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Adam also treats patients in Delray Beach! Many of you mentioned that you have friends & family that would benefit from Adam’s treatments but Fort Lauderdale was too far away.  Available in Delray on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Please fill out the INTAKE FORMS BEFORE coming in for your first visit as you can take your time with the questions and be more thorough.  Below is the form which needs to be completed:

AMA Intake Forms 2020

Dietary Principles According to Traditional Chinese Medicine

In Traditional Chinese medicine proper diet is an important component of health. All foods are categorized into temperature, from hot to cold and flavor, pungent, spicy, sweet, sour and salty. Different temperatures and flavors of food influence the body in specific ways. One should try to include all flavors and a balance of temperatures in every meal. If too much of one type of food is consumed it can create an imbalance with in the body.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes how we eat our food is also very important. It is very common these days to eat in our car on the way to work, eat at our desk while working or have the television on while eating, this weakens our digestive energy.

It is important to

• Sit down to eat
• Chew food well
• Pay attention to eating, turn off the television, get away from the work desk
• Eat organically and locally
• Eat seasonally
• Do not skip meals

Traditional Chinese medicine views the stomach and spleen as a cooking pot that breaks down the food that is eaten and turns it into energy and blood for the body. The stomach is the cauldron and the spleen is the digestive fire that warms up the pot. The stomach cooks and breaks down the food, sending the pure part of the food to the spleen to be distributed to the rest of the body and eliminating the waste as feces and urine. It is important to maintain this digestive fire and too many cold and raw foods can put out the digestive fire, weakening and slowing the digestive system.

Dampness

The digestive system is slowed down is by foods that are damp in nature; this dampness can slow down the transformation of clear energy and blood.

Some symptoms of dampness in the body are

• fatigue, body heaviness, sluggishness
• excess weight
• cysts, tumors
• yeast infections
• bloating and gas
• unclear thinking
• chronic sinus infections
• cloudy urine
• foul smelling stools
• thick tongue coating

Foods to Avoid or Limit

• dairy
• wheat
• cold drinks
• fruit juice
• processed foods
• refined flour, pastry, pasta, breads
• cold raw foods
• refined sugar and sugar substitutes
• coffee, alcohol
• deep fried foods
• peanuts and peanut butter
• bananas, avocado

Foods to Add

• organic lightly cooked vegetables, corn, celery, watercress, turnip, pumpkin, alfalfa sprouts, button mushrooms, radish, caper
• brown rice, barley, amaranth, rye, oats
• legumes, kidney beans, adzuki beans, lentils
• small amount of lean organic meat, poultry and fish, tuna
• small amount of whole fruits, lemon
• sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
• seaweed, kelp
• green tea, jasmine tea, raspberry leaf tea

Yang Deficiency

The yang energy is responsible for warming and activating bodily functions. Some symptoms of yang deficiency include

• sensation of coldness
• cold hands and feet
• frequent pale urination
• low libido
• low back pain or weakness
• pre-menstrual lower back pain
• profuse cervical fluid
• low basal body temperatures
• shortened luteal phase

Foods to Avoid

• cold food and liquids
• raw foods especially in the fall and winter
• damp producing foods as seen above

Foods to Add to Tonify Yang

• raspberry, peach, strawberry, cherry
• walnut, chestnuts, pine nuts, pistachios
• lamb, venison
• lobster, mussels, prawns, shrimp, trout
• black pepper, cinnamon bark, clove, dill, fennel, garlic, ginger, peppermint, rosemary, sage, turmeric, thyme, horseradish, cayenne, nutmeg
• chai tea, jasmine tea

Yin Deficiency

The yin is responsible for moistening and cooling. When the yin is depleted the body begins to show signs of heating up. Some symptoms of yin deficiency include

• hot flashes
• night sweats
• ringing in the ears
• prematurely grey hair
• lower back pain
• scanty cervical fluid
• shortened menstrual cycle

