"Vitamins B6 and B12 are essential nutrients required in the synthesis of many neurotransmitters including serotonin, melatonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and GABA, which are brain chemicals that help modulate mood, our emotional state and sleep."
Longitudinal association of vitamin B-6, folate, and vitamin B-12 with depressive symptoms among older adults over time -- Skarupski et al., 10.3945/ajcn.2010.29413 -- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Explaining the "Unexplained"
I see people all the time with "unexplained" infertility. They simply aren't getting pregnant, and nobody can tell them why. They've had all the medical tests, all the bloodwork and ultrasounds, and there is no "reason" they shouldn't be getting pregnant.
I am of the mindset that while certainly there are things that can't be explained, there is always a REASON that something happens. So, while we may not be able to explain why certain things, good and bad, happen in our lives, later we often are able to understand the reasons they did happen.
Most of the "unexplained" cases I see can be easily explained when we simply dig deeper than numbers on a blood test or results on an ultrasound. What foods is the patient eating? How much intimacy is there in the relationship? Are they at a healthy weight? Do they know how to track their ovulation? Are their periods painful and difficult? Do they exercise at all, or do they exercise too much?
The above questions are just a starting point, and they are ones that are often left out of the equation at the doctor's office. So, when a doctor, or anyone, tells you your fertility problems are "unexplained", stop for a moment and ask yourself honestly, "Is there anything I'm doing or not doing that could explain why I'm not getting pregnant?" If you are not sure (and even if you are), you NEED to see a professional such as myself who can help you take an inventory and find subtle issues that could be getting in your way.
Often, the simple things can make all the difference... And, the answers are often so simple they elude us.
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
I am of the mindset that while certainly there are things that can't be explained, there is always a REASON that something happens. So, while we may not be able to explain why certain things, good and bad, happen in our lives, later we often are able to understand the reasons they did happen.
Most of the "unexplained" cases I see can be easily explained when we simply dig deeper than numbers on a blood test or results on an ultrasound. What foods is the patient eating? How much intimacy is there in the relationship? Are they at a healthy weight? Do they know how to track their ovulation? Are their periods painful and difficult? Do they exercise at all, or do they exercise too much?
The above questions are just a starting point, and they are ones that are often left out of the equation at the doctor's office. So, when a doctor, or anyone, tells you your fertility problems are "unexplained", stop for a moment and ask yourself honestly, "Is there anything I'm doing or not doing that could explain why I'm not getting pregnant?" If you are not sure (and even if you are), you NEED to see a professional such as myself who can help you take an inventory and find subtle issues that could be getting in your way.
Often, the simple things can make all the difference... And, the answers are often so simple they elude us.
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
When Life Becomes Medicine - A Healing Story
Ellen, 44 and a mother of three lovely children, came to me for help with energy, weight gain, and "low motivation". She had seen a doctor friend of mine, who discovered low testosterone and had put her on a low-dose testosterone replacement regimen. This seemed to be helping some, but she still felt out of sorts. So, he referred her to me for general wellness care.
When I first met her, I was immediately struck with how sweet and sincere she was. She didn't mince words about some of the difficulties she experienced in her personal life, and she had a pretty good handle on how these might be affecting her adversely. She also had a sense that she was just not able to pull herself out of the lingering fatigue and lack of motivation she had been recently experiencing. It was bigger than just "picking herself up by the bootstraps" and making the most out of things. This was something physiological.
So, she embarked on her journey to improve her quality of life. This is one of the things I love about what I do. I don't see a lot of truly "sick" people (although when I do it is always an amazing experience helping them). I mostly see people who are not feeling well, who know something is "out of sorts", and who often have tried conventional medicine with limited or no success. To me, it is an absolute honor and privilege to be a catalyst for these people to get back on track with their lives. When they start to feel better, and are able to enjoy life again, this is something that to me is just priceless.
So, back to Ellen's story. After our intake, where I listened to all her symptoms, and her description of the flow of her life, it became apparent to me that Ellen suffered from something that drugs could not cure. This didn't mean she was hopeless. Far from it. In fact, all Ellen had to do was start collecting her energy back inward towards herself.
Ellen has three young children. The youngest was a surprise, and is about 5 years younger than the next older sibling. Just like any other conscientious mother, Ellen puts a lot of time and effort into raising her children. On top of that, she is also very active in non-profit work and frequently attends social gatherings. She admitted early on in our work together that she was the kind of person that was always there for others.
The problem was that Ellen, after so many years of sending her energy out towards other people's causes and needs, had forgotten to give something back to herself.
