Anxious or Depressed? Acupuncture Can Help!

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  If you suffer from anxiety, depression, have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or other psychiatric disorder - don't despair.  Although in some cases, you MUST stay on your medication, regular weekly acupuncture treatments can help you emerge from that 'dark hole' a
nd put you back into a healthy place of mind, body and spirit.  Regular acupuncture treatments can also help with the side effects of many antipsychotic drugs (anxiety, dry mouth, lack of sex drive, weight gain).  If you or someone you care for has mental health issues, call or email my office to schedule an appointment.  I have many years experience dealing with such cases and can help.  917-701-7581  k@kmondesire.com

The Thanksgiving Parrot - A Fun Repost

A friend sent this to me yesterday and I thought it would be fun to pass it on:

A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.

Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for over a minute.
Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and said "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."
John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day: Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! Don't eat too much...it's not healthy for you!

Acupuncture Stand Alone Therapy For Mild And Moderate Depression

A large percentage of my clients seek my professional services to treat their mild or moderate depression. In certain cases, where appropriate, I work with the patient's psychiatrists and psychologists to ensure that the patient has been tested for neurological disorders and ensure that a western medical diagnosis has been determined.  I am quite often asked what it is I do that transforms many of these patients from a medicated and depressed state into persons who have begun to live their lives fully. In many cases, they have been able to reduce or eliminate their medications with their psychiatrist's blessings.  The key to treatment is this:  I look at the whole person.  I do not focus solely on the dis-ease.  I listen to what the lifestyle and habits are of the person....sleep, diet, exercise, sexuality, professional status, previous illnesses, familial medical and psychiatric history.  For certain diagnoses where there are neurological imbalances, it is necessary for the patient to remain on medication.  In these cases, acupuncture can reduce or eliminate the side effects of such medications (anxiety, insomnia, low libido, etc).  But for almost every case of mild or moderate depression, the Chinese medical practitioner looks at the body's emotions as being in disharmony. The seven emotions  (joy, anger, worry, contemplation, grief, fear and shock) each relate to a specific organ of the body. When these energetic imbalaces of the meridians related to the organs and their emotions are regulated, the patient will respond accordingly.  For example, bouts of anger and rage can be sedated and controlled by treating the Liver and Heart meridians.   Hyper-excitability and other inappropriate behavior can be controlled or eliminated by treating the combined meridians of various organs.  All this is based on tongue and pulse examination and diagnosis.  In Chinese medicine, there are 18 pulse positions that we diagnose that tell us much about the patient's condition.  Tongue diagnosis gives us a plethora of information of systemic functions.  It's not hocus pocus.  It is the motis operandum utilized for over 3,000 years in the history of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Many of my patients keep up with their treatments on a regular basis well after they have removed themselves from their 'black holes'.  They are drug free and living their lives fully and with gusto.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Treating persons who have been diagnosed with depression takes listening and compassion, but also requires that the practitioner not enable the patient's condition further by being overly sympathetic.  These people need positive input, but also realistic and objective therapy.  If you or someone you care for is suffering from the 'blues' or depression, call or email my office.  Start your journey out of  'the black hole' today.

Melatonin...What's Its Function?

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Melatonin helps build bones and reduces bone loss.  It supports hair growth, promotes immune response, regulates circadian rhythyms in the brain, slows contractions in the stomach and intestines, and increases the release of digestive enzymes.

Acupuncture Can Take The Heat Out Of Your Head

I have many patients in my practice who are on a variety of anti-anxiety/anit-depressants.  One of the side effects of these drugs is a feeling of tremendous heat rushing to the head accompanied by terrific body sweats.  Acupuncture is known to alleviate all these symptoms related to these drugs; just as we can reduce hot flashes resultant from menopause, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  If you are suffering from the side effects of anti-depressants/anti-anxiety drugs and just can't stand that feeling of heat rushing to your head and the body sweats that accompany the heat, come in for an acupuncture treatment.  You'll relax, cool down and calm down - the drug free way!

Why Should We Exercise in the First Place?

I don't know about you, but I don't wake up at 5:30 or 6am every morning and say 'oh goodie, let's exercise'.....I'm a normal person and I like my sleep - but I get up and do it anyway.  So, why do exercise?  Here are a few good reasons:  not only is exercise great for your circulation, muscle tone, weight, and general physical wellbeing; when you exercise, 3 chemicals (natural antidepressants) are released in the body.  These are serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.  The release of these natural chemicals gives you that 'feel good' high that comes with exercise, much the same feeling when you receive a relaxing acupuncture treatment.  Human Growth Hormone and DHEA are also released during exercise.  These are the hormones that make you look and feel younger.  When we hit the age of 40, the levels of these naturally occurring substances drop substantially, so the more you exercise, the more you will stimulate the growth of these hormones and the more they will release into your body in an efficient manner.  

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  nobody has any excuse why they can't exercise at least 20 minutes every day...this includes a brisk walk at lunchtime.  Get moving today and get that 'feel good' rush.  If you're too tired, then come in for acupuncture treatments to energize you and get you started with your exercise program!

The Times Are Stressful

Worldwide media seems to be flooding all our senses lately with the gloom and doom of world market economic downslides.  The stress that this geoeconomic condition puts upon so many people causes blood pressure to rise, tempers to flare, autoimmune conditions to resurface, and many other maladies.

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Feeling stressed out over the global economic condition?  Are the world's events making you physically and mentally ill?  Make an appointment today for a de-stressing acupuncture session.  Your blood pressure will stabilize, your acid reflux and ulcerative colitis will subside and you will have an overall feeling of peace...without doping yourself on drugs.  Happy Friday everyone!  Stay tuned for more healthy tips on Monday.