Why are so many people struggling with the numbers on their bathroom scale?  There are so many answers—we live in a land of abundance, we eat the wrong foods, we eat too much food, we exercise too little, and the way our food is produced is a nightmare.

So how then, can you successfully jettison that excess weight and keep it off?  Many health experts would have you believe that just eating less and exercising more will do the trick.  Unfortunately, weight loss is not that simple.  What and how you eat is a combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual issues, and each person is unique in the factors they bring to the table. (No pun intended).

I have learned not only from studying and practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine, but also from observing and working with my patients, that many people do lose weight and are able to keep it off.  The key to their success goes far beyond less food and more activity.  The following is a list of things that I have found to be true regarding successful weight loss:

1. Weight loss takes commitment.  This is a baby steps kind of thing.  Even though you may want to be twenty pounds lighter today, it’s not going to happen…today.  But it can happen over the course of a few months.  Losing weight means signing on for the long term and taking one day, one meal, one snack at a time.
2. Weight loss takes planning.  You know that you need to eat lunch each day.  You have a choice—you can head out to Big Butt Burger Shack with your co-workers or you can eat the healthy lunch you packed for yourself.   You know that you’re going to come home tired at the end of the day and not want to cook.  What will you do?  Call for the All Cheese All the Time Pizza Special, or take your pre-prepared entrée out of the freezer?  You get the picture—you know you’ve got to eat and you know yourself; so plan ahead.
3. Control over what goes into your meals is crucial.  When you eat out, you have no control of how much butter or oil went into that pasta dish you just ordered.  The bleu cheese dressing at the salad bar is too thick to pour for a reason—it’s loaded with stuff that is not your friend. Fattening stuff tastes really good, and restaurants use lots of fattening stuff that they would never tell you about.
4. Exercise helps you lose weight and keep it off.  Actually, in Chinese medicine, we’d call it movement.  All that excess weight you’re carrying around is considered an accumulation of damp tissue.  Movement is crucial to resolving the accumulation—it’s kind of like self-medicating in that movement restores the flow in your body.  It also speeds up your metabolism and improves your digestion. You don’t have to take up an Olympic sport.  Just go take a walk, ride your bike, or play outside.
5. The people around you can make or break your resolve.  If you are going to lose weight, you need to be surrounded by supportive people, not someone who is trying to tempt you with chocolate and cheesecake.  If your family isn’t on board with how you eat, find a friend or co-worker who can act as your support team.
6. You need a plan.  It can be as simple as deciding not to have seconds or counting calories or it can be as complete as Weight Watchers.  I have seen patients lose weight and keep it off using all kinds of methods.  The thing they had in common was that they had a plan.
7. You can eat the foods you like and still lose weight.  You just need to eat less of them and less frequently.  You will not lose weight eating all brownies all the time—but a brownie once in a while will help you not feel deprived.
8. Your digestion is a huge player in the weight loss game.  In Chinese medicine, if your digestion is poor, you are more likely to convert your food into damp tissue that accumulates on your belly and thighs.  How do you know if your digestion is funky?  Heartburn, stomachaches, lots of gas and rumbling, feeling tired after a meal, food cravings, loose stools or constipation, nausea and no appetite are all signs that your digestion could use some help.  Acupuncture, Chinese food therapy, and even an herbal formula are good options to set it right.
9. Some foods can be over nutritious.  Say what?  It’s true; foods that are very rich or highly concentrated can be too hard to digest.  Some obvious offenders include meals in a can, diet shakes, concentrated juices, and even some rich meats and sauces.
10. Extreme diets don’t work—at least not in the long term.  Here’s why:  You go on a diet, say the Just Eat Cabbage Diet.  You lose a bunch of weight over the course of say, two weeks.  Great!  But what happens when you go of the diet?  Oops!  Right back to the way you were eating, but now your metabolism has gotten a little slower, because you were eating only cabbage.  So now just eating the way you were before the diet causes you to regain more weight.  Bummer!  The net result of your diet—weight gain. 
11. One slip doesn’t spell catastrophe.  Keep your head in the game. This means not only staying committed, but realizing that your can slip up and still lose weight.  Many people beat themselves up for failing to keep to their plan, and just quit altogether.  The successful ones fall off the wagon, but get right back on, and keep losing weight.
12. You need to eat good food.  This means lots of vegetables, whole grains and a little protein at each meal.  Forget about the over processed, chemical laden, genetically modified, sugar-loaded, hormone treated stuff you find at eye level in the average grocery store.  Look for food that has been grown or meat that has been raised without the help of pesticides, chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, and all manner of stuff on the label that you can’t pronounce.  You really are what you eat.
13. Long-term changes are the key to success.  Losing and maintaining your weight is not a project you undertake just to get ready for swimsuit season or an upcoming class reunion.  It’s a way of eating and moving your body that is health promoting, done in moderation, and sustainable for the rest of your life.

