Prevention of middle age prostate problems must begin at 25 not 52.  While still young and strong, learn the preventative measures to keep your prostate healthy.  In Chinese medicine the lower part of the body is thought to be like a swamp.  The “pure” waters are used for hydration of the bodies cells and interstitial tissue.  The “impure” water is excreted.  It is important to keep kidney function dynamic, so as to drain this swamp.  Kidney function is dependent on adequate adrenal gland response.  Stress and too much stimulation will weaken the adrenal glands ability to power the rest of the endocrine system.  An  imbalanced  sex life of either too much or too little sex will  contribute to prostate damage in the long run as well.  Energy and blood circulating properly in the lower abdomen is the key to prostate health.  How does one circulate this blood and energy?

Acupuncture is a ideal way to keep the blood and energy circulating properly in the lower abdomen.  There are numerous Chinese herbal formulas designed to enhance the function of the prostate, the adrenal glands and the kidney.  Why wait until disease forces you to action.  Protect your health and your libido with seasonal Acupuncture treatment.  Find out today what Herbs are best for you to insure long term prostate health.  Getting older and staying vital is not an accident.  Enjoy peace of mind about your health and future.  Contact me today and discover how Acupuncture can help you!

Why does Meditation seem to be so hard to do?  If it is just a matter of not thinking, how hard can that be?  OK, I will sit down, stop thinking and all of these great experiences will dawn on me automatically, right?  Meditation is easy.  Stopping thought is a challenge on all levels of inner experience.  A challenge that requires attention from all who hope to Meditate; beginner and master both wrestle with the restless mind.  We will explore many methods of stopping thought in future blogs.  For now do not feel alone in your struggles to quite the mind.  Since the beginning of time, mankind has invented one device after another, attempting to find peace from the ceaseless gyrations of thought.  What a strange paradox, we work hard to learn how to think, life becomes over analyzed and complicated because of it.  We then feel the need to find refuge in meditation.

What is the best Mediation for me?  Why are there so many different styles of Meditation any way?  Is Meditation a religious practice?  There is no best form of Meditation.  Many are very simple.  Some are complicated and require beginner levels to be mastered to reach the desired result.  All Meditation reflects the culture it came from.  Indian yoga has a different flavor than Chinese Chi Kung.  American Indians meditate in ways that will seem odd to mystics in Bali.  Modern science has developed techniques to harmonize brain chemistry that they would prefer not to be called Meditation.  Early Christians would mortify the body to bring on visions of ecstasy.  Shamans in the Amazon rain forest stupefy the mind with psychoactive plants to induce a visionary trance.  Stressed out modern man has a cocktail or two and reclines in front of a TV, in order to find relief from the mind.  Mankind has always searched for escape from the mundane.  Why is this?  Perhaps we all know that a mind beyond our thoughts is waiting to be discovered.  I hope to help with this search and discovery in these blogs on Meditation.

You may ask, “what is wrong with thinking about events in my life?”  Nothing is wrong thinking about what is happening around you.  It is the constant need to question, analyze and complicate everything with our internal dialog, is the problem.  I call this the monkey mind.  It cannot just let things be as they are.  Until it monkeys around with it first, it does not exist to the monkey mind. Self centered observations and questions, over and over about everything in sight, smell, sound, taste and touch, is the apparent job of this monkey.  In many ways the monkey mind is the point man for the ego.  Continually convincing us, that reality is only real when it is filtered through it, (the ego) first.  The need for meditation becomes apparent when we become sick and tired of hearing this endless rant.  When the world becomes tainted with our own interpretation of events.  It is time to dip into the cool water of meditation.  Water of internal vision clear of our own ideas of what is.  Meditation is the peaceful passage of time without the need to think about what it is.  Meditation is not thinking.  Allowing yourself to float down the stream of life, uncaring about where, why, what ,when and who.  Those five W words, are the “spy’s” for the five senses.  The senses must be engaged to answer them.

Freedom from the five senses is the primary purpose of meditation.  On the empty canvas of peace and quiet, uncluttered by sense experience.  We can paint endless new realities, with a rainbow of new colors that never occurred to us before.  New colors are not allowed in a world ruled by these five thieves of the sense.  Stealing our opportunity to create a more beautiful world.  Forcing the limitations of the body on the mind and heart.  Convincing  us that you can only behold the”real” world with these limited senses.  All else is just imaginary, it is just in your head, quit dreaming and start to produce something we all can see, hear, feel, taste or touch. Your life can be so much more than the limitations of the body.  Learn to meditate my friends, endless horizons of infinite possibilities lie within you.  Learn to turn off those sense telephones. Tune into a more beautiful channel, a space filled with the many colored rays of light, your real life is made of.

