Friday, July 31, 2009

Wilsonville Fun in the Park

True Health Medicine is participating in Wilsonville's Fun in the Park event this Saturday from 10am to 5pm at the Wilsonville Town Center Park. Come see us at our booth to learn more about naturopathic medicine or acupuncture. Enter for a chance to win a massage, acupuncture treatment or non-surgical face lift and tone treatment. We hope to see you at the park!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Great Summer Salad Recipe

In these days of over 100 degree temperatures, turning on the oven or even the stove does not seem like a good idea. To keep cool, I've been eating fresh fruit for breakfast and packing simple salads for lunch. Just a little cutting and I'm ready to go. These are some of the simplest and most satisfying meals and are highly nutritious without being heavy. It's essential when it's too hot to eat much that what we put into our bodies provides us with the fuel and nutrients we need. Try this simple bean salad or make yourself a green salad with your other favorite vegetables to keep yourself cool.

Simple Bean Salad
1 can organic garbanzo beans
1 can organic dark red kidney beans
1-2 organic cucumbers
1 pint organic cherry or grape tomatoes
2-3 tbsp mild rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp your choice of fresh herbs, minced (optional) - I like mint, parsley, chives or cilantro for a fresh taste!
1-2 tbsp your choice of seeds (optional) - My favorite are small seeds like white or black sesame or hemp seeds.

Drain and rinse both types of beans. With the skin on, chop the cucumber into small pieces. In this salad, I don't find the skin to be problematic, but if you hate the skin, try peeling only 1/2 the cucumber and leaving the skin on 1/2 to keep some of the valuable nutrients in the skin. Cut tomatoes in halves. Add beans, tomatoes and cucumber to large mixing bowl. Add rice vinegar, optional herbs and seeds and mix. Enjoy!

A few other tips for dealing with heat:
  • Drink plenty of water, but remember to drink some fluids with electrolytes as well. Small amounts of Emergen-C, Vitamin Water, Gatoraid or similar products can help keep your electrolytes balanced if you are sweating a lot in the heat.
  • While keeping cool, remember not to over-air condition your home, car or office. Adapting from ambient temperatures in the 60's to the 100's can be difficult for your body to adjust to.
  • Be cautious with air conditioning if you tend towards sinus infections. A/C can dry out your sinuses and cause an increase in symptoms.
  • Additionally, try not have fans blowing on the back of your neck, especially while you are sleeping. Many acupuncture points on the back of your neck are known as "wind points" and intense wind exposure at these points can lead to symptoms of common cold.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Have you got Rhythm?

I found this interesting article on rhythms and it got me thinking about my own rhythms. I tend to be an early to bed-early to rise person with regular mealtimes, but without much "downtime" (or "build up time" as they call it in the article) or recreation. You see, for the past year, since True Health first acquired our current clinic location in Tualatin, I've been working 6-7 days per work. Part time at a side job and part time at the clinic. I've taken a few vacations to try to catch up on my rest, but usually returned feeling like I needed a vacation from my vacation.

My body gave me a good wake up call last month when I threw my back out and realized, oh yeah, my health is my number one priority and this is not healthy. So, I'm making a change.
Starting July 20th, I'll be taking patient appointments Monday through Thursday (hours by appointment). Though I'm expanding my hours at True Health, I'm decreasing the number of days and the total hours that I'm working overall by releasing my side job. That, along with my morning Tai ji practice and some dance classes, should be a great start to getting myself back in rhythm!

Discussion:
  • What's the rhythm of your day like? Does it vary a lot? Is it in alignment with nature's rhythms?
  • What's your number one priority? If health isn't number one for you right now, where does it fall in the list?
  • What habits do you have that are in alignment with your priorities? What habits do you have that are out of alignment with your priorities?

Monday, July 6, 2009

Tai Ji (Tai Chi)

I started this morning with the first in a series of Tai Ji* review courses. After several days of intense heat, we had a lovely cool morning in which to practice tai ji. I studied tai ji theory, health benefits and the practice while I was in medical school and practiced daily in the weeks before taking (and passing!) my board exams.


In addition to enhancing memory, tai ji has been suggested to have many other health benefits, including:
  • balance, fewer falls in the elderly
  • cardiac rehabilitation (post surgery)
  • high blood pressure
  • headaches

These effects have mostly been studies in the elderly, but in the few studies with younger adults, the effects have been even stronger. Tai ji is a very safe practice to introduce into your daily routine and makes for a great start to the day.


*Note: Tai ji is the same as the more commonly used "tai chi," but uses the more up to date pinyin romanization of Chinese, whereas tai chi is the older Wade-Giles romanization.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Losing and Maintaining Weight 101

Whether you feel you're at your ideal weight or you'd like to lose a few (or more) pounds, you'll likely learn something valuable from this course. We'll cover what ideal weight is and why it matters, how your weight is related to disease risk and lifespan, complicating factors that might make it hard to lose weight and how medically assisted weight loss can help.

Join Dr. Clark at any of the following three evenings at New Seasons Market:
July 2 @ New Seasons Market, Happy Valley
Aug 4 @ New Seasons Market, Orenco Station
Aug 11 @ New Seasons Market, Raleigh Hills

All talks are scheduled at 7pm.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Raw Food: More than Salad and Bananas!

Would you like to spend your summer feeling energized and full of vitality? Would you like to lose weight while still eating generous portions of delicious food, including desserts? Would you like to spend more time enjoying your food and less time preparing and cleaning up after meals?

Join Dr. Bijana Devo of True Health Medicine and Dr. Ericha Clare of Simply Nourishing as they pair up to give you the scoop on raw food. From simply peeling a banana to gourmet preparations, raw food is a delicious and nutritious way to "let you food be your medicine."

Recipes and samples to be shared. There will also be a live demonstration for how to make a raw dessert at the Happy Valley talk.