After two weeks of the most of the intense lower lumbar pain I had ever had, due to arthritis, I had to increase pain medication which was a concern to me. I had never had acupuncture therapy but was willing to do anything to relieve the pain.
I am thankful to have checked my benefit online  on his site, made an appointment,  and walked into the beautiful, serene office of Kirk at Uptown Acupuncture San Diego. He explained what he was going to do at each step, and the feelings I would have. It was a very relaxed, painless experience from which I had total relief on completion of therapy. Standing and walking out of the office pain free.
I would highly recommend Kirk to anyone who is considering acupuncture. Now I realize I have a alternative to pain medication, and that is to pick up the phone and make a appointment to see Kirk.

He is a blessing to me.

Sandra (a 63 year old female in the western health care industry)

Her insurance covered treatment and only had to play a co-pay of $15. She came for 3 visits.

My tennis elbow had been bothering me for quite a while and was getting worse.

I came to see Kirk and was welcomed into his beautiful office. His gentle and fun way put me instantly at ease.

He was able to reduce my pain after just one treatment.

The whole experience gave me such a feeling of well being , I am looking forward to many happy returns.

Thanks Kirk! -Alex

This is a simple stew which is perfect for the new cook. At Uptown Acupuncture San Diego, we encourage our clients to adapt health habits they can carry throughout life. Creating healthy food is a great way to nourish yourself and reduce the amount of preservatives and chemicals in your diet.

This recipe can also be a perfect template to add your favorite veggies to. Root vegetables like turnips and rutabagas can add a whole new dimension to the flavors. Enjoy!

Beef and Vegetable Stew

Ingredients

• 1 lb. (500 g) lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 can (28-oz/796-mL) diced tomatoes
• 4 cups (1 L) water
• 1 tsp. (5 mL) salt
• 1 tsp. (5 mL) crumbled dried basil
• 1/2 tsp. (2 mL) crumbled dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp. 1 mL black pepper
• 1 cup (250 mL) corn niblets (fresh, frozen or canned, drained)
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) barley

Cooking Instructions

1. Combine ground beef and chopped onion in a Dutch oven or other large saucepan with a cover. Cook over medium-high heat until the meat starts to brown slightly, about 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Stir in carrots and celery and cook, stirring for a minute or two. Add tomatoes with all the juice from the can, the water, salt, basil, thyme and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add corn and barley. Stir and continue to cook over low heat for 50 to 60 minutes or until barley is tender.

Servings: 6

On pages 101–102 of issue 12, 2009, of Xin Zhong Yi (New Chinese Medicine), Zhou Yi-chen and Wang Bi published an article titled “Treating Fibromyalgia Syndrome Via the Liver.” A summary of this article is presented below.

Introduction

The main symptom of fibromyalgia syndrome is generalized body pain.

Most sufferers of FMS are female. In addition to specific sites of pressure pain, other accompanying symptoms include insomnia, vexation and agitation, fatigue, lassitude of the spirit, low-grade fever, and menstrual irregularities. Based on the experience of the Chinese authors of this article, they believe that this condition should mainly be treated via the liver. This is also my own clinical experience. I have never been able to substantiate the presence of externally contracted evils in the case of FMS.

Disease Causes and Mechanisms
According to some Chinese doctors, this condition is due to external contraction of wind, cold, dampness, and/or heat evils which lodge in the body. These evils block and obstruct the channels and network vessels. Hence the flow of the qi and blood is not smooth. According to this point of view, it is mainly this that leads to soreness and pain in the muscles and flesh, sinews and bones, and joints as well as heaviness, numbness, inability to flex and extend, and, if severe, joint swelling and burning heat. Such doctors categorize this condition as the sinew impediment subtype of impediment condition. However, the authors’ experience is that treatment for FMS based on impediment condition either gets no or only slight effect. In fact, after finely searching, they have not found evidence of the lodging of external evils in the body. Instead, most patients with this condition also present with frustration, chest oppression, and depression. Even during its initial stage, they commonly see rib-side discomfort, vexation and agitation, insomnia, and bodily fatigue. Only gradually later does generalized muscle pain develop and get worse. Further, due to the enduring nature of this suffering and failure to heal, the psyche becomes tense and the disease condition gets worse. Therefore, Drs. Zhou and Wang believe that FMS should be categorized as depression condition in Chinese medicine, not impediment condition.

