Post Surgery Scarring and Adhesions: Seven Alternative Medicine Solutions to Scarring and Adhesions

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Post surgery scarring binds the skin. Keloids form when the scarring is extensive causing pain and numbness. In more severe cases deep adhesions form between neighboring structures resulting in pain, compromised ability to freely move through the normal range of motion, and other more serious organ changes.

1. Acupuncture Treatment: Acupuncture treatment of “toxic” scarring by a qualified acupuncturist inserting acupuncture needles around the scarring can be very beneficial.

2. Silica & Silicone Gels: Silica (microscopic quartz crystals) gel and silicone (a polymer with silica as a component) gel impregnated sheets which promote healing of scarring and the skin. The gel can be applied directly to the scarring and neighboring skin. Re-usable adhesive strips of fabric that are impregnated with silicone are also available. These strips may have an advantage over the gel because they are adhered directly over the scarring and can be worn for extended periods of time. The gel has to be reapplied to the scarring through out the day, especially if covered by clothing. Some people may find the adhesive on the strips irritating to their skin.

3. Essential Oils: These are extracted from plants and can be beneficial for scarring and skin healing. Generally, essential oils should not be applied directly to the skin or the scarring. Prepare a liniment by mixing 10 – 20 drops of the essential oil with 10 ml of a vegetable oil like apricot oil, grape seed oil, or almond oil. Helichrysum is a “skin regenerative”, it is good for tissue trauma, reduces scarring and skin discoloration. Geranium and Moroccan Blue Tansy are also good for repairing damaged skin.

4. Herbs: There are Chinese herbal formulas which are ideally administered about 6 hours after surgery in order to prevent adhesions from forming. These formulas encourage intestinal peristalsis and the circulation of Qi in the abdomen.

The herbs, Arnica (Leopardbane) and/or Calendula (Marigold) promote healing and in a gel (preferably without alcohol or a petroleum base) can be applied to the vicinity of the surgery.

5. Homeopathic Remedies: A long history of use and can be very useful in addressing post surgery scarring.

  • Arnica for bruising, any injury, and surgical trauma.
  • Silica for scarring, keloids, and wounds that are slow to heal and suppurate.
  • Graphites for scarring and keloids.

6. Massage: The Wurn massage technique to reduce post surgery adhesions.

7. Neural Therapy: A scar therapy that is commonly used in Germany and Austria to treat pain and other conditions. It involves the injection of procaine around scarring and other areas to normalize the electro chemical activity of the local cells. Neural therapy is thought to correct regulatory dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system and because of this it is used to treat a surprising range of disorders in people with scarring of any kind.

BONUS TIP. Enzymes: Enzymatic action may make the scarring more elastic. Bromelain for post surgery swelling and inflammation. Injections of Hyaluronidase, a mucolytic enzyme, directly into the scarring to soften and break it down.

And if you would like further information about acupuncture treatment for post surgery scarring or to ask me any other questions visit: http://www.MeridianHolistic.com/askthedoctor.html Dr Julian Lange, OMD, LAc. “The Holistic Health Strategist.”

Post Surgery Pain & Numbness: Acupuncture Relieves Post Surgery Pain & Numbness

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Many people have post surgery pain and/or numbness that can often severely compromise the quality of their life and they have no idea how helpful acupuncture could actually be for their post surgery pain or post surgery pain and numbness.

Post surgery pain can be so strong that sufferers can’t function normally.  Often drugs used for post surgery pain can only be taken for so long before something stronger and more habit forming needs to be used for that pain.

Or maybe the post surgery pain isn’t as much of a problem as numbness.  Numbness can be challenging because the part of the body where the numbness is, just feels like it’s missing or kind of dead.  Activities like bathing and sensing if something is too hot or cold, or even wet or if someone is touching you are hard when you have numbness and can’t feel a part of yourself.

 

  • A policeman in a shoot out had to throw himself down on the ground, just like in the movies.  His shoulder took the fall and, unlike the movies, it took a lot of damage.  Several surgeries later he had a working shoulder but also post surgery pain which nothing helped.  His post surgery pain forced him in to early retirement.  Three acupuncture treatments got rid of his post surgery pain.  He was amazed that acupuncture works that well.

 

  • A woman had her tongue removed because of cancer.  Her amazing surgeon built her a new one using muscle from her forearm but this left her with a lot of post surgery pain and numbness in that area.  Her inner arm is totally numb and in pain; the post surgery pain goes to her fingers.  After five acupuncture treatments her post surgery pain is gone and she is recovering sensation.  Her numbness is also improving!  She feels lucky and is grateful to have found acupuncture to help her post surgery pain and numbness.

 

  • A tourist visiting Israel had to have her arm amputated after the Jeep she was riding in rolled over and crushed it.  She had "phantom limb" post surgery pain, or pain in a limb that is no longer there.  She was suffering severe post surgery pain in the arm that had been removed!  Three acupuncture treatments later and her post surgery pain was gone when nothing else had helped.

 

Acupuncture has existed for 1,000s of years.  Millions of people all over the world have been treated with Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.

Even though medical science has yet to figure out exactly how it works doctors commonly recommend acupuncture to their post surgery pain patients.  They have seen acupuncture treatment benefit many conditions and specifically post surgery pain and numbness.

These people are only a few of many cases of post surgery pain and numbness that I have treated in my decades’ long career in acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and while on staff at San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, Pain Management Center.

 

For more information on acupuncture for post surgery pain and numbness contact me at:

http://www.MeridianHolistic.com. 