Arthritis is chronic inflammation of the joints that affects an estimated 70 million Americans. Its symptoms include pain, swelling, limited range of motion, redness, and warmth around the joints.  There are many different kinds of arthritis, but in general, osteoarthritis is caused by the breakdown of cartilage from aging and wear and tear on your joints.  Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition that affects the lining of the joints, which can cause bone erosion and joint deformity.

In Chinese medicine, arthritis is considered a Bi (pronounced bee) syndrome, which just means that a blockage of energy or blood in your energetic pathways is causing your pain.  The blockage is caused by external pathogens (or causes of illness) that act a little bit like bad weather in your body.  They can include wind, cold, dampness, or heat.  These pathogens can affect your bones, muscles, tendons, but in arthritis, they affect your joints.

Bi syndromes tend to occur because you’re depleted in some way, either from poor diet, fatigue, bad digestion, working too hard, or some other funkiness.  When you’re run down or depleted, your body’s protective bubble that fights off pathogens is also depleted.   This allows those bad weather pathogens to enter and cause all kinds of trouble.

You can tell what kind of pathogen is causing your arthritis by the nature of your pain.  In general:

• Arthritis caused by a wind pathogen moves around from joint to joint.
• Cold pain tends to be pretty severe, is worse in cold weather, and your joints may actually feel cooler to the touch than the rest of your body.
• Dampness is characterized by fixed pain that feels achy and heavy and can be accompanied by numbness and/or swelling.
• Red, swollen, warm, and painful joints are associated with heat.  You may feel feverish when you have a heat pathogen, and your pain tends to flare up in the warm weather.

To make your life even more miserable, more than one pathogen at a time can cause your joint pain. For example, you may have arthritis that is caused by a combination of wind, cold, and damp.  In that case, you may have joint pain that moves around, feels heavy, is severely achy, and is worse when the weather is damp and cold. 

Several research studies have indicated that acupuncture can be an effective treatment for arthritis pain.  If you seek out an acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese medicine for your arthritis, they may incorporate several different healing tools into their treatment.  A practitioner would generally begin with acupuncture, choosing points near the affected areas, as well as points to deal with the pathogens that are causing your pain.  You acupuncturist may also needle some ear acupuncture points that correspond to the areas in which you’re having pain. 

There are a number of Chinese herbal formulas that are helpful in treating arthritis pain.  If your acupuncturist prescribes herbs, he or she would choose a formula based on the nature of your pain.  For example if your arthritis is caused by damp and heat, you would need herbs that clear the heat and drain or dry the dampness.

Other therapies might include applying heat, food therapy, and some tweaks in your lifestyle.  Some things that you can do yourself include:

• Get moving.  You don’t have to kill the world, but movement helps loosen things up, and it can help move energy and blood in your pathways. 
• Heat it up or cool it off.  If your arthritis is worse in the cold weather or feels cold to the touch, apply some heat.  If it’s hot, cool it off, but don’t overdo the ice, because too much can make your joints stiffen up.
• Get enough rest.  Remember, Bi syndromes tend to be the result of your body being depleted in some way.  You heal and rejuvenate when you rest.  This includes getting enough sleep every night.
• Jettison the stress. I know you’ve heard this a million times, but really, stress makes everything worse.
• Avoid activities that aggravate your pain.  Um…this seems pretty obvious—if it hurts, cut it out.  I’m mostly talking to you runners with arthritic knees.
• Eat to ease inflammation.  Make sure you get enough of the right kinds of fats—Omega 3’s, which help clear inflammation from your body.  Good foods include cold water fish, like salmon, mackerel, and herring, as well as plant-based fats, like flax seed (oil), walnuts and nuts in general, seeds, and avocados. 

Much of Chinese medicine is based on the idea that we humans are part of the natural world, and as such, we’re greatly affected by our environment. Seasonal changes and extreme weather can by physically stressful and wreak havoc with our health. Therefore, when it’s dry outside we get dry conditions, such as a scratchy sore throat, dehydration, and dry skin.  When it’s cold and damp, achy joints and phlegm conditions flare.  Windy weather can bring on colds, facial pain, and earaches.