The action of the stomach should be downward.  We want our food to go down.  If not we suffer from acid reflux, burping and bloating.  The spleens energy conversely needs to be upward.  Sending food essence to the lungs to mix with chi or oxygen and become blood.  When the spleens chi becomes weak due to devitalized food or irregular eating habits.  It can no longer send adequate amounts of food essence to the lungs.  We then become weak, tired and eventually anemic and chi deficient. Over thinking will damage the spleens chi.  Being stuck in our head we are no longer centered in earth.  In fact the amount of energy it takes to worry and over think is not taken into account much in the west.  Of course over indulgence in alcohol and other drugs, including so called medicine from western medical doctors.  Will do serious damage to the spleen and stomach and your bodies ability to create energy.

Modern people are not very grounded to the earth.  Consequently we suffer many ailments related to the earth element.  Diabetes, ulcers, anemia, high cholesterol, obesity, bad skin, the list goes on and on.  Many of these “diseases” do not even exist in poor countries.  We are tied to our belly’s because we have a lot of choice.  Today many people do not even cook much for themselves.  Feeding our selves and enjoying it is one of life’s finest pleasures.  Somehow nowadays folks  tell themselves that the are to busy.  To busy working to buy more things.  Things that will inevitably get in the way of being closer to earth.  Earth is all about being satisfied with being and with what really is!  Earth demands we live our life simply in a attitude of gratitude and togetherness.  Otherwise before you know it.  You are in your car in a hurry to do something for some boss, in line at a drive thru.  Some kid with acne is asking you if you want to super size.  Then down the road you go faster than the earth would have you go.  Dripping catchup on your new shirt from the french fry hanging out of your mouth.  Take good care of your spleen and stomach and they will take care of you by providing adequate energy for the other internal organs to do their job.  Good food, enough sleep and regular acupuncture treatment.  Will insure your stay here on earth is filled with the energy and joy you deserve.     lapazacupuncture.com

Here are some ideas that may help you stay balanced during the Summer party season.  Get enough sleep.  Take a nap during the heat of the day if you can get away with it.  We Americans are deprived of this healthy habit the rest of the world enjoys.  Try not to eat or drink late in the evening.  Eat lots of leafy green vegetables.  Summer fruit is only around for a while, don’t miss out.  Melons are in season and will purify the blood, they make a great breakfast.  Go swimming in the Ocean; warm salt water is detoxifying.  Drink Longevity tea it is cooling.  Add some fresh ginger if you notice digestive imbalance and loose stools.  We do not need as many calories to keep us warm when it is hot outside; so eat less.  Find time to come in for Acupuncture treatment; staying balanced is the best way to maximize the pleasures’ of Summer.

The Fire Element is unusual; it rules four internal organs rather than the normal two.  Fire is heat in the body; calories burning are an aspect of fire.  Nerves firing impulses to one another is fire.  Protein synthesis and the wondrous workings of enzymes is a fiery process.  The actual movement of metabolism of all kinds is the function of fire.  Understanding and compassion are of fire.  Our heart is the mind; the brain is a processing computer capable of logic.  The heart is love, understanding and where awareness comes from.  The heart is supposed to rule the other internal organs with this higher purpose.  Unfortunately force, greed and self centeredness tend to win out.  Protecting the heart is the pericardium.  Anatomically it is the sack the heart is inside of.  Energetically it protects the heart from insult; absorbing the excessive energy into its meridian rather than the heart.  The small intestine is the third organ of fire; this is a very hot place where we breakdown and process food and fats.  Emotionally the small intestine decides when enough is enough and our need for approval.  Finally fire rules the San Jiao.  San means three, Jiao is a space.  Representing the upper, middle and lower thirds of the body, this concept is foreign to western thinking.  Regulation of temperature and environment of each space is the San Jiao’s job.  The upper Jiao is thought to be a mist; the wet airy lungs and thoracic cavity. The middle Jiao is the furnace of digestion.  The lower Jiao is the swampy space involving water regulation and elimination.  Each of these spaces need different environments of temperature and substance to work optimally.  Balancing the Fire element with Acupuncture is foremost in the mind of clinicians.  Keeping Fire balanced in your life with your decisions is the hallmark of wisdom.  Our life is like a candle; too much fire and your life will be short.  Not enough fire one will lack inspiration, illumination and passion.        LaPazAcupuncture.com

Anger is the emotion of the wood element.  We American’s tend to be an angry people.  Aggression is a virtue in the U.S.  Nice guy’s come in last.  Corporate capitalism and football.  Try climbing the corporate ladder saying please and thank you.  Being polite is a sign of weakness.  Go for the jugular and close the deal now!  We love to over stimulate the liver with coffee in the morning and alcohol at night.  Not to mention all of the sugar, rich fatty foods and meat; lots of meat.  Ground beef makes this country what it is.  Our desire for stimulants is over the top.  Add all of the chemicals in the air, water and food and you have a perfect storm of toxicity and imbalance.  Our liver is so backed up, every new toxin has to wait in line to be processed.  We call this condition liver fire in Chinese Medicine.  This fire rises up into our head causing headache, irritability and anger.  Does this sound familiar?

