Sunday 12 October 2014

Acid or Alkaline?

What makes you Acidic orAlkaline? & does it really matter?
acid alkaline alt
A food is acidic if it gives off more protein and phosphorous than the alkaline minerals calcium, potassium and magnesium.
Acidic Foods = Dairy, Animal Products, Refined Grains, Sugar, Most Processed Food
Alkaline = Green Vegetables (magnesium is the core of the green pigment molecule), Rainbow Coloured Vegetables, Berries (don’t spike your blood sugar levels).
This oxygenates your blood and will start to work within 4 hours.
Does this matter? Yes it does. Most diseases are noted to be in an acidic state. A slightly alkaline blood pH of 7.4 is ideal. There is a lot of information on the internet to convince you of this fact, however the basic fact is that if you drink more water and eat more different coloured veggies, especially greens, you will feel a lot better, have more energy and not have to be constipated or urinate so often. If you really don't have time for this, get a green powder and have it a couple of times a day. No need to go into science, just try it and tell me if it works, I think you'll like the difference. 
Chinese medicine, massage and acupuncture combined with lifestyle and diet changes can offer treatment for various conditions including Kidney Stones, female infertility, prostatitis, BPH, asthma, IBS, weight loss, pelvic pain, rectal pain, infertility, morning sickness, period pain, general pain and many more.
Chris Eddy is a registered doctor of Chinese medicine and university lecturer. He has been treating for the last 10 years in his city practice in Melbourne Australia.
Chris focuses his practice on treating and helping men and women with health conditions such as infertility.
Melbourne Acupuncture Clinic-  Chris Eddy-  Dr Chinese Medicine Melbourne CBD-  712/365 Little Collins St Melbourne 3000       ph 03 8676 0599
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Friday 10 October 2014

