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In This Issue
Hi Everybody!
I hope all of you are excited about the coming of spring. Soon there shall be many opportunities to get outside & shake the malaise of winter.
In this issue there are some gret spring tips on cleansing, exercise, nutrition & upcoming events. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by email at theherbdoctor@gmail.com
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic
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4th Annual Natural Living Expo
Saturday, March 28: 10-6 & Sunday, March 29: 12-5
Admission and parking are free
Polk County Convention Complex
Downtown Des Moines
Mark your calendars, spread the word, plan the carpools with your
friends and family, bring your re-usable shopping bags and be ready for
a spectacular event! We have a Natural Kids Zone with stories and
activities, a Natural Baby Changing and Nursing Area, Mindful Living
featuring a Labyrinth and a Efficient Living educational RV powered
with wind, solar and ethanol.
More than 90 vendors offering healthy, organic, eco-friendly, energy
efficiency, and sustainable products and services. More than 40 educational
presentations to attend covering:
- Balanced Living - Let's bring fun, relaxation, recreation, and joy
into our lives. Let's start scheduling these elements into our lives for a
better work/life balance.
- Healthy Living - We will bring you many ways to Be Well. Tips on
fitness, food, self-care and holistic practitioner choices.
- Green Living - For many this involves recycling, reducing, re-using,
restore, we will go beyond the basic four to address sustainable living
choices.
- Conscious Living - We will address what it means to live mindfully,
how to be a conscious consumer in a world of consumerism.
- Connected Living - How do we define community? What are opportunities
to get involved and be connected to our community?
- Creative Living Stage - What would life be without music and art? We
will feature Iowa musicians and artists in this first ever celebration.
See you there!
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic
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It’s Spring! Time to Shed That Winter Excess!
In
Chinese medicine, spring is the season of the wood element, corresponding to the
liver and gall bladder. The liver governs the smooth flow of energy in the body
and for cleansing and storing the blood. Gall bladder problems frequently show
up in the spring, often brought on by fatty foods such as dairy (especially
cheese), fried foods and red meat or pork. Indigestion or nausea following
eating, pain under the right rib cage toward the stomach, or radiating pain
between the shoulder blades are all signs of a stressed gall bladder.
In spring, the body moves into a cycle of rebuilding and cleansing various
organs and systems. During
the season of the Wood element, energy is focused on the liver and gall bladder.
March 11 through May 22 is the Wood Element Season.
There are many ways on how to detox your body. Detoxification is the process
of removing all toxins and wastes that could have accumulated inside your body
for years. These toxins can cause host of diseases from common colds to organ
diseases. Detoxifying the body means you will cleanse it totally from all
harmful substances that could be present inside.
Detoxification is primarily performed by following a certain diet or through a
cleansing therapy. Most of the popular detoxification diets require fasting.
Food is eliminated from your body for a day or two so that there would be no
other elements that could otherwise obstruct the cleansing process.
The two most popular diets for detox are juice fasting and water fasting. Juice
fasting means that you are going to in take fresh juices of either fruits or
vegetables. You are not allowed to eat anything else. No meats or protein shakes
either. Carrots, apples, cranberries, and cabbages are the most common juices
used for this diet. This detoxification method usually lasts for three days.
Water fasting is an advanced detoxification process wherein you only drink water
for one whole day. Never do this method for more than a day as it could devoid
your body of the essential nutrients it needs. Don't do any heavy activities
either when undergoing this diet. Preferably, perform this diet only at home.
Other than diet and fasting, detoxifying your body can also be performed through
skin brushing and foot bath. Skin brushing pertains to the scrubbing of the body
with a brush composed of natural bristles. Start from your soles until you reach
your head. Make sure that you cover all body parts. This is good for removing
all toxins and dead skin cells present in the skin.
Foot baths can also detoxify your body. In fact, it is the simplest method of
detoxification. This method involves the reflexology principles. Certain points
in your foot can stimulate the body to release toxins. This process can be very
relaxing too.
•Detoxify your body with a simple everyday liver cleanse.
Squeeze the juice from ¼ of a
lemon into 8 oz. of water 3-4 times per week. This will help discharge your
liver of toxins – including chemicals and pesticides (from your food and the
environment).
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic
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Properties: Peppermint
is pungent in flavour, cool in nature and acts on the lung
and liver channels. Pungent for dispersion and cool for
clearing heat, it can disperse pathogenic wind-heat from
the lung channel, clear heat from the head and eye, open the sinuses and nasal passages, relieve sore throat, regulate the
liver-qi, soothe the liver and alleviate mental
depression, It is often used to treat wind-heat affected
by exopathogens and stagnation of the liver-qi.
