Featured Boaz Brizman as a guest speaker last night. The subject was the somatization of the emotional effects in children of divorce. This is a very tender and important subject. So many little ones suffer emotionally and consequently-physically due to divorce or parental discord.

Boaz discussed the connections between emotional changes and organ response as we view it in Chinese medicine and briefly discussed the various ways in which these kinds of imbalances may manifest in the body and how they may be approached. He further illustrated how often Chinese medicine may offer a way in which to look at otherwise seemingly fragmented symptoms
and tie them together so that the child's health may be managed in the fullest sense. 

He has been invited to speak again. So, stay tuned in so you won't miss it:)

We are not taking a stand pro or anti vaccine, simply reporting some challenges with them. There are many ways in which to keep the body healthy-vaccines are only one of them-presumably.

Yes, there are risks with any kind of medical procedure-but how would you feel if this was your child?

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2009/09/new_vaccine_scare_fo...

This is a great article on flu and the politics of medicine.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1 

For those of you who come here you know how often we recommend olive oil (not for high heat cooking though, except in certain circumstances)

Olive oil tastes great and is very healthy. This article is a great one to illustrate its healthful benefits: http://www.naturalnews.com/025290_olive_oil_cancer_polyphenols.html 

Don't forget to have your cold and flu remedies on hand or to come in if you get sick. Herbal remedies are very effective in treating you when you get colds and flus!

See the story below that we posted on one of recent flu patients who was also pregnant!

As always, I love to share the wealth of knowledge and experience that comes from the desk of our Western medicine pediatrician, Dr. Jay Gordon. Here is his latest letter:

This is a great article-a good read. Don't miss it. 

As most of you know, our feelings here about illness is all about prevention despite our swift and effective ways to treat a person when they become ill. The most important goal is to prevent becoming ill in the first place.

Having a strong immune system is number one, and there are numerous ways to address that. Probiotics is one of those many ways and something we practice the use of in both our practice and our family life.

I love to post articles relating to this subject matter that address the subject from different view points:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/144814.php

In case any of you missed it, tylenol was recently recalled for kids:  http://tylenol.com/

We typically do not recommend the use of tylenol-restated actually, we never recommend it. We always recommend trying to use herbal therapy to ease any symptoms that parents would use for tylenol for in their children.

True story: the other night we went out to dinner and left the kids with a babysitter-my good friend who happens to be a physician assistant in the ER happened to be at our house. One of our children spike a really high fever so much so, she called to say we had to come home. We of course ran home, but we were a half an hour away. So, I told her what herbs to give my child until we could get to the house. The fever was gone by the time we got home and she was no longer like a wet rag laying on my friend's chest!

Often using tylenol can actually complicate your child's illness-so many options are available instead of tylenol.

You can’t get very far these days without hearing the hype, or hysteria about swine flu. Even Dr. Mehmet Oz covered the topic in his inaugural Dr. Oz talk show program this week. The probability of a ‘worldwide pandemic’ is enough to scare even the bravest people—and you can count me among that group. I even wrote last week on the icama.org forum asking for opinions about the swine flu vaccine.

I was worried. Afterall, I’m now 7 weeks pregnant, and was afraid to be among the ‘high risk’ group (pregnant women) that face contracting the virus.

Then, last week despite my manic handwashing, and carefully plotted attempts to steer clear of people coughing, I got sick. It started with what felt like two bricks sitting on my lungs. I immediately emailed Matia to alert her. She had me on Chinese herbs within hours. I wasn’t sure what I was dealing with yet, but I knew it was nasty.

The symptoms kept coming, but really the main issues were fever, aches, pains, and other general feelings of the ‘flu’. I was definitely afraid, but also felt empowered and secure given the direction of Matia with my herbs.

About three days into my illness, I decided to get tested for influenza A. I tested positive. The state of Missouri (where I live) stopped testing for the specific swine flu virus strain because they found that at this time of year (not flu season) 98% of patients did indeed have swine flu. That meant that I almost certainly had the virus I so feared.

This is an interesting article about the flu I thought you would all enjoy. I am not suggesting to do these things, but it shows that a little wisdom when it comes to the human body can go a long way in promoting health:

http://www.naturalnews.com/026998_cleansing_influenza_foods.html 

and Dr. Mercola. REad this it is interesting!

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/08/Another-Sh...