Park Slope acupuncturist and herbalist Karen Vaughan isn’t immune to holiday excess. She loves to make her own eggnog and her calendar is chock-a-block with holiday parties, but Vaughan, who has a Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine, knows better than most how to navigate through this season of alcoholic merriment without a long-running hangover.
Do women need to think about drinking differently than men?
Yes, women get intoxicated more easily than men. Not only because of their body size, but because their fat proportion is different and alcohol simply goes to our heads faster than men’s. Be especially careful about Champagne and sparking wines. The carbon dioxide in these drinks carries alcohol to the blood stream much faster.
The women’s magazines are telling us how to stay away from the canapes. What’s your advice? Actually fattening holiday foods are the perfect appetizer to alcohol. Eat some cheese, or even have a glass of whole milk an hour before you’re going to have a drink. The fat coats the stomach and interferes with the absorption of alcohol. Timing is important. If you have that cheese more than an hour before, it may be too digested to help and if you have it at the same time it won’t have enough time to coat the stomach.
What if you’re trying to avoid high fat holiday foods?
Then have a seaweed salad before a party. Seaweed is high in fiber, and it will slow down the absorption of alcohol. Imagine pouring your drink into a sponge and you get the idea.
What if, despite your best efforts to drink sensibly, you have too much to drink. Any herbal hangover remedies?
There’s a really effective Chinese remedy. So effective, in fact, that one of my teachers didn’t like to tell his students about it for fear they’d abuse it! It’s called Bao He Wan and it’s easy to find in Chinatown. Hawthorn is one of the main ingredients. Generally it’s used for food stagnation in the system, but it’s also very good if you’ve overindulged in alcohol. But my best advice is to avoid needing the Bao He Wan by alternating alcoholic beverages with virgin ones. And if you’re going to have a gin or vodka tonic, by all means order it “light” on the alcohol. There’s nothing wrong with a holiday buzz, but you don’t want to get drunk.
For appointments and rates, contact Acupuncture and Herbs by Karen Vaughan,
253 Garfield Place, 1R, Brooklyn, NY 11215, (718) 622-6755, www.acupuncturebrooklyn.com
Attention sufferers of menopause symptoms – Are you sick and tired of PMS, hot flashes, unexplained weight gain, fatigue, low sex drive and other symptoms? Want to get your life back and start ENJOYING LIFE AGAIN? Then please read the results of this study:
Therapeutic effects of Klimakt-Heel® compared with a phytotherapeutic preparation for the treatment of menopausal symptoms – a randomized study *
SUMMARY:
In dissatisfaction with conventional therapies, many of today’s women turn to complementary and alternative medicine for treatment of menopausal symptoms. However, scientific studies on the effectiveness and safety of such therapies are lacking. In this study performed in a randomized fashion, women with menopausal symptoms were allocated to either the homeopathic preparation Klimakt-Heel® or to the phytotherapeutic medication Femolene Ultra® for 12 weeks.
The response to treatment and the smoothness of therapy over time were greater in the group receiving Klimakt-Heel®. None of the therapies had an appreciable effect on plasma 17-ß estradiol levels. Fewer women discontinued treatment with Klimakt-Heel® than Femolene Ultra®, indicating differences in tolerability between the therapies. A statistical analysis showed that the group on Klimakt-Heel® experienced a more significant decrease in symptoms and more women responded to treatment with Klimakt-Heel® than to Femolene Ultra® therapy.
In conclusion, Klimakt-Heel® is a safe, effective and well tolerated homeopathic remedy for menopausal symptoms and exerts its beneficial action in concordance with the principles of homotoxicology.
This growing popularity of CAM has empowered many women to deal more independently with ailments previously considered part of a woman’s condition. However, with this increasing interest and availability of remedies follows a need for clinical studies in the efficacy and safety of alternative medications, conducted with the same stringency as research in conventional therapies. The aim of the current study was to determine the effectiveness of Klimakt-Heel® compared with the phytoestrogen preparation Femolene Ultra® in the treatment of typical climacteric symptoms.
The awareness of the advantages of CAM therapies compared with conventional medical treatments is growing worldwide and the recent worry about possible negative effects of hormone replacement therapy has fuelled the need for safe and well-tolerated alternatives and extensions to common treatments.
Our mission is to provide our patients with the most effective and state of the art functional nutrition and anti-aging services in South Florida!
Utilizing the latest scientific technologies, our primary goal is to promote wellness by focusing on the early detection and prevention of chronic and age related diseases.