If depression and anger are left unsoothed, the liver loses its spreading and extending and the qi loses its coursing and discharge.

Thus the liver becomes depressed and the qi becomes bound. The qi is the commander of the blood. If there is qi stagnation, this leads to blood stasis not moving, and blood stasis leads to lack of free flow, lack of construction, and ultimately to pain. If qi depression transforms fire, fire;s nature is to flame upward. This then can give rise to vexation and agitation and easy anger. If anxiety and depression are not resolved, heart yin may be consumed and damaged. In that case, heart yin is unable to provide supplies for and nourish the heart spirit. The heart spirit loses its calm and there is insomnia. If liver yin becomes insufficient, yin vacuity may engender heat. If vacuity heat harasses the spirit, then there may be heart palpitations and dizziness. Further, because “the liver is the root of resistance to fatigue,” enduring depression damaging the liver can also give rise to fatigue and lack of strength. If depression damages the heart spirit and the constructive and blood are exhausted and consumed, visceral yin becomes insufficient and vacuity yang may ascend. This may give rise to afternoon low-grade fever. If the liver and kidneys lose their nourishment, the chong and ren become dysregulated, and this may give rise to menstrual irregularity.

Treatment Based on Pattern Discrimination
Based on the foregoing, Drs. Zhou and Wang believe that FMS should be treated by coursing the liver and resolving depression, moving the qi and quickening the blood, freeing the flow of the network vessels and stabilizing pain. For this, they use Chai Hu Shu Gan San (Bupleurum Course the Liver Powder) plus Xue Fu Zhu Yu Tang (Blood Mansion Dispel Stasis Decoction) with additions and subtractions:

Dang Gui (Radix Angelicae Sinensis)
Sheng Di Huang (uncooked Radix Rehmanniae)
Tao Ren (Semen Persicae)
Hong Hua (Flos Carthami)
Mu Dan Pi (Cortex Moutan)
Chuan Xiong (Rhizoma Chuanxiong)
Chai Hu (Radix Bupleuri)
Xiang Fu (Rhizoma Cyperi)
Bai Shao (Radix Alba Paeoniae)
Zhi Qiao (Fructus Aurantii)
Yan Hu Suo (Rhizoma Corydalis)
Dan Shen (Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae)
Ge Gen (Radix Puerariae)
Gan Cao (Radix Glycyrrhizae)

Within this formula, Dang Gui, Dan Shen, and Sheng Di Huang nourish the blood and emolliate the liver. Tao Ren, Hong Hua, Chuan Xiong, Yan Hu Suo, and Mu Dan Pi quicken and harmonize the blood. Xiang Fu, Chai Hu, and Zhi Qiao course the liver and rectify the qi. Ge Gen, Bai Shao, and Gan Cao relax cramping and stop pain. Using the combination of Chai Hu and Bai Shao, one medicinal scatters while the other restrains. Hence one is able to course the liver and resolve depression at the same time as harmonizing the constructive and restraining or constraining yin. The combination of Bai Shao and Gan Cao makes up the famous formula Shao Yao Gan Cao Tang (Peony and Licorice Decoction), which relaxes cramping and stops pain. When Xiang Fu and Chuan Xiong are used together, they are capable of pushing the depressed qi of the liver-gallbladder, which then obtain stirring (or movement).

If fatigue is severe, they add Huang Qi (Radix Astragali).

If there is insomnia and vexation and agitation, they add Suan Zao Ren (Semen Zizyphi Spinosae), Lian Zi Xin (Plumula Nelumbinis), and Shi Chang Pu (Rhizoma Acori Tatarinowii).

If there is chest oppression, they add Gua Lou (Fructus Trichosanthis) and Yu Jin (Tuber Curcumae).

If pain in the four limbs is severe, they add Jiang Huang (Rhizoma Curcumae Longae), Niu Xi (Radix Achyranthis Bidentatae), and Sang Zhi (Ramulus Mori).

If appetite is poor, they add scorched Bai Zhu (Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae), Fu Ling (Poria), and scorched Shan Zha (Fructus Crataegi).

If dampness is severe with thick, slimy tongue fur, they add Yi Yi Ren (Semen Coicis), Hou Po (Cortex Magnoliae Officinalis), Bai Bian Dou (Semen Dolichoris), and Can Sha (Excrementum Bombycis).

