The Cholesterol Misunderstanding
In diagnosing any disease pattern it is first and foremost important to look for the right things. For example you wouldn’t get very far by examining how best to treat skid marks left on the road from a car accident. The skid marks are of course a symptom of events leading up to the accident. The same holds true with heart disease. Looking at cholesterol is like focusing on the skid marks. Cholesterol acts as a protective layer much like a band-aid which rushes to the site of injury (inflammation) in the arteries, and if left long enough can build up and cause plaque. Well that is the short story at least. But the bottom line with heart disease is that we need to look at what is causing the problem in the first place. The most current medical research states that cholesterol itself only plays a minor role in heart disease. How long do you think it will take the mainstream medical establishment to catch up to the current research? I for one don’t want to wait and find out. I want to do everything in my power to avoid heart disease in the first place!
Very simply put, HDL and LDL are not cholesterol like you have all been taught. Cholesterol is cholesterol. HDL and LDL are proteins that carry cholesterol around the body. HDL carries it from the blood vessels back to the liver to be recycled and LDL carries cholesterol to the blood vessels and tissues to be used in a huge number of very important bodily functions. Without adequate cholesterol we couldn’t make hormones, or have a healthy nervous system. In fact we couldn’t repair our cells effectively and we would grow old really quickly! Now who wants that? We should love our cholesterol! Cholesterol is our friend. It keeps us healthy and happy.
The current cholesterol screens are simply not effective in determining risk because they fail to examine the actual HDL and LDL particles themselves. They do in fact lead to monumental sales of cholesterol lowering medications. That they do quite well. But it is the size and number of the HDL/LDL particles as well as several other factors that determines accurate risk for heart disease. We all know LDL is “bad” cholesterol right? But in fact only the smaller denser type LDL particles wreak havoc on the arteries. The larger ones tend to pass on by without hurting anything. It is also possible and quite common for people to have empty LDL particles and appear to be healthy on a routine cholesterol screen but die of suddenly heart disease. This happens about 50% of the time in fact. If you look closer you would probably see that these people were loaded with a bunch of empty dense type LDL particles. Their cholesterol was low but their risk was high. They have been failed by the system in place to protect them.
For people with PPO insurance we can order these tests for $30.00. For a $30.00 co-pay you can blow away what your doctor ordered for you. You can gain proper insight into your actual heart disease risk. You can see first hand everything that would be on a normal cholesterol screen plus the breakdown of the particle size, as well as a handful of other significant emerging risk factors all noted by current medical research. Call me soon and let’s schedule an appointment and find out for sure where you stand on your heart disease risk.
Very simply put, HDL and LDL are not cholesterol like you have all been taught. Cholesterol is cholesterol. HDL and LDL are proteins that carry cholesterol around the body. HDL carries it from the blood vessels back to the liver to be recycled and LDL carries cholesterol to the blood vessels and tissues to be used in a huge number of very important bodily functions. Without adequate cholesterol we couldn’t make hormones, or have a healthy nervous system. In fact we couldn’t repair our cells effectively and we would grow old really quickly! Now who wants that? We should love our cholesterol! Cholesterol is our friend. It keeps us healthy and happy.
The current cholesterol screens are simply not effective in determining risk because they fail to examine the actual HDL and LDL particles themselves. They do in fact lead to monumental sales of cholesterol lowering medications. That they do quite well. But it is the size and number of the HDL/LDL particles as well as several other factors that determines accurate risk for heart disease. We all know LDL is “bad” cholesterol right? But in fact only the smaller denser type LDL particles wreak havoc on the arteries. The larger ones tend to pass on by without hurting anything. It is also possible and quite common for people to have empty LDL particles and appear to be healthy on a routine cholesterol screen but die of suddenly heart disease. This happens about 50% of the time in fact. If you look closer you would probably see that these people were loaded with a bunch of empty dense type LDL particles. Their cholesterol was low but their risk was high. They have been failed by the system in place to protect them.
