Q&A with Bill Wright

Chinese Medicine
Acupuncture

MY SON TAKES TEGRETOL XR FOR SEIZURES WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND

Hi There,

Well first off you want to be informed about that medication (which you may all ready be) if not this will help:

http://www.safemedication.com/searchresults/DisplayDrug.aspx?id=a682237

http://www.naturalmedicine.com/healthnotes.php?productid=19&org=nmr&ContentID=1116501

I’d like to know the age of your son, and how long he has been working through this disorder.

With that said, Chinese Medicine could serve as adjunct therapy to the anticonvulsant medication. With the goal of weening him off slowly, ie. normalizing his physiology.

Every Disease catagory in Western Medicine, such as Epilepsy is treated pretty much the same across all types of people. I’d like to see him get a work up/ evaluation by an L.Ac. or an OMD (Oriental Medical Doctor) to see if a different perspective could help him.

It’s my experience that a practitioner that includes and is well versed in both Five Element Theory and 8 Principle Diagnosis can best serve their patients. When interviewing practitioners I would ask them if they combine both approaches.

You can also download my free e-book to better educate yourself on Chinese Medicine before you go shopping for a practitioner.

Best of luck and let me know if there’s anything else.

Heartfully…
Wright Acupuncture and Massage
Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO and
Karen Wright, CMT
251 Auburn Ravine Rd., #205
Auburn, CA 95603
530-886-8927
www.auburn-acupuncture.com

My husband has been diagnosed with polymyalgic rheumatica. He has pretty much constant joint pain. Especially in the a.m. and after exertion. He also is diabetic. He takes insulin,and is currently on low dose perdnisone. He hurts can you help?

Hi There,

I assume your talking about Type II Diabetes!? Basically his body is very inflammed, and the challenge is to cut the inflammation without steroids as those will worsen his Diabetes. If he doesn’t respond to the steroid, which he should quickly, then I would consider a muscle biopsy to rule out (r/o) something else.

With that said is highly probable that the issue here is at the insulin receptor site which will be your main battle. There are four main areas to work: Food Reactivities, Exercise, Low glycemic load diet, and bombarding the insulin receptors with co-factors to make them work better (Vitamin D3, certain herbs and nutrients, omega 3 fatty acids, etc…); otherwise the dysinsulinism will keep driving his system to be inflammed.

You’ll need to work closely with a practitioner who knows how to handle Insulin Resistance. I know you’re past that point, but the work still needs to be done (assuming this is Type II). Also the other systems that have been affected need to be addressed. Like the gut, Immune system, and especially the Adrenal Glands.

Have a look around in your area for someone who can handle the above issues.

Happy Healing… and let me know if there is anything else.

Wright Acupuncture and Massage
Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO and
Karen Wright, CMT
251 Auburn Ravine Rd., #205
Auburn, CA 95603
530-886-8927
www.auburn-acupuncture.com

I am 38 and have finally taken up a rigorous exercise practice consisting of heavy weight lifting and running up to 4 days per week, both to strengthen and loose body fat. However, I am told that as men get older, testosterone levels necessarily decrease thus contributing to the difficulty of lean muscle gains and fat loss; old guys essentially have to work that much harder with little result. Given the enormous list of products that either increase natural production of testosterone and/or inhibit estrogen (and presumably the possible health risks likely associated with such products in the future), what, if any, herbs or treatments in Chinese medicine could or should boost the testosterone levels in a male such that lean muscle gain and fat loss is not just a dream that passed upon awakening from a deep slumber? Any suggestions are welcome.

Hi M,

I would recommend a couple things. In Chinese Medicine (cm) we need to identify the underlying system(s) that are weak. Most often in your case we would think of Spleen/Pancreas and Kidney/Adrenal, but you would need to work with someone in your area that could provide that assessment because it could be much more involved with other things needing first priority. Short of that a, ‘functional’ workup would be a good starting point with a comprehensive blood chemistry panel. I do this a lot in my practice and a comprehensive blood panel is <$100. There are certainly chinese herbs that could be useful in your case, and if the Androgen Pathway is out of balance enough you may be a candidate for a short course of hormone therapy (DHEA, and/orPregnenolone). That would need to be assessed after a blood panel with a saliva test.

Best of luck, please forward any other questions.

Wright Acupuncture Center
Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO

I can no longer stand or walk for more than a few seconds, is there anyway I can get off the meds. that are causing so many side-effects? I was also hurt in a car accident when I was 15, but never had any trouble until I started taking the meds. I went two days with no meds. & felt better than I had in a long time!!!

Hi M,

I need a little more information from you to be able to comment. How old are you currently, and what medication are you on? I understand that you could walk fine, then you started taking medication for some other condition and then started having difficulty walking. Do I have the story right?

Also, as far as exercise without being able to walk. There’s alot you can do! You could find a pool to some gentle exercises in. You can do yoga on the floor, also pilates on the floor. I would also encourage you to find a Tai Chi teacher to start working on strengthening what you have left to work with. Preferably someone who can guide you in basic Qi Gong as well for the meditative aspect to enhance your life force for healing.

