Preventing Miscarriage

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc

Miscarriage, the common term for spontaneous abortion, is the unintentional termination of a pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent life.  Spontaneous abortion may be contrasted with induced abortion, in which an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy is intentionally ended.

Surveys estimate that 25 percent of all human pregnancies abort spontaneously, with three out of four miscarriages occurring during the first three months of pregnancy. Some women have a tendency to miscarry, and recurrent miscarriage decreases the probability of subsequent successful childbirth.

The causes of miscarriage are varied and not clearly defined by Western medicine. The usual “causes” have little to do with understanding how to prevent miscarriage, an unfortunate situation all too common for emergency-oriented Western medicine.  In this essay, we will explore causes that lead to preventative measures, leaving aside obvious causes such as infectious diseases, chronic systemic diseases like nephritis or diabetes type 1, genetic malformations of the uterus, and trauma.

Curiously, the main causes of miscarriage for American women are similar to the causes of infertility.  Our Stone Age body/mind complex looks for situations in which pregnancy and the raising of a child will most likely be successful.  Internal and external environments with high stress or scarcity will prevent a smooth conception and a fruitful gestation.  For example, when a woman’s body fat percentage drops below 12% - more or less – due to anorexia, extreme athleticism, or starvation, the body/mind senses that there won’t be enough extra food to raise a child and either prevents egg fertilization or else aborts the embryo or fetus.

When a pregnant woman starts bleeding and/or experiencing abdominal cramps, she is usually ordered to stay in bed for most of the time.  The purpose is to create stability in the uterus.  This is an emergency measure.  The real preventative measures begin before conception.  In order to create a stable and healthy uterus, we must first create a stable and healthy woman.

Preventative measure #1:  Stop hurrying.

Speed and excessive activity create molecular friction.  Friction creates heat and instability.  When heat and instability lodge in the uterus, we have an unstable and unfriendly home for the fertilized egg.  The body mind assumes that the environment is not a relaxed one, but rather one of high stress with barely enough time and resources for survival – nothing left over for offspring.

Plenty of sleep and rest breaks every 24-hour period are critical to reducing heat.  Adopting a relaxed pace while talking, walking, driving, working, reading, thinking, and living will prevent the buildup of heat in a powerful way.  It is also important to avoid multi-tasking in order to stay cool and calm.  Move fast only when you really need to.

Other factors that create excessive heat, by the way, are smoking, overeating, excessive consumption of meat, an addiction to loud sounds and electronic media, and carrying around rage.

Preventative measure #2:  Stop worrying.

Worrying about the past or the future – which don’t really exist – creates muscular tightness.  Chronic fight-or-flight tightness will surround the uterine region and prevent proper circulation of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus.  A starving and suffocating fetus will become a dead fetus if not ejected first by the body/mind.  The unconscious assumption is that the environment offers too little support or safety to raise offspring.

Like hurrying, worrying is ingrained in American life.  Letting go of worry takes an enormous effort for most, practically a reinvention of one’s self.  Both cognitive and behavioral techniques must be used.  Cognitive techniques include things like understanding the big picture through philosophies such as Taoism or Zen Buddhism, practicing instant forgiveness, and investigating childhood hurts through talk therapy.  Behavioral techniques include the regular practice of meditative exercises such as hatha yoga, taiqi, and qigong, deep breathing, hypnosis, and visualization.

Preventative measure #3:  Get lean.

Body fat affords ample nutrition and stability for the fetus.  However, too much stability will choke and suffocate the fetus.  The body/mind is looking for an optimal situation, not one in which excessive pounds of body fat have been accumulated for the apparent purpose of avoiding a long, hard winter or an approaching famine.

Optimal leanness will also facilitate fertility.  Successful fertilization and gestation both require open spaces for movement of egg and sperm, as well as an absence of excess material such as fibroid tumors and cysts.  A fetus also needs room to grow and exercise.

Most advice to pregnant women in this country centers around what to eat, as well as “be sure to eat, eat, and eat some more!”  This is really sad, since the the body/mind is never wrong in these matters, and a pregnant woman will be most in tune with her eating instincts than anyone else in the world!  How could it be otherwise, since all species in the history of the world have been successfully bringing to term their babies without the help of modern “scientific” advice. 

Hunger is a healthy feeling that occurs only for people and animals who are not too fat and not starving either.  It is an empty sensation – not a sound, burning feeling, or tight feeling - in the upper abdomen that motivates all species to go to work, get food, and eat it.  When hungry, the body will tell us if there are any special nutrients needed, and for pregnant women, this is famously true.  Strawberry ice cream and a pickle at 3am might be just exactly what are needed to build an eyeball, for example.  But the food choice instinct only occurs in conjunction with the hunger feeling.  Therefore learn to wait for the hunger feeling before eating.

The human body, pregnant or not, will also declare when it has had enough food.  The signal for this is a comfortable feeling in place of the hunger feeling.  This is the message to stop eating.  Continuance will cause discomfort and the gaining of excessive pounds of unwanted fat, growths, cholesterol, and poisonous fecal matter.

Forget about “scientific” tables of weight gain and nutritional mumbo jumbo for pregnant women, and just go with your instincts instead.  They will never betray you, and instead will facilitate the cultivation of self-trust and self-love, two life-affirming factors that will eventually be adopted by your children.

Preventing Heart Attack

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

Heart disease is a complicated subject because the heart is a complex organ. Imagine what it would take to keep a machine working smoothly for a hundred years without stopping once! Dozens of factors can intervene to cause problems. We’re going to examine those causes with the intention of developing habits that will prevent or postpone for as long as possible the heart attack.

Heart attack is the leading cause of death for both men and women worldwide and in the U.S. A heart attack is a sudden, serious, usually painful, and sometimes fatal interruption of the heart’s normal functioning. Any time the normal heart beat is disrupted for any reason, there is a possibility that insufficient blood will reach a section of heart muscle. The longer the interruption, the greater the danger. Without blood and oxygen, that part of the heart muscle suffocates and dies. When heart muscle dies, it is called an “infarction” – a myocardial (heart muscle) infarction.

In adult humans, dead heart muscle does not regenerate, and so this hundred-year blood pump will from then on be operating at less than 100% capacity. This means that any body tissue, including the heart itself, will probably suffer some degree of blood and oxygen deprivation. Obviously, preventing heart attack and myocardial infarction is far preferable to dealing with it after the fact.

Three Causes That Are Minimally Preventable

1. Pre-natal Jing Deficiency

This means physical abnormalities that are present at birth. Jing is that substance that influences growth, development, and reproduction. Part of jing is already determined before we are born. This part is called pre-natal.

Some pre-natal jing is inherited genetically. If a parent passes on genes that are defective, one possible result is a baby’s heart that doesn’t work properly. Another consequence could be a dangerously high concentration of cholesterol that congests the arteries around the heart (see below). Not much preventing is possible in these circumstances, without the intervention of genetic engineering sometime in the 2020s.

Other birth defects – including heart defects - are acquired by the fetus during pregnancy. These are preventable, but the subject of preventing birth defects is beyond the scope of this essay.

2. Heart Trauma

Diseases such as scarlet fever as well as physical injuries can damage the heart to the extent that its functioning can be interrupted and a heart attack ensues.

3. Heart Yin Deficiency

Yin is synonymous with material, while yang can be equated with energy or movement.

Starvation – the chronic lack of food – will eventually wear down all the material in the body, as the body cannibalizes itself for energy. This includes the material – yin – of the heart muscle itself. In the U.S., which leads the world in obesity, no one starves to death except those who embark on a conscious or unconscious suicide mission. The subject of preventing suicide will not be addressed here.

Four Causes That Are Mostly Preventable

1. Food Stagnation

This is by far the most common cause of heart attack in the U.S. Western medicine calls this situation “coronary heart disease.” The most common symptom of coronary heart disease is angina pectoris, a squeezing chest pain that may radiate to the neck, jaw, back, and left arm, and cause the lips, tongue, and fingernails to exhibit a blueish or purplish hue. Angina, also known as “heart blood stagnation,” may last for years, and usually worsens with movement and anxiety.

Simply put, coronary heart disease is a blockage in the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle itself. The blockage is the result of excess calories (a calorie is a measure of stored bio-energy) in the form of LDL cholesterol that clog the blood vessels feeding the heart. LDL stands for “low-density lipids.” “Lipids” is the medical term for fats, which furnish a whopping nine calories per gram, as compared to proteins and carbohydrates at a mere four calories per gram.

These excess lipid calories that stagnate in the blood vessels are primarily the result of excessive food intake. The body will store calories that it can’t immediately use. Most will be stored as body fat, but often the human body will store a portion of excess calories on the inside of blood vessels as cholesterol. This condition is known as “atherosclerosis,” or “hardening of the arteries.”

During a long and lean winter, the heart does not need to work hard, since a maximum conservation of energy is required for survival. And so the body does not anticipate a problem with temporarily depositing this valuable source of energy on the inside lining of the blood vessels. The problem is that obese and overweight Americans aren’t sleeping, lounging, and fasting in a cave for six months at a time, but rather are working, exercising, and eating every day, year after year. This state of affairs puts an unnatural strain on a cardiovascular system that just isn’t prepared for it.

Statistical evidence conclusively links excess body fat, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. There is also a connection, although somewhat less significant, between the consumption of animal fats, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. If one eats more calories than necessary for daily maintenance, and some of those calories come from animal fats, the body will more likely store those animal fats as dangerous blood cholesterol than it would most vegetable fats. The same is true of highly processed vegetable fats, such as margarine.

There is also a strong statistical connection between tobacco smoking and coronary heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco combines with carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels by making the blood stickier. Sticky blood will mix easily with low-density lipids that clog the arteries and lead to atherosclerosis. This is one important way in which tobacco smoking contributes to heart attack.

Preventative measures: 

• Eat less food. Wait for hunger, and stop when you are comfortable.
• Get lean. Five to seven percent body fat for men, seven to twelve percent for women.
• Moderate your intake of animal-derived food, especially red meat and eggs. Not every meal, and not every day.
• Do not smoke tobacco. Not daily or in a binge cycle.

