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Acupuncture, Acupressure, and the Power of Self-Healing
By Matthew D. Bauer, L.Ac.
When the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture first came to
public light in the West some 30 years ago, it was quickly
labeled by medical authorities as a bizarre, antiquated folk
remedy with no medical value beyond the hit-and-miss chance
of a placebo. Expert after expert dismissed the idea that
sticking needles in people could help any medical
condition, let alone the long list of disorders supporters
claimed it could treat. Yet despite its rocky reception
here, acupuncture’s popularity grew steadily, especially
among those suffering from pain or stubborn, chronic
conditions. An entirely new-to-the-Western-world health care
profession – Licensed Acupuncturists – sprang up to meet the
demand, complete with its own accredited schools, licensing
boards, and state and national licensing examinations.
As acupuncture slowly gained credibility here, Western
scientists began to take it more seriously and started
looking for answers as to how it may work. Recent findings
show acupuncture causes an array of changes in body
chemistry including producing natural pain relieving
substances, hormones, anti-inflammatory substances, and
immune system enhancers. Cutting-edge brain scans reveal
that acupuncture stimulates key brain centers (such as the
limbic system), which in turn regulate an array of bodily
functions. What these high-tech studies are revealing is
something acupuncturists have known for more than 2,000
years: Acupuncture helps the body to heal itself.
Western medicine’s approach to treating disease is similar to
how a mechanic goes about fixing a dysfunctional machine:
one finds the glitch in the machinery and then intervenes to
restore the machine’s proper function. This approach
essentially replaces our body’s natural healing efforts with
man-made fixes such as killing bacteria with man-made
antibiotics, or placing a man-made balloon into a clogged
artery to restore blood flow.
Of course, unlike any machine, the human organism has the
potential to repair or heal itself. The critical question is
whether or not our self-healing efforts are powerful enough
to heal any given disorder. Western medicine has a history
of assuming that whenever a health problem is not quickly
resolved by our natural healing ability, it is time for the
doctor/mechanic to step in and take over. But while it is
true that some health problems are beyond the body’s ability
to heal and thus require outside intervention, many problems
simply fail to resolve because the individual’s self-healing
ability is not operating at 100% capacity. In such cases,
common sense tells us that if we could boost the
self-healing ability – get it closer to its full capacity –
this could make up the difference and allow self-healing to
take place.
Oddly, the possibility of stimulating the body’s self-healing
ability is not even considered an option in modern Western
medicine. This explains why those first medical authorities
here failed to appreciate acupuncture’s potential. If one
looks at acupuncture as just another type of mechanical fix
– acting in place of natural healing resources – then it
appears to be ineffective. But if one looks at acupuncture
as a method that facilitates self-healing, by stimulating
key brain centers for example, then its potential seems
great, indeed.
Although understanding that acupuncture helps the body to
heal itself is crucial to appreciating its potential, this
does not explain just how it, or its related therapy
acupressure, works. How does sticking a needle or applying
pressure to a specific spot in the flesh stimulate brain
centers that in turn stimulate self-healing? Modern
researchers don’t have a clue. The ancient Chinese however,
who discovered and refined this approach, believed they
knew: Acupuncture restores the free flow of qi
throughout the body.
The ancient concept of qi (pronounced “chee” by
the Chinese and “key” by the Japanese) has been a
cornerstone of Eastern thought for more than two thousand
years. Qi is seen as an all-pervasive force of
nature, a force that animates matter and gives function to
form. According to this concept, the constant evolution of
all creation occurs because qi is in constant motion.
As qi flows, it sets everything in motion in a manner
similar to how the motion of a wave causes water molecules
to move. If this force is obstructed, unable to flow freely,
it upsets nature’s delicate balancing act and causes
disorder. In the human organism, qi blockage leads to
pain and disease. Restore the normal flow of qi and
pain and disease resolve themselves. Acupuncture and
acupressure points are spots in the flesh where qi
has the greatest tendency to get stuck. Stimulating these
spots with needles (acupuncture) or finger pressure
(acupressure) helps to break-up obstructions and restore the
flow of qi.
The problem modern skeptics have with the traditional qi
explanation is that researchers have been unable to
confirm the existence of this force. But, in this day of
sky-rocketing health care costs and alarming evidence of
drug side-effects, this should not deter us from making more
use of acupuncture and acupressure. While it is impressive
that millions of Americans have been helped with these
therapies over the last 30 years, they represent only a
fraction of those who could be helped. Nature has endowed us
with the power of self-healing. Acupuncture and acupressure
help us to unleash this power.