The other thought is detoxification. There are special foot-bath type machines that detox your body while you sit and relax and enjoy yourself.

There are alot of ways to detox. I would urge you to see a holisitc practitioner in your area that can monitor your progress (acupuncturist, naturopathic doctor, or classically trained homeopath).

Good Luck…

I had acupuncture done two weeks ago in my forearms, hands, shins, ankles, and feet. I have had severe aching and shooting pain in these areas ever since. How do I fix this?

Dear S,

I’m not sure if this is still an issue for you. I would expect that this kind of pain would diminish gradually and consistently over time. This type of response is very rare in my experience of private practice (six years).

Without knowing what the acupuncturist did I can only advise you to look at what might allow this to happen in your body. The only real, ‘fix’ would be to look at what’s going on in your body that might allow this reaction to take place. A couple possibilities include hypo-adrenal function or pre-existing high levels of inflammation. Adrenal function can be assessed through a salivary hormone test, and inflammation is measured by the serum level of C-Reactive Protein High Sensitivity (CRP-hs).

Feel free to give me an update. I’m sorry to hear this was such a painful experience for you. I could advise you more clearly if I knew what the acupuncturist did during that treatment.

Heartfully…

Wright Acupuncture Center

Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO

Can you tell me what I can take for to reduce inflammation? My Mother died from Rheumatoid Arthritis and I am showing signs of the disease in my hand joints with red inflamed joints which hurt when pressed or used in strenuous situations. I am also experiencing on some days aches in my feet and sometimes my legs. Please advise me what natural course of action I can take.

Hi j,

In my practice and holistic medicine in general we have good treatments for your symptoms, and we don’t stop there. There can be many other factors contributing to your condition. The easy answer is to address the inflammation. Reduce or eliminate inflammatory foods from your diet: go to http://www.clearvite.info/ and read through what you find there; for the foods list click on “diet plan”. I’d be happy to help you with obtaining the necessary medical food associated with this stage of your healing if it’s something that you want to do. Other natural anti-inflammatories are important, Omega-3 fatty acids, anti-inflammatory botanicals: boswellia, tumeric, ginger, etc… I also use a topical anti-inflammatory cream, you could look for, ‘traumeel’ or I can get you some ‘oxicell’ which has the ‘traumeel’ base but adds hi levels of important antioxidant/anti-inflammatory molecules. Also, you should get your 25-OH Vitamin D levels checked and make sure even if you are considered in ‘normal’ range that your levels are above 50 ng/mL; this is extremely important for auto-immune conditions such as RA.

Beyond those basics you really need, in my opinion, an functional assessment. A basic step towards that goal would be to do a, ‘comprehensive wellness profile’ from Direct Labs, visit: http://www.directlabs.com/faq.php#2 for more on that. I can provide that for you as well, if wanted and needed. I would also like to see a, ‘functional assessment profile’ this is a two page questionaire that can start the process of finding the, ’squeeky wheels’ that need the grease first. Let me know if you have an interest in that, and I can get that to you.

You could also find a qualified practitioner in your area who understands Functional Medicine and could start you on the process of unraveling the imbalances in your body/mind.

Best of luck… Enjoy…

Wright Acupuncture Center
Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO

I have allergies and have heard that Acupuncture can help. Is this true?

Hi C

I know Acupuncture can be helpful for allergies and asthma; from both my clinical practice and studies done in China. The amount of visits can vary.

One of the biggest factors I’ve seen is in the timing of starting a course of treatment. If we’re talking about seasonal allergies, the benefits of a course of treatment can be maximized by beginning the treatment at the beginning of that season. Note: the beginning of the season is actually 45 days prior to what we consider the first day of the season (Equinoxes and Solstices). For example, first day of Spring by our calanders is roughly March 21st; so the actual ‘energetic’ beginning of the season is early February (roughly Feb. 4th).

I’ve also seen that it can take a few seasons for the symptoms to diminish when treated in this way (ie. a timely course of acupuncture). I think for the relief stage of care you could consider 12 visits over 6-8 weeks. Then corrective care to be once a week for another 4-8 weeks. It depends on the severity and chronicity of the condition, and your overall health picture. Other factors can be very important.

The people that do the best in my experience also make some significant dietary changes. The most common ones being the elimination of gluten and cow dairy from their diet for a period of time, and then reintroducing those things to test if there is a sensitivity to those foods. Other foods can be tested in this way.

Herbal therapies along with the acupuncture also tend to make the treatment more powerful and effective overall, and with that said I’ve seen acupuncture alone making a huge difference.

I suggest you find someone you feel good about working with and talking it over with them. One of the specific treatments that developed specifically to address allergies using acupuncture is NAET (Nabudripaud Allergy Elimination Technique). I’m not totally versed in it so you’d have to talk to someone who does that.

Good Luck…

Wright Acupuncture Center
Bill Wright, L.Ac., DNBAO