2. Liver Qi Stagnation

  

Your Chinese liver is not the same thing as your Western liver. Your Chinese liver, also known as “gan,” is like a manager or a regulator, whose main task is to keep mental and physical energy (qi) flowing smoothly. When the flow of qi is uneven and stagnant, liver is unhappy and must be appeased.

Mental fixation on the past or future will stagnate the qi, since only the moment is real and flowing. The result is anxiety of various forms and a consequent tightening of muscles in preparation an emergency response. Chronic anxiety brings with it a chronic tightening of muscles, including the muscles surrounding the heart and the blood vessels themselves, which are, in essence, muscles.

  

A sedentary lifestyle does nothing to expand the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the heart or brain. Without exercise, they lose their elasticity and become narrowed. In addition, numerous studies show that regular exercise dramatically decreases anxiety and improves mental capacity and emotional well-being.

  

Narrowed coronary arteries will decrease oxygen flow to the heart, and can trigger a heart attack and myocardial infarction. This is especially true for someone who already has restricted blood flow to the heart as the result of food stagnation.

Preventative measures: 

• Calm the mind. Stop worrying. Increase awareness of the big picture by studying and practicing Taoism or other similar philosophies.
• Calm the body. Get plenty of sleep and rest. Practice hatha yoga, tai qi, qi gong, or meditation on a regular basis.
• Exercise vigorously on a daily basis. Aerobic conditioning is especially important, as it improves the ability of the heart to deliver blood and oxygen to the body and itself. Work with a trainer if you need to.

3. Excess Heart Heat

Of all organs, the heart is most susceptible to the danger of overheating. It’s like a nuclear reactor that must constantly be cooled. The continuous beating creates friction, and friction creates heat.

The danger is that the heat can get out of control, causing a heart attack (an interruption of the heart’s normal functioning). Any type of heart attack can deprive the heart muscle of blood and oxygen, causing myocardial infarction.

Excessive heat in the chest area can inflame the heart, speed up the heart beat (tachycardia), and upset the sinoatrial node, a small mass of specialized muscle fibers in the heart from which originate the regular electrical impulses that stimulate the heartbeat and keep it regular. When this node goes whacky, it causes fibrillation – a rapid chaotic beating of the heart muscle or individual muscle fibers of the heart.

The pandemonium that follows will prevent normal blood circulation and likely cause suffocation and death to some muscle fibers of the heart. The usual emergency procedure in the case of fibrillation is to apply an electric shock to the heart, resetting the sinoatrial node to its normal rhythm.

Preventative measures:

• Do not smoke. The regular inhalation of hot gas from any source will inflame the chest area, likely starting with the lungs. This bronchitis, if allowed to continue and worsen, can nudge the sinoatrial node into chaos.
• Do not make a habit of hurrying or overworking. Remember that movement creates friction, which gives rise to heat. Excessive and continuous movement leads to excess heat. Plenty of sleep and rest, and a relaxed pace in most activities will prevent a buildup of heat.
• Stay away from chemical stimulants such as caffeine, cocaine, and pharmaceutical “uppers.”

4. Poisoning

There are many toxic substances that will interrupt the normal functioning of the heart. Poisons will speed it up, slow it down, add to arterial clogging, or even paralyze the heart.

Nicotine for example will cause arteries to constrict, contributing to a reduction of blood flow. Nicotine also combines with the carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels and make the blood stickier. This same carbon dioxide deprives the body of oxygen, binding to red blood cells in place of the oxygen molecule and forcing the heart to work harder than it should.

Alcohol is “bottled damp heat.” Alcoholics tend to have high blood levels of the hormone epinephrine (used to be called “adrenalin”) and deficiencies of the mineral magnesium. This combination disturbs the sinoatrial node, producing heartbeat irregularities. The heat can speed up the pulse, while the “damp” can muffle and slow it down. This capriciousness can lead to a heart attack, and is a common cause of sudden death in heavy drinkers.

Preventative measures:

• Avoid addictions to smoking, alcohol, and other substances, be they prescribed, over-the-counter, or illicit. Work on improving your mental and physical health instead.
• Be careful about the mushrooms and curare-tipped darts!

Preventing Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

What is diabetes?

The term “diabetes” means “sugar in the blood.”

There are several diseases that go by the name of “diabetes.” Diabetes mellitus type 1 is an inherited disorder in which the islet cells of the pancreas fail to manufacture enough insulin, a hormone that conducts nutrients in the blood through the cell membranes and into the cells. Diabetes mellitus type 2 is by far the most common. Of the nearly 21 million people in the United States with diabetes, 90 to 95 percent have type 2 diabetes.

In people with diabetes type 2, the cells of their bodies develop a resistance to insulin and the calories that come along with it. This resistance is the result of the following. After years of suffering from the suffocating effects of excessive nutrition, the diabetes genes in the cells eventually come alive and begin to reject the overfeeding. If the cells continue to reject insulin, they will slowly starve.

Researchers attribute most cases of type 2 diabetes to obesity because there is a strong statistical relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes. About 80 percent of diabetics with this form of the disease are significantly overweight. Studies show that the risk for developing type 2 diabetes increases by 4 percent for every pound of excess weight a person carries. That is because excess body fat – stored calories – is converted into blood sugar by the liver, creating a constant 24-hour-a-day surplus of calories bombarding the cells. The cells follow their genetic instructions and start resisting the insulin and its calories.

The other 20 percent of type 2 sufferers are the “grazers.” These are the people who, also having the “diabetes genes,” and for one reason or the other, eat small amounts of food throughout their waking hours. They might not be eating past their physical comfort levels and so may appear lean on the outside. But on the inside and at the cellular level, they are constantly engorged with food. Slowly over the course of years, their cells give up from exhaustion, and start rejecting insulin.

Chinese medicine would explain it this way. A dry warm spleen (digestive system) is a happy spleen. A happy spleen uses food and drink to produce sufficient amounts of high quality qi (energy) and xue (blood). Excessive eating will overload the machinery, causing a damp spleen. This weak spleen will fail in its job of qi and xue production, which in turn damages the jing (genetic potential), and in some, will cause symptoms of diabetes (xiao ke). In addition, the excess damp can pile up in the tissues, causing stagnation that further hinders the body’s own processes.

Indications of diabetes

The following signals are indicative of diabetes type 2:

No hunger: In the case of diabetes type 2, the whole digestion/metabolism process is in crisis. The most consistent indicator I know of for a weak digestion and metabolism is the strength and frequency of the hunger feeling, which is an empty “pang” in the stomach region that is wonderfully satisfied by a meal-sized portion of food. For people who have diabetes type 2 or who are approaching diabetes type 2, true hunger is non-existent. Their bodies are rejecting food. Why would these same bodies “request” food at the same time?

Fatigue: The body’s cells are not getting enough fuel and their engines are sputtering. The damp spleen is producing an inferior quantity and quality of qi, and all movement becomes sluggish.

Frequent urination: The excess sugar in the blood draws water from the body into the blood. The kidneys remove the water and excrete it as urine.

Tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, blurred vision and blindness: Lack of nourishment and poor circulation begin to starve cells that need a lot of blood, like the eyes, or that require a lot of qi to reach, like the extremities. Lack of nourishment in the legs and arms can progress to tissue death, gangrene, and amputation.

Repeated infections or skin sores that heal slowly or not at all: When the skin does not receive proper nourishment, it turns funky and attracts unwelcome visitors. The immune system being weakened at the same time will fail to reach the skin in sufficient force to neutralize the invaders. In addition, the skin will often exude excess damp and toxic heat in specific areas, causing severe itching and pain.

Metabolic syndrome: A syndrome is a collection of indicators that point to a pattern, but not necessarily a particular disease. Over the last decade, the term "metabolic syndrome" has come into popular medical usage. Metabolic syndrome is seen as a precursor to diabetes 2 and heart disease. Anyone with metabolic syndrome should be taking preventative steps right away. According to the American Heart Association and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, metabolic syndrome is present if you have three or more of the following signs:
• Blood pressure equal to or higher than 130/85 mmHg
• Fasting blood sugar (glucose) equal to or higher than 100 mg/dL
• Large waist circumference (length around the waist):
   o Men - 40 inches or more
   o Women - 35 inches or more
• Low HDL cholesterol:
   o Men - under 40 mg/dL
   o Women - under 50 mg/dL
• Triglycerides equal to or higher than 150 mg/dL

The conventional approach

Western medicine considers diabetes type 2 to be incurable and barely preventable. When someone is diagnosed with insulin intolerance (metabolic syndrome), the usual course of action is to prescribe drugs that interfere with the digestion of carbohydrates, control liver production of sugar, or make the cells more sensitive to insulin. These drugs come with potentially serious side effects. Patients also receive routine advice on “diet and exercise,” but without much conviction, since compliance is so poor.

Natural prevention

The first task in prevention is to stop adding to the problem. This means, above all, body fat reduction and calorie restriction. The overfed, pre-diabetic body does not want food – it wants nutrition but it doesn’t want food - and is in fact developing an “allergy” to insulin. Excuses for eating should be gradually eliminated, food portions limited, and new habits – like tea or coffee drinking for example – developed to replace the habit of mechanical eating. For ideas on eliminating mechanical eating, go to http://drkihn.com/Weight-Management.html and click on Hunger Awareness Training.

Now the job remains – how to introduce nutrients into the cells without the aid of insulin. And the answer is simple and widely known – exercise. Strenuous physical movement is the only known agency that will feed blood sugar to the cells without the aid of the pancreas and insulin. Pre-diabetics usually do not follow a regular exercise routine, and most likely avoid moving whenever possible. These people would do well to hire a professional fitness trainer to plan a balanced, daily workout schedule. Even 15 minutes of walking will reduce the amount of sugar in the blood. For people with disabilities, performing water exercises and swimming are excellent ways of bypassing insulin. Pre-diabetics who exercise regularly will notice immediately how much better they feel after a workout.

