Fall is Here. Ain’t it Great!

If you’re like me you are enjoying the beginnings of fall.  What with a nip in the air and the leaves just starting to blush, it is just glorious outside.  Go ahead and open your windows and let the sun shine in, let the clear air clear out your house.  I am sure you can sense the change in the energy.  For one I can’t look at the left over peaches and nectarines any more.  Bring on those beautiful plums (so many colors) and crisp apples and pears – YUM!
It is time to relish autumn and its bounty from pumpkins to mums to the color of the changing leaves.  Can’t you just see the fireplace ablaze warming your home while the winds blow?
However some of us also see fall allergies and the oncoming cold and flu season and wonder what type of year it will be for that.  Well I would like to invite to finally Do Something About It!  But what can I do you ask?
Well there are preventative actions we can take as well as reactive actions.  For those of you suffering from Autumn allergies there are treatments that are very effective in either eliminating the effects all together or in lessening the effects.  All of this is done without making you sleepy (well maybe just a little, the acupuncture treatments have been known to relax a person and many people have taken naps while the needles were in).  Treatments can also be designed to help prevent colds and flus while strengthening your defenses.
Don’t you want to take out some time for yourself during the week, isn’t life hectic and stressful?  This just lowers you immune system and makes you more susceptible to getting sick.  It is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again but expecting different results.  Come on, try something different and help yourself feel better.  It all starts with a simple phone call to make your appointment – (301) 495-0303.

Wholistic Family Healthcare is located in Downtown Silver Spring MD, near to Washington DC, and only blocks from the Metro’s Red Line Silver Spring Station.

Video on How Acupuncture Can Help with Infertility

Simeon Pollock here with the Wholistic Health Minute.

Are you or someone you know struggling with infertility? If so, then I don’t have to tell you the emotional frustration and pain that accompany the struggle with infertility. However, you may not know that Chinese medicine has been helping women conceive, and carry babies to term for centuries. It also offers modalities that greatly enhance delivery! Simply put, practitioners of Chinese medicine work to analyze and discover the imbalances in both partners and in rectifying those imbalances to improve fertility.

Acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine, has been used for centuries to treat infertility. While acupuncture and Chinese herbs will not reverse tubal adhesions which can occur as a result of pid or endometriosis. However, in this situation, acupuncture and Chinese herbs can greatly increase the possibility of conception due to the potential effect of improved ovarian and follicular function. Additionally, it is shown that acupuncture can increase blood flow to the endometrium, helping to facilitate a thick, rich lining.

If you or someone you know is struggling with infertility, it’s possible that I can help. Visit my web site at www dot wholisticfamily dot com… That’s wholistic with a “w”…. where we treat the patient as a whole.

In Vetro Fertilization Aided by Acupuncture

In the February 8, 2008 issue of the British Medical Journal a meta-analysis (a study that combines and analyzes data from many studies) of seven studies that involved 1,366 women who were undergoing in vitro fertilization, showed that acupuncture improved the chances of becoming pregnant by 65% when compared to women who underwent sham acupuncture.

The authors of the study do say that “It is important to note, however, that the odds ratio significantly overestimates the rate ratio in this context, in which the event (pregnancy) is relatively frequent. In absolute terms, the number needed to treat was 10, suggesting that 10 patients would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional clinical pregnancy.”

They addressed safety issues as well saying : “Safety and costs are other considerations. Two large prospective surveys of practitioners show that serious adverse events after acupuncture are rare. Among women in labour and women at various stages of pregnancy, systematic reviews and randomised trials have shown acupuncture to be safe, although limited sample sizes preclude definitive conclusions. The effects of acupuncture in early pregnancy on complications later in pregnancy and on perinatal and infant outcomes have also been investigated in one trial, and no safety concerns were detected.

You can read the complete study by clicking here.

Chinese Nutrition vs. Western Nutrition

Just last night I was discussing the topic of nutrition with a patient. This is a subject that comes up repeatedly during treatment sessions. It comes up because I ask about it at the first appointment and then again at subsequent appointments. Why, you may be thinking, does he ask about a person’s diet? The answer is because Chinese medicine demands that a practitioner evaluate all aspects of a person and one of the main influencing factors in a person’s life is the food that they eat. Chinese nutrition is vastly different from Western nutrition in many ways. In Western nutrition one size fits all (see the food pyramid below) - if your “healthy.” Try and define that! You will need to drop your pre-conceptions and open your mind in order to read further. [Read more]