the cleavers before the hot temperatures wipe them out.

We are writing from different places, with different climates and different experiences. But the awakening of Spring stirs something in each of us. And we make our preparations, whether from a Lenten fast, a week-long cleanse or just the venture out to harvest the wild greens we have been craving.

LadyBarbara wrote Rising Spring about the quickening of the season and how she changes her diet for that new movement.

Yael Grauer wrote Emerging from Winter With Herbs about her three favorite adaptogens and nasal irrigation.

Rosalee de la Foret wrote about Spring violets, Emerging from Winter to Find Violet

Emerging rhubarb

Sean Donohue wrote Skunk Cabbage: New England Bear Medicine about the plant that heats its way up through the snow and feeds the bears after the acorns are gone.

Granny Sam Gahagan writes from her snow covered lair about Emerging from Winter in the Appalachians. (You westerners might not know that [...]

Nettles!

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:55:33 +0000

Stinging Nettles: Urtica dioica

“If they would drink nettles in March and eat mugwort in May fewer young ladies would go to the grave”- in John Murrell, A Garden of Herbs, 1621

Nettles are the quintessential herb for getting over winter in my book. They push their way up in early spring, despite a dusting of snow. The small ones are bright and vital and don’t have quite the sting to them. But their roots mine the soil for minerals, often missing after a long winter without fresh greens, and they have an intense green taste. The magnesium in the leaves is especially helpful if you have the winter blues. And if you have aches and pains from the cold winter, you can whack them away with nettle stems.

Urtica dioica, the stinging nettle, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant, native to Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America. It is ubiquitous in temperate South America where it was introduced and is the best-known member of the nettle genus Urtica. Urtica urens is also well-known, although a broad variety of nettles are used for medicine or food.

Nettle in Flower

The stinging nettle plant has opposite lanceolate or ovate sawtooth leaves, and is dioecious (one sex or the other). Seeds are born in dense clusters.

For eating, the herb should be harvested before flowering because tiny oxalic acid cystoliths can form in the leaves, which irritate the kidneys. Cutting the plant back will prevent this. Cystoliths are not present in alcohol tinctures or teas.

Energetically nettles are cool, dry and [...]

Limit Carbohydrates Rather Than Fats To Prevent Heart Disease

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:20:51 +0000

A new study by Siri-Tarino of the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California,concluded in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that we are missing lower cardiovascular disease targets when we urge the obese to lower dietary fats. The emphasis on reducing dietary saturated fat isn’t preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the obesity epidemic and associated metabolic disturbances, the authors concluded. Limiting carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates, offers the best hope for reducing the CVD burden associated with fats clogging the arteries.

Siri-Tarino and her colleagues cited evidence to support their views and conclusions:

Clinical trials and prospective-cohort studies have not consistently shown that reducing dietary saturated fat lowers CVD risk. Replacing saturated fat with carbohydrate has not been shown to reduce CVD risk. Interest in the relationship between glycemic load or index and CVD risk has insufficient evidence to develop prevention programs. The effect of saturated fat on LDL may be modulated by the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Substituting mono- and polyunsaturated fats for carbohydrate effectively reduces LDL. Both overweight and increased carbohydrate intake have been linked to the poor lipid profile associated with metabolic syndrome. Reducing carbohydrate intake has been shown to lower the concentration of artery-clogging small, dense LDL particles. Relationships between dietary fats and other CVD risk factors, such as blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and inflammation, are unclear.

In a meta-analysis published in the same issue of the journal, Siri-Tarino and colleagues concluded that the evidence does not support “the conventional wisdom that reduced dietary saturated fat intake is beneficial for cardiovascular health.” No additional benefit has been seen by [...]

So You Think Surgery is a Good Way To Lose Weight?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:50:26 +0000

Like many people dealing with weight problems I have looked into surgery as a way of losing weight. It seems so inviting to have a quick fix and I saw medical studies indicating that bariatric (weight loss) surgery was the only way to permanently lose weight. And yet all of my patients who had surgery, from a Roux en Y gastric bypass to Lap Bands have had complications. And all but one, whose Lap Band is too new to tell, are still obese.

One of my patients even had her gastric bypass redone, resulting in the loss of her spleen when it was accidentally cut during the surgery. And my 40-something pharmacist lost her life to a heart attack after a successful gastric bypass that allowed her to lose 100 pounds and recover from diabetes. But it gave her unpleasant gastric symptoms that interfered with her life and most likely the rapid weight loss caused loss of muscle including heart muscle, which killed her.

Gastric bypass conceptually creeps me out. You have a long stretch of the GI tract which is isolated, no longer carrying food and not cleaned by the friction of food going by. It is living, secretory tissue. Is it then colonized by undesirable bacteria, fungi or yeasts? You have a brain in your gut, a real brain. What happens to that? You make most of your serotonin in your gut- 85%. Is that impaired? And how do you manage when you can’t [...]

Meta-Study Finds Acupuncture Eases Menstrual Pain

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:56:46 +0000

A Korean meta-study reviewing data from 27 studies found that acupuncture was effective in relieving menstrual pain. Over 3000 women were studied in total, with treatments ranging from Traditional Chinese Medicine to herbal injections into acupuncture points. The analysis from Kyung Hee Medical Center found that patients with severe period pain reported a greater reduction in their symptoms when using acupuncture than when using pharmacological treatments.

Acupuncture could help period pain, researchers say

Period pain is a common complaint

Acupuncture may be an effective way of easing severe period pain, a South Korean review of 27 studies suggests.

Researchers said there was “promising evidence” for acupuncture in treating cramps, but that more work was needed.

More at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8518745.stm

No related posts.

Niacin Outperforms Drug At Lowering Cholesterol

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:43:50 +0000

In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a time release version of an inexpensive Vitamin B (Niacin- not niacinamide) was compared to a common cholesterol drug, ezetimibe (trade name Zetia), made by Merck. The vitamin gave superior results.

In 2008, 9 million Americans were taking Zetia versus just 2.5 who were taking niacin, putting the majority at higher risk for stroke and spending more money for their treatment.

Niacin is easier on the blood vessel walls. Niacin had a beneficial effect on the plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the brain, while Zetia caused a slight worsening. Nine patients taking Zetia had heart attacks, stroke, or died from heart disease, versus just two patients taking niacin.

Niaspan, the niacin used in the study is a prescription product that has a special timed-release formulation, which may cut down on the hot flashes that are associated with niacin use. It does still cause flushing in some people however.

Zetia reduced LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol by 20%. But unlike Zetia, niacin boosts HDL, or good cholesterol by 20%, as well as reducing LDL by 16%, total cholesterol by 10% and triglycerides by 28%.

The prescription version of niacin is Niaspan, a 500mg-1000mg version taken at two tablets in the evening. The vitamin does cause flushing, but less so than straight niacin. Niacinamide (also called nicotinamide or “no flush niacin”) does not work the same way, although it is often used as a substitute for niacin in multivitamins.

Niacin can cause blood sugar to [...]

Home Remedy to Use Instead of Nyquil

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:14:13 +0000

This amusing video shows a homemade substitute for Nyquil, which contains a number of ingredients you might not want to put into your body. His uses Southern Comfort as the alcohol, but if you click through to Vimeo there are a number of comments with other home remedies. I prefer to use either Thieves’ Vinegar or honey, fresh garlic and ginger syrup. Or a drop or two of essential oil of rosemary over the glands and at the nape of the neck.

KniQuil from Hot Knivez on Vimeo.

No related posts.

What Does Research Say About the Health of Eating Meat?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:38:41 +0000

Meat and Vegetables

We are badly in need of a study that compares good vegetarian to good meat-containing diets using quality foods, with high vegetable content and good quality fats in both diets. Too often vegetarians are compared to a standard American population, health-conscious vegans are compared to non-health conscious omnivores and studies on omnivores with low meat diets are extrapolated to suggest that a diet with no animal food altogether may be superior. The study should isolate the effects of gluten from other starchy foods and meats from fish.There was a study that showed a loss of bone with a diet high in meat. The study lasted two weeks and subsequent studies showed that no loss occurred after two weeks, that the effect might be transitional.

In fact other studies indicate that the phytates in legumes, traditionally consumed by vegetarians or vegans can lock up minerals necessary for bones. Fermentation, and to a lesser extent, cooking can reduce the anti-nutrient effect of legumes, and isoflavones in the beans may help counteract the phytic acid.

Grain based vegetarian diets contribute to hyperinsulinemia (high blood insulin) which causes the excretion of magnesium and calcium in the urine and can increase osteoporosis. This applies to omnivores who have high carbohydrate content as well. Fat taken with carbohydrates helps minimize the effects of insulin spikes, and meat eaters do tend to have more dietary fat. So while some vegetarians may be at risk from low fat/high grain diets it is not exclusive to vegetarians

This seems contradicted by [...]

Kids with High Body Mass Index Not Necessarily Fat

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:24:56 +0000

A recent large study of children with high body mass indexes (BMI) found that many children of normal body mass had high fat percentages while 25% of children with high BMI were not obese by fat percentage criteria.

BMI (weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) does not distinguish between the weight of muscle, fat or bone and has a statistical artifact that tends to classify tall children as overweight.

“One out of six children in our study who had a BMI in the normal range had an unhealthy level of body fat,” said Dr. Kenneth Ellis, a Baylor College of Medicine professor of pediatrics who studies growth and body composition at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center in Houston. “And one out of four with a BMI in the at-risk-to-obese range had a body-fat level that was normal.”

There is an assumption when using BMI as a criteria for obesity that individuals who have a BMI within [...]

Cordyceps for stamina, against cancer

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:27:28 +0000

Cordyceps is an adaptogen from a fungus that invades an insect body that increases stamina, prevents cancer cell proliferation, increases immune system function and reduces [...]

Communication In A Persistent Vegetative State?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:23:58 +0000

A recent New York Times article found that by using functional MRIs on long term persistent vegetative state patients, a few could hear and process information. The idea sounds exciting, helping differentiate those who had residual brain function from the majority that did not. But a few caveats are in order:

1. Even those who have brain function may never be able to emerge from a comatose state, with even fewer able to regain the ability to live a good life.

2. Functional MRI studies, while exciting, are plagued with inaccuracies. For instance Science Daily tells of FMRIs on dead fish that register activity. The procedure may be better in the future, but still needs improvement.

3. Interpretation of FMRI results is difficult. We know it is not true that only one part of the brain correlates to one function. Brain processes are complex and often non-localized.

