Take a Breath, Part II

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Lung anatomy

Now that we’ve moved to beautiful and mile-high Colorado, it’s taking a few months to acclimate to the elevation, and the best way we have found to do this is by swimming: rhythmical, evenly-paced lap swimming. My (Carol) theory why this works to calm the nervous system and enhance deeper breathing is that for every inhale, a lap swimmer is exhaling for at least two counts, thereby knocking more carbon dioxide (CO2), and thus waste-product, off. Less toxins in the body can only be a good thing!

Air is a form of nutrient in both biomedicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The exchange of gases occurs in the lungs, where oxygen (O2) is inhaled and carbon dioxide (CO2) is exhaled. O2 binds to hemoglobin, travels in the blood to each cell, where the mitochondria use it to create ATP, THE energy molecule, via the Krebs cycle.

When you take deeper breaths, you increase the amount of O2 in your body, and the potential for more reserves of energy both immediately and in times of stress or depletion/illness.

Here’s a simple Taoist breathing method:

1) Inhale through your nose, and follow the breath down your esophagus, into your chest, and down to your lower abdomen, allowing the muscles to relax and expand.

2) Exhale from the lower abdomen by contracting the muscles of the lower abs and core towards your spine.

Breathing this way is very grounding, and with practice, will become second nature — it’s the way we breathed as babies, so that kinesthetic memory is stored in our nervous systems.

No need to rush the process: you can do it any time or place when you remember to do it. For example, when you’re waiting for the light to change, or feel your emotions or thoughts start to run away from you.

Guideline: never strain — follow the 70% rule — taking breaths only as deeply as they come naturally to you.

Benefits: increased energy, clearer thinking, calmer nervous system, improved metabolic and organ function, and less toxic waste in the form of CO2 floating in the blood.

Image:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, National Institute of Health website. Retrieved 10.18.10: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hlw/hlw_respsys.html

http://mountaintopacupuncture.com/take-a-breath

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have a combined 34 years of experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: All Things Exercise, Health Tips, Nourishing You, Stress Busters Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tom’s Too-Thick-To-Drink Fruit Smoothie

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Too Thick to Drink Fruit Smoothie

As the title suggests, this smoothie is chock-full of fruit and added nutrients. The supporting players give the smoothie its body and complement the fruit flavors: you can actually taste the cherries and blueberries and banana separately. We make it so thick we use a spoon. The spoon will slow you down but gives the added benefit of allowing your body more time to absorb the gorgeousness of this anti-oxidant rich meal.

Please note: if a thick smoothie isn’t your thing, just add more (veggie) milk or juice to thin it out- you’ll still get the benefits and the yum body feel.

This smoothie is fantastic after a workout or as breakfast in the hot summer months. The additions are rough suggestions and change with what’s on hand, so feel free to add what you like best to make your own concoction.

 

Yields: 2 servings in 12 oz. glasses

Ingredients:

1 C blueberries (fresh or frozen)                               2 T Green Vibrance

1 C cherries (pitted fresh or frozen)                          2 tsps chia seeds (Mila)

2 bananas, ripened                                                2 tsps milled flax seeds

2 T coconut flakes                                                 2 tsps nutritional yeast

½ C soy, rice, or almond milk                                 2 tsps lecithin

½ C plain Greek yogurt, 0% fat

 

1.Slice bananas into a blender and add the milk liquid; puree until smooth.

2. Add the blueberries and cherries (Costco sells organic both) and puree or liquefy.

3. Add yogurt and all other ingredients and blend until everything is well incorporated.

4. Enjoy

 

Nutritional Notes:

The blueberries and cherries are full of antioxidants.

Green Vibrance is a green-based product made of powdered vegetables, fruit, and herbs- real food- to provide a whole host of nutrients and probiotics.

Chia and flax seeds contain high amounts of both Omega 3 and 6 from a plant source, which makes it more balanced, and trace amounts of minerals.

Nutritional yeast has a high percent of most of the B vitamins, and good amount of magnesium, both of which are highly beneficial to nervous system function.

Lecithin is a fat emulsifier and many claim its health benefits include reducing cholesterol, boosting liver function, fighting heart disease, and improving brain function, but we looked it up and the research to back these claims is inconclusive so far.

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted

 

Filed Under: All Things Food, Cooking Basics, Health Tips, Nourishing You, Recipes, You Are What You Eat Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems: Part IV

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photo courtesy of softchalk.com

The Lymph System

The immune system carries out part of its defense with components that move in a continual flow in the circulatory system (blood/hematic), and the lymphatic system. These cellular components are on the alert and ready to destroy foreign invaders should they be encountered.

The lymph system is a close relative of the immune system, producing immune players and assisting delivery of these cells through movement.

The lymph system has several functions: it drains specific wastes (extra protein in the interstitial fluid), transports fats, produces lymphocytes, and develops immunities. In Part II and Part III of this series, non-specific and specific defense was reviewed, respectively, with a review of the types of cells in each.

Anatomically, the lymph system is made up of vessels and nodes that cover almost all of the body. This massive circulation of the lymph system is similar to and closely follows the (blood/hematic) circulatory system.

photo courtesy of the University of Pittsburgh

Bone marrow, several organs (the spleen, tonsils, and thymus gland) are also structures of the lymph system. Immune cells are produced and grow to maturity in the bone marrow and thymus gland. The remainder of lymphatic tissue and organs trap and destroy antigens: the lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils, appendix, Peyer’s patch in the intestines, and the mucous membranes of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive systems.

Most lymph is delivered through the muscle movement, pumping material through valves, into vessels, large and small. Proper breathing is another way to make lymph move well.