Foods to Avoid

• hot spicy foods
• stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, recreational drugs
• sugar

Foods to Add to Tonify Yin

• barley, millet
• adzuki beans, kidney beans, black beans, black soya beans, mung beans
• beef, pork, duck, oyster, clam, crab, octopus, fish
• sesame seeds, black sesame seeds and walnut
• asparagus, artichoke, pea, potato, seaweed, sweet potato, yam, tomato
• egg
• apple, pear, pomegranate, watermelon, banana, avocado

Scars. We all have them. Some are from traumas as children, others are from surgeries such as C-sections, episiotomies, or broken bones. Some are from vaccinations, tattoos, body piercings, and IV drips. And some are from dental decay or other dental toxins.

But what kind of effect do scars really have on our bodies?

Recently we have been doing more research and work on scars and the kinds of effects they can have in seemingly remote areas of the body.

The results have been startling.

It turns out that a scar or trauma site can create what is called an Interference Field. An interference field is something that alters normal nerve, lymphatic and energy flow.

Not every scar will cause these, but when the body doesn’t have sufficient quality and quantity of nutrients at the time of injury, proper healing cannot take place. And once the body has become weakened, the injury site starts to become a sort of energy sink for chemical and metabolic toxins to store there.

So, how do we get rid of these interference fields?

Mud packs.

We use mud packs from Premier Research Labs. They are made from a combination of various rare earth substances with maximum cation exchange capability. Toxins are very highly positively charged (cation), and the mud is very negatively charged (anion). When the mud is placed over the injury site, it will draw the poisons into the mud.

Opposites attract right!

Several mud packs may be needed depending on the severity of the trauma site. A trained practitioner will be able to help you decipher what the body needs to repair.

It seems strange that mud packing can have such a profound impact, but it’s really not that strange at all. Mud has been used for thousands of years, and currently there are over 840 worldwide clinical research studies available on PubMed which proves the effectiveness of these muds.

So why aren’t more doctors using mud you ask?

Well, we live in a high tech world. The wisdom of the ancients doesn’t always look so appealing if it isn’t flashing lights and beeping. But it can’t be ignored anymore. Mud packing is here to stay, and is proving to be a very powerful piece of the healing puzzle for people with chronic conditions.

For more information on Mud therapy, you can click here.

As the summer solstice just passed, it is a perfect time to explain the yearly energetic cycle and how the body responds to the seasonal energies.  This year, the summer solstice fell on June 20, 2012 at 23:08 (11.08pm).  In the U.S., many see this as the beginning of summer.  As far as seasonal energies go, this is actually the pinnacle of summer energy.  Think yin-yang theory.  The summer solstice marks the longest day (day = yang) of the year and the shortest night (yin = night).  The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night.  So you see, the summer solstice is the most ‘yang’ day of the entire year!  The height of summer and yang-fire energy.

Our body’s energy works in conjunction with the daily, monthly and yearly cycles.  We are at our most healthy when abiding by the natural cycle.  Be active during day and sleep at night is the most basic rule.  Women have monthly cycles as all are aware.  The words menses, moon and month actually come from the latin word mensis (month).  As for yearly cycles, do you notice how many people tend to put on weight in the winter and are more active in the summer?  You can optimally cleanse your body when paying attention to the yearly cycle as well.  Springtime is the best time to help your body rid itself of winter weight and toxic build-up as the energies are beginning to move outward during this time.

Timing seasonal energies is quite easy.  I usually just count 45 days before the solstices or equinoxes (365 days a year divided by 4 seasons = 91.5 days each season).  For example, 45 days before the summer solstice was approximately May 7, the accurate start of summer from an energetic standpoint.  45 days after the summer solstice will be the start of autumn energies (August 4) and the fall equinox will be the peak of autumn.