4. The cost of an FMRI is prohibitive. New 1.5 tesla scanners may cost $1,500,000 and new 3.0 tesla scanners $2,300,000, plus a half million dollars for the suite to use it and a few hundred thousand annually for liquid nitrogen and helium. These are not common in hospitals and our country does not fund low cost primary care visits ostensibly because of cost.

5. The growth of nerves, neurogenesis, is relegated to very limited, specific brain regions and the individual will not likely regain cortical mass or function.

6. Persistent vegetative states are different from comas or being brain dead. There is no evidence that the brain dead can revive. PVS patients are [...]

Agave Nectar: A Healthy Sweetner?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:59:13 +0000

When Agave nectar first burst on the scene as a healthier sweetener, it appeared to be superior to sugar and other dietary sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup. It was easy to imagine that for thousands of years Native Americans had been tapping the sap of the agave plant, using its sweet juice, perhaps boiling it down to a honey-like syrup.

According to Wikipedia’s article on agave, there is a nectar called aguamiel that can be collected by cutting underneath the flower spike or extracted from the flower like it is from sugarcane. It is collected from the maguey agave and sold as a sports drink in Mexico, often with added chili pepper. This has nothing to do with the commercial agave nectar sold by any manufacturer.

Agave piña, photographed by Wildpansyflower

The agave rootstalk or piña is, like chicory and Jerusalem artichokes, full of a slightly sweet mostly indigestible polysaccharide called inulin. There are likely other starches in the tough rootstalk since the amount of inulin is estimated from a minor constituent to virtually all inulin. This root is treated with enzymes, according to the patent below from Aspergillis niger mold but possibly from other sources depending on the maker, and is converted through a complex process to fructose.

Glucose and Fructose

It is worth pointing out that fructose is not the identical to the fruit in sugar, levulose which is a levorotatory D-form of fructose combined with a number of compounds found in fruit. Most of the fructose in fruit is in the form of L-fructose [...]

Going Gluten and Dairy Free

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 03:23:57 +0000

Going gluten and dairy free can be daunting. How to prepare, what to eat, recipes for ceremonial [...]

Fermented Blueberry Drink Prevents Diabetes and Obesity

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:33:52 +0000

Blueberry juice fermented with the Serratia bacteria normally found on blueberry skin was better than blueberry juice at preventing diabetes. Probiotic designer foods are likely to [...]

247 Hospital Patients Die Daily Due to Doctor’s Not Washing their Hands

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:16:22 +0000

An estimated 90,000 patients die from hospital-acquired infections due to lack of handwashing. Doctors wash hands 50% of the time. Deaths are comparable to 30 World Trade Center bombings or a jumbo jet crash every two [...]

Pregnant Women Should Avoid Antidepressants

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:14:51 +0000

Antidepressant pharmaceuticals, especially Paxil and tricyclic antidepressants can cause birth defects. Review of alternatives including exercise, sunlight, Vitamin D, fish oil, magnesium and [...]

How to Use Pole Moxa

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:01:32 +0000

Pole moxa on hand

I often give clients a stick of moxa to use between appointments, especially if they run cold or are overstressed.

Pole moxa is shaped like a long cigar with paper on the exterior. It burns quite hot, with a very directional heat and has a strong aroma that some people mistake for cannabis. There are “smokeless moxa” sticks that I do not find to be as useful for warming points or body areas. Use the moxa in a room with good ventilation and have a small jar of dry sand, a metal cigar tube (cut your stick to fit) or a moxa snuffer. Also use a good lighter- I prefer the gas matches with a long handle which keeps my fingers away from the heat during the time the head is lighted. And you need an ashtray so that you can gently remove the hot ash.

Pole moxa is made of compressed mugwort snuff, often mixed with other warming or aromatic herbs. To use the moxa, you tear off about an inch of the outside paper layer, but not any inner layers. Light the end with the lighter- it may take a while to get the surface hot. Blow lightly to make the end glow. While you may start with some of the surface not ignited, it should eventually form a glowing coal. Hold the moxa about an inch above the point or area to be warmed. If you place the thumb and index finger of your other hand around the point, you [...]

January Herbal Blog Party: Warming Herbs

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:22:46 +0000

January’s herbal blog party is on warming herbs. Several herbalists helped participate to share what helps get them and their loved ones through the [...]

Doctoring Yourself on YouTube

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:01:54 +0000

There are how to videos on YouTube for all kinds of medical conditions from setting broken fingers to delivering a baby in a taxi. Know your limits and how to choose [...]

School Gardens and Learning

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:33:43 +0000

The Atlantic Monthly recently published an article by Caitlin Flanagan called Cultivating Failure: How school gardens are cheating our most vulnerable students which is criticizing Alice Waters and the Edible Schoolyard Movement which she believes is channeling students back to farm labor. In this month’s Salon, Alissa Novoselick wrote a wonderful response based upon actual knowledge of how students learn in a garden, The School Gardener Strikes Back. And while Atlantic chooses not to publish comments on their article, Salon received many excellent responses from teachers and students.

Most of the responses focused on how gardening is not an end to itself, how teachers are bringing Walden and Emerson into the garden, are doing math over the planting process, are bringing in parents as educators, even immigrant parents who don’t usually participate and how they get respect from the children for their knowledge. Many point out that Flanagan did not interview a single teacher, parent or child and that as an avowed “housewife” who admits she has never sewn a button on in her life, she seems to have a disdain for manual labor. I especially liked a comment by Mr. Ed who tells how his grandmother showed him the usefulness of math, algebra and science by gardening, turning him around academically.

My critique focuses on the fact that children are botanically illiterate today. I’m not a teacher, but I am an herbalist who was brought into a Brooklyn elementary school to talk about plants, both in the classroom and in a community garden, a former scout [...]

Vinegar or Acid Food Helps Blood Sugar Go Down

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:41:41 +0000

Vinegar and acid foods slow insulin spikes and cause weight loss. Bitters help stimulate bile. Ways to integrate this into your [...]

Herbs to Warm You Up

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:51:52 +0000

Do you feel cold inside in the winter? Is it very hard to warm yourself up? Taking cayenne or hot chili peppers may increase heat at the surface for a few minutes, but may leave you feeling even colder after the first flush. The cold that you feel deep in your bones will respond to herbs that warm what the Chinese refer to as your Yang.

In Chinese Medicine, Yang represents metabolic energy in the body, coming from genetics, the transformation of food, and breath. Food, including herbs, is the best way to intervene in someone who is chronically cold.

What kinds of foods tonify Yang? Root vegetables, which store their energy in fall are good to eat over the winter. Pureed parsnips, baked potatoes, carrots, sauteed and minced celeriac root, mashed Jerusalem artichokes all help. Then the dried beans help: lentils, chick peas, black beans, aduki beans, kidney beans all provide substantial energy. But perhaps the meats are the most yang-tonifying: try stewing lamb or beef or buffalo with your root vegetables or beans. Venison roasts, pork (wild boar is a great alternative to factory farmed pig), or game birds are good at warming you up. Fats are essential to keeping warm in the winter, so don’t cut away all of the fat if your meats come from organic sources which are less likely to store toxins.

In Chinese medicine the term “herbs” includes things from the animal and mineral kingdom. Yang tonifying herbs include many animal products, including beef, gecko and deer antler. But the herbs [...]

What to make of Scientific Studies?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:27:42 +0000

Bad science leads to contradictory studies which are prevalent in studies of herbs, vitamins, supplements, diet and acupuncture. Scientific studies appear contradictory for many reasons. Why studies might be different, problems in studies, bad science, low sample size, herbs not assayed, active placebos. Meta studies and literature reviews compound the [...]

Low Vitamin D tied to Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:48:18 +0000

Diabetics have significantly lower Vitamin D levels, and Vitamin D prevents cholesterol from being transformed into foam cells which build up as arterial plaques. As a result, low Vitamin D status can cause cardiovascular disease in [...]

Is a Vegetarian Diet Healthier Than an Omnivorous Diet?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:01:32 +0000

Humans have the teeth, intestinal length, digestive apparatus and brain metabolisms of an omnivore. Why a vegetarian diet is not healthier than an omnivorous [...]

Fewer Serious or Lethal Prostate Cancers in Male Coffee Drinkers

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:01:43 +0000

I have been writing for some time about the positive benefits of coffee. Coffee is not caffeine, it is a complex aqueous herbal beverage with flavanoids, bitters, chlorogenic acid, trigonelline, polysaccharides, ogliosaccharides, essential oils, 5% of the daily magnesium and 2% of the daily potassium needs, plus vitamin E and niacin. There is also caffeine, which varies range from 58 to 75 mg in a typical espresso, and from 70 to 130 mg in a small coffee. In boiled but not filtered coffee there are also the cholesterol-raising kahweol and cafestol. We know that the chlorogenic acid is significantly anti-inflammatory and two cups a day reduces C Reactive protein by approximately the same amount as a statin drug.

Life Extension Email December 11, 2009

Less advanced and lethal prostate cancers in male coffee drinkers

The American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference held December 6-9, 2009 in Houston was the site of a presentation of the finding that men with a high daily intake of coffee have a significantly lower risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer. The beverage contains antioxidants and minerals as well as caffeine, all of which could impact cancer risk.

Postdoctoral fellow Kathryn M. Wilson, PhD of Harvard School of Public Health and her colleagues at Harvard Medical School’s Channing Laboratory and McGill University in Montreal evaluated data from nearly 50,000 participants in the Health Professionals’ Follow-Up Study. Regular and decaffeinated coffee intake was assessed for 1986 and every four years thereafter until 2006. During this time period, 4,975 men [...]

Rocking Chairs Help Post Surgical Constipation

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:17:11 +0000

I recently wrote a post in praise of physical medicine. Here is a physical home remedy that can make a major difference in recovering from surgery.

After all kinds of abdominal surgery, cesarean sections, or prostate surgery. constipation can be a painful and debilitating side effect, resulting in vomiting, nausea, abdominal bloating, lack of appetite and general discomfort. It can last for a week or more, although it should resolve in a few days. Many patients consider it more troublesome than the surgery itself and it occasionally requires re-hospitalization to deal with the bowels. The bowel dysfunction most likely results from the stress of surgery rather than physical impairment, but having the side effects can have long term consequences.

Dr. Robert Massey, PhD RN, director of clinical nursing at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas conducted a study with 66 patients who were recovering from abdominal surgery. He observed that the 34 patients who rocked in rocking chairs for 10 or 20 minutes experienced an earlier return of bowel function than those who only walked. Massey’s study used the rocking chair intervention in both male and female cancer patients recovering from surgeries for abdominal cancers, as well as from gastric, colon, small bowel, pancreatic or liver surgeries. Those in the rocking group first passed gas which is a post-op healing benchmark, 16.8 hours earlier than the other group. 16.8 hours less pain is a considerable benefit and allowed overall healing to be accelerated.