Kidney Stones

Kidney Stones
How to dissolve them & why they are there in the first place
kidney stone 2 altKidney stones, or renal calculus are classified by their location in the body.
Nephrolithiasis- In the kidneys
Uretolithiasis- In the ureter
Cystolithiasis- in the bladder
When the stones grow to 3mm and over they may get stuck in the kidneys and distend the wall of the interior of the kidneys (which is not designed to stretch) and cause pain. This pain is usually felt in the flank, between the ribs and the hip, pelvis, groin and lower back.  The pain can be extremely intense and may cause vomiting, nausea, temperature and blood in the urine. Diagnosis is made by history, ultrasound, x-ray, urinalysis and blood work.
Kidney stones are generally made up of Calcium, Struvite, Uric Acid, Oxalate, Cystine and other compounds. Kidney stones are most common in men, especially Caucasian adults between the ages of 20 and 50.
Standard western treatment is with pain mediating medication and ultrasound to shatter the stones so they can be passed. More severe cases may require surgery.
Causes
There are various risk factors:
  1.    Calcium. Calcium is the main component of kidney stones and the cause may be from taking in too much calcium or the body not processing calcium properly. People that take a calcium supplement are at a greater risk of developing kidney stones. High intakes of dietary calcium do not seem to correlate to kidney stones in fact they seem to prevent the formation of stones, only occasionally supplementation in accordance with other factors that we will go through later may increase kidney stone risk by up to 17% [1].
  2.    Electrolytes: By increasing urinary calcium excretion, high dietary sodium may increase the risk of stone formation. Drinking fluoridated water may also increase stone formation [2] however the main element that is possibly lacking from the diet is magnesium[3].
  3.    High Animal Protein Diet: This may explain why 80% of kidney stone sufferers are men. High animal protein consumption creates an acid load that increases urinary excretion of calcium and uric acid and reduced citrate. I have seen a lot of young guys that go to the gym frequently and take tons of protein powder, then developing kidney stones as a result.
  4.    Vitamins: There is some link to vitamin supplements causing stones. Excess vitamin C intake is loosely linked to calcium oxalate stone formation [4] however there is not strong enough evidence. Where there is stronger evidence is the link between low Vitamin A and high Vitamin D.
  5.    Other: This may include things like alcohol, fluid intake (dehydration) and medications. Certain medications can deplete nutrients and vitamins and put the balance off kilter. Medication is a very broad topic and outside the scope of this article, however I recommend the book ‘Drug Muggers’ as a good starting point if you are taking ongoing medication.
Prevention
kidney stones 1If the stones are calcium oxalate, I have a few specific recommendations.
Vitamin D is crucial to properly metabolize calcium; however there are 2 other fat soluble vitamins that are just as important. Vitamin A and K2 are also essential to the diet and in balance with vitamin D. In fact, Vitamin D excess and Vitamin A and K2 deficiency are common in sufferers of kidney stones. Certain populations that get high doses of Vitamin D such as lifeguards have been shown to have higher levels of kidney stones. Interestingly, high intake of Vitamin A protects against too high levels of Vitamin D.
So how do you get more Vitamin A and D in your diet?
Vitamin A - Liver, egg yolks, full fat dairy
Vitamin K2 – Liver, ghee, butter, fermented cod liver oil, natto
Reduction
One traditional way to reduce kidney stones is to add some lemon juice to your water. The citric acid in lemon juice inhibits stone formation and breaks up small stones beginning to form. Citrate binds with calcium in the urine and makes the urine less acidic which inhibits the development of calcium oxalate and uric acid stones.
Magnesium has also been shown to reduce kidney stone formation, although the mechanism is unknown. The best way to get magnesium is 400mg daily of chelated magnesium such as malate or citrate as they are well absorbed. Also increase your intake of pumpkin seeds, spinach, almonds and chard. In the clinic we also like the topical applied magnesium in oil and gel application to the skin, or just have an Epsom salt bath.
Traditional herbs that are useful and commonly found on the market are: Phyllanthus Niruri/Chanca Piedra (stone breaker), Hydrangea Arborescens (Smooth Hydrangea) and Eupatorium Purpureum (Gravel Root).
Stone Size
Stone size varies person to person and with duration. 98% of small stones (less than 5 mm in diameter) will pass spontaneously within 4 weeks, however only 53% of larger stones 5-10mm will pass in this time.
Chinese Medicine
In Chinese medicine we have various approaches to kidney stones. There are 2 common herbs that we use to dissolve the stones which are Jin Qian Qiao and Haichinese medicine therapeutic principlesda25fbb4dffd303eca16 Jin Sha. To this we add certain herbs such asJi Xue Teng to nourish the blood and relax spasm so the stones can pass easily, Tian Qi if there is any bleeding and Jin Yin Hua if there is any infection or inflammation.
There are various acupuncture points and protocols that can be used. One effective protocol recommended by Dr Jake Fratkin is; place needles at Ki 5, Bl 23, GB 25, and Sp 6. The GB 25 location should be dead-center at the most painful area. All needles are attached to electric micro-stim, with dense dispersal sequence, alternating between 5 hz and the highest hertz frequency available on the machine. (Certain Japanese machines can go to 1500 Hz). This will dilate the ureter and allow passage of the stone into the bladder. Do for 10 to 30 minutes, until the stone is discharged. If not, repeat with 30 minute breaks in between [5].
If you find yourself in severe pain and/or suspect kidney stones, always check in with your doctor or hospital first for assesment, accurate diagnosis and treatment options.
As a management of small stones and to prevent return of stone formation, Chinese medicine offers safe, effective and informative treatmnet options.
[1] Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium,Tolerable upper intake levels: calcium and vitamin D, pp. 403–56 in Committee to Review Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium (2011)
[2] Liebman, M; Al-Wahsh, IA (2011). "Probiotics and Other Key Determinants of Dietary Oxalate Absorption"Advances in Nutrition 2 (May): 254–60. doi:10.3945/an.111.000414. Retrieved 2011-07-27.
[3] Riley, J. M.; Kim, H.; Averch, T. D.; Kim, H. J. (Oct 2013). "Effect of Magnesium on Calcium and Oxalate Ion Binding". J Endourol 27 (12): 1487–92. doi:10.1089/end.2013.0173PMID24127630
[4] Goodwin, JS; Mangum, MR (1998). "Battling quackery: attitudes about micronutrient supplements in American academic medicine". Archives of Internal Medicine 158 (20): 2187–91.doi:10.1001/archinte.158.20.2187PMID9818798.

Chinese medicine, massage and acupuncture combined with lifestyle and diet changes can offer treatment for various conditions including Kidney Stones, female infertility, prostatitis, BPH, asthma, IBS, weight loss, pelvic pain, rectal pain, infertility, morning sickness, period pain, general pain and many more.
Chris Eddy is a registered doctor of Chinese medicine and university lecturer. He has been treating for the last 10 years in his city practice in Melbourne Australia.
Chris focuses his practice on treating and helping men and women with health conditions such as infertility.
Melbourne Acupuncture Clinic-  Chris Eddy-  Dr Chinese Medicine Melbourne CBD-  712/365 Little Collins St Melbourne 3000         ph 03 8676 0599

