Classism in coverage of community acupuncture by New York Times

Community Acupuncture Network was mentioned in a New York Times article last week. Great. Except that it likened our services to chair massage (nothing wrong with chair massage) and said that our style of acupuncture was for problems that are not serious or complicated. Please read this letter to the author and editor written by C.A.N. founder, Lisa Rohleder.

Blog Post and video's about PCA

Here's a nice article from the blog, Philadelphia Neighborhoods, a publication of Temple University's Multimedia Urban Reporting lab.

New video intro to community acupuncture

Filmed largely at Turning Point Community Acupuncture in Frederick, Md., here's a great, 8 minute intro to what we're doing, and to the network we're a part of.

How to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season (…or nip one in the bud if it starts!)

Article by acupuncturist, Rebecca Parker

When everyone around you is sniffling and coughing, you need a strategy. Here’s how to avoid getting sick:

Become obsessive about washing your hands. Especially before eating or when coming home from being out and about.
Get enough sleep! Can’t be overemphasized. 8-10 hours is best.
Eat clean (fruits, veggies, whole grains, good quality protein and fats) and limit alcohol. Keep sugar to a minimum, it’s been shown to depress the immune system for hours afterwards. Eat a serving of dark leafy veggies daily.
Take Yu Ping Feng San (Jade Windscreen Powder), which contains herbs like Astragalus to boost the immune system. Do not take this if you are already sick.
Take Vitamin D: the FDA says 2,000 ius is the safe upper limit, but this is very conservative. Darker skinned people and those who are obsessive about sunblock need more than lighter skinned people. Research shows that 10,000 ius can be safely taken daily. It is important for immune support, and can help prevent the flu. Go to vitamindcouncil.org to read up on this topic in more depth. The best thing to do if possible, is get your blood levels tested.
Exposing yourself to things you love or that create a good feeling can go a long way to boosting your immunity.

Pay attention to the warning signs!!! If you feel like you are going over the waterfall toward sickness and misery, take action right away. Now is the time to wipe it out.

Drink tons of water (no ice!) to flush it out.
Eliminate all sugar, alcohol and dairy. Soup is perfect food now.
Rest rest rest! Taking a little time off now could save you from days of incapacitation.
If you have a sore throat, gargle with salt water. Echinacea-goldenseal tincture is helpful when there seems to be drippy suppuration in the back of the throat. Do not take Echinacea if you think you have H1N1.
Take vitamin C. I like emergenC because it’s easy and tasty, though it does have sugar. A few thousand mg per day is good. Vitamin D is very important too. You can take a high dose (up to 50,000 iu) safely for short term. See the above section.
Zinc has been shown to limit the duration of illness. Take up to 50mg for just the duration of symptoms, not longer, or you can induce a mineral imbalance.
Sweat it out: take a hot bath, put on your warmest sweats and crawl under the covers. No need to drench the sheets, a light sheen will do the trick.
Take herbal formulas appropriate to the symptoms. For a hot-type sickness, with sore throat, and feverishness, Yin Qiao or Forsythia 18 helps in the very early days. For cold-types with head and body aches and chills, Gui Zhi Tang tea or ginger tea followed by wrapping up warm can really knock it out.
Protect your neck. Wear a scarf and keep your ears covered, avoid drafts and getting chilled.
Other products have worked well for people I know in the past, such as Wellness Formula and Alpha CF, but as with herbal formulas, there always seem to be exceptions to the rule. The best bet is to do everything you can to keep the bugs from getting a foothold instead of relying on one magic potion while you continue to abuse your body.
Stay away from orange juice. It creates phlegm.
Take responsibility for your health and go to a doctor if symptoms are severe and things seem to be getting worse despite all your actions.

Baltimore Ave Visioning?

Here's a project by Cedar Park Neighbors everyone ought to know about.

Health insurers post record profits

Here's the article.
Sorry about all the ads.

Some Warming Foods for Winter

The following is taken from an article called Seasonal Harmony by Ellesara.

Learning basics about each season, foods and having basic seasonal recipes become foundations from which we can easily incorporate more information and fall back upon when we have simple questions. For example, last week an elderly friend of mine got a chill and couldn’t get warm. When I went over to her home with my “ginger tea kit” her fingers were like ice cubes. I made her basic ginger tea, (recipe below) and before she finished her first cup, she felt warm and the circulation had returned to her fingers. Ginger is a yang food that aids digestion and generally balances the forces in your body.

Basic Ginger Tea

1” fresh ginger – sliced, chopped

4-5 scallions – whites only

Rind of one dried tangerine

4 cups of water

Rock/Brown sugar/honey to taste

Add all the ingredients together and bring to a boil Simmer for no more than 5 minutes as it will get bitter. Remove the foods. Drink hot.