Massey believes the positive results are due [...]

Snow Day!

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:49:31 +0000

Today was a glorious snow day, after the blizzard blanketed the city with white glistening snow. As I walked through the park, I was moved to see how much bright light was available, in December, yet.

All sunlight is not the same of course. When I borrowed red violet goggles from my optometrist who wanted me to get more of that color, I wore them in the streets and found that part of the color spectrum did not penetrate to the streets- I could only see it in the sky or wide open spaces. What happens is that the angle of the sun gets cut off, so while the full spectrum light is there when you look up at the sky, you are not actually in the full spectrum. But the snow is full of millions of crystals that bend, reflect, and concentrate the light. It is Creation’s way of compensating for the low light conditions of the north. It doesn’t have the UVB that makes Vitamin D, but the brightness lifts depression.

The world was crystalline with the snowfall. Snow was caught in the ridges of red oak bark and on the prickles of the liquidamber seed balls still attached to the trees. Cross country skiers crisscrossed the park. Children slid down any minor slope on sleds, snow discs, garbage can lids and even Rubbermaid storage containers. A Vietnamese family photographed their children in new green parkas and a matching sled.

In the woods, red berries decorated the bare branches of the viburnums. The Amberkill Falls still [...]

In Praise of Physical Medicine

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:32:28 +0000

The number one cause of death in the US is medicinal drugs, accounting for approximately 784,000 deaths anually. In-hospital adverse reactions to properly prescribed medicines is 2.2 million per year. So why is our instinct to pop a pill when there are physical methods like acupuncture, physical therapy, chiropractic, osteopathy and massage that may be less dangerous, cheaper and more effective?

December 7th 2005 – In Praise of Physical Medicine Copyright Karen S. Vaughan, L.Ac., MSTOM

We live in a country where the number one cause of death is medicinal drugs, accounting for approximately 784,000 deaths anually. In-hospital adverse reactions to properly prescribed medicines is 2.2 million per year. Dr. Richard Besser of the CDC speaks of tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions written every year. So why is our instinct to pop a pill when there are physical methods that may be less dangerous, cheaper and mor effective?

I first understood the power of physical medicine when I had mononucleosis as a college student. It was viral, so there were no medications other than analgesics to keep me comfortable. But my doctor insisted that I attach a rubber hose to my shower to irrigate my throat several times a day. The result of physical removal of phlegm was that I no longer stayed up coughing all night, my respiratory passages could function and I was able to recover faster. Now I use neti pots to wash out phlegm if I get a respiratory infection.

Cranial Sacral Work

When my children were young, they suffered from recurring ear [...]

Holiday Interview

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:16:37 +0000

I was interviewed recently on the subject of hangover prevention and care in Well and Good, NYC. The best way of course is to not drink too much. But read the article here.

Four ways to fight holiday hangovers–according to an acupuncturist

Park Slope acupuncturist and herbalist Karen Vaughan isn’t immune to holiday excess. She loves to make her own eggnog and her calendar is chock-a-block with holiday parties, but Vaughan, who has a Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine, knows better than most how to navigate through this season of alcoholic merriment without a long-running hangover.

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The Use and Abuse of Herbal Medicine

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:40:07 +0000

It concerns me when people say that they take kava kava or valerian each night to get to sleep. Although the herbs are very useful and probably more attuned to human biology than synthetic chemicals, the fact remains that it is not healthy to drug yourself to sleep each night, even herbally. Occasionally, to get over the rocky parts of life, fine. But we know that pharmaceutical sleeping medication interferes with the dream states and the quantity of REM sleep. While the herbs are more benign, I would be surprised if they did not have some effect on normal sleep patterns.

Not all herbs are tonic herbs- like oatstraw, nettles, Siberian ginseng or astragalus-which are nutritional and are best taken for two or three months for maximal effectiveness. That kind of food grade herb was called “superior” in Chinese medicine. Even herbs with specific actions like vitex, which should only be taken when indicated for certain kinds of hormonal conditions, may need long treatment periods before their efficacy shows up. But that does not apply to all herbs (say pokeweed or Amanita muscaria), even if we consider them “natural”. Some herbs should only be taken upon occasion, or at least with consciousness of the possible negative effects.

We have all probably seen people who abused marijuana, although the herb has legitimate medical uses. But did you know that in the nineteenth century, people referred to “valerian users” with the same opprobrium people use for alcohol abusers today?

Ephedra is useful for asthma and I have had respiratory conditions [...]

Non Pharmaceutical Ways to Deal With Pain

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:48:43 +0000

Pain can be caused by physical or emotional blockages to the free flow of blood and energy. Gate theory says that a little pain can block out larger amounts of pain.

July 26th 2006 – Copyright by Karen S. Vaughan.

There are different nonpharmaceutical ways to deal with the pain.

According to gate theory, a little pain drives out a larger pain, up to a certain threshold. So for instance I might drive my index fingernail into my thumb when pain starts to get too bad.

With acupuncture, needles stimulate the body’s immune cascade and endorphins and encephalins, chemicals that cause relaxation and good feelings flood the area.

Increasing circulation also has a good effect on pain, which is why linements work. Heat or capascin-based linements or cool stimulating menthol-based linements will increase circulation. The cool linements like Icy-hot are best for the early stages of acute pain, while the warming ones are better for longer term pain.

Circulation also comes from massage, electro-stimulation acupuncture, tens units, ultrasound, qi gong machines and even hands on healing like Reiki or Therapeutic Touch which uses body sound waves emitted through the giver’s hands. (Bet you didn’t know you emitted sound waves, but you even have radio waves.)

Much of the pain comes from blockages to energy or blood circulation. Sometimes you need a vigorous and sometimes painful stimulation to break the blockage- trigger point massage, some needling, chiropractic. This can be especially true of nerve pain.

Scarring causes blockages, so after the acute healing is over, you might want to find an acupuncturist to [...]

Baking Soda, the Immune System and the Flu

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:21:20 +0000

Baking soda alkalizes the body and may prevent disease:

“In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.”

The article below by Mark Sirius, OMD who has written a book on sodium bicarbonate, is drawn from the booklet that Arm and Hammer wrote on baking soda and disease. It also includes information on when best to take it. I suggest taking the baking soda on an empty stomach, as most people over the age of 30 have low stomach acid, even if they think they get acid reflux or acid stomach (which has the same symptoms but is worse with antacids.)

Mercola suggests using Bob’s Red Mill Aluminum-Free Baking Soda instead of Arm and Hammer. According to the product ingredients, only bicarbonate of soda is included in any baking soda. (Baking powder does sometimes contain aluminum salts.)

Mercola’s site also contains articles referencing baking soda as a

Household cleaner Sunburn remedy Alternative to toxic antiperspirants Sports performance enhancer

Few people realize that baking soda also has potent medicinal properties. Taken internally, it helps maintain the pH balance in your bloodstream without resorting to taking calcium from bones. This is likely the basic premise behind its recommended uses against both colds and influenza symptoms, and even cancer.

Alkalinized water is also suggested as [...]

Happy Hanukkah!

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:27:44 +0000

In a time of darkness and cold, we especially appreciate the power of a small flame. As I sit here in the evening watching the flicker of candlelight, the bitter cold seems farther away. The waning moon yields little light out my window. I imagine the Maccabees pouring the last of the prepared and dedicated olive oil in the reconsecrated Temple, lighting it and watching the flame, moved by its burning even on the first night.

The holiday celebrates the miracle of the oil, naturally enough for one night, lasting for 8, the time it took to press and consecrate new olive oil. Two things come to mind. How often have I had patients come in needing an herb that I haven’t finished macerating in tincture, where I need to stretch out the little I have. What if there were no other herbs in the formula and I could not stretch it with decocted or immature tincture? What a miracle it must have been for the old oil to stretch the eight days.

And my other thought is the old question of why the holiday is celebrated for eight days instead of seven when the first night’s burning was natural and the seven days that followed were the miracle. But why should oil burn at all?

Creation is a miracle that we take for granted. Why does the new moon come after the old one wanes? Why do plants, or people grow? Why is Artemisia annua bitter and cooling while Mugwort (Artemisia argy) is sweet, bitter and balanced [...]

People Use Herbalism Because It Works Better

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:27:03 +0000

A recent study in Great Britain queried people as to why they went to medical herbalists, a category of herbalists who have training much like Registered Herbalists of the American Herbalists Guild, people with the NCCAOM Oriental Medicine Diplomate designation or other trained herbalists. Most of the patients had not initially sought out herbalists, but resorted to them when Western medicine failed to deal with usually chronic conditions. Based upon the favorable outcomes, they decided that the medical herbalists generally did a better job of dealing with everyday health conditions and came for other conditions.

The authors noted that patients had a different idea of what constituted effective care than the doctors had, with a premium placed on collaborative care where patient and herbalist negotiated strategies to deal with the chronic conditions. They also preferred the more natural herbal medicines to stronger pharmaceutical medicines with greater side effects.

Here is the abstract of the study:

Simply because it works better: Exploring motives for the use of medical herbalism in contemporary U.K. health care. PMID: 19942632 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher Complement Ther Med. 2009 October - December;17(5-6):300-308 Author: Little CV AIM: To clarify the reasons underlying people's use of medical herbalism in the context of contemporary U.K. health care. DESIGN: This qualitative, interpretative study recruited 19 adults who were consulting with registered medical herbalists in a region of southern England. Participants were interviewed about their experiences and the data were analysed thematically. Study methodology was informed by Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenology. RESULTS: Few of the [...]

Natural Remedies for Indigestion

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:45:56 +0000

This is the season of holiday meals and parties, when indigestion raises its ugly head. There are a variety of causes and patterns, so not everyone will fit the same remedies. If you tend to feel excessive heat in your stomach and upward rising energy, go with cooling herbs like peppermint, gentian and artichoke leaf. If your stomach feels cold, unable to mount the fire to digest, then use something warming like ginger.

Untreated GERD (reflux) can cause erosions of the esophagus, so are quite dangerous. However most treatments are for high acid GERD while the majority suffers from low acid GERD. Killer indigestion may be associated with gallstones and should be monitored to prevent gallbladder disease. Excessive food and poor combinations can exacerbate gallbladder disease.

Usually people over 35 have low acid and people under 35 have too much acid. The symptoms are identical but you can take this quiz to see where you lie. When people who have low acid take a calcium carbonate antacid like Tums, it will make digestion worst. Proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec or Nexium also inhibit acid and should not be taken by older people who are more likely to suffer from hypochlorhydria. Similarly H2 Blockers like Zantac, Tagamet and Pepsid reduce acid production by blocking signals that tell the stomach to make acid. The long term use of these just blocks feedback from your body that your diet is not suiting your needs.

