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.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Preventing Prostate Cancer
By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT
The prostate gland is situated at the base of the urinary bladder and supplies most of the fluid and muscle tissue that helps in male ejaculation. Prostate fluid also helps to keep sperm healthy and lively.
Cancer of the prostate gland is very common among older American men. Approximately 80% of American men who are 80 and older have prostate cancer. The good news is that it doesn’t spread very easily and is probably the least dangerous form of cancer there is. Having said that, it is still dangerous because it is a form of cancer and men do die from its spread.
More good news: Prostate cancer is preventable. It is extremely rare, for example, in older men who live in communities noted for their healthy seniors. These people in their 80s, 90s, and beyond are cancer-free because of their living habits. Four of these communities are detailed in the John Robbins book Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, a book I would urge you all to read.
Chinese Medicine sees cancer as “toxic blood stagnation.” When the qi (energy flow) is blocked or becomes sluggish for whatever reason, material will pile up in certain areas. The wei qi (immune system) is always on the lookout for excess stagnant material, including cancer cells, that it can neutralize and turn into fuel. After all, any material that does not serve a function for the body is seen as a potential enemy and fuel source.
However, the wei qi can be weakened and hampered in its duties by factors such as muscular tightness, enlarged fat cells, and excessive heat. When excess material sits around too long, it can block the blood flow, causing pain. It can also putrefy like a dead body in a swamp. Putrefaction turns toxic (poisonous) and tries to spread. In the case of the prostate gland, the toxicity has a hard time escaping the confines of the gland itself, and so is usually contained.
Prostate cancer that is contained is almost without symptoms. When the growth presses against the urinary channel, it can cause urinary obstruction, a symptom that allows it to be confused with two other prostate problems: benign prostate hypertrophy and prostatitis. Benign prostate hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) and prostatitis are not linked to prostate cancer in a causal relationship. Neither can be shown to develop into prostate cancer. However they are all three indications of the same unhealthy habits.
The main symptoms of an enlarged prostate are frequent urination, nighttime urination, extreme urgency to urinate, difficulty emptying the bladder, and a weak urinary stream.
Prostatitis is an inflammatory condition of the prostate that is most common in men ages 20 to 50. There are two broad classes of prostatitis: nonbacterial and bacterial. Nonbacterial prostatitis is the most common form of prostatic inflammation. Its symptoms are pelvic pain, problems with urination, discomfort after ejaculation, and lower back pain. A bacterial infection in the prostate gland leads to pain and difficulty in urinating; there may be cloudy bacterial fluid or blood in the urine; and there might be a fever.
In all three situations, the causal factors are damp, heat, and liver qi stagnation.
Removing damp
In Chinese Medicine, the term “damp” denotes pathogenic material, specifically that which has entered the body through the mouth in the form of excess food. It does not relate to water drunk but rather the water that is chemically bound up with the calories in food. While foods like dairy and sugar contribute to damp, excess consumption of calories is the leading cause. Enlarged fat cells, impacted fecal matter, and neoplasm (growths) are all the result of excess calories, and are all labeled “damp.” Every bit of excess fat you carry is “damp.” The opposite of damp is lean and hungry.
Damp can cause swelling and enlargement of the prostate. Damp can also collect in the prostate for years and putrefy, causing toxic blood stagnation (cancer).
One aspect of eliminating damp means reducing caloric intake and decreasing the size of your fat cells. Removing damp is a grave challenge because, in our stressful culture it is the most common and honored form of mental sedative. The evolutionary purpose for excess consumption of food and the resulting damp is to ensure the survival of the individual through a long, harsh winter. A calm mind doesn’t expend as many calories as an active mind. A calm mind doesn’t create dissention while couped up with a dozen relatives for six months. A sedated mind wants to sleep and be lazy, not expend a large number of calories in a fruitless attempt to find food where there is none. For the same reason, heavy damp completely eliminates the hunger feeling, so that winter hibernation is not interrupted by a need to eat.
The only Americans who lose a lot of fat weight and keep it off are those who have simultaneously improved their mental health. Ninety percent of Americans who rapidly lose a lot of fat weight manage to gain it all back one year later because they ignored the development of mental calmness and found themselves leaner but “climbing the walls.”
Another method of preventing damp accumulation is regular ejaculation. The prostate is the main supplier of seminal fluid and as such is always in danger of damp stagnation. One reason that orgasm feels so good is so that men will be motivated to ejaculate frequently, thus clearing the prostate of fluid buildup. Ejaculation also calms the mind. However, an excessive amount of damp in the region, such as we find with obese men, can often prevent sufficient heat from reaching the genital region. This can make orgasm difficult to achieve.
There are many other healthy ways to increase mental calmness while getting leaner. The study of Taoist philosophy or Zen Buddhism, the performance of daily strenuous physical exercise, meditation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, play, laughter, hunger awareness training (when hunger controls appetite), and the conscious decision to stop worrying are some of the most common and effective methods of achieving a calm mind without the use of food, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, or prescription medications.
Removing heat
Being warm-blooded creatures, we are warm and we are attracted to heat. However, excessive heat can accumulate in the body/mind, causing a multitude of problems. Heat expands and can enlarge the prostate gland. Too much heat can irritate – burn – the prostate, causing prostatitis. Accumulated heat in the prostate can turn normal prostate fluid into a diseased swamp, which years later can turn toxic (cancerous).
Heat and movement are intimately related. Movement creates friction, which creates heat. Too much movement causes excessive heat. Americans who hurry through life, overscheduling, multitasking, rushing here and there, skipping sleep, refusing to take rest breaks when their bodies and minds demand rest breaks – all of these habits must be changed in order to prevent heat from injuring the prostate gland.
Too much movement against a barrier will also lead to excess heat. Frustration and suppressed rage are examples of blocked qi that keeps hammering against an obstruction, creating an enormous amount of friction and heat. Habitual frustration and rage can damage internal structures, including the prostate.
The conscious decision to slow down, simplify, and get lots of sleep and rest will help to prevent the collection of pathogenic heat in the prostate. Unless there is a specific reason to move fast, don’t walk fast, talk fast, drive fast, work fast, eat fast, read fast, or do anything fast. Watch everyone else hurrying around you, and realize that they are unwittingly nourishing their inflammatory conditions.
Use deep breathing and patience to counter the warming effects of frustration. Prevent resentment from forming by communicating your anger in a polite manner with those who anger you. Trust your emotions and let anger help you establish your boundaries with people. In the end, they will appreciate knowing your limits.
Regular release of fluids and feces will expel excess heat, even fever, from the interior. Therefore frequent ejaculation will help to discharge heat from the prostate. However, men with an excessive amount of heat in the system will tend to exhibit frenetic activity, including sexual activity. Too much activity increases friction and heat. In this case, care must be taken that the reproductive apparatus isn’t strained, causing symptoms such as low back or genital pain, exhaustion, or dizziness.
Removing liver qi stagnation
In Chinese Medicine, “liver” has less to do with the anatomical organ and more to do with function. Simply put, the liver acts as a manager, keeping everything flowing peacefully and harmoniously.