Pre-diabetics must learn to wait for hunger, and stop trying to prevent it. Without hunger, there is no “correct” food, only less harmful food.

A weak digestion that does not want more food (no hunger) will encounter the least problems on food that is the easiest to digest. This means reverting to a paleo diet, the range of foods that our Stone Age ancestors consumed for 100,000 years. It is this food, more than agricultural food or modern processed food, that our genes have designed us to digest and process. Plant-based foods are the staple of a paleo diet. When you lightly cook vegetables – stir fry, bake, steam, make into a soup - the fiber gets broken down enough to make them easily digestible, with a minimum of calories and insulin to bombard the body’s cells. Add a small amount of fish, meat, egg, nuts, berries, or fruit for variety and taste. A person who is pre-diabetic should stay away from processed food as much as possible. If an approximate equivalent for a food cannot be found in a wilderness situation, it will likely cause problems. For more information on the paleo diet, go to http://paleodietlifestyle.com/.

And lastly, there seems to be credible evidence that coffee drinking confers some degree of protection against the development of diabetes type 2. In the latest study, researchers from UCLA compared the medical histories and coffee-drinking habits of 359 women who had diabetes type 2 with those of 359 healthy women over 10 years. They used information from the Women’s Health Study, run by the National Institutes of Health. Women who drank four cups of caffeinated coffee a day were 56% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than women who don’t drink coffee. And the more coffee consumed, the lower the risk of developing diabetes.

A 2006 study of 28,812 women in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine found that those who drank six cups of decaffeinated coffee a day had a 22% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who didn’t drink any coffee. Caffeinated coffee also had a protective effect in this study, but it wasn’t as strong. Another study in 2009 from the same journal showed that each daily cup of coffee or tea cut the risk of developing diabetes by 7%.

Scientists aren’t clear about how coffee and tea increase insulin sensitivity. From a Chinese medical point of view, the only explanation I can think of is that both coffee and tea, caffeinated and decaf, are bitter-tasting. Bitter substances dry and drain dampness, and a damp spleen is at the core of the problem of diabetes 2. Reducing the dampness clogging the body’s cells means they will want to begin receiving nutrients and insulin again.

Preventing Post-Diet Weight Gain

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT


We’ve all heard the stories, and many of us have experienced it ourselves: The dieter who restricts calories and increases exercise levels and consequently loses an impressive number of unwanted pounds, only to have the weight return later with a vengeance. This “yo-yo dieting” is a regular feature of American life, and leads to severe demoralization, self-blame, and a reluctance to do it all over again.

On November 30th of 2010, online Science News published the results of a mouse study titled, “Dieting may plant seeds of weight regain: Cutting calories may encourage binging years later.” Researchers found a molecular explanation for why fat mice who successfully dieted later gained the weight back. These molecular changes corresponded to a heightened sensitivity to stress.

When the lean ex-dieters were subjected to mildly stressful situations such as damp bedding, cage swaps or putting a marble in the cage (mice don’t like changes), they snarfed down far more high-calorie mouse chow than the non-dieters who experienced the same stressful situations. The ex-dieters had lower levels of “feel-good” chemicals and higher levels of hormones that prompt eating.

A lead researcher cautions, “Dieters need to be aware that stress could derail their progress, and take steps to manage stress.”

I am personally not fond of the word “stress.” It is all too often used as an avoidance of responsibility. “Stress” by itself does not cause health problems or weight gain.

Instead of blaming the outside world (stress) for weight gain, let us call the culprit by its proper name: Anxiety. Stress is a permanent and necessary feature of life. Stress stimulates growth.

Anxiety on the other hand is not necessary at all, and it is within our power to reduce it and eliminate it from our lives.

Before you start restricting calories, you should be aware of what you are giving up. Food breaks for one thing. Many Americans cannot give themselves or their employees permission to simply take a break from work. Instead, the supposed need for nutrition is used as a reason to take a mind-calming, body-calming rest.

Another sacrifice will be the very mind-calming effect of food itself. For omnivores like us, the digestion of a high-calorie meal takes energy away from the mind and muscles, and focuses that energy in the stomach and intestines. Decrease energy to the mind and the mind calms down. The next time you eat a meal, see if you are calmer and more relaxed after eating than before.

The third thing you will be giving up is an excess supply of estrogen. Fat cells secrete estriol, a form of the hormone estrogen. High levels of estrogen in the body have been connected to an increased incidence of cancer. However, estrogen also calms the mind in the following ways:

1. Estrogen is a vasodilator, and is particularly useful for dilating blood vessels in the brain and thus cooling heat in the brain. This is why ERT – estrogen replacement therapy – is so effective at controlling heat flashes in American women who are undergoing menopause.

2. Estrogen promotes the release of endorphins and enkephalins, the body’s own painkillers. These chemicals also produce a sense of euphoria in the brain.

3. Estrogen encourages the release of serotonin, a powerful neurotransmitter and calming agent. Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) assist serotonin in alleviating anxiety in various forms, such as depression and bipolar disorder.

There are some very good reasons why enlarged fat cells calm the mind. Shrunken fat cells, on the other hand, announce “Summer’s here!” when lean animals are hungry every day and must find food every day. And so they (and we) need lots of clear and accurate information, gleaned from the senses, memory, reasoning, and emotions.

Before you begin your calorie restriction (diet) plan, write down all the ways you can think of to increase mental and physical calmness. Some suggestions are lots of sleep and rest, Taoist or Zen Buddhist philosophy, meditation, Twelve Step Program, prayer, tai qi, yoga, qi gong, Hunger Awareness Training, vigorous daily exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Now, why don't you get started with whatever choices you've made.  Your success at losing fat and keeping it off will depend on how much you can improve your mental health.

Preventing the Common Cold

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT


Everyone it seems has their own ideas on how to prevent the common cold. I’d like to share with you my strategy, which works for me. In fact, I haven’t had a cold in years.

In Chinese medicine, avoiding colds revolves around keeping the wei qi strong and happy. The wei qi is your defensive energy – your immune system. The wei qi are your soldiers and guards.

The wei qi seeks out or chases down pathogenic invaders, kills them, and if possible, eats them. The wei qi guards all entry points into the interior of your body. This includes the mouth and throat, nose and sinuses, lungs and stomach, lower body orifices, especially the vagina and uterus, and the pores of the skin.

A strong and happy wei qi can only be overcome by the repeated or overwhelming attacks of a virulent pestilential invader such as cholera or bubonic plague.

Here’s my recipe for strengthening the wei qi.

Get calm

Mental and physical calmness allows the machinery of the body to produce plenty of high quality wei qi. It also permits the wei qi to detect problems and to congregate en masse at the problem site.

Many scientific studies have conclusively linked chronic high anxiety to the common cold and many lost work days. Chronic anxiety diverts resources from the construction of new wei qi. It also tightens muscles for fight-or-flight, thus restricting the movement of the wei qi.

Sufficient sleep and rest is a critical requirement for calmness. When muscles and brain are relaxing is when most digestive products are manufactured, including the wei qi.


Natural mental calmness will also prevent the regular reliance on pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco, and whatever else to establish calm. Substance abuse will add an extra burden on the system, diverting immune resources away from the exterior and toward the elimination of poisons. Statistics connect substance abuse with a high incidence of common colds.

In addition, smoking will irritate the throat. A raw throat is an invitation for the cold virus and its bacterial friends to congregate in large numbers and gang up on the wei qi.


Get lean

A lean body is a streamlined, efficient body. This means that the digestive system is probably strong enough to produce high quality wei qi in sufficient quantity to fight invaders. Leanness also means that there will be less obstacles to get in the way of the wei qi as it rushes to the battlefield.

Obesity is a cause and a result of a weak digestion that underlies a weakened wei qi. In addition, the larger the fat cells, the greater the obstructions in the way of the emergency teams. The biological purpose of obesity is to facilitate hibernation during a long cold winter. Hibernation requires very little wei qi.

Get strong

Studies have shown that people who exercise vigorously have fewer colds.

Strong muscles, bones, and connective tissue are both a cause and a result of a strong digestion. A strong digestive system creates strong immune factors, which were necessary during the spring, summer, and fall months when our Stone Age ancestors were foraging and hunting daily and being exposed to exterior pathogens.

Trust thyself

The body usually knows when it’s about to be invaded by a cold pathogen, and will tell you. If you are outdoors and feel a chill, that is your body telling you to cover up or get inside right away. Shivering is your wei qi rushing to the surface to do battle.

Cold wind on the back of the neck feels bad. This pathogen is known as wind cold, and it enters from behind. On the other hand, warmth on the neck feels good.

Hot wind in the face also feels bad. This is where wind heat tries to enter the body. If it feels bad, avoid it. Conversely, the face seems to be quite resistant to cold temperature.

Chinese herbs

Once the pathogen has entered the exterior of the body – the pores and other orifices - the wei qi sets up barricades and concentrates forces at these barricade sites. At that point, our plan of action is to support our wei qi by helping it to neutralize the cold virus and its allies, and then helping the wei qi to expel the invaders.

One very famous and effective formula for defeating wind heat is known as yin qiao pian. This combination was developed several hundred years ago and is nowadays commonly used all over southern China. It successfully treats the kind of common cold encountered in warm climates, like Southern California.

As wind heat enters through the front, it will cause such unpleasantness as a sore throat, sinus swelling with sneezing, eye discomfort, and the beginning of a cough with yellow phlegm. There will be an aversion to wind and probably a slight fever or feverish feeling that predominates over chills.

When I feel the radial pulse on the wrist, I’m likely to encounter a rapid superficial pulse. The rapidity (over 72 beats per minute) indicates that heat is a factor, since heat speeds up movement. The superficial quality means that the wei qi has come to the surface of the body to do battle with the wind heat enemy.