Dandelion greens

Start your [...]

Quote of the Day

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:01:26 +0000

“Blinded by the fruit, we often ignore the full range of a plant’s possibilities. We’re never more than a stone’s throw away from a cup of coffee, yet few of us have ever tasted amertassa or kuti, the green and black equivalents of coffee leaf tea. Or kish’r, the drink made from the coffee cherry itself. Nor have we simply eaten the coffee cherry, which some say has flavors of watermelon and jasmine.”

Aaron Kagan “Avocado Leaf Tea”

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Endometriosis and Chinese Medicine

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:32:01 +0000

Endometriosis is a painful condition where the tissue normally inside of the womb, the endometrium, is found in other parts of the body. The endometrial cells build up blood for pregnancy, which is shed during menstruation. However if this tissue is found outside of the womb, it can cause bleeding in areas where blood is not supposed to be shed and it can cause major pain and inflammation. Typically areas of endometrium are found near the ovaries or fallopian tubes, the anterior or posterior cul de sacs of the exterior uterus, the peritoneum of the pelvic wall, the sigmoid colon or ureters, but it can be found as far away as the diaphragm, the lungs or the nose. Surgical incisions can be populated with endometrial tissue as well.

The causes are largely unknown. In some cases, the endometrial cells may be shed along with the menstrual blood, only to migrate to areas where they can attach to other structures. It is widely believed in Europe, for example, that sexual intercourse during the menstrual period can cause the vaginal vault to expand, permitting endometrial cells to get into areas where they otherwise would not, pushed upward by the sexual act. In Chinese medicine, sexual intercourse is seen as an upward, yang act which should not take place during the powerful yin periods where the body is and should be focusing downwards.

Endometriosis of Abdominal Wall

However in other cases there seems to be parallel development of extra-uterine endometrial cells. It [...]

Sinusitis and Herbs

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:23:48 +0000

This is the time of year when we see a lot of sinusitis. There are several causes, and many things that can get rid of the condition.

It helps to understand how sinuses work. The sinuses form a kind of cup that serves to lubricate our respiratory tract. Sinuses work like an overflowing teacup, filling with a thin liquid that moves up with the cillary action of small hair like cells and drips down your nose and throat, lubricating the tissue and providing mucus, potentially a designer antibiotic fluid that can fight off infection, prevent abrasion and protect tissues. The problem comes when the fluid is cooked down and is too thick to flow. This is considered pathological Phlegm in Chinese medicine. The problem isn’t usually that you make too much mucus, it is that the mucus has cooked down and exerts pressure on your sinuses, nasal tract and lungs.

Sinusitis refers to the inflammation often caused by bacterial, viral or fungal infections of the sinus cavities. Other causes include blockage from polyps, enlarged nasal turbinates, scar tissue, dental infections or a deviated septum, all of which require surgical intervention. Inhalation of irritants can cause sinusitis- I have even seen inhaled poison ivy sawdust create a chronic condition.

First determine if your sinusitis is acute or chronic. Acute sinusitis is somewhat easier to treat. It tends to be hot energetically and to respond to herbs like goldenseal, eyebright and xanthium, preferably in a heavy boiled tea called a decoction. [...]

November Herbal Blog Party on Morning Wake Up Beverages

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:05:16 +0000

Tansy hosted November’s herbal blog party. The subject was morning beverages…be it coffee, mate, or some herbal concoction. Herbalists share our morning beverage rituals. Here is the blogroll:

Karen Vaughan writes about the benefits of coffee and talks about mixing it with herbs

Lisl writes all about chai and includes a recipe for her favorite blend

Susan Lubbers writes about waking up with a holy cuppa…holy basil!

Darcey Blue French shares her chocamatamatelatte recipe

Kiva Rose writes of the wild woodlands morning brew, with a combination of herbs that you might never have thought of trying

Need a little caffeine in your morning ritual? Try Rosalee de la Foret’s suggestions for black tea

Tansy’s idea of a great caffeine free morning beverage: roasted root chai

Aquarian Bath’s secret to a great cup of earl grey tea

Stephany shares some great recipes for all sorts of moods!

Aartiana writes about her favorite morning infusions

Amazon.com Widgets

See Related Posts: Coffee Herbs Caffeine Halts Progression of Alzheimer’s Simple Ways to Support Brain Function Health Myths About Hydration Coffee Beats Statins in Reducing Diabetes Inflammation Fewer Serious or Lethal Prostate Cancers in Male Coffee Drinkers

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Acupuncture For Veterans and Others With PTSD

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:21:54 +0000

For vets and others in NYC, CRREW run a clinic by donation that treats PTSD with ear acupuncture. It is on the Lower East Side at the University Settlement House, 184 Eldridge Street (corner of Rivington and Eldridge streets) on Wednesdays at 5:40-7:00 in the conference room. The F train Second Avenue stop is closest to University Settlement House.

Wendy Henry and I run the clinic. We have been working through CRREW (Community Relief and Rebuilding through Education and Wellness) since 9/11 using acupuncture and related techniques to help people suffering from PTSD. We have worked on 9/11 rescue workers, Katrina survivors, residents of Lower Manhattan and veterans. CRREW also has worked in Vietnam and Cambodia. Other notable founders and volunteers include Laura Cooley, Marcella Robinson and Rachel Kaplan. All workers have trained at the Lincoln Hospital drug treatment facility in the NADA technique and are licensed acupuncturists.

Vets who want something besides talk therapy are especially welcome. When events are overwhelming physical treatment can sometimes reach you when words are inadequate. One fireman who spent time being treated with us said that we opened him up to the point that he could discuss and deal with the horrors of digging through the pile at 9/11.

In 2008, 14 times as many US veterans died from a lack of health insurance than the US military death toll in Afghanistan the same year. Even with the VA, 1.5 million veterans lack access to health care. We all need to reach out to veterans in need.

CRREW has been [...]

Obesity and Swine Flu: A Chinese Medicine Perspective

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:27:08 +0000

A recent report report from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy indicates that 25% of hospitalized H1N1 victims in a California study were morbidly obese versus 4% of the US population and more than half were obese. It did not collect data on whether the heavy patients had other underlying conditions although the analysis found that probable. Now the question is, is obesity an independent risk factor or a proxy for other conditions that make flu infection worse?

The problem with correlations is that they tend to label clusters of risk factors with one cause. Obesity often is associated with conditions that can worsen the flu. And people can be relatively healthy although fat if they lower their blood insulin levels, triglycerides and are active. However the proportion of fat people who exercise regularly, eat well and keep their blood parameters in good shape is not high.

Still it is not easily apparent that obesity would be a major factor in flu deaths. What then accounts for the correlation? Here are insights from Chinese and western medicine:

Carrying extra weight can make the lungs and heart work harder to oxygenate and circulate the blood, causing stagnation. Regular exercise can diminish this effect which is why it is essential for heavy people to move. We know that a high proportion of heavy people have elevated blood sugar and blood insulin. We also know that sugar, which is energetically cooling and damp, feeds infection. Food allergies are often related to obesity, providing an underlying inflammation. In Chinese [...]

How To Make Mountain Mint Honey

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:18:44 +0000

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Chinese Herbal Formulas May Prevent Diabetes

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:22:23 +0000

Adding herbs to lifestyle changes doubles the likelihood of lowering blood sugar in people with metabolic syndrome and according to the study will prevent progress to Type 2 diabetes unlike lifestyle changes alone. Three proprietary Chinese formulas included Jiangtang Bushen, Xiaoke huaya and Tang Kang yin. The ingredients were not specified but when I searched Pub Med I found that the lead researcher has done positive research on American ginseng saponins, puerarins from kudzu, glucosides from bai shao and berberine from coptis for the problem. Herbs such as rhemannia, jiaogulan and mai men dong are also traditionally used for diabetes, depending upon the Chinese medicine pattern. And I suggest that an individualized herbal prescription would do better than a one size fits all pill.

A Cochrane Library meta-study analyzing 16 trials using Chinese herbal medicine further found that it was likely that Chinese herbs could successfully reduce blood sugar. However the quality of the studies were not good.

Chinese herbs show promise for diabetes prevention

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A number of traditional Chinese herbs may help control blood sugar levels in people at high risk of diabetes, a new research review suggests. The review, which examined 16 clinical trials of 15 different herbal formulations, found that the herbs generally helped lower blood sugar levels in people with “pre-diabetes” — those with impaired blood-sugar control that can progress to full-blown type 2 diabetes.

When the researchers pooled data from eight of the studies, they found that adding an herbal remedy to lifestyle changes doubled the likelihood of [...]

Ear Acupuncture Curbs Back Pain in Pregnant Women

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:36:17 +0000

I’ve been in California this week and after kayaking, fellow acupuncturist Bob Linde noticed that the guide was suffering from back pain and put zaccaria seeds in her ear on the auricular points dealing with back pain. She felt changes immediately and claimed it was the best tip she’d received yet.

We know that acupuncture works for back pain and since treating back pain in very pregnant women can require pregnancy pillows or cutout tables in order to prevent pressure on the belly, auricular acupuncture makes a great alternative.

Ear Acupuncture Curbs Back Pain in Pregnant Women October 16, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A special acupuncture technique can help ease lower back and pelvic pain in pregnant women, new research shows.

In a study, women who had pressure needles held in place with tape at three acupuncture points in their ears for one week, were more likely to experience significant reductions in lower back and pelvic pain than those who had the needles placed at three “sham” points or women in a control group who didn’t get real or fake acupuncture.

Pregnant women often suffer from pain in the lower back and pelvis — and this can set the stage for chronic pain later on, Dr. Shu-Ming Wang of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues note in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Ear acupuncture might offer a drug-free way to help ease pain in these women, Wang and colleagues say.

They randomly assigned 159 women [...]

Chemicals and Obesity: What if if isn’t all your fault?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:35:51 +0000

As someone who was around in the ’50s and ’60s when there was less obesity, I have to tell you that diets were not that good. TV dinners, Wonder bread, instant mashed potatoes, fish-sticks and whole milk predominated and vegetables tended towards the overcooked. Food was cooked in Crisco, full of trans fats, and cotton seed oils. Fresh vegetables came in during the late 60s, but predominated on the coasts. There was less soda and no high fructose corn syrup, and portion sizes were somewhat smaller, but the caloric difference may not be enough to explain why we have an epidemic of infant obesity today that we didn’t then. And I doubt that the babies today are doing any less exercise, although their older siblings may be indoors on computers more instead of riding bikes.