This is why exercises that promote inversion and even breathing, such as yoga, have excellent health benefits. Acupuncture has a stimulating effect that promotes movement in local areas, which is one of many reasons why it is great as a preventative medicine, but why it is contraindicated in the presence of tumors.

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems: Part IV

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Conditions Treated, Integrative Medicine, Stress Busters Tagged With: , , , ,

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems, Part III

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ACQUIRED IMMUNITY: WHERE AND HOW

Part III continues our series with a focus on specific defense. In a nutshell, the main immune players can be likened to different types military forces. Microphages and macrophages are the local police (see Part II), white blood cells are the standing army, at-the-ready, from all divisions, and immunoglobulins are the the special ops class, trained to react with precision in order to eliminate the enemy.

ANTIGENS AND ANTIBODIES: Immunoglobulins and White Blood Cells
Specific defense (acquired/adaptive) can be likened to the military’s special ops. The immune cells are found in the body tissue and on cell membranes, and their key function is to protect against pathogenic organisms or other sources of not-self. Specific defenses are unique responses (antibodies) to not-self elements (antigens).

1) Immunoglobulins
An antigen is a foreign substance that sets off an immune response. Antigens can be microbial (bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi) and non-microbial (poison plants, insect bites, and tree pollen). Our body creates antibodies to counteract each antigen.

Antibodies are proteins called immunoglobulins. There are five types of immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD, and IgE), to respond to different kinds of enemies (antigens), located in different types of body tissue and fluids.

Structurally, antibodies are shaped like a Y so that they can easily lock onto the target cell and enable other immune components to find and either destroy the antigen, or stop its replication mechanism.

2) Immune Cells
Like soldiers, airmen, and seamen on the front line, there are different types of immune cells to attack not-self from all angles. These cells are present and active in both non-specific and specific defense.

Lymphocytes are the most common cells of specific immunity, and they are separated into two classes: T cells and B cells. Neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils are white blood cells. Other kinds of immune cells are monocytes, macrophages, denritic cells, natural killer cells (NK), and the major histocompatiblity complex (MHC).

3) Humoral Immunity and Cell-Mediated Immunity
Humoral immunity is found in body tissue and the blood’s plasma, on the lookout for invaders, and creates an antibody in response to an antigen. Cell-mediated immunity issues the clarion call that activates other immune players.

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems, Part III

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Conditions Treated, Health Tips, Integrative Medicine, Stress Busters Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems, Part II

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In Part I of this series we reviewed the inflammatory response system, and now turn to the immune system, which is dynamic and has a lot of moving parts, and because it is complex, it may be easier to grasp when its various parts are presented separately.

In Parts II and III we’re going to talk about the mechanics of our body’s defense system. Part IV will wrap up the physiology with a review of the immune system’s close relative, the lymph system.

The point of this series is to lay the groundwork for later topics as diverse as auto-immune and other disorders, nutrition, and health tips, and provide basic terminology if and when you are presented with information about common health topics such as infections and inflammation.

To begin, there are types of immunity: non-specific and specific, and there are different kinds of defensive cells: primarily white blood cells, immunoglobulins, and microphages and macrophages. Immunity is a way to protect against microbial and non-microbial invaders; while we refer frequently to living organisms, trauma from injury or as a result of disease are other primary factors that can rally the immune system into action.

 

 

Specific and Non-Specific
In a nutshell, non-specific (innate) immunity is the first line of defense against microbes and can tell the difference between “self” and not-self,” but cannot differentiate further. Specific (acquired/adaptive) defense can differentiateand respond to each foreigner uniquely.

Some of the players work in both innate and acquired immunity, some do not.

Part II: Innate Immunity: Where and How

1) THE SKIN AND MUCOUS MEMBRANES: mechanical and chemical defenses1) Anatomical: the skin and mucous membranes that line the gastrointestinal , reporductive, and respiratory tracts are the mechanical first-line-of-defense.

The tissue of the skin and mucous membranes are made up of densely packed cells and short of injury, prevent penetration of unwanted invaders.

Other mechanical barriers to microbes are tears, saliva, the hairs that line your nose, and the flow of urine.

In conjunctions with mechanical forces, chemical defenses prevent colonization of microbes by a shift in the acid-alkaline balance or through enzymatic action. For example, increased acidity in the stomach and on the skin, the presence of fatty acids in the oil glands of the skin, and the enzyme lysozyme in tears, saliva, and other body fluids.

2) ANTI-MICROBIAL SUBSTANCES: Complement, Factor P, and Interferon
Complement is a group of proteins present in blood serum. It is so named because it complements the immune system by enhancing its ability to recognize, attach and destroy invading microbes. Complement is activated in both non-specific and specific immunity.
Properdin, or Factor P, is another protein in blood serum that works with complement. Properdin triggers the inflammatory responses, enhances phagocytosis (see below), and neutralizes bacterial or viral invaders.
Interferons are proteins that communicate between cells, signaling a call-to-action and tracking locator for other immune cells to come find and fight.

3) PHAGOCYTOSIS
In a nutshell, the body produces cells that envelop and destroy foreign, invading substances, via a two-part mechanism, adherence and ingestion: the cell membrane of the phagocyte attaches to the microbe, traps it, engulfs it, and destroys it. Microphages and macrophages are the key immune cells of the phagocytic system, found all over the body, in the blood, bone marrow, tissue, lymph nodes, and organs (liver, lungs, brain, and spleen).

The Inflammatory and Immune Response Systems, Part II

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At Mountaintop Acupuncture, we have over 30 years experience. To read more, please click here.

If you have questions and concerns about acupuncture treatment, we offer a free 20-minute phone session: click here for contact information to call or e-mail us. We practice at The Highlands Ranch Medical Pavilion in Littleton, Colorado.

Insurance is welcome and accepted.

Filed Under: Integrative Medicine, You Are What You Eat Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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