Our herbal strategy for defeating this wind heat is to cool the heat and to help the wei qi expel the wind through diaphoresis. A diaphoretic is a substance that causes sweating. If we can neutralize the pathogenic heat while helping the wei qi sweat out the viruses, then the disease will not enter the lungs or stomach and will not cause any more problems. In other words, a successful herbal intervention will mean that the common cold will be completely prevented!

However, yin qiao must be taken at the first sign of wind heat, during the first few days. Once the wind has reached deep into the lungs or stomach, it is no longer on the surface. At this point, the herbs in the formula, whose pungent flavor will push the wind up and out, will merely spread the pathogen around, likely making the cough worse. Treating an internal disorder like lung heat requires a completely different herbal strategy, one of draining the pathogen down and out through the urine.

Because yin qiao causes sweating, it must not be taken before venturing outside, because sweating opens pores. Open pores invite in more wind. Therefore, it is recommended that it be taken before bedtime. If a person with a normal, uncompromised immune system takes this formula before sleep and sweats during the night, the problem will be gone by morning.

The classic yin qiao formula contains nine Chinese herbs, most of which are not recognizable to Westerners. Chinese formulas come in many different forms. The form I use is a tablet form, easily purchased in Chinatown and simple to take. Some brands are sugar-coated pills for children to take. I recommend the tablet form (pian) which is not coated. Four tablets before bedtime will usually do the trick. If you wake up in the middle of the night, take four more and go back to sleep.

Preventing Iatrogenic Injuries

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT
http://www.drkihn.com/

The term iatrogenic means “doctor-caused.” Iatrogenic deaths are the third leading cause of death in the US. According to a study published in the well known and highly prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, Vol..284, July 26, 2000), conventional Western medicine kills more Americans every year than any other cause except for heart disease and cancer. The rate for iatrogenic mortality is nearly twice that of the number four killer, cerebrovascular accidents (strokes). According to the report’s author, Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 250,000 Americans die yearly from iatrogenic causes.

Here’s the breakdown for the year 1999:
• 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries that went wrong.
• 7,000 medication errors in hospitals.
• 20,000 other errors in hospitals.
• 80,000 infections acquired in hospitals.
• 106,000 non-error negative effects of FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.

Starfield cautions that these numbers are derived from studies of hospital patient deaths only, and that they say nothing about the crippling, maiming, and other negative effects that doctors and staff inflict on their patients in and out of hospitals.

This is by no means the first report of its kind to indict the conventional medical profession, but it is the most authoritative. Another analysis, from the Boston Medical Journal, 2000, entitled “Epidemiology and Medical Error,” by Weingart et al, estimated that the US medical establishment profits yearly from 116 million unnecessary physician visits and 77 million unnecessary pharmaceutical prescriptions, adding up to $77 billion in extra costs in dollars at the turn of the millennium.

Despite a decade of promises, little has been done to fix the problem of preventable medical errors, according to a 2009 report by the Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports Magazine. "There is little evidence to suggest that the number of people dying from medical harm has dropped since the US Institute of Medicine first warned about these deadly mistakes a decade ago," Lisa McGiffert, a spokesperson for the Consumers Union, said in a statement. "That means a million lives and billions of dollars have been lost over the past 10 years because our health care system failed to adopt key reforms recommended by the IOM to protect patients."

The problem isn’t much better in the wealthy countries of the European Union. One in 10 patients are suffering extra adverse effects while being treated in European hospitals, the EU's health commissioner said in a 2008 report. The most common hospital-induced problems are healthcare associated infections, incorrect or delayed diagnoses, surgical errors and medication related errors, according to the European commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. Around one in 20 European patients catches an infection while in the hospital.

The first step in preventing these nightmares is to recognize the strengths and limitations of conventional Western medicine. The profession can be divided into two categories: Emergency Medicine and Unsafe Medicine.

Emergency Medicine

Emergency Medicine is essentially heroic medicine. Western medicine is designed to be heavy-handed. Its true purpose is to fight nature. When nature decrees that a person must very soon lose life, a limb, an organ, a tissue, a mind, or any other structure or function, this is intolerable to us. Fortunately for the world, we have highly trained people who can use drugs and surgery to save the situation and “reverse” nature.

Reversing nature usually elicits negative effects that result from the heavy-handed intervention, but in an emergency, the tradeoff is worth it.

This branch of medicine is also adept at performing tests that monitor health situations. Emergency Medicine even includes futuristic research like genetic engineering that will someday end all medical problems, including mandatory death.

Unsafe Medicine

The other branch of conventional Western medicine should be called “Unsafe Medicine.” This segment is responsible for a quarter million American deaths every year.

In addition, it specializes in disease care. Compared to the beginning of the twentieth century, the average modern American life span is much longer than it is today, but people are getting sick much earlier. This fact illustrates an important function of Unsafe Medicine, which is to help people feel better but stay sick for decades, thereby earning huge profits for pharmaceutical companies and their “dealers,” surgeons, hospitals, and medical equipment suppliers.

Doctors and staff who practice Unsafe Medicine are trained to fill you full of doom and gloom so you will become panicky and dependent. Typically they study only disease and know nothing about health, and are notoriously antagonistic toward most forms of Safe Medicine.

There are an increasing number of Medical Doctors who practice both Emergency Medicine and Unsafe Medicine, and as a result are internally conflicted and become disillusioned with medicine.

Safe Medicine

Safe Medicine includes anything that doesn’t cause more problems. Safe Medicine usually works with nature, gently encouraging the body/mind to heal itself. Most traditions and techniques that go by the names of alternative medicine and complementary medicine would be included in this category. When safe medical techniques are applied correctly, there should be either good results or no results. And they should be demonstrated to consistently perform beyond the placebo effect.

Diligent practitioners of Safe Medicine will establish a mutually respectful relationship with you and really listen to your needs. Their methods will generally take longer to work, but the effects will be lasting and not fraught with risks. A competent safe practitioner will also recognize that it’s actually the body/mind that heals itself. All we practitioners can do is assist that process. And so encouraging self-reliance is an essential part of the healing process.

Self-reliance includes the avoidance of doctors for small things. Fundamentally, you are your own best doctor. Good mental health (much neglected in our culture) means trusting that your body can heal a small thing like a stubbed toe or a cold virus invasion all on its own or with a little help from home remedies.

Avoiding Iatrogenic Complications

First, be ready to change everything in your life that is a likely cause of disease and injury. Get as healthy as you can and stay that way.

Second, learn the difference between true emergencies and non-emergencies.

Third, see if the non-emergency situation will respond to self-treatment and rest. If your own efforts do not resolve the situation, consult a practitioner of Safe Medicine. Following is a partial list of Safe Medicine techniques and disciplines commonly found in the US, in alphabetical order:
• Acupuncture
• Ayurvedic Medicine
• Biofeedback
• Chinese Medicine
• Chiropractic adjustment
• Dental hygiene
• Fitness training
• Folk medicine
• Herbology
• Homeopathy
• Hypnosis
• Life Coaching
• Meditation
• Mega-vitamin therapy
• Natural vision therapy
• Naturopathic Medicine
• Nutritional counseling
• Physical therapy
• Psychological counseling
• Qi gong
• Tai qi
• Therapeutic massage
• Yoga

Preventing Heart Attacks

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

Heart attacks kill more Americans every year than any other cause. When a heart attack occurs, some heart muscle cells die from reduced or obstructed blood flow through the coronary arteries. The medical term for this is “myocardial infarction” (MI).

Many different situations can restrict the blood flow to the heart muscle and cause heart attacks, such as infectious diseases, starvation, a drug overdose, poison, and genetic abnormalities. The causes discussed here are those that are commonly encountered in the U.S. and that are mostly preventable. We will examine these factors from a Chinese medical perspective, which will give us clues about how to prevent heart attacks. Even those who carry heart disease anomalies in the genes can postpone problems for a very long time by making some important changes.

Yin excess

The heart is a pump that sends oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. When excess material – yin is material – accumulates in the bloodstream, the pump can fail. If the pump is unable to nourish itself, part of it can die.

Excessive yin can include enlarged fat cells, impacted fecal matter in the intestines, phlegm, watery discharge, fluid accumulation, and growths. Another kind of excessive yin accumulates in the inner lining of the blood vessels. In Western medicine, this excess yin is known as “atherosclerosis.” As this material builds up, it will wreak its own special kind of havoc.

When the passageways in the blood vessels become narrowed with cholesterol and other unwanted material, the back pressure on the heart will increase, causing hypertension. Eventually, the tiny arteries that feed the heart can become clogged with this debris, known as “plaque,” that has accumulated over a lifetime. Debris and clotted blood can also break off somewhere in the body and get lodged in the coronary arteries (embolism). When either event occurs, part of the heart can starve. A starved heart will stop working. An MI and possible death are the result.

Liver qi stagnation

Have you ever heard of someone who suffered a heart attack as the result of bad news or other psychological trauma? Chinese medicine explains this well with the concept of liver qi stagnation. Qi is that substance in the body (and the and everywhere else) that moves everything, including the organs, muscles, and blood. Your Chinese liver (not your Western liver) functions like the director of your movie. Liver (gan) keeps the work flowing smoothly and makes sure everyone on the set is happy and has everything they need. This includes the qi in the heart.

When the muscles that surround the heart suddenly clench, heart qi will stagnate and all work in the constricted heart could come to a halt. Blood will stagnate, part of the heart will starve and die, and the heart may stop altogether, causing an MI and death. A person who lives with chronic fear and anxiety likely suffers from liver qi stagnation. This means that an emergency fight-or-flight clenching of muscles constantly exists in the body, especially the rib cage, and often without the person being aware of it. Poor circulation of qi and blood in the chest area will make a person susceptible to this kind of heart attack.

Excess yin that blocks circulation will further contribute to stagnated liver qi and blood in the chest. Conversely, stagnated liver qi will interfere with the free circulation of yin fluids in the chest and elsewhere, increasing the incidence of plaque forming in the blood vessels.

