Medical Acupuncture managements of COLDS and VIRAL FLU!

***With the news of the infamous 'Swine Flu,' this may interest you***

Ok, I am getting pretty excited about acupuncture, and since I got back from Pittsburgh, I've had a many opportunities to treat people using Acupuncture and OMT. So, I was pretty excited about one recent treatment that I did to myself, I want to tell you about it.

So, in Acupuncture, a 'cold' or 'flu' is called a 'wind invasion.' In Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, our body is designed in various layers: from surface to deep. Therefore, when 'wind' invades our body, it invades also from surface to deep. Here is how the depth of body works in the acupuncture vernacular. These are Chinese names for various Acupuncture Meridians that are arranged from Surface --> Deep.

1. Tai Yang: Surface, support, structure, back, posterior areas
2. Shao Yang: Lateral body areas, movement, joints
3. Yang Ming: Front of the body, digestive tract
4. Tai Yin: Lung function, respiration, skin, sinusis, digestion
5. Shao Yin: Functions of excretion and elimination
6. Jue Yin: Emotional/spirit aspect of a person

So, as the 'wind invades' from surface to deep, it can progress from symptoms mentioned in #1 to #6... usually when it gets to #4, it causes enough respiratory symptoms such as cough, congestions, fever, sometimes pneumonia, patients usually end up in a doctor's office seeking help. So, that's when we usually see patients.

Let me describe a typical 'wind invasion' for you, and you can see how much coorelations there are to 'Western medicine understanding' on what a 'flu' or a 'wind invasion' to 'Eastern Medicine understanding.' So, a 'cold = wind invasion' usually starts on our neck/head/back as myalgias, or muscle aches. Then, it moves to our joints as aches. Then, it as it progresses, it invades a layer deeper to our intestines and stomach, causing gastroparesis, bloating, diarrhea/constipation, belly aches, and indigestion. Then, it moves to our sinusis, our throat, our lungs causing us to cough, produce phlegm, runny nose, ear aches, sinus headaches, and wanting to just crash to sleep. At times it may present more as a gastrointestinal issue than respiratory, or vice versa. That's what we usually called a 'flu' vs. 'stomach flu.'

In Western Medicine, there is nothing you can do about it. As a physician, we recommend 'supportive care', which means, other than rest, drink water, and take tylenol for fevers and aches, continue feeding, at most, we can give you 2 different types of anti-viral medicines, other than that, there's nothing else we can do. Just allow tincture of time and let your body heal. In Osteopathic Medicine, we can offer lymphatic drainage techniques and various other techniques in conjuction to the above therapies to help speed up and alleviate cold symptoms. In Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, it is possible to treat and gain immediate relief of symptoms. Many times, the 'cold' would just LEAVE! Can you believe that? Well, I was skeptical until I acupunctured myself. Since then, I have done the same treatment on many patients and physician, that yielded the same result... Here is what I did.

So, the course of my 'cold' usually starts with a scratchyness in the back of my throat, then it progresses to muscle aches, head aches, sinus aches, cough, chest congestion, sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms... and then after my 'cold' symptoms go away, I usually am left with a lingering dry cough for a at least 2 weeks...

We were taught several protocols we can use to 'break the wind invasion' to 'extract the wind invasion from deep to surface,' therefore, getting rid of it. I did it, and it involved 1 needle on the leg, 2 in the arm, bilaterally... with electrical stimulation. I added a few needles for sinuses on the face. 10 minutes later... after I pulled all the needles out, my sinuses were completely clear and my cough stopped and I haven't had the usual lingering dry cough since! Amazing.

Mixteco - Feliz Dia Del Nino

Have you heard of a people group named the Mixteco? They are an ethnic indigenious people group from Oxaca, Mexico. The Mixtecs were a major group of people in pre-Columbian times and also served an important role in the Aztec Empire. Currently in California, there are a large population of Mixteco people in Ventura County, who came to the US as migrant farm workers. Their legal status depends mostly on if they were here before 1986 or after. Most migrant workers who came before 1986 were given opportunity to become legal residents, but not after 1986.

