• • Eat more green, colorful, leafy vegetables – Vegetables like broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, chard and other commonly found vegetables have a multitude of antioxidant effects, minerals and other nutritive value that everyone can benefit from.
    Chinese medicine dietary theory emphasizes eating slightly cooking vegetables, not raw, as light sauteing or stir-frying can make digestion and absorption easier.

• Reduce or eliminate processed sugars from your diet – High sugar intake is now known to cause inflammation in the body, as well as lead to the well-known issues of insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus. Chinese medicine describes sugar as harming the Spleen, which helps absorb nutrients from food (basically the digestive system) as well as distribute fluids throughout the body.
  Keeping your Spleen system healthy is one of the main objectives in maintaining a healthy body and mind.
• Switch from coffee to green tea– If you really need that “pick-me-up” in the morning, green tea is the way to go over coffee.  Coffee’s vasoconstrictive qualities can lead to health problems in the long run, like hypertension, and increasing anxiety and heightening our reaction to stress.
  Green tea, whereas it does have some caffeine estimated at about the same amount as a similar-sized cup of decaffeinated coffee, the antioxidant and other herbal effects are more beneficial to people than coffee.
• Go for a walk with co-workers on work breaks – The benefits of work breaks and movement throughout the day have recently been shown to be very important to overall health.
  I’m sure many people have seen the studies showing sitting even 1 hour per day is detrimental to health.  Help offset these effects by taking an active work break at least once daily, or more times if possible.
• Schedule time for relaxation and time for yourself – Everyone can benefit from taking their minds off the stress of their work week, or simply taking 30 minutes to lie down and do nothing. Carve some time out of your week to nurture yourself, as often as possible. Downtime can help you be more productive.
• Use at least one wellness treatment to help prevent illness – A holistic health care system like Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as the Natural Health & Fertility Center offers, stresses the importance of illness prevention. These systems often can detect and treat imbalance before there are symptoms.
  Treatment often involves acupuncture, herbal supplements, dietary suggestions and other self-help approaches to help you maintain your health. Treatment plans for helping maintain health vary by the individual, but can include weekly treatments during allergy season, to quarterly check-ins to help the body through the seasonal adjustments our bodies make throughout the year. Call at 608-236-9000 for a free consultation about health prevention.
• Try to get a good night’s sleep whenever possible – The real reasons we sleep, or how sleep affects our health, has not been well known until some recent studies have revealed sleep benefits the brain and memory, influences weight loss, and many other reasons.
  Some people look at sleep as a nuisance, and could supposedly get by on very little, whereas others cannot function without it.  Knowing now that the brain needs sleep to flush out wastes from an active day contributes even more to the other important reasons that sleep is very important to maintaining health. Don’t look at sleep as annoying, look at it as a way to nurture your best self and health, even as a way of extending your life!
• Join a tai ji or similar approach like yoga that focuses on teaching breathing techniques – Breath is vital to the health of everyone, in fact the Chinese word qi (氣) is closely tied to air and breath. Approaches to regulating and benefiting the breath can help us respond in better ways to stress and help us live fuller, healthier lives.
  Tilopa Tai Chi Qigong Center is a great local organization where you can learn taiji. The Faith, Health & Wellness Center’s own Yoga Sanctuary in the Solomon’s Porch building offers a wide variety of yoga approaches to fit everyone’s needs.
• Keep laughter around you– Laughter has been shown to have many short term and long term effects on the body, from deactivating the stress response and improving relaxation, to actually improving immunity, relieving pain, and improving overall mood. Find more ways and time to laugh in your life, and be healthier as a result!
• Massage acupuncture point Stomach 36 every day – Massaging this specific acupoint located just below the knees, is something suggested by Chinese medicine to help promote health and longevity.