Heart heat

Alone among all of the organs, the heart is the only one that is always working. Even when you hold your breath, your heart is still moving. This means that the heart picks up a lot of friction and thus generates heat continuously. Therefore the heart is susceptible to conditions of excess heat. A speedy heart rate – over 80 beats per minute – is one of many indications of excess heat. When we exercise, our bodies generate extra heat and so the heart rate increases. This kind of heat is normal and healthy.

However, when excessive heat enters the chest area, there exists a danger that it will cause an unhealthy and even dangerous condition that could even lead to a heart attack. This pathological heat most often enters the body as a result of the inhalation of hot gases, namely smoking. Too much smoking of any substance can speed up the heart rate so fast (“tachycardia”) that the heat can tip that tiny heart cell that governs rhythm (the sinoatrial node) into a frenzy. The result is called “ventricular fibrillation,” when the rhythm of the heartbeat is completely lost and any real pumping action ceases. With effective pumping stopped, heart cells begin to starve and die due to lack of oxygen.

Tachycardia can also be initiated by overwork compounded by the heat that results from stuck liver qi pounding against barriers in the tissues.

Prevention

Here are some steps we can all take to preserve or improve the health of the heart and avoid heart attacks for as long as possible.

• Get lean. Five to ten percent body fat for men and seven to twelve percent for women is optimally lean. Lean is clean. Excess yin originates from two sources: Food and drink. Excess liquid comes and goes easily, but excess calories from food stay around as enlarged fat cells, growths, impacted waste, and of course plaque in the blood vessels. The body is just as adept at cannibalizing plaque as body fat, tumors, and waste, if given the chance. This requires eating less calories than used until the desired leanness is reached. Herbal supplements such as Bojenmi Tea and black fungus that encourage the body to clean out plaque and cholesterol from the walls of the blood vessels can also be helpful.

• Minimize pollutants. Chemicals from food and smoke can accumulate in the blood, adding significantly to plaque buildup. Stop smoking or breathing other people’s smoke. Cook most of your own food, and buy mostly organic food.

• Get calm. Work hard to establish and maintain your piece of mind. Use calming techniques that work best for you that do not cause more problems, such as Asian philosophy, cognitive behavioral therapy, religion, meditation, yoga, taiqi, and regular exercise. Beware of using food, smoking, alcohol, and drugs/medications as a substitute for real change.

• Improve your posture. Hours spent hunched over a desk or computer screen will contract the chest muscles and decrease circulation in the heart area. Sitting and standing straight will open up the chest and help move liver/heart qi.

• Limit or quit smoking.

• Get plenty of sleep and rest. Do not overschedule or speed through your day so that you do not build up excess heat in the heart.

Preventing Alzheimer's Disease

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT
www.drkihn.com

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive brain disorder that causes a gradual and as yet irreversible decline in memory, language skills, perception of time and space, and, eventually, the ability to care for oneself. First described by German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, Alzheimer’s disease was initially thought to be a rare condition affecting only young people, and was referred to as pre-senile dementia. Today late-onset Alzheimer’s disease is recognized as the most common cause of the loss of mental function in those aged 65 and over. Alzheimer’s in people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, called early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, occurs much less frequently, accounting for less than 10 percent of the estimated 4 million Alzheimer’s cases in the United States.

Alzheimer's disease accounts for two-thirds of all dementia cases. The disease is two to three times more common in women, a situation not explained by the fact that women live longer on average than men.

Alzheimer’s disease is not well understood by Western science.

In the next decade or two, as researchers reverse-engineer the human brain, all will become clear. But here are some facts that we do know.
· There is a genetic propensity for the disease. Geneticists have learned that people who are carriers of specific genes are several times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s as they age.
· As the disease progresses, the brain shrinks in size. Computer graphics comparing the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and normal, healthy brains, the Alzheimer's brains are noticably smaller.
· The Alzheimer’s brain suffers from inflammation. Strong evidence supports this contention. For example, several studies report that post-menopausal women who have undergone estrogen replacement therapy to control heat flashes are far less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. It is thought that estrogen’s anti-inflammatory abilities prevent the formation of a dangerous protein that destroys brain neurons.
· The brain becomes clogged with “gunk”. The brains of patients with Alzheimer’s have distinctive formations—abnormally shaped proteins called tangles and plaques—that are recognized as the hallmark of the disease. Not all brain regions show these characteristic formations. The areas most prominently affected are those related to memory. Scientists have found that tangles and plaques cause neurons in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients to shrink and eventually die, first in the memory and language centers and finally throughout the brain. This widespread neuron degeneration leaves gaps in the brain’s messaging network that may interfere with communication between cells, causing some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
· The Alzheimer’s brain begins to malfunction like the body of a diabetes patient. Like body cells in diabetes, brain cells become resistant to nutrition and start to atrophy (shrink) and lose function.

Chinese medicine explains Alzheimer’s this way.

Any kind of dementia is seen as phlegm blocking the shen. Shen is the substance that determines behavior and resides in the heart/brain. The shen determines appropriate behavior first by collecting as much information as possible about the internal and external environment. When something blocks that information and prevents the shen from reading it accurately, behavior becomes inappropriate. A substance called phlegm will cause extreme blockage, which will lead to extremely inappropriate behavior – all of the symptomatic behavior of Alzheimer’s patients.

What are the causes of this theoretical phlegm? One cause is a damp spleen. This is a Chinese term indicating a digestive system clogged with calories, usually evidenced by excess body fat, no hunger, digestive difficulties with specific foods, and diabetes 2. Excess damp transforms into all kinds of phlegm, including the phlegm that blocks the shen. An interesting side note is that both obesity and Alzheimer’s show evidence of brain shrinkage.

Another cause is qi stagnation. Qi moves everything in the body, including fluids. When the qi gets stuck, the fluids don’t move well, and sometimes the fluids can turn to phlegm, which can block the shen. What most often stagnates the body’s qi is mental stagnation, when people are obsessing about the future or the past, which of course do not exist. This chronic worry and anxiety will tighten muscles and thus decrease overall circulation.

A third cause of phlegm is excessive heat. Heat, also known as inflammation, will dry out the fluids, especially in the upper body where heat rises to. Dry fluids do not flow well, and can transform into phlegm, especially the sticky blocking variety.

Preventative steps

First, let us recognize that most of the time, Alzheimer’s is a disease of aging with a genetic proclivity. Logic suggests that slowing the aging process – the proof of which lies in the preservation of the chromosomal telomeres – can keep those Alzheimer’s genes dormant for a very long time. So far, the only three factors known to speed up the aging process – the three things we want to avoid - are:
1. Chronic anxiety.
2. Excess body fat.
3. Not exercising on a daily basis.

Next, let us recognize that there are no “oral” preventative measures – no foods or drugs or supplements – that will forestall the development of Alzheimer’s.

From a Chinese medical point of view, we want to prevent excess heat, qi stagnation, and excess damp. This means in a practical sense that we need to stop behaving like typical Americans, to stop hurrying, worrying, and overeating. A life of hurrying will cause too much friction, which causes heat and inflammation. Too much speed, too much activity, and not enough sleep and rest will lead to all kinds of inflammatory health problems. Worrying is a habit that can be dropped completely, regardless of external circumstances. There are many means to help you stop worrying, such as Asian philosophy, religion, exercise, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Overeating directly causes excess damp. Under-eating clears out damp and restores health to the digestive system. There are many methods for backing off of food and getting lean and clean.

Then there is a common sense perspective, which mainstream science might consider “touchy-feely pseudo-science”, since it isn’t backed by studies just yet.

All living organisms must conform to an immutable maxim: Grow or die. All life is either growing or dying. A flower is either blooming or dying. A growing brain is one which is growing in size and abilities. A dying brain is shrinking in size and abilities. If an arm is unused for a long time, it will gradually become atrophied and paralyzed. If a brain is underused – not pushed to its limits on a regular basis – it will shrink and die.

What are the brain functions that are lost in an Alzheimer’s brain? They are:
· Worsening memory problems – mental deficiencies.
· Trouble with spatial direction and timing – physical deficiencies.
· Language difficulties – social deficiencies.

We must all our lives keep developing in all three areas - mental, physical, and social. I know of several older people with Alzheimer’s who seemed to be pushing the limits in one of three areas, or two areas, but none who were growing in all three dimensions when their dementia symptoms started.

In which mental/cognitive areas are you expanding? Do you read? People who read a lot are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. Do you watch films that make you think? Do you play thinking games? Are you currently studying some area of history, science, or other intellectual subject? Are you learning a new art form? Are you learning to play a musical instrument? Are you studying a foreign language?

What physical abilities are you improving? Are you engaged in progressive fitness training? Strength, endurance, and flexibility can be increased at any age. Are you learning a new sport? Are you increasing your skills in a particular athletic activity? If you have injuries or other physical limitations, are you working around them anyway?

How are you improving your social skills? What social groups do you belong to? Are you making new friends? Are you keeping old friends? Are you communicating successfully with yourself? With those who are close to you? Have you used talk therapy or other means to increase your communication abilities? Are you generally transparent, easy-going, and forgiving with other people?

From my knowledge and experience, people who are constantly growing in all three dimensions remain mentally sharp past 100 years of age. Let all of us aim for that target.

Preventing Obesity

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index number of 30 or higher. Body Mass Index is a method of measuring a person’s fat to lean ratio using a mathematical formula that considers one’s height and weight. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, while a BMI of 18 to 24.9 is considered normal. BMI is not the most accurate way to measure the fat to lean ratio, but it is the most convenient.

In our modern world, obesity is a dangerous condition. This eating disorder has been conclusively linked to the most deadly diseases – heart disease, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes 2, hypertension, and arthritis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States one-third of the population is obese, up from 13 percent in 1960. From 1980 to 2000 obesity among American adults doubled, and the number of obese children and teenagers nearly tripled. Obesity has indeed reached epidemic proportions. If you are overweight, your best chance of preventing obesity lies in body fat reduction. But before we get to that, we need to understand obesity in greater detail.

