Sep 29

Chinese treatments for women’s libido

Alternative therapies, Women's Health No Comments »


Some women who suffer from diminished sexual libido may find some help in Chinese medicine treatments:

To get some answers I spoke with Judy Mazurin, Chinese Doctor, to weigh in on alternative methods. She sites two Chinese herbs specific for improving libido: damiana for women and horny goat weed (yes, you read that right) for men.

Do these or any other herbal treatments work? Mazurin cautions, “Herbs can have an effect, but it’s not the same for everyone.”

As for alternative treatments like acupuncture, chiropractic or massage, you won’t find a sex cure-all either. Mazurin points out that it never hurts to take care of your body and recommends that a woman tests a few different methods to find the one that works best for her.

Then again, where many women feel it is their libido that is suffering—and in some cases, like if she is on certain medications, she may be justified—it’s probably something else about her body or circumstance that is zapping her sexual desire.

Mazurin says it’s common for a patient to come in asking for a boost in libido when there’s something else about her body that is out of whack, like high blood pressure. She explains, “I need to treat the other ailments before I can work on libido.”

And that, in my opinion, is the allusive “X” factor on why there will never be a magic sex pill for women. A woman’s drive to have sex is complex. People are focused on their genitals, when instead they should be focused on their all-encompassing mind, body and life circumstance.

Sep 24

Julie Chen using Chinese herbs to recover from childbirth

Herbs, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Women's Health No Comments »

Julie Chen, the CBS anchor, has just had a baby boy. And her mother will be helping her recover from childbirth through a traditional regimen of Chinese herbs:

The new mom added that her mother ha given her advice on how to get back into shape after having the baby.

“My mom has that all planned out for me. [She’s recommending] these Chinese herbs that, according to my sister, who has two boys, it’s the most nasty thing you’re ever going to drink and my mother is going to insist upon it,” Julie told OK! “I don’t know if it’s a daily thing but it looks like she went into the woods and got sticks and leaves and boiled them into this tea. It smells nasty. It’s usually very bitter tasting. It’s supposed to get your body back into top shape. It’s supposed to heal your body quickly after going through labor.”

The Big Brother hostess laughed to OK!, “I have all these weird rules my mother was going to impose on me — like you can’t leave your house for a month” after giving birth.”

We hope she’s not stuck inside with those strange herbs for too long!

Sep 20

Acupuncture for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Traditional Chinese Medicine, Women's Health No Comments »

There’s some evidence that acupuncture can help with hormone imbalances in women suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome:

Acupuncture and exercise may help women better handle the symptoms and risks that come with hormone imbalances caused by certain ovarian cysts, Swedish researchers report.

About one in 10 women of reproductive age have polycystic ovarian syndrome, a condition that can start in the teen years and cause irregular menstrual cycles and infertility. Small immature cysts on the ovaries disrupt hormone production, causing excessive secretion of testosterone, the male sex hormone. In addition to infertility, it can increase a woman’s odds of becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, the study authors explained.

…

“Those who received acupuncture found that their menstruation became more normal. We could also see that their levels of testosterone became significantly lower, and this is an important observation, since elevated testosterone levels are closely connected with the increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system of women,” study author Elisabet Stener-Victorin, an associate professor who has led the research at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a news release issued by the institution.

Aug 06

Treating fertility with herbs

Alternative therapies, Women's Health No Comments »

There are a number of natural options for treating infertility:

Herbs have been used for centuries to treat many conditions including infertility. Following are five herbs for women and their uses in promoting fertility.

1. Red Clover: can help balance hormonal functioning and relax the nervous system
2. Black Cohosh: improves hormonal functioning and has been used to help prevent miscarriage
3. Dong Quai: improves chances of embryo implantation, treats irregular menstrual cycles and menstrual cramps
4. False Unicorn Root: used to encourage ovulation and as a uterine tonic
5. Raspberry leaf: used to nourish the uterus

As with any treatment, make sure to consult with your doctor before using any of these herbs.

