Revitalizing the Aging Brain
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Incontinence

Recent studies
Checking for Pre-Diabetes
Cancer Surveillance: Beyond Mammogram & Colonoscopy
What Is an Anti- Inflammatory Diet or a Low Inflammatory Diet?
Is MRI Over-Utilized for Musculoskeletal Conditions?

Revitalizing the Aging Brain

Baby boomers often enquire about supplements for memory, attention, energy or mood because they care about being vital as they navigate the mature years. Instead of listing all the brain foods that are known to help, I want to give you an understanding of what causes the brain to age and what you can do to prevent it.

How do you know your brain is aging?
Some of the early signs include forgetfulness, poor attention, lack of ability to remember facts from reading, poor concentration while driving, a tendency to depression, and poor digestive function. As the condition progresses, you may experience increasing inability to concentrate, difficulty learning new tasks, gut problems and possibly elevated blood pressure. You may be surprised to learn that the gut has connections to the brain; in fact our gut is our "second brain." As the brain ages further, you may notice increasing difficulty with focus and concentration to the point that learning new tasks is very challenging. More gastrointestinal symptoms and blood pressure issues occur because of increased sympathetic tone. This downhill progression may lead to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, poor bladder tone and poor bowel function.

What happens to the quality of life as the brain ages?
Sadly, it is a downhill progression of career, athletic performance and quality of personal and family life.

What are the different areas of brain aging?
Most of us are aware of the memory system aging and the most feared neurodegenerative conditions, dementia and Alzheimer's disease. However, the neurotransmitter system, consisting of acetylcholine, Gaba, serotonin and dopamine, can also "age," giving rise to psychological symptoms:
Cholinergic - loss of photographic memory, memory lapses, slow mental speed, having to write everything down
Gaba - anxiety episodes, inability to shut the mind off, restlessness and feeling overwhelmed for no reason
Serotonin - depression for no reason, social isolation, carbohydrate and sugar cravings
Dopamine - feelings of hopelessness and depression, easily triggered anger episodes

Other factors such as the integrity of your cell membrane, mitochondria function, brain inflammation, cerebral blood flow, altered methylation and autoimmunity may also contribute to brain aging. It sounds complicated, but suffice it to say that multiple interactive factors affect brain functioning.

What can you do?
Recognize the early symptoms and seek medical support. The most important thing you can do for yourself is to avoid chronic stress. It shrinks the hippocampus, the part that is responsible for converting short-term memory to long-term memory. Chronic stress also enlarges another part of the brain, the amygdala, the center for rage and aggression. Have adequate deep sleep and exercise as it increases blood flow to the brain quate. To learn more about brain aging, nutritional support and testing, please join us at our noon conference on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. (top)

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Incontinence, Eric Grose, L.Ac.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine are quite effective for urinary incontinence.

Urinary incontinence is defined as the involuntary or uncontrollable loss of urine. It affects an estimated thirteen million Americans of all ages but is most common in older adults, especially women.

In Western medicine, there are four principal types of urinary incontinence: stress incontinence, urge incontinence, functional incontinence, and overflow incontinence. Keep in mind that urinary incontinence can be a mixture of these causes.

Stress incontinence is the most common form of incontinence in women. It is brought on by activities that suddenly put added pressure on the bladder, such as coughing, laughing, or sneezing, forcing urine out.

Urge incontinence is the most common type of urinary incontinence in seniors. With urge incontinence, people lose the ability to hold their urine when they get the urge to urinate. It's usually caused by abnormal spasms of the bladder when the bladder begins to fill up. Stress incontinence and urge incontinence often occur together in women.

A person with functional incontinence has a problem somewhere other than in the bladder. People with functional incontinence may have trouble reaching a toilet in time because of problems of mobility or communication, or inability to think clearly.

Overflow incontinence is due to the bladder always being so full that it continually leaks urine. The two main causes of overflow incontinence are weak bladder muscles (due to nerve damage from diabetes and other conditions), and blockage of the urethra (by an enlarged prostate gland, kidney stones, or tumors).