The biological purpose of obesity and excess weight

For 100,000 years or more, obesity was a seasonal stratagem useful for surviving long cold winters and famines. In the late summer and fall, our Stone Age ancestors who knew they would be facing a difficult winter would eat as much as possible and get as fat as possible. Stored fat is essentially highly-concentrated energy, very necessary for sustaining life during those dark cold months when there was very little if any food to be foraged or hunted. Body fat is also a terrific insulator against the cold, as any obese person will tell you. In addition, large amounts of body fat are always accompanied by an equal proportion of stored fecal matter in the colon. This fecal matter contains ample amounts of vitamin K, which is useful for stopping bleeding. Losing blood is dangerous in wintertime. The sudden loss of blood heat can be fatal.

There was another very important purpose to carrying enlarged fat cells in the winter, one that is critical for our understanding of how to prevent obesity. Enlarged fat cells have a calming effect on the mind and body. First, just carrying an extra fifty or a hundred pounds of body weight will depress the thyroid, slow down metabolism, create fatigue, and make you want to sleep a lot. This is a good thing when your task is to hibernate through the winter, but not a good thing today when you have to work for a living and lead a busy life like everyone else.

Stored fat also calms the mind. Enlarged fat cells secrete hefty amounts of estriol, a form of estrogen. Estrogen has been demonstrated to increase the concentration of mood-calming neurotransmitters such as serotonin (of Prozac fame), dopamine, and norepinephrine. It affects their release, reuptake, and enzymatic inactivation. It also increases the number of receptors for these neurotransmitters. Estrogen also works to increase blood flow to the brain as well as decreases inflammation that is thought to contribute to hyperactive brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s During hibernation, excessive activity such as thinking and feeling will drain energy sources of the individual and the group. Imagine being shut up in a cave for six months with 20 relatives. You would not want to be too lively. Instead you and your group would stand a better chance of survival if your thoughts, senses, and emotions were dulled and sluggish.

This last fact illustrates the critical importance of improving mental health while reducing body fat. Good mental health revolves around the ability to establish and maintain mental calmness – peace of mind – regardless of external, stressful factors, and without the use of any substances, including fat cells, hormone-replacement therapy, food, drugs, or supplements.

Increasing mental calmness

Many roads lead to Rome. Here are some tried and true suggestions for improving mental health while reducing body fat. But it is important to realize that changing your external circumstances – finding the right job, the right companion, the right dwelling – is not part of the solution.
• Self-trust. Trust your emotions and your physical feelings to lead you to what you need. Self-trust is the basis for self-esteem, which is the basis for self-confidence, which is the basis for the kind of mental calmness that all animals share. Advice from the so-called experts will jerk you this way and that, keeping you off-balance, but the advice from your own self will never betray you.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy. A talk therapist does not have all the answers. Their job is simply to help you find the answers that already exist inside you.
• Calming exercises. Slow physical movements accompanied by deep rhythmic breathing calm the mind. Find a convenient class in yoga, taiqi, qigong, or something similar and put together your own routine that you can practice daily.
• Philosophy/religion. Understanding the big picture is a critical element in calming the mind. Personally, I recommend studying the philosophies of Taoism or Zen Buddhism, coming from an Oriental tradition as I do.
• Intense physical exercise. Numerous studies clearly indicate that those who engage in daily strenuous exercise have increased mental calmness as well as enhanced cognitive abilities.

Preventing obesity for most Americans – one-third of whom are officially classified as “overweight” - means understanding how to not increase body fat and how to decrease body fat. There exist many myths surrounding fat gain and fat loss. Let us briefly examine them before we move on to what really works.

The main misbeliefs about gaining body fat

1. Some foods will make you fat. There are no foods known to science that will cause fat cells to increase in volume. The term “fattening foods” was invented in the United States for the purposes of selling certain foods and marketing nutritionist books.
2. Foods that contain high percentages of carbohydrates or fats will make you fat. Neither the fat nor the carbohydrate content of any food will enlarge your fat cells. This is scientifically impossible. This belief originates in the fact that fatty and sweet (carbohydrate) tasting foods are easier to overeat, thus leading to weight gain.

The six worst ways of losing body fat.

1. Spot reducing. The muscle does not own the fat above it. There is no functional connection between the two. Body fat is simply energy storage for the entire system. It is distributed evenly up to a point so that you can carry reserve energy and still move well. You cannot perform a thousand sit-ups and expect to lose belly fat. You cannot perform a hundred triceps extensions on the pulley machine and expect to lose fat at the back of the arms. The burning you feel from these exercises is not fat being metabolized, but rather excess lactic acid and other debris from muscular contractions not being evacuated fast enough into the lymph system.
2. Aerobic exercising. It can take an hour to burn 700 calories of fat while exercising on a treadmill or other aerobic device, and 10 minutes afterward to eat 1,000 calories of ice cream as a “reward.” A 2010 study confirmed that aerobic exercise is rarely useful for losing fat for this very reason, but is useful for keeping the fat off.
3. Taking supplements. There are many supplements on the market that will decrease body fat by increasing metabolism. Most have unpleasant side effects and none represent the complete solution.
4. Eating the “right” foods. There are no foods known to science that decrease the size of fat cells. There are no known vitamins or minerals or food components that are proven to help you lose body fat. Information to the contrary is simply advertising hype.
5. Eating many small meals every day. The stated reasons for this very popular advice are that the constant processing of food in the digestive system raises metabolism, thus burning lots of calories, and that preventing hunger will prevent overeating. While raising metabolism will burn stored calories, there are other non-caloric ways of raising metabolism, such as movement/exercise, drinking hot drinks, and the consumption of black, green, or white tea.* Preventing hunger is unnatural and means that the intestines are constantly full of food and never get a chance to get clean. This will lead to physical problems down the road. The constant eating of food is unknowingly used to calm the anxious mind, instead of using the healthy and natural calming methods detailed above. The last reason that this method is a bad idea is that the endless preoccupation with food contributes to the eating neuroses so prevalent in American life, filling us with feelings of guilt and deprivation and distracting us from listening to our true eating experts, out own bodies.
6. Calorie counting. This method rightly proceeds from the scientific fact that consuming less calories (a measure of food energy) than used will decrease the size of fat cells. However, it substitutes thinking for feeling, thus undercutting self-reliance and self-esteem. Too often this method ignores the improvement of mental health, thus leading to a rapid regaining of body fat in 90% of cases. Modern corporate weight-loss systems such as Nutri-System, Weight Watchers, and Jenny Craig are based on calorie counting, and are increasingly recognizing the need for psychological counseling as a means for achieving and especially maintaining leanness.

The best method for preventing obesity

The best method for preventing unwanted weight gain combines calorie restriction plus resistance training plus instinct awareness.

There’s water weight, and there’s weight from unwanted matter - enlarged fat cells, blood cholesterol, and old (more than one day) fecal matter. Water weight comes and goes like the wind. There are all kinds of reasons for weight loss and weight gain due to water. Water weight can fluctuate day by day by five pounds or more. However, there is only one way to get rid of unwanted matter/energy, and that is to consume less than you use. The energy consumed by us and stored in our bodies is measured in calories. All systems that successfully reduce body fat are based on restricting calories. If you burn 2,000 calories in one 24-hour period and you eat and drink 1,999 calories in the same time period, you will lose weight that is not just water weight. What you eat and drink does not matter at all.

Calorie restriction must be combined with resistance training. If a person uses 2,000 calories per day and eats and drinks 1,500 calories per day, the body will look around for 500 calories that are not being used. In a deep hibernating winter when our ancestors moved as little as possible, their bodies would change mostly muscle, bone, and organ tissue into ready energy, figuring that lean tissue is not needed for sleeping and energy conservation, but fat is needed for warmth and sedation. This does not serve our purposes, however.

In the spring, as our ancestors began lifting more things and walking more, their bodies started building more bone, muscle, and organ strength while shedding winter weight, i.e. fat, cholesterol, and fecal matter. When you lift weights – heavy weights – your percentage of body fat loss goes way up while lean tissue loss is minimized, even coincident with calorie restriction, as long as small quantities of protein foods and micronutrients are consumed.

The last part of this successful formula is instinct awareness and self-trust. Just like all other animals on earth, the human body knows exactly when to eat, how much to eat, and what to eat. This eating expert is always with us, and is always right. The problem is that the blind worship of technology and “experts,” promoted through massive and relentless commercial advertising, has caused a situation in which this infallible instinctive advice is completely ignored, drowned out, and shouted down!

There are no monkeys that are too fat to climb fruit trees. There are no lions that are too fat to catch zebras. And there are no sparrows that are too fat to fly. There are also no epidemics of dehydration among any of these species, in spite of the fact that there are no “experts” around to tell them how much water to drink. Imagine that!

Those who are most successful at maintaining a lean body, cultivating peace of mind, and eating anything they fancy eating, are those who have dumped overboard most of the “scientific” judgments and opinions about food and eating, and who mainly trust their own bodies on the subject.

For some helpful suggestions on sharpening your eating instincts, go to Hunger Awareness Training. For an in-depth look at getting lean, go to Longevity Principle #2 – Get Lean.

*White tea is the main ingredient in Bo Jen Mi Tea.

Preventing Chronic Depression

Mental illness is on the rise. Researchers and mental health professionals report a steady and alarming increase in incidence and severity of many forms of mental illness, including depression, bipolar disorder, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, senile dementia, suicide, the belief in conspiracy theories, law-breaking, and substance abuse of food, alcohol, and drugs. This increasing mental disorder is a reflection of the political disorder that the global community of humans finds itself in today.

Everyone feels unhappiness from time to time. This is a normal part of life. It is only those periods of unhappiness that allow us to recognize and fully appreciate the state of happiness or contentment. Even severe episodes of misery can be healthy if the feelings of unhappiness are appropriate to the situation and are temporary. If someone close to you dies for example, feeling acute misery is quite appropriate and natural.

When misery doesn’t go away or keeps returning, becoming a chronic problem that constantly robs you of your peace of mind, then it becomes very difficult to treat successfully. Severe depression becomes a lifelong mental habit, often rooted in childhood. Habits learned in childhood or over the course of a lifetime are tough to reverse, though not impossible. Depression itself is paralyzing and demoralizing, making effective treatment even more difficult.