As a people group, they experiences many unique challenges. They usually are much poorer than most poor people who are receiving State or County aid. They usually work very hard, both parents, and having to leave children for others to take care of. They usually have no choice but to seek health care at a later stage of illness or pregnancy, because they cannot afford to take days off. A good majority of them also do not speak Spanish or English, they speak Mixteco. In our Ventura County health system, there are only a few translators who speak both Mixteco and Spanish, and only 1 who speaks English, Mixteco, and Spanish. Can you imagine the problem that can cause?

There are also numerous challenges in the way they approach healthcare, namely doctor visits when they get pregnant. Usually, it takes 4 seperate appointments for someone to have a pregnancy follow-up (Doctor, WIC, MediCal, Ultrasound/Lab). These hard working Mixteca women cannot afford to take off even 1 day without getting paid, nevertheless 4! Our healthcare system is not conducive in addressing their needs... and think about it, the clinic that I work at, sees a majority of Mixteco patients! You think something should change so they can see the doctors earlier for health needs! You think that somebody already has this figured out! NOT. Actually, many problems still exist, and Mixtecan patients still only get to see doctors way later in their pregnancy for check ups and for doctor visits. Difficulty in accessing healthcare has direct correlations with personal health complications! This is a huge issue! WE NEED CHANGE! And, we don't need Obama to do it! We need regular people like us to step up!

So, I went to an event today that benefits the Mixteco community. Once a month, a bunch people get together and bag groceries for 270+ Mixteco families. We placed many fresh fruits and vegitable into a bag along with several canned-foods. Many Mixteco families also get large tube of tooth paste, soap, diapers, and a good ole time gathering together with other Mixtecos during this event. Here are some pictures for your browsing pleasure. If you would like to know more or to get involved, you can contact me. Leave me a comment with your contact information, I will get back to you. Thanks.

Look at that roll of bags!; 2 of our Mixteco translators, Sabina and Nico.

How I wished to have some!

Arts and crafts, making a fruit loop necklace!

Look over there... look at our major sponsor!

Look at that line, and helpful volunteers!

Taylor, Kavi, Elias, y Jorge! We all enjoyed this event :)

Can you believe what I got for lunch?

Just want to post these pictures for you, Alan. I am working at Oxnard at a clinic that is predominantly Spanish speaking. I have been going to this taco stand there that sells very good tacos and frutas frescas... here I got 2 tacos (carnitas y carne asada) and fresh mango with chile y limon! I can't wait to have some more!

Live'n in the JUNGLE!

It was an awesome experience... where do I start? So, it all started with an email from London. A very good friend from London emailed me about an opportunity to join a mission team to take medicines to a remote tribe of mostly unreached people group in the jungle of Costa Rica. You know me, I am a sucker for adventure, I thought to myself, how cool is that?! I have never been into the jungle, nevertheless living in it for a week!

Boy, I didn't know I got myself into. I was surprised by many things: 1) The Love I received from the local people, 2) the bond and friendship/family I formed with various members of the team, 3) the beauty of Costa Rica, and 4) the absolute physical exhaustion that I had never encountered before this trek. Let me tell you, at the end of the week, I was very sad that I had to leave and also very sad that I didn't get to spend more quality time with people on our team.

So, here is a long journal that will document my trip, and unforgetable experience...

Day1: I flew into San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, and got to meet part of the team. Our team consisted of 9 people from the US and 13 from Costa Rica. There were 3 doctors and 4 nurses. Quite a perfect international team. Everyone on this team, as I came to find out, are all very adventurous, very flexible, great personality, lovers of Christ, and lovers of people.

Day 2: This is a travel day, starting at San Jose, after packing all of our gear and medicines atop a bus, we spend the next 8 hours driving down to the border of Panama. Then we cross the border into Panama on the Pacific ocean side at a general area called Punta Burica. Then after we reached the drop off point, we started a hike at about 3:30pm in the afternoon. We had to hike >11miles up the mountain, into the jungle, cross back over to Costa Rica, and to our camp. We didn't get there until about 10pm. We hiked about 4 hours in the dark jungle. Let me tell you, I was about to die of exhaustion and heat stroke. I had about a 40lb pack on and my hips were sore beyond belief and my leg muscles were all cramping with every step.

