By now you’ve noticed the sun is starting to set a little earlier. The daylight hours are shorter and the nights are beginning to get cooler.

Perhaps your flower or vegetable gardens are not as plentiful as they were a few weeks ago. I am one of those people who really do enjoy the Northeast weather. I welcome the change of seasons each year.

The hot and humid weather in summer makes me appreciate the cooler days in the fall. The snowy, icy cold days in the winter make me long for the warmer and more colorful days in the springtime. Each season brings its own special newness.

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Tai chi combines meditation with slow, gentle movements, deep breathing and relaxation. It can improve muscle strength, balance, sleep, coordination and, some evidence suggests, fibromyalgia.

Symptoms of the illness include fatigue, body pain, and tender points in joints, muscles and other soft tissues. It is most common in middle-aged women. Its cause is unknown, and the lack of obvious signs or definitive tests has led some doctors to question whether it is a physical or psychological problem.

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A Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously recommended this month that the drug called fingolimod be approved as the first oral medicine for MS, an often-debilitating disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks a fatty substance protecting nerve fibers. The drug, assuming it gets final FDA approval, would significantly expand the treatment options for the hundreds of thousands of Americans with MS.

Nature was the first source of medicines to treat human disease and remains an important one. The Japanese scientists who discovered fingolimod added their names to a list that goes back to the European chemists who derived aspirin from a substance in willow bark and Alexander Fleming, who found that a fungus produced a bacteria-killing substance called penicillin.

Fingolimod comes from an idea hatched a quarter-century ago by Tetsuro Fujita, a Kyoto University pharmacology professor who had investigated bitter plants used in traditional Asian medicine. A wonder drug at the time was cyclosporin, which helps tamp down the immune system in transplant patients to reduce the risk of organ rejection. The chemical cyclosporin is derived from a fungus, first isolated from soil samples, that uses the substance to attack other fungi.

Dr. Fujita says he reasoned that an even more powerful immunosuppressant chemical ought to be present in a group of Asian fungi known in Chinese and Japanese as “winter-insect-summer-plants.” These fungi attack insects in the winter with their chemical arsenal. By summertime, the insect is dead and its corpse has been transformed into a vessel for the blooming fungus. Ironically, the same properties that make the chemical deadly in the insect world may also have a helpful side for people suffering from certain autoimmune diseases, in which an overactive immune-system response causes the body to attack its own cells.

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Aging brings painful joint swelling, over-sensitivity of the digestive system, weakening of the kidneys and overall vitality, and a general mechanical decay of the body as whole. Medicinal herbs can help with this slow erosion of well-being by supplementing what the body has lost with the aging process. Unlike prescription medications, medicinal herbs have few unintended side-effects and work to enhance the body’s own abilities, functions which the body had provided for itself in its youth. The following 10 medicinal herbs for the elderly can be found at supplement stores, and can be used separately or by combining several medicinal herbs for various aging problems.

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It seems that fake paper money is no longer good enough for the dead of Taiwan, where relatives traditionally burn make-believe cash to help ease the passage of their deceased loved ones through the byways of the netherworld.

Instead, many on this island of 23 million people now opt to provide ancestral ghosts with more elaborate paper gifts — models of everything from Ferraris to iPhones, private jets and even villas. Many Taiwanese believe that burning a paper model makes a version of the item available to the dead in the spirit world.

For centuries, fake money was the primary gift for the island’s dead. The first week after someone died was reserved for burning thick wads of yellow-colored paper cash — usually at relatives’ homes.

Recently, novelty-seeking Taiwanese have increasingly turned to sophisticated paper models. They reflect a new desire to ensure that the dearly departed take with them what they need, rather than what may be useless wads of bills in a place where buying opportunities have never been convincingly documented.

Burning paper products for the dead reflects the importance of ancestor worship in Chinese cultures, as well as the belief that spirits can influence the fate of the living.

Taiwanese firms making the new-style paper gifts report booming business ahead of Monday’s Ching Ming or Tomb-Sweeping Day, when millions in Chinese communities in Asia and beyond pay respects to their ancestors and dead relatives.

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Everyone lives with stress with varying degrees of tolerance and one’s ability to deal with it. Many do not realize that there is a difference between controllable and non-controllable stress.

Just as the word suggests, non-controllable stress are things that one does not have direct ability to change, therefore, that is one reason the insurance industry prosper. Instead of fretting over the unknown, one should have a firm grasp over the controllable factors.

Sleeping habit, dietary choices, and exercise are the big three that everyone knows play a pivotal role in garnering good physical health. In fact, these three factors also affect our mental health. A person with insomnia generally takes in more caffeinated drinks and sugary foods to combat fatigue. This spurt of “energy boost” makes one more hyper and jittery. When one’s tired, the last thing on one’s mind is to exercise.
As these poor lifestyle choices repeats itself, the effect of stress and physical health deteriorates at a faster pace.

First, focus on the easy stuff. Instead of grabbing a sugary or caffeinated drink, how about substituting it with a glass of water or milk? For dashboard eaters, carrot/celery sticks and grapes make wonderful snacks that do not leave grease marks in the car. No time to hit the gym? 3 minutes of continuous jumping jacks will have you gasping for air. As for sleeping, be a responsible global citizen and reduce energy consumption no later than 11:30pm.

