Allergies

What aren’t we allergic to these days? According to a report by ABC news, people can be allergic to water, cell phones, allergy medications, the heat or the cold, chocolate, exercise (Yes, I did say that. The condition is called exercise-induced anaphylaxis), and the laundry list continues. According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, “More than half (54.6%) of all U.S. citizens test positive to one or more allergens.”

Western medicine says that allergies result from an imbalance in the immune system due to an overreaction to the stimuli of pollens, dust, fungi, and other airborne irritants. In the system of Chinese medicine, allergies result from a combination of imbalances in the body. Each person may require different treatment. A surprising area of imbalance with allergies for some may be connected to hormones. If you’ve had a lot of stress in your life, your hormones may not be in balance. When they are out of balance, you may begin reacting negatively to any number of stimuli in your environment. This is also why allegies might get worse with menopause.

Researchers from the European Centre for Environment & Human Health, along with several Australian institutions found that children living in areas with lower levels of sunlight are twice as likely to develop food allergies, compared to those in areas with higher UV. Clearly there is more than an immune system overreaction at play.

Natural treatments can alleviate the severity of allergies and even prevent them from coming on. Using acupuncture and Chinese herbs several months or even a few weeks before allergy season arrives will prevent symptoms and possibly cure your allergies. Conventional allergy medications might help symptoms as well, but they tend to have more side effects and don't solve the problem.

Western herbs, homeopathy and some basic nutritional supplements also can alleviate symptoms of allergies. Many natural products actually work the better than some antihistamines work, by stabilizing your immune system so it doesn't react.

According to Chinese medicine each season is associated with a major organ that is more sensitive to imbalance during that time of year. Springtime is the season of the liver. Amongst other functions, the liver rules the smooth flow of energy in the body, deals with stress, and regulates the menstrual cycles. It is sensitive to wind and rules the emotion of anger.

Over the years of working with Allergies and Chinese medicine, I’ve observed that people tend to be somewhat irritable in springtime, especially on windy days. Sneezing is called rebellious qi, where the energy of the lungs is going in the wrong direction. This is usually provoked when wind stirs up the liver energy. In my experience I have many clients who find it hard to live in our high paced, modern lives. We’ve forgotten that we were once much more connected to our earth and our environment. Perhaps allergies are a way of rebelling.

Spring Cleanse

Happy spring time – the time of renewal, refreshment, and starting new life. It always feels like this is really when the new year should be, because everything begins bursting forth from the earth full of abundance. It’s the perfect time for cleaning inside and out after a long winter of hibernating.

I invite you to join me on a ten day long spring cleanse, to tidy up our insides as much as our homes. With a fresh start you can tune into your body and life more deeply to listen to what it really wants.

There are 5 main components to this cleanse: 1) Green drinks, 2) fiber and intestinal cleansing, 3) Lots of vegetables - 50% of your food, 4) Yoga or qi gong moves every morning, and 5) the Forgiveness meditation. While doing this cleanse, I would recommend that you stop dairy, sugar, gluten containing foods, and alcohol. If you have caffeine, I would suggest tea rather than coffee, with no milk or sugar in it.

1) Green Drink Recipe: Make a green drink every morning, using a blender, vitamixer, or other superblender. Take a small apple, 1/2 banana, some blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries and add 3-4 leaves of chard, spinach (a handfull in this case) or kale, and dandelion leaves, a piece of ginger (depending on your taste), a tablespoon of chia seeds or ground flax seeds, a tablespoon of sunflower seeds or 3 walnuts, and 1/2 a lemon. Pour water over the top, and some ice if you like, blend until everything is liquefied. Pour into mason jar. Drink a glass for breakfast and then sip it all day. Another option for a green drink is using Organic Raw Protein Powder from Garden of life, greens powder from Garden of life, water, blueberries, a handful of spinach or chard, and a date.

