Mind Over Back Pain

To the surprise of doctors and patients alike, accumulating research suggests that most chronic back pain isn’t actually the result of illness or injury. Study after study indicates instead that back pain is very often caused by our thoughts, feelings, and resulting behaviors. And an exciting new study now demonstrates that treatments aimed at our beliefs and attitudes can really help.

Photo by gstockstudio. Image of a young muscular African man touching his hip while standing against a grey background sourced from Pro Photo. Available at: https://domf5oio6qrcr.cloudfront.net/medialibrary/8862/back-pain-lower-black-man.jpg

Scientists document wild birds 'talking' with humans for the first time

Zoologists have documented an incredible relationship between wild birds in Mozambique and the local Yao people, who team up together to hunt for honey.

Using a series of special hails and chirps the humans and birds are able to communicate - honeyguide birds lead the way to hidden beehives, where the Yao people share the spoils with their avian friends.

Photo by Claire Spottiswoode. Image of a honey hunter sourced from ScienceAlert. Available at: https://www.sciencealert.com/images/articles/processed/honeyhunter_web_1024.jpg

How your body clock helps determine whether you’ll get ill or not

So why might viruses care about our body clock? Since our cells are miniature factories, making things that the virus must have to copy itself, the virus is less likely to succeed when the production line is shut down. This is what we tested in the laboratory, by infecting cells and mice at different times of the day. We found that viruses are less able to infect in the late afternoon. In contrast, in the early morning, our cells are hives of biosynthetic activity, at least from the virus’s viewpoint. So, if a virus tries to take over a cell in the early day, it is far more likely to succeed, and spread faster, than if it encounters a rather less favourable climate in the evening.

Next time just work with your body clock. Photo by Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley. Image sourced from The Conversation. Available at: https://images.theconversation.com/files/134123/original/image-20160815-27199-10imdsv.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=926&fit=clip

7 Houseplants That Purify The Air (And Are Nearly Impossible To Kill)

Bringing plants indoors is a sustainable way to improve indoor air quality quickly. Not only are plants aesthetically pleasing, but NASA has found certain ones to be surprisingly useful in absorbing harmful gasses and cleaning indoor air.

Photo: Stocksy. Image of a Boston fern sourced from MindBodyGreen. Available at: https://mindbodygreen-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/w_480,q_auto,f_auto,fl_lossy/ftr/boston_fern.jpg

The Cure for Gluten Intolerance Could Live Inside These Bug-Eating Plants

Carnivorous plants seem like the stuff of science fiction. They’re strategically designed to lure insects into inescapable traps, where they proceed to melt the bugs alive using digestive enzymes. Now, this badass evolutionary trait might be able to help humans cope with one of our modern-day challenges: gluten intolerance.

Photo by Motherboard. Image sourced from Motherboard. Available at: https://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/36468/1470776042622323.jpg?crop=0.855088577570232xw:1xh;center,center&resize=20:*

Baby's Palate And Food Memories Shaped Before Birth

"Things like vanilla, carrot, garlic, anise, mint — these are some of the flavors that have been shown to be transmitted to amniotic fluid or mother's milk," says Julie Mennella, who studies taste in infants at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. In fact, Mennella says there isn't a single flavor they have found that doesn't show up in utero. Her work has been published in the journal Pediatrics.

Mothers might not realize that the tastes and flavors they savor while pregnant can influence their babies' palates later. Photo by Maggie Starbard/NPR. Image sourced from NPR. Available at: https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/08/05/baby_food_wide-8bc8017ae245838c9837d63508da8b413db98fb5.jpg?s=700&c=85&f=webp

The Secrets of the Wood Wide Web

For centuries, fungi were widely held to be harmful to plants, parasites that cause disease and dysfunction. More recently, it has become understood that certain kinds of common fungi exist in subtle symbiosis with plants, bringing about not infection but connection. These fungi send out gossamer-fine fungal tubes called hyphae, which infiltrate the soil and weave into the tips of plant roots at a cellular level. Roots and fungi combine to form what is called a mycorrhiza: itself a growing-together of the Greek words for fungus (mykós) and root (riza). In this way, individual plants are joined to one another by an underground hyphal network: a dazzlingly complex and collaborative structure that has become known as the Wood Wide Web.

Recent scientific revelations raise big questions about what trading, sharing, or even friendship might mean among plants. Illustration by Enzo Pérès-Labourdette. Image sourced from The New Yorker. Available at: https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5909787d8b51cf59fc423627/master/w_1280,c_limit/Macfarlane-AWalkingTouroftheWoodWideWeb1.jpg

Shichangpu (Acorus gramineus)

The Acorus plant family represents the source of one of the world’s most widely used medicinals. In Egypt, the Chester Beatty Papyrus VI mentioned Acorus as an ingredient for a digestive plaster around 1,300 BC. In ancient Europe, Acorus was a symbol of love, lust and affection. The calamus variety, often referred to as Sweet Flag, was added to absinthe and digestive bitters, used in the perfume industry and as a flavoring for pipe tobacco.

