I found this super easy and delicious recipe here on The New York Times Wine & Dining page.

A couple quick tips: For those following a Cleanse Diet, you can simply omit the parmesan from the recipe and it still tastes fantastic. You can also leave out the prosciutto and it will still have great flavor as well. It is quick to put together with very few ingredients and no cooking.  For some additional protein and a great compliment – try adding some crumbled roasted Hazelnuts on top.

Bon Appetit!

- Jake (Sarah’s husband)

Veggie Stir Fry

My favorite cookbook is “The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.” This book is chalk full of tasty whole foods recipes and teaches you the importance of eating a heavily plant based diet. There is no understating the phrase “food is medicine.” The recipes are gluten free, dairy free, egg free, guilt free and finally – not flavor free!! For those of us with allergies, food sensitivities, diabetes or numerous other health ailments; this book is a blessing. The other insanely cool part about this book is the way they so clearly and concisely break down the foods and the how and why each food benefits your health.

Make just a few of these recipes and you quickly come to realize that the authors (Alissa Segersten and Tom Malterre) took the time to build, test and refine the recipes by having their children and friends test each revision. The result is a collection of completely “eatable” meals! I think it is an especially interesting and impressive feat in that recipes in this genre are typically mundane or flavorless.

They have a great website

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Recipe for green smoothie 

Recipe for Kale sauté  … I just realized this is two kale recipes in a row. I love kale and promise to move on from it!

Cheers to good health!

I had an old patient come back for a new issue the other day. He had not been able to open his mouth more than a couple of centimeters for 4 weeks. This patient could not eat or brush his teeth properly. He was drinking milk shakes, smoothies and soup to get nutrition. He had a tooth extracted 4 weeks earlier and shortly after the procedure he found himself in this terrible situation with his mouth clamped shut.

This is a very flavorful recipe I came up with recently after hearing Sarah talk about a kale salad she had from Whole Foods that had kale and nutritional yeast in it. Sauteed kale provides a delicious base and compliments the spinach and garlic. I would suggest experimenting with this recipe by adding different proteins or nuts to add to the flavor. I plan to try this recipe with a few different additions like chicken, tofu, roasted almonds, roasted filberts and cilantro. (If you are doing a cleanse, tofu and nuts are typically on the “do not eat” list, so avoid these items).

The portions below are approximated.

Ingredients:

Baby Spinach
Purple Kale – remove the spines. I found the easiest way to do this is with good kitchen scissors. Then chop it into around 1/2 inch pieces.
4 cloves Garlic – chopped finely
1/4-1/2 Onion – diced
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp tamari
1/4 C nutritional yeast
1/2 C lemon juice

Preparation:

-In an iron or non stick skillet. Heat up some of the olive oil on medium heat.

-Add half of the garlic and saute garlic for about 3 minutes until it starts to brown.

-Add kale and saute, stirring frequently until softened and glazed with oil –  about 3-5 minutes.

-Transfer sauteed kale, onions and garlic to large mixing bowl.

-Keep pan on stove and add the remaining garlic and diced onion to pan and saute until onions and garlic begin to brown.

-Add tamari, remaining olive oil, and a couple pinches of nutritional yeast to pan and saute for 2-3 minutes.

-Add baby spinach to mixing bowl and stir in with the sauteed kale.

-Next drizzle the contents of the pan over the top of the spinach and kale and toss, drizzling a little bit at a time while you stir the mixture.

-Finally sprinkle the remaining nutritional yeast over the top of the mixture stirring a bit in between. Add as much nutritional yeast as you like…I find it is hard to have too much. Finally, squeeze lemon over the top of the salad and toss.

Enjoy and feel free to be creative and add your favorite ingredients…Bon apetit.