In Chinese medicine there is actually a condition associated with hot summer weather, called Summerheat.  One word and capitalized—Summerheat.  It is caused from exposure to extreme heat and can make you feel seriously funky.

There are two kinds of Summerheat—the first looks a lot like heat stroke in conventional medicine.  It’s characterized by a high fever, heavy sweating, exhaustion, and dehydration. 

The second kind of Summerheat has a damp element to it. It usually occurs when it’s really humid out—the kind of weather when you feel like you’re covered with a layer of slime.  When it gets hot outside, you generally get thirsty from sweating and drink to keep hydrated.  However, drinking—or overdrinking—combined with the water in the air can cause Summerheat plus a waterlogged feeling, cleverly called Summerheat Damp.

I’ve seen patients with Summerheat Damp during the humidity of the past few weeks, and it isn’t pretty.  Symptoms include a generally blah feeling, nausea, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and fatigue.  It occurs primarily in people who spend a lot of time outdoors on those very hot, very sticky days of mid and late summer.

So, what to do for Summerheat?  Well, some of the things you would instinctively do are the best.  Slow down and cool off.  There are also some foods that are energetically cool and full of fluids that really help if you’re suffering from Summerheat.  Some suggestions:

• Boil Mung beans.  Cook the beans in water according to the directions on the package.  Use the liquid to make a broth—a little salt is not a bad thing in this case.  You could add a little rice or a few vegetables, but keep it light.
• Try watermelon.  It’s a great choice if you’re feeling hot and blah.  It really works!
• Eat summer produce that is cooling and moist, such as tomatoes, cucumber, Mung bean sprouts (the big ones that come in your Pad Thai), summer squash, broccoli, and apples.
• If your stomach is upset, eat lightly and give your digestion a break.  I like to make a congee (rice soup) when I’m under the weather.  It consists of one part rice to eight parts water, simmered slowly until the rice is tender.  Add seasoning and a small amount of protein, like chicken, egg, or tofu.
• Drink tea.  Green, chrysanthemum, peppermint, or chamomile are all cooling.  Use the hot weather to brew sun tea but putting some tea bags in a glass jar outside in the sun.  In a couple of hours your tea is brewed, and you can refrigerate it or drink it over ice.
• Acupuncture is always a great option, too.  Your practitioner will focus on clearing the heat, and if you have the damp type, they will also resolve the dampness and calm your digestion down.  There are also some really effective Chinese herbal formulas specifically designed for Summerheat.  So be cool and don’t let the hot weather get you down.

Today, girls are the subject of this post.  At age seven, according to Chinese medical texts, girls have replaced their baby teeth with permanent ones and their hair grows abundantly.  At age 14, girls have matured into young women, and their periods begin.  At age 21, their essence peaks, and growth is at its utmost, and so on, until age 49 when essence is depleted and menopause occurs. 

Sounds pretty simple, right?  Well, it used to be, but the girls of today have changed.  Twenty or thirty years ago, girls were…girls.  However, a new study suggests that the girls of today are going through puberty earlier than those of a couple decades ago—as early as the age of seven or eight.  Seriously—there are seven and eight-year-olds growing breasts and having periods. 

While no one is exactly sure why this is happening, there are a couple of theories floating around out there.  One is that in the United States, girls are fatter in general.  The average Body Mass Index for girls (a measure of weight to height, also an indicator of fatness) has steadily increased over the past twenty or thirty years.  For puberty to occur, a girl must achieve a certain weight and fat distribution, so an eight-year-old carrying around the weight/fat of a 12-year-old may go through puberty early. Also, small amounts of the hormone estrogen are produced in adipose (fat) tissue, and fat kids tend to have elevated levels of the protein leptin, which can cause their hypothalamus and pituitary glands to release hormones essential to puberty.

In Chinese medicine, over nutrition is actually considered a cause of disease, most notably obesity.  Over nutritious foods are those that are jam-packed with calories, fat, or are simply too nutrient dense to be fully absorbed.  Those foods are considered to be Yin in nature in that they’re very nourishing.  However, that nourishing quality in excess gums up the works and causes a condition called dampness, which is the body’s inability to metabolize fluids properly.  A build-up of damp tissue is heavy and moist…pretty much the same thing as fat.

