Spring is the time of new beginnings, rebirth and renewal. It is when nature comes back to life — dormant plants and animals wake from their wintery slumber, flowers bloom, animals are born, and the landscape comes alive.

Most of us urban dwellers are used to living seasonless lives where it is difficult to observe the changing seasons. With modern technology, we can eat the same foods and do most of the same things year round. But just because we can enjoy these conveniences doesn’t necessary mean they are good for us. They ignore our body’s need to make adjustments with the seasons to maintain good health and prevent illness.

In Chinese medicine, the seasons affect us in many different ways — physically, mentally and spiritually. For your health, Spring is a great time to eat a lot of green foods. Sprouts and baby greens are especially good, as are dark green leafy vegetables. Head to your farmer’s market to see what’s in season. Spring is also the best time for green tea. The best quality green tea leaves are the first leaves of the season. In China, people pay upwards of hundreds or thousands of dollars to enjoy a cup of spring’s first batch of Dragon Well green tea grown in Zhejiang Province. A portion of the best is reserved for ranking government officials and visiting heads of state.

Spring is associated with the wood element and the Liver and Gallbladder. Wood represents progress, growth and overcoming obstacles. It is the most yang, or active, of energies. This makes it a great time to start new projects, especially major ones. Right now you’ll have more energy, focus, and drive to accomplish difficult tasks compared to, for example, the winter.

At the same time, be aware of the challenges of Spring. Spring is the emotional energy of anger, stress and frustration. When blocked or constrained, it is easier to feel these emotions or see them expressed by others. Take care of these emotions constructively by keeping yourself centered, staying balanced, maintaining good communications and being patient.

What you can do:

1. Exercise. Exercise is important to help get or keep things moving. Hike, garden and play sports. If you want to take a more holistic approach, take a medical Qigong class. There are a number of simple and effective medical Qigong exercises that help soothe the liver, reduce stress, as well as strengthen your clarity and resolve. Regardless of what you decide, doing it outdoors would be best. The sun and fresh air helps when you feel stuck. Seeing all the beauty of nature will raise your spirits and inspire you to get moving on your life’s projects.
2. Diet. Eat your greens. No, not green M&M’s or gummy bears. Sprouts, baby greens and green leafy vegetables are what I highly recommend. Your best source will be your local farmer’s market where you don’t have to second guess what’s in season.
3. Treatment. Come in for an acupuncture tune-up, herbal prescription and/or nutritional plan. Chinese Medicine is designed to harmonize your body, mind and spirit with the changing seasonal energies. Like taking in your car for a regular oil change, your body will appreciate preventative treatments to maintain good health. You’ll stay healthy, maintain high energy levels and be more productive so you can continue doing what you love. If you’re stressed out or can’t sleep, just one treatment will go a long way to help start this season on the right foot.

Henry’s Spring Tea Recipe

• Green Tea such as Dragon Well tea (Chinese: Longjing Cha)
• Chrysanthemum Flower Bulbs (Chinese: Ju Hua)
• Mint Leaves (Chinese: Bo He)
• Steep in hot water – Boiled water that is then cooled to 175 F recommended.

Comments:
If you are near Highland Park, this tea will be available at Antigua Coffee and Tea

Dragon Well green tea is high in vitamin C and amino acids. It also has one of the highest concentrations of catechins and can reduce the risk of stroke, heart failure, cancer and diabetes. Chrysanthemum and Mint both help the liver and the sense organ of the liver, the eyes, in different ways. The best chrysanthemum are the unopened flower bulbs. All of this can be found at one of your better stocked Chinese Herbal shops. In Los Angeles, Wing Hop Fung in China Town and Monterey park comes recommended. If you have some extra cash and appreciate good quality green teas, check out the Ming Qian Dragonwell Panan Supreme 2010 from Red Blossom Tea in San Francisco. They do mail order but it is $400 a pound. They have some more affordable grades that I also recommend. An ounce ($28) or two will last you a while and, unlike some other types of teas, Dragon Well doesn’t do well sitting on the shelf for a long time. Newer is better so don’t stock up.

Henry Jun Wah Lee, L.Ac. is a Physician of Chinese Medicine, Licensed Acupuncturist, Medical Qigong instructor and Eastern Nutritionist. He has a private practice in Pasadena and Los Angeles, California. For more information, please contact info@HenryJunWahLee.com or visit his website, http://www.HenryJunWahLee.com

Henry Jun Wah Lee L.Ac. will be hosting a Chinese Medicine Café hour at Antigua Organic Coffee and Tea near Highland Park on Saturday May 8, 2010 from 5 to 6:30pm.

Come experience the benefits of Chinese medicine for health, wellness and community at a progressive coffee house east of the Los Angeles River.

Destress and relax with a 20-minute ear acupuncture or acupressure treatment from a highly skilled Physician of Chinese Medicine. Enjoy a cup of herbal tea that’s perfect for the spring season, eat snacks, and meet the community.