How can acupuncture help?
When simple lifestyle changes such as cutting back on caffeine and alcohol, Kegel exercises, and establishing a regular schedule for drinking and urinating aren't enough, medications are often added. For those of you who are interested in other modalities of treatment or for whom the medications are not adequate, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine is indeed a great way to treat urinary incontinence of all types.
In Chinese Medicine, urinary incontinence can arise from several factors such as a weak constitution, poor lifestyle, old age, childbirth, a chronic cough, and a weak bladder. A weak constitution can stem from many things such as overwork, excessive consumption of alcohol or drugs, and lack of sleep. In some women, the weakening of the kidney energy can occur after childbirth. The weakened kidneys can in turn affect the bladder, causing slight incontinence.

Mechanically, chronic cough can lead to incontinence through the persistent strain on the bladder, and in terms of energy, from the weak lung energy not controlling the bladder. Many times the energy and blood flow to the bladder region of the body is either blocked or deficient.

Acupuncture strengthens and restores normal energy and blood flow to the kidney and
bladder, helping to reduce and/or eliminate the symptoms of incontinence. Treatment usually consists of acupuncture two to three times per week for three weeks or until the incontinence resolves. Herbal medicine is often added to help speed up the healing process. The number of treatments varies depending on the severity of the incontinence.
If you or a family member has issues with incontinence, please consider giving acupuncture an opportunity to help you.

Call 713 660 6620 to set up a time for an individual assessment. (top)

Checking for Pre-Diabetes
With our obesity rate doubling in 15 years and with one in three adults in Texas being obese, we will much more likely encounter the complications of obesity, which include diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer. We are fortunate to have new biomarkers besides a fasting blood glucose and Hemoglobin A1c that can help us make early detection for at least 4-7 years before being diagnosed. It will show where you are in the progression from insulin resistance to diabetes and provide treatment recommendations for each stage. More importantly, you can do something about it with nutrition, lifestyle changes and targeted supplementation.

Comment: Who should be screened with this pre-diabetic panel? You are a candidate if you have a family history of diabetes, are overweight, or are over 45 years old. This is taking prevention to its highest level. (top)

Cancer Surveillance: Beyond Mammogram & Colonoscopy
For those of you who have a strong family history of cancer and want more in the area of surveillance, a unique panel of biomarkers that are commonly associated with certain types of cancer is now available: colon, liver, lung, ovary, breast, testicular, prostrate, pancreatic and others. This is not a single test for cancer but rather a panel that you can monitor annually, looking for changes that warrant further medical evaluation.

Comment: Panels are more affordable than a single test, but you should be willing to monitor it annually; there is not much value in just doing it one time. (top)

What Is an Anti- Inflammatory Diet or a Low Inflammatory Diet?
There is no "canned" low inflammation diet. Know your own medical history and work with a practitioner who can help determine how your diet may be causing inflammation for you. Having said that, you should generally avoid foods that contribute to insulin resistance: sugar, white flour, high glycemic index foods, hydrogenated fats, trans-fats, chemicals and hormone-fed meats.

Comment: A low glycemic, low fat, high fiber Mediterranean diet is considered low inflammatory. (top)

Is MRI Over-Utilized for Musculoskeletal Conditions?
In recent years, patients are requesting MRIs to evaluate their musculoskeletal dysfunctions, and doctors are also doing the same for diagnostic purposes even before conservative therapy has been employed. The downside of this tendency is that MRIs may pick up incidental conditions that have no relationship to the complaint, that result in unnecessary referral and perhaps surgery.

Furthermore, the patient may be exposed to unnecessary risks and cost. Most musculoskeletal disorders can be diagnosed by a history and a physical exam, and they respond to conservative therapy with such modalities as stretching, strengthening, acupuncture, microcurrent and chiropractic adjustment.

Comment: Before you agree to a test, you may want to ask, "Is the test going to alter the treatment plan?" If the answer is "no," then there is no reason to have it done. (top)