In addition, eating “wrecked foods” is also considered a cause of disease in Chinese medicine.  In ancient times, wrecked food was food that had spoiled or was otherwise inedible.  Today, foods packed with preservatives, chemicals, artificial sweeteners, manufactured fats, and flavors that come from a lab in New Jersey are all considered wrecked. Most relevant to early puberty are foods that come from animals that have been fed hormones in order to boost their weight, growth, or productivity.   

Another theory is that some of the synthetic chemicals in household products and personal care products are considered hormone disruptors.  These chemicals are absorbed by the body and mimic certain hormones, most notably estrogen.  While women who are being exposed to these chemicals have an increased risk of breast cancer, children’s developing bodies are also vulnerable to their damaging effects, most likely causing unexpected hormonal changes and early puberty.

Within the framework of Chinese medicine, these chemicals are also considered an overabundance of toxins in our lives.  To the ancients, toxins came from being bitten by a snake or stung by a poisonous insect.  Today, our toxin exposure comes from the synthetic chemicals in household cleaners, shampoo, soaps, and moisturizing lotions that are absorbed into our bodies.

For parents who don’t want their daughters to grow up too soon, there are a few things you can do.  A strategy of physical activity and weight control combined with eating clean, healthy foods (preferably organic), and a commitment to chemical-free cleaning and personal products is a good place to start.

Simple, right?  Well, maybe not so simple if you are trying to lose weight, maintain your weight, cut out carbs, ditch the fats, or restrict your diet in ways that are unhealthy.  If this is the case, then for you food may feel a little bit like the enemy.

My initial topic for this post was truths about weight loss.  However, as I began writing, I realized that the greatest truth is this:  How you approach food and eating is a mirror to how you approach life.

In the clinic, I see busy professional women who only have time for a quick bite on the run, often from the nearest fast food place and eaten in the car or standing up.  I see people who are depressed and unhappy eating out of control as a way to fill the void in their lives.  I also see joyless clients who restrict their diets to within an inch of their lives—no carbs, no fats, no sugar, no this, no that.

Food is medicine that you get to eat three times a day.  It also feeds your soul.  In Chinese medicine, your heart is the home to your Shen, which is the mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit.  While these activities are attributed to your brain in Western medicine, we intuitively know that your heart is also an organ of feeling and spirituality.  In fact much of our language about the heart refers to it as an organ of feeling.  Terms such as someone “tugging on your heartstrings,” “knowing things in your heart”, or having a “broken heart” are speaking to an emotional and spiritual organ.

So what about eating to feed your heart and soul?

• As the home to your soul, your Chinese heart is all about connection—to the divine (however you perceive it), to yourself, and to loved ones.  Sitting down and sharing a meal with people that you love is heart-nourishing.
• Preparing a meal with love honors your heart.  It’s not about the ingredients, but the preparation.  However, choosing tasty recipes and fresh ingredients are also part of the process.
• Eat out hunger, celebration, love, or sharing, not boredom or stress.
• Be thankful for the food you’re eating and the company you’re eating with.  Remember food is nourishing and life-sustaining—not your enemy.
• While ingredients are secondary to feeding your heart, there are foods that are not life-sustaining.  These are “dead” foods that have been overly processed and contain chemicals that you body doesn’t recognize as nutrients.  Avoid them like the plague.
• In Chinese medicine, the color red is associated with your heart.  Red wine and cooked tomatoes have been shown to benefit the physical heart.  Also good are berries, red peppers, and apples.
• Celebrating the seasons through food is also heart nourishing.  The freshest foods of summer eaten outdoors or a sitting down to a hearty winter stew by a crackling fire are ways of connecting with food, loved ones, and creation.
• Finally, the emotion related to your Chinese heart is joy.  If you eat with joy, you will live your life with joy.

That’s right–I’m talking about all those soaps, moisturizers, lotions, lipsticks, nail polish, perfumes, and anti-aging creams you use daily.  In the past, most of us didn’t give much thought to what we were applying to our skin. However, you’re seeing more organic, and chemical-free products on the store shelves for a reason. Many of the ingredients in the stuff you’ve been putting on your skin for years may not be so wonderful after all.

Part of the problem is that the ingredients in cosmetics and skin care products aren’t regulated by any agency. Manufacturers must list their ingredients, but for the most part, anything goes. In addition, many creams and lotions have added ingredients to enhance their absorption deeper into your skin and ultimately into your bloodstream. If you’re thinking that these chemicals are harmless because they’re only going on the surface of your skin, think again.