2) Options for fiber and intestinal cleansing: The easiest is to buy Yerba Prima all fiber capsules, beginning on the first day of the cleanse. Take 2 capsules twice a day, then increase to 3 the next day. 4 the day after that. On the 5th day of the cleanse, begin taking bentonite clay - 1 tablespoon twice a day, with lots of water. You will only do this for 3 days. Drink plenty of water with all this fiber. If you want to use liver cleansing herbs, Amazon herbs makes a product I like, Fiberzon, which has herbs for cleansing in it. You can just use 2 doses of that per day instead of the fiber and bentonite clay. The point of this cleanse is to make it easy for you to do, which will make it more likely that you'll do it.

3) Diet: 50% vegetables, meaning that all day, everything you eat, half of it should be vegetables. You can steam, bake, boil, stir fry, whatever works for you. You can eat any protein you like, meat, fish, chicken, beans, whatever feels good. Toasted walnuts are another good source of protein/fat that you could have with your breakfast. You can also eat grains. Fruits are okay but I would only have them in the green drink for this diet.

The Dieting Don’t List: Don't eat any white foods at all - ie bread, sugar, milk, dairy, cheese, even bananas aren't great. Do not skip meals. Have at least 3 meals a day. You can have the green drink for a snack or you can have some veggies and protein for a snack.

4) Yoga or qi gong moves in the AM: Practice moving your body in a gentle way. You can take a class or find a dvd that has some poses. Or, if you know some yoga, practice what you know and make it your routine. You should do some form of slower movement for 20 minutes a day. If you decide to do some cardio, try to go outside and take walks. Be more reflective in your exercising this week. If you know the sun salutation, you can do it 12 times a day for the week.

5) The Forgiveness meditation: The liver is the organ that is most active in spring time. It has to do with the emotions of anger and frustration. The best way to heal anger is to find that place of forgiveness inside of ourselves. In the 5 elements system, the liver leads to the heart, which represents the emotion of joy. To find joy, you need to find forgiveness. For our cleanse, since we are focusing on the liver, I would like to have everyone do 5 minutes a day of forgiveness meditation.

Propel your mind, body, and spirit forward with this great experiment. Even if you can’t do every component, or last for a full week….

The Secret to True Love

The Secret to True Love

Last year on Valentines Day, I went with three girlfriends to Santa Rosa dressed to the nines. We were headed to a Professional Singles Society event. Within three feet of walking into the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, we saw that there were only ten people there, all over the age of sixty, and only one male. I left the premise depressed as we headed towards Petaluma.

There we were- four attractive single women sitting at a Taqueria in Petaluma on Valentines Day, trying to connect but with no one to connect to. This year, if you are finding yourself single on Valentines Day, and you have this empty feeling inside because you are not with someone, be rest assured that you are not just okay – you are sexy and amazing. Make it your mission to really be with yourself and have fun!

Most of us don’t want to be alone. In fact, many of us suffer a lot just to not be alone. We focus so much of our thoughts and time on our desire to be loved and to love. However, the relationship that we all so often overlook is the one we have with ourselves. So, let’s start there.

What does it take to be okay with yourself? Every person has their issues, their point of pain and insecurities. Here are my suggestions for making 2012 the hottest year yet.

Start by doing things for yourself that you like. Ask yourself, what do I love doing that I am not doing now? Don’t let not being in relationship keep you from doing things in your life. I always like going to coffee shops by myself, bringing my laptop, and working beside a nicely brewed cup of coffee. And don’t limit yourself- why not take the dream vacation that you always wanted?

When you are exploring these new possibilities for happiness in your life, also take the time to really be within yourself. Learn who you are and what you like. Find the strength to start healing and freeing those parts of yourself that are stuck and in pain. Discover the secret to true love by starting to become your own best friend.

A spiritual master once said, that if people spent just five percent of the energy they spend on relationships seeking god, they would achieve true happiness. This 2012, focus your love on yourself. It may be hard to do at first. The emptiness inside feels so huge. But keep trying, and slowly watch your heart expand and grow.