Aug 01

Fertility treatments with Chinese medicine

Alternative therapies, Women's Health No Comments »

Couples are using alternative therapies to help conceive. The key seems to be treating the patient holistically–fertility requires a woman to be healthy, and alternative approaches to improving health increase the chance of a successful fertilization:

Priscilla Lee started going to Van Dam for regular acupuncture and chiropractic treatments in January 2008. Four months later, she found out she was pregnant.

“I was ecstatic,” Lee said. “I told my husband first. Scott was the second person I told.”

She had been on fertility drugs for a year but stopped taking them because they weren’t working, she said.

“I was so excited that he helped us and it was all natural, and we didn’t have to use the drugs,” she said.

After Sarah and Nick Longfors of Fargo spent three years trying to have a baby, MeritCare’s fertility clinic suggested acupuncture with in vitro fertilization treatments, Sarah Longfors said.

She was skeptical, but saw Van Dam anyway. She and her husband are now the proud parents of 8-month-old Sophie.

“I can’t even describe how blessed we are to have gone through this,” Longfors said.

Van Dam has helped numerous couples with infertility issues. He uses chiropractic treatments, acupuncture, and nutritional counseling on both women and men, though women are more likely to seek treatment, he said. His success rate is about 68 percent, he said.

“Basically what I look to do is get the patient to be healthy overall,” Van Dam said. “The reproductive system isn’t necessary for vitality, and so what happens is the body tends to reduce function to that area to sustain normal breathing, heart function, brain function health.”

Once they become healthy, some women conceive without medical intervention, he said.

Jul 22

Chinese medicine for PMS

Traditional Chinese Medicine, Women's Health No Comments »

Chinese medicine treats the person as a whole, not just the symptoms. This article describes how Chinese medicine can help treat PMS:

It seems today the slang word PMS’ing has become so common for how people behave or are feeling, it’s even used when referring to a man acting moody or depressed. Is everybody so stressed that they just can’t deal with certain times of the month? This used to be just a female issue. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, PMS has been addressed with herbs and Acupuncture for centuries. Chinese medicine, based on Taoism philosophy, believes health is achieved when the body is in balance. If we’re PMS’ing, we’re not in balance.

In Chinese Medical literature, PMS is characterized as a lack of the free flow of Qi (energy or our vital force). This is because we are out of balance. The balance I’m referring to is not a static object that one finds and has forever. Balance is an ongoing quest throughout life. Rarely do we all have it all the time. But, hopefully, we have some balance, some or most of the time. Within all aspects of life we need a balance. Our diets, not too much nor too little, neither overweight nor underweight.

Sleep habits, as too much sleep can actually cause depression and we all probably know how we feel with too little sleep. Our relationships need a balance in all areas, friends, family, and spouses. Work, in today’s society, seems like the toughest part of our lives to balance. Often there’s either too much work or not enough. I rarely talk to someone who says I have the perfect job. I make exactly what I need and don’t have to work more than I want to. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could all say that everyday. This would be balance.

Back to that stuck Qi and the PMS’ing we are all doing, at least once in a while anyway. At any particular moment when we are out of balance and we can’t quite figure out why, our Qi gets stuck. This stuck Qi effects the menstrual cycle which in turn causes stagnation of blood and menstrual pain. The stuck or stagnate “Qi” energy in TCM also causes moodiness and other typical menstrual symptoms such as headaches, crankiness, bloating and pain. There can be various other symptoms as well. TCM addresses the root cause and the body responds happily because our bodies want to be in balance. The body functions optimally when in balance.

Jul 08

Herbs for endometriosis

Traditional Chinese Medicine, Women's Health No Comments »

A small study has shown that Chinese herbs may be beneficial in treating endometriosis:

The two studies had promising results, although they don’t give us enough information. In one study, women who’d had an operation to remove endometriosis patches were given either a hormonal treatment (gestrinone) for 3 months, or Chinese herbal medicine for 3 months, after surgery. Afterwards, more than 9 in 10 women in both groups said they no longer had symptoms of endometriosis, such as pain and tiredness.

In the second study, researchers compared Chinese herbal medicine with another hormonal treatment (danazol). Again, both groups took the treatment for 3 months, but neither group had surgery to remove endometriosis patches first. More than half of the women who took Chinese herbal medicine said they no longer had symptoms of endometriosis after treatment, compared with about 1 in 10 women who took danazol.

