Chinese Medicine tips for Holiday season

17 Dec 2014 Your Overall Health , ,

The holiday season that starts from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and ends with the New Year.

A common holiday feast condition is indigestion – full and burning sensation, upper abdominal pain, bloating or nausea.

In Chinese medicine, indigestion is known as food stagnation. Symptoms include a lack of appetite and a bloating feeling in the stomach. The treatment principle for food stagnation is to open and move qi in the stomach so our digestive and elimination function can work optimally. Bao He Wan is a great herb formula for this.

The main function of Bao He Wan is to harmonize the stomach and reduce food stagnation. Here are the herbs in the formula:
Hawthorn Fruit
Massa Fermentata
Radish Seeds
Tangerine Peel
Pinellia Rhizome
Hoelen
Forsythia Fruit

Hawthorn fruit is excellent for reducing stagnation from meat and fatty food. Radish seed is good to bring qi downward. Orange/Tangerine Peel is great to clear stagnation and regulate qi. Hoelen is best known to reduce dampness and tonify the spleen channel. Forsythia fruit can reduce heat from food stagnation.

You’ve probably heard this before – the average weight gain during the holiday season is one pound. That is one pound that stays and accumulates year after year. While Bao He Wan works for indigestion, it won’t help to lose the weight gained over time. Balancing our diet, managing stress and exercise are still the sure way to maintain our health.

Coffee Body Scrub

17 Dec 2014 Recipes & Home Remedies

2 Cups coarsely ground coffee

½ cup raw sugar or sea salt

2-3 tablespoons massage oil (we like a local blend called Cramp ease)

Mix all ingredients together. Take a hot shower or bath to open pores. Using Wide Circular motions, rub the coffee exfoliant onto your skin with strong even pressure. Shower off and pat skin dry and apply a thin layer of your favorite lotion or follow with olive or coconut oil.

Recipes courtesy of www.safecosmetics.org/

Massage During Pregnancy and Beyond

17 Dec 2014 Women & Pregnancy , ,

Adding to the Peace of the World
Did you know that anthropological studies show that the majority of the world’s most peaceful cultures, use touch prominently during pregnancy and early childhood?

Bodywork, including therapeutic massage, can have a tremendously soothing effect – physically, mentally and emotionally. In pregnancy, this is true for mothers and their babies.

Alleviating Concerns
Each trimester brings its own set of thrills and challenges.  While some women are concerned about the contraindications of massage during pregnancy, barring any health concerns expressed by their doctor, or midwife, massage can be very beneficial during each stage of the process.  Certified therapists are aware of the appropriate precautions to take, and can be valuable partners to aid in providing comfort and support.

Indications That You May Need a Massage

1. Are you dealing with increased stress?
2. Do you having trouble sleeping?
3. Are you having some fluid retention?
4. Are you experiencing pain in your lower back and hips?
5. Do you have increased pain in your shoulders and neck?

Some Benefits of Pre-Natal & Post-Partum Massage

• Counters the negative effects of stress
• Provides increased oxytocin production and feelings of well-being
• Increases immunological functioning
• Can reduce maternal blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates
• Can reduce labor time and discomfort
• Increases uterine blood supply to enhance fetal health
• Feels good!
If you are experiencing any of the above-noted indications, and are looking for some of the benefits, give us a call!  We hope to see you soon!

5 Tips to Stop the panic of the holidays

17 Dec 2014 Tips & Tricks, Your Overall Health , ,

When the holidays are here we have too many parties and social errands to run, we can get overwhelmed. Anxiety or panic attacks can happen to all of us and will generally feel like your heart is racing, you can’t catch your breath, dizziness or lightheadedness, sometimes narrowing vision and sudden fatigue. If you know one is coming or you are only experiencing one or two of the symptoms, we suggest the following tips for both stopping an attack and preventing one.

  1. Stop and slow your breathing, focusing on the exhalation of breath more than the inhalation. This can be done easier when sitting up very straight(but can be done standing in a check out line if necessary)
  2. Change your own current atmosphere: examples – leave a store, drink a cold glass of water, focus on a joke or on something unique and odd to you. All of these examples are changing your mental atmosphere even if you can’t change your current environment.
  3. Don’t avoid trigger situations entirely; simply lessen the time of exposure so that you don’t create a greater fear response in the future to certain settings.
  4. Keep a journal and figure out what is triggering your anxiety. Writing during an attack has actually been shown to be calming and you can write on anything you choose.
  5. Suck on a peppermint. The act of sucking on something like a mint or candy is a soothing response in humans and does release good hormones. In this busy season, carry your favorite mint to keep the stress down.

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