The post 10 things you can do to improve your health right now appeared first on Dr Zhou’s Acupuncture Clinic in Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Detoxing has become a popular trend in recent years. Many people are looking for ways to cleanse their bodies of toxins and improve their overall health. One way to achieve this is through detox diets that incorporate specific foods to help rid the body of harmful substances. However, did you know that you can detox with foods alone?

Warning Signs Your Body Needs to Detox

• Fatigue
• Digestive issues and inconsistencies
• Depression/ Anxiety/ Mood Swings
• Brain Fog
• Arthritis/ Joint pain
• Underactive thyroid
• Migraines/ Headaches
• Poor quality sleep
• Diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue Syndrome or Auto-Immune Disease

Avoid or Limit

When we talk about “toxic foods” we are talking about foods that are known to increase inflammation, wreak havoc on the G.I system, slow metabolism, perpetuate malabsorption and increase risk of chronic illness. If these foods are eaten in limited quantities, a strong constitution can handle the insult, however, most people feeling “crappy” are consuming these foods on a regular basis and are not aware on the chronic damage that is happening inside the body. The toxic foods I’m talking about are alcohol, sugar, trans fats, gluten, dairy, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and caffeine. The best way to clean your system and have your body run with efficiency is to avoid:

• Pre-Packaged Foods
• Alcohol & Caffeine
• Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners
• Inflammatory Foods (Gluten & Dairy)
• GMO Foods (Soy, Corn, Canola Oil, Hydrogenated Oils)

Caffeine:

Caffeine is not necessarily evil or toxic, it’s usually the things we add to our coffee that are the bad guys. However, our dependence on coffee is what is so “toxic.! If you are relying on coffee or caffeine to start your day in the morning or to stimulate a morning bowel movement, these are subtle signs that your body is not performing at it peak, and attention is required.

Alcohol:

Alcohol is the ultimately refined carbohydrate (a dose of alcohol is like a dose of straight sugar), it breaks down quickly into sugar making it very hard to regulate healthy blood sugar levels. It suppresses the central nervous system and often leads to a weakened immune system. Excess alcohol intake may also lead to leaky gut, interfering with nutrient absorption, which could then lead to deficiencies. In addition, those looking to lose weight may want to put down the wine, it has been shown that nightly consumption of alcohol can inhibit weight loss by up to 70% over the next 24 hours!

Sugar:

Excess sugar is toxic for numerous reasons! Sugar is often the cause for insulin resistance, weakened immune system, ravenous food cravings, fatigue, insomnia, inflammatory responses and foggy brain. By reducing your sugar intake you can drastically change your system! Once you’ve cut out the sugar your blood sugar can reestablish balance and your sugar craving will subside. If you are quitting sugar but need to use a sweetener try using organic stevia.

Gluten:

No matter how you look at it, gluten causes inflammation. When we eat gluten, it acts as a fuel source for the “bad” gut bacteria. If there is worse than good gut bacteria we have set the stage for a cascade of inflammatory processes, as well as negative immune responses.

Dairy:

Dairy is known to be one of the top five food allergens and is seen to significantly increase inflammation in a large percent of the population. It is one of the main triggers for digestive symptoms such as gas, bloating, indigestion, constipation and diarrhea as well as other symptoms including acne and nasal congestion. It is considered to be “damp” in Chinese Medicine, meaning it is mucous producing and creates accumulation in the system, slowing metabolism and inhibiting weight loss.

One of the best foods for detoxing is leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach and chard. These vegetables contain chlorophyll which helps to remove harmful toxins from the liver and digestive system. Additionally, they are rich in vitamins and minerals that support overall health.

Another important food for detoxing is garlic. Garlic contains allicin which helps to boost liver function by eliminating harmful substances from the bloodstream. It also has antibacterial properties that help to fight off infections in the body. Incorporating garlic into your diet can be as simple as adding it to salads or using it as a seasoning in your cooking.

