thieves. essential oil. soaps. sanitizers. oral hygiene. everything clean.

Have you been introduced to Thieves? If not, we've got to make that happen.

Why Thieves, you ask? It is a proprietary essential oil blend created by the Young Living (EO/essential oil company) founder whose research in the British Museum Library archives uncovered a formula with a 14th century legend behind it of European perfumers and spice traders who rubbed themselves with oils as they plundered and robbed the dead and dying. Great story. The point being that the oils are powerful antibacterials, antivirals, anti- a lot of really undesirable microscopic invaders. Thieves emerged from legend and is SUCH a strong EO protector that it just must be part of our medicine kits. And now, Thieves is the base for an array of excellent health, home and personal care products.

Let's look at what it's in it…

• Clove bud oil - analgesic. antibacterial. antifungal. antiseptic. disinfectant. immune stimulant. will numb the gums. for toothache.

• Lemon peel oil - as much as 72% limonene a powerful antioxidant. antiseptic. antiviral. astringent. invigorating.

• Cinnamon bark oil - antibacterial. antifungal. antimicrobial. antioxidant. antidepressant. tonic. soothing to gums and teeth.

• Eucalyptus Radiata leaf oil - antibacterial. anticatarrhal. antiviral. anti-inflammatory. expectorant.

• Rosemary leaf oil - analgesic. antibacterial. anticatarrhal. antiseptic. astringent. expectorant. mucolytic. stimulant.

The Thieves repertoire of incredibly effective, all-natural, chemical-free, daily-use, household and personal care items that I am a BIG fan of include soaps and sprays, toothpaste, mouthwash (my personal FAVORITE), hand sanitizers, household cleaners and wipes. Thieves EO provides the shield against illness-prone microscopic invasions and every product-version shines in its prescribed function. And, in the current pandemic universe, I always feel protected with Thieves and all Thieves products.

There is every kind of soap: bar soap, laundry soap, dish soap, hand soap. Thieves cleaners and cleansers and wipes. Toothpastes and floss and mouthwash. I diffuse Thieves EO in my rooms every day. Hand sanitizers go in my bag and in every clinic room. Surfaces and the air get a 'spritz' with Thieves Spray and I always carry a small spray to use after buying groceries or any shopping excursion. I keep hand wipes and surface wipes in multiple spots. I've found that my spaces and my days are simply better and cleaner and safer because I can use Thieves.

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Thieves Mouthwash - my favorite - an extra rave review.

Add the MINTS (for minty-fresh breath!) to Thieves EO and you get the best mouthwash ever - at least I think so - promoting whole-mouth health and cleanliness.

• Peppermint - analgesic. antiseptic. anti-inflammatory. invigorating. purifying. tasty. fresh. soothing.

• Spearmint - antibacterial. anticatarrhal. antifungal. anti-inflammatory. antiseptic. relieving. refreshing. uplifting. stimulant.

Also adding:

• Vetiver - antiseptic, immune stimulant, nerve sedative, circulatory stimulant, calming, grounding, rubefacient (warming)

• Quillaja saponaria bark extract (soapbark) - with saponins that act as a natural foaming agent. Loosens buildup and cleans hard-to-reach areas.

Spicy sweet Thieves and minty Mints invigorate, clean and freshen without alcohol, artificial dyes or flavorings.

You can brush or rinse with Thieves Mouthwash:

1. As Mouthwash: Rinse, with 1/2 to 1 full capful for 30–60 seconds.

2. As 'Toothpaste' substitute: Brush well, with 1/2 to 1 full capful and your toothbrush. Rinse! Using Thieves Mouthwash in regular and consistent 'toothpaste style' will resolve gum inflammation and keep gums especially healthy.

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Introduction made… Explore Thieves and Thieves products. You will love them too.

yin qiao san & gan mao ling

Remedies for Cold and Flu… continued

Two (more / Ban Lan Gen Chong Ji discussed in my previous blog) preeminent formulas in our Chinese medicine pharmacy for resolving common cold and flu symptoms:

Yin Qiao San (or Yin Qiao Jie Du Pian/ Honeysuckle & Forsythia Tablets) has been relied upon by practitioners for many years to combat the common cold and influenza. Originally formulated in 1798, Yin Qiao San directly resolves 'heat toxins' with two herbs: Flos Lonicera(Honeysuckle)/ Jin Yin Hua and Fructus Forsythiae(Forsythia)/ Lian Qiao. They make up 36% of the formula. In Chinese herbal medicine, ‘heat toxins’ in this context are the viruses causing upper respiratory infections. The body-response to toxic viral invaders is fever(heat). Body temperature rises in order to literally burn up and out illness. The rest of the herbs in the formula join in to reduce fever, clear sore throat and push the heat toxins 'to the surface' and out of the body. Because the formula's active ingredients have such functionality and potency, Yin Qiao San has also been the foundation formula for pediatric measles and chicken pox.