For people with PPO insurance we can order these tests for $30.00. For a $30.00 co-pay you can blow away what your doctor ordered for you. You can gain proper insight into your actual heart disease risk. You can see first hand everything that would be on a normal cholesterol screen plus the breakdown of the particle size, as well as a handful of other significant emerging risk factors all noted by current medical research. Call me soon and let’s schedule an appointment and find out for sure where you stand on your heart disease risk.
The Menopause Pathology
It is unfortunate but true that life’s most natural processes are quickly becoming institutionalized and medically managed. They are being treated as "pathology." There is nothing more natural for example than when a woman’s hormones begin to decline and she enters menopause. It is as natural as puberty. Men also go through a similar process. It is the natural way of things. More and more though we humans feel the need to fight against what is happening naturally. We feel that somehow we might just be able to reverse the millions of years of development through the cunning use of chemicals. Well, let me just say that when you really look at the situation critically, and not blindly, it becomes apparent that women are increasignly being injured by the very system that has pledged an oath to protect them.
The story goes like this… A middle aged woman goes in for her routine medical visit and discusses with her doctor that she is experiencing hot flashes and other various uncomfortable symptoms. Some tests are run and it is determined that she is indeed beginning menopause. She is then given replacement hormones to “fix” her problems.
What the doctor does not explain is that these hormones are doing nothing to actually fix anything but in fact are going to complicate matters in the future. So much of mainstream medicine is focused on the band-aid approach of covering up the symptoms of a root cause. Replacement hormone therapy, given to menopausal women, is often times really good at eliminating the undesirable side effects of menopause, but only prolongs the inevitable. Once on the replacement hormones a woman’s body becomes reliant upon them and eventually becomes weaker in the process. The systems that she will need in place once off of the hormones will by then be sluggish and unresponsive. And once the call is made to get off of the hormones she will experience symptoms like she has never felt before! And in the mean time she has increased her risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke considerably. No joke!
Perhaps supporting the woman’s whole body instead of weakening it would be more beneficial. The reality is that the uncomfortable experiences associated with menopause are easily managed naturally without the added threat of cancer, heart disease and strokes!
Perhaps the most beneficial thing to do for a woman entering menopause is to support not the ovaries but the adrenal glands. That’s a little tidbit that I picked up while looking into where female hormones come from after menopause. The whole concept of menopause is that the ovaries stop responding to the signals from the pituitary gland in the brain. The ovaries then no longer produce the sex hormones. The burden now lies upon the adrenal glands. And in this fast paced modern society, adrenal fatigue is at an all time high! It is no wonder why so many women are having a hard time with their midlife changes. Without the proper support they are experiencing full force what hormone withdraw can feel like and then are told that hormone replacement is their only option. Well shame shame to the medical system for pulling the wool over our eyes on this one!
Take it from me, clinically, and in my research I have seen more women on hormone replacement therapy in a dangerously out of balance hormone picture than not. This is especially true of the hormone creams that seem to be all the rage especially in the “alternative medicine” community. Please stay away from any topical hormone cream. And I mean all creams even if they say that they are all natural and bio-identical. If you must take replacement hormones try to take them under your tongue.
The dangers of hormone replacement therapy became very clear to me one day while speaking with a head of Endocrinology at a well respected hospital in Oregon. I asked him about how they monitor hormone levels in the replacement model and he told me that they don't. They don't! They go by symptoms. Does this give you comfort that your health is being valued? Well it scared the hell out of me that's for sure and opened my eyes a little wider than they were before!
But in the mean time please, women, consider the implications of your hormone replacement therapy. Educate yourself about all of your options. Invite me to do a lecture for you with your friends and families. Challenge your doctor with good and educated questions. And for god’s sake, call me for an appointment so that we can get a clear picture of your hormone status. It could very well save your life. Menopause is not a pathology that needs medicating. There are safe, effective and natural alternatives.
The story goes like this… A middle aged woman goes in for her routine medical visit and discusses with her doctor that she is experiencing hot flashes and other various uncomfortable symptoms. Some tests are run and it is determined that she is indeed beginning menopause. She is then given replacement hormones to “fix” her problems.
