Facelifts with electric acupuncture
"The ELR technique is new in that it combines the minute electrical current with light beams that simultaneously treat the skin.
The agent of change is the Acutron Mentor, a Star Trek-looking device with a small screen, two wands and numerous knobs, developed by Phoenix acupuncturist Darren Starwynn.
The idea is that the micro-current, said to match the strength of the body's own electrical charge, stimulates production of collagen and elastin, the stuff that keeps skin pretty and diminishes with age.
The light therapy stirs specific reactions in the cells. Blue-light therapy, for example, has been shown to produce a substance deadly to bacteria that cause acne, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Other types of light allow cells to absorb water or aid in the production of collagen and elastin.
Acupuncture has been acknowledged even by Western medicine as a valid treatment for pain, nausea, addiction, stroke rehabilitation, carpel tunnel syndrome, asthma and many other health problems.
The treatment points are located along a system of "meridians" that acupuncturists visualize as a sort of fiber-optic network.
Starwynn's Acutron does the same thing as the needles. It is just newer technology, acupuncturists say.
Its face-lifting benefits were first noticed by a Florida acupuncturist who used it to treat a patient with Bell's palsy, a condition characterized by facial paralysis. After several treatments, the patient's face became youthful.
Starwynn researched the effect, and developed a protocol for Acutron face lifts, adding the light treatment to extend the duration of the face lift, which varies among individuals.
Results like Koch's are immediately visible. A series of 12 to 18 treatments may be required for lasting results, Marmor said."
Tea time
"All true tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant of China, and one of its cousins in the Assam tea region in India. The varying styles of the teas are the result of their growing regions, their freshness, and the way they are picked and processed.
Tea connoisseurs snub tea bags and prefer to drink only loose full-leaf tea. If they are passionate, they learn about individual tea plantations and buy only what is known as “single estate” tea, all of it hand-picked on one plantation so that each leaf has reached the proper maturity.
The teas at Finleaf all originated on single-estate plantations.
The rest of us are content with widely available full-leaf loose teas, and if those aren’t around we look for tea bags that are labeled as carrying full-leaf tea. If it doesn’t say “full-leaf” then it likely contains what is known in the tea trade as “dust,” the finely broken pieces that aren’t considered top grade. It’s the tea most of us drink."
DAAN has a wide selection of fine teas. Enjoy!Herbal remedies
"Any British household with a scrap of land has always grown herbs for the kitchen. From the superb monastic herb gardens down to the humblest cottage, a supply of fresh herbs would have been considered essential. The list of long-standing British herbs might surprise a modern cook who associates herbs principally with the Mediterranean. The Saxons, for example, were hugely sophisticated in their use of herbs for both the kitchen and as medicinal plants. Indeed, as in modern-day Chinese medicine, the division between the two uses was scarcely acknowledged and they apparently recognised at least 500 plants that could be used for taste and health. Many of the Mediterranean herbs were introduced by the Romans, although a vigorous trade in herbs and spices from Europe and the Middle East was in operation by Saxon times. Later, this intense intimacy with plants, which also included spells and an almost magical belief in the power of herbs, such as watercress (which was regarded as a sacred plant), camomile, chervil, fennel and mugwort, came to be viewed as evidence of witchcraft and was thus discouraged and has arguably never been recovered to this day.The modern gardener and cook has, by historical standards, a very restricted concept of what a herb might be. In the monastic or castle garden, every plant that was not listed as a fruit tree was a herb. As far as the medieval and Tudor kitchen went, herbs covered what we might call salad leaves as well as being the province of the apothecary. In this area, along the Welsh borders, until very recently it was normal to source most of your own raw materials for ointments, lotions and infusions to deal with common health problems. Until the Nineties, the woman who farmed our land before us used to collect elderflowers to make an infusion to wash her hair with and her mother regarded the hedgerow outside the kitchen window as 'her chemist'. This is wholly in the spirit of the medieval herbalist, who saw plants providing an almost limitless source of good health and good flavour. There is no reason why we cannot tap into that in a modest way in any garden that has room for a few pots"
Ginseng and breat cancer
"Ginseng, one of the most widely used herbs in traditional Chinese medicine, may improve survival and quality of life after a diagnosis of breast cancer, according to a recent study by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers.