If the stools are dry and bound, they add Da Huang (Radix Et Rhizoma Rhei).

Also, depending on the symptoms, they may add Qin Jiao (Radix Gentianae Macrophyllae), Qiang Huo (Radix Et Rhizoma Notopterygii), Du Huo (Radix Angelicae Pubescentis), Ren Dong Teng (Caulis Lonicerae), Luo Shi Teng (Caulis Trachelospermi), and/or Shen Jin Cao (Herba Lycopodii) to soothe the sinews and free the flow of the network vessels. (Note: although Qiang Huo and Du Huo are wind-treating medicinals, Drs. Zhou and Wang use them in FMS based on the principles of soothing the sinews and freeing the flow of the network vessels, not resolving the exterior and coursing wind.)

In a representative case history, Drs. Zhou and Wang report that the patient was cured in three months of treatment with variations of the above protocol using one packet of medicinals per day.

Copyright © Blue Poppy Press, 2009. All rights reserved.

Uptown Acupuncture San Diego can make this formula for you, modify it to your personal presentations and provide acupucture to enhance it’s effects.

At Uptown Acupuncture San Diego we’re ready to take your pain away through a time proven ancient system of medicine, treating the problem itself and not just the symptoms.

What’s wrong? Has that nagging elbow injury been bothering you? You know the one that you got playing Tennis with your best friend Bill 2 years ago. It’s the one that makes you have to wrap your elbow each time you still play tennis with him due to chronic pain and makes you wince when you have to reach down in that bottom desk drawer at work.

Ever heard of acupuncture or holistic medicine for sports?

I’m talking about acupuncture to treat your injury. No? Well maybe that’s the reason you still have pain.When most get injured in sports or otherwise, they often think the pain will go away by itself or with the help of an anti-inflammatory like aspirin or Motrin. I admit these certainly will help ease the pain and will take away the discomfort. However, they don’t treat the root of the problem. Acupuncture is the holistic source that will help take your pain away from that nagging old sports injury and make you function again.

How is this possible?

Well it’s a simple concept that goes back through thousands of years of Oriental medicine. Your body has energy lines. “Huh? What’s that you say?” Yes that’s right, lines of energy that affect your every movement. Acupuncture focuses on these points. When you injure yourself playing sports, your energy is disrupted and needs to flow naturally again. Otherwise the simple laws of physics come into effect, for every action has an equal and opposite reaction, or in laymen’s terms, action= you injured, reaction = OUCH!

“But they’re needles! That sounds like it’ll hurt!”

Well, actually, when the needles are applied, they’re applied to points on your body where you won’t feel a thing except for a prick an a dull achy sensation, often very minute compared to most sports injuries. “Yeah right, some needles stuck in me are gonna fix my tennis elbow that I received playing tennis with Bill by magic…Riiight.” No, not magic, energy lines. They go all the way from your head to your feet. “Ohh ok, that’s what I hear. Whenever an athlete gets injured they go to the magical acupuncturist and get healed by magical needles.”

Well, almost…they get healed, but it’s a thousands of years old system of holistic healing. The needles allow the body’s energy to be able to flow again and your body naturally heals. That’s what we do at Uptown Acupuncture. We take your pain away help you to heal.

What athletes use acupuncture you say?

Muggsy Bogues of the Charlotte Hornets used acupuncture to treat his knee pain. The pain was so bad that it nearly threatened his career in basketball. After being treated by a acupuncturist, he was back on the court in no time and pain free. Acupuncture ultimately saved his career. “Ok, but that’s just one athlete. He must have been a rare case.” No, actually he’s one of nearly hundreds of professional athletes and semi-professional athletes as well as college athletes that acupuncture has saved their career.

Other athletes such as Steffi Graf,

a Wimbledon champion used sports therapy acupuncture to get rid of pain in her left knee.An Olympic bobsledder, Brian Shimer, used sports therapy acupuncture to get rid of aches and pains he had in his back and legs. He was ready to bobsled again with literally “the best of them” after his treatment. If NBA players, Wimbledon champions and world ranked Olympic champions have found out the benefits of acupuncture, don’t you think you should give it a try?

Does this sound like you?

“But I’m no professional athlete. Gees, I’m just a guy that likes to play tennis on the weekend with Bill.” Yes, maybe, but do you want to continue to stay in pain and only allow your injury to get worse over time or do you want to heal and be pain free?

