Acupuncture and Low Back Pain

The Traditional Chinese Medicine Perspective of Low Back Pain

Low back pain is an extremely common concern, affecting anywhere from 75 to 90 percent of people at some point in their lives. Low back pain is second only to the common cold as a cause of lost days at work and is one of the most common reasons to seek medical care, including acupuncture. In fact, one of the top reasons that people get acupuncture treatments is for low back pain.

In spite of the large number of pathological conditions that can give rise to low back pain, up to 85% of the cases are classified by Western physicians as 'non-specific'. When low back pain is looked at from an Oriental medicine perspective, it is seen as a disruption of the flow of Qi within the area and associated with a specific disharmony and then treated accordingly.

The basis of acupuncture is expressed in this famous Chinese saying: "Bu tong ze tong, tong ze bu tong" which means "free flow: no pain, no free flow: pain."

In other words, any kind of pain or illness represents an obstruction in the normal flow of Qi or life force. Simply put, acupuncture moves Qi, restoring free flow.

The disruption of Qi that results in low back pain is usually associated with the following three disharmonies:

Weak Kidney Qi - In Oriental medicine, the lower back is referred to as the “dwelling of the Kidneys”. The majority of chronic low back pain conditions are associated with Kidney Deficiency. Kidney Deficiency type pain is dull and comes and goes. It is usually aggravated by over tiredness and improves with rest.

Stagnation of Qi and Blood - When the flow of Qi along the meridians that traverse the lumbar region becomes congested, it is referred to as the stagnation of Qi and blood. This presents with a severe stabbing pain that is worse with rest and better with movement, tender to touch and can be accompanied by stiffness and tightness.

Invasion of Cold and Dampness - Cold, damp type pain is worse in the morning and when the weather is cold and damp. This type of pain improves with movement and the application of heat. Stiffness and contraction of back muscles that is aggravated by rest indicates cold predominance while swelling, numbness and a heavy sensation are indicative of dampness.

If you or someone you love suffers from acute and chronic back pain, please call to find out more about how acupuncture and TCM can help you.

Source: Qi Mail

Soup au Pistou Recipe

This soup is great for late spring/early summer. You can substitute vegetables based on whatever is seasonal at the time. You could also substitute other small white beans.

1 pound / 16 oz / 450 g dried flageolet beans, soaked for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, then drained

1/4 cup / 60 ml olive oil
4 medium onions, chopped
2 medium leeks, trimmed and chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
12 cups / 3 liters water
1 28-ounce can, whole tomatoes, well drained, chopped
4 medium yellow potatoes, chopped
1 bouillon cube, optional
1/4 pound / 4 oz. stellette (tiny star) pasta, or other small pasta
3 small zucchini, chopped
1/2 cup (a big handful) chard stems, finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Pistou

1 tablespoon crushed garlic
scant 3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
4 1/2 cups / 2 oz / 60 g basil leaves, torn into small pieces
1 tomato (from above), well chopped
1/4 cup / 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup / 2 oz / 60 g grated aged Gruyere cheese

In your largest soup pot heat the oil, then add the onions, leeks, and celery. Saute for about 5 minutes, then stir in the soaked beans and 12 cups water. Bring to a boil, dial back to a simmer, then cook for about 15 minutes. Reserve one of the tomatoes for the pistou, then stir the remaining tomatoes into the pot, then the potatoes. Cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until the beans seem like they are nearly cooked. Add a bouillon cube if you like, then the pasta, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and the chard stems and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in salt - perhaps less if you used a salty bouillon - essentially, you want to salt to taste. At this point the pasta should be cooked through, as well as all the beans and vegetables. For the soup to taste good, you really need to get the right amount of salt in it - just be mindful of this, and adjust if needed.

While the soup is cooking, you can make the pistou. I use a mortar and pestle, but you can use a food processor if you like. Pound the garlic with the salt into a paste. Add the basil a handful at a time and pound and grind until nearly smooth. Add the tomatoes, then gradually stir in the olive oil a bit at a time. Stir in the cheese, then chill until ready to use.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with a generous dollop of pistou.

Serves 8 - 12

from 101cookbooks.com

Breakfast Beverages

Let's talk about your breakfast beverage. For your morning beverage, choose a warm or room temperature beverage, nothing iced or frozen. A glass of room temperature or warm water (with a squeeze of lemon, optional) is recommended as your very first beverage of the day. This hydrates your body after a full night's sleep.

For those who enjoy their morning cup of coffee or black/green tea, a fair-trade organic coffee or tea is healthier for you and the environment. Add cream from grass-fed cows, coconut milk, or home-made nut milk. Sweeten with natural sugars such as a teaspoon of raw honey or a pinch of stevia.

Organic herbal teas are a great choice. For a wonderfully warming drink, make or buy a caffeine-free Chai spice blend. This is delicious with a spoon of canned coconut milk.

A cup of vegetable or bone broth makes a mineral-rich nutritious breakfast beverage. Add a small pinch of sea salt or a spoon of miso and sip on this energizing beverage.