These are the perfect lifestyle changes to start today to optimize your health and re-spark your energy! If you are looking for assistance in regaining your health and reducing your risk of disease we can offer guidance and other options in our office to help you succeed. We are a comprehensive wellness center offering Acupuncture, Functional Medicine, Holistic Nutrition, Lab testing and Hypnotherapy. Please call our office today to let us help you feel AWESOME again!

The post Easy Ways How to Detox with Foods Alone! appeared first on Dr Zhou’s Acupuncture Clinic in Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Here are some helpful tips that you can help to optimize the health of your Thyroid:

1. Remove Processed Foods.

We strongly recommend that our patients start off by removing all processed foods, sugar and gluten from their diet. We know that processed foods are filled with anti-nutrients such as chemicals and preservatives.

These ingredients burden the thyroid health, an endocrine gland that is very sensitive to any toxins. As for sugar, balancing our blood sugar becomes a key goal in helping the thyroid health and to function optimally.

The research on gluten has shown us that it can be a major factor in auto-immune diseases, especially Hashimoto’s. The data suggest that the molecular structure of gluten very closely resembles thyroid tissue, and the body starts attacking it in response to gluten exposure.

2. Eat Sea Vegetables Twice a Week.

Sea vegetables are a very good source of food-based iodine. This is important for proper thyroid health function. This can be done by adding a piece of Kombu to a pot of beans or soup during cooking. Sprinkle kelp granules over salads or hot dishes as you would use salt. Use nori as a wrap (instead of gluten-containing wraps).

3. Eat Butter. Don’t be afraid of using butter.

The endocrine system loves organic grass-fed butter. After decades of butter-bashing, it’s high time we look at butter for what it is – the forgotten superfood!
a.) CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, which helps reduce belly fat, protects against cancer and encourages muscle growth
b.) Vitamin A to help maintain thyroid health, adrenal and cardiovascular health
c. )Vitamin K2 to support bone density and possibly reverse arterial calcification
d.) Vitamin A, D and E, all key anti-oxidants that are essential to good health
e. )Key health supporting nutrients and minerals including lecithin, selenium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iodine and more


The best butter to buy is raw organic and grass-fed. Not surprisingly, butter produced from pasture or grass-fed animals – those animals who feast on leafy greens every day — will be higher in nutrients than butter from factory-farmed animals raised on cheap, nutrient-free GMO “feedstuffs,” grains and antibiotics. Kerry Gold is easy to find grass-fed butter.

4. Cook your Cruciferous Vegetables.

Raw Cruciferous veggies, such as kale, Brussel sprouts, cabbage cauliflower, and broccoli contain goitrogens. Goitrogens are substances (whether in drugs, chemicals, or foods) that disrupt the production of thyroid hormones by interfering with iodine uptake in the thyroid gland.

Women with thyroid health problems definitely should not avoid them — instead, enjoy them steamed or cooked, as the heat alters the isothiocyanates’ molecular structure and eliminates the goitrogenic effect.

5. Eat Slowly……Chew Your Food Well.

Because your Thyroid is the Master of your metabolism, we want to eat slowly and without stress so that your thyroid can have time to send the correct messages to the rest of your digestive system. It is the Thyroid that sends signals to the stomach, pancreas, and small intestine to start producing hydrochloric acid, digestive enzymes and to start the process of peristalsis.

Because the Thyroid is located right in the throat area, it literally connects the body and the mind. If you rush while you are eating food, it moves too quickly from your mouth to your stomach.

This does not allow enough time for the proper communication to take place. This is a major contributor to the digestive dysfunction that we see in our practice.
thyroid health has a direct correlation to complaints such as bloating, gas, burping, and constipation.

6. Do Yoga!!

For a long time now research has supported the practice of yoga for improving many aspects of our health. There has been a particular focus on yoga and thyroid health as well. There are many yoga asanas (poses) that support and stimulate thyroid function as well as the entire endocrine system.

