Tylenol shown to double the risk of developing a blood cancer

From Dr. Mercola's newsletter today:

A new study involving researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle revealed that 9 percent of their study participants who used large amounts of acetaminophen developed blood cancer, compared to 5 percent of those who took the drug and did not get sick.

Statistically speaking, this means chronic acetaminophen users had nearly twice the risk of developing blood cancer.

The risk was small -- chronic, "high" acetaminophen use raised the cancer risk from about 1 percent to 2 percent -- but still significant enough to raise serious safety concerns. Further, the definition of "high" use was using acetaminophen at least four times a week for at least four years -- an amount that numerous Americans could easily exceed without even realizing it. A large part of what makes acetaminophen so dangerous is that it's found in so many products; it's actually the most widely used painkiller in the United States.

My advice is to avoid not only prescribed medications at all costs, but also all OTC medications. They are not benign. I doubt taking one pill a month would hurt you significantly, but most people take them several times every week, or even several times every day! That is an enormous exposure to something that has been proven to double your risk of blood cancers.

When there are such good natural alternatives, why bother with painkillers that harm you?

First Aid . . . for Pets!

I was reading an article online this morning and a caption caught my eye: "If your dog was choking, would you know what to do?" No, despite getting trained regularly in First Aid and CPR as a healthcare professional, I wouldn't know how to stop a dog from choking. Dogs do have a habit of eating like wolves, that is, gulping down whole chunks of food without chewing. Choking would not be a hard thing to imagine.

I clicked on the link and it took me to the American Red Cross website where they were selling books, one on First Aid for dogs and another for First Aid for cats. As a lifelong pet owner, I realized that I didn't know how to do the Heimlich Maneuver on a pet. Now I do.

So for those of you whose family includes a beloved furry-faced, four-pawed member, you might want to read up on pet First Aid.

Alchemical Acupuncture, from Jeffrey C. Yuen

I was reading through my notes from a class in Chinese Philosophical Thought that I took with Jeffrey C. Yuen in the Fall of 2009. It was a wonderful class (well, I'm a philosophy nerd), and found this wonderful section on alchemical acupuncture:

One of the most important doctors of the Tang Dynasty, Sun Si-Miao, started using salt moxa on the navel. Sea salt represents the taste of Water, place it into the navel, then put moxa cones on top of that. As the salt absorbs the heat, it drives it into that area that is mysterious, the connection back into the source, Source Qi. That Fire will transmute that Source Qi, that Jing in your navel, and will allow you to do visualizing. If I am to go back to the formless, what form do I want to be in? The person is visualizing what they want out of their life. From the formless created the formless spark to generate form. You have to do this with “clarity, simplicity and purity, which brings completion.”

Begin with the "passage to the spirit" (Ren 8). Once this is activated, you have the "great meeting," the idea of Jiao, Exchange, between Yin and Yang (Fire meets Water). Then needle where Yin and Yang exchange, which is Ren 7,bringing Yang to Yin. Yin Jiao is right underneath the navel, and distally GB-35, left and right, emanating from that single point, nothingness giving birth to somethingness, Yin, and that somethingness gives birth to everything else. In Daoist cosmology, The One divides in two, the two give birth to a third, and the three give birth to the Ten Thousand Things (all the forms that exist in life).

Alchemical acupuncture is for patients who are stuck in their point of view. You’ve tried everything with them, but things just aren’t changing. They feel frustrated and don’t know where to turn next.

Treatment:
- Salt moxa on Ren-8
- Silver needles on Ren -7, and then GB-35 bilaterally. The needles will become tarnished by the impurities of patient’s life. (Silver is a much more powerful conductor of Qi, of electricity, than the stainless steel or copper needles we usually use.)
- During the needling, the patient is visualizing what they want in their life, who they want to be.

Best candidate for alchemy is a patient who thinks nothing is happening in their life. Patient cannot perceive any change, cannot feel anything happening. They may not be allowing changes to occur. They don't see any options for themselves, a very common state of mind. We have to open up their portals to help them get outside of their usual point of view, to open them to the possibility of change.

Practitioners, please let me know what results you get if you decide to try this with some of your more difficult to treat patients. Thank you. And thanks, Jeffrey. What a privilege to learn from you!