© Matthew D. Bauer and New Living Magazine, March 2005
Matthew D. Bauer is a Licensed Acupuncturist and author of The Healing
Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture: A Complete Guide to
Timeless Traditions and Modern Practice (Avery, 2005,
$14.95). Visit Matthew’s website at
www.MatthewDBauer.com for more information on Matthew’s
book, Chinese medicine, or speaking availability.
Don't Eat This Book:
Fast
Food and the Supersizing
of America
 Morgan
Spurlock is an independent film director and screenwriter, known for
the wildly successful (and Academy Award nominated) documentary
Super Size Me, in which he attempted to demonstrate the negative
health effects of McDonald’s food.
In his film
documentary Super Size Me, Spurlock sacrificed his health and
wellbeing to illustrate the dangers of a diet made up exclusively of
fast-food. In Don’t Eat This Book, a literary sequel to the
hit documentary, he explains his experiment, detailing why he
undertook it in the first place, and charting a map through the wily
world of fast food politics, power, and pounds.
|
“Have we all
become compulsive eaters? Are we all gluttons?
Are we actually, physically hungrier than we
used to be? Or will we simply eat more if you
put it in front of us, whether we’re really
hungry or not? A study done at Penn State
suggests the latter.”
(Page 23) |
With
supersized wit and a jumbo order of unapologetic
clarity, Spurlock analyzes America’s obesity epidemic,
its relation to the fast food industry, and how U.S.
government agencies actually encourage an industry that
is directly contributing to ill health on a worldwide
scale. Citing nutritional and medical experts, he paints
a picture of the long-term health hazards associated
with a high intake of fast foods, and provides a
startling example by documenting his own shockingly
swift disintegration into exhaustion, mood swings, liver
deterioration, increased weight gain and high blood
pressure.
|
“Dr. Erik
Steele, a physician and hospital administrator
in Maine, recently wrote: ‘In the debates over
how to fight the obesity epidemic in America,
the food industry is acting a lot like the
tobacco industry did in the tobacco wars. The
parallels between the two industries are
striking. Both spend billions of dollars trying
to get us to use more of their products and then
deny any responsibility for any ill effects
caused by the use or overuse of their products.
Both have spent billions advertising directly to
children, then denied responsibility for our
children eating too much high fat and high sugar
foods, or smoking. The two industries have said
it is our job to be smart about what we put in
our mouths, and then resisted efforts to get us
the information we need to be smart.’”
(Page 47) |
Of
particular note is Spurlock’s irritation with the fast
food industry’s denial that its products are more
harmful than healthful. Citing an impressive list of
health experts, he suggests that, like the tobacco
industry, Fast Food is insidiously manipulating its
audience with clever logos, catch phrases and misleading
advertisements. Spurlock’s wisecracks bittersweeten an
otherwise acerbic collection of statistics that sour the
stomach. He points out, for example: Obesity-related
illnesses will kill around 400,000 Americans in one year
(almost as many as smoking), one of out every three
American children born in 2000 will develop diabetes
from poor dietary habits, and yet each day, one in four
Americans visits a fast-food restaurant (though most
nutritionists recommend not eating fast food more than
once a month), helping to make french fries the most
eaten “vegetable” in the country.
A supersized dose
of fast-food reality, Don’t Eat This Book also highlights the
way out from underneath the health-crushing weight of Fast Food,
Inc. He includes inspiring examples of schools that have worked for
change, providing healthy (even student-grown) food in cafeterias
and replacing soda and candy in vending machines with fruits,
granola, 100% juices and water. In each case, the result has been
positive: less violence on campus, better grades, and healthier
students. There’s even a list of resources that parents, teachers,
and school administrators can use to affect such positive changes in
their own communities.
In a time when
America is dealing with obesity-related health care burdens to the
tune of $117 billion annually, books that don’t sugar coat the hotly
debated balance of personal and industry responsibility for health
are desperately needed. Don’t Eat This Book unwraps the
dangers related to high consumption of fast food while suggesting
alternatives that can turn an obese nation around. Through his
self-inflicted fast food experiment, Spurlock has shown that,
indeed, “you are what you eat.” Yet he has also suggested that we
“vote with our forks” by choosing more wisely how we feed ourselves
and our children.
Book
Review by Ryan N. Harrison, MA, HHP
Ten Steps
to a Good Research Paper
To
write a good research paper, you must be specific about your
topic, know what you want to say, and say it effectively.
Following these ten steps will help you write a good research
paper.
Step 1: Choose Your Topic.
