A recent small pilot study (36 participants) with dry eyes demonstrated that acupuncture can increase increase tear wetting. (click here for study) In my practice I do not use acupuncture as a first line therapy for dry eyes. I look to nutrition first, as often increasing essential fatty acids, especially Omega-3 can resolve dry eyes. I usually suggest patients use flax seed oil for dry eyes. If that does not resolve the dry eyes then often individualized herbal medicine quickly brings relief.
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There are a plethora of studies showing the benefits of probiotics during second and third trimesters of pregnancy. One of the supplements I always recommend during pregnancy are probiotics.   Research has shown they are particularly important in the latter stages of pregnancy. Read the rest of this entry

A recent study published in this month’s Journal of Pain demonstrated that acupuncture has a much more favorable outcome for carpal tunnel syndrome after 1 year of treatment compared to steroids.

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There is a study making headlines today that we do not need more than 600IU of vitamin D per day. You probably have seen the headlines. What is ridiculous is that this study only looked at bone health as a marker and ignored the thousands of other metabolic functions that vitamin D plays. Ignore the headlines – take your vitamin D and get it measured properly!

I’ll let the experts reply to this article, but I cut and pasted below a response to this study from the Vitamin D Council.

(Do get your vitamin D levels checked, but when you do make sure you do not take any in supplementation form for at least 2-3 days prior to the blood draw. Also it is the 25(OH)D level that is important although in some people the ratio of D2:D3 may be important such as some autoimmune diseases)

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After 13 year of silence, the quasi governmental agency, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), today recommended that a three-pound premature infant take virtually the same amount of vitamin D as a 300 pound pregnant woman. While that 400 IU/day dose is close to adequate for infants, 600 IU/day in pregnant women will do nothing to help the three childhood epidemics most closely associated with gestational and early childhood vitamin D deficiencies: asthma, auto-immune disorders, and, as recently reported in the largest pediatric journal in the world, autism. Professor Bruce Hollis of the Medical University of South Carolina has shown pregnant and lactating women need at least 5,000 IU/day, not 600.

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There is a saying ‘that it is only skin deep’.   But really the skin is very often a reflection of digestive health.   In Chinese Medicine the skin is a reflection of the Lungs organ system and the Lungs are paired with the Large Intestine organ system.   For example asthmatic reactions are  often precipitated by ingestion of food allergens.    When dealing with something like psoriasis it can often be helped by using nutraceuticals (i.e. adding fish oils to reduce inflammation or taking Vitamin D to support immune/inflammatory response) or changes in diet (such as a gluten free diet).  The etiology of psoriasis is different for every body, however addressing nutritional imbalances thereby improving gut function, or changing diet and improving gut function can help reduce the itchy flaky skin. Read the rest of this entry

de Valois BA, Young TE, Robinson N, McCourt C, Maher EJ.

Supportive Oncology Research Team (SORT), Lynda Jackson Macmillan Centre (LJMC), Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex, United Kingdom. beverley.devalois@nhs.net

I am giving a talk today at the Acton Board of Health’s “Wellness University”.   It was motivated by 2 new women patients coming into my office within hours that were put on statins because of mildly elevated cholesterol.    I wrote this talk specifically for today’s event.

Click here for PDF of Better Heart Healthy Ways

Yours In Health,

George Mandler CNS LDN LicAc

Acupuncture reduces crying in infants with infantile colic: a randomised, controlled, blind clinical study.

Landgren K, Kvorning N, Hallström I.

1Department of Health Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

I get frustrated and sad when I hear a friends kid is on antibiotics, especially if they are under 2 years of age.   There is little doubt that antibiotics cause stress to the gut mucosa lining.   There is also clear indication that antibiotics may not be useful for the common infant/toddler ear and sinus infections.   The good news is that many pediatricians are cautious to only use antibiotics as a last resort.  There are other options such as dietary changes (often sugar or cow’s dairy can be a culprit), increasing vitamin D levels and using essential oils.   Chinese Medicine has a 2000+ year history of treating common infant/toddler issues that existed a millennium ago as they exist today.   There are many alternatives before one subjects their child to antibiotics. Read the rest of this entry

Back during my high school football days I recall Coach V. always giving players an earful if they missed school because they were sick. If we missed school we were not allowed to practice and if we missed school on a Friday we were not supposed to play on a Saturday. He’d say “You are supposed to be in shape, how can you get sick? If you were in better shape you wouldn’t get sick”. Read the rest of this entry