What the doctor does not explain is that these hormones are doing nothing to actually fix anything but in fact are going to complicate matters in the future. So much of mainstream medicine is focused on the band-aid approach of covering up the symptoms of a root cause. Replacement hormone therapy, given to menopausal women, is often times really good at eliminating the undesirable side effects of menopause, but only prolongs the inevitable. Once on the replacement hormones a woman’s body becomes reliant upon them and eventually becomes weaker in the process. The systems that she will need in place once off of the hormones will by then be sluggish and unresponsive. And once the call is made to get off of the hormones she will experience symptoms like she has never felt before! And in the mean time she has increased her risk of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke considerably. No joke!
Perhaps supporting the woman’s whole body instead of weakening it would be more beneficial. The reality is that the uncomfortable experiences associated with menopause are easily managed naturally without the added threat of cancer, heart disease and strokes!
Perhaps the most beneficial thing to do for a woman entering menopause is to support not the ovaries but the adrenal glands. That’s a little tidbit that I picked up while looking into where female hormones come from after menopause. The whole concept of menopause is that the ovaries stop responding to the signals from the pituitary gland in the brain. The ovaries then no longer produce the sex hormones. The burden now lies upon the adrenal glands. And in this fast paced modern society, adrenal fatigue is at an all time high! It is no wonder why so many women are having a hard time with their midlife changes. Without the proper support they are experiencing full force what hormone withdraw can feel like and then are told that hormone replacement is their only option. Well shame shame to the medical system for pulling the wool over our eyes on this one!
Take it from me, clinically, and in my research I have seen more women on hormone replacement therapy in a dangerously out of balance hormone picture than not. This is especially true of the hormone creams that seem to be all the rage especially in the “alternative medicine” community. Please stay away from any topical hormone cream. And I mean all creams even if they say that they are all natural and bio-identical. If you must take replacement hormones try to take them under your tongue.
The dangers of hormone replacement therapy became very clear to me one day while speaking with a head of Endocrinology at a well respected hospital in Oregon. I asked him about how they monitor hormone levels in the replacement model and he told me that they don't. They don't! They go by symptoms. Does this give you comfort that your health is being valued? Well it scared the hell out of me that's for sure and opened my eyes a little wider than they were before!
But in the mean time please, women, consider the implications of your hormone replacement therapy. Educate yourself about all of your options. Invite me to do a lecture for you with your friends and families. Challenge your doctor with good and educated questions. And for god’s sake, call me for an appointment so that we can get a clear picture of your hormone status. It could very well save your life. Menopause is not a pathology that needs medicating. There are safe, effective and natural alternatives.
Red Meat - To Beware or Not To Beware?
It is time to dispel yet another medical misconception that is repeated to us time after time and has no actual relevance. I’m talking about the supposed link between red meat and colon cancer. It seems to be a well known fact that the more red meat that you consume, the higher the incidences of colon cancer you can expect. All that you have to do is look at the studies more closely to see that it isn’t the meat itself but the way that you cook it that matters.
Many studies have shown that how you cook your meat can have dramatic effects upon your health. In fact people who like their meat well done have a 29% increase over people who eat the same amount of meat cooked rare. (According to a study of colorectal adenomas conducted at the National Naval Medical Center.) Very little evidence points towards any and all red meat leading to cancer. It is the meat that is cooked well and “burnt” that gives you the problems.
The reason for this difference comes in the nasty chemicals produced when cooking meat at high temperatures. Carcinogenic chemicals called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are created at high temperatures and can lead to the formation of not only colon cancer but other cancers as well. Unfortunate as it is, grilling and high frying your meat leads to the formation of these nasty chemicals.
The most common come back that I get from people who cook their meat well done is their concern over E. Coli contamination. Though E. Coli can be a serious condition to acquire it is very uncommon in the actual meat of the animal. You might find this bacteria present in ground meat which comes from as many as 100 animals and is subject to less than optimal packing environments, but when talking about a nice porterhouse steak is it very unlikely to get sick from rare cooked meat. Actually more E. Coli infections are transmitted by dirty fruits and veggies than meat. How’s that for irony? Now compare that to the numbers of cancer in today’s society and it is easy to see which you should be more concerned about.