When choosing a topic, choose one in which you
are interested, and for which there is enough information. If
your topic is too broad, you will have difficulty completing
your paper. “The Effects of Pollution” is too broad because
there are so many effects of pollution. “The Effects of
Pollution on Geese in the Northeast Section of Duluth,
Minnesota” is too narrow. You are not likely to find much
information that is this specific. “The Effects of Pollution in
Yosemite National Park” is just about right as a topic.
Step 2: Locate Information.
Use information from a variety of reference
sources. These sources include encyclopedias, almanacs,
scholarly journals, books, magazines, and newspapers. Find these
sources in print form, on CD-ROMS, and on the Internet.
Step 3: Prepare Bibliography Cards.
Prepare bibliography cards to document the sources of
information you use when writing your paper. Your library will
have style manuals to illustrate how to prepare bibliography
cards for various sources of information.
Step 4: Prepare Note Cards. Use note cards to record notes from each source
you use when writing your paper. Number your note cards to keep
track of them.
Step 5: Prepare an Outline.
Write an outline for your paper by
organizing your notes from the note cards into topics,
subtopics, details, and subdetails. Use an organization such as:
I. (topic)
A. (subtopic)
1. (detail)
a. (subdetail)
Step 6: Write A Rough Draft.
Use your note cards and outline to write a
rough draft of your paper. As you write your draft, use numbered
footnotes to credit sources from which you take quotations or
major ideas.
Step 7: Revise Your Rough Draft.
Make
any changes needed to be sure your ideas are clearly expressed
and your writing has accurate spelling and grammar.
Step 8: Prepare Your Bibliography.
At
the end of your paper, provide a list of all the sources you
used to gather information for the paper. Your bibliography
cards will provide this information. List your sources in
alphabetical order by the first word on each of your
bibliography cards.
Step 9: Prepare a Title Page and Table of Contents.
The
title page is the first page of the paper. It should include the
title of your paper, your name, and the date on which the paper
is due. The table of contents is the second page. It should list
the main topics, important subtopics, and the page on which each
is introduced in your paper.
Step 10: Final Checklist.
Before handing in your paper, be sure you can
answer “Yes” to each of the following questions:
·
Did I include a title page?
·
Did I include a table of contents?
·
Did I number all pages correctly?
·
Did I provide footnotes for quotations and major sources of
information?
·
Did I include a bibliography?
·
Did I keep a second copy for my files?
Following these ten steps will help you write a good research
paper.
From
http://www.How-To-Study.com
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Success
To laugh often and much;
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To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a
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Global Health Newsletter brought to you
by the
Global College of Natural Medicine,
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Congratulations Graduates!
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~
Journal of the American Medical
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In addition, pollution, toxins, pesticides, junk food, cigarette smoking
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Medical Freedom Alert
Our health freedom remains under siege. Please support the following organizations, which are at the forefront of those working to protect our rights:
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Institute for Health Freedom
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International Advocates
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Health Lobby (Monica Miller)
http://www.healthlobby.com.
Try this at home!
Vegetarian Meatloaf
Ingredients:
- 2 cups
cooked lentils.
- 2 cups plain brown rice
- 1/2 cooked kabocha squash
- 1 cup yellow onions, diced fine
- 1 cup carrots, diced fine
- 1 cup corn kernels
- 1 cup celery, diced fine
- 1/2 cup mixed bell peppers, diced fine
- 1/2 tsp. garlic
- 1/2 tsp. Shallots
- 1/4 tsp. dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp. dried basil
- 2 cups fresh ground bread crumbs
- 1 oz. wheat-free tamari
- 1 oz. Mirin
- 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
- 1 tsp. salt
Directions:
Mix 1 tbsp. canola oil, sauté garlic, shallot, onion, peppers,
carrot, corn, and celery. Add tamari, mirin, and dry herbs. Cook
approximately 15 minutes until vegetables are tender. In large
mixing bowl add cooked brown rice, cooked lentils, and cooked
kabocha squash. Fold in vegetables, season with salt and pepper,
mix in fresh ground bread crumbs thoroughly. Mold into 9" loaf
pan. Bake at 350 deg F for 30 minutes. Let cool. Slice into 1"
slices and serve.
Nutrition Analysis:
Per serving:
Calories - 203
Total Fat - 2 g
Cholesterol - 0 mg
Sodium - 581 mg
Carbohydrate - 40 g
Protein - 9 g
(From
www.1stholistic.com/Recipes)
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Board Certified in their chosen field by completing the application
process and submitting their official transcripts. Please contact
the ANMCB at 800-889-6103 for more information or email your
inquiries to
webmaster@anmcb.org.
| LIBRARY AND RESOURCE CENTER |
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