Statin Drugs vs. Red Rice Yeast (Monascus purpureus)
In my last post I mentioned that I see a lot of patients with high cholesterol and triglycerides whose doctors want to or have already put them on Statin drugs. Some of them are even taking two or more at once. But statin drugs are not without a frightening array of risks– pain, inflammation, liver damage, Lou Gehrig’s disease ALS, and memory loss. And according to the Mayo Clinic http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/statin-side-effects/MY00205 the risks are greater under the following conditions: • Taking multiple medications to lower your cholesterol• Being female• Having a...
Read MoreLate Autumn/Early Winter Whole Grain n’ Flax Blueberry Pancakes
Rainy Winter Morning Whole Grain Wild Blueberry Pancakes. Rainy winter mornings after long hikes in the San Diego desert make me want pancakes. Good, solid, whole grain ones. The kind that make you feel like you ate food, not syrupy junk. At Trader Joe’s the other day they had Wild Blueberries from Canada, frozen. I don’t generally recommend frozen stuff, but I think berries hold up pretty well to the freezing process for winter use. Having said that I would not really eat them in winter unless they are cooked somehow, like in pancakes or as a sauce. Ayurveda and Chinese...
Read MoreMyofascial Pain: Treatment with Trigger Point Acupuncture
Definition and History of Trigger Points and Trigger Point Acupuncture The method of relief from pain, now called “trigger point acupuncture” or “myofasical acupuncture” has its origin in classical Chinese acupuncture which always looked at the human body and mind as a continuous whole. But modern western anatomists have had to reverse engineer their understanding of the way that pain and inflammation can cross barriers that used to be thought of as fixed. Because once science understood the role of the nervous system as a carrier of sensation, it was understood...
Read More