On My Radar: March 2014

I spend some time each week reading articles either for the pure sake of learning or for entertainment. This blog is mainly dedicated to veganism and Traditional Oriental Medicine, but I find other topics to be relevant for this blog as well. In my efforts to educate myself to become the best health practitioner I can be, an integral part of healing is educating my patients and community as well. 

This monthly blog series will consist of news stories and articles regarding things that are "On My Radar."

Integrating Oriental Medicine and Western Medicine
Some major hospitals in the US have employed Licensed Acupuncturists for many years now, but this is the first time I've heard of Chinese Herbal Medicine being utilized in a hospital/Western medicine setting. Combining medicine from the East and West will ultimately provide better care for patients. "Dr. Melissa Young, an internist and integrative medicine specialist at the [Cleveland] Clinic [says] 'The beauty of it - it's so complementary. As an integrative medicine physician, to have more tools to benefit patients really optimizes patient care.'" To read the full article, click here.

Are Herbal Prescriptions Safe?
This article does an excellent job of describing that Chinese Herbal Formulas (and single herbs) are extremely safe, contrary to the belief of many medical doctors and others in the western medical field. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners will prescribe herbal formulas, and either soon after starting the formula or sometime into taking the formula, the patient may experience some adverse reactions. In many cases, the patient or doctors in the medical community will quickly blame the adverse reactions on the herbal formula. This article explains that not only are the herbal formulas safe, but in almost every instance of an adverse reaction, further investigation proves that the reaction was due to some other condition or event.

Air Purifying Plants
Here is a list of the 10 best air purifying plants! I know that many of the people reading this blog already lead a healthy lifestyle, but there are many toxins floating around in our environment...even in our homes! Living within one mile of a major thoroughfare can cause an excess of smog build-up around and in our homes, not to mention the chemicals in our everyday household cleaners. Add one or more of these plants to your living and working space to detox the air you spend most of your time in.  

Meat as Bad as Smoking?
Watch this video from Fox News and listen to Dr. Marc Siegel describe an in-depth study that shows the negative effects of a high animal protein diet in middle aged people (ages 50-64). Dr. Siegel notes that the study shows a strong correlation between large amounts of animal protein (20%+ of daily calories from animal protein) and cancer. The cancer risk is actually three times higher for people eating high amounts of meat and dairy. He advocates adding more fruits and vegetables to each meal for people of all ages.

Good Food Combos - Info-Graphic

Check out this great info-graphic to see some helpful plant-based food combinations. It has become known in food and in Chinese Herbal Medicine that the whole plant helps with the synergy of absorption and integration of the beneficial constituents. Isolating the constituents (i.e. Vitamin C) isn't always as useful as consuming the whole plant that contains the constituent.