While diets included a lot more fresh vegetables after the 1960s and mothers showed an increased willingness to breastfeed, obesity rates increased. And not just in couch-potato adults or fast food addicts. The Harvard School of Public Health reported in 2006 that the prevalence of obesity in infants under 6 months had risen 73 percent since 1980. You need to look at more than calories in and calories out when infants start showing up obese.

One thing that has affected all of us, from the developing embryo to the adult is a category of chemicals named obesogens by researcher Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine. These chemicals mimic hormones and upset the body’s homeostasis and disrupt the endocrine system [...]

Fig Poultices for Breast Health

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:05:47 +0000

This is fresh fig season, and it is a good idea to spend a week, and a baker’s dozen of figs to protect your breasts from lumps. Poulticing the breasts with fresh figs can make a dramatic difference in your ability to see problems that might need attention, without the distraction of fibrocystic breast conditions.

Figs are rich in pharmacologically active latex and can draw out toxins and stimulate the lymphatic system. They are cited in the Biblical book of Isaiah where Hezekiah was covered with boils and was cured by poulticing with figs. I have seen a hot red lump the size of an egg disappear within two weeks of poulticing, and the doctor was unable to find it for biopsy even with an x-ray. I suggest doing it preventatively for a week each year.

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Herbs and Hypertension

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:05:34 +0000

Hypertension is a silent disease which can be lethal. An estimated 60 million Americans suffer from the disease. It causes strokes, heart attacks,heart failure, kidney disease, arterial aneurysm and varicosities, headaches, vision problems and has many secondary effects.

In 90-95% of high blood pressure, the American Heart Association says there is no one identifiable cause. This kind of high blood pressure is called primary hypertension or essential hypertension. It is usually a combination of factors, such as:

Weight. This can affect both high and excessively low blood pressure but is not simple. The greater your body mass, the more pressure there is theoretically on your artery walls. That’s because more blood is produced to supply oxygen and nutrients to tissues in your body. However in many sedentary heavy people, there is insufficient blood pressure to perfuse tissues, leading to brain fog and fatigue. Still there are many obese people who have strong artery walls and normal blood pressure. Sleep. The average American in the 1920s slept 9 hours a night, and we have not evolved to need less. Lack of sleep raises cortisol, the stress hormone, which in turn raises blood pressure. Diet. Hypertension is associated exclusively with western diet and lifestyle; it is virtually unknown in undeveloped areas of the world following traditional diets Low Vitamin D levels. Serum 25 Hydroxy D3 levels should be around 50, but show some protection around 30. Low fiber diet. Fiber helps carry out fats through the intestines so they are not reabsorbed in the gut and thus keeps them out of circulation [...]

The China Study Misrepresents Data: Does Not Support a Vegan Diet.

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:49:29 +0000

T. Colin Campbell came out with his book, The China Study which purports to be the most comprehensive study of diet and disease. However Campbell is so intent on promoting a vegan data that he misrepresents the data in the real China Study and cherry picks anti-animal food data. The book distorts the data generated by Junshi Chen in Mortality, Biochemistry, Diet and Lifestyle in Rural China and in no way supports Campbell’s subtitle “The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health” or his thesis that a vegan diet is superior.

For instance, he rightly cites the link between milk and autoimmune disease but fails to mention that gluten, from wheat and related grains, is at least as important a cause. He writes of the association between casein, a milk protein, with cancer, but fails to mention that whey and butterfat are protective against cancer, and in milk you get all of them. He makes completely false statements like folate not being in meat when organ meats are much higher in folate than any plant source according to the USDA. He assumes nutrient consistency with the US without actually measuring it, despite the fact that soil nutrients and species differences have a huge effect on nutrition.

On cancer, he uses this data from the real China Study, Mortality, Biochemistry, Diet and Lifestyle in Rural China: Geographic Study of the Characteristics of 69 Counties in Mainland China and 16 [...]

Foods and Herbs to Prepare for a Fast

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:06:26 +0000

This week is Yom Kippur and people will be fasting. I was asked to put together some information on what will allow people to have a good fast that will allow them to focus on the meaning of the holiday. Here are a few tips to keep the fast from debilitating you and to keep hunger pains from being a major distraction. (You will still know you are fasting.):

Eat proteins and fats that will not cause your blood sugar to rise and crash. Eggs, fish, chicken, quality meat if you can get it, nuts, butter, avocado will help maintain your blood sugar. Avoid sweets and starches. Eat foods with fiber to slow your gastric emptying. Vegetables and fruits that are not too sweet will work. Cooling vegetables like cucumber and celery are especially good because they cool the stomach fire, cabbage and greens also help. Salt, which you may normally not want too much of, will allow your body to retain the water. (People who have hypertension avoid salt because more water in the blood raises blood pressure.) But if you don’t have high blood pressure it will help you through the fast. Sea salt is best because it contains other minerals. Hydrate yourself. Significant sources of caffeine like coffee or black tea may keep your tissues from being hydrated during the fast. Start tapering off on coffee starting from Rosh Hashannah. Caffeine addiction causes headaches with abrupt withdrawal.

Herbs to help:

Take your herbs in a tea form, because the water will fill you. [...]

Sleep, Disease and Herbs for Insomnia

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 05:56:15 +0000

In the 1920s, when electricity was not nearly as prevalent (but sources of artificial light were common), Americans were surveyed on sleep habits. The average American slept 9 hours a night, which meant that many slept more. Today the average American is believed to sleep 6 1/2 hours a night. We have not biologically evolved to need less sleep.

There are many types of insomnia: trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, waking too early and sleeping at too superficial a level. People with sleep apnea may believe they sleep like a log, but they have hundreds of micro-awakenings from not being able to breathe, which send their adrenals into fight or flight mode and which leave them exhausted throughout the day. Sleep problems can be occasional, transitory (for short periods of time) or chronic. But the problem I see the most in practice is that people aren’t spending enough time in bed.

Why is this a problem? In a nutshell, it makes you fat, stupid and sick. We know that driving with insufficient sleep makes you as prone to accidents as drunk driving. Almost 1/4 of 18 to 29-year olds report they have fallen asleep at the wheel at some point during the past year, according to the National Sleep Foundation. And half of U.S. adults admit to driving while they are tired. Their judgment is impaired, their reaction times are reduced and they can’t think straight.

We know that people without enough sleep not only eat more, to [...]

Vitamin D During Pregnancy Reduces Pre-Eclampsia

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:19:14 +0000

Several studies in different parts of the world have shown that there is a benefit to a baby when the mother takes Vitamin D in excess of the amount in prenatal vitamins. This shows that there is a benefit to pregnant mothers in reducing the complications of pregnancy. While the study only looked at a fairly low dose of Vitamin D, probably from cod liver oil and diet, it indicates that supplementation reduced pre-eclampsia by 25%. Based upon Finish studies, I wonder how much less pre-eclampsia would be found if blood levels were raised to 50.

Vitamin D may reduce pre-eclampsia risk: Study By Stephen Daniells, 20-Aug-2009

Related topics: Research, Antioxidants, carotenoids, Vitamins & premixes, Maternal & infant health

Increased intakes of vitamin D during pregnancy may reduce the development by about 25 per cent, suggests a study with over 20,000 Norwegian women.

The risk of pre-eclampsia was 27 per cent lower in women who consumed vitamin D supplements with daily doses of 10 to 15 micrograms, compared to women who did not take supplements, according to researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

However, a correlation between vitamin D intake and omega-3 fatty acid intake was observed, and the researchers noted that “further research is needed to disentangle the separate effects of these nutrients”.

Pre-eclampsia, affecting two to three per cent of all pregnancies, occurs when a mother’s blood pressure rises to the hypertensive range, and excretion of protein in the urine becomes too high. It is estimated to be responsible for about 60,000 [...]

Don’t Use Echinacea for This Season’s Flu

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:21:57 +0000

A flu that causes a cytokine storm should not be treated with immunostimulants like echinacea. Immunomodulating herbs like forsythia and gardenia are less likely to overstimulate the immune [...]

Biofilms and Disease: Why should I care?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:38:55 +0000

Anyone who has felt plaque on their teeth, seen films at the edge of a pond, found thick slimy glop when cleaning out a sink or fountain or suffered a respiratory infection has come into contact with biofilms. When certain bacteria are in wet environments, they attach and send out signals to attract other bacteria called “quorum sensing” molecules. When the other bacteria start congregating, they start differentiating into bacteria that attach, that transport nutrients, that digest, that form protective films or crusts, adjust resistance and become far more formidable than any bacterium alone. The biofilms are made of the bacteria, the water and the proteins, sugars and DNA that the bacteria exude. For instance, when you get a respiratory virus, your bronchi are moist sites for bacterial complications. When a bacteria lands, it calls others and makes a biofilm that blocks oxygen intake, causing you to cough. The biofilm protects the most interior bacteria. When you take antibiotics, the surface bacteria adapt by taking in samples of the antibiotics, “tasting” them with tiny efflux pumps and figuring out how to adapt. They communicate this information to other bacteria in the biofilm. This is how bacteria get resistant to the antibiotics. They are even able to recombine with dead bacteria from other diseases to learn chemically how to protect themselves. This is why our antibiotics have become less effective and why we have resistant “superbacteria”.

There are herbs that being weaker than antibiotics, sneak in under the radar of the bacteria and [...]

Vitamin D, Statins and Red Yeast Rice

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:41:30 +0000

Rosuvastatin was found to increase blood levels of Vitamin D. Red Rice Yeast is a statin but less dangerous. If you cannot raise 20 Hydroxy D levels with Vitamin D3 alone, try Red Rice [...]

Should I See An MD for Acupuncture?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:30:59 +0000

Doctors are not better trained than acupuncturists, they are differently trained. MDs may only have a 200 hour video course in acupuncture whereas acupuncturists may have 4500 [...]

Hypertension “Epidemic” caused by Wrong Blood Pressure Cuff Size?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 06:02:23 +0000

As a heavy person, I often find that places which measure blood pressure do not use the proper cuff size. Using too small a cuff will show hypertension, where none exists. Given the obesity epidemic, this can be a serious problem. Many overweight people have hypotension, which may interfere with their exercise, it is important that they be measured carefully, especially when medication is involved. And this is also very important during pregnancy when fluids can cause swelling but do not always raise blood pressure or cause pre-eclampsia.

Here is a piece written by a colleague who shall remain anonymous:

I can tell you that a frightening number of practitioners do not use protocol as stated. It was something I was always a stickler about and required my staff to measure arm circumferences for both arms and determine the appropriate cuff size for each arm, and document such in the chart. (My mother, for example, has one arm that is “normal size” and one arm that is considerably larger, and should require a larger cuff - she didn’t know, and this has been a source of much stress every time she goes for her appointments only to see her bp bouncing all over the place. As a result, she has also developed white coat “hypertension” through sheer worry and conditioning of stress upon visits.)