Shoulder stand and/or Supported shoulder stand are especially beneficial for stimulating the thyroid gland. We recommend to that our patients start to incorporate thyroid-specific asanas into their daily routine. As little as 10 minutes a day has been to show to improve thyroid health function.

7. Find Your True Voice

As we have pointed out, anatomically the Thyroid gland is located in the throat. This is the epicenter of our ability to communicate. Often times we find that we “hold down” our thoughts, feelings, and needs. It can be very healing for us to learn to speak our truth with love, kindness, and compassion. Working with a facilitator who teaches Non-Violent Communication skills can be a wonderful way to learn this skill of finding our voice.

People who practice NVC have found greater authenticity in their communication, increased understanding, deepening connection, and conflict resolution.

8. Support Your Adrenals

The Thyroid gland and the Adrenal Glands have a mutually dependent relationship. When one of these glands is overburdened or under-functioning it affects the other immediately. It is important for people suffering from any thyroid disorder to find out the status of their adrenal function.

There cannot be the resolution of thyroid health without supporting and correcting Adrenal dysfunction. In our practice, we often do a saliva test called an ASI ( adrenal stress index ) to determine if we need to support the Adrenal Glands.

The post Thyroid Health: Holistic tips for improving health appeared first on Dr Zhou’s Acupuncture Clinic in Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin.

The health implications of insomnia are staggering and they have reached epidemic proportions in the US. If you suffer from sleep disturbance a few nights/week you are at increased risk for: heart disease, stroke, illness such as colds, infections or the flu; memory/cognition disturbances, anxiety and depressed mood, diabetes, systematic inflammation, and weight gain.

Understanding the difficulties that lead to Insomnia and sleep disturbance can be quite complicated. Eastern & Western medicine offer insight into today’s ever-growing epidemic.

A Western Perspective

Stress: Hands down stress is the most frequent offender for sleep disturbance. With concerns about work, school, health, family, children, finances, and relationships, our list of stressful factors go on and on. These stressors accumulate in our world and intrusively interrupt our thoughts during those still quiet moments when we are trying to sleep.

Stressors don’t have to be events or circumstances we view as bad but can also be those things we are looking forward to enjoying like vacations, promotions, or family coming to visit. Regardless of the content, stressors can be identified as those factors that push their way into our quite still moments without an invitation.

As these stressors accumulate and continue to disrupt our much-needed sleep, we experience inner angst and anxiety – and the cycle continues as does our loss of sleep.

Medical Conditions: Chronic pain is the most likely offender to interfere with sleep. It is all too common for my clients to explain and inability to get comfortable and fall asleep. If they finally do fall asleep, they are awakened with discomfort and unable to get back to sleep. A cycle begins, lack of sleep exacerbates pain and pain interferes with sleep.

Medications: Many people do not realize that even common medications can disturb sleep. Some antidepressants, blood pressure medications, allergy medication, steroids, and even over-the-counter medication can disturb sleep. The more medication you take, the more likely you are to experience insomnia caused by medication side effects.

Lifestlye: Never underestimate the choices we make on a daily basis that affect a good night’s sleep. Eating too late, eating too much, drinking alcohol, or consuming caffeine late in the afternoon all negatively impact sleep.


Treatment from the Western Approach: Traditional western medicine focuses on treating the symptom (loss of sleep), and often does so through the use of prescription or over-the-counter medications to induce sleep.

In fact, the use of prescription sleep aids doubled from 2000-2004 and the number of children under the age of 18 who were prescribed sleep medications skyrocketed 85% in the same period.

This approach focuses on symptom resolution without addressing the imbalance creating the symptom. While sleep medications can be very effective in inducing sleep, they stop working when you stop taking them, and long-term is habit-forming. This only reinforces the insomnia cycle.