- Jake (Sarah’s husband)

We have many patients who come into the clinic complaining of jaw pain. We often use the catch-all term “TMJ” to describe all kinds of jaw pain, although it technically stands for temporomandibular joint. TMJ is often a result of muscular strain, rather than a structural issue with the joint itself. It can cause all kinds of pain in the jaw, but also the neck, face and head. It can even cause symptoms with the ears, including tinnitus (ear-ringing) or a plugged feeling in the ears. We often see a connection between TMJ and sinus issues, with patients presenting with frontal headaches and sinus pressure. There are not many treatments offered by conventional medicine that provide long-term relief, and many of the therapies offered, including bite guards and medications, can be cumbersome and do not fully address the problem.

Acupuncture has been found to offer immediate relief from TMJ symptoms, as well as effectively treat stress, one of the leading contributing factors to TMJ pain. Research has been done and continues to show that TMJ is very common for people who also report high levels of stress. TMJ is also very common in women. At Acupuncture Northwest, we specialize in trigger point acupuncture, a method that allows us to find and release the tight muscles responsible for the jaw pain. Some of the most common muscles involved are the masseter (our chewing muscle), temporalis, SCM and trapezius muscles. We also address the underlying causes for the jaw pain, including muscle tension, stress, teeth grinding, sleep issues, and other factors that might be in play.

There is no need to continue to suffer with TMJ symptoms. Acupuncture is an easy and effective way to release tight muscles and relieve pain!

We live in a beautiful part of the world, the Pacific Northwest. We endure plenty of rain here, and we’re okay with it because it is what makes this part of the country so green and lush. However, these dark wet months also serve as the perfect environment for another kind of growth: mold. Exposure to mold can cause many types of health problems, and although most people present with mild symptoms, some of our patients have suffered major health issues as a result. Some common symptoms of short term mold exposure can include:

- Sneezing
- Itching Skin
- Redness and skin irritation
- Itchy or watery eyes
- Headache

More advanced symptoms of mold exposure can result for people who are in a contaminated area off and on for an extended period of time. Symptoms are reported to have become more severe and longer lasting directly in proportion to the length of exposure time. Some symptoms can include:

- Constant headaches
- Nose bleeds
- Feelings of constant fatigue
- Nausea or vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Skin rashes
- Sudden asthma attacks or breathing disorders
- Ear infections and pain
- Chronic sinus infections
- Chronic bronchitis
- Pain in the joints and muscles

We treat many patients who suffer from allergies, and because we live in the Northwest, mold is an allergen that we often need to address. Eliminating the source of mold from your living environment is the most important thing to reducing symptoms. Acupuncture will also help alleviate symptoms and strengthen your immune system. To read about other possible symptoms of mold exposure, click here. For common questions about mold, check out the Center for Disease Control’s fact sheet on mold.

People are very familiar with using acupuncture as adults, but many people don’t realize how beneficial acupuncture can be for their kids. Acupuncture can treat a multitude of conditions for children (more on conditions treated here), and kids can start getting treatment as young as a couple weeks old. Because children are considered to be very yang (active, dynamic, energetic), they respond very quickly to treatment methods, and often recover faster than adults.

Needles can be a part of the treatment….but they don’t have to be. Most often, kids enjoy the idea of using tiny needles to help heal their body. They get excited about learning how acupuncture works and how to take control of their own health. We also have many other tools we use in practice that effectively treat pediatric conditions. Acupressure is great for kids, and pressing on specific acupuncture points is a technique we often teach parents to use at home. Pediatric massage or qigong can be used as well, and helps treat children who are especially sensitive to stimulus and their environments. In some cases, we use a line of pediatric herbal formulas, and they add enormous benefit to the treatment plan.

No two treatments look the same when treating children. It is always about meeting the child where they’re at that day, and we all know that when it comes to kids, you don’t always know what you’re going to get.  We can treat kids on the treatment table, in a chair, on the floor, or in their parent’s lap. Books or toys provide great distractions, and we often make a game out how we are treating that day.

For children, just like adults, you can use acupuncture and Western medicine together, in fact they are very complimentary. We often use acupuncture in combination with other conventional treatments, each method reinforcing the other. For example, we will treat a child for an ear infection or upper respiratory tract infection in conjunction with the child taking antibiotics. Kids see faster healing times, and parents see happier children.

If you have questions about how acupuncture can help your kids, call us anytime. We understand how important health care is for your little ones!

