Abundant Heaven

Peter Doshi is a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.  His report questions the motivations behind the intense push for what appears to be a failed strategy.

Read the full report from the British Medical Journal here.

Excerpt:

"This is not to say influenza vaccines have no proven benefit. Many randomized controlled trials of influenza vaccines have been conducted in the healthy adult population, and a systematic review found that, depending on vaccine-virus strain match,...

We wanted to share a compelling study (click to download entire research paper) with you all, showing efficacy of ear acupuncture in treating low back pain and posterior pelvic pain in pregnant women.  It was performed at the Center for the Advancement of Perioperative Health at Yale-New Haven Hospital after obtaining approval from the Human Investigation Committee at Yale University School of Medicine.  It was done primarily due to the prevalence of Pregnancy-related low back and posterior pelvic pain (PRLP) (up...

"The prevailing biomedical model, inherited from the anatomical and bacteriological investigations of the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, treats diseases as entities. From this perspective, diseases can be considered separately from the individual people in whom they manifest; a disease such as syphilis is thought to have a single cause, to express itself in a universally recognizable way, and to be treatable by a standard regimen. But Chinese doctors, as is clear from the early medical literature, approached illne...

One of the deepest insights of the human body from Chinese medicine is the appreciation of the body in the every changing cycles of seasonal climate changes.  The heat and the cold of the Solstices, the winds and patterns of weather that occur throughout the year, these are all observed and adjusted to accordingly with slight changes in diet, lifestyle, and treatment.  The solstices and equinoxes  are notable times to re-calibrate ourselves to the universe and to our own self-care.

The human body is a de...

Looking up research on dietary fats and their effects on cholesterol, I discovered this recently published article.  Here is the abstract below, and you can find the full report hosted on our website here.  I will snip out some of my favorite quotations below as well.

Abstract:

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Health professionals are often asked questions regarding fat intake:

• Are all fats bad for you?

• Are fats all the same?

• How much is too much fat?

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The objective of this chapter is to shed light on dietary fat and the controversies that s...

While I was reading an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with a team of gastroenterologists, I looked into a study they pointed to.  The study found solid evidence that cases of enteritis, intestinal infection from food poisoning, increase risk of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) developing later in more than 10% of cases.  In their conclusion, they summarized the data by noting that, "risk of IBS was 4-fold higher than in individuals who did not have infectious enteritis".  That's a significant increase.

When the gut...

In my regular scouring of the journals for new research on tea, I discovered one particular study that interests me, in large part because it is a high quality, peer-reviewed study done with randomization and blind, placebo controls.  It is also of interest to me because it is on Puerh tea extract, and I love Puerh tea.  I drink it every day and find myself sharing it with as many friends and clients as I can.

The study is now hosted on our site's research page, in full, for you to read yourself, but I wanted to highli...

What is Tea?

Camellia sinensis, the tea plant, has been brewed into a healthy, flavorful, refreshing, and timeless beverage for thousands of years by everyone from emperors to farmers.  From this one plant come the many varietals and styles of tea – white, green, yellow, red/black, purple, oolong, fermented brick tea, and the literally infinite blends or flavored teas.  

It isn’t any wonder tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world considering the satisfying and palate cleansing taste, the healthfulness, and...

The human body is very complex and is made even more complex when you include the symbiotic and interrelated exchanges between our bodies and the living body of life that is called the 'microbiome' in our intestines. Recent research continues to point to a bi-directional relationship between our gut (and the organisms that inhabit it) and our mental health, among other things, such as foods we prefer.

Research is repeatedly showing that psychological stress can alter and negatively affect the health of the microbiome and th...

In following the 24 Solar Terms calendar, a more agriculturally-focused and surprisingly accurate 2,200 year old calendar, we are arrived in the phase of the cycles known as "Summer Begins" today - May 5, 2017.

With the sudden heat wave a few days ago that hit record highs reminding us that Yang is indeed rising and expanding influence, we are encouraged to look for ways to harmonize and balance our experience through adjusting our behavior and habits.

Shifting from more hot drinks to more room temperature or cool drinks i...