Each month rotating guest writers offer a review of the monthly meeting
program. This month Marco Branco offers a recap of the May meeting.
Be Well, Be Happy, Be Peaceful
Re-evaluating Western Medicine Through an Eastern Perspective
"Be well, be happy, be peaceful," says John Nieters, a licensed Chinese Herbal Therapist and a Professor of Herbology at the Academy of Chinese Culture and Health Sciences at the Bodhisattva Healing Arts Center in Alameda. Nieters offers some advice to his fellow Americans, who he says are living in an increasingly unhealthy culture. Despite increased health awareness in recent years, many Americans are still missing the point when it comes to health, and it is killing them. Chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, auto immune disease, cerebral vascular disease and dementia diseases are skyrocketing in the United States. Most of these diseases share a common cause-inflammation. The number one cause of inflammation is stress, which is a prevalent characteristic of the modern American lifestyle.
Nieters suggests that stress wears on us mentally, emotionally, and physically. Carpal tunnel syndrome is one particular form of physical stress currently on the rise due to changes in the way Americans work. Those suffering from carpal tunnel often choose surgery as the answer to their problem. However, the success rate of surgery on carpal tunnel patients is unconvincing. Only one third of surgery patients report improvement in their condition, while one third of patients report no change in their condition, and one third actually report that their condition got worse post-surgery. Physical therapy is another option for carpal tunnel patients. Although Nieters feels that therapy is more successful than surgery, he feels that it still does not target the source of stress as successfully as Chinese medicine, which focuses on the stress that causes carpal tunnel. He says that patients who practice Tai Chi and change their diets are very successful in curing their ailment.
Nieters warns that conventional Western medicine often prescribes impractical and drastic measures to overcompensate for something as simple as stress. American doctors often deal with physical, mental and emotional problems by prescribing drugs to patients. These drugs do not necessarily help a patient's well being as a whole. Even worse, doctors rarely lower the drug dosage prescribed to patients. Such over-compensation throws off the body's natural balance and promotes drug dependency, tolerance and addiction.
Nieters remarked that Western medicine isn't designed to bring balance to the body; instead it shifts stress elsewhere in a vain hope that it will disappear on its own. This is where knowledge of Chinese medicine is useful. The primary goal of Chinese medicine is to seek and maintain balance in the body. Students of Eastern medicine believe that the body heals itself, and sometimes it is necessary to remind the body how to heal itself. The theory behind Eastern Medicine is that once the body achieves balance, the body is then capable of self-medication.
Nieters suggests several ways we can change our lifestyles in order to restore balance in our lives. We can first re-evaluate our diet. Auto-intoxication is killing our culture. We fill our bodies with harmful substances; the foods we eat and the air we breathe trigger inflammation in our bodies. It is beneficial to eliminate dairy products from your diet, but if you do continue to consume dairy steer clear of homogenized milk. This type of milk undergoes a screening process which breaks down unhealthy indigestible fats into small molecules that the body can absorb. Also avoid frying your food, and stay away from polyunsaturated fats. However, fat is not necessarily your enemy (remember that Chinese medicine promotes balance) so some fats are important-particularly Omega 3 fatty acids, which can be found in fish. Omega 3 fatty acids reduce the risk of heart disease. In countries like Japan where fish consumption is high, the population is generally healthier than in countries where fish is not a staple of the typical diet. Anti-oxidants are also an important element of your diet-they remove dangerous toxins found in the body. Green tea, grapes, fruits and vegetables are all excellent anti-oxidants.
Air pollution is another reason for health decay in the United States. Oxygen levels have been continually decreasing for sometime. In 1960, oxygen levels were measured at around twenty one percent, in 1990 they were measured at nineteen percent, and as of 2000 they measured as low as ten percent in metropolitan areas including Los Angeles. These numbers are shocking considering that core samples taken from glaciers dating back to the ice age show oxygen levels were once as high as fifty percent. This means that humans evolved in an environment with significantly higher oxygen percentages than are present in our current atmosphere.
According to Nieters, many Americans run on "borrowed energy". They drink coffee, take energy pills and even depend on will power to get through their busy daily lives. Running on borrowed energy eventually catches up with a person and can lead to chronic fatigue syndrome. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to find time to exercise the more stressful and busy we get. Not sure if you're getting enough exercise? Nieters says to look under your tongue for bulging dark blood vessels. This indicates poor blood flow and that your body is in dire need of aerobic exercise, which promotes circulation and raises energy levels. Also watch your cortisone levels which measure stress. People suffering from chronic fatigue often have low cortisone levels. Also important are abdominal breathing exercises, which promote proper breathing. Nieters suggests singing, Tai Chi or Qui Gong as ways of improving oxygen flow through the body.
Chinese medicine advocates that it is just as important to exercise the mind. Although the mind requires meditation apart from the body, Nieters claims that there is no separation between mind and body-they are intrinsically connected. To prove his point, Nieters gives the example of a lie detector test. A lie detector basically relies on the body to read the mind and is based on the principal that mind affects body. Therefore Chinese medicine emphasizes meditation to promote health throughout the entire body via the mind.
Finally, Nieters says stop listening to fad research. A considerable amount of the research conducted to determine drug effectiveness is biased because said research is funded by the drug manufacturers themselves. Nieters also says that doctors have limited time to research new drugs on the market and thus prescribe drugs to patients without knowing more than what the drug companies tell them. Nieters warns that fad diets such as the Atkin's diet are unhealthy and do not promote balance. These are but a few changes you can make to fuel a healthier and less stressful life. For further research Nieters suggests reading Reclaiming our Health by John Robbins and visiting the Weston A. Price Foundation's website.