Our varied therapies include non-toxic alternatives to bio-identical hormone replacement, weight management programs, inflammation elimination, detoxification therapies and customized nutritional supplement programs. In addition, we have a full array of facial aesthetics treatments.
Please click on the following link to see an overview or our unique anti-aging protocols which are part of our system for treating menopausal symptoms.
Call for more information: 954-473-8925
Scott Denny, PhD, AP, DOM, FAAIM
The MultiCare Clinic
2215 S. University Dr.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324 www.naturalclinics.net www.multicareclinic.org www.drscottdenny.com
* Smit A. Komplementäre Therapie bei hormonellen Störungen älterer Frauen [Complementary medicine for hormonal disturbances in older women]. Biol Ther 2001;30(6):303-6.
Natasha has been at LCTA for nearly four years. She has been working part-time on reception since early October but previously dealt with enrolments. Here she explains what happens when a prospective student first contacts LCTA.
For the past four years I have been the first point of contact for all the enquiry calls and emails that come in from prospective students. I also worked with the receptionists who assisted me with parts of the application process.
A large part of the job was about getting to know people, helping them to decide on their studies and supporting them through the application and enrolment process. There’s a lot of paperwork involved – keeping track of attendance for Presentation Days, contacting references, arranging interviews and making sure all student paperwork is up-to-date. I was also responsible for helping students who enrolled straight into the second or final year of the acupuncture course – either because they had other qualifications that gave them exemptions, or because they were transferring from other colleges – they need to be eased in and introduced to their year group.
One of my main responsibilities was running the regular Presentation Days that we hold at the College for prospective students. Presentation Days are free and they are a great opportunity for people to experience a taste of the College. We give them a really good understanding of the course and our teaching style and quite often the decision to study here is made at one of these Days. The Presentation Day is a really lovely day and it’s so nice to meet prospective students, it makes the conversations over the phone afterwards when we are sorting out actual enrolment, a great deal easier.
This year’s Graduation Ceremony was fantastic – although it seems like a long time ago now. Everyone really enjoyed it and it was really special for me as a lot of the graduates were the first people I enrolled for LCTA when I started – back when we were in the old building on Ballard’s Lane. It was really lovely to see their journey through studying and then finally to graduating. They all have so many different backgrounds but they come together with a common goal. We see how hard they work and for them to finally achieve their goal is fantastic and makes everyone feel really good.
Apart from Graduation, September was my busiest month of the year, I was enrolling constantly and the phones didn’t stop. I had to speak to all the new students and ensure they had everything they needed, chase up fees and sort out students who decided to enrol last minute. Once the students actually start studying, they are handed over to Linda and I get on with the next lot.
March enrolment is well underway now with Eleanor working in my old role. I no longer look after prospective students but because I’m on reception, I get to see those that I have enrolled a lot more, which is great and I’m really enjoying it.
Dad’s heart attack remained a mystery to all of us. He ate all the right foods, made routine visits to his doctor, took his blood pressure medications as prescribed, and exercised daily (and not just a leisurely walk, mind you). Yes, we are all shocked and stunned. If dad was taking such great measures to live a healthful life, what about the rest of us who did not follow the same rigorous rules as he did with diet and exercise? Even more stunned, of course, was dad. He was left with questions that could not be answered. Some of the doctors and other family members concluded that it was probably due to genetics. I felt that it could not be pinpointed to just one exact cause- life and human beings are just not that simple to figure out. After all, we are complex creatures that are not defined just by our physical bodies, our cells, and our chemical composition. We have this complex brain that can store emotions and recall past memories just through smell and touch. We also have the ability to connect with other living creatures and our environment. We have a Spirit and a Soul that are an integral part of our being and if any part of us is thrown off balance in any way, shape or form- well, our bodies, mind, and spirit can compensate for a while until they are no longer able to do so on their own- then we are left with a “dis-ease” of some sort.
So, back to dad- what could have contributed to his heart attack episode other than genetics and a past of eating the wrong foods due to culture? Could it be the stress he has experienced all of his life- being the eldest of the children, feeling the responsibility of caring for his siblings and his parents, being a minor in the military and being treated as so, the post traumatic stress from the Vietnam war (he still can’t watch Pearl Harbor because of all the emotions and memories that surface) and whatever else life has presented to him?
Due to his life experiences, this once extremely shy boy became a tough man who developed a military persona of wanting to do things the EXACT and RIGHT way within speed time.