When the qi of the body becomes jerky, uneven, stagnated, liver is not doing its job and is unhappy. Muscles tighten up, fluids accumulate, and overall circulation is reduced. Instead of being evacuated on a regular basis, garbage starts piling up, usually in out-of-the-way places like the prostate gland. The wei qi has a tough time reaching trouble areas through all the tightness, and it fails to neutralize and consume some cells that have turned toxic. These rogue cells eventually form a colony which can become a cancerous tumor.
One very important cause and indication of liver qi stagnation is bottled-up emotions. Emotions are just information about what is going on inside. They exist for our survival and must all be honored. When mad, glad, sad, and scared are not honored, the result is injury, disease, and misery. Typically, men have no problem with mad and glad, but are uncomfortable feeling sad and scared. When people don’t believe that they have a right to feel certain emotions, they tend to tighten their muscles. Structural muscles tighten up, but also internal muscles that compose or surround organs and other structures. Chronic tightness can settle anywhere in the human body and very often without any consciousness of it happening. A common area for men is the bladder/prostate area.
Unreasonable fear, called “fight-or-flight,” can also tighten muscles in the pelvic region without the mind being aware of it. This constriction of the prostate area is also a common cause of male sexual impotence. Fear, usually the result of lack of trust in a partner, can shut down the blood supply (and everything else) to the genital region, sabotaging erections. Fear can also tighten the bladder, causing nervous urination problems where urine is blocked or incontinent in response to an anxiety-producing event.
If you worry a lot, you probably suffer from a serious case of liver qi stagnation, and are advised to work on getting rid of it. Worrying about the past or future is inherently a stagnant proposition because the future and the past don’t really exist, and so they don’t flow with reality. The only time that elicits emotions from wild animals and small children, who do not suffer from liver qi stagnation, is the moment. That is why their emotions are spontaneous and appropriate to whatever context they find themselves in.
Analyzing the past and planning for the future are noble and necessary tasks, but they involve the intellect, not emotion.
It is actually possible to decide to stop worrying and move the qi instead. This decision is only possible with the time and life experiences that allow one to glimpse the big picture.
Take another look at the above-mentioned methods (Removing damp) for increasing mental calmness and moving qi, and add to them a devotion to the improvement of physical and mental flexibility. Consider hiring a trainer who understands the importance of flexibility training and can help you put together your own routine. If you already have prostate issues, practice deep-breathing exercises that focus on relaxing the pelvic and lower back areas.
Practice letting go of issues. Don’t keep holding on to grudges. Don’t get stuck on small stuff. Keep things moving forward in a smooth fashion. Don’t talk jerky, don’t drive jerky, and don’t work jerky. Stay regular and grounded.
Prostate cancer is not difficult to understand when seen through the lens of Chinese Medicine. Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for preventing prostate cancer; just a whole lot of actions we can take that will increase our chances of avoiding it for as long as possible.
The prostate gland is situated at the base of the urinary bladder and supplies most of the fluid and muscle tissue that helps in male ejaculation. Prostate fluid also helps to keep sperm healthy and lively.
Cancer of the prostate gland is very common among older American men. Approximately 80% of American men who are 80 and older have prostate cancer. The good news is that it doesn’t spread very easily and is probably the least dangerous form of cancer there is. Having said that, it is still dangerous because it is a form of cancer and men do die from its spread.
More good news: Prostate cancer is preventable. It is extremely rare, for example, in older men who live in communities noted for their healthy seniors. These people in their 80s, 90s, and beyond are cancer-free because of their living habits. Four of these communities are detailed in the John Robbins book Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples, a book I would urge you all to read.
Chinese Medicine sees cancer as “toxic blood stagnation.” When the qi (energy flow) is blocked or becomes sluggish for whatever reason, material will pile up in certain areas. The wei qi (immune system) is always on the lookout for excess stagnant material, including cancer cells, that it can neutralize and turn into fuel. After all, any material that does not serve a function for the body is seen as a potential enemy and fuel source.
However, the wei qi can be weakened and hampered in its duties by factors such as muscular tightness, enlarged fat cells, and excessive heat. When excess material sits around too long, it can block the blood flow, causing pain. It can also putrefy like a dead body in a swamp. Putrefaction turns toxic (poisonous) and tries to spread. In the case of the prostate gland, the toxicity has a hard time escaping the confines of the gland itself, and so is usually contained.
Prostate cancer that is contained is almost without symptoms. When the growth presses against the urinary channel, it can cause urinary obstruction, a symptom that allows it to be confused with two other prostate problems: benign prostate hypertrophy and prostatitis. Benign prostate hypertrophy (enlarged prostate) and prostatitis are not linked to prostate cancer in a causal relationship. Neither can be shown to develop into prostate cancer. However they are all three indications of the same unhealthy habits.
The main symptoms of an enlarged prostate are frequent urination, nighttime urination, extreme urgency to urinate, difficulty emptying the bladder, and a weak urinary stream.
Prostatitis is an inflammatory condition of the prostate that is most common in men ages 20 to 50. There are two broad classes of prostatitis: nonbacterial and bacterial. Nonbacterial prostatitis is the most common form of prostatic inflammation. Its symptoms are pelvic pain, problems with urination, discomfort after ejaculation, and lower back pain. A bacterial infection in the prostate gland leads to pain and difficulty in urinating; there may be cloudy bacterial fluid or blood in the urine; and there might be a fever.
In all three situations, the causal factors are damp, heat, and liver qi stagnation.
Removing damp
In Chinese Medicine, the term “damp” denotes pathogenic material, specifically that which has entered the body through the mouth in the form of excess food. It does not relate to water drunk but rather the water that is chemically bound up with the calories in food. While foods like dairy and sugar contribute to damp, excess consumption of calories is the leading cause. Enlarged fat cells, impacted fecal matter, and neoplasm (growths) are all the result of excess calories, and are all labeled “damp.” Every bit of excess fat you carry is “damp.” The opposite of damp is lean and hungry.
Damp can cause swelling and enlargement of the prostate. Damp can also collect in the prostate for years and putrefy, causing toxic blood stagnation (cancer).
One aspect of eliminating damp means reducing caloric intake and decreasing the size of your fat cells. Removing damp is a grave challenge because, in our stressful culture it is the most common and honored form of mental sedative. The evolutionary purpose for excess consumption of food and the resulting damp is to ensure the survival of the individual through a long, harsh winter. A calm mind doesn’t expend as many calories as an active mind. A calm mind doesn’t create dissention while couped up with a dozen relatives for six months. A sedated mind wants to sleep and be lazy, not expend a large number of calories in a fruitless attempt to find food where there is none. For the same reason, heavy damp completely eliminates the hunger feeling, so that winter hibernation is not interrupted by a need to eat.
The only Americans who lose a lot of fat weight and keep it off are those who have simultaneously improved their mental health. Ninety percent of Americans who rapidly lose a lot of fat weight manage to gain it all back one year later because they ignored the development of mental calmness and found themselves leaner but “climbing the walls.”
