How effective is Traditional Chinese Medicine? Does acupuncture help with difficult menopause?

I’ve never tried it, so I can’t tell you anything about its effectiveness – or otherwise, but I see that the United Nations World Health Organisation has approved acupuncture as a treatment for symptoms associated with menopause. So it could be an answer for women who don’t want to take the chance with HRT.

In Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), menopause is seen as a natural process which alters the balance of Yin and Yang. After menopause many women discover (and may be disturbed by) the more yang (energetic, aggressive) side of themselves.

From a TCM point of view, mind and body are one, and the whole woman and her experience of life is considered in diagnosis. These life experiences (especially when out of balance and not dealt with properly) can manifest as disease in the body, and especially as gynecological problems.

Interestingly, TCM holds that all perimenopausal symptoms to be signs of ill-health, and the biggest factors in determining your comfort through this time will be the dietary and emotional health you’ve maintained throughout your adulthood.Well that seems fairly obvious.

Is it worth trying acupuncture? That’s up to you of course, and if there are any practitioners in your area – and how much it costs!

But TCM offers dietary suggestions too

• Cutting back on your sugar intake.
• Taking a break from coffee, chocolate, colas (tough for a lot of people, but think about feeling better!)
• Eating more tryptophan-rich foods – turkey, bananas, figs, whole grain crackers, figs, and dates.
• Eating more foods rich in phytoestrogens – red clover sprouts, yams, and linseed.

What’s Tryptophan?

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, meaning that the body can’t manufacture it. The body has to get tryptophan and other essential amino acids from food.

Tryptophan helps the body produce the B-vitamin niacin, which, ­in turn, helps the body produce serotonin, a remarkable chemical that acts as a calming agent in the brain and plays a key role in sleep.

What are Phytoestrogens?

The Phytoestrogen Buzz

Earlier posts mentioning phytoestrogen and where you can get it

The Power of Soup

Soya

Please let me know if you have some experience with acupuncture.

All women have some risk of developing breast cancer, but having someone from your family — specifically, a biological relative — who has been diagnosed with breast cancer can mean a significantly increased risk for you.

So the first step to understanding your risk is by analysing your family’s medical history, taking into account how many people in your family had breast cancer and at what age the cancer developed.

Once you know your risk level, you and your health professional can determine a screening schedule that is appropriate for you. That screening could include mammograms.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that you ignore medical procedures. However, massive campaigns exist to encourage all of us to have annual mammograms and it’s still uncertain whether these screenings have actually lowered the death rate from breast cancer or how much harm they really do us.

See if you can arrange for a thermogram instead. A thermogram is a heat imaging screening.

I recently read a disturbing article from Sherry Baker …

Common sense suggests there is plenty of reason to be worried about radiation causing breast cancer. And now there’s a new reason to be concerned. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered that radiation exposure can alter cells’ microenvironment (the environment surrounding cells). And that greatly raises the odds future cells will become cancerous.

Here’s the full article : Studies show how radiation causes breast cancer

I don’t know what Sherry’s qualifications are, but in that article she is quoting the findings from various studies. And they all give me great cause for concern. You should be concerned too.

Stories of modern aging, until fairly recently, were forbidden thoughts relegated to secret diaries and plastic surgery practices. Women in particular, translation=menopause, were almost required to keep age and menstrual status private, especially if they wanted to be seen as viable and valid members of society.

Contrarily, human life span in the Mayan culture was close to 150 years. Transitions were sacred benchmarks; lives were celebrated and ceremonies held for those who had 52 years–that’s when the tribe finally considered them adults. Aging was an honor because it was accompanied by life experience and wisdom. Old women were queens and crones.

Not so in the modern world.

Then one day, a little over a decade ago, a best-selling book hit the shelves. Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northrup, brought much out of the closet and into the light. With the advent of this exposure, many other writers and alternative healers have since come out on its coattails. Gradually publishing even more progressive information about managing this physical phase, we can now outwardly express its essence, as well as embrace and demonstrate honor for menopause once again.

There are approximately 6 million women aged 50 and over, potentially in some stage of menopause, currently living in the United States (see the U.S. Census 2006-08). Hard to ignore at this point, menopause moves from one of the lowest rungs of importance in overall health concerns to one of the top-most considerations for women. Coupled with Northrup’s book, it inches its way into the medical world with the assistance of an increased number of maturing women doctors.

It seems as though we’ve come full circle. Now our job is to place it in the driver’s seat in the spiritual evolution of women who, as mothers or not, are the nurturers and encouragers of our society. Could we possibly say that as women evolve, they entrain the rest of the world?

Self-Inquiry

This inquiry is spiritual in nature and it relates to the state of women–mind, body, emotion, soul path–all over the world who are the leaders of small and or grass roots movements, mothers and teachers, grandmothers and wise women. This is the first in many questions and ideas to consider along the way.

Middle aged women are poised and ready to become truly enlightened, maybe even more than anyone else on this planet, especially if they refrain from having sex.

After you sit with this for a while, consider the following ideas: 1) they are one person’s ideas; 2) you may agree with part, yet not all of what is presented; 3) you may see these ideas as irrelevant; and 4) you might just agree with what is stated. Please interact with the information and feel free to send a response if you are so inclined–that’s the nature of this project–to inspire, to provoke, to charge you up and even amuse you.

So, before you run away, close the window or get stuck in some programmed emotional state, please, feel it all out.

Ponder This

Okay. Let’s say that all humans are imprinted with ascension information; it’s in the DNA. The interesting part of this idea is that it’s often more easily accessed by middle aged women. Why? Well, because we (now I’ve given myself away) are no longer compelled to procreate; we have pretty much already embraced our power, established ourselves in either a family unit, career and business, or all of the above.

Simply put, we have more time and desire to explore our inner world, creating many possibilities and opportunities to grow. Historically, women are transmitters for other women and the guides for men as well as children. In addition, no earlier modern generation en mass has had the combined physical stamina, emotional balance and presence, mental openness, spiritual intelligence and connection as middle aged women do right now.

Many cultures identify women in this cycle of life as crones: wise old women who are moving toward the end years. Now, we women are still physically vital, coupled with wisdom from years of experience, and can easily embrace who we are in the world. Simply put, we are vibrant Queens.

We are also most likely part of a strong support network of conscientious women who are not only devoted to spiritual practices, we are also focused on embodying the information and enhancing practical consciousness along with spirituality.

In other words, we are in a constant state of developing our awareness as spirits in the body as opposed to being distanced or distracted from this very important part of ourselves. We very consciously set our endpoint intentions to create spiritual freedom in this lifetime, in our bodies, here on this planet.

Responses & Reactions

What do you think? Are women poised for ascendancy and enlightenment more than anyone else on this planet? By the way, the original statement originates with a male entity who wholly supports women moving in the direction of complete self-realization and actualization..

Article Source: Michele Geyer