For best results, we recommend that a woman seek acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatment three months prior to beginning IVF. While three months may seem like a long time, especially after a lengthy battle with infertility, preparing for IVF in this way actually saves time and money by providing a stronger foundation for success. Because acupuncture improves your overall gynecological heath: regulates hormones, helps you produce more and higher quality eggs, and thickens the uterine lining, acupuncture and herbs greatly increase the chances that your first IVF cycle will be a success.

If you do not wish to or cannot wait three months to begin IVF, don’t worry. Many studies show that as few as two treatments (immediately before and after implantation) can dramatically improve your chances of success.

Once you have become pregnant, acupuncture can help maintain a healthy pregnancy by preventing miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. Acupuncture is a natural and safe way of ensuring a healthy and gentle pregnancy.

Rub your points: Kidney 3: This point is located in the depression between the inner ankle and Achilles tendon. At the same level as the ankle bone. This point can be used to treat many symptoms-low back, ankle and foot pain, abdominal pain and discomfort, deafness, tinnitus, headache, dizziness, cough, asthma, wheezing, poor memory, impotence, irregular menstruation, and excessive dreaming.

Aromatherapy for winter: Protect yourself against winter time sniffles and sneezes with eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary, lemon, tea tree, thyme and cedar. Mix 10-20 drops of each oil into water, pour into diffuser or mist sprayer, and use in your home or office. You can also place drops onto a handkerchief to smell through out the day.

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2010!
Kyla Boles

According to traditional Chinese medicine, common signs of toxin buildup include constipation, poor digestion, and a heavy feeling in the body. Emotional toxicity may present as irritability, insecurity, and poor concentration.

Many common foods are thought to prevent and alleviate these symptoms.  Some of the most powerful anti-toxin foods include lemons, bananas, sweet potatoes, tofu, Swiss chard, radishes, and turnips.

Figs are also detoxifiers. They are said to moisten and clean the large intestine and balance a diet of rich foods. The following recipe for fig-sesame jam is mildly sweet and versatile. For breakfast, spread it on whole-grain toast or mix it with plain yogurt. For lunch or dinner, pair it with manchego cheese or try it as an unusual yet delicious accompaniment to pork.

Fig-Sesame Jam
Recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine, August 2001

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Simmer sugar and water in a heavy saucepan; stir until sugar is dissolved. Gently stir in figs, zest, and lemon juice. Simmer, uncovered, until thick and syrupy, 1 3/4 to 2 hours. Gently add toasted sesame seeds.

Elizabeth Lynch is a Chicago-based photographer and writer who focuses on food, cooking, and health.

The American Institute of Stress estimates that between 75 and 90 percent of visits to primary care physicians in the United States are motivated simply by stress.  Stress can manifest as headaches, digestive problems, decreased immunity or autoimmune reactions, neck and back pain, high blood pressure, chest pain, insomnia, and anxiety and depression. Sometimes these symptoms represent only the tip of the iceberg of a serious condition which requires all the big guns of high tech medicine; more often, though, they are exactly what they look like, which is stress.  Once the possibility of a danergous underlying pathology has been eliminated, conventional medicine has little to offer in terms of treating stress, other than antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication.  While we are increasingly aware of the connection between stress and  the development of serious health problems which will eventually require expensive, high tech treatment, the prevention of chronic rather than infectious disease remains one of conventional medicine’s greatest weaknesses.

Acupuncture in its pure form is the simplest, low-tech, broadest spectrum remedy for the most common health problems in America.

Adapted from The Remedy, Lisa Rohleder, L.AC