We are habitual creatures. It takes time to do harm as it does to make it right.
Obviously, life’s stress will not vanish when one’s sleeping quality has improved, eating more healthily and exercising more regularly. But one might be able to handle it better, to see a hint of silver lining during difficult situations.

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Acupuncture, massage and other alternative therapies have a place in cancer care, a U.S. doctor says.

Gynecologic oncologist Dr. Julian Schink of Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University says offering integrative oncology services as well as counseling and stress management are part of their larger aim of providing for cancer patients’ needs from every angle.

“When a patient is diagnosed with cancer many of them want to fully participate in their recovery, but don’t know where to begin. This program gives them control over their treatment,” Schink says in a statement.

Integrative oncology services — offered by Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group’s Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness include acupuncture, massage, energy healing and naturopathic medicine.

“Our goal is to treat the whole person, not just their illness,” Dr. Melinda Ring, medical director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness, says. “Research suggests that a holistic approach can alleviate stress and anxiety, as well as the physical pain and discomfort patients often experience while undergoing cancer treatments by activating the body’s innate healing process.”

Schink points out integrative oncology services help manage the side effects associated with conventional therapies that would otherwise cause patients to end or curtail treatments prematurely.

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DAAN’s acupuncturist Susan Yen has years of experience, please contact her today to set up an appointment.

Your back hurts. Is it because of tightened muscles, thickened connective tissue or blocked energy? Depends on whom you ask, but if you seek out alternatives to traditional Western medical treatment, you will be in good company. About four in 10 adults (and one in nine children) use some form of what the government calls complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

Through its Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the National Institutes of Health studies a wide variety of nontraditional and non-Western treatments, including herbs and supplements, energy medicine, massage and other manipulative, body-based practices.

The center has found that American adults are most likely to seek out alternative treatments for musculoskeletal problems such as back, neck or joint pain. For detailed information on hundreds of treatments and topics, go to nccam.nih.gov. Here’s a sampling of hands-on treatments in Denver:

Massage

. An experienced certified massage therapist is trained to deal with muscle and tissue dysfunction through hands-on soft-tissue manipulation that both relaxes and improves blood flow to the affected area and the body as a whole.

Massage can be effective preventive medicine, say therapists. Tess Gallegos, a Denver massage and skin-care specialist, says massage also improves posture and body mechanics.

“The goal of a massage therapist is for the client to leave with an understanding of back pain and to feel more in control,” says Gallegos. “Massage is not just relaxing, it can actually change the structure of the body and get to the bottom of the cause of the pain.”

Swedish massage specialist Stefan Paulsson explains that tight muscles pull on the skeleton where the muscle is attached. The body then compensates for the short, tight muscle in another part of the body, causing pain.

“A contracted muscle has poor blood flow; relaxing it improves blood flow,” says Paulsson, who owns Back In Shape in the Commons Park neighborhood downtown. “Keep soft tissue soft, relaxed and with good blood flow, and fewer problems arise.”

Rolfing.

Developed by Ph.D. biochemist Ida P. Rolf more than 60 years ago, Rolfing is the process of examining and reorganizing the connective tissues that envelop the entire body. “Connective tissue provides support for the entire body,” says Marekah Stewart, a certified advanced Rolfer. “It encases all of the body’s systems — muscle, organs, bones — all of them.”

When you combine gravity with any illness or trauma (physical or emotional) the connective tissue thickens, shortens and becomes “stuck,” and we begin to compensate, says Stewart.

The head may pull forward, the shoulders may become rounded, and imbalances in the hips and pelvic girdle may occur. Because of its plasticity, connective tissue responds to warmth and pressure, so Rolfers manually free up the connective tissue over a series of 10 sessions.

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While nutritional supplements such as vitamin D may help with pain and discomfort, researchers are looking into how acupuncture stimulates the brain into making the body feel better.

According to findings published in Brain Research, scientists have discovered a sensation called deqi that is obtained through the treatment, which deactivates the feelings of pain in the brain, resulting in the person thinking they feel better.

These findings have given a broader understanding of how acupuncture affects the brain, leading scientists to believe that there should be further investigation into factors such as the exact mechanism that occurs with the treatment.

“The results are fascinating,” said researcher Dr. Aziz Asghar. “Whether such brain deactivations constitute a mechanism which underlies or contributes to the therapeutic effect of acupuncture is an intriguing possibility which requires further research.”

The team is currently researching if acupuncture has the ability to successfully treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and depression. Previous studies have indicated that the holistic treatment works on knee pain and migraines.

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“Depression during pregnancy is an issue of concern because it has negative effects on both the mother and the baby as well as the rest of the family,” said Dr. Schnyer, one of the study’’s authors.

In the study, researchers studied 150 women who were pregnant and classified as depressed in a double-blind study, which is considered the most effective type of experiment.

About one-third of the women in the study were given acupuncture meant to treat depression. Another group was given a sham version of acupuncture and a third was treated with massage.

Each group got 12 treatments over 8 weeks.

The women who received the real acupuncture had a greater decrease in the severity of their symptoms than either control group. More women in the experimental group also responded to the treatment.

The patients getting sham needles and massage had about the same response rates as each other, according to the study.

The study is important because a depressed mother-to-be can have negative effects on herself, her baby and the rest of the family. Many women do not want to take anti-depressants during pregnancy out of concerns for the unborn child.

The study was to be presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’’s annual meeting.

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