For those of you that might just be sickened by rare meat may I suggest fish instead. In this case there is no room for the squeamish. Take my advice and cook your meat rare or medium rare at best. You might just help keep cancer at bay and enjoy a great steak to boot!
As a quick side note… I want to reiterate that just because rare meat is less cancer causing that is no reason to believe that the meat you are eating isn’t causing you harm! Unless you are buying good grass fed organic meat you are still getting plenty of hormones and antibiotics that have been given to the cattle. These chemicals do end up in your body as well. The bottom line is that when buying meat, be as picky as your budget allows. Stop giving your money to the mega chain coffee houses and give it to back to yourself in the form of good clean food!
Eat well and be happy and healthy!
Many studies have shown that how you cook your meat can have dramatic effects upon your health. In fact people who like their meat well done have a 29% increase over people who eat the same amount of meat cooked rare. (According to a study of colorectal adenomas conducted at the National Naval Medical Center.) Very little evidence points towards any and all red meat leading to cancer. It is the meat that is cooked well and “burnt” that gives you the problems.
The reason for this difference comes in the nasty chemicals produced when cooking meat at high temperatures. Carcinogenic chemicals called heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are created at high temperatures and can lead to the formation of not only colon cancer but other cancers as well. Unfortunate as it is, grilling and high frying your meat leads to the formation of these nasty chemicals.
The most common come back that I get from people who cook their meat well done is their concern over E. Coli contamination. Though E. Coli can be a serious condition to acquire it is very uncommon in the actual meat of the animal. You might find this bacteria present in ground meat which comes from as many as 100 animals and is subject to less than optimal packing environments, but when talking about a nice porterhouse steak is it very unlikely to get sick from rare cooked meat. Actually more E. Coli infections are transmitted by dirty fruits and veggies than meat. How’s that for irony? Now compare that to the numbers of cancer in today’s society and it is easy to see which you should be more concerned about.
For those of you that might just be sickened by rare meat may I suggest fish instead. In this case there is no room for the squeamish. Take my advice and cook your meat rare or medium rare at best. You might just help keep cancer at bay and enjoy a great steak to boot!
As a quick side note… I want to reiterate that just because rare meat is less cancer causing that is no reason to believe that the meat you are eating isn’t causing you harm! Unless you are buying good grass fed organic meat you are still getting plenty of hormones and antibiotics that have been given to the cattle. These chemicals do end up in your body as well. The bottom line is that when buying meat, be as picky as your budget allows. Stop giving your money to the mega chain coffee houses and give it to back to yourself in the form of good clean food!
Eat well and be happy and healthy!
Why High Blood Sugar is B-A-D...BAD!
Over the years we are continuously being told different things about how to stay healthy. In the 80’s it was all about carbo loading. In the 90’s it was all about low fat. And now we are hearing about low carb diets as the best way to live. How do you make any sense of this? Do you just listen to your doctor? Do you read everything under the sun and come up with your own conclusions? Or better yet, do you go to school and study nutritional biochemistry for eight years? What ever you decide to do I would hope that you would take a long hard look at how blood sugar plays such an important role in your overall health. In fact, if I were to narrow it down to one major thing to consider about your health it would hands down be blood sugar!
So let’s talk about exactly why that is… If we just look at heart disease which is the number one killer and how it is impacted by high blood sugar you will see that consistently high blood sugar and insulin levels will lead directly to high blood pressure, decreased HDL (“good cholesterol”), increased risk for clotting, and elevated total cholesterol. So is it really the heart disease that is killing us or the blood sugar? Hmmm….
High blood sugar in women leads to the production of Testosterone which then leads to infertility and an obesity viscous cycle. That’s when you try as hard as you can but you still can’t loose the weight! Sound familiar? In men the opposite thing happens. Men with high blood sugar create more Estrogen, grow boobs, have prostate problems, and have trouble with getting erections. None of which is a picnic, wouldn’t you say?
Not only that, but people with high insulin/blood sugars can’t detoxify their livers well and can’t create the proper amounts of anti-inflammatory chemicals in their bodies. Both of which will lead in the long run to pain and illness. There is even evidence that colorectal and breast cancer can be linked to blood sugar imbalance. And all cancers love sugar. So once you do have cancer the more sugar in your system the more the cancer will grow.
