Wisdom Wellness - Claudia Benvegnu, L.Ac., Ph.D.

Symptoms

What Chinese Medicine can do for you...

Even mild symptoms have meaning in Chinese medicine. This means we won’t tell you that your symptoms are "just in your head, depression, anxiety, or hysteria". Better yet, your mild symptoms tell us how you are starting to go out of balance. The best part is that we have methods to alleviate your symptoms that don’t have negative side effects. Instead, you feel better in more ways than just getting rid of the symptoms. We call that "treating the root of the problem" and "balancing the whole body".

If you want to live to be in good health when you are 100 years old, Chinese medicine is the place to start. It will guide you to modify your lifestyle to support positive habits. Chinese medicine looks at patterns that are revealed by collecting all the pieces of information that we get from your symptoms.

Every site on the body is related to one of 12 channels that connect to the 12 major organ systems of the body. Pain in a specific area may signal an organ system that needs attention. People are usually surprised that seemingly unrelated symptoms often relate to imbalance in only 1 or 2 organ systems. Click on any of the symptoms listed here to scroll down and read more.

PAIN

Pain is caused by stuck energy anywhere in the body. Muscle spasms are easily released by acupuncture. Pain from injury is often better treated with infra-red light (moxa) and very gentle, distant acupuncture. Pain from inflammation is best treated with herbs and micro-current. See a description of this on our methods page.

DEPRESSION

One of the best contributions Chinese medicine has to offer westerners, is the understanding of the relationship between emotions and the physical body. Each of the 5 most important organ systems relates to a primary emotion. Liver is most negatively affected by anger, stress, and frustration. Heart is affected by over-excitation. Kidney is affected by fear. Lung is affected by prolonged sadness, grief, or a sense of loss. Spleen/Pancreas (digestive) system is affected by worry and talking too much. Treating emotions through the body is usually deeply relaxing. We don’t actually need to "understand" anything with the conscious mind to do this kind of letting go of emotional patterns.

INSOMNIA

Someone who has experienced a recent trauma or an extended period of stress, is often unable to relax or get deep sleep. Infra-red light (moxa), very gentle acupuncture and herbal formulas have proved very effective for this. See my letter to patients in October 2007, points A1 and A2.

Research studies have shown that the body heals ONLY when it is in a relaxed (parasympathetic) state. Stress management can be important for correcting insomnia. More is often needed. The biochemical metabolism of the body may need certain nutrition from herbal formulas and/or supplements. These methods are extremely safe (the effect clears the body in 24 hours).

DIGESTIVE COMPLAINTS

A digestive system that is working well allows you to get energy from food for all your activities. Any weakening of this system causes weight gain and/or fatigue. Acupuncture, herbs, moxa, and micro current all together are extremely good at strengthening digestion. See my letter to patients in October 2007, points B1 and B2.

INTERNAL MEDICINE

The title of internal medicine here includes the balance of your hormonal systems and metabolism. Many common complaints come from menstrual issues, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause. Micro-current alone has corrected severe menstrual symptoms. See my letter to patients in October 2007, point 2. Fertility is greatly enhanced by acupuncture and herbs which can relax and strengthen a woman undergoing IVF and other similar treatments. Conception is another function, like healing and digestion, that needs the relaxed (parasympathetic) state to occur. Pregnancy benefits from very gentle techniques that relax and strengthen the mother. Holding onto the baby until full term is helped by very gentle acupuncture, especially in the ear, and the top of the head. Herbs can also strengthen the mother’s digestive system. This allows her body to be able to better use the food she eats to make blood. Menopausal complaints respond beautifully to herbal treatment. In most cases, hot flashes can be reduced to warm flushes lasting a minute or less. Sleep disturbances are greatly reduced. See my letter to patients in October 2007, point A2. Self breast lymphatic massage helps recovery from breast cancer and may be preventive. Chronic inflammation is extremely well treated by Chinese herbal formulas. It is now recognized by western researchers to be a precursor to most serious diseases in internal medicine and other specialties. Since chronic inflammation precedes the development of the serious disease, treatment of it with herbal formulas would probably prevent the serious disease. Want to be healthy at 100? Try this.

AUTOIMMUNITY

Acupuncture and micro-current are very effective at treating this. See my letter to patients in October 2007, point 1. One possible way to picture how acupuncture and micro-current are working comes to us from scientific research called psychoneuroimmunology.

In the last ten years, researchers have discovered about 40 neurohormones (e.g. endorphins) that communicate between systems of the body such as organs, immune system, nervous system and the brain. These neurohormones collect at acupuncture points. When an acupuncture point is stimulated with a needle or light, the collected neurohormones may be released and carry out communication between systems of the body.

This scenario fits well with how acupuncture seems to balance the body. This possibility might explain the reduction of a patient’s ANA numbers (a rating of autoimmune reaction severity).

SERIOUS DISEASE

Harsh treatments such as chemo and surgery don’t usually include treatments to help the body recover from the stress, dehydration, constipation and scarring caused by these treatments. Relaxation is the first step. Needleless treatments work very well in this situation. Herbal formulas can reverse the dehydration. Often strengthening of the digestion is needed before one’s appetite returns. Usually these methods allow us to compensate for the side-effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Women doing chemo for breast cancer really appreciate the cooling and hydrating herbs. Detoxification after chemo is also recommended.