Looking For Sjögren’s Patients

Last February I spent a week studying with Dr. Huang in London. One of the topics we discussed was Sjögren’s Syndrome. I’m eager to apply my new herbal knowledge of this condition. The first ten Sjögren’s patients who respond and are willing to commit to three months of therapy will receive an evaluation for only $50 and 30% off their herbal formula.

Sjögren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune condition causing dryness of mucous membranes, in particular of the eyes and mouth, is very difficult to treat. Chinese Medicine has a way of “reframing” the condition in terms of the patient’s internal environment. Herbs are given to counteract internal imbalances.

My herbal teacher, Dr. Huang, has experience in treating this condition. Although there is not a “Sjögren’s formula”, there are Chinese herbs that can be helpful and these are combined into a formula that fits the patient. Sjögren’s patients will get the same core herbs for that condition, but each individual formula may vary according to the exact symptoms that person has. This is the beauty of Chinese Herbal Medicine. It is infinitely adaptable to how Sjögren’s Syndrome affects you personally. The initial evaluation will be comprehensive and your formula may help you with problems unrelated to Sjögren’s Syndrome as well.

I would like to treat each person for a period of three months. The initial intake and monthly evaluations will be only $50 per visit. If you need a session in between your monthly evaluations, the charge will be $30 for additional visits. (I don’t expect this to be necessary.) There will be no charge for followup consultations made by phone. Specially made herbal formulas with bulk herbs or granules will be discounted at least 30% for the three month treatment period. It is hard to know how much a week’s supply will be until I write the formula, but our herb prices are very reasonable even without a discount.

In exchange, I would like a commitment for three months and your permission to write up and publish the case studies (all patient details would remain anonymous) should I decide to publish the results of this venture.

Call to schedule at 860-448-6766. Feel free to ask to speak with me if you have any questions.

Keep Warm With Ginger

Cozy Up With Ginger

Fresh ginger root is a warm and pungunt herb, used widely both medicinally and as a food herb. It’s a great item to keep in the fridge during the winter months. Ginger root is easily available in the produce section of almost any grocery. As a tea, it’s warm nature can keep you warm from the inside out. Simmered with a little more strength and in a stronger dose, it can help prevent a winter chill from turning into a cold. And for those achy body parts that flare up in cold, damp weather, a ginger compress may be just the ticket. Have some handy the next time you shovel your driveway!

To make a tea, slice a few pieces of fresh ginger and pierce them a few times. You can also chop or grate it. Place the ginger into your mug, pour hot water over it and let it steep for about five minutes. Add lemon or honey to taste for a delightful winter cuppa.

To make a medicinal tea, chop up about an inch or more of ginger and place it in a pot with a quart of water. Bring it to a boil and then immediately lower the flame to simmer for 20 minutes or so. The time is not exact. Add honey or lemon to taste. Drink this and keep well covered and rest.

This ginger tea can be taken when you have been exposed to cold damp weather and feel sniffles and aches coming on. It can also be used any time you feel the symptoms of a beginning cold. The ginger is slightly diaphoretic, i.e. it induces a slight sweat. You will “sweat the cold out”. You must keep well covered and warm. The added warmth will help the ginger do its job of making you sweat. It will also protect you while your pores are open and sweating. It is very important not to go out or near a draft. The best thing to do is drink the tea, and when you are done, go off to bed to cuddle under the warm blankets and sleep. You should feel much better in the morning. When you wake up, make another pot and drink it throughout the day.

To make a ginger compress you will need ginger, cheese cloth or a light weight fabric such as a handkerchief, a rubber band or string, and small terrycloth towel or two linen towels.

In a saucepan bring a quart of water to a boil, then turn it down to simmer. Meanwhile, grate a golf ball size piece of ginger up. wrap it in the cheesecloth and secure it with the rubber band or string. Squeeze the ginger juice out into the water, and then drop the entire cheesecloth package in. Simmer for 20 minutes.

To apply: You can apply this to cold, achy joints, shoulders, low back or neck.

The easiest is to soak the terrycloth towel in…

Eight Treasures Congee for the GBA

Everyone loved the Eight Treasures Congee served at the Groton Business Association May meeting.