Sunday 15 December 2013

What dog trainers know about leadership and anxiety

Anxiety & Panic Attacks Series: Part 1 Training the Amygdala
Sit, Stay! What dog trainers know about leadership and anxiety…

Have you ever tried to train a dog? Not that easy huh!? I remember my first dog Sandy, a cocker spaniel. Now spaniels are not generally known as the smartest dogs in the fold and Sandy fitted that stereotype quite well. It took years to train him, and even then he was a naughty dog, but there are a few things that may have made life a lot easier, if I had just applied them from the beginning. The trick? Calm assertive energy, positive reinforcement, pulling in the reigns, consistency & repetition.
But what does dog training and anxiety have to do with panic attacks and anxiety? Maybe more than you first thought…
Calm-Assertive Energy
Domestic dogs were originally bred from wild wolves. They lived in packs, there was a clear leader and they relied on each other for survival. We have bred dogs to rely on us, there is no pack but we are the pack leader, therefore, we have to act like one.
When we have anxiety and panic attacks, it is the amygdala in our brain that takes over our autonomic nervous system, kicking the sympathetic fight-fright-flight-freeze system into gear. However, I have to say, freeze is the most common of these related to anxiety; I mean, who feels like fighting when they have a panic attack!?
When a panic attack kicks in it is generally too late to apply logic, reasoning and assertive measures; what we are looking at here is regulating our nervous system to do the job it’s meant to do, and train it’s calm nature to avoid over thinking and negative patterns.
So how do we become calm and assertive with our brain? We can apply logic, compassion and Socratic questioning to our negative thoughts. For example; ‘I’m no good at doing this, I always stuff things up’ may become ‘Is it really a mistake? By who’s measures? If I did stuff it up, am I the first person in history to make a mistake? I am willing to work on myself in a positive way. Do I treat other people as harshly as I judge and treat myself? Why should I keep being so harsh on myself? Does that achieve anything? I’m not a great friend to myself, maybe it’s time to move forward in a positive, compassionate and constructive way’. As someone once said to me, ‘If you are brave enough to make friends with yourself, at least you have one friend in the world’.
So what exactly are we being calm and assertive with?
The answer is ourselves. This concept runs deep but the basics lye in our positive inner voice being louder than our negative inner voice. We are probably so used to the negative dialogue that runs a million miles an hour that we don’t know how to switch it off, but we must. We must become hyper vigilant to our negativities rather than the physical, emotional and external signs that may trigger a panic attack or anxiety. We have to be a watcher and assert the thoughts. We can catch the thought and stop it, question it and assert positivity. Like training a dog, the older the dog, the longer it takes to train it. But it is possible, you need patience, diligence, awareness, endurance and of course compassion.
Positive Reinforcement
Victoria Stilwell, from it’s me or the dog is a British actress-turned-dog-trainer. She believes that most dog behavioural problems “stem from insecurity and/or a desire to seek and maintain safety and comfort.” Therefore, instead of punishing the dog when it does something naughty alone is not as effective as redirection towards rewarded appropriate behaviour.

My dad always said ‘you catch more flies with honey than vinegar’, and I believe the same is with behaviours. The problem is with anxiety and panic that we are rewarding the wrong behaviours. We have become very good at rewarding avoidance behaviour, for example; a person with a fear of public speaking or closed spaces. When the opportunity comes up to public speak, they avoid it or make excuses or take a sick day from work. The claustrophobic person may avoid aeroplanes or elevators by travelling by car or taking the stairs. By doing this they are positively reinforcing that, for example, inside the lift is bad, outside the lift is good. When you are forced to get in a lift, the whole experience is horrible and panicky, it’s very negative. As soon as you get out of the lift you think ‘ah! What a relief!’ By doing this we are positively reinforcing the wrong things. This happens over and over and it’s not our fault, we just got really good at doing something but it’s just not a beneficial thing for us.    
So what should we positively reinforce?
This is where exposure comes in. We have to work up to facing the phobia or feared situation and positively in gentle, safe steps. Then each time we challenge ourselves a little more, called graded exposure, we positively reinforce that we made it, we are safe and we did a good job and that we are working hard and getting better every day. The hard work must be rewarded and the avoidance must be avoided.
Pulling in the reigns
‘Walkies!’ Barbara Woodhouse, the famous dog trainer from the 70’s and 80’s, most famous for her saying: “There’s no such thing as a difficult dog-only an inexperienced owner,” reflects that it’s not so much that we’re hopeless and unchangeable, but that we don’t have the will or know what to do to improve ourselves or our situation. One of these techniques requires training your mind like it is a wild dog or a chattering monkey. The nature of the beast is to go off on wild tangents and spiralling thoughts, thus we need to pull in the reigns sometimes to control it properly. Two great men come to mind when I think of this concept, one is Buddha.