These are products that you use frequently and in abundance. The average woman uses about twenty products with about 200 ingredients–not just once in awhile, but every day.

If you’re not convinced, think about this: All the chemicals from soaps, shampoos, etc. are being washed down the drain and into our rivers, streams, and drinking water. In a study conducted by the EPA and Baylor University in Texas, researchers found that chemicals used in fragrances and cleaning products are polluting our waterways. They found that the chemicals not only make their way into the water, but also into the tissues of fish living in those rivers and streams.

In Chinese medicine, your Lung organ system protects the exterior of your body, especially your skin. As the guard of your exterior, your Lungs also control your immunity. Immunity is seen as a kind of protective bubble surrounding your body. When you put toxic ingredients on your skin, you’re weakening your protective bubble, negatively impacting your health, and compromising your immune system.

What chemicals exactly are posing a problem? There are many. A short list of some of the most common include:

Parabens, which are used as a preservative, are a concern because they’re considered to be hormone disruptors. This means that they can mimic estrogen or interfere with your body’s natural hormone and reproductive processes. If you check labels, you’ll find they’re in almost everything.

Mineral Oil, paraffin, and petrolatum. These bad boys are basically petroleum products that coat your skin like plastic, clog your pores, and create a toxic buildup. They can slow cellular development, actually creating earlier signs of aging–and who needs that? They are also considered hormone disruptors.

Sodium laurel sulfate (SLS), also known as sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). SLS is found in over 90 percent of personal care products! It breaks down your skin’s moisture barrier, dries your skin out, and causes premature aging and skin irritations. SLS is also a prime offender because it easily penetrates the surface of your skin allowing other chemicals easy access, and can combine with other chemicals to become a nitrosamine, which is a known carcinogen.

Fragrance on the label of your moisturizer is seemingly harmless. However, the term “fragrance” is a red flag, because manufacturers aren’t required to label what’s in it. All kinds of chemicals can be hiding behind the fragrance door, one of the most frequent is phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors. Fragrances made from essential oils are okay.

So what can you do to clean up your skin care act? The most obvious answer is to become a label reader. However this can be a problem that’s apparent if you’ve ever looked at the label of your favorite moisturizer. There are a lot of ingredients; some are unpronounceable, most are unfamiliar.

One simple solution is to go to www.cosmeticsdatabase.com, and see how your products rate. This is the website sponsored by the Environmental Working Group, which scores thousands of personal care products. A score of a perfect zero means your eye cream is clean; if it rates a 7-10, then the ingredients are considered hazardous and you may want to consider throwing it out.

You can also buy personal care products that have very few ingredients, shop at your local co-op, or other natural foods store. Most have a good selection of effective and chemically clean shampoos, soaps, lotions, moisturizers, etc

By choosing clean, less toxic skin care products, you’re taking a small step to help clean up the environment.  You are also sending a message to the manufacturers of these items with your wallet. These companies will stop using harmful chemicals in their products if fewer people buy them.

At the airport on the way home, the light hit the floor just right as I was heading through security. I could see the damp footprints of the thousands of people who before me had walked barefoot through this same line. I ambled through the line on the sides of my bare feet, trying to come into contact with the floor as little as possible.  Unfortunately, I had to wait several minutes for the TSA guys to go through someone’s liquids, and that’s when I started to really get squeamish.

Much like the imaginary ten second rule, (it’s okay to eat if it’s been on the floor for less than ten seconds) the longer I stood barefoot in a multitude of skanky footprints, the more grossed out I got.  

It would be reasonable at this point to wonder what this post has to do with Chinese medicine.  My thinking is that this scenario is a case of damp heat and toxins meeting up with Wei Qi deficiency creating all kinds of havoc for people.  

Let me explain. Damp heat is the pattern in Chinese medicine behind a whole host of funky things that live on people’s feet, such as athlete’s foot, plantar warts, and such.  In Chinese medicine, infections like staph and strep are considered toxins.  To fight these things off, you have Wei Qi is, your defensive energy.  It surrounds your body like a protective bubble, and works much like your immune system.  So the person with weak Wei Qi who comes into contact with damp heat infections or toxins is more likely to pick up a little something when they walk through airport security.