See what Chinese Medicine can do for you!

Read more

Evosia's new organic fair trade labcoats for natural healing and holistic medicine practitioners.

Evosia’s labcoats are specifically designed for the natural healing professional in mind and incorporates features typical labcoats do not have:

* Choice of organic and fair trade natural fabrics to meet your environmental and health standards.
* Different fabric weights to meet your seasonal needs.
* Lighter fabrics in strategic locations to help you maintain your cool.
* Unique pocket partitioning system to keep your tools such as needles and ear seeds organized.
* Three different fits to suit your body type and personal style: flowy (loose) fit, standard fit and modern fit.
* Made to Measure and Bespoke options for those who want the perfect fit and design.

Evosia donates 5% of net profits toward social and environmental causes.

Link: Evosia’s Online Store Page

Evotion just launched its technology services for Acupuncturists and Chinese Medicine practitioners

Evotion is a technology company that specializes in providing services to nonprofits, governments, educational institutions, and small businesses. We recently launched a new set of consulting services specifically for acupuncturists and Chinese/Oriental Medicine practitioners.

We go beyond merely offering to build you a web site. Although we do build web sites, there are plenty of do-it-yourself tools out there we recommend for the budget conscious.

Where we add value is the consulting work we do in helping you align your technology needs with your practice. The actual programming is the easy part but which services should you choose? What should you have on your web site — content, feature and functionality wise? How should they be presented? Do you need a blog, mailing list, etc? How do you get your site in the search engines and improve your standings? Should you purchase online ads? What DIY tools are best? These are some of the questions we can help answer through our consulting services for you. We’re unique and we know our stuff.

Link:
Evotion’s Technology Services for Acupuncturists and TCM practitioners

Be Aware of the Acupuncture Board Exam Fees

This is a heads up for all you acupuncture students out there. Once you graduate from four years of studying Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, you aren’t done. Depending on where you plan to practice, you either need to pass the California Acupuncture License Exam or the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s (NCCAOM) Oriental Medicine Certification. Unless you are absolutely certain you won’t ever practice in California, it is strongly recommended that you take the California Boards. These exams aren’t cheap and you want to make sure you have money set aside to pay for them. Here’s the break down in costs:

California Acupuncture License Exam (CALE)

Application Fee: $75 — One time fee.
Examination Fee: $550 — Per exam. Try not to fail.
Certification: $325 (prorated based on max 2 years) — Once you pass, this is what you pay to get your license.

CALE Initial Total: $950

NCCAOM Oriental Medicine Certification

You will need to take 4 exam modules: Foundations of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture with Point Location, Biomedicine, and Chinese Herbology.

Oriental Medicine Application Fee: $550 — One time fee.
Foundations of Oriental Medicine Module Exam: $300 — Per exam.
Acupuncture with Point Location Module Exam: $300 — Per exam.
Biomedicine Module Exam: $200 — Per exam.
Chinese Herbology Module Exam: $300 — Per exam.

NCCAOM Initial Total: $1650

Grand Total for CALE and NCCAOM: $2600 

This total assumes that you only have to take everything once. If you have to take one or more of these exams multiple times, it’s going to get painful quick. The last thing you want to do is graduate but can’t practice because you can’t afford to pay for the exams. If you have to travel to Sacramento to take the California Boards, factor in travel and hotel expenses. Good news is that they will be having exams in the Southern California area in the near future.

Acupuncture beats aspirin for chronic headaches

Acupuncture is found to work better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches. A team at Duke University recently reviewed studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache and found that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications.

Acupuncture works by triggering the release of the body’s natural painkillers without the side effects of drugs. Common side effects of Aspirin include heartburn, nausea and upset stomach. Chinese Medicine is also much more nuanced in its diagnosis of headaches. We don’t treat it with a one-size-fits-all pill. We treat headaches differently depending on what area of the head, whether the pain is sharp or dull, and other accompanying signs and symptoms. This is why Acupuncture, combined with Chinese herbal medicine is so effective.

Other studies have shown that acupuncture helped alleviate pain in patients who had surgery for head and neck cancer, can relieve hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms and can reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea.

Link to full article at Reuters: Acupuncture Beats Aspirin for Chronic Headache

Kissing Miss Piggy Might Not Be Such A Good Idea

There’s currently a lot of sensational news in the media surrounding this new swine flu. The media is reporting triple digit deaths and increasing spread of infection throughout the world. The World Health Organization is calling it a pandemic, meaning that it is a new influenza virus that we humans have no immunity to and it has the potential to spread rapidly and cause a lot of deaths.

In Egypt, the government plans to slaughter the country’s 250,000 pigs. Wild boars are being killed in Iraq. Concerts and public events are being cancelled in Mexico. Hundreds of tourists are being quarantined in Hong Kong. Here in the U.S. Lawmakers are talking about closing our border with Mexico.

Let’s cut through the mass hysteria and get some perspective on this new strain of influenza.

