The 3 Keys to Changing Your Health

Written by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc


Continued from page 1

If you choose not to decide -- you still have made a choice! - Neil Peart

Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground. - Unknown

The doors we open and close each day deciderepparttar lives we live. - Flora Whittemore

To decide, to be atrepparttar 114760 level of choice, is to take responsibility for your life and to be in control of your life. - Abbie M. Dale

5. PERSISTENCE & WILLPOWER If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whateverrepparttar 114761 field, I would pickrepparttar 114762 trait of persistence. Determination. The will to endure torepparttar 114763 end, to get knocked down seventy times and get up offrepparttar 114764 floor saying, "Here comes number seventy-one!" - Richard M. DeVos

After you've made your decision, you must persist with a will. Without persistence or willpower, there is no change. Actually, inrepparttar 114765 larger context of humanity, without willpower, nothing can be achieved. If we are completely subject to our whims, we are like children - we want what we want when we want it, we're unable to subjugate our desires, we're incapable of paying now and playing later.

The Kidney-system is responsible for our willpower. It includesrepparttar 114766 adrenal glands, which produce cortisol, a natural steroid hormone that gives us a burst of intense strength. It'srepparttar 114767 source ofrepparttar 114768 strength ofrepparttar 114769 proverbial supermom who can liftrepparttar 114770 car that's sitting on her child. The Chinese saidrepparttar 114771 essence ofrepparttar 114772 Kidney isrepparttar 114773 Zhi, or Will.

Philippe Sionneau summarizesrepparttar 114774 Chinese writings on Zhi (pronounced 'jur') by saying that it is "the emotion of self preservation, but also prudence and attentiveness." The Kidneys are also associated with Kong and Jing, which mean fear and fright. We know from WM that when we are scared we go into a sympathetic nervous system stress reaction that involvesrepparttar 114775 release of cortisol fromrepparttar 114776 adrenals.

Onrepparttar 114777 disease side,repparttar 114778 Will (Zhi) can turn into recurrent phobias, nervousness, and panic. But, Kong or fear can also be normal and useful inrepparttar 114779 form of "caution, fear ofrepparttar 114780 unknown, and danger signals." For example, at times when I am rock climbing and about to make a risky move, feel some fatigue while taking risks, or suddenly get scared, I get a burst of cortisol along with a certain amount of caution. Some extremists ignore these danger signals and end their careers dead. I always listen torepparttar 114781 Kidneys' warnings and make a decision about whether or notrepparttar 114782 risk is manageable and worthwhile. It's not always easy to make rational decisions with a bunch of cortisol in your veins, so I when I lean toward not takingrepparttar 114783 risk, I oscillate between thoughts of my wife dealing with my dead or broken body, and insecurity feelings that I'm not daring enough. The latter, of course, are irrational, and I know that because overall I'm not limited by irrational fears.

One ofrepparttar 114784 reasonsrepparttar 114785 world was so fascinated with Michael Jordan inrepparttar 114786 1990's was that he seemed to be able to will a win and make it happen, to "putrepparttar 114787 rope in his teeth and drag his team acrossrepparttar 114788 finish line." Of course, it became clear later in his career that he also had to work very hard every day. And Larry Bird became one ofrepparttar 114789 most reliable free throw shooters of all time by shooting hundreds of shots every morning in college.

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. - Confucius

I learned thatrepparttar 114790 above quote was true forrepparttar 114791 trudging,repparttar 114792 arduous journey. All of my life, I've been more of a sprinter- give me something to do and I want to get it done quick and then relax. In high school track and field, I preferred to runrepparttar 114793 100-yard dash thanrepparttar 114794 5000 meter. I just thoughtrepparttar 114795 long runs were too painful. Little did I know that persistence is like a muscle, and mine was atrophied.

Not long ago, my friend Arthur and I began training to hike up Mt. Whitney. Whitney isrepparttar 114796 tallest mountain inrepparttar 114797 lower 48 U.S. states. It's 14,495 feet high. We knewrepparttar 114798 altitude would affect us, so we started by hiking up smaller mountains. The first one we attempted wasrepparttar 114799 10,804-foot high Mt. San Jacinto in Idyllwild, Ca. We planned an overnight, but we were unprepared in some ways. Not only did we run into a fair amount of snow (without boots or gators to keeprepparttar 114800 snow out of our shoes), but we each experienced altitude symptoms way before reaching our camp place at 9,500 feet. We had to descendrepparttar 114801 next morning (after poor sleep due torepparttar 114802 altitude and Arthur's snoring).

Six weeks later, we did it again, but this time with boots, and after taking a week of a nasty tasting preventive Chinese herbal formula forrepparttar 114803 altitude sickness. You can already tell we were determined. Fortunately, we experienced little or no symptoms (and when I almost got nauseous, I immediately layed down and napped for 10 minutes), and made it allrepparttar 114804 way torepparttar 114805 top. But it wasn't easy. The lack of air even at 10,000 feet makes your heartbeat one and a half or twice as fast as normal, and your body keeps saying stop, sit down, rest, go back down. This is where your willpower comes in.

