Red wine is good for me, is cheese also?

Have you heard? French people have very low occurrence of Cardiovascular diseases and less heart attacks than North Americans. Of course, you've heard.

Books, television, and articles basically have been telling us that even though the french diet is heavy in fat, cream and butter, their hearts are in great shape. And all because of red wine. Are you kidding me?

I was born and raised in France and I can tell you, it's true! They don't die of heart attacks. Oh no, they all get liver failure and lung cancer, instead!So much better. The instance of Lung, and throat cancer in France is enormous: my mom smoked 2 packs/day for 60 years (that's an average there). Liver cirrhosis and Liver failure is also very common: I have been around enough drunk people to see the effect of alcohol has on them. Not pretty.

So drink red wine, eat cheese, and butter your white bread, apparently you'll be just fine.So my point here is when reading about research, take it with a grain of salt. Because it's all relative. When studies come out about acupuncture with percentage of success or failure, I smile.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complex modality and very thorough, but unfortunately it is very difficult to measure its results. Here's why.
TCM looks at the root cause of the problem, not the outcome. Each patient is unique with their own constitution, lifestyleand living environment. If a study looks at the effect of acupuncture or Chinese herbal remedies on insomnia, it would be difficult to get an accurate result, as the study conducted would treat all participants the same way. But everyone is so different how could it work evenly?

Let's look at 2 patients (Sue & Mark) coming for the same reason: Insomnia.
- Solution A: sleeping pills for Sue & Mark. Not my kind of temporary solution, but what the heck, if that's your cup of tea.
- Solution B: natural treatments: herbal teas, melatonin. Temporary natural solution. Helpful.
- Solution C: TCM treatments. Long term results. The practitioner needs to do a full consultation (sometimes lasting over 1 hour to be totally thorough) and establish a treatment plan suitable for each patient. It may take a while for the issue to be resolved depending on how long it's been going on, but it will result in a longer lasting effect.

2 patients, 2 different symptoms, 2 different people:
- Sue: takes 2 to 4 hours to fall asleep each night. She says, she has a million thoughts running through her mind at night, she starts worrying and cannot shut her brain off (Did you recognize yourself there?). She eventually falls asleep but in the morning, she has to drag herself out of bed. She's fatigue all day long. She gets anxious often and worries constantly. 

- Mark: goes to bed at 11 pm and falls asleep easily. He wakes up though every night between 2 am and 3 am and he just lays there, feeling restless. He's never tired. He is jumpy, feels stressed due to his job and gets irritable and short tempered with his family.

Those are 2 different types of insomnia. And that just the sleeping part, we need to figure out what else is out of balance in the body, and look for the root cause (In the 2 cases, emotions and stress). So we'll ask about each and every system in your body, from your digestion to your memory. If we treated those 2 patients the same way, it would not work well. Sue looks weak and deficient, so we may strengthen her, and calm her overactive mind. Mark seems strong but too hyper, so we may relax and soothe him in order to calm his mind. Different treatment principles. 

TCM is a complex medicine that treats the patient first, not the disease, and looks at the root of the problem for prevention of re-occurrence. I have been practicing for many years and still get amazed by the great outcome of Acupuncture & TCM treatments. it challenges me every day and I love how specific a practitioner has to be in order to help patients feel their best and reach optimum health. 

Give it a try, you too will be amazed.

Clara Cohen
Port Moody & Coquitlam Acupuncturist
Healing Cedar Wellness