Life is energy. It's that simple. So, when we think of it this way, it makes a lot of things easier to understand. Every minute that Ellen was focusing on someone else, her energy was moving out and away from her. In some cases, that energy gets reflected back and we actually have a net gain of energy. This is what happens when we feel the thrill of watching our child succeed at something we have put a lot of effort into helping them with. Or, when we give something to somebody as a gift and see their happiness and joy, and this makes us feel good.
But, there are many, many ways to spend our energy where we really don't get much -- or anything -- back in return. Social gatherings can be draining, especially when we are doing them more out of "obligation". Even doing charity work, while honorable, can start to drain our energy as we can overextend ourselves even into this arena if we are not careful.
So, my main focus with Ellen was two-fold:
1) Get her to see and acknowledge how her life was draining her energy, and
2) Support her foundational energy as it was recovering from years of high outflow and low return
This all didn't happen overnight. It took some time for me to even get Ellen to buy into the fact that her life needed to change if she wanted to feel better. And, I'm not sure she ever "explicitly" agreed with me. But, something amazing happened after about 8 weeks which let me know that she was well on the road to solving her issue.
She came in for her weekly visit, sat down, and told me that she had decided to quit her job to start her own business.
If that doesn't indicate increased motivation and energy, I don't know what does.
She had always wanted to start this business because it involves something she has a passion for. But quitting her job was scary to her because she was afraid of how her employer (and friend) would react to her resignation.
Now, however, she saw clearly that this was the direction she needed to go, and she was ready to move.
After I heard this, I told her, "Well, looks like we're done." And, I was serious. On the part with increased energy and motivation, we are certainly finished. Now, we just have to maintain it, and make sure to nurture it along as it continues to grow.
She is still coming to work on losing some weight (which, as many of us know, takes a bit of motivation as well). And, every time I see her I think about how far she's come in such a short amount of time.
The moral of this story is that the life change itself is the medicine. She is moving out on her own, doing something creative that involves her passion. This is a way of giving back to herself that I'm not sure she's ever experienced. On top of that, through our work together she now has a handle on the fact that she can't spread herself too thin, that she HAS to keep checking in with herself to make sure what she is giving back to herself is in balance with what she is giving out to others.
She will falter again, we all do. But, now when she starts to get out of balance she will have the tools and knowledge to do something about it, to receive that "life medicine" that only SHE can give to herself.
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
When I first met her, I was immediately struck with how sweet and sincere she was. She didn't mince words about some of the difficulties she experienced in her personal life, and she had a pretty good handle on how these might be affecting her adversely. She also had a sense that she was just not able to pull herself out of the lingering fatigue and lack of motivation she had been recently experiencing. It was bigger than just "picking herself up by the bootstraps" and making the most out of things. This was something physiological.
So, she embarked on her journey to improve her quality of life. This is one of the things I love about what I do. I don't see a lot of truly "sick" people (although when I do it is always an amazing experience helping them). I mostly see people who are not feeling well, who know something is "out of sorts", and who often have tried conventional medicine with limited or no success. To me, it is an absolute honor and privilege to be a catalyst for these people to get back on track with their lives. When they start to feel better, and are able to enjoy life again, this is something that to me is just priceless.
So, back to Ellen's story. After our intake, where I listened to all her symptoms, and her description of the flow of her life, it became apparent to me that Ellen suffered from something that drugs could not cure. This didn't mean she was hopeless. Far from it. In fact, all Ellen had to do was start collecting her energy back inward towards herself.
Ellen has three young children. The youngest was a surprise, and is about 5 years younger than the next older sibling. Just like any other conscientious mother, Ellen puts a lot of time and effort into raising her children. On top of that, she is also very active in non-profit work and frequently attends social gatherings. She admitted early on in our work together that she was the kind of person that was always there for others.
The problem was that Ellen, after so many years of sending her energy out towards other people's causes and needs, had forgotten to give something back to herself.
Life is energy. It's that simple. So, when we think of it this way, it makes a lot of things easier to understand. Every minute that Ellen was focusing on someone else, her energy was moving out and away from her. In some cases, that energy gets reflected back and we actually have a net gain of energy. This is what happens when we feel the thrill of watching our child succeed at something we have put a lot of effort into helping them with. Or, when we give something to somebody as a gift and see their happiness and joy, and this makes us feel good.
But, there are many, many ways to spend our energy where we really don't get much -- or anything -- back in return. Social gatherings can be draining, especially when we are doing them more out of "obligation". Even doing charity work, while honorable, can start to drain our energy as we can overextend ourselves even into this arena if we are not careful.
So, my main focus with Ellen was two-fold:
1) Get her to see and acknowledge how her life was draining her energy, and
2) Support her foundational energy as it was recovering from years of high outflow and low return
This all didn't happen overnight. It took some time for me to even get Ellen to buy into the fact that her life needed to change if she wanted to feel better. And, I'm not sure she ever "explicitly" agreed with me. But, something amazing happened after about 8 weeks which let me know that she was well on the road to solving her issue.