What can we do?  A hundred years ago herbal liver remedy were widely consumed; they still are in Europe.  Bitters are commonly ingested after drinking too much.  Cold bitter herbs such as Bilberry, Dandelion and Milk Thistle will help.  These herbs are found in combination in many health food stores.  Acupuncture is very effective therapy for the liver along with many Chinese herbal formulas.  Going to bed hungry is helpful and just eating less.  Green foods are the key to liver health.  Fermented foods of all kinds will provide the enzymes necessary to help the liver function.  Lastly and most important we need to unwind and relax.  This is not easy for most Americans.  Relaxing deeply until our internal dialog is quite is very important.  If you are too wound up to meditate; go to your local Acupuncturist, get treated and take a nice long Acu-nap, that will work.    LaPazAcupuncture.com

Fear and courage are the emotions ruled by the water element.  The adrenal glands invoke the fright or flight response so that makes sense.  Young folks are so bold and daring because their adrenal glands are functioning at peak capacity.  As we age adrenal fatigue sets in and we are not so bold and more fearful.  Modern life is full of  stress and uncertainty. We are indoors most of the time sitting, rather than working hard on the land.  People today suffer adrenal fatigue and burn out at increasingly younger age because of it.  Sedentary life leads to shallow breathing as well.  We need to breathe deeply in order to receive enough energy.  If that were not enough everything is sold with sex.  The sexual organs are ruled by water.  Having too much sex or even just thinking about it will drain some of the kidneys energy.  Think about how prevalent pornography is.  This kind of lonely observation of sex devoid of  connection and intimacy results in a huge drain of  kidney essence or Jing, especially for men. Jing is an important concept that is alien to the west.  It is our vital essence that involves so many substances it is hard to describe. The lack of jing is obvious; it is the difference between the young and old.  In youth we are energetic, vital and supple.  As we age we are tired, devitalized and brittle.  Jing is our hormones, neurotransmitters and vital fluids.  Semen and menstrual blood are manifestations of  Jing as well.

The ears are the opening of the kidney.  This explains hearing loss as we age.  Tinnitus is due to this weakness as well.  The hair is the flourishment  of the kidney.  Men who prematurely go bald are often very driven hence adrenal energy is used up.  The salty flavor is of water.  Primary hyper tension has as much to do with the kidney as the heart, and salt is one of the culprits.  Loving salt or disliking it shows an imbalance of the water element.  In order to live long we must take care not to use up our vital essence or Jing early in life.  Longevity is a sign of a well regulated life.  Vitality in our old age is not a gift or genetics nearly as much as wisdom.

NEW MENTAL IMAGE:   Think yourself thin!  How many times have you looked in the mirror and been unhappy with the image of yourself?  How often do you remind yourself of this negative idea about your physical form?  We are thoughts first!  These ideas become emotional feelings that crystallize in the body.  See and feel like you are thin now!  Follow these practical guide lines and eventually your body will come into alignment with your thoughts.  So think your self thin. what do you  have to lose except a very negative idea about yourself.

FAST FOOD IS NOT AN OPTION:  Do not eat fast food.  Do not eat processed food.  This is very simple; cook for your self!  Cooking is one of the highest forms of love.  You have an opportunity to cook three times a day.  Love yourself three times a day.  Stay hungry rather than eat junk food.  It is poison and you know it.  Carry around an apple and some almonds.  Learn to enjoy feeling light and empty; self awareness needs a little hunger to grow.

DEVELOP TEA CULTURE:  Coffee is not good for you.  Not even decaf.  The problem is not the caffeine, it is the harsh acids that make coffee a bad choice.  The coffee buzz is too strong; it leads your mind to a very schizophrenic place of too high and then too low.  Not to mention the blood sugar imbalance.  If you miss caffeine, drink good quality black tea like Yorkshire or PG Tips.  Black tea is very refreshing, does not contain the harsh acids and is high in antioxidants.  Drink green tea or better yet Longevity tea which is available here at the clinic or go to Dragon Herbs.com. Drink ginger tea made from fresh slices of ginger root boiled for no more than one minute, after meals to help with digestion.