Visits to us might cost you as little as $10.

We offer free insurance screening and in this troubled economy, you should should have access to quality treatments at an affordable price.

Acupuncture works!!

That’s what I want you to understand. Time and time again holistic acupuncture has healed athletes of their injuries and allowed them to continue their profession pain free. Even if you’re not a professional athlete or a world class Olympian, why not get healed as well as one? The longer that you take to decide to fix that injury, the worse it will become. Come to San Diego Acupuncture and let us help you. We’ll apply treatment to you so that overtime, your injury and pain will be a distant memory and you’ll be yourself once again.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) –

It may come as a surprise to many patients, but a new study shows that primary care visits have actually gotten a little longer since the late 1990s.

This is particularly remarkable, say the researchers, given the increased pressure on primary care doctors to be efficient in the face of rising numbers of patients and declining income.

Nevertheless, based on quality measurements like whether physicians counseled patients on diet and exercise, they found that “overall performance…was poor.”

Any improvements in care quality will likely require multi-pronged efforts, the researchers say, including paying doctors for spending more time to counsel and screen patients.

Primary care physicians were making about 10 percent less in 2003 than they were in 1995, after taking inflation into account, Dr. Lena M. Chen, who is now with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues note in their report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

“Given the reimbursement environment and the pressures to improve efficiency,” they add, “one might worry that primary care physicians would respond by spending less time with each patient to see more patients, improve their efficiency, and boost their incomes.”

To see if this was actually true, and to look at whether the quality of care these docs were providing over time got better or worse, Chen and her team analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for 1997 through 2005. The survey, run by the National Center for Health Statistics, samples a nationally representative group of office-based physicians annually.

Over the study period, the number of adult visits to primary care physicians rose from 273 million to 338 million, a 10 percent increase on a per person basis. The average visit lasted 18 minutes in 1997, while visit time had increased to nearly 21 minutes by 2005.

While older patients and new patients had longer visits, non-Hispanic black patients and Hispanic patients had significantly shorter visits than whites, the researchers found. They say they were “surprised” by this finding, which “may explain why patients of minority groups do not always receive care that is comparable to that provided to white patients.”

During the study period, the quality of care doctors were providing showed “only modest improvements,” Chen and her colleagues say, with patients no more likely to get counseling on diet and exercise in 2005 than they were in 1997, even though there’s strong evidence that giving high-risk patients this advice is beneficial.

There were improvements in the likelihood of doctors prescribing medications with proven benefit for patients — for example beta blockers for coronary artery disease or appropriate medications for heart failure, the researchers found.

They conclude: “Improvements in quality of care will likely require a combination of investments in systems such as electronic health records, greater use of other professionals such as nurse practitioners, and better reimbursement to primary care physicians for the extra time spent.”

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, November 9, 2009

FYI : At Uptown Acupuncture San Diego, we spend1 1/2 hour on an initial evaluation and treatment, follow up visits are one hour long. We listen to our patients and tailor our services to their needs.

Asian Chicken Stir Fry

A quick fix for busy weeknights, this fragrant stir-fry of chicken, fresh ginger and bok choy is flavored with sesame oil, sherry, soy sauce and hoisin sauce and served over warm angel hair pasta.

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) yam noodles
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half – cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
• 2 leaves bok choy, diced
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1-1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 green onions, minced

Cooking Instructions

1. In a large pot with boiling salted water cook yam pasta until al dente. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet heat coconut and sesame oil over medium high heat. Saute onion and garlic until softened. Stir in chopped chicken, and cook until chicken browns and juices run clear. Stir in ginger, bok choy, chicken stock, sherry, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce. Reduce heat, and continue cooking for 10 minutes.
3. Toss pasta with chicken mixture until well coated. Season with salt. Serve warm sprinkled with minced green onions.

Nutrition Facts
Servings per Recipe: 2

Kirk likes to double or triple the recipe and have left overs..

Amount Per Serving

• calories: 498cal
• total fat: 9.2g
• cholesterol: 35mg
• sodium: 1263mg
• carbohydrates: 75.2g
• fiber: 5.5g
• protein: 28g

Acupuncture and Stress

• This is a special chapter which could need a whole lesson.

• Briefly: it’s impossible to have an emotion without a reflex response of muscles and the Autonomous nervous system.