Then, a formula from the modern times - Gan Mao Ling (Common Cold Effective Remedy). Only three decades old and not three centuries, Gan Mao Ling surpasses Yin Qiao San in treating the common cold, influenza and other upper respiratory infections. It is faster and more effective because the four component herbs — Radix Ilex/ Gang Mei Gen, Radix Evodia/ San Cha Ku, Radix Isatis/ Ban Lan Gen and Flos Lonicera/ Jin Yin Hua — are specifically antiviral and make up 74% of the formula. Twice as much of Gan Mao Ling is devoted to directly attacking the common cold and flu viruses when we compare to Yin Qiao San. Gan Mao Ling has taken the lead in treating colds and influenza. Its extensive and repeated use confirms the efficacy of this modern formula.

If you have one or both of these Chinese patent medicines in your medicine cabinet, you are well on your way to Taking Care of Colds and Flu anytime and every time.

As soon as you can, begin dosing with one or the other formula. My recommendation is to begin at the earliest stage with Gan Mao Ling, taking one, two or three doses that first day. This treatment may knock the cold or flu right out. If not and symptoms develop further, continue taking Gan Mao Ling and/or Yin Qiao San (take both with more initial severe symptoms) every three hours. If the cold/flu goes deeper settling into the chest and lungs especially with cough, we move to or add another more specific cough and/or phlegm formula. More on that in a soon to come blog…

fall may be just around a corner...

If you’ve seen this month’s newsletter, then you’ve likely seen what’s posted here. If so, take a second look. If not, here you go.

September in Central Texas does not mean that actual fall is nearly here. It does mean days getting shorter, still-gorgeous sunsets, big red and orange harvest moons, new crops of veggies at the farmers' markets along with students back in school and football in full bloom. And just like summer, we need lots of water - inside and out - because it's still hot! Stay hydrated. Visit your favorite swimming hole.

Make one last before-the-cool-comes trip to the beach…

SUNSET. ON THE TEXAS COAST.

Now. The best way to ready our insides for fall and the coming cooler (we hope) weather is a slow shift in the foods we eat every day. We can head to the farmers' market now to check out the fall veggies. Yum.

Winter squash …

and crucifers!

If these don't look like a feast in the making to you now, let's get to working on those chef skills!

Here's one simple recipe for roasting winter squash ...

• Winter Squash

• Oil

• Salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut squash in half top to bottom. Scrape out seeds. (You can clean and roast the seeds too.) Oil a baking sheet. Oil the squash all around Salt the top. Place squash open side down onto pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until tender. (You can test with a fork for softness.)

Sound simple? It should be! Cooking should (can) be easy and understandable.

These three ingredients are the BASICS. This preparation is BASIC. I'm a big fan of Learning How To Cook first and foremost even before learning how to follow recipes. Although I am giving you one recipe here, it is in the style of Learning How To Cook. Gather ingredients and tools, understand, explore, experiment, taste - with the BASICS. Then, build and blossom from there.

So. You may ask: which squash? what oil? and salt? My favorite answer is: Experiment! There are many winter squashes of course: acorn, butternut, buttercup, carnival, kuri, kabocha. Oil? I love olive and sesame personally and the most when it comes to their flavor profiles and cook-ability. Test them out. Other varieties too! As for salt, sea salt, good quality. Fine or coarse. Your choice. Your preference.

With this one recipe under your belt, you can embellish and explore, in order to learn more (about cooking) and taste more (delicious versions of foods):

• Roast winter squash skin down, cut side up.

• Sprinkle with sesame seeds, crushed nuts.

• Mix herbs with salt for a fragrant 'rub'. Add cumin, thyme, coriander, pepper, cayenne.

• Try the different oils for their subtle flavor changes.

• Cut the halves into 1 inch or 2 inch thick rounds. Oil, salt and bake.

• Add a sweetener to top: honey, maple syrup, agave.