Another method of preventing damp accumulation is regular ejaculation. The prostate is the main supplier of seminal fluid and as such is always in danger of damp stagnation. One reason that orgasm feels so good is so that men will be motivated to ejaculate frequently, thus clearing the prostate of fluid buildup. Ejaculation also calms the mind. However, an excessive amount of damp in the region, such as we find with obese men, can often prevent sufficient heat from reaching the genital region. This can make orgasm difficult to achieve.
There are many other healthy ways to increase mental calmness while getting leaner. The study of Taoist philosophy or Zen Buddhism, the performance of daily strenuous physical exercise, meditation, cognitive-behavioral therapy, play, laughter, hunger awareness training (when hunger controls appetite), and the conscious decision to stop worrying are some of the most common and effective methods of achieving a calm mind without the use of food, tobacco, alcohol, cannabis, or prescription medications.
Removing heat
Being warm-blooded creatures, we are warm and we are attracted to heat. However, excessive heat can accumulate in the body/mind, causing a multitude of problems. Heat expands and can enlarge the prostate gland. Too much heat can irritate – burn – the prostate, causing prostatitis. Accumulated heat in the prostate can turn normal prostate fluid into a diseased swamp, which years later can turn toxic (cancerous).
Heat and movement are intimately related. Movement creates friction, which creates heat. Too much movement causes excessive heat. Americans who hurry through life, overscheduling, multitasking, rushing here and there, skipping sleep, refusing to take rest breaks when their bodies and minds demand rest breaks – all of these habits must be changed in order to prevent heat from injuring the prostate gland.
Too much movement against a barrier will also lead to excess heat. Frustration and suppressed rage are examples of blocked qi that keeps hammering against an obstruction, creating an enormous amount of friction and heat. Habitual frustration and rage can damage internal structures, including the prostate.
The conscious decision to slow down, simplify, and get lots of sleep and rest will help to prevent the collection of pathogenic heat in the prostate. Unless there is a specific reason to move fast, don’t walk fast, talk fast, drive fast, work fast, eat fast, read fast, or do anything fast. Watch everyone else hurrying around you, and realize that they are unwittingly nourishing their inflammatory conditions.
Use deep breathing and patience to counter the warming effects of frustration. Prevent resentment from forming by communicating your anger in a polite manner with those who anger you. Trust your emotions and let anger help you establish your boundaries with people. In the end, they will appreciate knowing your limits.
Regular release of fluids and feces will expel excess heat, even fever, from the interior. Therefore frequent ejaculation will help to discharge heat from the prostate. However, men with an excessive amount of heat in the system will tend to exhibit frenetic activity, including sexual activity. Too much activity increases friction and heat. In this case, care must be taken that the reproductive apparatus isn’t strained, causing symptoms such as low back or genital pain, exhaustion, or dizziness.
Removing liver qi stagnation
In Chinese Medicine, “liver” has less to do with the anatomical organ and more to do with function. Simply put, the liver acts as a manager, keeping everything flowing peacefully and harmoniously.
When the qi of the body becomes jerky, uneven, stagnated, liver is not doing its job and is unhappy. Muscles tighten up, fluids accumulate, and overall circulation is reduced. Instead of being evacuated on a regular basis, garbage starts piling up, usually in out-of-the-way places like the prostate gland. The wei qi has a tough time reaching trouble areas through all the tightness, and it fails to neutralize and consume some cells that have turned toxic. These rogue cells eventually form a colony which can become a cancerous tumor.
One very important cause and indication of liver qi stagnation is bottled-up emotions. Emotions are just information about what is going on inside. They exist for our survival and must all be honored. When mad, glad, sad, and scared are not honored, the result is injury, disease, and misery. Typically, men have no problem with mad and glad, but are uncomfortable feeling sad and scared. When people don’t believe that they have a right to feel certain emotions, they tend to tighten their muscles. Structural muscles tighten up, but also internal muscles that compose or surround organs and other structures. Chronic tightness can settle anywhere in the human body and very often without any consciousness of it happening. A common area for men is the bladder/prostate area.
Unreasonable fear, called “fight-or-flight,” can also tighten muscles in the pelvic region without the mind being aware of it. This constriction of the prostate area is also a common cause of male sexual impotence. Fear, usually the result of lack of trust in a partner, can shut down the blood supply (and everything else) to the genital region, sabotaging erections. Fear can also tighten the bladder, causing nervous urination problems where urine is blocked or incontinent in response to an anxiety-producing event.
If you worry a lot, you probably suffer from a serious case of liver qi stagnation, and are advised to work on getting rid of it. Worrying about the past or future is inherently a stagnant proposition because the future and the past don’t really exist, and so they don’t flow with reality. The only time that elicits emotions from wild animals and small children, who do not suffer from liver qi stagnation, is the moment. That is why their emotions are spontaneous and appropriate to whatever context they find themselves in.
Analyzing the past and planning for the future are noble and necessary tasks, but they involve the intellect, not emotion.
It is actually possible to decide to stop worrying and move the qi instead. This decision is only possible with the time and life experiences that allow one to glimpse the big picture.
Take another look at the above-mentioned methods (Removing damp) for increasing mental calmness and moving qi, and add to them a devotion to the improvement of physical and mental flexibility. Consider hiring a trainer who understands the importance of flexibility training and can help you put together your own routine. If you already have prostate issues, practice deep-breathing exercises that focus on relaxing the pelvic and lower back areas.
Practice letting go of issues. Don’t keep holding on to grudges. Don’t get stuck on small stuff. Keep things moving forward in a smooth fashion. Don’t talk jerky, don’t drive jerky, and don’t work jerky. Stay regular and grounded.
Prostate cancer is not difficult to understand when seen through the lens of Chinese Medicine. Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for preventing prostate cancer; just a whole lot of actions we can take that will increase our chances of avoiding it for as long as possible.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Preventing Hypertension
By E Douglas Kihn, O.M.D., L.Ac.
An estimated 65 million Americans suffer from hypertension, which is defined as a diastolic blood pressure reading of 140 or above, and/or a systolic reading at or above 90. This disease is sometimes referred to as the “silent killer,” because patients may notice few or no symptoms until it already has done serious damage to the heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.
The causes of hypertension
Picture in your mind a blood vessel filled with blood. The liquid molecules are always pushing outward against the inside walls of the vessel, keeping the vessel from collapsing and maintaining the vessel’s structural integrity. Excessive pressure is the result of those molecules pressing too hard against the inside walls, and against the pump (the heart) that circulates the blood. This resistance places an abnormal burden on the heart, decreasing circulation to the whole body, and eventually causing dangerous events such as pump failure (heart attack), or a bursting of a vessel in the periphery, like the brain (stroke), the eye (blindness), or an artery (aneurysm). Heart attacks and strokes are respectively the number one and number three causes of mortality in the U.S.
According to the laws of physics and Chinese medicine, there are only three possible causes of an increase in pressure of any kind, in particular, pressure inside the blood vessels. They are 1) too much heat, 2) not enough space, and 3) too much material.
