Category — Articles

If you are on a gluten-free or special diet it can be difficult to frequently go to Wholefoods to pick up the special items you need.  Morgan Hill has more resources than ever for gluten-free, dairy-free and allergen-free living.  Below is a list of stores along with my favorite allergen-free items they carry. [Read more →]

I’m thrilled to report that ABC news recently aired a feature story on acupuncture for kids.   The story is well balanced and objective.  It depicts the personal stories of several children that have improved their health tremendously with acupuncture.  It highlights that sometimes Western medical treatments alone are not enough to treat common conditions such as asthma, allergies, eczema and more.  Rather, combining both Western and Eastern treatments has the most beneficial outcome.   Click the following Link to watch the News Story on Acupuncture for Kids. [Read more →]

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is paving the way for a new model of pediatric health care by providing Acupuncture to its patients. The program which started January 2009 provides pain management for children ages 13 – 18. The founder of the program, Jeffrey I. Gold, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, and director of the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic at Childrens Hospital hopes to expand the program later this year to more departments in the hospital.

This is incredibly exciting news and I hope that we see programs like this at Childrens Hospitals throughout the country.

To read the full article, please click the link below:
http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=31909

Here is a link to a study which showed that kids ate up to 50% more veggies when they were given a cool name. Wouldn’t you eat twice as many carrots if they were x-ray vision carrots?  At our house we recently started eating secret sauce (a.k.a. hummus) and they like it.   It just goes to show that when food is fun it makes eating healthy foods exciting!

There was a similar study done a few years back with college students.  They ate twice as much Tuscan White Bean Soup than Bean Soup.  Food for thought.

Click Here for a link to the study.

Enjoy!  Please feel free to leave your comments!

Saturday my husband and I went to our first natural foods cooking class, put on by Morgan Hill’s local nutritionist Robin Nielsen. We had a really great time cooking up some tasty breakfast dishes. While I’m not new to cooking with whole foods, I picked up a quite a few valuable tips & tricks. For instance, a little diluted coconut milk makes a wonderful base for a breakfast smoothie (no really, it’s quite yummy). If you round it out with a little protein powder (such as whey or pea protein) and healthy fats from ground flax and you’ll have a quick and satisfying breakfast you can take to go! My favorite dish by far was the granola. Who knew nuts and seeds could taste so delicious! I’ll never buy pre-made granola again.

All of Robin’s classes are geared towards healthy eating and are great for those on special diets such as gluten or dairy free. I’m looking forward to her next class on gluten free baking where she’ll be sharing healthful recipes for muffins, brownies and pizza. For a full list of classes and dates you can visit her website at http://www.juvenescence.net/classes.html. Hope to see you there!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them here on my blog!  I’d love to hear what you think!

Many of my adult patients find it shocking that I treat children with acupuncture. They can’t believe that children will let me insert needles in their bodies, let alone enjoy their treatments. I think this view is common because they think I’m treating children the same as adults. Maybe they imagine their 5 year old laying on the table for a half hour with acupuncture needles.  Not on your life!   I  usually spend a half hour with my pediatric patients, but most of that time is spent discussing the problem and offering solutions.  The acupuncture portion of the treatment is painless and lasts between 2 - 10 minutes. [Read more →]

What are your favorite cough remedies?  Especially something that works in the middle of the night?

What a great question since most pediatric cough & cold medicine has been recalled by the FDA for safety reasons.  Honestly, I don’t think the cough and cold medicines work that well (at least in my personal experience.)  Chinese herbs & European biological medicines are safe alternatives that work great.  While Chinese herbal remedies are for very specific types of coughs (wet, dry, barking, etc), there are a few general remedies that work well with just about any child. [Read more →]