DO NOT DRINK COLD DRINKS:  It has only been the last 100 years that humans have been capable of this indulgence.  Your stomach is a furnace; stop putting out the fire with icy cold drinks.  This may seem hard, everyone is doing it.  Cool drinks are fine, iced drinks are a sure way to weight loss failure.

DO NOT DIET:  How many diets have you been on?  You are reading this so I assume they did not work.  Eat to live don’t live to eat.  You know what works for you, stick with that.  I am not talking about cravings, you know what nourishes your body.  That being said attempt the following.

1)  Eat a  breakfast high in protein.  Do not start the day with something sweet.  Keeping your blood sugar in balance is the key to mastering food rather than it mastering you.

2)  Eat a big lunch.   This should be the largest meal of the day.  Warm nourishing foods that you feel good about.  Do not starve yourself.  A steady flow of calories will keep your metabolism high as it should be.

3)  A small dinner at least two hours before bed time.  I know you are busy, you have a job, family and lots of reasons why this is impractical.  Well there is nothing practical about being overweight either.  Develop discipline of the tongue, not slavery to the stomach.

LIMIT COLD FOODS:  This follows the same logic about cold drinks.  Cold foods are uncooked vegetables, fruit and salads.  I know this sounds wrong but hear me out.  Cold foods decrease your metabolism, warm foods increase it.  You know when you have eaten cold food, you feel bloated and gassy.  I am not suggesting not to eat salads; don’t make a meal of it.  Eat it with warm nourishing food.  Home made soup is one of the best foods for weight loss.   Try making miso soup, talk about low calorie.  Eat fruit by itself, never with protein or vegetables.  Fruit digests much faster then other food, leading to gas.  Do not mix sweets with protein, this will cause fermentation and bloating.  Everyone likes dessert because it causes a very full feeling which we confuse with satisfaction.  It is the sure road to the sofa and TV.

EAT LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE THAT IS IN SEASON:  Organic is good, but it is often not local and can be expensive.  Spend the extra money on organic dairy products.  Better yet cut way back on dairy products.  Limit empty carbohydrates; eat whole grains.  Nothing white except for cauliflower and tofu.  No white flour, sugar or rice.  Eat a lot of brown rice and pressed barley.  Get quality brown rice from an Asian market and a rice cooker.  If the center of your plate is full of brown rice, surrounded by freshly made vegetables and a little lean protein;  You will get full and feel satisfied.  Do not steam your vegetables, it is tasteless and you will hate it.  Roast your vegetables with coconut oil and lots of onions, garlic and ginger.  Not only does this taste good it is good for you.  Try not to eat in front of the television or in the car.  Eat with folks you love, enjoy what you eat with a grateful heart.

DRINK ALKALINE IONIZED WATER:  This water will energize and detoxify you effortlessly; all you have to do is drink it.  Becoming more alkaline and less acidic is the goal of healthy habits.  This is the healthiest water you can get.  Tap water is poison.  Most bottled water is not much better, not to mention all of the plastic.  Reverse osmosis is too clean and rather acidic.  Go on line to learn more at ion-ways.com.  The machine is a little pricey, but in the long run it is much cheaper than bottled water.

COCONUT OIL IS GOOD FOR YOU:  Replace vegetable oil with coconut oil.  This amazing oil will increase your metabolism and strengthen your thyroid function to help you loose weight.  Go to Tropical Traditions.com for a lot more information.  Use only Coconut oil, Olive oil (uncooked) and unsalted butter.  Coconut oil is the saturated fat you can eat and feel good about.  A good green drink  will provide you with the extra nutrition you may be missing.  Nano-Greens  is the best.  It is only available through a physician or here at the clinic.

LOVE YOURSELF:  This goes back to my first point of thinking yourself thin.  Self love is very powerful.  Start where you are at; accept who you are now.  Do not  lie to yourself.  Look in the mirror, look deep into your own eyes and say I love you every day.  When you really believe it these guidelines will be easy.  Love your body, love this earthy gift.  Your body will love you back by reflecting your loving thoughts with good feelings.

