One Shot, Two Shot, Red Shot, Flu Shot?

by | Nov 12, 2019 | General Wellness

One Shot, Two Shot, Red Shot, Flu Shot?

Ah yes, it’s that time again. With summer clearly behind us as the weather here in Colorado and all across the country starts shifting to colder temperatures, we have arrived in the season of the flu shot. With a clear number of firm vaccine believers and a perhaps equally formidable group claiming the practice is speculative, it’s no question that the flu shot is certainly steeped in controversy.

Regardless of our personal beliefs on whether or not getting the flu shot is recommended or harmless, we can all get on board that the influenza virus is no joke. Every year, from the autumn months through the end of spring, the flu causes highly contagious epidemics around the globe. In the US alone, hundreds of thousands of individuals are hospitalized as a result of the flu. The virus attacks an individual’s respiratory system, causing moderate to severe symptoms in the nose, throat and lungs. While it generally resolves on its own, the flu can cause complications in certain groups of people, including children under age 5, adults over age 65, pregnant women and women up to two weeks postpartum, those with chronic disorders such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, liver disease and kidney disease, and those with weakened immune systems. Complications can include pneumonia, bronchitis, meningitis, ear infections and even heart problems.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), getting the flu shot is the most effective way to prevent an individual from becoming sick with the flu, and IF they do catch the flu, the flu shot may help to decrease the severity of symptoms, and may also make the entire flu experience milder and shorter in duration. The flu vaccine does contain part of a “dead” flu virus, which sounds questionable, but as science has shown, it is not possible to get the flu from the dead virus flu vaccine. The flu shot takes about 2 weeks to start working and boosting an individual’s respiratory system immunity, so it is possible to get a cold or flu-like symptoms directly after the injection.

Whether you choose to get the flu shot or not this year, there are ways that getting the shot can be less (and more) of a risk to you. Read on to learn more:

  • Get the flu shot only when you aren’t feeling under the weather — introducing any foreign compound into the body can challenge the immunity. Hence, getting the flu shot when you feel sick or overly fatigued may have more adverse effects than getting it when you are feeling healthy.
  • Get acupuncture before getting the flu shot to boost immunity — ideally, 2-3 sessions of acupuncture over consecutive days just before getting the vaccine can boost your immunity, reducing any chances of adverse effects. At minimum, try to get at least one acupuncture session in the day before your flu shot.
  • Avoid getting the flu shot if you have any allergic reactions to chicken egg yolks or egg whites — there is typically a small amount of egg protein in the flu vaccine, so talk to your healthcare provider about alternatives if you have sensitivities to eggs.
  • Avoid getting the flu shot if you have or have ever had Guillain-Barre syndrome — this fairly rare condition attacks the peripheral nerves, and the flu vaccine can trigger an attack; again, it’s very uncommon, but an important thing to note just in case you do.
  • Try to exercise directly after getting the flu shot — engaging in a work-out will increase blood flow and likely aid in the spread of the vaccine into your musculature more expeditiously. It need not be a rigorous work-out, but any form of calisthenics, yoga, pilates, or moderate weight-lifting will likely make you feel better afterwards.
  • Try to get the flu shot from a practitioner who uses the Z-track injection method — When a medication is injected directly into muscle, it is called an intramuscular injection. The Z-track method is a type of intramuscular injection technique used to prevent tracking, or leakage, of the medication into the subcutaneous tissue directly underneath the skin. By gently pulling the skin away from the injection site, a zigzag path is left after the injection is given, helping to seal the injection into the muscle. This will also help minimize familiar post-vaccine soreness in your arm.

Ready to get your flu shot? Start by booking your acupuncture session to boost immunity!

    September 12th is National Day of Encouragement

    by | Sep 11, 2019 | General Wellness

    September 12th is National Day of Encouragement

    Sometimes, along with the physical act of treatment, we find it is necessary to not only treat the body, but also to tend to our patients’ emotional aspects and any parts of their hearts and minds that teeter on the brink of doubt and uncertainty. It’s hard to always feel like we know what we’re doing. Life is complex, and at times, the complexity of life can leave us distrustful of whether or not we are walking the right paths – in education, relationships, professions, and even how we are trying to stay with our healthy patterns.

    We love encouraging our patients. Whether it’s in the course of their treatment options, or with other aspects of their lives, we try to encourage our patients each time they come into the clinic to see us. That’s why we love that TOMORROW is NATIONAL DAY OF ENCOURAGEMENT!  (It’s also National Report Medicare Fraud Day, but we found that fact slightly less inspirational. 😉 )

    This day is dedicated to uplifting people around us and making a positive impact. National Day of Encouragement was intended for all of us to do something to offer encouragement to those around us, whether it is someone at work or in our personal lives, one of our children, parents, or siblings.