Tell me more about the study’s findings

The women in the first study took the herbal medicine both by mouth and in the form of a daily enema (when the rectum (back passage) is washed out). In the second study, half the women taking Chinese herbs took them just by mouth, while the other half took daily enemas as well. The ones having daily enemas as well were more likely to report being free of symptoms.

In the second study, although more women said that overall, their symptoms had gone completely if they’d taken Chinese herbs, other measures didn’t show a clear difference. For example, if you just look at how bad women’s pain was during their periods, on average, there was no difference between the group taking Chinese herbs and the group taking hormone treatments (danazol).

The women taking hormonal treatments said they had more side effects than the women taking Chinese herbs. Acne, weight gain, and irregular periods were the most common side effects.

Jan 16

How I threw away the map and found the road to serentity

Acupuncture, General, Women's Health No Comments »

Acupuncture is bringing serenity to one’s life

I’m more than 12 weeks pregnant and it took a year-and-a-half of trying naturally and three IVF embryo transfers over six months to get there. But what did it really take? Of course, many different things had to come together. Timing is a tricky business.

People said I’d fall pregnant when I relaxed. I agreed. But it’s like the Seinfeld episode in which George’s father, played by the inimitable Jerry Stiller, walks around flailing his arms in the air shouting “Serenity Now!” with a look of furious desperation on his face. The more you try to force relaxation, the more absurdly under pressure you feel.

Oct 05

Acupuncture and herbs for breast cancer treatment

Acupuncture, Women's Health No Comments »

Acupuncture and herbs can help relieve some of the side effects of breast cancer treatments:

The American Cancer Society recently reported that acupuncture is effective in relieving symptoms associated with radiation, chemotherapy and certain drugs. Kirk Mann, M.Ac., L.Ac., who’s been practicing Chinese medicine in Ventura for 14 years, says the treatments he offers don’t only help to mitigate symptoms, they also contribute to a positive outcome in fighting the disease.

According to Mann, cancer patients tend to turn to Chinese medicine and other alternative modalities when they feel they’ve lost hope in traditional methods. He stresses that the earlier he can begin treatment, the more help he can offer.

“They can use these methods at the beginning,” he said. “They don’t have to use one exclusively.”

Mann uses acupuncture and moxibustion (heat is used instead of needles) in tandem with Chinese and naturopathic herb formulations to strengthen and support the immune system, but noted that patients also respond very favorably to “compassionate touch, empathy and therapeutic care, which are often lacking in the Western medical system.”

Jun 02

Acupuncture and herbs for fertility

Acupuncture, Herbs, Women's Health No Comments »

Women have longed used acupuncture and herbs or fertility, but many women also find it helpful during pregnancy:

» Acupuncture: Acupuncture has long been used to help infertility, and now women are continuing treatment after conception. Njemile Carol Jones, a licensed acupuncturist specializing in fertility says this modality helps women in their first trimester who are experiencing morning sickness and vomiting. It can also boost energy to assist with the growth and development of the baby. “Women who have taken progesterone or been though IVF and conceived may experience lingering side effects,” she says. “Acupuncture can help with bloating, constipation and headaches.” With repeat miscarriage, Jones has seen acupuncture make a difference in carrying a baby to term. During childbirth itself, she’s used acupuncture in early stages of labor when the cervix isn’t dilating or the labor isn’t progressing. “You can’t force a baby to come until he or she is ready,” says Jones, “but acupuncture can help harmonize the body’s chi and relax a first time mom who’s fearful of delivery.”

» Herbs: Ginger by itself is useful to quell nausea, but Chinese herbs can be used for more serious pregnancy ailments, such as strengthening the mother’s ability to hold a child inside. Some mothers-to-be simply want to forego over the counter meds and use herbs instead. But proceed with caution. The best course of action is to see a Chinese herbal practitioner with experience in this area. “Ask about their background,” advises Jones. The practitioner will prepare a prescribed formula for a woman’s particular condition. “Two women might come to me with so much nausea neither one can eat, but I’ll create two different formulas depending on their history and health.”

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