• In the opposite direction, you can not act on muscles or the autonomous nervous system without having an emotional modification.

The cholinergic anti-inflammatory system:

• Reflex loop mediated by the vagus nerve.

• Inflammation releases cytokines; cytokines activate vagus nerve afferents, and the vagus nerve will respond by the

release of acetylcholine ,which will act on the nicotinic receptors of the inflammatory cells, inhibiting the release

of cytokines.

• The response can be global or local.

• Acupuncture has a cholinergic effect.

Activation of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory system.

Aspirin and ibuprofen found to substantially increases vagus nerve activity.

Acupuncture, meditation, hypnosis, and relaxation therapies can stimulate vagus nerve.

Exercise raises vagus nerve activity and decreases cytokine levels.

Fish oil, soy oil, olive oil increases vagus nerve activity through cholecystokinin. ^[2]

Kevin J. Tracey (b. 10 December 1957, Fort Wayne, IN, USA) is Director of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Professor and President of the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine in Manhasset, NY. Although trained as a neurosurgeon, he is an immunologist known for his physiological and molecular studies of inflammation and disease and, in particular, for investigating how the nervous system controls the responses of the immune system to threat.

G. Baden / Zefa / Corbis

Parents who suspect that artificial ingredients in food are affecting their children’s behavior can now point to some cold, hard proof.

A carefully designed study released Thursday in The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, shows that a variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate — an ingredient in many soft drinks, fruit juices, salad dressings and other foods — causes some children to become more hyperactive and distractible than usual.

“In terms of a question that’s been raging for years, it’s the best study to date — an extremely good study,” says Dr. Philip Shaw, a research psychiatrist in the Child Psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health. 

The study prompted Britain’s Food Standards Agency to issue an immediate advisory to parents to limit their children’s intake of additives if they notice an effect on behavior. In the U.S., there’s been no such official response, but doctors say it makes sense for parents to be on the alert.

Meanwhile, the food industry is awaiting further research. “We take our responsibility to consumers seriously and will study the research finding in great detail,” says Cathy Cook, spokesperson for the International Association of Color Manufacturers.

The research, led by Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at England’s University of Southampton, involved about 300 children in two age groups: 3-year-olds and 8- and 9-year-olds. Over three one-week periods, the children were randomly assigned to consume one of three fruit drinks daily: one contained the amount of dye and sodium benzoate typically found in a British child’s diet, a second drink had a lower concentration of the additives, and a third was additive-free. All the children spent a week drinking each of the three mixtures, which looked and tasted alike. During each weeklong period, teachers and parents, who did not know which drink the kids were getting, used a variety of standardized behavior-evaluation tools — some observational and one computer-based — to size up such qualities as restlessness, lack of concentration, fidgeting, and talking or interrupting too much. 

Stevenson found that children in both age groups were significantly more hyperactive when drinking the stuff containing additives.

Three-year-olds had a bigger response than the older kids to the lower dose of additives — roughly the same amount of food coloring as in two 2-oz. bags of candy. And, there were big individual differences in sensitivity. While the effects were not nearly so great as to cause full-blown ADHD, Stevenson nonetheless warns that “these adverse effects could affect the child’s ability to benefit from the experience of school.”

He notes that a separate pilot study found that kids can become more hyperactive within one hour of consuming food additives.

The Lancet study is the first to nail down a link between artificial ingredients and hyperactivity, though the connection has long been suspected and was the basis for the Feingold Diet, which eliminates all artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives and was popularized in the 1970s as a treatment for ADHD. Though such a diet alone is not a proven treatment for ADHD, some clinicians routinely advise parents of kids with ADHD to stick with a more natural diet.” I’m not maniacal about it, but I tell parents that your kid will do better if they are on a diet that is free of additives and junk food,” says psychiatrist Edward Hallowell, author a several books on ADHD. “I urge them to eat whole foods; they’ll be healthier anyway.”

Now that a link has been found, researchers will be looking to confirm the British study and build upon it. “My guess is that if we do similarly systematic work with other additives, we’d learn they, too, have implications for behavior,” says Dr. James Perrin, professor of pediatrics at Harvard. “My friends who study the food industry say we have about 70,000 new products a year, so children are facing tremendous numbers of new opportunities for things that may not be good for them.” The study, he says, is one more reason to cheer the movement toward organic and natural foods.