Additionally, I want to mention that every culture has food cures and food combinations for increasing health. Often, the purposes for these foods have been forgotten, even when the custom has been retained. For example, the parents of a friend of mine are from Poland and her mother makes bone marrow soup in the winter simply because “it is good for you to eat in the winter.” When we consult Five Element Theory, we see that bone marrow soup is an excellent winter energy soup that supports the Kidney function (recipe below).

Basic Bone Marrow Soup

Ingredients

1 lb marrow bones

1-1/2 quarts water

2” sliced ginger

6 scallion whites

1 bay leaf

Part 2

1 diced carrot

1 diced stalk celery

1 quartered plum tomato

Salt and pepper to taste

¼ cup cilantro/;parsley

Directions

Put the marrow bones, bay leaf, ginger, and scallions in the water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 3 hours

Let cool--Poke marrow out of bones and discard everything except water. You should now have about 3 cups of broth.

Add veggies, cover and cook till veggies are done. add salt and pepper to taste.. .serve and sprinkle with cilantro

To this basic recipe you can add other root vegetables, such as turnip, or green vegetables such as kale. Adjust this to your own taste. Bone marrow soup is considered to be a strengthening soup that is good for prevention and also if someone has been ill.

Further, it is helpful to have seasonal guildelines. Things that are particularly good to do or pay attention to in a given season. Often, they remind me of things my Mom said when I was growing up. Simple things such as, eat a good warm breakfast, especially in the winter.

Winter Energy Cereal

Ingredients

1/2 cup of rice

6 cups of water

½ cup toasted black sesame seeds

½ cup TB toasted crushed walnuts

3 TB honey

½ tsp salt

Directions

Cover the rice in 2 cups of water and soak for 2 hours.

Toast the walnuts and crush. A simple crushing method is to place the walnuts in a plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin.

Toast the black sesame seeds.

Drain the excess water off the rice.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and mix.

Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the rice is thoroughly cooked and all the water has been absorbed. Stir the cereal frequently as it is cooking. The texture of the cereal at this stage is like a thick porridge or cornmeal mush. The rice is creamy and the sesame seeds are still slightly crunchy.

To make into a breakfast cereal: add ½ cup boiling water to ½ cup of cereal – optional: a touch of cinnamon Yield: 4 cups

Serving size ½ cup

Basic Congee

1 cup of white rice (or ½ cup short grain rice and ½ cup of long grain rice)

8-10 cups of water

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer for about 3 hours.

This makes a basic rice porridge which is very easy to digest and which can be eaten at any time of year. To it, you can add shredded ginger, chopped scallion whites, lightly steamed vegetables, pieces of fish, pickled vegetables, etc.

A few other winter guidelines that are in accord with TCM/Five Element Theory are: Raw foods are cooling and should be avoided in the winter when warming foods are best emphasized, such as eating warming, hearty soups*, cooked whole grains, root vegetables and toasted nuts. These kinds of foods warm the center of the body and their heat stays with you longer. Since winter energy is about storing and rest, it is good to go to bed earlier and get very restful sleep, lighten one’s activities list, if possible and spend more time in contemplation and meditation.

*Kidney Bean, Tomato & Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients:

2TB walnut oil

1 medium red onion

4 cloves of garlic – slivered

½ cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped parsnip

½ cup chopped yam

14 oz can of plum tomatoes

½ tsp rosemary

3 half dollar slices of ginger

2 small dried hot red peppers (or to personal taste)

1 15 oz can of kidney beans

5 cups of water

3 cups of Kombachu or butternut or hubbard squash, diced into 1 inch cubes

Salt to taste, ground pepper

Chopped cilantro/parsley garnish

Directions

Heat the oil in a saucepan/wok/dutch oven and add the onion. . .cook until it is just softened. Add the garlic, parsnip, yam and cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat.

Add the tomatoes, rosemary, ginger, peppers, beans and water

Bring to a soft boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 1/2 hour – stir occasionally

Add squash and simmer for about 1 hour until squash is tender. Check liquid levels, add water if necessary and don’t forget to stir occasionally.

Add salt and ground pepper, adjust seasonings to personal taste.

Garnish each bowl with a sprig of cilantro or parsley

Music to wind down by

Here is a really wonderful mix-tape you can download created by local artist, Eric Ruin, specifically for play during community acupuncture. Really gorgeous, textural sounds put together with the idea of "Winding Down".

Go to the link, and then look for mix # 19.

And, by the way, here is some of his amazing art, which he sells at a sliding scale, and some of which can be seen at the clinic.