So the question that nobody’s asking is this:  is it possible to get a staph infection, warts or athlete’s foot simply by walking barefoot on a contaminated floor?  I say yes.  I think the danger is even greater for someone with a compromised immune system, like someone with diabetes.  Think about this:  the virus for plantar warts can survive for months without a host. Also, wrestlers, swimmers, and other athletes routinely pick up these infections from hanging out in a locker room.  How is the security line at the airport any different?

So the next time you travel, wear thick socks when walking through security.  It doesn’t matter if you look like a geek with socks and sandals; you can take them off right after you put your computer and shampoo back in your carry-on.  Also, if they’re going to rifle through your carry on, ask those TSA guys glove up.  You never know whose dirty laundry they were rifling through before you. 

 Happy trails.

Ringing in your ears, called tinnitus, affects about 50 million Americans.  While some, like me, have mild or occasional ringing, others experience noise loud enough to interfere with their everyday activities, including sleep.

Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom, and it can be temporary or permanent.  Ringing in your ears is basically a phantom noise—you’re hearing something that’s not there.  It is commonly accompanied by some hearing loss, and it can be the result of your brain overcompensating for that loss in hearing.

There are many causes of tinnitus, including head injuries, ear infections, certain diseases, and even a common cold.  However, hands down, the most common cause of tinnitus is loud noise.  Think about the last big rock concert you attended (U2, thank you!) and remember how your ears rang when you tried to get to sleep afterward.  Excessive noise exposure, whether chronic or a single loud shot or explosion, is enough to damage your hearing and cause tinnitus. 

There is no cure for tinnitus.  However, in some cases, dealing with the cause can alleviate the problem.

In Chinese medicine, there are a number of patterns of disharmony that can result in tinnitus.  The most common is a deficiency of your Kidney system.  This does not mean you have Kidney disease—your Chinese Kidney is a little bit like the foundation to your health.  Your Kidney is the source of your vital substances, including the nourishing coolant of Yin and the pilot light of Yang, as well as Essence.  Kidney Essence is a little like your genetics, body constitution, and mojo, all rolled into one.  When your Kidney gets depleted, a common symptom is ringing in your ears.

While most Chinese medical practitioners think of Kidney depletion first, tinnitus can be caused by other patterns.  If the noise in your ears sounds like loud claps or ocean waves, gets worse when you’re angry or frustrated, and you’re having signs of heat (feeling hot, thirsty, restless, irritability, constipation, insomnia, dry mouth), then your tinnitus might be from heat in the Liver and Gall Bladder organ systems.

Another pattern that might produce tinnitus is a combination of phlegm and heat.  This is associated with signs of heat (see above) plus an overabundance of phlegm in your sinuses or chest, dizzy spells, and a feeling of heaviness, especially in your head.  Similarly, a common cold, called Wind Heat in Chinese medicine, can cause tinnitus if your ears become congested.

You may feel like you’ve tried everything to make that infernal ringing go away or perhaps you haven’t known where to start.  Here are a few things that you might try to help alleviate your tinnitus or make it a little more bearable.

Try some self-massage.  In Chinese medicine it’s called Tui Na, and it feels like massage, but it focuses on specific acupuncture points and pathways.  Some points to massage around your ears are the mastoid process, (which is the bony lump behind the lower half of your ears), and your TMJ, which is the hole in front of your ears when you open your mouth.  Also, massaging your Kidney area, in the small of your back may be helpful.

Avoid loud sounds.  No, really?  Okay, we all know that standing in front of a jet engine or going to a rock concert is too loud.  But any noise that makes you talk louder to be heard is too loud, including your vacuum cleaner or lawn mower.  Get someone else to do those chores or get earplugs at any drugstore.

If your tinnitus is worse at night and interferes with your sleep, try some white noise.  This can be as simple as turning your radio onto the static in between stations.  You can also use light music or a recording of the ocean or rain.

Pay attention to whether or not the ringing gets worse when you’re stressed or run down.  If so, do what you need to take care of yourself.

Skip the caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.  All of these can aggravate tinnitus.

Check out any medications you’re taking.  Aspirin is a big offender, here, commonly causing tinnitus.  Read the literature on any prescription meds you’re taking to see if tinnitus is a side effect.  If so, talk to your doctor to see if there are alternatives that don’t cause your ears to ring.

If you suffer from allergies, get them under control.  Chronic phlegm can obstruct your ears and cause ringing.

Avoid getting overly fatigued.  Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and down time during the week.

Work with a practitioner of Chinese medicine.  Depending on the cause, acupuncture and Chinese medicine may help alleviate your ringing.

Get your hearing checked.  Do this to rule out physical causes of tinnitus.