2,500 years ago when Buddha was alive, he was sitting next to the river meditating for a long time. He had given up everything and had become what is called an ‘ascetic’. This is a very rigid path and he was trying to gain enlightenment this way, but it was proving very harsh on his body, all he wanted to do was eat and drink to nourish his body, but he denied himself and pleasure or indulgence. While he was sitting there a man came by on a boat  teaching his student to play guitar, he said ‘when tuning the guitar, if you tighten the string too tight, it will snap, if you let it go too loose, it will slack.’ The Buddha immediately realized he was on the wrong path. Too much rigidity is no good, you will have a nervous breakdown, but too lazy will not achieve anything’.
The other man is Georges Gurdjieff, a spiritual teacher of the 20th century. He said that life is like a horse and carriage. The horse is the crazy mind that wanders and runs after anything you put in front of it, it needs to be tamed and steered. The problem is the driver is in the bar drunk most of the time and the wild horse, our mind, is pulling the carriage, our body. But who is it that is sitting in the carriage? Did anyone ask them where they wish to travel? This is our heart and soul, this is who should be driving, who we should be asking ‘what is the true destination we wish to seek?’
Meditation can assist to train our mind. It is a mental exercise and mental training. It is not something we do to think of happier places or block thoughts to ignore reality. It is where we train to not follow the lies and discursive thoughts, but to pull the reigns on our negative downward spiralling thoughts and focus on a positive, relaxed, centred, calm, present and mindful state.
Consistency & Repetition
When you are training a dog, you have to do it as early and as often as possible. You need to be consistent and the process needs to be repeated over and over until the neurons in the brain change into positive habits and behaviours.
The same goes with the brain. The less often we avoid anxious, panicky and phobic situations and repeatedly challenge ourselves with positive reinforcement that we survived and can do it, the easier it gets and the neurons in the brain change into positive habits.
All said and done it is certainly not just that easy. It sometimes takes years and years, but if you practice consistently and diligently with the right approach, anything is possible.



Monday 25 November 2013

Acid Reflux: Don't take that drug just yet!

Acid Reflux:
Too much or too little stomach acid??
stomach acidAcid reflux, also call Gastro Eosophageal Reflux Disorder (GERD) 
is often attributed to excess acid production. Interestingly this condition 
is more often not a case of over production of acid or excessive acidity,
 it is in fact a case of the stomach acid rising up through the upper valve
 of the stomach and into the oesophagus, leaving a burning sensation in
 the chest and throat.
So why does the stomach have pressure and squeeze its contents back up
 into the throat?
There are a few reasons:
  1.      Helicobacter Pylori (HP)- This can be tested by your GP and will need
 to be treated with the appropriate medication
  2.      Food allergies: Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, FODMAPs, spicy food, fizzy 
drinks, dairy and gluten.
  3.      Low stomach acid. That’s right, we’ve been led to believe that it is a case of high stomach acid but it’s more 
often low acid. The stomach should be around 1 pH but often in this case it is around 3 pH- this is not acidic enough to kill bacteria like HP
  4.      IBS and gas: Increased gas in the intestine from fermenting undigested food creates pockets of air in the intestines, increasing intra-abdominal pressure, putting upward pressure on the stomach and squeezing the contents of the stomach up and out.
  5.      Stress: Has a relaxatory effect on the upper sphincter/valve of the stomach and a constricting effect on the lower.
What to do?
  1.      Test for Helicobacter Pylori with your GP
  2.      Test for Celiac disease or gluten intolerance
  3.      Test for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
  4.      Consider an elimination diet to find food intolerances
  5.      If nothing comes up but the pain is severe, consider an endoscopy from your specialist.
Safe things you can try:
  1.      Treat SIBO if you have it with antibacterial herbs from your qualified herbalist
  2.      Try eliminating Gluten, dairy and FODMAP foods for a couple of weeks to see if it reduces
  3.      Remove alcohol, caffeine and spicy food
  4.      Don’t overeat or eat just before going to bed
  5.      Try digestive enzymes and probiotics
Call or email Chris if you have any specific queries to see if Chinese medicine can help you.
Chris Eddy is a registered doctor of Chinese medicine in Melbourne CBD.
He has 10 years experience in treating male infertility and is a clinical supervisor at RMIT university.
Please contact Melbourne Acupuncture Clinic @ Rowen D'Souza Chiropractic
clinic 712/365 Little Collins St Melbourne. (03) 8676 0599
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