It was adapted from the recipe Eight Treasures Porridge from Daniel Eng’s book “Cooking With Chinese Herbs.

It’s so easy to make a healthful congee. Basically all you do is throw the ingredients into crockpotin the evening, set it on low, and go to bed.  When you wake up in the morning, Voila! There is your tasty breakfast congee waiting for you.

Here is the recipe.  I adapted it by using organic vegetable broth instead of water and organic Bhutanese red rice. I also used a crockpot. The herbs are available at any Chinese pharmacy or from Mystic River Acupuncture for 15¢/gram. Just tell us you want the eight treasures congee packet.

1/2 cup of purple or black rice (other kinds of rice are fine, too)

2 Tbsp walnuts

2 Tbsp Job’s tears

1 Tbsp hyacinth beans

12 pieces lotus seeds

6 pieces longan fruit, optionally chopped

6 pieces red dates, pits removed

4-6 cups of water

1 Tbsp goji berries

small amount of honey (optional)

Rinse all ingredients except the water, goji, and honey. and place in a slow cooker or a pot.  Add 4-6 cups of water, deppending on your cooking equipment and method (slow cookers generally require less, while stovetop cooking may require more).  If using a slow cooker, turn it on to “low” overnight or all day (8-10 hours).  Alrternatively, simmer in a covered pot over a low flame for about two hours or until everything is soft.  After the porridge is finished cooking, add goji and a small amount of honey.

Serves 2-3

Everything Fun at Everything Zen

Last Friday Mystic River Acupuncture went to Everything Zen for an evening of “Radiant Beauty From the Inside Out”. I talked about the Chinese concept of beauty being the direct result of how we feel and how healthy we are. Beauty formulas and healthy eating are a part of radiance as much as cosmetics and facial care are.

Holly and I served up an “immune” promoting broth adapted from a recipe in “Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen: Recipes From the East for Health, Healing, and Long Life”. Organic chicken bones, herbs and vegetables were stewed for 24 hours to make this delicious stock that can be taken either as a broth or used as a base in any dish calling for chicken stock.  Bone marrow is rich in nutrients and stewing for a long period releases the essence of bones and their marrow into the soup. A crockpot makes the whole process easy.

Next we sampled a classic Chinese formula that is traditionally taken as a draught with wine. A gram of herbal granules was stirred into bit of warm water in our Dixie cups. We drank this down, then chased it with wine as I passed around a plate containing the same formula in raw form for everyone to see. Taking herbs to keep qi (energy) and blood circulation flowing is essential to a good beauty program, especially in cases of dry skin, acne, and other skin problems.

We finished the evening with a demonstration of wrinkle reducing acupuncture while Holly talked about the importance of using organic paraben free products on the skin. She and showed participants the special herbs I powder up for her to use in facial masks for her facials. Holly and I have been collaborating for the last year on different herbal face masks for various skin problems.

We were running out of time and didn’t get to drinking the special relaxing tea I mixed. Luckily, I had made little bag of these tea herbs for each person to bring home to make for their tea breaks during week. This tea was a relaxing blend that also “vents” or dissipates stress energy and is particularly good for tension in the body caused by stress. It’s a calming refreshing tea that taken with lemon, mint and honey.

By the time we were done, the class had renamed Everything Zen to “Everything FUN” and Holly and I were pleases and honored. It’s important to put some fun in our busy lives.

Check News and Events to learn about the Radiant Beauty specials Holly and I are offering so you can keep having Radiant Beauty and Everything Fun.

Kathleen Poole

Surprise Mom with Radiant Beauty

Mystic River Acupuncture and Everything Zen are collaborating to offer you a Radiant Skin Beauty Package just in time for Mother’s Day.

Holly Potter, LMT of Everything Zen will give your favorite mom an anti-aging Vitamin C facial peel and Kathleen Poole will provide a wrinkle reducing acupuncture treatment for only $115. Mom can make a day of it. Visit Everything Zen, then have a bite to eat at one of the areas many restaurants before your wrinkle reducing session at Mystic River Acupuncture. For best results, these treatments can be scheduled up to one week apart.