More about Hormones

Symptoms of low hormone levels are vast. There are over 20 hormones produced by the adrenal glands alone. People often know about the symptoms of menopause, hot flashes, dry skin, bad sleep, palpitations, anxiety, vaginal dryness, hair loss, low sex drive and many others. But some symptoms are not so well known. Quite often, people will experience muscle aches and pains. Besides menopause, many conditions have something to do with hormone imbalances. Weight issues, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, even Alzheimers can respond to bio-identical hormone therapy.


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Emotional Healing

Today I've been thinking about the concept of thinking about something versus feeling it. My experience on spiritual path has been that we can think of things or conceptualize them, but we don't really get anywhere with them unless we feel them. Life provides us with opportunities to feel things every day. What we do with those experiences determines our ability to heal from them.
By reading about things, and studying them, we learn how they work mentally. That's a valuable thing to do, it gets us ready when an experience comes along. When you have an emotional experience, you may not remember that you read something about how to move past old traumas. It takes practice and awareness to become calm enough in the middle of an emotional storm to stop and find the healing.

Lets say that you married a man who's just like your dad. When you were a child, you felt unsupported in certain ways by your dad. Then you married your dad and found him to be just as unsupportive. You get angry and think it has something to do with your husband. Perhaps he didn't pay the bills on time this month. The anger is really about what happened to you as a child. The healing comes when you can see that and be able to move to a place of forgiveness with your husband.

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20/30/50 Healing Path

Whenever a person has a physical problem, you can break it down into the various components to think about treatment. 20% of any problem can be treated with physical modalities, such as seeing a doctor, having acupuncture, or chiropractic, or taking a medication. 30% of that problem or condition can be dealt with using lifestyle modifications, things like exercise, foods you eat, and supplements you take. A full 50% of the problem resides in the emotional/spiritual aspects. Dealing with the emotional/spiritual self can help you bring about healing in many parts of your life, but that might be difficult. We have a hard time seeing our selves from that perspective. Quite often our views about things get skewed in relation to looking at other people and what they are doing. By allowing that 50% of all conditions have this component, you can actually move to the 20% and deal with it there. (more)

More about Hormones

Many conditions can be improved by treatment with bio-identical hormones. The obvious things have to do with female problems such as menopause, and PMS. Other conditions include, chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disorders. Even diabetes, Alzheimers, and hypertension can be improved by understanding your hormone levels.
Ideally you would start by getting tests to measure your hormone levels. This can be done either using blood tests, saliva tests, or urine. Many doctors say that testing hormone levels doesn't tell you anything but I've found that it does. Its a matter of understanding the tests that we are using and being able to extrapolate from having seen many people.
Once you have some lab levels, many supplements can be used to help balance hormones. It doesn't just have to be bio-identical hormones. Depending on your symptoms and what is out of balance, I will prescribe supplements or hormones to help you feel better.

Bio Identical Hormones

There is a lot of controversy about bio-identical hormones and what it means to take them.
Today I will just provide you with a brief definition of what they are. Your body is always making hormones in the various glands such as the thyroid, adrenals, and ovaries or testes. The adrenal glands alone make over 20 different hormones.
In certain situations when your body isn't making enough hormones its a good idea to replace them. Most commonly, we think of menopause as one of those times, but there are other medical conditions that will do better with hormone replacement as well.
Bio Identical hormones are hormones made in a lab with an identical chemical structure to the ones in your body. For example, estradiol is a bio-identical hormone, but Premarin is not. Premarin is natural in that is comes from horse urine, but isn't biologically the same as your own natural estrogen.
The idea is that when you use bio-identical hormones, your system doesn't have to work hard to use them, and is less likely to have a negative reaction.
On my next post, I'll give you more details about how and why to use them.

Swine flu

Swine Flu

The Swine flu may or may not turn out to be a huge pandemic as we have been warned about so many times. Panic is almost never a way to generate a positive response in the public.
Even Swine Flu becomes an epidemic, the best way to protect yourself is to have a healthy immune system and take good care of your body. Eating well, taking your vitamins, and washing your hands often are simple logical ways of taking care of yourself. Rather than buying Tamiflu, I would recommend everyone invest in Host Defense, or some other medicinal mushrooms to protect their immune systems. Medicinal mushrooms are amazingly effective at keeping you from getting sick.