LaPazAcupuncture.com

The Metal Element represents the Lung and Large Intestine.  Autumn, harvest , west and dryness are of Metal.  Pungent flavors, rank odor and white color belong to Metal.  Each Element has an opening.  The nose is of Metal and opens to the lungs.  Skin and hair are ruled by metal.  Skin conditions are often a sign of a sluggish and toxic Large Intestine.  Compromised lung function will show in the skin and hair as well.  Sadness is the emotion and weeping is the sound displayed when the Metal Element is out of balance.  Think of a time of loss in your life.  It is hard to take a deep breath when you are sad.  Breath is inspiration.  A lack of proper deep breathing  will lead to less inspiration.  Inspiration keeps one from the path of sadness.  Metal is thought to represent heaven.  Inspiration is the way to heavenly thoughts.  Breathing exercises of all kinds are a part of all systems to create a higher consciousness.  Deep breathing brings in more energy for the function of the Large Intestine as well.  The Large Intestine absorbs many minerals which are metallic in nature.  Eating  roughage in the form of leafy greens and fruit will help the Large Intestine function properly.  A clean Large Intestine  is essential for health.  Food rotting  in the Large Intestine creates acidic waste, which will upset the bodies natural alkaline state.  To keep the Metal Element balanced we need to breath deeply and get adequate roughage.  Strong Metal is important being the mother of Water, which I will discuss in the next writing.  LaPazAcupuncture.com

Acupuncture works by moving energy around.  What is this energy or Chi?  Everything is  energy vibrating at different rates.  A rock is vibrating slower than electricity.  Both are energy none the less.  In Chinese Medicine we have many different classifications of Chi or energy.  Yuan Chi or Original Chi is the potential energy of the Quantum field.  All things or the myriad of things come from this Original Chi.  Creation as we know it requires this oneness to become polarized into opposites or Yin and Yang.  Yin and Yang transforms into the Five Elements which represents  our five senses.  Throw in the force of gravity to create time and space and you come up with this temporal world we live in.                                                                                                             

Energy flowing in the meridians is the difference between a living human being and a corpse.  We are energy first!  Our nervous system is the wiring sending signals to the muscles and internal organs, but it is the meridian system that is the dynamo providing the “juice”. Not long ago western doctors knew nothing about the nervous system.  The church explained all of the mysterious workings of the human body.  In the west today the “mysterious” Chi flowing through the meridians is scoffed at by so-called experts of physiology.  Quantum physics is not just a theory.  It is a fact!  How is it possible these men of science pretend otherwise.  Perhaps how it is worded is the problem.  Chinese Medicine is written in rather poetic terms based in nature.  Western Medicine is written in abstract terms.  Both are rooted in observation, the perspective is the difference.  Chinese physicians’ starting point is Yuan Chi or the Quantum field, which is expressed in nature.  Human beings are a part of nature.  Living in accord with the natural ebb and flow of life will result in radiant health.  In the west conversely, humans are thought of  as separate and above nature. Lots of parts reduced to the merely physical.  When these parts are diseased they are treated separate from the whole organism.  Energy is the “missing link” which provides a wholistic connected view-point missing in the reductionist observations of the west. These opposing views are merging closer together by the  day.                                                                                                                

 Emotions are our personal feeling of energy flowing or a lack of flowing through the different meridians and internal organs.  This premise does not discount or invalidate psychology or learned conditioning.  Our conditioned mind is still under the influence of the past.  Chi is in the present.  We choose what emotions to feel, although it may not seem that way.  This idea complicates an already complicated notion.  It is a chicken or the egg question.  What came first our conditioning or an imbalance of chi flow.  We learn to respond angrily towards others because of perceived insult.  Anger causes the liver chi to stagnate, which leads one to get angry even easier.  Around and around we go in a vicious circle until we either forgive or choke on the bitter bile of resentment about almost everything.  I will go into details of each internal organ/element and its corresponding emotion in the next blog.                                                                                            

What can Acupuncture do about it?  All disease (dis-ease) is from the inharmonious flow of energy.  Chinese Medicine cites three main reasons why. 1) Injury: Chi cannot move smoothly through traumatized body parts; including scars, piercing and injury that have healed improperly.  2) Pathogenic invasion: Virus and bacterial infection are in this category.  Chinese Medicine recognizes other natural pathogens such as heat, cold, dampness and dryness as factors as well.  3) Emotions:  Are the primary cause of chronic health problems.  All of our over indulgence is an emotional response.  I realize how unpopular this idea is.  “What do you mean, I am not a drunk it is a disease”.   “I am not fat, it is genetic”.  On and on the victim within blames all of our bad choices on someone or something else.  Of course I sound real mean, but if the emotional baggage is not ours, whose is it?  Acupuncture can help by correcting long-standing energetic imbalance, allowing a free flow of chi and communication among the internal organs’ meridian system.  We become flexible and adaptable to change.  Perhaps adaptable enough to release you from past hurt and future fear.  Free and happy for no reason in the present moment.   LaPazAcupuncture.com