• Roast skin down and 'stuff' with a spoonful of cooked grain plain or mixed with veggies.

And this is just ROASTING! Wait until you try other cooking methods. Check in again for more methods and recipes to come.

fertility and acupuncture

Next month, another Mother’s Day will come around which will include me since I am definitely a mother. I mark the occasion with sons and now a daughter-in-law! I’ve been lucky in life to have been pregnant, given birth and to have experienced parenthood with all its challenge, reward -  and love. 

The happiness in the reason for the day has me thinking about a particular happiness in my practice: working with hopeful moms-to-be, some just coming to the decision to start ‘trying’ and some coming after a time of 'trying' - even a long time of ‘trying’. Moms - and dads - come for treatment to increase or restore fertility and then they continue to come for support during their pregnancies. For those undergoing additional fertility methods like IVF, acupuncture increases their chances for pregnancy too. On behalf of acupuncture and Chinese herbs, let it be known:  we can play a helpful and success-fulfilling role in bringing fertility where it seems hard to be.

Chinese herbs and acupuncture have a long history of use promoting fertility. Can Americans benefit from the experience and the results afforded by East Asian medicine to treat infertility? Clinical studies conducted in China indicate that about 70% of all cases of infertility (male and female) treated by Chinese herbs and acupuncture resulted in pregnancy or restored fertility. These are cases of infertility that include obstruction of the fallopian tubes, amenorrhea, absent ovulation, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, low sperm count, and non-liquefaction of semen. Depending on the particular study and the types of infertility treated, success rates range from about 50% to more than 90%. We don’t see quite that percentage of success in the United States with East Asian medicine therapy but that is because the Chinese integrate both traditional and modern methods of medicine somewhat easily and have a long experience and confidence in using herbs and acupuncture. Nevertheless, practitioners here (and this includes my own practice) have had many experiences and success in treating infertility.

No single herb is considered the ‘miracle’ fertility herb. Instead, herbal formulas have been developed with the purpose of correcting the functional or organic problem that is causing infertility.

Formulas vary for men and for women, but there is overlap in the compositions of the formulas. Some “exotic” ingredients are found in some fertility formulas but for the most part, ingredients are roots, barks, leaves, flowers, and fruits.

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Using the language of traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, infertility presents with one or more of these three significant factors:

1. DEFICIENCY. Our delicately balanced system of hormones is not able to sufficiently or properly influence and direct the sexual and reproductive functions. The symptoms may show as lack of or infrequent or irregular menstruation, impotence, frequent urination, weakness and aching of the back and legs, difficulties regulating body temperature. Deficiency syndromes are treated with tonic herbs (ginseng, astragalus, dong quai) and tonifying acupuncture points that nourish qi and blood especially. 

2. STAGNATION. The sexual and reproductive organs are blocked and prevented from functioning despite normal hormone levels and normal ability to respond to hormones. When ‘qi’ and ‘blood’ are ‘stagnant’ or blocked in some way, proper circulation to the tissues is impossible. The signs of this condition can be muscle tension, anger that feels restrained, chronic inflammation, formation of lumps (cysts and tumors) and digestive problems with abdominal pain or bloating. Blood stagnation often occurs after a childbirth, surgery, injury or serious infection. When there is severe pain (like very strong and debilitating menstrual cramps) or lumps or swellings that are hard (rather than soft and fluid filled) we think, stagnation. Stagnation is treated with points and with herbs that are ‘moving’ and directional.

3. HEAT. Infection or inflammation can cause organs to function abnormally. Heat syndromes in males may produce abnormal semen quality. Gynecologic infections can cause female infertility by blocking the passages, altering the mucous membrane conditions, or influencing the local temperature. For this presentation, we use herbs that reduce, clear and inhibit infection and inflammation and with acupuncture protocols that do the same.

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In each of these three conditions, the purpose of the acupuncture treatment and an accompanying herbal formula is to correct the underlying body imbalance in order to restore normal function. Western medicine will diagnose tubal blockage (which usually corresponds to blood STAGNATION) and infection (which corresponds to HEAT) and in many cases successfully treats these causes of infertility. Western medicine does not generally assess or diagnose DEFICIENCY presentations and many of the STAGNATION presentations as we know them in Chinese medicine. With herbs and acupuncture we address these issues with our patients and improve the potential for achieving and maintaining pregnancy all the way to giving birth. 

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