If let to continue high blood sugar and high insulin levels will eventually turn into Type II Diabetes. This takes all of the things mentioned above and amplifies them! You DO NOT want diabetes! You may be doomed to a lifetime of hormone injections, vision loss, sores that won’t heal and possible loss of limbs!
Have I scared you enough yet? Well I hope so. Our current American lifestyle is doing wonders to drive us towards these problems. And the politicians sit and debate about how to save money in health care! Perhaps they aren’t thinking about the right concepts? Could it be that our current lifestyle is driving the country towards financial ruin? Do you think that it might be time that the government consider problems like this to be a problem of National Security and not just another way to fund the drug companies? I know what I think. You can make up your own decision.
So if you have an obese patient with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hormone problems, neuropathy in the feet, etc., would you be best to prescribe blood pressure lowering medication, cholesterol medication, hormone replacement, etc., or would you start by managing the blood sugar? I know what I would recommend. One school of thought covers up the effects of the problem and the other actually cures the problem! Once the blood sugar is under control the other problems go away. Fancy that! Unfortunately though people are being given drug regimens like that every day, and the problem is left to persist. The money just isn’t in the cure.
So in closing I want to leave you with a quick checklist of symptoms that you can check in with to see if you might be affected by a blood sugar imbalance. If you do then please call my clinic and lets get you going down the right path and not the wrong one! I don’t care if you live in Maine. Don’t let that stop you. We can do it all long distance.
Do any of these hold true for you?
Fatigue
Cravings for sugar (especially after meals)
Inability to loose weight
Fatigue after meals
Migrating aches and pains
Cranky or irritable between meals
Trouble waking up in the morning without that Vente Mocha Latte
If any of these fit your current situation then let’s get them corrected. There is no time like the present when it comes to saving a life! We could go chat over a yummy apple fritter! ;)
So let’s talk about exactly why that is… If we just look at heart disease which is the number one killer and how it is impacted by high blood sugar you will see that consistently high blood sugar and insulin levels will lead directly to high blood pressure, decreased HDL (“good cholesterol”), increased risk for clotting, and elevated total cholesterol. So is it really the heart disease that is killing us or the blood sugar? Hmmm….
High blood sugar in women leads to the production of Testosterone which then leads to infertility and an obesity viscous cycle. That’s when you try as hard as you can but you still can’t loose the weight! Sound familiar? In men the opposite thing happens. Men with high blood sugar create more Estrogen, grow boobs, have prostate problems, and have trouble with getting erections. None of which is a picnic, wouldn’t you say?
Not only that, but people with high insulin/blood sugars can’t detoxify their livers well and can’t create the proper amounts of anti-inflammatory chemicals in their bodies. Both of which will lead in the long run to pain and illness. There is even evidence that colorectal and breast cancer can be linked to blood sugar imbalance. And all cancers love sugar. So once you do have cancer the more sugar in your system the more the cancer will grow.
If let to continue high blood sugar and high insulin levels will eventually turn into Type II Diabetes. This takes all of the things mentioned above and amplifies them! You DO NOT want diabetes! You may be doomed to a lifetime of hormone injections, vision loss, sores that won’t heal and possible loss of limbs!
Have I scared you enough yet? Well I hope so. Our current American lifestyle is doing wonders to drive us towards these problems. And the politicians sit and debate about how to save money in health care! Perhaps they aren’t thinking about the right concepts? Could it be that our current lifestyle is driving the country towards financial ruin? Do you think that it might be time that the government consider problems like this to be a problem of National Security and not just another way to fund the drug companies? I know what I think. You can make up your own decision.
So if you have an obese patient with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hormone problems, neuropathy in the feet, etc., would you be best to prescribe blood pressure lowering medication, cholesterol medication, hormone replacement, etc., or would you start by managing the blood sugar? I know what I would recommend. One school of thought covers up the effects of the problem and the other actually cures the problem! Once the blood sugar is under control the other problems go away. Fancy that! Unfortunately though people are being given drug regimens like that every day, and the problem is left to persist. The money just isn’t in the cure.