1. It is a strain of influenza. You’ll experience the same symptoms as normal flu. Fever, cough, body aches, sore throat, chills, fatigue. Some people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting.
2. There is no evidence that this new strain was spread from pigs to humans. You will not get it from eating pork. The World Health Organization has stopped using the term “swine flu” late last week to avoid this confusion. It is now called H1N1.
3. As of April 29th, the World Health Organization has only confirmed 7 deaths due to swine flu. The 152 deaths reported by media outlets at the time are false.
4. Each year around the world, 500,000 people die from the flu. 36,000 of those deaths are in the U.S. 7 deaths out of hundreds of infections are hardly cause for widespread fear about this virus.
5. There are no vaccines for this new influenza strain. Even for strains that we already have vaccines for, effectiveness is questionable. Look at how many people still die from the flu. You also need to have the right vaccine for the right strain. In addition, beware of their side effects, which include diarrhea, nausea, sinusitis, nasal signs and symptoms, bronchitis, cough, headache, dizziness, and ear, nose, and throat infections. That’s right you may get flu like symptoms taking a vaccine! With viruses constantly evolving, vaccines cannot be a permanent solution. There will always be a threat of new strains.
6. Health officials are recommending Tamiflu. Its most common side effect is nausea and vomiting. Japan and Korea banned this drug, linking it to an increase in suicidal behavior of influenza patients aged between 10 and 17.
7. During the swine flu outbreak in 1976, 25 people died from flu inoculation while 1 person died from the flu itself.

The best thing you can do is to wash your hands regularly. The proper way to wash your hands is scrubbing them under warm soapy water for at least 15 seconds. That, along with getting plenty of rest and Chinese medicine, can take care of the flu.

Yes, Chinese medicine and acupuncture are effective against the flu. There are herbs with broad antiviral and antibacterial properties that, unlike vaccines, can treat a broad spectrum of diseases, not just 1 specific strain of 1 disease. The exact combination of herbs prescribed is not one size fits all but tailored to an individual’s unique needs. In addition, acupuncture can address sign and symptoms and boost the immune system.

Look for me in the Learning Garden every Saturday at 10 am.

Every Saturday morning from 10 am – 12 noon, I lead a Qi Gong practice group at the Learning Garden in Venice, CA. The practice has been going for more than 5 years. It was originally formed to provide a place for students of Master Hong Liu to have regular group practice.

Starting Saturday, March 21 I will be opening the class up to new people who are interested in learning Grandmaster Hong Liu’s Medical Qi Gong. Whether you are a natural healer, a student of the healing arts or someone interested in self-healing and cultivation, this is a great place to get introduced to his forms.

To give a little history, I have been a student of Master Hong for over 8 years. His classes and the amazing results I personally witnessed from his treatments were what originally inspired me to become a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. I’ve seen him bring people out of comas, cure hepatitis and beat cancer using Qi Gong and medicinal herbs. I highly recommend his forms due to their simplicity, effectiveness, their specific medical applications and the wide range of exercises that are offered.

If you don’t know who Master Hong Liu is, he is one of the few Qi Gong Grandmasters in the world and is regarded as a living treasure in China and Hawaii. He was a western trained physician in China who studied under several Qi Gong Masters. He has written a book, The Healing Art of Qi Gong which tells about his story. The last 1/3 of the book is filled with practical, easy to learn and easy to teach Qi Gong exercises you can do for a variety of diseases. He currently travels around the country teaching classes, doing research on the benefits of Qi Gong and providing private healing sessions.

About the class
In the first hour we start with warm up and preparation exercises, followed by Spring seasonal Qi Gong which changes about every 15 days. The seasonal Qi Gong helps you stay in tune with the seasons and are great for general wellness as well as for specific Spring-related medical conditions. In the second hour, we do one of his more advanced forms. If you are new, I recommend doing only the first hour.

Cost is $5 per class. 20% is donated to the Learning Garden.

About the Seasonal Qi Gong
The movement of the Earth and the Sun create our seasons. The seasons affect your energy and your internal organs. The effect can show up in your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states.

You can learn how to draw from the peaking energies of the seasons rather than fighting them, ending up drained and dry. Using 3,000-year-old practices, you can maximize your internal organs, sleeping and eating patterns, emotions, thought patterns– even your prosperity. Learn how to nourish the beginnings of yang energy in the Spring so that your mood, joints, liver and gallbladder are in their best shape.

Class Location:
The Learning Garden (www.thelearninggarden.org)
Southeast corner of Venice Blvd and Walgrove Ave, next to Venice High School in Venice, CA. Entrance is through the gate on Walgrove Ave. There is usually ample street parking on Walgrove and on Venice.

Class starts March 21, 2009 at 10 am.

Contact:
Henry Lee, e-mail henry@evosia.com or call 310-980-8645. Contact me if you plan to attend. Visit my web site: www.leejunwah.com