FDA Hearings on the Effects of Artificial Food Dyes on Children

Having just returned from testifying before an FDA committee considering whether to put a warning label on foods that contain FD&C synthetic food dyes, I am happy to report that although we lost the vote, it was close. Eight members of the committee voted against warning labels, and six members voted in favor. Not bad, considering how rich and powerful the chemical companies are. I'm considering it enormous progress in the fight for pure foods.

If you or someone you know of has ever had a reaction to a food additive of any sort, there is a webpage where you can go to report it. The FDA argued that so few people had reactions that they did not feel compelled to add a warning to food labels at this time. I know that isn't true. Just since posting on my Facebook page that I was going to testify about my own severe reaction to Yellow No. 5, a slew of people responded saying they knew of someone.

So here is the link:

I was happy to get an email from a lawyer who testified about her four year old son's extreme reaction to food dyes. Apparently top chefs are getting onboard, stating that they never use artificial ingredients of any kind in their foods, and recommend eating only pure foods. I have thought for several years now that approaching famous chefs might be a great way to get the word out about the harm that artificial food additives can do, from MSG to texturized vegetable protein (TVP) to artificial colors and flavors, to citric acid. This list is nearly endless.

My advice? Don't eat anything from a package. Eat fresh vegetables and meats and grains and nuts and seeds and fruits. Simple, right? And so delicious!!!

Influence of the Earth School . . .

Life is short, so I want to blog about Taoist medicine, not so much about the intersection of politics and medicine in general, though I'm sure from time to time there will be things I think worth saying about that intersection.

But the utter passion of my life is the medicine brought to this country by Jeffrey C. Yuen, Taoist master, medical genius, and my teacher.  That is what the Transformative Medicine blog is primarily going to be about in future.

I noticed a single paragraph in my notes from the Third Weekend of the two-year herbal course I'm taking with Jeffrey:

"The question revolves around Ming Men. If you go back to the Nei Jing, there is no mention of Du-4 as Ming Men. There is a concept of Ming Men, but no specific location is given. According to CCM, the constitution should not be toyed with, you don’t use those points casually, represent sacred aspect of body. Irresponsible to go straight to pre-natal level when you can work with post-natal. So don’t treat middle back because you will arouse the lower back, refers to relationship of KI supporting the SP. Some people say Du-3 is really Ming Men! You would instead work with Du-14 instead."

This is an unexpected interdiction. I and most of my colleagues think nothing of applying moxabustion to Du-4, thinking we can tonify the Original Qi very directly that way (well, at least KI Yang).  But he's saying that it could be considered irresponsible to work with pre-natal qi when you can work with post-natal qi. I do a lot of Eight Extra treatments in my private practice, it's just the sort of patients I get, people who want to go in and work out all the kinks from their childhood and family relationships, and the various imbalances in their relationship to the world at large as well. Yet, Jeffrey here is pointing out that we should work with Du-14 instead of directly affected Ming Men.

Food for thought. Yes, why not use Du-14 instead of Ming Men?  It would allow the deepest energies of a patient's body draw from that well of Yang energy, rather than imposing my will as a practitioner on something so profound, so . . . personal as a patient's source of their deepest, most cosmic self.  The principle of non-interference. Jeffrey here is suggesting that we consider carefully whether it is the best choice to directly affect the gate through which a person's soul enters into this body, into this incarnation.  It is a sacred gate, Ming Men, and ought not be used to treat everyday issues.

We Westerners are so quick to take action, to DO something, to have an effect, to change things quickly and strongly.  Perhaps it behooves us as practitioners of an Eastern medical art to approach healing with less force, with less need for things to change quickly or obviously.  Developing a softer approach will require some self-cultivation for most of us in the U.S. Patience. Trust. Gentleness. Acceptance. These subtle qualities take time and attention to develop, but what a lovely thing to be working on!

The power of love

The title of this blog entry may sound corny, but it is nonetheless what I've been thinking about this morning.  I was feeling such a deep gratitude to my teacher, Jeffrey Yuen, for not only passing on his knowledge of Taoist Chinese medicine, but also because he is a true master.  What do I mean by that?  He walks his talk.  He lives and breathes compassion.  There is no judgment felt anywhere in anything he

Even those closest to me often say things that make me feel bad about myself.  Jeffrey just doesn't have that in him.  It's mystifying.  Here's my explanation:

He is not identified with his ego, therefore he doesn't need others to be anything other than what they are.  It is the ego that wants others to conform to our idea of who they should be.   Judging others does not come from the heart.  Love doesn't need anything to be different than it is.  Love is in love with the world exactly as it is, warts and all.  Love embraces every single thing about the universe, about reality, and loves it deeply and completely.