I have to laugh that at least in Ohio, we have a department of weights and scales that goes about testing weights and scales used in businesses around every 6 months, but, to [...]

Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:19:47 +0000

Antimicrobial peptides called alu have been conserved through 60 million years of primate evolution and they work with Vitamin D to provide an immune [...]

Primates Prefer Cooked Meat and What It Means to Us

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:06:36 +0000

Cooked food is preferred by primates because food needs less energy to digest. While better at extracting nutrients, raw food may be useful in the obesity [...]

Nursing Mothers, Infants and Vitamin D

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:44:37 +0000

Nursing mothers should take much higher dose Vitamin D to prevent Type 1 diabetes and reduce autism, and should supplement their infants. African American nursing mothers have lost children to accusations of abuse when rickets were the cause of [...]

Video on Making Plantain Poultices

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:28:19 +0000

My article on how to make a plantain spit poultice now has a YouTube video to illustrate the technique. Keewaydinoquay's story on plantain is the articles section: Plantain: A Weedy [...]

How To Get Vitamin D from the Sun

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:02:44 +0000

To get Vitamin D from the sun you need to be north of Atlanta, without sunscreen between 11 and 1:00, to have light skin and to not shower with soap for 72 [...]

How Chinese Herbs Help the Heart

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:44:51 +0000

This study only looks at one mechanism, but it is quite interesting, and found that Chinese herbal patents (OTC herbal formulas, confusingly referred to as "TCMs") helped produce nitric oxide to widen blood vessels. heart zoomAll of the herbal patents tested reveal nitric oxide bioactivity. Many of the TCM extracts contain a nitrite reductase activity greater by 1000 times that of biological [...]

How to Make A Plantain Spit Poultice

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:48:26 +0000

I got a phone call this morning from a woman who had been bitten by an insect and was swelling up. Fortunately I had a picture of broad leaf plantain on my website so was able to tell her how to make a spit poultice to draw it out.

Broadleaf plantain -Plantago major

I first learned about plantain poultices when Wisconsin ethnobotanist and Anishinaabeg medicine woman Keewaydinoquay Peschel during her last trip to the east coast. She had used plantain to draw out all kinds of things from insect bites to glass during her years as tribal medicine woman. One year she was lecturing to her class on plantain while a student’s visiting mother sat in on the class. Three years later a package arrived for her from Florida, a thank-you gift from the student’s mother. It seems that the woman and two friends were gardening in Florida and had been bitten by a spider. They didn’t think too much of it, insect bites being fairly common, but on her way home she saw some plantain growing, remembered the lecture and made a spit poultice to draw out the venom. The next morning her friends were dead and she was well.

Plantain, (from the genus Plantago not Musa, the banana plantain ) grows all over the temperate world and most any Plantago species will do, although some have such narrow leaves that you need a lot of them. It was called “White mans’ footsteps” by the Native American tribes who nevertheless quickly discovered its usefulness after [...]

Acupuncture Affects Brain’s Ability to Regulate Pain

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:34:57 +0000

This study is quite important because it explains one way that acupuncture works to regulate pain at a cellular level. While those of us who have experienced acupuncture need no proof that it works for pain, it is still useful to have a mainstream university explaining the mechanism for doctors and (dare I say it) insurance companies who restrict coverage to one or two codes.

Pain is regulated in a variety of ways by acupuncture. Like all medicine there is the reassuring placebo effect. But gate theory explains how the presence of a little pain drives out great pain which is why lancing or electrostimulation works. And when a needle is inserted, blood rushes to the site with all of its hormones and immunological constituents. Here is one other way acupuncture helps:

U Michigan Study; How Acupuncture Affects the Brain’s Ability to Regulate Pain

The University of Michigan Health system has just released the results of a new UM study that showed Chinese acupuncture affects your brain’s ability to regulate pain.

Using brain imaging, researchers at the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center are the first to provide evidence that traditional Chinese acupuncture affects the brain’s long-term ability to regulate pain. The complete study will be published in the September Journal of NeuroImage.

Acupuncture increased the binding availability of mu-opoid receptors (MOR) in regions of the brain that process and dampen pain signals – specifically the cingulate, insula, caudate, thalamus and amygdala. Traditional opiod painkillers, such as morphine, codeine and other medications, are thought to work by binding to [...]

Diets Cause More Harm Than Good

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:11:20 +0000

Dieting is a risk factor for weight gain. The vast majorioty of people regain all weight plus more. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of [...]

Time Article Misses the Point of Exercise in Weight Loss

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:55:19 +0000

The point of exercise is to metabolically intervene so that fructose is not converted into VLDL, fat and uric acid. And to get that benefit you need to eat BEFORE exercise, not after which will raise your blood insulin [...]

Fructose, Sugar, Poison and Obesity

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:11:46 +0000

The video by Robert Lustig of UCSF is extremely interesting, but wonky. If you work in health care or are dealing with blood sugar issues, I highly recommend listening. I do anyway. But here are the highlights for the rest of you:

We have a worldwide epidemic of obese six month olds. Yes, 6 months. So it isn’t all about more food in and less exercise out. Americans now eat 141 pounds of sugar per year, 63 pounds of which is high fructose corn syrup and over half of which is fructose in all forms. A calorie is not a calorie. Some calories are nutritious, some are merely empty, some are poisonous. If we are consuming 275 extra calories a day compared to 20 years ago, it is because our regulatory hormones like leptin are not stopping us. We had as much food available 50 years ago, but less obesity. Something in us changed. And it isn’t our fat consumption, which has dropped. Fat dropped significantly after 1992 when the food pyramid was established, suggesting we increase our carbohydrate consumption.

Japan invented high fructose corn syrup in 1975, which was much cheaper than sugar and it is in virtually every processed food. At the turn of the last century Americans consumed 10.2 g daily of fructose, mostly as fruit which packages it with fiber. Today we consume 54.7 g daily and adolescents 72.8 grams, mostly as soda and juice. Sucrose and high fructose corn syrup are virtually identical. Glucose is less poisonous. Coca-cola used to be sold in 10 oz bottles, which would [...]

Ten Things About Being Fat

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:08:25 +0000

Ten things you should know about being fat: while eating right and exercising are vital, most diets don't work, infectobesity and gut bacteria all affect weight, [...]

And more on Vitamin D

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:18:42 +0000

A funny and informative video from UCSD on Vitamin D with images that will stick with you. Infant chimps take 5000 iu of Vitamin D per day. Iguana owners know to provide lights for vitamin [...]

Vitamin D Prevents Cancer, Type 1 Diabetes, MS, Heart Attack and Pain

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:38:36 +0000

Cancers, diabetes, heart attack, falls, fractures, hypertension, neurological impairment, even pain will be prevented by raising your blood Vitamin D levels to the recommended 50-100 ng/ml. [...]

The Sweet Herbal Blog Party

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:23:47 +0000

Each month herbalists are encouraged to submit articles to the Herbal Blog Parties, hosted by various herbalists. The August party had as its theme sweet ways to use herbs, including herbal honey’s, glycerites, elixirs, electuaries, melomels and the like. If you need definitions, go down to Kiva Rose’s article which has an overview.

Kiva's Wild Rose Tincture

While we generally want to keep sugars low in our diet, there are legitimate uses for sweet herbs. Sugar in its various forms is used in a variety of traditional medicines. In Chinese medicine it strengthens the Spleen/pancreas function (in judicious quantities) and formulas often use dates, honey, longan fruit, or licorice to engage the digestive function. Ayurveda makes medicinal honey and ghee preparations like Chayawanprash. Rock sugar, jaggery, palm sugar, dates, honey and a variety of fruits are used traditionally. White sugar is one of the least desirable forms, being stripped of minerals and adding nothing but carbohydrates. Even worse is high fructose corn syrup which prevents your self-regulation of food intake. But fear not, you don’t need them here. Happy and sweet reading!

Sarah Head of Tales of a Kitchen Herbwife had given us an excellent overview of many sweet medicines, complete with a whole slew of yummy and often ingenious recipes.

Susan of Farm at Coventry has a gorgeous post on Exploring the Electuary.

Kiva Rose’s post on Sweet Medicine covers a wide variety of herbal Elixirs, Cordials, Oxymels, Infused Wines and many other treats.

Karen Vaughan talks about sweet medicine in her excellent monograph of Turmeric.

The infamous [...]

Turmeric, Sweet Turmeric

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Turmeric is an extraordinary herb. An orangey-yellow root that looks something like a riotous ginger, turmeric is beloved in Indian culture for its abilities to soothe the GI tract, reduce inflammation, stop bleeding and fight infection. In China, huang jian “yellow ginger” is used to move qi and blood and to stop internal wind, which means it is a great circulatory tonic while being antispasmodic, valuable properties for arthritis indeed!

By itself turmeric is bitter, dry, spicy, and warming. Dry turmeric is more warming and somewhat less aromatic than the fresh root that I find in Indian grocery stores but both are strongly anti-inflammatory.

In the Indian pujas, turmeric was thrown over young brides and devas.

While much of the research on turmeric focuses on curcumin, the orange pigment, the herb itself is less irritating and gives you more for your money, especially if you mix it with black pepper which can increase absorption up to 2000%. While standardized curcumin should not be given to people with gastritis or ulcers, the herb itself protects the mucosa while addressing any infection.

Turmeric is anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-infective, antibacterial and antispasmodic. It reduces cholesterol. If you cut yourself while cooking, just reach for the turmeric jar because it stops bleeding (although you will have yellowed skin for a bit.) It interferes with the ability of cancerous tumors to establish a blood supply. It is nourishing, lowers blood sugar, protects the liver, helps stimulate the bile we need to digest and is carminative, allowing better digestion. No wonder it is considered a panacea [...]

Our Symbionts, Ourselves

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:59:58 +0000

Only 10% of the cells in our bodies are human. Ponder that. We have easily a hundred trillion bacterial cells, not just in our gut but all over our body. They make us work: breaking down food into something we can assimilate, fighting infection, signaling our cellular processes, converting sunlight to Vitamin D, forming biofilms to protect us. We have fungii that break down wastes, yeasts that ferment and transform extra sugars, worms that can prevent autoimmune disease. Some of our bacteria themselves have viruses. We are walking colonies of organisms in a human superstructure.