Translated into Chinese terminology, these chronic excesses differentiate into four syndromes:
·Excess internal heat
·Liver qi stagnation
·Spleen damp
·Accumulation of toxins in the blood
Excess internal heat
When you turn up the heat on a kettle of water, the water molecules become excited and expand against the sides of the vessel, eventually causing a venting of steam or even an explosion. Now picture that increased heat, which we will call yang excess, expanding the activity of blood molecules, causing them to press more vigorously against the inside walls of the blood vessel, thus raising blood pressure.
Liver qi stagnation
Picture a blood vessel with a band around it that can be tightened or loosened at will. When the band is tightened, the space inside is reduced. The same quantity of blood molecules is now trying to pass through a smaller space, and as they struggle, they will press more vigorously against the insides of the blood vessel. This situation of decreased space increases the pressure on the vessel and the pump behind it.
Spleen damp
“Spleen” is an old mistranslation of the Chinese word pi, which refers to the digestive process as a whole. A dry spleen is a happy spleen.
Now, take an average blood vessel. Increase the number of molecules within the walls of that vessel. This excess material will press more forcefully outward against the insides of the vessel, thus leading to increased pressure on the vessel walls and the heart. This is hypertension.
Excessive numbers of molecules (excess yin) in the body generally come from only one source – excess nutrition, that is to say, mostly excess calories - entering through the mouth and passing into the digestive system. This excess yin causes a damp spleen, which is to say, a weakened and overburdened digestive system.
Often, excess yin takes the form of cholesterol, which packs the insides of blood vessels, thus decreasing space and raising pressure. Cholesterol – fats in the blood – is really stored nutrition, calories that aren’t being used, also known to Chinese Medicine as food stagnation. We perceive a close relationship between dampness and food stagnation. The two terms are commonly interchangeable. Food stagnation is usually the result of a damp and weakened spleen.
Excess body fat is another indication of a damp spleen. This explains the close relationship between excess body fat and high blood pressure.
Accumulation of toxins in the blood
This condition is also known as “arteriosclerosis,” or “hardening of the arteries.” Fat and chemicals accumulate over time on the sides of the arteries in the form of “plaque.” This greasy substance stiffens the walls of the blood vessels, which increases resistance and pressure. Many older Americans have this condition.
Preventing Hypertension
Chronic excesses such as hyper (too much) tension are commonly caused by inappropriate choices, which in most situations are the result of American cultural imperatives.
Stop hurrying
Activity causes friction. Friction causes heat. Excess activity causes excess heat. The heart, the busiest of the internal organs, the organ that never sleeps, is in a constant state of friction and heat. Thus it is most susceptible to an increase of friction and heat. An abnormal increase of heart heat not only threatens the physical structure of the heart, but also deranges the shen (the spirit), which resides in the heart.
A chronic Increase in the friction and heat of the heart is the result of the slavish worship of speed and busyness that pervades all income levels, cultural subgroups, and civic communities in the U.S. The average full-time worker in the United States worked 1,979 hours in 2001, compared to the notoriously busy Japanese worker who worked 1,842 hours. (The Japanese have more vacation time.) The average French worker spent just 1531.7 hours on the job in that same year. Americans worked 29% more hours in 2001 than their calmer (and leaner) French counterparts.
A RoperASW study published in the May 2003 issue MONEY Magazine found that Americans would rather have more money than more free time – 57 percent to 27 percent. Another RoperASW survey from 2001 found that the top reason for Americans to consider changing jobs was money at 57 percent. More personal time clocked in at just 12 percent. More money translates as more activity – more internal friction.
Excess yang in the heart easily infects the liver, which as we know easily heats up, venting its hot and windy yang excess upwards, with such symptoms as rage, headaches, dizziness, painful eye disorders, and so on.
Don’t talk fast, walk fast, drive fast, work fast, read fast, think fast, or do anything fast unless and until you have to. Reduce friction.
Get as much sleep as you need every night. Do not catch up on weekends. When you wake in the morning, you should feel refreshed and energized.
Reserve 12 hours of the day for non-productive activities, which include sleep, rest, play, eating, and socializing.
Stop worrying
When people worry, they tighten up muscles in the body. These muscles could be anywhere in the body, including muscular organs such as the lungs, heart, stomach, intestines, uterus, genitals, and even the blood vessels themselves. Many Americans live in a constant state of anxiety. This habit is almost certain to raise blood pressure.
The only thing in life that we have full control over is our thoughts. At all times, we can actually choose what to think. We can decide not to obsess about imaginary scenarios or other people and their problems.
Always try to keep the big picture in your mind, especially when you find yourself worrying about the past or the future, which do not really exist. A big part of the big picture is the certain knowledge that problems are necessary for growth, and that without obstacles to overcome, we die.
When you find yourself tightening up in response to worry, stop what you are doing and take ten deep breathes. Shake out your body and relax all tension. Do it as many times as necessary during the day, in order to keep the body and mind relaxed.
Develop a daily exercise routine that includes deep-breathing meditative exercises such as yoga or taichi.
Stop overeating
When you overeat, you will store excess calories as fat, impacted fecal matter, blood cholesterol, and tumors. Your body counts calories and will always tell you when you are overeating. Overeating occurs when you eat past your comfort level and when you eat without hunger.
Many Americans ignore their bodies’ messages and overeat in an attempt to calm down, because they are hurrying and worrying. However, no weight control program will be successful in the long run unless it also improves mental health, which is to say, reduces hurrying and worrying. Sadly, only about 10% of Americans who lose a significant amount of weight through dieting and exercise manage to keep it off a year later.
There are four ways that food delivers calmness for people, consciously and unconsciously.
1.Fat cells secrete the hormone estriol, a form of estrogen. The various forms of estrogen have a very powerful calming effect on the human mind. Hence the more fat people carry, the more sedated they will be 24 hours a day, every day, year after year.
2.Eating is used as a completely justifiable reason to take breaks from work or other heat-and-tightness-producing activities. (Boss, I have to eat to keep up my strength!) The mere act of taking a break from activity, with or without food, is what calms and restores.
3.Food itself is very heavy and sits on top of anxiety, heat, and nausea, pushing them down. This physically sedating effect of food on the body also has a calming and euphoric effect on the mind. It can be felt by everyone and anyone who has just finished a meal.
4.Sweet, salty, and fatty flavors in foods will stimulate the taste buds, relieving peoples’ sense of deprivation and restoring a sense of calmness and satisfaction.
Minimize your ingestion of chemicals
Stop smoking. Instead, find healthy ways of getting calm. Cook most of your own meals from fresh whole food, mostly organic. Minimize the ingestion of edible food-like substances (processed food). Avoid packaged food that has health claims printed on the outside.
High blood pressure is a serious and common medical condition that leads to many other more serious diseases. However, it is entirely preventable – and curable - with some major changes in attitude and lifestyle.