    We’ve come to appreciate that kindness and assurance can be very empowering for both the people receiving the reassurance, and also those giving it. Empowering others can empower your Self.

    HOW TO OBSERVE

    • Make deliberate acts of encouragement providing reassurance and inspiration to people around you.
    • High five someone for a job well done.
    • Tell a colleague how impressed you are with a recent project they’ve completed.
    • Take notice when a friend is getting close to a hard-earned goal, encouraging them to keep going.
    • Tell an elderly neighbor you’d like to rake their leaves or help mow their lawn as a way to show you appreciate them.
    • Tell a clerk at a busy grocery store or a server at a busy restaurant that you appreciate how great they are at what they do and to stay strong with their composure in the face of the busy-ness.
    • Send a card or give a call or text to a family member who may be struggling.  Remind them how important they are to you.  
    • Use #NationalDayofEncouragement to share on social media.

    Managing Back-To-School Stress (for Kids and Parents)

    by | Aug 20, 2019 | General Wellness

    Managing Back-To-School Stress (for Kids and Parents)

    The month of August is a hustling, bustling time of year! Children prepare to get back into the daily school schedule, with homework, after-school activities and sports, and reconnecting with friends. Parents run around gathering school supplies, meal-planning, juggling school and work schedules, figuring out ride-shares, and oftentimes dealing with the stress their children are experiencing. But the kids aren’t the only ones who may feel stressed and anxious in the back-to-school relay. Parent need to practice self-care, while simultaneously caring for their little ones. Little steps can get you there! If your household tends to experience some mild (or perhaps not-so-mild) distress in the weeks preceding the return to school, or the first few weeks of school, read on for some helpful tips on making it through to the other side!

    Hear what your child is saying — sometimes children are fairly happy mumbling nonsense to themselves all day. Sometimes however, they’re trying to tell you something important. If they are exhibiting signs of being stressed, or better yet, verbally telling you that the notion of returning to the school year is concerning them, believe them. There are a number of reasons your child could be upset by the idea of going back to school. While some of these reasons could be trivial (they like sleeping in and playing with their toys or video games rather than be at school), some reasons could be more serious (there could be a person at the school who upsets them, or they could have a more notable form of separation anxiety from you or someone else in the household).

    Once you have a better understanding of what exactly is troubling your child, take steps to mitigate that discomfort. Perhaps a heart-to-heart to explain that many people don’t like to leave their loved ones, but it’s not forever, it’s just for a little while. Or maybe bigger steps need to be taken, such as contacting school administration or another parent, such as in the case of a bully at school. The steps you take will be individualized as to what it is your child needs, but once they feel heard, ensure that you not only understand what they are trying to communicate, but assure them that you are taking action to alleviate their distress.

    Understand the importance of bedtime — sleep is critical to the health and happiness of all humans, we all know this. However, while 8 hours of sleep might be more than enough for some adults, many parents will agree that their children often require more to function (and behave) well. With younger children (aged 4-9), up to 12 hours of sleep each night might be necessary. And even with high schools, sometimes 8-10 hours is the magic number to have them feeling their best.

    Getting your kids to be on time can make the difference between a good day and a bad day. And best of all, once they are asleep, you can begin your process of winding down the day and eventually, getting to sleep yourself!

    Utilize positive phrases and language — the power of words in relation to mindset can be impressive. Avoiding anxiety-inducing phrases such as “it’s almost time to go to school” and “you’re going to be late” with children that are dreading the journey can help to alleviate apprehension. Instead, consider keeping their attention in the moment with keen perceptions (“I’ve never noticed how red your shoes are!”), or fun challenges (“do you think you can hop down these last couple of steps all at once?”).

    More importantly, replacing words that indicate the chore-like quality of a task with words that emphasis that the experience is going to be fun and interesting can help to shift a negative mindset. Using “you get to” instead of “you have to,” for example. Or finding ways to emphasize how much they’re going to learn (whilst doing their homework, or while at a day of school), or the new people they are going to get to meet, to draw the attention towards the positive aspects. (All these little mind-tricks work on adults, too, by the way. If you’ve found yourself dreading a work project, you may try to use these little tools on yourself!)

    Get to know your neighbors and community — sometimes, it really does take a village. If your kids are heading to school for the first time, or starting at a new school, finding alliances with other parents in the neighborhood or in the same grade/class as your child can be a huge blessing. You may end up getting along, building trust, and exchanging numbers so that you can help each other through the odds and ends of daily school life. Dropping kids off, picking kids up, carting kids to after-school activities or field trips and the like become much easier when the tasks are shared and split up.

    Even just getting familiar with the people in your neighborhood can create a safer environment. If you know a neighbor is headed out of town for a vacation for a week or two, volunteer to water their plants/lawn, or get their mail, or take in the newspaper. It can help the neighborhood feel protected, and build rapport so that others may do the same for you at some point.