I was lucky to have attended Berkeley in the ’70s when the theories of Lynn Margulis on evolution from bacteria were taking hold. Margulis holds that we started as colonies of microorganisms which specialized or cooperated with other kinds of colonies to form superstructures we recognize as species. She noticed that brain cells and sperm share characteristics with spirochete bacteria, positing that they evolved from bacteria that were gradually incorporated into the superstructure.

Since the 1880s when the mitochondria that power each of our cells were discovered, scientists have noticed their similarity to bacteria. They have their own DNA and yet live not only inside of our bodies, but inside of our cells and we would have no energy without them. Margulis calls them endosymbionts (“inside symbionts” or “inside organisms that live intertwined with us.”) We are composites of human and microrganism cells: some are totally independent, some form biofilms over our teeth or guts, some are incorporated into the superstructure.

This [...]

Erectile Dysfunction and Chinese Herbal Medicine

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:51:53 +0000

Erectile dysfunction can be discouraging for men at any stage of life. Side effects like Viagra headaches, interactions between ED drugs and statins or anti-arthritic drugs, and the potential blindness for those who suffer from macular degeneration or diabetes may mean that alternative strategies should be considered.

An article in the Shandong Journal of Chinese Medicine, titled, “A Clinical Audit of 58 Patients with Erectile Dysfunction Treated with the Methods of Fortifying the Spleen & Supplementing the Kidneys,” showed that Chinese herbal medicine can be quite effective at improving erectile dysfunction from a variety of causes.

Fifty-eight men from their 20s to 70s with ED lasting from 1 to over 5 years were given herbal formulas made of codonopsis, astragalus, dioscorea, rhemannia, attractylodes, poria, eucommia, morinda, epimedium, goji fruit, praying mantis egg cases, scolopenda, actinolitum, cyperus tuber and cistanches. Dianthus, patrinus and another dioscorea were added for those who also had prostatitis, for a 20 day course of treatment. When evaluated, 46 out of 58 patients were judged cured, 10 improved, and two got no effect, for a total effectiveness rate of 96.5%.

According to Dr. Wang, ED is primarily due to weakness in the functions of the Kidney and Spleen meridians, which are not identical to the functions of the organs in western medicine. Kidney meridian function is a major player in sexual activity, and can be inherently weak or exhausted by excessive use. Stress can cause Spleen qi deficiency. Further Spleen qi depends upon the warming of Kidney yang, and if the Kidney function is weak, [...]

Caffeine Halts Progression of Alzheimers

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:06:17 +0000

More research showing that coffee is not the brew of the devil. Not only does it prevent Alzheimer’s, it stopped the progression of the disease. But a few caveats: it was caffeine, not coffee; it’s an awfully lot; it was mice, not people and no one asked them if they were jittery.

From the Times of London:

Daily caffeine dose may delay progress of Alzheimer’s, researchers say

Hannah Devlin

Three large cups of coffee a day could help to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease and even reverse the condition, researchers say.

A daily dose of caffeine can suppress the degenerative processes in the brain that can lead to confusion and memory loss, a study in mice suggests.

Although drinking coffee has previously been linked to a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, this is the first study to suggest that caffeine can directly target the disease itself.

Alzheimer’s occurs when sticky clumps of abnormal protein in the brain called beta-amyloid build up to form plaques, impairing cognitive function. But mice with a rodent equivalent of the disease showed a 50 per cent reduction in levels of amyloid protein in their brains after scientists spiked their drinking water with caffeine.

The change was reflected in their behaviour as they developed better memories and quicker thinking. In the study, published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers from the University of South Florida studied 55 mice that had been genetically engineered to develop dementia symptoms identical to those of Alzheimer’s as they aged. Before treatment the mice, which were aged [...]

Acupuncture Helps Digestive Problems in Pregnancy

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:32:55 +0000

Today I ran into a former patient who had suffered hyperemesis, vomiting during her entire pregnancy. She lives far away but came in because she was desperate for relief. She thanked me and introduced her new son. It was a reminder of how much help acupuncture can be during pregnancy.

by Lief Parsons

Acupuncture is safe during pregnancy providing that certain traditional points are avoided (unless there is a very good reason like stopping a miscarriage.) Since Chinese medicine was so well documented over the years, it was possible to categorize points that would help or hurt a pregnancy and these points are well known by licensed acupuncturists.

Here is a good article from CBS news:

Acupuncture helps pregnancy symptom

Updated on 09 June 2009

Source PA News

Acupuncture can help relieve the symptoms of indigestion in pregnancy, new research suggests.

A small study involving 36 women found “significant improvements” among those treated with acupuncture.

Digestive disorders are one of the most frequent complaints in pregnancy, with 45% to 80% of women reporting things like heartburn, pain or discomfort, regurgitation, belching and bloating. Such symptoms tend to get worse as a pregnancy progresses, said researchers from Sao Paulo University in Brazil.

Their study, published in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine, included women aged 15 to 39 who were 15 to 30 weeks into their pregnancy. All were suffering from symptoms of indigestion and none had had acupuncture in the previous year.

None of the women had an underlying condition that could have caused the symptoms and none had a history of [...]

Numen, an Extraordinary Film About The Plants

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:34:37 +0000

Numen is a film that previewed at the International Herbal Symposium this June. It features prominent herbalists, botanists and ethnobotanists like Rosemary Gladstar, Tierona LowDog, the late Bill Mitchell, Stephen Buhner, Phyllis Light, Ken Ausubel, James Duke and Rocio Alarcon, among others. Numen, defined as the animating force in nature, brings together innovative thinkers to discuss how our disconnection from nature affects human and environmental health and the healing made possible by embracing our place in the wider web of life.

You can view a 15 minute preview here:

Rosemary Gladstar

The 80 minute film features wonderful time lapse photography and will be an extraordinary DVD to show and replay. The DVD will include tutorials on growing and harvesting medicinal herbs, preparing kitchen medicine, and on the growing field of ecological medicine and should be available later this month from the site above.

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Vitamin D, Health and the Flu

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:34:47 +0000

Clients are often surprised at the high levels of Vitamin D3 that I recommend: new research has shown that the 400 iu available in most vitamins is far too low and children today, indoors or covered with sunscreen, are getting rickets. If you were uncovered at noon in the equatorial regions where we evolved, you would get 25,000 iu of Vitamin D in a couple of hours. So unless you work out of doors in the South, don’t wear sunscreen and only wash with water (soap within 48 hours interferes with the body’s manufacture of Vitamin D), you aren’t getting enough from the sun. (See my last post where people living in Hawaii exposed to the sun were not getting enough.)

And if you go to the Vitamin D Council website, you will see ample discussion of the new recommendations. I personally take 10,000 iu daily, which is the minimum to raise your blood levels and a level that is reasonable to avoid toxicity even if you don’t take blood tests. For clients with cancer I suggest four times that dose, but they get tested.

Toxicity is rare, not documented in the literature except anecdotally, and in levels of 120,000 iu daily for protracted periods. Levels of 300,000 iu given once weekly by prescription are generally acknowledged as safe, but usually require testing. Persons with scleroderma or abnormal calcium metabolism should not take high levels (and should watch calcium as well.)

Vitamin D is a pro-hormone, rather than a vitamin, important for all kinds of [...]

Sleep and Health

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:07:39 +0000

Summer brings more light and usually increased levels of activity. You can indulge in more work or play. But don’t let that extra daylight rob you of sleep.

Sleep is essential for your well being. One study published in the journal Science found that the quality of our sleep has a greater influence on our ability to enjoy our day than our income or our marital status. Yet, we remain a sleep-deprived culture.

Sleep 8 hours a night. In the 1920s before electricity was widespread the average American slept 9 hours a night. We have not evolved physically since then, instead we allow artificial light and activities to distract us from sleep. Lack of sleep leads to obesity. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I, 9,000 were surveyed on weight and sleep. People who with less than seven hours of sleep nightly were more likely to be obese and to increase weight over the study. Participants who slept five hours per night were 73% more likely to become obese than those getting seven to nine hours. In other studies, adolescents who sleep less have higher body mass indexes. A review of 696 sleep studies worldwide confirms this effect in children and adults. This may be because we evolved to store fat in the summer when light is plentiful and to reduce consumption during the dark winters. Insulin sensitivity and levels of two appetite-related hormones, leptin and ghrelin, can be affected by sleep deprivation, which can impact weight. Leptin is associated with appetite control and ghrelin has been identified [...]

Which Came First, the Egg or Omega 3 Egg?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:14:03 +0000

Many people think that eggs should not be eaten, based on the erroneous assumption that they might cause cholesterol. Your body makes its cholesterol- even vegans get high cholesterol- and reducing carbohydrates that stimulate insulin will actually lower cholesterol better than not eating eggs. This is why I suggest wild salmon and omega 3 eggs. Read what Susan Allport has to say about the difference in nutrition between eggs from chickens who range freely and conventional eggs:

Of Chickens, Eggs, and Omega-3s

Eggs were once a much more healthful food. And they can be again. by Susan Allport originally published Monday, December 17, 2007

Which came first: the egg or the omega-3 enriched egg?

The omega-3 enriched egg, of course, since all eggs used to be full of omega-3s when the chickens that laid them foraged for a living, scratching and pecking in backyards and farms.

These chickens lived — almost entirely — on green leaves and bugs. And the omega-3s in those green leaves and bugs were concentrated in their eggs for the same reason that omega-3s are concentrated in the breast milk of women: to support the brain development of the next generation – chicks, in this case, instead of infants.

When we humans interrupted this process and ate those eggs, we ingested almost as many omega-3s (including long-chain DHA and EPA) as we would from the same amount of many species of fish. Which — considering the importance of eggs in human diets around the world – must have made quite a contribution to our omega-3 [...]

Sun Exposure Inadequate for Vitamin D

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:49:28 +0000

I have been recommending for some time now that people not rely upon sun for all levels of Vitamin D. Sunshine is quite wonderful for you, despite what the dermatologists and cosmetic salespeople tell you, so long as you are sensible about exposure. But as the story below tells you, it isn’t enough for your Vitamin D requirements.

Most of us live far too north to get the proper light intensity or the correct angle of the rays needed to produce Vitamin D. Virtually all makeup and most skin creams have a SPF blocking free access to sunlight. And very few of us are willing to foreswear soap for 48-72 hours after sun exposure in order to allow the Vitamin D conversion. Our food no longer has much since animals are fed indoors on grain instead of growing grass and herbs. And frankly the levels we need are too high without supplementation.