When my tinnitus got loud enough, I mentioned it to my regular doctor, who sent me to have my hearing checked.  There was hearing loss in one ear, indicating that something was up.  To make a long story short, I had a small, benign tumor pressing on my auditory nerve.  I had a very fancy radiation procedure, and the tumor has stopped growing, and over time will shrivel up.  The end result is that when I get tired, my ears ring.

Here’s a list of some reasons you may be gaining weight; some may surprise you:

1. Stress.  In Chinese medicine, weight gain due to stress is considered a Liver and Spleen disharmony.  In its simplest form, it’s the result of strong emotions (stress, anger, sadness) messing up your digestion and causing that spare tire around your waist. This is one of the most common patterns I see in the clinic, especially in women.  The symptoms tend to appear as a threesome of depression or stress, out of control cravings for sugar, and weight gain in the form of belly fat.
2. Lack of sleep.  Not getting enough hours of shut-eye disrupts many of your body’s hormones, including cortisol, insulin, and adrenalin.  When these hormones get out of whack, your metabolism also takes a hit, causing unwanted weight gain, especially around your middle.
3. Digestion.  The concept of digestion in Chinese medicine is about the transformation of food into nutrients and energy.  If you’re not effectively converting your food into nutrients and energy, your body likes to turn it into fat.  Symptoms of poor digestion include gas, bloating, loose stools or constipation, heart burn, stomach aches, lack of appetite, and the feeling that your food is just “sitting”.
4. Eating the wrong food.  Okay, this isn’t an aha moment for anyone.  You know lots of sugary treats and greasy foods are going to pack on the pounds.  However, many people don’t stop and think about the nourishment value of the food they’re eating.  Overly processed foods; chemical sweeteners; preservatives; dyes; ingredients you can’t pronounce; and foods that are unrecognizable as anything that ever came out of the ground, ocean, or off the farm are all the wrong foods.  These foods aren’t nourishing, your body doesn’t know what to do with them, and they’re just adding useless calories to your diet.
5. Boredom. Yup, some people eat because they don’t have anything better to do.
6. Depleted Yang. In Chinese medicine, this is like your body having a low pilot light, which can slow your metabolism, including your digestion.  Yang is warming and transforming, and some general symptoms of deficient Yang include feeling cold much of the time, sluggish thyroid function, retaining water, getting up several times a night to…uh, pee, and fatigue.  (For more info and foods to balance Yin and Yang, go here.)
7. Dampness.  The best way to understand the concept of dampness is to think of a farmer’s field after it rains.  In a healthy field, the water will drain into the ground and nourish the crops.  However, in a damp field, the sits around and accumulates in soggy puddles.  In your body, dampness feels heavy and can produce symptoms such as loose stools, edema, yeast or bladder infections and weepy or wet looking skin rashes.  Dampness is on this list because fat tissue is considered excess dampness on your body.  The most common cause of dampness is poor digestion, but it can also be caused by living in a damp climate or working/living in a cold, damp building.
8. Lack of movement.  You knew the exercise talk was coming, but getting enough exercise isn’t just about burning calories.  Movement creates heat (remember Yang from above?), gets your digestion going, and creates flow in your body in general.  Flow is good.
9. Aging.  You can’t do much about aging. It’s a part of life, and the reality is that as you get older your metabolism slows down.  This is a bad thing and a good thing.  It’s bad because you’re trying to keep the weight off.  However, it’s good because that excess weight is also stored energy which may keep you from becoming frail as you get into your seventies and beyond. As you get older, it’s important to maintain a healthy weight without getting obese or too thin.  Most people who maintain their weight as they age tend to eat a little less and move a little more.
10. What you drink.  With the exception of water and tea, most of what you’re drinking has calories, is frequently full of sugar (alcohol is a big offender here), and if you’re slugging down a creamy Latté, is loaded with fat, too.  For some reason, many people think that if it comes in liquid form that all the fattening properties are negated.  I wish!

So what can Chinese medicine offer in the battle against weight gain?  Well, we practitioners can offer up acupuncture to calm stress and anxiety, help you sleep better, and improve your digestion.  We also have a pharmacopoeia of herbal formulas to help with digestion, dampness and Yang depletion.  We can help you choose foods that best suit your unique body constitution.  And we can help you balance all of the lifestyle factors that have the potential to make you Fat.

I have treated my fair share of patients who suffer from bad headaches.  However, the pain of a migraine plus accompanying symptoms equals its own special kind of hell.