Eastern Perspective: Traditional Chinese Medicine breaks insomnia into four types: “Difficult to sleep” – inability to fall asleep; “early awake” – those who fall asleep but wake repeatedly throughout the night; “light sleep” – those who never achieve a deep sleep or who are disrupted by dreams or nightmares; and “awake all night” – the most serious and often most complex type, refers to patients who lie awake the entire night. Let’s take a deeper look at 3 of the 5 most common types of insomnia in Chinese Medicine:

Stagnation of Liver Qi Transforming into Liver Fire: This is an excess pattern, where the primary cause is prolonged emotions such as anger, suppressed depression, shock or worry creating stagnation of liver qi (energy). This describes the “difficult to fall asleep” pattern.

There is an inability to fall asleep, possibly taking hours, and maybe followed by vivid dreams. Other symptoms that can accompany this pattern include red burning eyes, frequent tension headaches, a quick temper, and/or irritability.

Disturbance of Phlegm-Heat

This excess pattern is due to poor lifestyle choices such as over-eating or over-drinking and is seen in patients whose diets have become habitually unhealthy. These cases usually have a pre-existing deficiency of spleen qi (energy), creating metabolic or digestive impairments.

Hyperactivity of Fire Due to Yin Deficiency

This deficiency pattern is unfortunately very common. This pattern accounts for the “early awake” and “light sleep” types. Patients with this pattern feel nervous, often experience various anxiety disorders and/or chronic worry, and wake with racing thoughts.

Treatment from the Eastern Approach

Traditional Chinese medicine and Acupuncture seek to restore balance to the body and resolve insomnia from a systematic perspective. Acupuncture has been proven to be greatly effective in the treatment of insomnia.

In 2004, the NIH found patients with insomnia and anxiety disorders treated with acupuncture increased nighttime melatonin production and total sleep time. In addition, those who received acupuncture also fell asleep faster, were less aroused at night, and were less stressed.

When treating insomnia, acupuncture targets points that have strong sedating qualities (points on the wrist, ear and between the eyebrows). When these points are needed, the brain releases natural opiates; patients feel calm, relaxed and often fall asleep in the treatment room.

They wake to feel relaxed and refreshed. Acupuncture is also effective in treating those conditions that are cyclic in nature with insomnia. Its effects are widely hailed in treating chronic pain and reducing overall stress. Acupuncture restores emotional ease and promotes restful sleep.

The real beauty of acupuncture is in its practice of treating the root cause of the imbalance. Acupuncture can nourish and balance the organ systems restoring qi, blood and yin and eliminating disease patterns. As you get relief from insomnia, you are also correcting a dis-ease state and creating a healthier, insomnia-free future.

We work with patients every day who are suffering from insomnia and other variations of health issues who have searched for answers and relief from the Western Medicine perspective without avail.

Using our integrative approach, blending Eastern and Western philosophies and treatment strategies we offer solutions to your underlying conditions and help you regain control of your good health.

The post Insomnia appeared first on Dr Zhou’s Acupuncture Clinic in Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin.

What is organic farming?

The word “organic” refers to the way farmers grow and process agricultural products, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products and meat. Organic farming practices are designed to meet the following goals:

• Enhance soil and water quality
• Reduce pollution
• Provide safe, healthy livestock habitats
• Enable natural livestock behavior
• Promote a self-sustaining cycle of resources on a farm

Materials or practices not permitted in organic farming include:

• Synthetic fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil
• Sewage sludge as fertilizer
• Most synthetic pesticides for pest control
• Irradiation to preserve food or to eliminate disease or pests
• Genetic engineering used to improve disease or pest resistance or to improve crop yields
• Antibiotics or growth hormones for livestock

Organic crop farming materials or practices may include:

• Plant waste left on fields (green manure), livestock manure or compost to improve soil quality
• Plant rotation to preserve soil quality and to interrupt cycles of pests or disease
• Cover crops that prevent erosion when parcels of land are not in use and to plow into soil for improving soil quality
• Mulch to control weeds
• Predatory insects or insect traps to control pests
• Certain natural pesticides and a few synthetic pesticides approved for organic farming used rarely and only as a last resort in coordination with a USDA organic certifying agent