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This is Dr Julian Lange, OMD, LAc. 

"The Holistic Health Strategist."

 

 

How to Create ECO Friendly Holiday decorations for your home

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Would you like to create ECO Friendly holiday decorations for your home that are cheap and tasteful at the same time?

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You have guests or family coming to visit, you want to make your home look welcoming, you don’t want to spend any more money and you’re almost too busy to think straight.

What can you do?

 It’s still the holiday season and we’re still having wonderful friends come to visit us at home.  But I want to give you some simple tips that I did for the holidays that can be used for any festive occasion throughout the year.

  • My yard is full of shrubs that always need pruning.  I gathered up some over abundant branches of pepper trees that happened to have lots of reddish pink berries and spread them in layers along shelves and the mantelpiece.  Old Christmas decorations or  knick knacks from yard sales (or car boot sales in England) that I’d collected throughout the years were placed amongst the foliage.
  • I even found some white narcissus in the garden that went beautifully with all the red berries 
  • Old Christmas lights?. No time or money for a Christmas tree?  We piled our old glass hand painted balls and Christmas ornaments into bowls full of green foliage.  If you don’t have old balls, what other  glittery or shiny  ornaments could you find lying around the house that when placed in a heap on a bed of leafy greens could look spectacular?
  • Buy from your local farmers market.  You have to eat so why not pick up wonderful, luscious local  foods and homemade products to decorate your home. We filled up yet more bowls with tangerines, lemons, nuts, olive oil,  and homemade organic chocolates for our guests to enjoy looking at and munching on, for healthy seasonal snacks and gifts.  The decorations became the gifts so they have served double duty. They’re good for our friends and good for our community.
  • Fun for you!  The best part is for this to be more fun and satisfying for you!  At the end of the holidays the food is eaten, the colorful gifts have been given and you have not contributed to the ever growing landfills. There is less clean up and more green up.  You have just "Greened Up" your holidays. Congratulations! I hope that you have as much fun doing this as I did.  Stress free and fun.
  • To learn more simple and economical ECO tips visit our blog at http://MeridianHolistic.com/HealthyLiving

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 PS   My ECO Christmas and Holiday decorating tips were inspired by one of my favorite old fashioned books:  "Natural Christmas", a Madderlake book  by Tom Pritchard and Billy Jarecki.

Dieting and worrying about your weight? Want some Solutions to Healthy Weight Loss?

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by Dr Julian Lange, OMD, L.Ac., with Patricia Bisch, MA, MFT

Are you continually wrestling with your weight and feeling deprived by austere diet regimes? Maybe you are living on salads and forever counting calories?

Would you be suprised to know that eating nothing but salads can actually make you gain weight? Well it’s so!

What about weight loss without dieting? What a concept!

We always teach that to reach and maintain a healthy weight it’s important to have really healthy digestion. We believe that good digestion is the foundation for good health. If you would like to learn more you can listen to our FREE recordings where we talk about digestion that are archived under "resources" at our main website, www.MeridianHolistic.com

We also offer a FREE monthly teleseminar on the first Monday of each month where we answer your questions and debunk myths about digestive health and digestive cleanses.

*But here’s a completely different “Quantum Weight Loss Approach” that we want to share with you …***

Yesterday, Susan and I had a fun visit with the psychotherapist and author of the book “Freedom from Food", Patricia Bisch. Patricia is a lovely person who drew largely from her own experience in creating her book. What I think is unique about her approach to weight loss is that she isn’t promoting a new kind of diet, instead she addresses one’s need to eat and what one is trying to emotionally fill or solve by eating. Her approach is directed towards identifying the psychological wounds that drive us to consume food and gain excess weight. She then gives really practical advice about how to resolve these issues with the ultimate goal being that we can eat what we want to without having to be over weight.

I believe “Freedom from Food” is a worthwhile read and presents a good method for anyone interested in weight loss without dieting. But the main reason I want to bring Patricia’s work to your attention is that it furthers the ideal of achieving better health through inner change and that is something that Susan and I will always support.

And by the way, when she wasn’t looking we spied in her refrigerator and it was stuffed with all kinds of goodies. She told us that she’s famous for having a fridge with no room in it. And Patricia really enjoys her food, we know, because we saw her freely savour several slices of the date bread we brought. I wonder how she stays so slim and gorgeous? Find out in her book which you can get, along with her CD, at her website www.FreedomFromFood.net

And if you’d like some ongoing tips and encouragement to reduce bloating, improve your digestion and to feel better about yourself join us on our free monthly conference calls at http://www.My-Digestive-Health.com 
 

Why is it important to understand the true meaning of ECO-fitness: Going Beyond Green?

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 You guessed right!  Because of our Health. HEALTH is the missing link. Green is Great. Going Beyond Green is a necessity. We will be exploring these concepts in our upcoming series: "Seven Simple Steps to ECO-fitness"HPIM2504.JPG

Here are some new definitions that we have come up with to better explain what we mean by ECO-fitness and why it’s so important

 

E-C-O-fit vs retrofit

To add a component or accessory or new technology, features or modifications to something that did not have it when it was manufactured (ie older systems) that is Ecological, Comfortable and Organic (if possible)

 ECO fitness

The practice of choosing materials and products with a primary concern for their influence upon the health and well being of all the organisms inhabiting that shared environment or ecosystem

 To E-C-O-fit your home is to modify your existing home to be more:

*           Ecological and Environmentally friendly

*           Comfortable to humans and all living creatures; Connected

*           Organic (food, products and materials)