So in closing I want to leave you with a quick checklist of symptoms that you can check in with to see if you might be affected by a blood sugar imbalance. If you do then please call my clinic and lets get you going down the right path and not the wrong one! I don’t care if you live in Maine. Don’t let that stop you. We can do it all long distance.
Do any of these hold true for you?
Fatigue
Cravings for sugar (especially after meals)
Inability to loose weight
Fatigue after meals
Migrating aches and pains
Cranky or irritable between meals
Trouble waking up in the morning without that Vente Mocha Latte
If any of these fit your current situation then let’s get them corrected. There is no time like the present when it comes to saving a life! We could go chat over a yummy apple fritter! ;)
Healthy Backs From A TCM Perspective
I recently gave a lecture at a Healthy Back Store location here in San Diego to help train the sales staff in ways to understand back pain from a broader perspective. I ended up teaching them about “Red Flags” in back pain. A red flag is some sign/symptom that hints towards a larger medical problem. For example how do you know if you have generalized low back pain due to a muscle strain or a kidney problem? I’ll leave it at that. Come to one of my lectures sometime to find out how.
But what I wanted to explore more with the team members and was short on time for was looking at “Healthy Backs from a TCM Perspective.” What is it in Chinese Medicine that makes for a healthy back? What basic concepts are involved? What types of problems arise from disharmony in the back? Read on to find out.
I think that most of you have seen those acupuncture charts with the man standing with all the lines and points all over his body. That model is the map of the “Meridian System.” The meridians are lines where the Qi flows and where the acupuncture points reside. If you look at the back you will see several lines extending all the way up the back. The most basic reason for there to be pain in the back, or anywhere in the body for that matter, is that there is some sort of stagnation of Qi somewhere along the meridian system. There is an old Chinese Saying which is also the motto of my acupuncture school, “Where there is stagnation there is pain… And where there is pain there will be stagnation.” (In Chinese pinyin: Pu tong su tong… Tong su pu tong.) But why you ask is there stagnation? Read on.
Perhaps the most common type of back pain and one which contributes significantly to the economy in the form of pain killers and muscle relaxants is that of the low grade, nagging low back pain. In the Chinese Medical system we say that the kidneys rule the low back. When the kidneys become deficient in Qi through overwork, stress, poor eating and sleeping habits, drug/alcohol use, and as the Chinese would have you believe too much sex (but I say , "make love not war!"), the low back also becomes weak and prone to injury. In order to avoid injury we need to have strong and flowing Qi coursing through our bodies. In states of deficiency this does not happen and we get sick and injured. The Qi becomes stagnated either slowly in chronic conditions or suddenly in injury states. We unfortunately live in a society where stress and stimulation is at a maximum. Even while “relaxing” on the couch we are playing shooter video games or watching high action violent television with amazing car chases, shouting and torture scenes. It is a far cry from sitting under a cherry blossom tree next to a babbling brook watching the flower petals blowing away in the wind. It is really no wonder why our backs hurt!
So now that we have set the stage for a deficiency in our kidneys and made ourselves prone to injury lets see what else affects our backs. Along with deficiency of Qi, deficiencies of other vital substances in the body like yin which moistens the tissues and tendons, and blood which nourishes the muscles can also leave us prone to injury. So when lifting that 80 pound bag of cement that we used to be able to throw around like it was a bean bag now just pulled something major and put you in bed on a load of soma and vicodin… Or better, in my clinic! Even things like osteoporosis leading to pain or even fractures are considered kidney deficiency cases. Besides ruling the low back, the kidneys are the influential organs of bone. A kidney deficiency leads to weak bones. Weak bones lead to injury and injury leads to pain and stagnation of Qi.
With all of these scenarios it is vital to address the underlying deficiencies as well as treat the acute pain affecting you at the moment. If I were to boil down the difference between mainstream medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine very quickly it is that mainstream medicine concerns itself primarily with the management of the manifestations of the problems and not with the problems themselves. It provides “relief” from symptoms while those symptoms reside on their own. It is Medical hand holding so to speak. TCM on the other hand both treats the symptoms and corrects the imbalance that led to the symptoms. After all, wouldn’t you rather not be laid up with back pain again next month? Vicodin and Soma just won’t help you in the long run.