Now THAT sort of love is transforming.  After dedicating myself to alchemical work with Jeffrey (working on spiritual transformation rather than physical healing), I began to see all sorts of things shifting into a more positive, happier, more peaceful way of experiencing the world.  This love thing really does work.  I was hoping to be able to go through the experience of transforming my spirit to see how that affects the physical body and mind.  If I had a personal experience that it is possible to transform the body by transforming the spirit, that would then pass from me to my patients, giving them the ability to believe in the possibility of their own self-transformation through attention to the spirit.

I always wondered why great spiritual masters studied one on one with a guru type teacher.  If you've ever read Rumi, you know the ecstasy he expresses whenever he mentions his teacher, Shams, and the unconditional love Shams brought him to experience toward all of life.  Well, now I understand that kind of devotion, I have felt the indescribable gratitude one feels toward the person who has embodied that kind of absolute and all-embracing love in the world.   Jeffrey's example makes it possible for me to believe in the power of love to transform negativity.

It is one thing to learn by reading and studying or even practicing clinically.  It is another to know someone personally who actually embodies unconditional love.  The only other person I have ever met that gave me this same feeling of unconditional love was the Dalai Lama.  I met him twice, and felt bathed in the pureness of his love.  It was as if wisdom and childlike innocence were blended together.  Many things made him chuckle with delight, yet I know that he is a highly educated and brilliant man (he has studied astronomy, physics, neurology, the guy is no slouch in the brains department).

Thank you, Jeffrey, for being who and what you are, and for coming to the United States to pass on your great knowledge, wisdom, love and compassion.  Your students and the people they help through your medicine will be forever grateful.

Is your heart as light as a feather??

This morning I read an article in Oprah's email newsletter about the findings of Dr. Martin Seligman, one of the pre-eminent researchers and thinkers in the area of positive psychology.  Forty years ago when he was starting his career in psychology, he didn't believe in the powerful link between emotional outlook and physical health.  "But the data has grown year after year, and it's become a scientific certainty."  (If you would like to read the entire article on Oprah's website, here's the link:  "How Your Emotions Affect Your Health").  Our mind set determines our level of health, and our ability to heal from injury and disease. 


You would this was good news, right?  Well, it is, because it means we have a lot more control over our health and well being than we usually think we do.  But for someone like me, who was born with the tendency to see what is wrong with the picture  rather than all the things that are right, this presents a challenge.  To avoid being negative about this, I will point out that being able to see what is wrong with the picture makes for a great diagnostician, a very important skill in a healthcare practitioner.  


Luckily for me and all the rest of you who tend to see the glass half empty rather than half full, Stanford professor of education, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., entitled Mindset, The New Psychology of Success:  How We Can Learn to Fulfill Our Potential.  Her message is that optimism is a learnable skill.  She calls this point of view the "growth mindset," that even if we fail to do something in this moment doesn't mean we won't be able to master it in the future.  People like me who rely on our inborn smarts to get things done become discouraged when we find ourselves unable to do something naturally.  If it requires effort, we must not be able to do it.  Carol Dweck says no, that is not so, we CAN learn to do things we don't immediately have a feeling for.  And that, of course, is very good news.  


As a practitioner of Eastern medicine, I find it hopeful that Western scientists are finally recognizing what we have been saying all along, that all illness is rooted in our imperfect understanding of the world.  (Ling Shu, Chapter 8, "Ben Shen")  Chinese medicine completely agrees with the statement that what we think and feel about ourselves and about our world determines our base state of health and also determines our ability to recover from illness when it strikes.

Several decades ago, I was an avid reader of Tom Robbins' novels, including Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Jitterbug Perfume.  In one of those books, he writes about the the passage from this life to whatever comes next.  After death, we arrive at a huge transportation hub, where we stand in line to have our heart taken out and measured on a scale.  If it is as light as a feather, we hop on the bus to bliss.  I have always loved that image, and so I challenge those of you who tend toward a heavy heart to give Carol Dweck's book a read.   It's a very interesting story that she has to tell, and she offers real help with how to go about changing your mindset to one of belief in your ability to learn and to change.  I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be helped by her book, except maybe the one or two in a million people who were born optimistic.  Good thing we have her book for the rest of us!

Have a truly wonderful day.