The large epidemiological study, led by Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., was published online recently in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Ginseng is a slow-growing perennial herb whose roots have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,000 years. The two main classes of ginseng--“ red and white“-- have different biological effects, according to traditional Chinese medicine theory. White, or unprocessed, ginseng is used over long periods to promote general health, vitality and longevity. Red, or processed, ginseng provides a much stronger effect and is used for short periods to aid in disease recovery.
Both varieties of ginseng contain more than 30 chemicals, called ginsenosides, which have anti-tumor effects in cell culture and animal studies, suggesting that the herbs may provide specific benefits to cancer patients. In fact, ginseng use has been increasing among cancer patients in recent years, particularly in women diagnosed with breast cancer."
Wisconsin Ginseng farmers face tough competition
"In a cramped shop filled with stale aromas of Chinese herbs, Keary Drath, a stout Wisconsin farmer and self-appointed ginseng sleuth, picked up a dry, wrinkly ginseng root, broke it in half and chewed it.
Clerks and customers of Ginseng City Trading Inc., stopped haggling in their rapid-fire Mandarin and stared.
"From China," he declared. "Not Wisconsin."
"What's the difference?" asked a shocked customer, Max Chen, who has used ginseng for 20 years. "They all say it is Wisconsin ginseng. I know Wisconsin's is superior."
Drath, 42 years old, wishes he had an easy way for Chen and millions of other ginseng users in Asia and in Chinatowns the world over to tell the difference.
The root has been worshipped as an energy-balancing folk medicine for 5,000 years. Ginseng — or Ren Shen, meaning "Man Root," in Chinese — has two types. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has a cooling effect. Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) provides a hot rush of energy.
With its rich loam, sunlight and cool summer, Wisconsin — especially Marathon County in the central part of the state — produces premium American ginseng. It is more potent and more bitter than American ginseng grown elsewhere.
To an untrained eye, dried Wisconsin roots look the same as those produced in great quantity in Canada and China. Even more troubling to Drath and other Wisconsin growers, Canadian and Chinese farmers cultivate Wisconsin seeds and sell under the same name, "American ginseng," or, in Chinese, Xi Yang Shen (meaning "Western Sea Root") or Hua Qi Shen (meaning "American Flag Ginseng"). Mislabeling and product mixing abound.
And that is threatening the livelihood of Wisconsin's ginseng farmers, whose roots trace back to the early 1900s when the four Fromm brothers began cultivating it in Marathon County. Ginseng isn't easy to cultivate: It takes four to five years to grow ginseng under wood or fabric canopies.
"Kids are easier to raise than ginseng," says Stephen Kaiser, 59, of Rozellville, Wis., who has grown ginseng since 1977. "Kids only get colds, flu or pneumonia, but ginseng, it tends to die very easily.""
Death of Toronto's old Chinatown--and the birth of a new
"Once a prosperous hive of activity, Toronto's downtown Chinatown, centred on Dundas St. W. and Spadina Ave, is now dismal and bleak. Most of the good restaurants have gone. Businesses are suffering. Only a few fruit stands remain. Litter swirls around the cold and lonely sidewalks.
...
New Chinatown is a different world. The focal point is near the intersection of Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave., on the border between Toronto and Markham. Here sit two huge Chinese malls, jam-packed with cars on any day of the week, filled with shops that are bright and bursting with products. Market Village features large flat-screen and projection TVs near its sky-lit food court, which offers cuisine from all over Asia. Upstairs, a cultural centre teaches courses in brush painting, kung fu and calligraphy.The inside of Pacific Mall, a coliseum filled with hundreds of tiny shops, resembles the markets you'd find in Hong Kong or Beijing. In one glassed-in store, a man replenishes his jars of sliced ginseng and dried fish stomach because they've sold out; in the nearby atrium, people take a short rest in vibrating massage chairs. You can also find a sprawling karaoke club and a video-game arcade on the second level.Already huge, these shopping centres are planning major expansions. But that's not all. Across Steeles, another large mall is under construction: the Splendid China Tower, whose design will mimic Beijing's Forbidden City, and which promises to eclipse Pacific Mall as the largest indoor Asian marketplace in North America. "You walk along Steeles and you see the facilities are getting more and more because the Chinese population is booming," says Fu, the former Thunder Bay student, who now presides over Pacific Mall. "In our community people call it the New Chinatown.""