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Allergies

How do you survive Allergies without drugs?

You can have a series of treatments or take herbs to calm the allergies before a season begins, if you haven't done that already, and now you're sneezing like crazy, you can take supplements to calm the allergies until you've had a chance to work on your immune system.

A series of treatments and herbs may take more than one season to get the body into balance so it will not react to pollens and other things.

Using acupuncture and Chinese herbs several months before allergy season arrives can prevent symptoms. Even if allergies have already begun, treatment can help reduce symptoms.

Western herbs, homeopathy and some basic nutritional supplements alleviate symptoms of allergies. Stinging nettle has an amazing impact on allergy symptoms and as a bonus relieves joint pains caused by arthritis. Butterbur in the form of a product called “Petadolex” can help prevent migraines in addition to providing allergy relief. Bee pollen from local bees, if taken by the teaspoonful once a day before the season starts, immunizes the body against the pollens.

Various antioxidants such as quercetin, N. Acetyl Cysteine, vitamin C, and rutin stabilize the immune cells involved in the allergic response. Available in health food stores, they prevent symptoms and over time strengthen the immune system to reduce reaction. Bromelain – an enzyme taken on an empty stomach – penetrates inflamed areas to reduce reactions.

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Resources

The Web That Has No Weaver, Ted Kaptchuk
The Natural Guide to Weight Loss that Lasts, Nan Lu
Awareness, Anthony De Mello

Service Offerings

Acupuncture
Chinese and Western medicine
neurotransmitter support
Bio-Identical hormones
Cranio-sacral work

hands on healing

alternative medicine

Novato, CA

Santa Rosa, CA

Skype healing

Contact Dr. Shiroko

Heart to Heart Medical Center
3471 Regional Parkway, Santa Rosa, CA 95403

also an office in Novato, CA call for address
707 524-9640
707 477-8077
drshiro@liles.net
www.hthmc.com

About Dr. Shiroko

Shiroko Sokitch graduated from University of Washington School of Medicine in 1984 and the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle, WA in 1990. She did two years of a general surgery residency at Swedish Hospital in Seattle before deciding that the surgeon�s way of life was not for her. While attending acupuncture school and starting her alternative medical career, she practiced as an emergency medical physician for ten years. Since 1993, she has owned and operated Heart to Heart to Heart Medical Center, a complementary medical center in Santa Rosa, CA with her business partner Jason Liles. Since January of 2000, she has also written an alternative medical advice column in the Healdsburg, Windsor, and Sebastopol newspapers.

Shiroko Sokitch, MD, is an unusual physician in that she is able to provide a comprehensive blend of treatments including Chinese and western medicine. Since opening Heart to Heart Medical Center in Santa Rosa 14 years ago, she has become an expert at using many modalities to bring the body to balance and wholeness.

In her office, she specializes in listening closely so that she understands your health concerns and is able to guide you to finding the best treatments. In addition to acupuncture, she works with craniosacral therapy, herbs, nutritional supplements, specific diagnostic tests, exercise and diet to help you find the best balance for your body. Her extensive understanding of the spiritual/emotional connection to your physical problems will help you to heal at a greater depth with more lasting results.

There is no one size fits all medicine here. Each person is an individual with unique responses to treatment and each needs a personalized approach. With Shiroko�s 100 Percent Healing approach, you will learn about each element of your healing path.

If you have questions about any health concerns, Shiroko will spend time with you to help you understand it and find your way to wholeness.

An initial visit is 1 and a half hours long and includes a thorough evaluation of your health from the Chinese and western philosophies. She will provide you with a plan for addressing each issue and give you instructions for helping yourself with diet and exercise, herbs and supplements as well as ideas for treatments. If acupuncture is suggested, her techniques are painless and relaxing. Further testing might be recommended to understand hormone levels, digestive function or neurotransmitter levels among other possibilities. Once you have decided to work with Shiroko, she is your partner in healing. You can access her via email, or her cell phone to get answers to your questions.