I think the fact that we all made it without any incidents was a miracle! There was another miracle: you see, most of us ran out of water about half way through the hike, I was the only one with some water, and I only had a 1.5 Liter camalpak in my backpack. We ended up all sucking from it for several hours. When I got to the camp and I pull out the water bladder, there was still water in there! I could've probably finished 1.5 liters within an hour in that heat and humidity, nevermind all 6-7 of us feeding on it! Thank you God!

When we got to camp, all the girls got to sleep in huts or tents, but 5 of us guys got Hennessey Hammocks, and we sat it up in a bunch of trees on the outter edge of the camp. It was so sweet, we woke up every morning with Howler Monkeys screaming and echoing in the jungle around us, and also paired green parrets over us... insects to put us to sleep... it was a sweet deal!

At the border of Costa Rica and Panama; drop off point, loading the truck to take our packs half way up the mountain.

As the sun sets over the jungle, we continued to hike up. Kevin, Brantley, local, Alex.

At the border again, 2 more hours to go to camp. Andres, Alex, Michi, Me, Ruben, Anna. The first meal we had at camp, prepared by the women of the Alto Guaymies Tribe.

Beautiful are the hands and feet of those who bring the Good News!

Part of our group: Linda, Kevin, Susan, Brantley, Evert, Deborah, Anna, Michi. The communal dinning hall.

Day 3 to 5: We ran a clinic for all those days and saw about 150 patients. Some of them had walked many miles from deep within the jungle to come to the village. We saw lots of infections, dehydration, chronic musculoskeletal issues, respiratory issues, and some burns and pulled some teeth. There were also drama and a service each night to enjoy with the locals. I had a lot of opportunities to do OMT (osteopathic manipulations) and Acupuncture, fixing things such as musculoskeletal issues, PMS, bowel issues, colds, sinusitis, back pain, leg pain... you name it. I brought about 500 needles and only had to use 150. I treated at least 20 patients with acupuncture and most with very good relief.

Marianne teaching the kids. My wonderful friend and translator, also a dentist, Susana... we were pulling some really infected and eroded teeth from our young friend Sergio. We improvised and used my leatherman tool for the job. Susana did an excellent job and was great with the kids!

Teaching kids how to brush their teeth. At the pharmacy window as Susana was preparing to give some antibiotic to the kid. I was just pretending to know something. My other wonderful friends and teammates Deborah, Susan, and Maria were our wonderful pharmacists who loved on their patients!

Picture of the dentist (Susana) and the helpers (Kevin and I) with our patient Sergio. The waiting line at the clinic.

Doctor Clint seeing patients with Andres translating. Maria at the pharmacy.

The communal kitchen and all the smoked pork... so delicious.

The honor dinner: the last night we were there, our hosts sat us in a circle and shared their hearts to us. They also spent all day making this meal that they served to us on banana leaves. We ate it with our hands in a group. It was awesome! I loved it: sharing a meal of love with family! The next picture is of 3 beautiful Costa Rica ladies on our team: Marianne, Jameled, and Susana.

Andres and Deborah and I... aren't we all giggly over this unique experience! I had seconds!

Michi and Me. Day 6: time to hike out, it is 6am.

Susana and Andres... as we hike out, of course we had to get lost from the rest of the group. However, there were some locals to the rescue! Yay, we were only 30min behind the rest of the group. But, the way I saw it was that none of the others had saw what we saw... more jungle!

On top of a 50 feet water tower. Having breakfast in Quepos... what a vacation!

The beach at Quepos, absolutely serene and beautiful. Howler monkeys at the Parque National de Manuel Antonio!

Kevin and I.

Hey Deb in the mini mouse poka dot top! and watch out, splash... Susan and Deb.

Aren't we adorable :) Well, can't beat a picture with 2 beautiful ladies... then there I was getting swollowed up by the ocean...

The beach at Quepos, what a relaxing day! I love the food, I love the people, I love the team, I love the beach, I love the jungle, I love the experience, and I have decided that I will return! Next time, I'm going to be fluent in Spanish!