November 25, 2010
Do you really need your over-the-counter pain-reliever today?
Exercise
If we simply think of it as ‘getting up and doing something’, we inevitably want to do it more and more often.
It’s free, it can make us laugh out loud, it’s entertaining, and it doesn’t come with a long list of potential medication-induced, life-threatening side-effects.
What are you doing after you read this?
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Cautions & Care: This article and video do not replace medical assessment and care. If you have a health concern, or have persisiting pain, visit an appropriately qualified health professional. The activities shown in this video may not be suitable for everybody. Please use your commonsense, or seek the guidance of a specialist exercise professional.
September 13, 2010
Alco-fuelled blues, violence and despair
After a weekend which saw a nationwide police blitz on alcohol-induced misbehaviour, today we learn that 7% of people in a group of 600 Australians ‘drink [ alcohol ] to feel normal’. *
The major reason people overdo alcohol consumption is to mask the darkness and despair of depression and other difficult emotional states.
There are safer, life-affirming ways to restore joy and equanimity, rather than self-medicating with alcohol, a substance which used often and excessively, destroys mental health and generates nasty longterm physical disorders.
You can start here, at Beyond Blue, an Australian initiative.
Australians who are struggling can also call Lifeline: 13 11 14
Your family doctor can help.
There are also well-established acupuncture protocols which help people through drug and alcohol withdrawal.
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Cautions and Care: This article is for information only, and is not a substitute for diagnosis or treatment. If you have concerns about your emotional, mental or physical health, or that of another, you must visit an appropriately qualified and experienced health professional.
July 20, 2010
Pain is the biggest moral issue in Australia today
Professor Michael Cousins, AM, a world authority on pain and its management considers pain is the biggest moral issue in Australia today.
For people living with chronic pain, life becomes so much more than managing pain-relief medication, and ‘getting on with it’, as you can see in the image here.
Ours is not yet a culture which supports people living with persistent pain, a condition which can be severe and disabling, and which affects people physically, personally, and socially.
Last week I was accepted as a member of APMA – Australian Pain Management Association Inc
APMA’s work involves ‘providing practical health information, social, workplace and training support’.
APAM members are people living with pain, their families and friends, and health professionals.
There’s much we can do to help people who are affected by chronic pain.
Why not take a few minutes to explore the APMA
site?
If you know someone who is struggling with pain persisting beyond three months, let them know that pain relief is a basic human right.
July 15, 2010
Distress. De-stress. Stress Down and Dress Down
The effects of stress on our bodies
So you see, it never has been a simple case of “it’s all in your head”.
Go to Lifeline’s Stress Down Day
You’ll discover how you can manage stress, have some fun, and raise money for an organisation which does a great job.
If you’ve realized your health is affected by stress, you must see your family doctor for a check-up, and then schedule a deeply relaxing acupuncture or Reiki session.
If you’re struggling with insomnia, you might like this.
You can also take the 30 second health check here.
November 21, 2009
Grappling with the night – insomnia and related torments
There really is nothing worse than spending wretched nights tangled in the bedclothes, thrashing, watching time tick slowly by, while all around one’s family and neighbours lie sweetly sleeping.
Similarly, nights spent interrupted by graphic, unsettling, incessant or just plain terrifying dreams are no recipe for a refreshed and quietly enlivened mind and body.
Afterall, such nocturnal torments will have us falling asleep at the wheel, frustratingly unproductive, snippy and snappy, fraught and frazzled.
So what’s going on here?
Quite a bit! If we consider all the information we receive in a day, the thousands of visual and auditory stimuli – many of them pernicious – the way we use our minds, life events and our reactions to them, and what we eat and drink, you can see why difficulty falling and staying asleep can become a problem.
There is an art and science to welcoming sleep into our busy lives, called sleep hygeine by those in the western 
medical sciences. So as well as counting sheep, you might like to see what works for you here: Reach Out
Some things to remember:
Daytime – Yang time – is the time for most of our mental and physical activity, including eating and digesting.
Nighttime – Yin time – is for restoration and relaxation of mind, spirit and body.
Our bedrooms are for sleep and sex. They are not information super-highways, so keep your electronic geewhizzery such as TVs, computers and telephones out of them! Why anyone would want these intrusive information-overloaders interfering with two of life’s simple pleasures is a modern-day puzzle!
If alcohol is needed to help us nod off, then we’re headed for trouble, and must seek the help of an empathetic, appropriately qualified health professional.
There is an emerging body of evidence which links high blood pressure and stubborn weight gain with poor sleep. There are also some significant medical and psychological problems associated with insomnia.
The good news is that most of us will experience transient periods of insomnia which resolve spontaneously. For those who grapple with a chronic inability to sleep well, help is available.
Fortunately Traditional Chinese Medicine provides us with a supreme framework in which to understand the relationships between consciousness – our Shen or Spirit – organ function and dysfunction, the Will and Intellect, the body’s natural rhythms and cycles, our Blood, Essence and Fluids, and our ability to sleep restoratively. Acupuncture, professionally prescribed herbal medicines and essential oils, Reiki and massage can all help us to re-establish restful, refreshing sleep.
But for now, turn on your sound, and enjoy the poetry below, accompanied by this famous old lullaby.
Serenade
by Mary Weston Fordham
Like this:
April 24, 2009
“Bad Heart Linked to Depression”
So stated The Courier Mail last week.
Hmmm
What is a ‘bad heart’ anyway?
What makes a heart go ‘bad’?
Cholesterol?
Adiposity in excess?
Love gone wrong?
Existential crisis?
Being bitter?
Check back in a day or so for a Traditional Chinese Medicine, Care of the Soul, and Tarot-based interpretation of this important issue.
Today, and any other day, if you feel something is amiss with your heart, your mind, your body or emotions, please see an appropriately qualified and experienced health professional.
Margi Macdonald
A note about ownership of today’s image: the Three of Swords from the Tarot.
![Almost Like Another Planet... Pamukkale Blues (UNESCO World Heritage) [Explore #1, THANK YOU]](http://static.flickr.com/7079/7209710670_f67079c754_t.jpg "Almost Like Another Planet... Pamukkale Blues (UNESCO World Heritage) [Explore #1, THANK YOU]")