She came in for her weekly visit, sat down, and told me that she had decided to quit her job to start her own business.
If that doesn't indicate increased motivation and energy, I don't know what does.
She had always wanted to start this business because it involves something she has a passion for. But quitting her job was scary to her because she was afraid of how her employer (and friend) would react to her resignation.
Now, however, she saw clearly that this was the direction she needed to go, and she was ready to move.
After I heard this, I told her, "Well, looks like we're done." And, I was serious. On the part with increased energy and motivation, we are certainly finished. Now, we just have to maintain it, and make sure to nurture it along as it continues to grow.
She is still coming to work on losing some weight (which, as many of us know, takes a bit of motivation as well). And, every time I see her I think about how far she's come in such a short amount of time.
The moral of this story is that the life change itself is the medicine. She is moving out on her own, doing something creative that involves her passion. This is a way of giving back to herself that I'm not sure she's ever experienced. On top of that, through our work together she now has a handle on the fact that she can't spread herself too thin, that she HAS to keep checking in with herself to make sure what she is giving back to herself is in balance with what she is giving out to others.
She will falter again, we all do. But, now when she starts to get out of balance she will have the tools and knowledge to do something about it, to receive that "life medicine" that only SHE can give to herself.
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Another helpful Acupuncture research study
Here we have another instance of science again discovering another mechanism by which acupuncture heals. I would like to congratulate the researchers for doing this important work.
I love studies like this because, at the very least, they show that the acupuncture effect is not placebo. After all, in this study, the experimental subjects are mice who have no idea they are "supposed" to feel better. I'm sure they have some level of intelligence, but they aren't believing anything in particular about the effects the acupuncture might have.
We also have other studies that independently demonstrate that acupuncture can:
- decrease stress hormone activity
- increase beta-endorphin (pleasure hormone) levels
- adjust blood flow patterns in tissues both local to and remote from the needle insertion site
- modulate brain activity based on where the needles are placed, even to the point of causing increased salivation when a needle is placed in the hand
Yet, the detractors continue their attacks, which just boggles my mind. At the very least, we can all acknowledge that the human body is an exquisitely intricate self-healing entity, and that the pathways for inducing change in it are likely infinite. And, at most, we can even seriously entertain the idea that the body is an intelligent entity that is capable of responding to needle insertion at various locations in an intelligent way, and in a different way depending on the insertion pattern.
The latter is what I have come not just to believe, but to KNOW based on experience of doing several thousand acupuncture treatments and watching the response unfold over days, weeks, and even years of repeated treatments. It is nothing short of amazing and a testament to the amazing transformative power encapsulated inside these wonderful bodies we inhabit.
The article:
Adenosine Is Key to Acupuncture's Effectiveness - WSJ.com
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
I love studies like this because, at the very least, they show that the acupuncture effect is not placebo. After all, in this study, the experimental subjects are mice who have no idea they are "supposed" to feel better. I'm sure they have some level of intelligence, but they aren't believing anything in particular about the effects the acupuncture might have.
We also have other studies that independently demonstrate that acupuncture can:
- decrease stress hormone activity
- increase beta-endorphin (pleasure hormone) levels
- adjust blood flow patterns in tissues both local to and remote from the needle insertion site
- modulate brain activity based on where the needles are placed, even to the point of causing increased salivation when a needle is placed in the hand
Yet, the detractors continue their attacks, which just boggles my mind. At the very least, we can all acknowledge that the human body is an exquisitely intricate self-healing entity, and that the pathways for inducing change in it are likely infinite. And, at most, we can even seriously entertain the idea that the body is an intelligent entity that is capable of responding to needle insertion at various locations in an intelligent way, and in a different way depending on the insertion pattern.
The latter is what I have come not just to believe, but to KNOW based on experience of doing several thousand acupuncture treatments and watching the response unfold over days, weeks, and even years of repeated treatments. It is nothing short of amazing and a testament to the amazing transformative power encapsulated inside these wonderful bodies we inhabit.
The article:
Adenosine Is Key to Acupuncture's Effectiveness - WSJ.com
Chris Axelrad, M.S.O.M., L. Ac., FABORM, director of the Axelrad Clinic for Natural Women's Healthcare, is a recognized expert in women's health, natural treatment of hormone imbalance, and fertility enhancement using Traditional Chinese Medicine integrated with conventional medical knowledge. He is known for his easy-going manner and sincere compassion for his patients. Mr. Axelrad provides coaching and support to patients across the country via his remote treatment programs, and he also maintains a busy full-time specialty clinical practice in Houston, TX. Visit the clinic website to schedule your free 30-minute initial consultation.
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