Effects: Orally, peppermint is used for the common cold, cough, inflammation of
the mouth and pharynx, sinusitis, fever, liver and gallbladder
complaints, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), cramps of the upper
gastrointestinal (GI) tract and bile ducts, dyspepsia, fever,
flatulence, and for tension headache. It is also used for nausea,
vomiting, morning sickness, respiratory infections, dysmenorrhea,
diarrhea, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, acts as a stimulant,
soothes the liver and alleviates mental depression. Topically, peppermint oil is used for headache, myalgias, neuralgias,
toothache, oral mucosa inflammation, rheumatic conditions, pruritus,
urticaria, bacterial and viral infections, as an antispasmodic in
barium enemas, and for repelling mosquitoes.
Methods of Use:
Peppermint is best used as a tea. Use tea leaves to brew tea in a teapot or cook with a bit more water in a pot for 5-10 minutes for stronger
taste and effects. You can grow fresh peppermint in a pot or in your garden and use the fresh leaves for a steeping tea. You also may use dried peppermint or peppermint tea bags.
Peppermint is often combined with Chrysanthemum Flowers, which can be used as an antipyretic, it can lower blood pressure, improve vision due to
kidney and liver dysfunction, clear internal heat, and ease swelling and inflammation. Also effective for vertigo,
headache with fever and for eye aches or itchiness.
Dosage:
Both of these are mild in their actions. Usually 2-3 cups of tea a day is sufficient.
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic
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There are many ways to take care of the liver. First, by keeping the mind
optimistic and happy, and accepting of all new situations. Depression and
anger harm the liver. So try keep those emotions free and open. It is best to maintain a healthy schedule, going to bed early and rising early is optimal for springtime. Wearing the proper clothing is always important. Keep a light jacket with you wherever you go. It is best to to protect yourself from those spring winds.
With physical exercise, make sure to take part in more outdoor activities. Get outside and enjoy the birth of a new season. In the spring when the grass has just turned green, go on
outings, go for a walk in the country, listen to the birds singing in
the forest, and enjoy the scenery by the waterside. These help you get
rid of worry, even the temperament, limber the joints and provides you
with more fresh air.
Simple Liver-Preservation Exercises
1. Stretching. After a night's sleep people usually feel
slack and weak. Blood circulation is slower. Stretching your
arms and legs, waist and abdomen while inhaling and exhaling
helps get rid of the stale and take in the fresh. It invigorates
the circulation of the blood and vital energy, and frees the
muscles and channels. Stretching relieves fatigue,
shakes off drowsiness, builds up strength and limbers the body.
"The blood stays in the liver when a person lies in bed, but circulates
when a person moves," traditional Chinese medicine says. Stretching
speeds blood circulation, limbers the body and awakens you. It
stimulates the function of the liver. This can also be repeated twice
before or after a nap. Seniors who perform these exercises can increase the elasticity
of their muscles and ligaments and help postpone aging.
2. Take a standing position, similar to a Tai Chi stance. The legs should be shoulder width apart and the knees slighlty bent. Allow for cushion in the knees by thinking of the legs as springs. Inhale while at center. Exhaling, twist from the bellybutton and rotate to the right. Let the arms fall like dead weight. Once you have reached a complete exhale, start to inhale and rotate to the left. once you have reached a complete inhale you should be twisted all the way to the left. Then exhale again and rotate back to the right.
Inhale and rotate one direction, then exhale and rotate the other dircetion.
This stretch can help open the mucles and channels throughout the entire body.
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic
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In This Issue:
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Midwest Acupuncture Clinic Jay Heaverlo, M.S., L.Ac. 3060 99th St. Urbandale, IA 50322 (515) 554-6728
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In Chinese medicine, we use the concept of roots and branches. Instead
of treating a variety of symptoms separately, we look for a root cause.
While some treatments might be used to relieve symptoms such as pain,
TCM practitioners always seek to address the cause. Once the root is
treated, the branches become healthier. This leads not only to
treatment of current health problems, but also to prevention and better
quality of life along the way.
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Upcoming Classes
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April 25th - 2-4pm. at
Prairieland Herbs. Understanding Chinese Herbal Medicine:
Herbal medicine is a powerful and effective method of healing. Chinese
herbs have been medicinally used for over 5,000 years. They have the
unique ue ability to treat both the symptoms as well as the underlying
condition, as defined by traditional diagnosis. In this class I will discuss the foundations of traditional Chinese
herbal medicine, including:
*Traditional Herb categories
*Herb characteristics: temperature,
flavors, directions, actions
*Herbal formulas
*Modern usage of
traditional herbal medicine
*Herb contra-indications.
Class will
include a lecture/discussion followed by sampling of several herb
formulas (brewed during class). 2-4pm. $20
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