In closing I want to leave you with a bit of clinical wisdom. I see clinically every day people with all kinds of medical problems. Deficiency of Qi, Yin, Yang, or Blood is at the core of most of them. These TCM concepts can lead to everything from low back pain as described here to impotence, to dizziness to high blood pressure. You name it. TCM can sort these patterns out very quickly and start you towards a path of healing the core problem.
A healthy back equals a healthy body. Listen to your body and call your acupuncturist today!
But what I wanted to explore more with the team members and was short on time for was looking at “Healthy Backs from a TCM Perspective.” What is it in Chinese Medicine that makes for a healthy back? What basic concepts are involved? What types of problems arise from disharmony in the back? Read on to find out.
I think that most of you have seen those acupuncture charts with the man standing with all the lines and points all over his body. That model is the map of the “Meridian System.” The meridians are lines where the Qi flows and where the acupuncture points reside. If you look at the back you will see several lines extending all the way up the back. The most basic reason for there to be pain in the back, or anywhere in the body for that matter, is that there is some sort of stagnation of Qi somewhere along the meridian system. There is an old Chinese Saying which is also the motto of my acupuncture school, “Where there is stagnation there is pain… And where there is pain there will be stagnation.” (In Chinese pinyin: Pu tong su tong… Tong su pu tong.) But why you ask is there stagnation? Read on.
Perhaps the most common type of back pain and one which contributes significantly to the economy in the form of pain killers and muscle relaxants is that of the low grade, nagging low back pain. In the Chinese Medical system we say that the kidneys rule the low back. When the kidneys become deficient in Qi through overwork, stress, poor eating and sleeping habits, drug/alcohol use, and as the Chinese would have you believe too much sex (but I say , "make love not war!"), the low back also becomes weak and prone to injury. In order to avoid injury we need to have strong and flowing Qi coursing through our bodies. In states of deficiency this does not happen and we get sick and injured. The Qi becomes stagnated either slowly in chronic conditions or suddenly in injury states. We unfortunately live in a society where stress and stimulation is at a maximum. Even while “relaxing” on the couch we are playing shooter video games or watching high action violent television with amazing car chases, shouting and torture scenes. It is a far cry from sitting under a cherry blossom tree next to a babbling brook watching the flower petals blowing away in the wind. It is really no wonder why our backs hurt!
So now that we have set the stage for a deficiency in our kidneys and made ourselves prone to injury lets see what else affects our backs. Along with deficiency of Qi, deficiencies of other vital substances in the body like yin which moistens the tissues and tendons, and blood which nourishes the muscles can also leave us prone to injury. So when lifting that 80 pound bag of cement that we used to be able to throw around like it was a bean bag now just pulled something major and put you in bed on a load of soma and vicodin… Or better, in my clinic! Even things like osteoporosis leading to pain or even fractures are considered kidney deficiency cases. Besides ruling the low back, the kidneys are the influential organs of bone. A kidney deficiency leads to weak bones. Weak bones lead to injury and injury leads to pain and stagnation of Qi.
With all of these scenarios it is vital to address the underlying deficiencies as well as treat the acute pain affecting you at the moment. If I were to boil down the difference between mainstream medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine very quickly it is that mainstream medicine concerns itself primarily with the management of the manifestations of the problems and not with the problems themselves. It provides “relief” from symptoms while those symptoms reside on their own. It is Medical hand holding so to speak. TCM on the other hand both treats the symptoms and corrects the imbalance that led to the symptoms. After all, wouldn’t you rather not be laid up with back pain again next month? Vicodin and Soma just won’t help you in the long run.
In closing I want to leave you with a bit of clinical wisdom. I see clinically every day people with all kinds of medical problems. Deficiency of Qi, Yin, Yang, or Blood is at the core of most of them. These TCM concepts can lead to everything from low back pain as described here to impotence, to dizziness to high blood pressure. You name it. TCM can sort these patterns out very quickly and start you towards a path of healing the core problem.
A healthy back equals a healthy body. Listen to your body and call your acupuncturist today!