Fresh Shichangpu (Acorus gramineus), recently pulled from the ground where it grows (Dabieshan Mountains, Jiangxi, China). Photo by Classical Chinese Medicine. Image sourced from Classical Chinese Medicine. Available at: https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/shichangpu_full_web.jpg

Sanqi (Panax notoginseng)

Sanqi literally means “the three seven herb,” referring to the fact that the plant tends to form three branches with seven leaves growing on each of them. In addition, peasant wisdom mandates that the root is harvested between 3-7 years of maturity, and grown in conditions that facilitate 3 parts sunlight and 7 parts shade. The plant is thus typically cultivated under black plastic tarps that are easily recognizable when driving through traditional Sanqi territory in Yunnan and Guangxi.

3 year old freshly harvested Sanqi roots, brought to market by local farmers at Sanqi Trading Center. Photo by Classical Chinese Medicine. Image sourced from Classical Chinese Medicine. Available at: https://classicalchinesemedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/sanqi_WEB-300x200.jpg

Acupuncture as effective as drugs in treating pain, trial shows

An acupuncture trial in four Melbourne emergency departments has found it is just as good as drugs in relieving lower-back pain and that from sprained ankles and migraines.

Dr. Michael Ben-Meir says acupuncture seems to provide effective pain relief. Photo credit: Ken Irwin. Image sourced from FFX. Available at: https://static.ffx.io/images/$width_768%2C$height_432/t_crop_fill/q_86%2Cf_auto/b9e28a2a921458d90a6ab6ed17e29feeac79ab71

Medicinal Plants in Tibet

Saussurea medusa (Asteraceae) is known to Tibetan herb collectors as Ganglha Metok (gangs lha me tog), meaning glacier or snow deity flower. It is an important medicinal in Rigpa Sowa (Tibetan Medicine) and Traditional Chinese Medicine. In TCM it is known as "xue lian", meaning snow lotus.

Saussurea medusa (Asteraceae) is known to Tibetan herb collectors as Ganglha Metok [gangs lha me tog], meaning glacier or snow deity flower. It is an important medicinal in Rigpa Sowa (Tibetan Medicine) andTraditional Chinese Medicine. In TCM it is known as "xue lian", meaning snow lotus. It grows way high up in the mountains, up to 5200m, and overcollection is of great concern.

© Daniel Winkler, August 2, 2007, 4100m, Litang County, Ganzi TAP, W-Sichuan.

Diagnosis, Patterns, and Treatment of Heat

In my experience, the most important aetiological factor leading to Yin deficiency is overwork: I do not mean excessive physical work but overwork in the sense of working long hours without adequate rest, leaving home in the early morning and returning in the late evening for years on end.

Photo source: Blogger. Image sourced from Blogger. Available at: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQLsGOKTgsr-AXPH91mj5YMgQS6dvmzk7Iudil7XFvf8xHDn8haGyAIYRSWhenxyWeGl3QGQxqJqdcFrrTNK3B-adiAhHxM_ew-1xFQj_hZo_5nBs8l_sIm0rXk2lXp1btodjNIKD01OY/s200/Red-tip.jpg

The Ethics of Healing- The Hippocratic Oath of China's King of Medicine Sun Simiao

Sun Simiao (581-682) was an outstanding Chinese physician, scholar, and author who lived during the Tang Dynasty. Called the "King of Medicine" (Yaowang) is said to have founded Chinese gynecology, pediatrics, and geriatrics as individual healing modalities.

Image by Shutterstock. Image of philanthropy concept: two human hands holding a red heart sourced from Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/philanthropy-concept-two-human-hand-holding-364914137

Researchers find cicada wing structure able to kill bacteria on contact (w/ video)

A combined team of researchers from Spain and Australia has discovered what they claim is the first known instance of a biomaterial that can kill bacteria on contact based only its physical surface structure. 

 

Cicada (P. claripennis) wing surface topography. Credit: Biophysical Journal, doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2012.12.046. Photo by Science X. Image sourced from Phys.org. Available at: https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2013/11-researchersf.jpg

What is the meaning of Yi Qi in Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang?

Buzhong Yiqi Tang is a formula that was described in an important text of the Chinese tradition, the Pi Wei Lun (Treatise on Spleen and Stomach, 1249 A.D.), which is available in English translation (1). Its author, Li Gao (also known as Li Dongyuan) was considered the leader of the Spleen/Stomach School, a movement within the evolving ancient tradition that focused on deficiency of spleen and stomach as the origin of numerous diseases. This was one of four leading schools of thought that developed during the Chinese medicine reforms of the Jin-Yuan Dynastic period.

Image by Shutterstock. Image of Chinese traditional herbs medicine close-up sourced from Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/chinese-traditional-herbs-medicine-close-78454186

Chinese Medicine Treatment for Parkinson's

The characteristic symptoms of Parkinson's appeared in ancient Chinese medical texts that described trembling of the hands and shaking of the head. The disorder and its basis has been subjected to considerable analysis over the centuries. Syndromes in which elderly patients suffer from spontaneous shaking, or from other muscular manifestations such as paralysis or tonic spasm, are thought to be the result of yin deficiency of the kidney and liver leading to generation of "internal wind."

Image by Shutterstock. Image of an acupuncturist pointing at BL17 on an acupuncture model sourced from Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/acupuncturist-pointing-bl17-on-acupuncture-model-281440808