As someone who was quite undisciplined earlier in life, someone who loved to sleep in, to indulge himself, to revel in selfishness, I wonder if I'll ever feel that discipline and willpower come naturally to me. But I am determined to improve myself, to experience whatever human beings can experience, to prevail… some of that comes fromrepparttar 114806 conviction that God wants us to do that, and that doing God's will isrepparttar 114807 most important thing in life. And some of it comes from anger - my unwillingness to berepparttar 114808 loser. And a little bit comes from ego, but truly less and less over time.

So I didn't listen to my body. I kept going. I rested when I had to, then kept going. And it truly didn't matter how slow I was going- so long as I didn't give up. That's how we made it torepparttar 114809 top, at times less than 1 mile per hour. The hardest part was onrepparttar 114810 way down when we lostrepparttar 114811 trail inrepparttar 114812 snow and had to go back up again to findrepparttar 114813 trail that took us down. I had thought we were done with going up. I had relaxed. So it was that much harder to bring backrepparttar 114814 willpower to go back up.

But there was no real choice. I couldn't just lie down inrepparttar 114815 snow. No one was going to come pick me up. I wasn't a little kid. I was a man who had to do what I had to do because there was no choice, and so no matter how hard it was, I would do it. Andrepparttar 114816 exhilarating thing about it was that I not only hadrepparttar 114817 will power to do it, but later I felt like I could have done more. I felt so free because I had broken through what I thought were my limitations, and felt like I could have gone further. It made me wonder what a human being is capable of.

Acupuncturist, Herbalist, and Medical Professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.


Healing Without Side Effects: Drugs vs. Herbal Formulas

Written by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc


Continued from page 1

A Typical Herb Formula Treatment

For example, say you come in for sinus problems. First, we differentially diagnose you. Is it heat, cold, dryness, and/or dampness? What organs are involved? What specifically is going on? Successful treatment starts with accurate diagnosis. If we see that you have a tendency toward 'blood vacuity' (if you have symptoms like tendon problems, muscle spasms, visual floaters, poor memory, dryness, and objective signs like a pale tongue, pale lusterless face, etc.), then we tailorrepparttar herbal formula to make sure isn't going to worsen that condition.

Then we give you a formula that isn't going to makerepparttar 114759 dryness or heat worse, or increaserepparttar 114760 mucus. The guaifenesin inrepparttar 114761 first example works by dryingrepparttar 114762 mucus, and sorepparttar 114763 side effect is that it can dry you too much or increase pre-existing heat in your body. Anxiety can happen whenrepparttar 114764 Heart Blood is vacuous. The palpitations can be a symptom of a Heart-system problem.

Chinese Medicine Knows People Are Unique

It's not a radical concept. When you get a denture or a crown fromrepparttar 114765 dentist, they first take an impression and then have a lab custom-manufacture one that will fit your unique mouth. Optometrists don't make just one prescription of contacts or glasses; they measure your sight from a number of perspectives, and then order a custom-prescription for you. They have you come back regularly and change your prescription if your vision changes. Even hats come in various sizes or are, at least, adjustable! Oriental medicine isrepparttar 114766 same way. It is an internal medicine which assesses your specific physical, mental, and emotional landscape, and then elegantly, personally balances your extremes

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."

If all you have is a hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench, then everything looks like a nail, a screw, or a bolt. Practicing medicine that way is like giving a speech (monologue) when you're in a one-on-one conversation (dialogue). Some doctor's visits are that way. But what if you could look at your patient first, and then custom-design your treatment for them? This is what oriental medicine does. That's how we end up with a custom herbal formula or selection of acupuncture points that might change every week. If you are changing as a result ofrepparttar 114767 treatment, thenrepparttar 114768 treatment needs to change, too.

If you have asthma, your MD will probably want give you a bronchiodilator and/or corticosteroid, and isn't likely to think about howrepparttar 114769 disease orrepparttar 114770 treatment affects your emotions (although, vice versa, it's become harder and harder to deny that emotions have an effect on or cause illnesses). One ofrepparttar 114771 main differences between oriental medicine and biomedicine is thatrepparttar 114772 disease categories in biomedicine are sometimes too large. Contrast that torepparttar 114773 oriental medical disease 'shan kong' which means 'dread,' or 'waiting forrepparttar 114774 other shoe to drop.' To be sure, there are disease and treatment subsets in biomedicine, but not as many, and they are not as well integrated with every other aspect of your life as they are in oriental medicine.

Why, in pharmaceutical medicine, do they use just one active ingredient at a time?

A single synthetic chemical can be patented, and so it is a safer investment forrepparttar 114775 pharmaceutical company than an herb which anyone can grow in their backyard. It's also easier to study a single chemical, and already costs around $350 million just to get one passed by FDA.

Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.


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