Practitioners' News

There is some circulating information in the health and wellness field about the potential for mushrooms to be both beneficial and harmful to the liver. The intention of this newsletter is to provide you with any relevant information you may need to be more informed about the impact reishi has on liver health.

Mushrooms have a unique and important role in ecological systems as a part of nature. Mushrooms have a similar breadth in the health and wellness world. This newsletter explores some of the key shared features of both ecological and clinical actions of medicinal mushrooms.

With the rising impact of stress, chronic infections, increased intestinal permeability, and synthetic stressors, auto-immune conditions are becoming more popular. The conventional approach to suppress the immune system may not be creating long-lasting change that patients are striving for.

The Farmer stares out across the fallow field and sees mud and downed branches from the storms of winter, knowing that first he must clean up the field and then wait patiently until the land is ready. When it is time, the Farmer puts the yoke on the Ox and slowly plows the field. Then the Farmer plants the seeds and waits for them to grow. Eventually the Farmer brings in a good crop, maybe two if luck is with him. This is the story of this Ox Year.

January 25, 2020 is the start of the Chinese Year of the White Rat (or Mouse). The Rat is the first animal in the Chinese Zodiac system and this is the beginning of a completely new 12-year and 60-year cycle and is therefore considered the beginning of a new era. It is also the start of another decade, all of which makes it an especially important year for new beginnings and new possibilities. It is time to bring out new ideas, new plans and say yes to new opportunities. It is a good year for reinvention and starting over.

Multiple studies on acupuncture have proven the use of a thin solid needle to be an effective technique for the reduction of pain and stimulation of the immune system. The increase in popularity of acupuncture has resulted in a corresponding increase in acu-waste. With more than 10 million acupuncture sessions being offered annually, the amount of acu-waste or acu-trash has been increasing proportionately to the popularity of the technique.

Dear Practitioners: It is time for our industry to stand up and demand that a review be done to reverse a decision that has been made by Health Canada about moxa that will negatively impact practitioners and patients.

In 2004, when the Natural Health Product Regulations (NHPRs) came into effect, Health Canada officials assured stakeholders who were selling to health practitioners only that there will be additional regulations to address this category of Professional-Use Products. The current regulations are geared to managing risks the of over-the-counter (OTC) natural products. A practitioner-dispensed product has a reduced risk, as the use of the Natural Health Product (NHP) is managed by a learned intermediary.

It is in the nature of the heart to want to experience the world. Summer is the season of the heart and the season for travel. Take advantage of the summer energetics to strengthen your heart and be prepared for the challenges that can arise while travelling.

Do you ever feel stuck in the way you see yourself, bound by old stories or ideas about who you are? Do you wish for moments when you could just see or hear things differently? Spring is the time of new beginnings, fresh growth and a perfect time to renovate how we see and do things. In the Spring, which in Chinese medicine we think of as Liver and Gall Bladder or Wood element time, we are looking at rebirth, renewal as things emerge from the Winter slumber time and begin to grow again. So much is possible!

Quite often when treating sinus allergies, the immediate focus is on symptom relief - a branch treatment. In Chinese medicine, we don’t treat the allergen; we treat a weakness or an imbalance in the system. Since in Chinese medicine there are no isolated systems, we look for the different patterns involved in this particular disharmony.

All foods share their energetic influences when eaten. Understanding single foods and their combinations, implemented with clear diagnoses and well-founded theory forms the basis of Chinese medicine dietary therapy. Hydration is key to good health, and wet breakfasts are an often-forgotten key to good hydration. Wet breakfasts—porridges and congee—absorb a great deal of water as they cook. This fluid is gradually given up during digestion, like a time-release capsule of healthy hydration.

Dampness is one of the six climatic factors taught in Chinese medicine, along with cold, heat (fire), wind, summer-heat, and dryness. For many today, modern heating and air-conditioning have eased the climatic influences—unrelenting cold or oppressively humid summer heat can be escaped by going indoors. And while climatic dampness can be an important issue for those living in basement apartments or with hidden mold, more and more what we see in our culture is dampness somehow arising from the inside. Dampness - often shadowing the obesity epidemic - is on the rise.

Approximately 285 million people are visually impaired worldwide. 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision. Many of these conditions are considered untreatable by conventional medicine, often leaving patients in a hopeless situation.

February 5, 2019 is the start of the Chinese Year of the Brown Pig. This is a Yin Earth Year with the Yin Water of the Pig below. This combination is a tricky one as the Elements are in opposition. Luckily, they are in the Yin form of the elements so any skirmishes or conflicts should be minor. The combination of Earth and Water together make mud, which is why this year’s Pig is brown! This can be taken literally, meaning that there will be more mud created in the natural world, or it indicates that there may be a lack of clarity in people’s thinking. Taken even further, it may be that there will be some mud-slinging politically – a messy proposition!

As many practitioners of Acupuncture and TCM know, Yang Sheng is the practice of nourishing life. The branch of TCM knowledge called Qi Gong provides practitioners with a large number of internal and external practices that were developed over the centuries to promote physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Abdominal acupuncture (Fu Zhen) is a powerful new system of acupuncture which was introduced in China by its developer Prof Bo Zhi-yun in 1991. Abdominal acupuncture (AA) uses the area between Ren12 (Zhongwan) and Ren3 (Zhongji) on the vertical line and Sp15 (Daheng) as the outer most points on the horizontal lines.

Unique in the pantheon of plant medicinal preparations, essential oils capture both the substance, yuan qi and the spirit, wei qi, of a plant. Inherent in plants in the same way that blood is inherent to the human body, oils carry the nutrients and the genetics to every corner of the plant. When we extract oils from plants and plant parts, we change both the concentration and nature of a plant’s natural oil content, yielding a compact, powerful, and previously unborn substance.

For years now, you have been asking us to add essential oils to the products we carry. We have taken your requests to heart and have taken the time to learn what we can about the industry and the products available so we can provide you with bioactive oils of therapeutic quality at a reasonable price. It has been no easy task, and it has taken us a long time to bring on a line of essential oils that meets the quality standards of Eastern Currents products for many good reasons. We are excited to share with you our new line of essential oils, Vital Qi.

As the holidays roll around, it’s easy for you and your practice to get lost in the shuffle of your clients' and patients’ busy lives. Of course, there are a lot of people competing for their attention so it’s important to stand out and make them realize that you aren’t preoccupied with *getting* something from them, you’re there to give and help them. A great way to accomplish this is with EarSeeds!