Could this be a great contributor to this awful disease? Many books have been written about how stress can affect us at a cellular level and it has been shown how stress does affect the human body chemically. (A good book that explains the details is called “Why Zebra’s Don’t Get Ulcers” by Rober M. Sapolsky)
So, with this in mind, I left myself open to dad’s beliefs and concerns, encouraging him to talk about himself, what he feels and providing him with emotional support in any way possible. I would gentle bring up possibilities in a straight forward manner about his possible stressful attitude and how he reacts to certain stressors in his life- just to plant that seed. He received routine Reiki treatments for energy healing as well as aromatherapy treatments to promote relaxation and continued regulation of his heart rhythm so his body could heal on its own. Over the next few weeks, we battled his health insurance company for him to acquire the care he needed (for God’s sake- we were given such a difficult time over simple follow-ups such as an Echo-cardiogram). We also enjoyed a nice July 4th weekend at one of our favorite places: Deep Creek Lake, where we fished, ate, and spent quality time together in Nature’s natural healing energy. We were all feeling great and so Thankful that dad survived.
Dad and my brother on our fishing trip.
Dad was under the impression that his heart would miraculously heal and that he would be able to return to his usual self. As it turned out, after finally getting approved for this echo a month later, his heart was severely damaged due to the type of heart attack he had. Because that major artery was 100% occluded for such a period of time, his heart suffered from lack of oxygen. Let’s remember that he was a walking miracle, after all. The damage to his heart muscle could not be cured; the only thing left to do was to try to prevent another occurrence of a heart attack. Thank God for modern day science and research- dad was qualified to have an internal defibrillator device placed. According to his cardiac surgeon, research has shown that people like dad were more likely to suffer from sudden cardiac death without any visible symptoms prior to the occurrence. So, in order to prevent that from happening, they now place these AICD’s in high risk patients to closely monitor any abnormal rhythms and give his heart an automatic shock if his heart goes into a lethal rhythm. Pretty amazing, ha?
So, to prepare dad’s body, mind, and spirit for this procedure- our family continued to support dad in every way. Brothers and sister volunteered to help dad with his gardening and yard work, my brother and I took turns taking him to his appointments and running errands, and mom continued to take care of the insurance business. I also contacted a couple of talented acupuncturists that I knew well, and they gave my dad pre and post surgical treatments to assist with the healing process.
The simple procedure left dad with a small incision over his left upper chest, but a large amount of swelling and pain. I rain dropped some lavender and tea tree oil over his gauze until we were allowed to remove the dressing. Then I continued with lavender and tea tree essential oils to assist with wound healing, pain, and prevent any infection from occurring. The acupuncturist gave dad treatments to help his heart and his overall recovery- providing also a nice set of ears to listen to my dad and give dad some advice. As it turned out, he revealed to the acupuncturist that he was having terrible stomach pains which appeared to look like his old ulcer resurfacing. She recommended an old remedy of pure aloe vera juice to help ease the pain, heal the wound, and act as an antacid- at least until he could get a better prescription for his stomach from the doctor. Thankfully, I had some aloe ready in my fridge and dad began that immediately with great relief. We continued Reiki treatments and aromatherapy treatments as well. He healed quite nicely physically and began to explore healing himself from the inside out.
Now, 3 months later, dad has been an active advocate for himself. He does not rely on anyone to make phone calls for him and does research for him to continue the healing process. Right now, he is taking part in cardiac rehabilitation therapy, has routine visits to his cardiologist, and is seeking help from VA for post-traumatic stress evaluation. He is also seeing a nutritionist (part of his cardiac rehab program) and is seeking any advice or changes that he may need in terms of his diet. He has become a strong believer now in energy healing, aromatherapy, acupuncture, and other healing modalities that are out there. In fact, he is opening up to Tai Chi in the future to continue the healing process. He is back to tennis and gardening- but with limitations. He pays attention to his body and rests when his body tells him to rest.
This is the beginning of a journey for dad and the rest of us. As dad continues to stand firm in how he chooses to heal, he encourages us to take better care of ourselves from a holistic perspective. There is no other way to REALLY heal.
Park Slope acupuncturist and herbalist Karen Vaughan isn’t immune to holiday excess. She loves to make her own eggnog and her calendar is chock-a-block with holiday parties, but Vaughan, who has a Masters of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine, knows better than most how to navigate through this season of alcoholic merriment without a long-running hangover.
What if you’re trying to avoid high fat holiday foods?