There are definite actions you can take to improve your mental health and prevent it from degenerating into depression and other forms of serious mental instability. These actions are divided into four categories. All four are of equal importance:
1. Understand the Big Picture.
2. Get daily exercise
3. Use acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
4. Get counseling.

Understand the Big Picture

When you clearly see and understand the Big Picture, you cannot be depressed. The Big Picture includes all the information that pertains to a particular situation. When you have all the relevant information, your behavior will be appropriate to that situation. Depressive thinking is never appropriate behavior and is always the result of limited information and a subsequent narrow perspective.

Here are some universal truths worth exploring that will help to develop or restore your peace of mind:
[ Good follows bad and bad follows good.
[ All pain is temporary.
[ All situations are temporary.
[ Pain has a purpose – to alert you to a problem.
[ Forgiveness mainly benefits the forgiver.
[ The past and future do not exist.
[ Worrying helps no one, hurts everyone.
[ The only thing in life that you are always in complete control of is your perspective.
[ “Stress” (external factors) in your life does not cause suffering; suffering is your choice.
[ Trust yourself and your abilities in order to reclaim your personal power.

Become physically active

Depression is paralyzing. The opposite of paralysis is movement. Activating physical qi (energy) will activate mental qi. Modern studies abound showing a link between regular daily exercise and improved mental health. I’ve never seen anyone recover from depression who did not participate in a regular exercise program.

If you need to hire a trainer or a coach to get started, do so. It is well worth the investment.

Use non-injurious modalities such as acupuncture and Chinese herbal formulas to stop mild depression from becoming severe depression.

There are many mood-altering acupoints that, when needled or massaged, will stimulate the production of feel-good chemicals in the body such as endorphins and serotonin. Acupuncture therapy unblocks qi stagnation. Severe qi stagnation can and often does cause mental depression. Regular acupuncture sessions will prevent severe stagnation of qi without causing other problems.

Chinese herbal formulas can be very useful for unblocking stagnant qi and relieving depression. One famous and elegant formula called xiao yao wan (“Free and Easy Pills”) is so effective in this regard that it is the biggest selling herbal medicine in Chinatown. Eight pills three times per day will change the way you see the world!

Explore relationships and past traumas and develop new mental habits using cognitive behavioral therapy and the services of a trained counselor.

It is safe to say that everyone in the world can benefit from psychological counseling. Counseling will help you to see and understand the Big Picture. Counseling will help you adapt successfully to our dysfunctional society. Cognitive behavioral therapy saved my life once. I myself have had seven years of weekly sessions with four different counselors. I’m still a bit loopy, but not as loopy as I used to be. In fact, I never worry about anything anymore.

Modern counseling is based on cognitive behavioral techniques. Cognitive techniques will help you confront the demons from your past by understanding them, and behavioral techniques will help you substitute destructive mental habits with constructive ones.

Carmen Lynne

Carmen is a psychological counselor who works in a clinic very near Los Angeles International Airport. I met Carmen Lynne at a weekend swing dance camp on Catalina Island in 1998. We’ve been friends ever since. She is a very special person. I would describe her as multi-talented, mature, competent, and passionate.

Below is a recent interview I conducted with Carmen on herself and her practice.

Dr. K: How long have you been here in Los Angeles? Where from?

Carmen: I have been here since 1997. I moved here from London, UK.

Dr. K: What got you into your specialty? Where did you study?

Carmen: I studied at Hypnosis Motivation Institute in Tarzana for one year in 2006-7. A friend of mine had done the course and loved it, and another friend was an actress/hypnotherapist and recommended I try this profession. As soon as I started at HMI, I knew this was the vocation for me.

Dr. K: What style of healing do you practice?

Carmen: I am a clinical hypnotherapist, and I also do cognitive-behavioral therapy, biofeedback, guided imagery, dreams analysis, Neuro Linguistic Programming, acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness meditation.

Dr. K: What do you love most about your field? About your practice?

Carmen: What I love most is when a client says to me, “Thanks, you really helped!”, because it gives me such a thrill to know that I have helped someone resolve their issue. I especially love helping people to overcome their chronic pain, and in fact I work with a medical doctor in pain management and that is my area of expertise. When someone comes in with pain off the charts and leaves with no or little pain, I feel really fulfilled.

Dr. K: You look healthy. What do you do to stay so healthy?

Carmen: I take care of myself. I nurture myself physically, emotionally and spiritually. I get adequate rest, exercise and fun and eat a good diet – all the usual things.

Dr. K: What is your philosophy regarding health or life?

Carmen: I think a good attitude is most important. I was given this wonderful, well-functioning body and I’m grateful for that and it’s up to me to take care of it as best I can. We were all given this beautiful planet and it’s up to all of us to take care of the earth as best we can.

Dr. K: What are some of your personal and professional goals?

Carmen: I would like to be able to impact a large number of people with my philosophy, either through publishing a book that’s widely read or getting on TV or something like that. I feel that I have a lot of useful experience and advice to share and help I can give people, and I’d like to be able to give it and make a positive difference in the world.

Carmen can be reached at 310-801-9097 or carmenlynne@mac.com. Visit her website at www.newhealingjourneys.com.

Preventing Strokes

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

Stoke is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., right after heart disease, cancer, and iatrogenic (doctor-caused) accidents. Many survive the first stroke, only to suffer eventually from a fatal one.

What is a stroke?

A stroke, also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is a sudden decease in the blood supply to part of the brain (an ischemic attack), damaging the area so it cannot function normally. Symptoms vary according to the site of brain damage. They include difficulty with speech or movement, paralysis, loss of consciousness, decrease of sensory ability (vision, hearing, etc.), confusion, dizziness, headaches, and loss of bowel and bladder function.

Like most medical problems, there are probably “stroke genes” that can make you susceptible to having a stroke, and as is usually the case, these genes can be expressed early or late (past 100 years of age), depending on the choices you make. According to Western medical theory, the causes of a sudden ischemic event in the brain are: a narrow or closed artery to the brain (thrombosis); a small part of a diseased blood vessel that travels to the brain (embolism), causing blockage; or a rupture of a blood vessel in the brain (cerebral hemorrhage).

Wei Syndrome

The name for stroke in Chinese Medicine is Wei Syndrome, also known as wind phlegm. Wind is the name for sudden, unpredictable, and uncontrolled movement. As this wind enters the brain, it disturbs the normal flow of fluids, causing phlegm to form. Phlegm is sticky and stubborn, and in combination with the wind, will block blood and qi (energy) flow to the brain and other parts of the body. This blockage of blood and qi is responsible for a chronic loss of sensory and motor functions.

One reason we call it phlegm is that some of the same herbs and acupoints that remove visible phlegm in the lungs will also successfully treat this invisible phlegm. But phlegm is very stubborn and hard to get rid of, and preventing its formation in the first place is far preferable to treating it after the fact.

Phlegm, damp, wind, and fire

Let’s begin by looking at the causes of phlegm and wind. Phlegm is normally the result of excessive heat that dries and concentrates body fluids. A contributing cause of phlegm would be excessive damp, since phlegm is more easily generated from excessive fluid.

Damp is the result of a weak digestion, and is practically synonymous with food stagnation. Signs of a weak digestion and damp include excess body fat, eating without hunger, food allergies and intolerances, high levels of blood cholesterol, and hardened arteries (atherosclerosis). The latter condition can lead to thrombosis.
The more serious cause is excess internal heat. Heat will rise, and severe heat (fire) will rise suddenly into the upper body and especially the head. This fire can burst a blood vessel in the head, causing a cerebral hemorrhage. Fire and wind can also rip off part of a diseased blood vessel (phlegm), sending it to the brain and causing an embolism. The sudden rising of fire will generate wind, and the heat will concentrate fluids into more phlegm.

Heat/fire and damp/phlegm are two of three causes of high blood pressure (hypertension). People with chronic hypertension are, without a doubt, prime candidates for strokes. I recommend that you take a look at a previous article of mine titled “Preventing Hypertension” on this same blog site.

The common forms of fire that lead to strokes are liver fire and heart fire. Liver fire is evidenced by bouts of extreme and inappropriate anger, while heart fire is generated by too much activity and not enough “down time.” As such, “rage-aholics” and “workaholics” are most likely to experience a cerebral hemorrhage in their lifetimes, especially if these heat patterns are allowed to continue past the age of 40.

Many years ago I treated a patient who suffered from eyestrain as an artist. He was in his late thirties. One day while working at his easel, his wife interrupted him with something and he flew into a rage. Suddenly, a tiny blood vessel in one eye burst, causing a rose pattern in his field of vision. I used acupuncture to successfully eliminate it, but I told him that this was a warning from his body to get a handle on his rage before wind fire might someday burst a vessel in his brain and cause a stroke. I hope he took my advice.
Severe heat carried in the body for years will gradually weaken the body’s own cooling mechanisms (kidney/liver yin). When yin can longer hold down the yang (heat), the result is rising fire. This is one reason why most stroke sufferers are older. It takes years to wear down the body’s yin. Another reason is that usually only after a long time will phlegm (plaque) accumulate on the insides of blood vessels sufficiently to cause severe constriction or decomposition.

Preventative measures

1. Get calm. Don’t accept excessive anger or excessive activity as normal. Let go of worry. Get counseling for yourself or your family. Practice meditative exercises regularly, like tai chi, qi gong, yoga, or meditation. Don’t use sedatives like alcohol (bottled damp heat), nicotine (blood vessel pollution) or food (damp/phlegm) in place of the hard work required to confront your demons.

2. Avoid heavy use of stimulants that are a major cause of pathogenic heat. Caffeine, cocaine, methamphetamine and the like have all been known to set off fire and wind.

3. Get lean and stay lean, but remember that the leaner you get, the less yin you will have to hold down the yang, hence the necessity of getting calm by natural means.