    Make time to connect and play — playtime isn’t just important for puppies and kittens. Animals continue to practice active play all the way into their adulthood. If we can spend 30 minutes to one hour each day with our loved ones after school and work to connect, have some good conversation where you can ask questions about how each others’ days went, play a game, spend some time in the yard or walking outside, enjoy dinner together, or even just reading to them for a little while at bedtime, we can create a stronger bond that builds resilience towards the daily stressors of life, and help to be strong for one another when things get tough.

    This one is especially important for parents! Giving yourself some time to connect with YOU and to play, or find some Rest and Relaxation, can make a huge difference in the patience you have with the your family. While the kiddos are at school or busy with the after-school activities, whenever you can find some time, get an acupuncture treatment, schedule a massage, come in for an energy-balancing Reiki session, enjoy a facial at the spa, or go to a yoga class! Getting your endorphins flowing and releasing oxytocin can do wonders on a person’s stress levels. Now is the perfect time to take care of YOU.

    The Science Behind the Coffee-Withdrawal Headache

    by | Jul 3, 2019 | General Wellness, Nutrition

    The Science Behind the Coffee-Withdrawal Headache

    Love coffee? It’s one of life’s small treasures — the delicate aroma of a cappuccino, the sour zest of an espresso, and the ardent texture of a flat white are hard to beat. Coffee is wonderful. And enjoyed in small amounts and somewhat infrequently, coffee is fairly harmless. But something slightly sinister happens when we gain a dependency on it, and it can be an unpleasant surprise…

    Our brains are notified of the need for sleep by measuring a chemical which is produced in small quantities through out the day, and begins to build up in higher amounts near the end of the day. When we enter our soft slumber, this chemical, adenosine, gets cleared out by the processes of sleep, during which brain wave activity changes and our nervous system is less reactive to external stimuli. Lots is happening while we are “resting,” and the clearing out of stagnant chemicals is just one of the tasks our brains accomplish while we are in repose. Once we are awake, the adenosine begins to build up again, slowly. The more of it we have in our brains, the more we begin to perceive ourselves as “getting tired.” We of course eventually fall asleep, and our brain clears the adenosine out and resets it to to a low (or empty) quantity for the next day, when the cycle starts all over again.

    When we consume coffee, the caffeine essentially works to block our brain’s ability to measure this chemical. In the most basic of definitions, our brain has “chemical receptors” to which certain types of chemicals bond. When the adenosine chemical “connects” to its receptor, that’s how our brain is aware of how much of it is currently present within the brain. However, when we drink caffeine, it gets in between the chemical and the receptors, preventing them from bonding. So even though we may have an abundance of this chemical in our brain because we’ve been awake for a long time or didn’t get enough sleep last night, caffeine creates the illusion that our brain has no adenosine present at all, and thus is properly well rested with no need for sleep at the moment. This gives the false appearance that we may continue functioning with a clear-head and alert state of mind, since our brain isn’t trying to get us to wind down for sleep, as it currently seems like we don’t need any! We can think of the receptors like smoke detectors – caffeine stops the receptors from detecting the smoke.

    One day, when we don’t have our typical 1 or 2 (or more) cups of coffee, we may experience a staggering headache. The reason we get what we perceive as a “headache” from caffeine withdrawal is because, eventually, our brains begin to realize the trick caffeine is playing, and in true evolutionary spirit, it attempts to adapt by creating new receptors to measure the adenosine levels. It recognizes that we are blocking the receptors, and by creating new ones, there won’t be enough caffeine to block all of them. This is why, over time, we must consume more caffeine in order to feel similar effects. The brain simply adjusts to the caffeine and tries to return our sleep cycle to normal. The headache arises because when we do not consume any caffeine, our brain falsely believes we’re significantly more tired than we actually are, because these receptors are measuring ALL of the adenosine in our brain, instead of just the modified amount it had gotten used to measuring when the caffeine was blocking it. We are thus totally crashing as a result of detecting the virtual plethora of adenosine that it wasn’t detecting before.

    So there you have it. The functionality of WHY our brains seem to revolt when we don’t give it that daily dose of caffeine. Best thing to do? Give a clean reset — no caffeine for at least a week, and then start to slowly enjoy coffee again in moderate doses.

    Migraines, Headaches, and Nonpharmacologic Treatment Options

    by | Jun 18, 2019 | Acupuncture

    Migraines, Headaches, and Nonpharmacologic Treatment Options

    June is Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, providing an opportunity to increase awareness around the invisible disease that plagues so much of our population. This month we explore this topic and delve into the symptoms, causes, and treatment methods for individuals who suffer from these disorders.