A full package of six of each is also available for $660, and the sampler pack can be applied towards the full package of twelve sessions. With the full package you can take advantage of special discounts on herbal consultation with Kathleen and an assortment of upgrades from Holly.

What more perfect and unique gift is there for that Special Mother in your life?

Radiant Beauty at Everything Zen

Friday April 29 at 6:30 Kathleen will present a workshop about Chinese “beauty” formulas, herbal remedies that promote healthy skin. Beauty is more than skin deep, and beauty is best when it comes from the inside out.

We’ll talk about the factors contributing to healthy skin from a Chinese point of view and address problems such as dry skin, acne and premenstrual skin changes. Kathleen will bring a sample formula to show you and to try, and she’ll make a special tea for the Sin Ni San ladies’ (you’ll have to come to find out who you are). She will also demonstrate facial acupuncture for wrinkles.

Come have a fun evening at Holly Potter’s fabulous studio, Everything Zen, 156 King’s Highway in Groton. Call Holly 860-861-8978 to RSVP.

Alternative Medicine – How to Choose

On April 11, 2011 Kathleen will present ‘The Jungle of Chinese Medicine: Which to Use and How To Choose a Practitioner’ to the Mystic Rotary at its monthly luncheon at the Mystic Hilton.

She will discuss the various alternative medicines and therapies available in southeastern Connecticut, what they are used for, and how to find a practitioner. She’ll talk about which professions are licensed and which are unregulated and the educational requirements for each. Kathleen did extensive research of schools, programs, and the state statutes regarding the professions. Handouts outlining this research will be available and  she will accompany her lecture with a slide presentation.

All are invited to attend. If you’ve ever felt confused about alternative medicine, now is the time to get the facts.

Mystic Hilton is located at 20 Coogan Blvd, Mystic.

RSVP: Laureen Morley at 860-536-4140.

We welcome ESCU medical anthropology class.

On November 14, Eastern Connecticut State University’s Medical Anthropology Class visited Mystic River Acupuncture. Kathleen spoke to the class about the history of Chinese Medicine and how acupuncture works. She demonstrated how to put an herbal formula together and weighed herbal ingredients out on both an ancient style scale and a modern digital one. The class had a tour of the facility, with plenty of time for questions. Kathleen explained the ins and outs of practicing in this country and  outlined the requirements for becoming a Connecticut licensed acupuncturist. She told the class about how the profession has changed in the past twenty years.  She described the steps she took in establishing her clinic and its growth over that time period. In past years, Kathleen has demonstrated acupuncture by giving mini-treatments to willing students. Professor Joan Greene includes a trip to Mystic River Acupuncture in her annual curriculum in order to show her students how ancient medical traditions are practiced in the modern western world.

It’s time for the Great American Smokeout®!

Each year in November the American Cancer Society® organizes the Great American Smokeout®. Quitting smoking is one of the absolute best things you can do for your health. In conjunction with the Great American Smokeout®, through the month of November we are offering a smoking cessation program for only $300. This includes four sessions of acupuncture and a week’s supply of herbs designed specifically to help with nicotine withdrawal symptoms and cravings. We want to do our part to help you become a non-smoker.  It’s time!  Call today.  860-448-6766.

Download the Acupuncture and Smoking Cessation pdf in Forms and Links.

We Love Groton Fall Festival!

October 9 is the annual Groton Fall Festival. This year will be even better, with lots of good food, crafts, music, classic cars, helicopters, skateboard contests . . . . . what’s not to like?  It’s a beautiful time of year for a festival and the Groton Business Association has done a great job organizing this event.

We’ll be there with an expanded booth (we’ve got two spaces) to accommodate everyone who wants to try a chair massage or see what an acupuncture treatment is like. We’ll have drawings for acupuncture, massage and herbal treatments, and you can sign up for our mailing list. (A newsletter is in the works, and you’ll want to be the first to know.)

For all of us who miss Andrea Elliott, she’ll be back with us for the day. Our staff will be on hand to answer all your questions about acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, and therapeutic massage. Come on out for some good old fun and be sure to stop by to say hi.

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