4. Minimize internal pollution. Guard the health of your blood vessels by getting lean, quitting a daily smoking habit, reducing blood cholesterol levels, and limiting the quantity of salts and other chemicals in your food, air, and water.

5. Monitor your blood pressure. Keep it within normal limits by natural means, if possible.

Preventing Tension Headaches

By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT

According to Chinese Medicine, there are four types of headaches commonly found in the U.S. They are caused by qi stagnation, heart & liver heat rising, liver fire, and spleen damp. A tension headache, the most common kind of headache in North America, fits into the category of qi stagnation. All of these headaches can be prevented and banished for good. Here we will focus on preventing and banishing tension headaches.

When the head hurts, it’s a message from the body demanding that we stop using the head, both physically and mentally. A headache means we didn’t listen to all the little indications from the body warning us that a headache was on the way and advising us to rest the head.

Preventing headaches requires a basic understanding of the dynamics of your particular headache pattern, and then listening to your body and picking up on those early cues so that proactive steps can be taken and pain avoided.

Let us now take a brief look at the four types of headaches. While tension headaches do not necessarily cause other types of headaches, the condition of qi stagnation which caused the tension headache, if ignored, can lead to other kinds of headaches as well as many other serious medical problems.

Afterward, we will explore some preventative actions that can be taken for qi stagnation headaches.

Qi Stagnation: one-sided headaches with dull pain (tension headache)
Accompanying symptoms:
· tight neck & shoulder muscles
· poor posture and/or chronic anxiety
Other qi stagnation traits:
· obsessive thinking and worrying
· jerky uneven movement, including driving with sudden stops and starts
· irregular menstrual cycle
· pre-menstrual symptoms
· irregular bowel movements
· shallow breathing with sighing
· stammering or halting speech
· any kind of physical ailment (the variety is endless) that is brought on or worsened by anxiety

Heart & Liver Heat Rising: One-sided headaches with throbbing pain
Accompanying symptoms:
· tight neck & shoulders
· aversion to heat, preference for cool
· irritability and impatience
· restless sleep
Other heat rising traits:
· sleep-deprived (and proud of it)
· over-scheduled (and proud of it)
· drive fast, talk fast, walk fast, work fast, everything fast (and proud of it)
· sweating easily
· reddish coloring
· recurrent sinus, eye, or ear problems
· strokes

Liver Fire: Incapacitating headaches with a need to retreat to a dark, cool, and quiet place
Accompanying symptoms:
· sharp headache pain at the top of the head or inside the head
· chronic rage that is suppressed
Other liver fire traits:
· any of the heat and stagnation symptoms mentioned above
· sudden severe eye problems (stys and conjunctivitis, for example)
· sudden dizziness, deafness, nosebleed or similar head problems
· strokes and embolisms

Spleen Damp: Frontal headaches often involving sinuses
Accompanying symptoms:
· sinus drainage
· heavy stuffy feeling in the head (“brainfog”)
· little or no hunger (but possibly a strong appetite)
· excess body fat
Other spleen damp traits:
· fatigue, low thyroid function
· a feeling of heaviness and bloat
· food allergies and intolerances
· food obsession (“right foods,” “wrong foods,” and food “remedies” for every problem)
· nausea
· swellings and growths

Often, different types of headache will be combined, in which case, a number of preventative actions must be taken.

Preventing qi stagnation headaches

Whenever muscles are kept unnaturally tight for extended periods of time, circulation is decreased. The body’s first message is muscular fatigue. The second message is muscular tightness. If these communications are ignored, the next message is pain. When the fatigue and tightness is in the neck and shoulder region, the qi will typically get stuck at the base of the skull, creating pain along one side or both sides of the head, even extending into the temple region.

Poor posture

Muscles in the neck and shoulder region tighten up from two causes, which are often combined. The first is poor posture. Poor posture is an epidemic in the U.S. People were not designed by nature to sit in chairs all day or to stand for hours on end. We are not built for hunching over while writing, computing, driving, or standing in line. The muscles that hold up the spine are small muscles whose function is to adjust for balance. When they are called upon to hold up the heavy head and upper body for long periods of time, they become overworked, chronically tight, and very unhappy.

For a while you will need to be constantly aware of your posture. Sit straight, stand tall, and walk with measured steps. Incline your head a little if necessary, but do not incline your upper body. If you have trouble seeing your work, wear glasses (or correct your vision naturally – a subject for another time and one that relates directly to neck tightness).

When you first start changing your posture, you will probably be aware of people looking at you more than before. You will stand out in a crowd. You will have to get used to this. Not being able to hide is the psychological price you must pay for preventing tension headaches. As long as you are friendly, people will see you as charismatic, not arrogant.

At the first indication of neck fatigue or tightness, stop what you are doing. If your health is more important to you than anything you are currently working on, if you really hate headaches, then you will take short breaks. The basis for good health in all living creatures is self-trust.

Neck fatigue and tightness will require you to relax your neck and back muscles for a minute or two. Sit back in the chair, relax on a sofa, or lay down for two minutes. Close your eyes and breathe. When the neck and shoulders feel refreshed, you can return to the task at hand, with good posture. At first, you may need to take a break every fifteen minutes. Gradually, as postural habits improve, your rest breaks will occur less frequently, but the need for them will never go away as long as you are sitting or standing for long periods of time.

Driving is a major cause of tension headaches. I recommend that you incline the back of your seat far enough to rest your back and even neck on the seat back while keeping your hands firmly on the steering wheel. Keep the shoulders relaxed. Don’t drive fast. It will only tense you up and endanger your life. Play some relaxing music or listen to a book on audio and leave a little early instead.

Improper use of the keyboard and mouse can also cause tension headaches, as well as wrist and elbow problems. Make sure your seat is high enough so that your elbows are higher than your wrists. This will discourage the shoulder and neck muscles from rising ever so slightly while working the forearms and wrists, thus eliminating shoulder and neck strain.

Anxiety

The second cause of tension headaches is anxiety. I use the term anxiety to cover a multitude of synonyms such as stress, dread, worry, resentment, and so on.

The emotional basis of all forms of anxiety is fear. Whenever animals and people feel fear, the natural reaction is a tightening of muscles in preparation for fighting or fleeing. Animals will tense up only for the time it takes to successfully fight or flee. People, especially those of us who live in modern anxiety-plagued cities, often feel trapped in positions from which there seems to be no successful fighting or fleeing. And so we stay tense and tight for long periods of time.
This type of qi stagnation is called liver qi stagnation because it involves stagnant emotions and obsessive thinking. It’s the responsibility of the Chinese liver (gan) to maintain spontaneous and free-flowing emotions.

Any muscle in the body can develop a pattern of chronic tension in response to chronic anxiety. When this tightness involves internal organs, the result can very serious, even life-threatening. Asthma, heart disease, stomach problems, Crohn’s disease (small intestine), colitis, irritated bowel syndrome, pre-menstrual syndrome, fibromyalgia, difficult urination, urinary incontinence, sexual impotence, infertility – the list is endless – are all conditions that are partially or wholly caused by anxiety and muscular tightness.

This is the same list of complaints, by the way, that responds well to placebo treatments and faith healing of all sorts. Trust for the procedure or the healer causes a relaxation effect and a resultant lessening of pain and other symptoms.

A very common place for Americans to tense up is the neck and shoulder region. Often, the dominate side will tense up the worst.

Eliminating anxiety as a major factor in one’s life is a huge challenge and a 6,000 year old human quest. Before that time, our forager-hunter ancestors normally lived spontaneous lives in well-fed egalitarian clans. Now, as we approach the end of this turbulent age, anxiety is at record levels all over the world and increasing. Nevertheless, it’s important not to blame the world for our internal environment, since we cannot change the world just like that, but we can change our internal environment instantly.

In a certain sense, external stress does not cause stress headaches. Not taking responsibility for our mental and physical health is what causes stress headaches.

There are a gazillion ways of replacing anxiety with calmness. Cognitive/behavioral therapy (CBT), meditation, Taoist philosophy, hatha yoga, physical exercise, massage, acupuncture, Chinese herbal formulas such as xiao yao wan, frequent breaks, slowing down, and getting plenty of sleep are just some of the prescriptions I favor that have worked for me and my patients.

But the most important remedies are awareness and breathing. If you are tensing your neck and shoulders in response to anxiety, you must tune in to your body while it is happening, so that you can stop what you are doing, relax, and breathe. Ten slow deep breathes with body awareness will relax both muscles and mind.

Until you can find the confidence that will allow you to calm the fear and turn off the overthink machine, you will want to use breathing breaks to dispel physical and mental anxiety, perhaps many times per day.

Complications from tension headaches

Many people live their whole lives with tension headaches that do not develop into anything more serious than headaches. However, there is the potential for the development of some very serious problems indeed when a pattern of tension headaches is allowed to continue.

Tumors in the head, both benign and cancerous, are usually partially or wholly the result of chronic neck tension that is not addressed. Several years ago, I treated a patient with chronic tension headaches who had been blinded by a benign tumor that was pressing on the area of her brain that enables sight. That area for sight lies just to each side of the bump that sticks out on the back of your head, called the “external occipital protuberance.”

I’ve treated patients with tension headaches whose chronically tight neck muscles managed to shut off the nerve supply to one ear, causing deafness on that side. In these cases, a course of acupuncture/acupressure treatments can perform “miracles,” but it won’t resolve the underlying problems of fear or poor posture.

There are healers who train people to see naturally and reduce or eliminate their eyeglass prescriptions. They maintain that tension headaches and squinting cause the eyes to lose focus, prompting many to wear glasses who normally would have no vision problems.

The tension trapped in the neck and shoulder region can also cause “mysterious” injuries to the arms, hands, and fingers. Qi stagnation will pinch down on the nerve and blood channels leading from the spinal column to the upper extremities, causing weakness, pain, and numbness in fingers, hands, and arms.

While tension headaches may seem common and of minor importance, they deserve our respect and attention, and will generally remain predictable and preventable.