It’s almost a new year, and after a season of holiday eating and drinking, there is no better time to start thinking about getting back to feeling healthy and energized. We all know about the dozens of types of cleanses out there, and it seems like everyday we are hearing about a new trend in “detoxing” for your health. Before you start drinking nothing but lemon juice and cayenne pepper, it is important to determine the purpose of why you are doing a cleanse (detoxification, identifying food allergies, etc.). It is very helpful to talk to a practitioner who can help guide you through the process of choosing the right cleanse for you, as well as pick an appropriate time in your life to follow through with the program you choose. Our patients often say they feel amazing as they are doing a cleanse, but it takes preparation and some self-discipline to get your best results.

The biggest reason for doing a cleanse is detoxification. Toxicity can occur from external or internal sources. External toxicity can result from environmental exposures, and internal toxicity is a result of production of metabolic wastes from the body’s biochemical processes, as well as from long-term emotional stress or trauma.

So what are the benefits of doing a cleanse?

• Clearer skin, reduced acne and rashes
• Improved energy, mental function and concentration
• Reduced pain, including headaches, arthritis, joint and muscle pain
• Weight loss
• Reduced inflammation
• Better quality sleep
• Improved digestion, with reduction of heartburn, gas, bloating or nausea

It is common for our patients to complete a cleanse program, and feel so good that they use what they learned from the experience to start making positive changes to their diet and lifestyle. It really is a great way to get you feeling like the best version of yourself!

We are always talking to our patients about balance. Balance within our work/home lives, balance in our diets, and balance with our health. It is key to living a happy and healthy life and is a belief that is deeply rooted in Chinese Medicine theory and the practice of acupuncture.

Everyone is familiar with the idea of yin and yang, but what does it really mean, and how does it apply to this idea of balance? It is a concept that began 8000 years ago, formulated by Fu Hsi, a legendary sage who lived along the Yellow River of China. He used two symbols, a broken line and an unbroken line to represent yin and yang. Since then, we have all become familiar with the Taoist symbol of the circle, one side black with a white dot in the center, the other white with a black dot in the center.

Yin and yang shows us that seemingly opposing forces are bound together and interdependent, interconnected and complementary. One gives rise to the other, and one can only exist with the other. When one quality reaches its peak, it will naturally begin to transform into the opposite quality. Beneath it all, yin and yang is the idea that the only constant in the universe is change. Nothing remains the same; no disease, no condition, no emotion, no treatment or diagnosis.

While yin would be dark, passive, downward, cold, contracting, and weak, yang would be bright, active, upward, hot, expanding, and strong. Yin represents that which endures, nourishes and supports growth, as well as the female. It refers to the calm rather than activity. Yang is considered to be creative and generating; developing and expanding, and represents the male.

Yin and yang exist in everything, in every object, concept or state of being. Yin and yang are not static concepts, but are constantly influencing each other. There is always some element of yin within yang and vice versa. You can see this in the picture, the dot of yin within yang and the dot of yang with yin.

In Chinese medicine, yin and yang refer to energies and functions of organs and body mechanisms. Your optimal health is created by the right balance of yin and yang. When one aspect of our health or our lives becomes lopsided, like when we work too many hours, we are too stressed out, or we eat too much of one thing, there is potential to develop symptoms of disease. Acupuncture works to restore this proper balance, thereby bringing you back to the healthy state your body strives for.

Do you or someone you love need to quit smoking?

We have a specific protocol and plan for you! We have helped many patients kick the habit at Acupuncture Northwest. Most people have tried other treatments without success, but are able to be successful with acupuncture. It is really amazing to help someone get something they have always wanted, to be a nonsmoker, to not be dependent on cigarettes, to have their lungs feel clean and clear and healthy. Patients describe it as a new lease on life. Our protocol is simple and painless, and we have many other tools to help equip you during situations when cravings are high. We ask patients to make three consecutive appointments after an initial appointment to build a solid foundation towards recovery. Now is the time to make the decision to quit, you have nothing to lose and we are here to help you!