An estimated 65 million Americans suffer from hypertension, which is defined as a diastolic blood pressure reading of 140 or above, and/or a systolic reading at or above 90. This disease is sometimes referred to as the “silent killer,” because patients may notice few or no symptoms until it already has done serious damage to the heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.
The causes of hypertension
Picture in your mind a blood vessel filled with blood. The liquid molecules are always pushing outward against the inside walls of the vessel, keeping the vessel from collapsing and maintaining the vessel’s structural integrity. Excessive pressure is the result of those molecules pressing too hard against the inside walls, and against the pump (the heart) that circulates the blood. This resistance places an abnormal burden on the heart, decreasing circulation to the whole body, and eventually causing dangerous events such as pump failure (heart attack), or a bursting of a vessel in the periphery, like the brain (stroke), the eye (blindness), or an artery (aneurysm). Heart attacks and strokes are respectively the number one and number three causes of mortality in the U.S.
According to the laws of physics and Chinese medicine, there are only three possible causes of an increase in pressure of any kind, in particular, pressure inside the blood vessels. They are 1) too much heat, 2) not enough space, and 3) too much material.
Translated into Chinese terminology, these chronic excesses differentiate into four syndromes:
·Excess internal heat
·Liver qi stagnation
·Spleen damp
·Accumulation of toxins in the blood
Excess internal heat
When you turn up the heat on a kettle of water, the water molecules become excited and expand against the sides of the vessel, eventually causing a venting of steam or even an explosion. Now picture that increased heat, which we will call yang excess, expanding the activity of blood molecules, causing them to press more vigorously against the inside walls of the blood vessel, thus raising blood pressure.
Liver qi stagnation
Picture a blood vessel with a band around it that can be tightened or loosened at will. When the band is tightened, the space inside is reduced. The same quantity of blood molecules is now trying to pass through a smaller space, and as they struggle, they will press more vigorously against the insides of the blood vessel. This situation of decreased space increases the pressure on the vessel and the pump behind it.
Spleen damp
“Spleen” is an old mistranslation of the Chinese word pi, which refers to the digestive process as a whole. A dry spleen is a happy spleen.
Now, take an average blood vessel. Increase the number of molecules within the walls of that vessel. This excess material will press more forcefully outward against the insides of the vessel, thus leading to increased pressure on the vessel walls and the heart. This is hypertension.
Excessive numbers of molecules (excess yin) in the body generally come from only one source – excess nutrition, that is to say, mostly excess calories - entering through the mouth and passing into the digestive system. This excess yin causes a damp spleen, which is to say, a weakened and overburdened digestive system.
Often, excess yin takes the form of cholesterol, which packs the insides of blood vessels, thus decreasing space and raising pressure. Cholesterol – fats in the blood – is really stored nutrition, calories that aren’t being used, also known to Chinese Medicine as food stagnation. We perceive a close relationship between dampness and food stagnation. The two terms are commonly interchangeable. Food stagnation is usually the result of a damp and weakened spleen.
Excess body fat is another indication of a damp spleen. This explains the close relationship between excess body fat and high blood pressure.
Accumulation of toxins in the blood
This condition is also known as “arteriosclerosis,” or “hardening of the arteries.” Fat and chemicals accumulate over time on the sides of the arteries in the form of “plaque.” This greasy substance stiffens the walls of the blood vessels, which increases resistance and pressure. Many older Americans have this condition.
Preventing Hypertension
Chronic excesses such as hyper (too much) tension are commonly caused by inappropriate choices, which in most situations are the result of American cultural imperatives.
Stop hurrying
Activity causes friction. Friction causes heat. Excess activity causes excess heat. The heart, the busiest of the internal organs, the organ that never sleeps, is in a constant state of friction and heat. Thus it is most susceptible to an increase of friction and heat. An abnormal increase of heart heat not only threatens the physical structure of the heart, but also deranges the shen (the spirit), which resides in the heart.
A chronic Increase in the friction and heat of the heart is the result of the slavish worship of speed and busyness that pervades all income levels, cultural subgroups, and civic communities in the U.S. The average full-time worker in the United States worked 1,979 hours in 2001, compared to the notoriously busy Japanese worker who worked 1,842 hours. (The Japanese have more vacation time.) The average French worker spent just 1531.7 hours on the job in that same year. Americans worked 29% more hours in 2001 than their calmer (and leaner) French counterparts.
A RoperASW study published in the May 2003 issue MONEY Magazine found that Americans would rather have more money than more free time – 57 percent to 27 percent. Another RoperASW survey from 2001 found that the top reason for Americans to consider changing jobs was money at 57 percent. More personal time clocked in at just 12 percent. More money translates as more activity – more internal friction.
Excess yang in the heart easily infects the liver, which as we know easily heats up, venting its hot and windy yang excess upwards, with such symptoms as rage, headaches, dizziness, painful eye disorders, and so on.
Don’t talk fast, walk fast, drive fast, work fast, read fast, think fast, or do anything fast unless and until you have to. Reduce friction.
Get as much sleep as you need every night. Do not catch up on weekends. When you wake in the morning, you should feel refreshed and energized.
Reserve 12 hours of the day for non-productive activities, which include sleep, rest, play, eating, and socializing.
Stop worrying
When people worry, they tighten up muscles in the body. These muscles could be anywhere in the body, including muscular organs such as the lungs, heart, stomach, intestines, uterus, genitals, and even the blood vessels themselves. Many Americans live in a constant state of anxiety. This habit is almost certain to raise blood pressure.
The only thing in life that we have full control over is our thoughts. At all times, we can actually choose what to think. We can decide not to obsess about imaginary scenarios or other people and their problems.
Always try to keep the big picture in your mind, especially when you find yourself worrying about the past or the future, which do not really exist. A big part of the big picture is the certain knowledge that problems are necessary for growth, and that without obstacles to overcome, we die.
When you find yourself tightening up in response to worry, stop what you are doing and take ten deep breathes. Shake out your body and relax all tension. Do it as many times as necessary during the day, in order to keep the body and mind relaxed.
Develop a daily exercise routine that includes deep-breathing meditative exercises such as yoga or taichi.
Stop overeating
When you overeat, you will store excess calories as fat, impacted fecal matter, blood cholesterol, and tumors. Your body counts calories and will always tell you when you are overeating. Overeating occurs when you eat past your comfort level and when you eat without hunger.
Many Americans ignore their bodies’ messages and overeat in an attempt to calm down, because they are hurrying and worrying. However, no weight control program will be successful in the long run unless it also improves mental health, which is to say, reduces hurrying and worrying. Sadly, only about 10% of Americans who lose a significant amount of weight through dieting and exercise manage to keep it off a year later.
There are four ways that food delivers calmness for people, consciously and unconsciously.
1.Fat cells secrete the hormone estriol, a form of estrogen. The various forms of estrogen have a very powerful calming effect on the human mind. Hence the more fat people carry, the more sedated they will be 24 hours a day, every day, year after year.
2.Eating is used as a completely justifiable reason to take breaks from work or other heat-and-tightness-producing activities. (Boss, I have to eat to keep up my strength!) The mere act of taking a break from activity, with or without food, is what calms and restores.