In Chinese Medicine, we recommend not drinking cold milk or juice first thing in the morning. Slightly warm up your milk (even better to add some warming herbs such as cinnamon, cardamom or ginger). If you love your glass of orange juice, freshly squeeze the juice yourself, but even better would be to simply eat an orange. You will get your vitamins without all that concentrated sugar.

More Nourishing Breakfast Ideas

Here are some more great breakfast ideas:

• Toast made with fermented bread topped with grass-fed butter, coconut oil, coconut butter, or nut butter. Eat this with a side of pasture-raised eggs.
• Pasture-raised eggs cooked into an omelet or scrambled with seasonal vegetables such as onions, peppers, zucchini. Eat this with whole grains, cooked potato, baked sweet potato, sausage or toast.
• Beans and rice topped with melted raw cheese and freshly made salsa. Add an egg or sausage, optional.
• It's easy to make your own sausage patties. Just marinate freshly ground meat (organic, grass-fed chicken, turkey, pork or beef) in sausage spices like marjoram, garlic, onions, dried mustard, a dash of cayenne, fennel powder, etc. and cook into patties. For vegetarians, you can make sausage with tempeh which is a fermented soy (I do not recommend buying vegetarian breakfast patties, as they are full of processed and artificial ingredients.)

Non-Cook Breakfasts

Although I recommend cooked breakfasts year-round**, these non-cooked breakfasts can be eaten in the late Spring and Summer:

-Bring yogurt or cottage cheese to room temperature (we recommend most dairy not be cold, right from the refrigerator) when eating and top with seasonal cooked or fresh fruit and nuts.

-To make a smoothie, make sure the ingredients are at room temperature. Use whole ingredients like yogurt, kefir, nut milk, coconut oil, seasonal fresh fruit, etc. For added protection against allergies in the Spring, add Bee Pollen from a local farmer to your smoothie. This adds a slightly sweet flavor and can really support your respiratory system during allergy season. Make sure it's produced near where you live for the best benefits. I get mine at the Union Square Green Market and the Bee Pollen comes from the Hudson Valley.

Take on this healthy challenge to start your day with a home-prepared meal, and enjoy the benefits!

Click here for an article on the truth about Boxed Breakfast Cereal.

**These recommendations are for people with strong digestive systems. For people with chronic disease or compromised digestive systems, stick with cooked breakfasts and eat non-cooked breakfasts occasionally.

Acupuncture and Pain

There was a blurb in the Wall Street Journal about Acupuncture that I found share-worthy:

The compound adenosine is key to acupuncture's effectiveness, according to a study in Nature Neuroscience. Despite acupuncture's 4,000-year history, little is known about the biological pathways that enable carefully placed needles to relieve pain in many patients. Researchers mimicked acupuncture in mice by placing and gradually rotating a needle at a point just below the knee, for 30 minutes. Levels of adenosine, a neurotransmitter, rose 24-fold in the tissue fluid surrounding the needle. Mice injected with an inflammatory substance in their paws and given acupuncture displayed fewer pain symptoms than mice that didn't get acupuncture. But mice genetically engineered to lack a certain adenosine receptor didn't benefit from the acupuncture session at all—further evidence of adenosine's role. Blocking enzymes that break down adenosine made the acupuncture much more effective, tripling the level of adenosine near the needle and extending pain relief from about one hour to about three hours.

Caveat: As with any animal study, it's far from certain that these findings can be replicated in humans.

Many of my patients report significant pain relief after an acupuncture treatment. It looks as though we are discovering even more about the body's pain receptors and how acupuncture works!

Nourishing Breakfasts

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we strongly believe that food is healing. We have an opportunity three times a day to nourish ourselves with healing whole foods.

With such a focus on the convenience of food, many don't sit down for breakfast. Patients tell me that they grab a yogurt, a smoothie, or buy their breakfast at the coffee shop. They are eating on the run, at their desk at work, etc.

I encourage you to make time for your breakfast. Even if this means waking up a little earlier, studies show that those who eat breakfast, actually eat less during the day, which could lead to weight loss. In general when you eat a heartier breakfast, you have more stable energy levels throughout the day, feel more clear-minded and have better focus, and decrease those 3-4 PM sugar cravings.

In Chinese Medicine, we believe that it is especially important that the first meal of the day is a warm meal. It's not uncommon for my patients to have cold frozen smoothies or cold milk poured on boxed breakfast cereal for their breakfast. (Boxed breakfast cereal contains highly processed grains which I don't recommend. Instead I recommend to cook whole grains.)

I would like to challenge you to try something warm and nourishing! The following posts will include some healthy, warm breakfast ideas. Try these out and see which meals feel good in your body.

To start us off:

Cooked grains (like steel cut oats, quinoa, amaranth, millet or buckwheat) topped with cinnamon, seasonal cooked or fresh fruit, nuts, grass-fed butter or coconut oil. First soak your grains for 8 hours in water with a Tablespoon of yogurt, kefir, or lemon juice, drain, rinse well, add fresh water and cook. The grains will be easier to digest, more nutritious, and will cook up quickly. To save time, you might make a larger batch of cooked grains and simply heat up a serving in the morning.