I personally take 10,000 iu of Vitamin D daily. That is roughly half of what someone might pick up in a couple of hours of sun at the equator where humans evolved. I suggest considerably higher doses for people with cancer or other serious illnesses, but I do suggest they periodically get their blood tested. Although toxicity is virtually unknown in the literature, it has been seen anecdotally with doses over 120,000 iu for prolonged periods of time. (People with scleroderma or abnormal calcium metabolism can’t take it though.) Doctors give prescription doses as high as 300,000 iu on a periodic basis for people who [...]

Chinese Medicine Treats Seizures in Dogs

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:41:36 +0000

Only veterinary acupuncturists can work on animals, but acupuncture works on seizures in both people and animals. In fact Chinese Medicine is very good on neurological problems.

Chinese Veterinary Medicine Aids Seizures By Dr. Connie Clemons-Chevis McClatchy Newspapers Sunday, July 5, 2009

There are many causes for seizures in animals. The overall incidence of seizures in dogs is estimated at 1 percent, but goes up to 15-20 percent in purebred dogs.

Should your pet have seizures, a minimum evaluation should include a thorough physical exam, blood work, urinalysis, heart worm test, fecal exam and possibly chest and abdominal radiographs, and abdominal ultrasound.

Sometimes CT or MRI Scans, cerebrospinal fluid tap and analysis, or EEG are performed. Many times after a thorough evaluation, no abnormalities are found and this is called idiopathic epilepsy. In idiopathic epilepsy treatment options include Western drugs, Western herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbs.

In most cases, idiopathic seizures can be controlled with Western medications, the most common being phenobarbital. Anti-convulsant medication must be given every day, can cause drowsiness and can have side effects on the liver.

Seizures in Chinese medicine are considered internal wind. There are several causes and the treatment is slightly different. Acupuncture points and Chinese herbs are selected according to the pattern that is diagnosed. This case illustrates the use of traditional Chinese veterinary medicine on a case of idiopathic epilepsy.

A 5-year-old female spayed beagle was presented for seizures of unknown cause. She had been having seizures for almost a year.

Initially, the seizures were every two months then started being monthly. The last seizure had [...]

Ask Congress to Add Acupuncture to Medicare

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 18:57:30 +0000

Please Support HR 646, The Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act Give health consumers choice by including acupuncture as a covered benefit under Medicare part B. CONTACT CONGRESS

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The Birds, Redux

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:07:36 +0000

Today a nature story. My sister and her husband rescued a golden lab/Rhodesian ridgeback. Jake had been abused and slowly has begun his resocialization process. They usually walk Jake in the wooded parks north of Seattle where tall cedars grow densely and birds nest. One day last week my brother in law Ed was walking the dog when Jake came upon two fledgling crows on the forest floor, and quickly dispached them. Immediately the canopy came alive with screeching crows. The crows dive bombed the dog and Ed, then chased them all the way home where they squawked in protest until the woodpeckers ran them off. In the ensuing days they started screeching at Jake and anyone who walks him- my sister, the neighbor, or my nephew. Even if they avoid the park the birds will try to run them off. None of Jake’s people are welcome in the woods any more, even without the dog. Crows remember and they hold grudges.

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The Herb-Blog Party

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:47:13 +0000

Blog Party! The Wonderful and Weedy Ones

It’s here! It’s the blog party! We have an amazing collection of writings on all sorts of weedy wonders that herbalists near and far love dearly. Here’s the breakdown!

Karen Vaughan on Plantain! Dragonlady on dandelions Greenman rambling on Ground Ivy Lady Barbara on Teasel Field of Tansy on Self Heal Aquarian Bath on Mulberry! Rosalee of Methow Valley on Yellow Dock! Tales of a kitchen Herbwife on Sorrel and Watercress Abby Artemisa on Garlic Mustard Granny Sam on Mullien Medicine Woman’s Roots on Nettle Seed Harvesting Dreamseeds on Cottonwood

And Darcy Blue, who called the party will soon have her post on sweet clover (meliotus).

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Plantain: A Weedy Life-Saver

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:07:13 +0000

Several years ago I attended an herbal conference, the Green Nation’s Gathering where the Wisconsin ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel spoke about her years as a medicine woman. Specifically she spoke about how she used plantain to

Broadleaf Plantain poultice bee stings in those who might be subject to anaphylactic shock, glass stuck in the neck, bug bites, even skin conditions.

One story she told stands out among all others. She had been lecturing about plantain to her ethnobotany class, and the mother of one of her students sat in on the class. Three years later she received a box from Florida. “I don’t know anyone in Florida she said.” The box was a present from the mother of the student. She had been gardening with her friends and all three had been bitten by a spider. They soon went their separate ways and she noticed plantain growing along the walk. Remembering the lecture, she picked a few leaves and made a spit poultice which she placed over the bite. The next morning her friends were dead and, thanks to plantain, she was not.

The idea that this plant which grows in every sidewalk crack can save a life is something that deeply impresses children I have taught and changes their relationship to plants in general. With its vibrant green leaves, vertical ribs and basal rosette, the plant is easy to identify. It ranges in size from an inch or two long to the size of a medium hosta. (In fact [...]

How to Make Miso

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:55:10 +0000

Miso is one of the great non-dairy sources of probiotics. In major cities you can usually find it in the refrigerator section of a good health food store. (I do not recommend unrefrigerated miso which may be a flavored bean product without probiotic benefits.) However you can make it yourself and you can use beans other than soy if you have allergies, and you can ensure a non-gluten koji starter (rice rather than barley koji). Incidentally, soy is considerably less harmful when fermented.

Miso and Ingredients Things You’ll Need: 2 cups of beans 4-6 cups of water

Check out the rest in the how to section: How to Make Miso

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Russian Folk Remedies

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:03:35 +0000

A fascinating look at Russian herbal folk medicine from the St. Petersburg Times: Mumiyo is the Russian form of Shilajit. I suspect they mean charcoal instead of coal.

Garlic, Mustard and Herbs: Russian Folk Remedies

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times A visit to the banya is believed to be good for the lungs, but not always for the liver.

By Irina Titova

The St. Petersburg Times

If, when entering a Russian home or even an office, you are hit by the strong odor of raw garlic, it’s not necessarily because someone is cooking or eating garlic.

More likely, it is because someone is ill, and in order to stop others from getting infected, people have chopped up garlic and left it on a plate. In Russia, many people believe that garlic’s phytoncaedos kill diseases — even viruses as strong as flu.

Garlic therapy is one of Russia’s most popular folk remedies. During flu epidemics, Russian parents may put a piece of garlic in their children’s pockets. They also tend to eat more garlic in the winter in order to strengthen the immune system.

Like most other countries, Russia has a wide range of so-called traditional folk remedies, and Russians rely to a large extent on medicinal herbs and a number of other centuries-old healing procedures.

Photograph by: China Photos/Getty Images, Getty Images

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Acupuncture works better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

A review of studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache showed that that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications, the team at Duke University found.

“Acupuncture is becoming a favorable option for a variety of purposes, ranging from enhancing fertility to decreasing post-operative pain, because people experience significantly fewer side effects and it can be less expensive than other options,” Dr. Tong Joo Gan, who led the study, said in a statement.

“This analysis reinforces that acupuncture also is a successful source of relief from chronic headaches.”

Writing in Anesthesia and Analgesia, they said 53 percent of patients given true acupuncture were helped, compared to 45 percent receiving sham therapy involving needles inserted in non-medical positions.

“One of the barriers to treatment with acupuncture is getting people to understand that while needles are used, it is not a painful experience,” Gan said. “It is a method for releasing your body’s own natural painkillers.”

They found it took on average five to six visits for patients to report headache relief.

Other studies have shown that acupuncture helped alleviate pain in patients who had surgery for head and neck cancer, can relieve hot flashes and other [...]

Breastfeeding May Be Beneficial To Mothers, Not Only To Babies

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:25:21 +0000

(Schwarz, Eleanor et al. University of Pittsburgh. Quoted by the New York Times April 22, 2009)

A study from the University of Pittsburgh looked at the health history of 139,681 women and concluded that the longer women nursed their babies, the lower their risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease. While mothers who nursed only one month had lower blood pressure and diabetes, those who nursed at least one year had significantly lower rates of cardiovascular disease as well.

The research, which is to be published in the May issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, analyzed data on the women who had enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term national study of postmenopausal women.

Women who reported a lifetime history of more than a year of breast-feeding were 20 percent less likely to have diabetes, 12 percent less likely to have hypertension, 19 percent less likely to have high cholesterol and 9 percent less likely to have had a heart attack or a stroke by the time they enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative.

The association between breast feeding and better maternal health shouldn’t be surprising when we realize that women who breast feed are more likely to take better care of themselves than those who don’t. And we have known for some time that breastfeeding helps prevent breast cancer and lowers obesity. Breastfeeding stimulates the lymph glands and may lead to general detoxification of the body and the [...]

The Energetics of Emotional Eating

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:15:11 +0000

I was listening to Jeffrey Yuen speak about how heat turns into fire toxins unless the body damps it down, and it suddenly hit me why people with long term heating emotions might eat the way they do.

In Chinese medicine, the seven emotions are considered causes of disease. If you are feeling chronically stressed or anxious, it can cause a condition of internal heat in the body. Heat can turn into fire, which can harass the heart, causing anger or mental illness, depending upon the situation. Fire, if unaddressed, can turn to fire toxin, a truly toxic situation that can lead to abscesses, ulcerations and even cancers.

What does the body do to prevent this? Fire can be cooled, but the human body lacks internal refrigeration. So the more likely response is to dampen the fire with fluids. Fluids in the body are generated primarily by food and drink.

And what kinds of foods do we look for when we eat emotionally? Sweets, breads, chocolate, ice cream, perhaps with a glass of milk- all the foods that tend to generate dampness when consumed. We rarely have cravings for bell peppers or mustard greens or shitake mushrooms when we are emotionally spent.

Granted there are better ways cool fire. One could swim, or change the external situation so that the stressors stop. A warm bath by candlelight might be better, but rarely feels as compelling or cooling as Haagen Daz. Exercise can release tension, but it is heating, and it can seem difficult to start when in an emotionally [...]

What is the Glycemic Index?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:27:59 +0000

What is the Glycemic Index? Not all carbohydrates are created equal and those with a high glycemic load will send your blood sugar [...]

Flu Attacks Those of Asian (and Amerindian) Ancestry Worse

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:59:32 +0000

Flu deaths have been more prevalent in those who are from Mongolian ancestry, including [...]

Why Natural Medicine?

Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., Registered Herbalist (AHG) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:53:12 +0000

“Much of the evidence suggests that the more doctors, more drugs, more tests and more therapies given to patients, the worse they fare — and the unhappier they become, said Donald Berwick, president of the independent research group Institute of Quality Improvement.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/10/AR2009061003669.html?hpid=topnews

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