3.Food itself is very heavy and sits on top of anxiety, heat, and nausea, pushing them down. This physically sedating effect of food on the body also has a calming and euphoric effect on the mind. It can be felt by everyone and anyone who has just finished a meal.
4.Sweet, salty, and fatty flavors in foods will stimulate the taste buds, relieving peoples’ sense of deprivation and restoring a sense of calmness and satisfaction.
Minimize your ingestion of chemicals
Stop smoking. Instead, find healthy ways of getting calm. Cook most of your own meals from fresh whole food, mostly organic. Minimize the ingestion of edible food-like substances (processed food). Avoid packaged food that has health claims printed on the outside.
High blood pressure is a serious and common medical condition that leads to many other more serious diseases. However, it is entirely preventable – and curable - with some major changes in attitude and lifestyle.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Preventing Breast Cancer
This essay is dedicated to my mother, Helen Marie Kihn, who died of breast cancer in 1963.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently published updated guidelines regarding mammograms and early detection of breast cancer. The biggest change and the one that is sparking controversy is the recommendation that women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. They suggest that before having a mammogram, women ages 40 to 49 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened. For women ages 50 to 74, they recommend routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and above are unknown, the report said. The group's previous recommendation was for routine screenings every year or two for women age 40 and older. They also currently recommend against teaching breast self-examination. Go to http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm to read the actual guidelines.
Whether or not breast examinations are safe or effective will not be addressed here. Early detection of cancer is of supreme importance in fighting cancer. That is beyond doubt. However, early detection is not the same as prevention. Breast exams can initiate early treatment and thereby prevent the spread of the malignancy, but exams and treatment do not prevent the formation of cancerous cells in the first place, nor do they eliminate the risky behavior that is the root cause of breast cancer.
Likewise, successful treatment of cancer is not a true cure unless habits are changed so that cancer will be prevented from returning.
Cancer is very much a chronic disease of the genes. The risky behavior that we will examine below can activate genes that produce cancer cells in the breast, as well as give them a safe home in the breast tissue. Single cancer cells are readily killed and eaten by immune factors called macrophages. However, when the immune system (wei qi) is overwhelmed and /or obstructed, microscopic cancer cells can congregate and multiply in the body over a period of years, and even form their own structures that will defend against the body’s militia.
Chinese medicine sees cancer as toxic blood stagnation. The crucial concept here is stagnation. A tumor is a stagnant collection of cells that is not moving with the body’s natural flow. It is a structure that is stuck in one place. Structures and tissues in the human body that do not have great circulation to begin with, such as the prostate gland in men and the breast in women, are likely candidates for the growth of tumors. When a tumor impedes the flow of blood, sharp pain in one place is the result. When it threatens to spread throughout the body and overwhelm organs and tissues, it is termed toxic.
Red flags
Before cancerous cells are ever formed or before they aggregate to the degree that they can be detected, there are some important warning symptoms that indicate the need for preventative medicine as well as regular screening:
[ The thickening of breast material (fibroids): Breast material should feel smooth and uniform. Any irregularity is an invitation for errant cells to set up camp.
[ Benign lumps: These are usually going to be soft, rounded, not painful, and not attached to the bone or muscle underneath. However, their existence is an indication of stagnation and therefore they cannot be ignored. (A growth that has irregular edges, is fixed to the bone or muscle underneath, is painful to the touch, and possibly shows signs of bleeding could very well be a cancerous tumor.)
[ Breast/chest tenderness: When there is felt pain or sensitivity in the breast material, whether associated with the menstrual cycle or not, stagnation is present. Pain upon palpation of the line running from the top of the armpit, along the bottom of the collar bone, and down along lateral sides of the sternum also indicates stagnation that must be eliminated.
[ Sighing: Frequent sighing, or taking deep breaths, is a compensation for shallow breathing, which keeps the chest restricted and closed in.
[ Lymph swellings: Blocked swollen lymph glands in the upper body are an indication that circulation is poor, which means that unwanted cells pile up in the chest area and that immune factors cannot travel around freely.
Risky behavior
The following habits are all known contributors to the creation and development of breast cancer: Overeating, worrying and hurrying, maintaining poor posture, wearing restrictive clothing, and exposure to radiation or toxic substances.
When a woman eats past her comfort level, she is overeating and consequently putting on extra fat. Excess body fat has been shown in countless studies to be a major causal factor for all types of cancer, including breast cancer. Excessive body fat secretes excessive amounts of estrogen, a known cancer agent. Increased body fat also triggers chronic inflammation, which presents the immune system with a huge distraction. For women, a body fat percentage above 15% is cause for concern, and is associated in Chinese Medicine with a damp spleen, which means that the digestive system is overburdened and consequently weakened.
Worrying and hurrying cause anxiety. Like excess body fat, chronic anxiety speeds the aging process, so that age-related disease genes like those for cancer activate too early. In addition, chronic anxiety causes people to tighten various muscles in the body and hold them rigid for long periods. Eventually, muscles in the chest become habitually rigid, blocking the wei qi in its attempt to find cancer cells in the breast and kill them. Chronic anxiety and muscular tightness are associated in Chinese Medicine with liver qi stagnation.
Slumped posture is a strong contributing factor for the rising incidence of breast cancer in industrialized countries. Hunching forward while sitting, standing, and walking will congest the fluids and block the qi in the chest area, thus allowing cancer cells to congregate in the breast tissue and set up their own protective structures.
The constant wearing of constricting clothing will decrease circulation in the chest area, leading to stagnation of qi in the chest and poor immune function. The most common offender is a bra that is too tight.
Radiation or toxic accumulations in the body can trigger cancer genes. This is especially true for women whose immune systems are compromised, specifically for those who are overweight, overstressed, or have poor circulation in the chest area. Known carcinogens are found in processed foods, industrial pollutants, and medications, which include prescription, over-the-counter, and “recreational” such as tobacco.
Preventative measures
Prevention requires a change of habit. The breaking of old habits and the establishment of new ones takes time and perseverance. This is why it is best to hire the services of a professional who will help you maintain discipline, and will use techniques that will push in the same direction. Well-suited for this purpose are Licensed Acupuncturists.
The starting point is to get a Chinese diagnosis from a Licensed Acupuncturist and together work on changing bad habits into good ones while relieving symptoms of spleen damp, liver qi stagnation, stagnation of qi and fluids in the chest, and toxic accumulations. A Licensed Acupuncturist will make use of safe techniques such as acupuncture, acupressure, Chinese herbology, and preventative counseling to accomplish these goals.
Excess body fat
Excess body fat is first and foremost a mental health problem. Obesity is an eating disorder. There are many schemes for decreasing fat and getting lean, but if they do not include a deliberate program for improving mental health, they are doomed to fail in the end. The reason is that people in rich countries commonly use food as a sedative for uncomfortable feelings. They also unknowingly use the estrogen secreted by enlarged fat cells as a continuous, 24-hour calming agent. When this agent is suddenly removed and the sedative is taken away, people who have lost a significant amount of weight without improving their mental health soon find themselves climbing the walls, dying for a calorie fix. Becoming a calmer person is the only guarantee for getting and staying lean.