Organic farming practices for livestock include:

• Healthy living conditions and access to the outdoors
• Pasture feeding for at least 30 percent of livestock’s nutritional needs during grazing season
• Organic foods for animals
• Vaccinations

The USDA also has guidelines on how organic foods are described on product labels:

• 100 percent organic. This description is used on certified organic fruits, vegetables, eggs, meat or other single-ingredient foods. It may also be used on multi-ingredient foods if all of the ingredients are certified organic, excluding salt and water. These may have a USDA seal.
• Organic. If a multi-ingredient food is labeled organic, at least 95 percent of the ingredients are certified organic, excluding salt and water. The nonorganic items must be from a USDA list of approved additional ingredients. These also may have a USDA seal.
• Made with organic. If a multi-ingredient product has at least 70 percent certified organic ingredients, it may have a “made with organic” ingredients label. For example, a breakfast cereal might be labeled “made with organic oats.” The ingredient list must identify what ingredients are organic. These products may not carry a USDA seal.
• Organic ingredients. If less than 70 percent of a multi-ingredient product is certified organic, it may not be labeled as organic or carry a USDA seal. The ingredient list can indicate which ingredients are organic.

Organic food: Is it safer or more nutritious?

There is a growing body of evidence that shows some potential health benefits of organic foods when compared with conventionally grown foods. While these studies have shown differences in the food, there is limited information to draw conclusions about how these differences translate into overall health benefits.

Potential benefits of organic foods include the following:

• Nutrients. Studies have shown small to moderate increases in some nutrients in organic produce. The best evidence of a significant increase is in certain types of flavonoids, which have antioxidant properties.
• Omega-3 fatty acids. The feeding requirements for organic livestock farming, such as the primary use of grass and alfalfa for cattle, result in generally higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, a kind of fat that is more heart-healthy than other fats. These higher omega-3 fatty acids are found in organic meats, dairy and eggs.
• Toxic metal. Cadmium is a toxic chemical naturally found in soils and absorbed by plants. Studies have shown significantly lower cadmium levels in organic grains, but not fruits and vegetables when compared with conventionally grown crops. The lower cadmium levels in organic grains may be related to the ban on synthetic fertilizers in organic farming.
• Pesticide residue. Compared with conventionally grown produce, organically grown produce has lower detectable levels of pesticide residue. Organic produce may have residue because of pesticides approved for organic farming or because of airborne pesticides from conventional farms. The difference in health outcomes is unclear because of safety regulations for maximum levels of residue allowed on conventional produce.
• Bacteria. Meats produced conventionally may have a higher occurrence of bacteria resistant to antibiotic treatment. The overall risk of bacterial contamination of organic foods is the same as conventional foods.

Are there downsides to buying organic foods?

One common concern with organic foods is cost. Organic foods typically cost more than their conventional counterparts. Higher prices are due, in part, to more expensive farming practices.

Food safety tips

Whether you go totally organic or opt to mix conventional and organic foods, be sure to keep these tips in mind:

• Select a variety of foods from a variety of sources. This will give you a better mix of nutrients and reduce your likelihood of exposure to a single pesticide.
• Buy fruits and vegetables in season when possible. To get the freshest produce, ask your grocer what is in season or buy food from your local farmers market.
• Read food labels carefully. Just because a product says it’s organic or contains organic ingredients doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a healthier alternative. Some organic products may still be high in sugar, salt, fat or calories.
• Wash and scrub fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water. Washing helps remove dirt, bacteria and traces of chemicals from the surface of fruits and vegetables, but not all pesticide residues can be removed by washing. Discarding outer leaves of leafy vegetables can reduce contaminants. Peeling fruits and vegetables can remove contaminants but may also reduce nutrients.

Source: www.mayoclinic.org

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