    Headaches are defined as pain or “aching” in any region of the head. The pain may be dull or sharp, localized to one spot or traveling from place to place on the head, and may be subtle in pressure or feel extremely vice-like. While many of us may be familiar with the irritating presence of a headache, migraines are less common but still quite prevalent. There are more than 3 million cases of migraines each year in the United States alone. Migraines are a recurring type of headache that can cause moderate to severe pain that is typically experienced as “pulsing” or “throbbing.” They may be accompanied by extreme sensitivity to light and sounds, and may render the victim of the migraine unable to function normally in their day-to-day routine.

    While a dull headache may be something that is able to be ignored and “worked around” in order to continue doing one’s job, studying in school, or enjoying dinner with the family, some types of headaches, as well as most types of migraines, can be utterly debilitating, leaving the individual feeling weak or dizzy, perhaps curled in a ball on the couch or in bed, and feeling helpless. With symptoms this severe, it is easy to understand the tendency to completely detach from the world, avoiding light, noise, and excessive external stimulation.

    So what is causing these terrible symptoms of pain, and what can we do to decrease them, or better yet, avoid them entirely?

    There are several factors that may cause headaches or migraines. Here is a brief list of some of the more common causes:

     

    • Weather changes – extreme changes in barometric pressure, such as going from a bright and sunny day to suddenly having heavy cloud cover with strong rains or hail approaching, does a number on our bodies.
    • Changes in light – exposure to bright or fluorescent lighting
    • Stress – high stress situations raise our blood pressure, which can lead to excessive pressure in the brain, which can cause pain.
    • Hormonal changes, such as those accompanying menstruation (common), pregnancy, and ovulation
    • Oral contraceptives – just as hormone changes can cause headaches, so too can ingesting oral contraceptives, which contain hormones and must travel through the entire digestive systems of the bodies, which can have adverse effects.
    • Pharmaceuticals – some forms of medications, such as vasodilators, may cause changes in our blood pressure that can result in aching in the head.
    • Strong odors (eg, perfumes, colognes, petroleum distillates)
    • Smoking – smoking, as well as the inhalation of second-hand smoke, can cause headaches and migraines, as nicotine is a vastactive substance, which means it can change the size of blood vessels, which can trigger headaches just like changes in blood pressure.
    • Head trauma – perhaps obviously, trauma to our brains or skulls can have lingering effects on our health, including causing chronic headaches or migraines.
    • Too little, or too much sleep – new findings have shown that lack of sleep triggers ‘migraine proteins’ — key proteins that arouse the nervous system and can either trigger or suppress pain; likewise, too much sleep may throw off the body’s natural circadian rhythms, which create similar results.
    • Motion sickness – migraine sufferers are likely to have heightened sensitivity to motion sickness, as motion sickness involves reflexes that relay in the brainstem, and may share the same neural circuitry as migraine triggers.
    • Cold temperature exposure – cold stimulus, such as is experienced in a “brain freeze,” or ice cream-induced headache, is a classic example of a cold-caused headache.
    • Lack of exercise – while there is little evidence to show that no exercise directly results in headaches or migraines, the reverse affect of exercise reducing headaches and migraines, especially in frequency, is ample
    • Fasting or skipping meals
    • Red wine

    Now that we have a clearer perspective on some of the most common triggers for headaches and migraines, we can consider some ways to treat the symptoms if and when they do arise.

    There are certainly precedents for using pharmaceuticals to treat severe and debilitating migraines. However, whenever that form of treatment can be avoided in lieu of a nonpharmacologic option, that choice tends to be better for the both the subtle nature of the body’s defenses, as well as for its overall long-term health.

    Studies have shown that nonpharmacological options for managing headaches and migraines have generally produced comparable average reductions in migraines compared with pharmacologic prevention.

    From Dr. J. Chawla’s 2019 article published on Medscape on the treatment of migraines without pharmaceuticals:

    Trials of nonpharmacologic management have produced average reduction in migraines of 40%-50%, closely paralleling results obtained in trials of preventive drugs; however, the evidence base for nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic prevention remains limited. Biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and relaxation therapy are frequently effective against migraine headaches and may be used adjunctively with pharmacologic treatments. Occipital nerve stimulators may be helpful in patients whose headaches are refractory to other forms of treatment. For more on nonpharmacologic treatment of migraine, read here.

    Another study L. Nie et al. published 2019 showed that acupuncture, in combination with Chinese Medical Massage (or Tui Na), was effective at significantly reducing the attack frequency, severity of pain, duration of pain, and associated symptoms of migraine as compared to a control group. More info on that study here

    Other studies, such as this one show that repeated acupuncture treatments may decrease the severity of headaches and migraines for months for chronic migraine sufferers.

    Lots of opportunities exist for pharmaceutical-free treatment options. Talk to your healthcare provider, of feel free to give us a call to schedule a consultation if migraines are something that has plagued your life for far too long. It’s time to find some relief.