For women, a body fat percentage of 15% is sufficient to prevent problems associated with excess weight while still supplying all of the lipid needs of the average woman.
One program that allows you to lose fat while increasing your self-trust and self-esteem I call Hunger Awareness Training. You will probably need to work with a Hunger Awareness Training counselor for a while until the new habits become automatic and weight control becomes an instinctive process. Contact me if you are interested in Hunger Awareness Training.
Another approach that is very effective for some is simple calorie counting. Writing down the calorie content in the foods you eat and making sure that you are eating less calories than you burn every day will mathematically assure the loss of weight. When combined with something like cognitive-behavioral therapy by a licensed MFCC, new and healthy habits can be firmly established. A good reference on calorie counting is The Longevity Diet by Delaney and Wolford.
Chronic anxiety
Learn to stop worrying, whatever it takes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy with a licensed professional will require you to face your demons and make friends with them so that you won’t have to worry about them anymore. A study of philosophies such as Taoism or Zen Buddhism will help you see the big picture, which will always diffuse the irrationally based fears that constitute worry.
Learn to stop hurrying. Those in a constant rush live in a constant state of anxiety. Hurrying everywhere increases internal friction, which creates an unnatural degree of heat and inflammation. A person who is always hurrying maintains a posture that is necessarily hunched forward. Rushing around while operating heavy machinery – motor vehicles – can endanger your life as well as the lives of others.
Practice yin types of exercises such as yoga or taiqi, especially postures that open up and stretch the chest area. Slow movements that emphasize breathing and body awareness will have a profound and positive effect on tightness in the mind and body. Deep rhythmic breathing is a calming technique that can be used anytime in any stressful situation to quiet the mind and body.
Poor posture
Learn to stand tall, walk tall, and sit tall all the time. Don’t be afraid to let people see you. Don’t hide your chest. At first when you practice tall posture, you might feel arrogant. I assure you that tall posture plus a smile is the essence of charisma, not arrogance. If poor eyesight is encouraging you to hunch forward for writing or reading, sit closer to your work. Until the small muscles that balance your frame with gravity are stronger, you will need to take many short breaks to rest them. Sitting back in an easy chair or couch and supporting your spine for a minute will give your body and mind the rest it needs to continue practicing tall posture. However, no matter how strong your core muscles are, we are not genetically designed for long periods of standing or sitting.
Strengthen your core muscles, which include abdominals, transverse obliques, and the intervertebral musculature that keeps you upright. Strengthen the back muscles – latissimus dorsi - that help to keep your chest open. They are best strengthened by performing rows and pull downs in front of the chin. Stretch the opposing tight muscles like chest, upper trapezius, low back, hamstrings, and calves.
You may need the assistance of a personal trainer for a while. You can also benefit from a series of chiropractic adjustments if your vertebrae have been pushed out of column by years of poor posture.
Constricting clothing
Beware of tight bras. If your bra leaves marks on your body after you take it off, consider wearing something looser. Also, avoid carrying heavy bags on one shoulder, as the strap has a tendency to cut off circulation to the upper body.
Radiation and toxic accumulations
Consider carefully before you expose yourself to tests that require radiation. Gravitate toward unprocessed foods that aren’t loaded with industrial additives. But keep in mind that the body’s own defenses are capable of a tremendous amount of self-cleansing if the body/mind is kept in a state of leanness and relaxation.
As your mental and physical health improves, you will be able to wean yourself off of the regular use of medications. This is especially important in the area of self-medication. I am referring to such substances as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other “recreational” drugs.
Breast cancer is entirely preventable for most women. For a fascinating account of how people in various parts of the world avoid diseases like breast cancer simply by living simply and healthily, I urge you to read Healthy at 100 by John Robbins.
This essay is dedicated to my mother, Helen Marie Kihn, who died of breast cancer in 1963.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently published updated guidelines regarding mammograms and early detection of breast cancer. The biggest change and the one that is sparking controversy is the recommendation that women in their 40s should not get routine mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. They suggest that before having a mammogram, women ages 40 to 49 should talk to their doctors about the risks and benefits of the test, and then decide if they want to be screened. For women ages 50 to 74, they recommend routine mammography screenings every two years. Risks and benefits for women age 75 and above are unknown, the report said. The group's previous recommendation was for routine screenings every year or two for women age 40 and older. They also currently recommend against teaching breast self-examination. Go to http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm to read the actual guidelines.
Whether or not breast examinations are safe or effective will not be addressed here. Early detection of cancer is of supreme importance in fighting cancer. That is beyond doubt. However, early detection is not the same as prevention. Breast exams can initiate early treatment and thereby prevent the spread of the malignancy, but exams and treatment do not prevent the formation of cancerous cells in the first place, nor do they eliminate the risky behavior that is the root cause of breast cancer.
Likewise, successful treatment of cancer is not a true cure unless habits are changed so that cancer will be prevented from returning.
Cancer is very much a chronic disease of the genes. The risky behavior that we will examine below can activate genes that produce cancer cells in the breast, as well as give them a safe home in the breast tissue. Single cancer cells are readily killed and eaten by immune factors called macrophages. However, when the immune system (wei qi) is overwhelmed and /or obstructed, microscopic cancer cells can congregate and multiply in the body over a period of years, and even form their own structures that will defend against the body’s militia.
Chinese medicine sees cancer as toxic blood stagnation. The crucial concept here is stagnation. A tumor is a stagnant collection of cells that is not moving with the body’s natural flow. It is a structure that is stuck in one place. Structures and tissues in the human body that do not have great circulation to begin with, such as the prostate gland in men and the breast in women, are likely candidates for the growth of tumors. When a tumor impedes the flow of blood, sharp pain in one place is the result. When it threatens to spread throughout the body and overwhelm organs and tissues, it is termed toxic.
Red flags
Before cancerous cells are ever formed or before they aggregate to the degree that they can be detected, there are some important warning symptoms that indicate the need for preventative medicine as well as regular screening:
[ The thickening of breast material (fibroids): Breast material should feel smooth and uniform. Any irregularity is an invitation for errant cells to set up camp.
[ Benign lumps: These are usually going to be soft, rounded, not painful, and not attached to the bone or muscle underneath. However, their existence is an indication of stagnation and therefore they cannot be ignored. (A growth that has irregular edges, is fixed to the bone or muscle underneath, is painful to the touch, and possibly shows signs of bleeding could very well be a cancerous tumor.)
[ Breast/chest tenderness: When there is felt pain or sensitivity in the breast material, whether associated with the menstrual cycle or not, stagnation is present. Pain upon palpation of the line running from the top of the armpit, along the bottom of the collar bone, and down along lateral sides of the sternum also indicates stagnation that must be eliminated.
[ Sighing: Frequent sighing, or taking deep breaths, is a compensation for shallow breathing, which keeps the chest restricted and closed in.