While stress headaches are triggered by…um, stress, migraines can be set off by a variety of triggers, including certain foods, missing a meal, getting dehydrated, alcohol, scents and smells, sleep disruptions, stress and strong emotions, hormones, changes in barometric pressure, and bright sunlight. 

One of the best ways to nail down what, if anything is setting off your headaches is to keep a diary or journal looking for patterns.  Include items like when your headaches occur, what you were doing, possible factors that might have triggered the headache, and what you ate in the several hours before the onset of your headache. 

Typically, migraines tend to move through stages.  However, many sufferers don’t have all the stages. For some, the early stages may not progress into a headache, or the stages may differ with each headache.  The stages include:

• Prodrome.  Several hours to a day prior to the headache, you may feel fatigued, uneasy, moody, or crave certain foods.
• Aura.  Vision problems, flashing lights, blind spots, a sense of confusion and even difficulty speaking may occur up to an hour before the onset of a headache.
• The Main Event.  This is the headache itself, which can be severe and affect one or both sides of your head.  You may experience other symptoms, like nausea, sensitivity to light, sounds, or smells.  This stage may last for hours or days.
• Postdrome.  Once the headache is over, you may feel pretty beat—tired, washed out, or achy.

In Chinese medicine, there are a number of patterns associated with migraine headaches, and require careful diagnosis by a licensed practitioner to be effectively treated (Yes, Chinese medicine can treat your migraines!).  There are a couple of patterns in Chinese medicine that are commonly diagnosed in people who have migraines.

The first pattern is associated with your Chinese Liver, which is the organ system that’s responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body. In a perfect world, the Qi (energy) in your energetic pathways move slowly and consistently upward, much like the rising of sap in a healthy tree.  (Your Liver is associated with the element of wood in Chinese medicine.)  While there are a variety of triggers, a Liver headache is frequently set off by strong emotions, anger, or stress. When you get a migraine according to this pattern, there is an uncontrolled rushing upward of Liver energy, which stagnates in your head, causing your headache. This kind of headache is typically severe and frequently one-sided.

To make things even a little more miserable, this kind of headache can be associated with heat symptoms like thirst, insomnia, irritability, and feeling hot or feverish. Throw in a little nausea, maybe some dizziness, and you’ve got a whopper.

A second common pattern associated with migraines is that of Blood stasis (or stagnation of Blood).  What this means in terms of Chinese medicine is that Blood is not flowing smoothly, and this “blockage” is causing your headache.

This kind of headache may run the gamut of accompanying symptoms, but has two hallmark signs.  First, the pain begins in a fixed location on your head or face, and second, the pain is intense.  I have seen patients with this kind of a migraine point to the place where it starts with one finger—a small spot, always in the same place.  From this small focal point blossoms a major, out-of-control headache.

Needless to say, if you suffer from migraines and want to treat them with Chinese medicine, you will need to seek the care of a practitioner who can diagnose, and then effectively treat you.  That person may use acupuncture, Chinese herbs, food therapy, and ahem, lifestyle adjustments.  In the meantime, some things you can do for self-care during a migraine include:

• Apply some cold.  Wrap a dish towel around an ice pack, a bag of frozen peas, or a cold can of soda.  Apply the cold to the area(s) of pain.
• Rest. If you have a monster headache, don’t even think about trying to work through it.  Go home, lie down, and rest.
• Stay hydrated.  Drink if possible, however, if nausea is a problem, try sucking on some ice chips.
• Desensitize.  Protect yourself from bright lights and loud noises.  Go indoors, close the shades, and turn out the lights.  If you can’t be at home, use sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat to filter the bright light.
• Relax.  Deep breathing, visualization, and meditation may help speed the passing of your symptoms.
• Caffeinate.  Drinks with caffeine, such as coffee or tea may help soothe the pain associated with your migraine.
• Medicate. It would be unrealistic to expect anyone to suffer through a three-alarm migraine without medication.  The recommended care in Western medicine would be to start with an over-the-counter analgesic (aspirin, ibuprofen), and if the pain doesn’t get better, go to a migraine-specific medication (prescribed by your doctor).  It’s important to note here, that if you take any medication day after day (or even several times a week) you may get rebound headaches, which occur in the morning or if you miss a dose of medication.  A better choice would be to seek out a qualified practitioner of Chinese medicine, get rid of the headaches once and for all, and stop with the medications.