Stay Healthy This Season

Doctors in Ancient China were paid only as long as their patients were healthy. As soon as the patient fell ill, payment to their doctors stopped. Chinese medicine still has a tremendous emphasis on the preventative aspect of medicine.

Flu season is burgeoning. With the recent swine flu epidemic, it is now, more than ever, important to know how to take care of ourselves and keep ourselves healthy. We all know that exercise, fresh air, and whole foods are key factors in supporting our immune system, but did you know that Chinese Medicine can also be a tool in the fight against colds and flu? Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can be a valuable resource in the prevention of colds and flu and can also help us recover from them quickly.

Prevention
It has been determined that acupuncture is effective in boosting the immune system. It is possible to use acupuncture to prevent colds and flu from happening altogether or to prevent them from becoming full-blown infections. If you're feeling relatively healthy, it is advisable to come for acupuncture once a month during cold and flu season to strengthen your immune system. If you are prone to infections, you may want to come in 2 or 3 times a month to keep yourself from getting sick. When people around you are getting sick, while you are receiving acupuncture, your body is better able to fight off illnesses and remain healthy.

Treatment
If you do happen to catch a cold or the flu, acupuncture and Chinese herbs can help lessen the severity and hasten you recovery. A visit to the acupuncturist at the first signs of a cold or flu can repair immunity and fight symptoms so your body can fight an infections.

Preventing Kidney stones

from Medscape

The dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) diet may help protect against kidney stones according to the results of a prospective study reported online August 13 in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

"Despite previously observed associations between individual dietary factors and kidney stone risk, relatively few studies have examined the impact of overall diet or dietary patterns on risk," write Eric N Taylor, M.D., from Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, and colleagues.

"The DASH diet, which is high in fruits and vegetables, moderate in low-fat dairy products, and low in animal protein represents a novel potential means of kidney stone prevention. The consumption of fruits and vegetables increase urinary citrate, an important inhibitor of calcium stone formation, and a diet with normal to high calcuim content but low in animal protein and sodium decreases the risk of oxalate stone recurrence by 51%," the researchers state.