[ Lymph swellings: Blocked swollen lymph glands in the upper body are an indication that circulation is poor, which means that unwanted cells pile up in the chest area and that immune factors cannot travel around freely.
Risky behavior
The following habits are all known contributors to the creation and development of breast cancer: Overeating, worrying and hurrying, maintaining poor posture, wearing restrictive clothing, and exposure to radiation or toxic substances.
When a woman eats past her comfort level, she is overeating and consequently putting on extra fat. Excess body fat has been shown in countless studies to be a major causal factor for all types of cancer, including breast cancer. Excessive body fat secretes excessive amounts of estrogen, a known cancer agent. Increased body fat also triggers chronic inflammation, which presents the immune system with a huge distraction. For women, a body fat percentage above 15% is cause for concern, and is associated in Chinese Medicine with a damp spleen, which means that the digestive system is overburdened and consequently weakened.
Worrying and hurrying cause anxiety. Like excess body fat, chronic anxiety speeds the aging process, so that age-related disease genes like those for cancer activate too early. In addition, chronic anxiety causes people to tighten various muscles in the body and hold them rigid for long periods. Eventually, muscles in the chest become habitually rigid, blocking the wei qi in its attempt to find cancer cells in the breast and kill them. Chronic anxiety and muscular tightness are associated in Chinese Medicine with liver qi stagnation.
Slumped posture is a strong contributing factor for the rising incidence of breast cancer in industrialized countries. Hunching forward while sitting, standing, and walking will congest the fluids and block the qi in the chest area, thus allowing cancer cells to congregate in the breast tissue and set up their own protective structures.
The constant wearing of constricting clothing will decrease circulation in the chest area, leading to stagnation of qi in the chest and poor immune function. The most common offender is a bra that is too tight.
Radiation or toxic accumulations in the body can trigger cancer genes. This is especially true for women whose immune systems are compromised, specifically for those who are overweight, overstressed, or have poor circulation in the chest area. Known carcinogens are found in processed foods, industrial pollutants, and medications, which include prescription, over-the-counter, and “recreational” such as tobacco.
Preventative measures
Prevention requires a change of habit. The breaking of old habits and the establishment of new ones takes time and perseverance. This is why it is best to hire the services of a professional who will help you maintain discipline, and will use techniques that will push in the same direction. Well-suited for this purpose are Licensed Acupuncturists.
The starting point is to get a Chinese diagnosis from a Licensed Acupuncturist and together work on changing bad habits into good ones while relieving symptoms of spleen damp, liver qi stagnation, stagnation of qi and fluids in the chest, and toxic accumulations. A Licensed Acupuncturist will make use of safe techniques such as acupuncture, acupressure, Chinese herbology, and preventative counseling to accomplish these goals.
Excess body fat
Excess body fat is first and foremost a mental health problem. Obesity is an eating disorder. There are many schemes for decreasing fat and getting lean, but if they do not include a deliberate program for improving mental health, they are doomed to fail in the end. The reason is that people in rich countries commonly use food as a sedative for uncomfortable feelings. They also unknowingly use the estrogen secreted by enlarged fat cells as a continuous, 24-hour calming agent. When this agent is suddenly removed and the sedative is taken away, people who have lost a significant amount of weight without improving their mental health soon find themselves climbing the walls, dying for a calorie fix. Becoming a calmer person is the only guarantee for getting and staying lean.
For women, a body fat percentage of 15% is sufficient to prevent problems associated with excess weight while still supplying all of the lipid needs of the average woman.
One program that allows you to lose fat while increasing your self-trust and self-esteem I call Hunger Awareness Training. You will probably need to work with a Hunger Awareness Training counselor for a while until the new habits become automatic and weight control becomes an instinctive process. Contact me if you are interested in Hunger Awareness Training.
Another approach that is very effective for some is simple calorie counting. Writing down the calorie content in the foods you eat and making sure that you are eating less calories than you burn every day will mathematically assure the loss of weight. When combined with something like cognitive-behavioral therapy by a licensed MFCC, new and healthy habits can be firmly established. A good reference on calorie counting is The Longevity Diet by Delaney and Wolford.
Chronic anxiety
Learn to stop worrying, whatever it takes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy with a licensed professional will require you to face your demons and make friends with them so that you won’t have to worry about them anymore. A study of philosophies such as Taoism or Zen Buddhism will help you see the big picture, which will always diffuse the irrationally based fears that constitute worry.
Learn to stop hurrying. Those in a constant rush live in a constant state of anxiety. Hurrying everywhere increases internal friction, which creates an unnatural degree of heat and inflammation. A person who is always hurrying maintains a posture that is necessarily hunched forward. Rushing around while operating heavy machinery – motor vehicles – can endanger your life as well as the lives of others.
Practice yin types of exercises such as yoga or taiqi, especially postures that open up and stretch the chest area. Slow movements that emphasize breathing and body awareness will have a profound and positive effect on tightness in the mind and body. Deep rhythmic breathing is a calming technique that can be used anytime in any stressful situation to quiet the mind and body.
Poor posture
Learn to stand tall, walk tall, and sit tall all the time. Don’t be afraid to let people see you. Don’t hide your chest. At first when you practice tall posture, you might feel arrogant. I assure you that tall posture plus a smile is the essence of charisma, not arrogance. If poor eyesight is encouraging you to hunch forward for writing or reading, sit closer to your work. Until the small muscles that balance your frame with gravity are stronger, you will need to take many short breaks to rest them. Sitting back in an easy chair or couch and supporting your spine for a minute will give your body and mind the rest it needs to continue practicing tall posture. However, no matter how strong your core muscles are, we are not genetically designed for long periods of standing or sitting.
Strengthen your core muscles, which include abdominals, transverse obliques, and the intervertebral musculature that keeps you upright. Strengthen the back muscles – latissimus dorsi - that help to keep your chest open. They are best strengthened by performing rows and pull downs in front of the chin. Stretch the opposing tight muscles like chest, upper trapezius, low back, hamstrings, and calves.
You may need the assistance of a personal trainer for a while. You can also benefit from a series of chiropractic adjustments if your vertebrae have been pushed out of column by years of poor posture.
Constricting clothing
Beware of tight bras. If your bra leaves marks on your body after you take it off, consider wearing something looser. Also, avoid carrying heavy bags on one shoulder, as the strap has a tendency to cut off circulation to the upper body.
Radiation and toxic accumulations
Consider carefully before you expose yourself to tests that require radiation. Gravitate toward unprocessed foods that aren’t loaded with industrial additives. But keep in mind that the body’s own defenses are capable of a tremendous amount of self-cleansing if the body/mind is kept in a state of leanness and relaxation.
As your mental and physical health improves, you will be able to wean yourself off of the regular use of medications. This is especially important in the area of self-medication. I am referring to such substances as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other “recreational” drugs.
Breast cancer is entirely preventable for most women. For a fascinating account of how people in various parts of the world avoid diseases like breast cancer simply by living simply and healthily, I urge you to read Healthy at 100 by John Robbins.
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