It is always a good time to get an acupuncture ‘tune-up’ around the solstices and equinoxes as the body does go through energetic changes during these times.  In summer, the energies are at their most surface.  When fall comes the energies begin to turn inward reaching their most internal at the winter solstice and come springtime, the body’s energies begin to awaken from their winter hibernation.

Summer is also an extremely good time to strengthen health even though you feel good.  Many people tend to get sick in winter and there are tonifying strategies in Chinese medicine employed during summer months (or the ‘yang’ time of year) to help strengthen and prevent winter (the ‘yin’ time of year) weakness and sickness.

I wanted to start blogging to inform people about what we do here at Affordable Acupuncture, about how to get the most from treatment, about what Oriental medicine is and how it works, about a healthy lifestyle, about the health dangers out there in the world and about answer common questions patients often have.

To begin, I wanted to address something very important.  Expectation.

What I mean about expectation here is expectation of treatment progress and expectation of when one ‘should’ feel better.  Expectation can pertain to so much more (life, relationships, wealth, etc.) but I will not write in depth about these.

I had many conversations with a wise Buddhist monk I met in Kunming, China.  In one, he discussed that everything here in this illusion has a twin.  Good has bad, sun has moon, night has day, old has youth, yin has yang…etc.  How would we know what good times are without having bad times?   Would you know what happiness felt like if you never felt sadness?

Expectation’s twin is frustration.  Or one can say, expectation breeds frustration.  Without expectation, there can be no frustration.
In our American society, people want it now, want it fast.  Immediate gratification.  Instant riches, to get there now, fast food.  Western allopathic medicine feeds into this immediate gratification belief system.  Take this drug and feel better, fast.  Do you have a headache?  Well, take an Advil.  Do you have horrible back pain?  Well, take some celebrex.  Do you have stomach discomfort?  Well, take some nexium.  Are you ‘depressed’?  Well, take some paxil.  Still depressed?  Well, add abilify to the paxil.  Do these drugs really get rid of your problem?  Or do they temporarily numb and mask your symptom(s)?  Unfortunately, this belief system of what medicine is crosses over into the holistic medicine world.  Many people expect to be healed, if not immediately, then fast. If they do not ‘feel’ that anything is happening within 1-3 treatments, then it must not be working.

We have had many clients frustrated with acupuncture and Chinese medicine.  I will not lie to you.  Not everyone is 100% satisfied.  Impossible.  Many times the cause is not that the medicine does not work.  Rather, the problem is expectations were unreasonable and frustration was bred.  Acupuncture is a holistic treatment.  Holistic treatments are like a nudges to the body to begin healing itself.  With enough nudges, the body will move in the right direction, towards health and away from disease.  Acupuncture is not a panacea and one treatment will not fix all your problems.  Often, we get asked: “How many treatments do I need?” or “How long will it take for me to be better?”.  The only answer is… “It depends”.

“It depends? How can I rely on that?  Are you trying to get me to come for treatment forever?”  What does that mean?”  Of course these are just assumptions as to what my clients are thinking.  I cannot hear my patients’ thoughts.  At least not yet.

An ancient Chinese general rule is that for every year a health condition has been a problem, one month of treatment is necessary.  You can start your expectations there and any less treatment will be saved time, money and energy.  Some people heal faster than others.  It is that simple.

More general rules are:

• The older one is, the longer treatment will take.
• The weaker someone is, longer treatment and more frequent treatment is necessary.
• The more frequent treatment you get, the faster you will feel better.
• Lifestyle changes are necessary in conjunction with treatment.
• Just because you feel better, you might not be entirely rid of the problem.

These general rules are not always the case, however.  ‘Always’ twin would be ‘Never’.  I use the word ‘general’ as the rules pertain to more of the people rather than less.  We do see some people who heal dramatically fast.  I have treated people one time and don’t hear from them for 1-2 years and they tell me their shoulder/neck/digestion has been better ever since the treatment.  It is always a pleasant story to hear although I do not make it my expectation to heal everyone who comes into the office in one treatment as that would create my own frustration.