Are You Ready to Thrive?

Omega 3 Fatty Acids (O3FAs) are an important nutrient that is somewhat overlooked. I find that there are several "types" of patients that I tend to strongly recommend O3FAs to.

• Anyone with allergies of any kind. Environmental (hayfever, trees, pets, etc.), Foods (including sensitivities, not just true allergies), and Skin allergies.
• Anyone with a skin condition of any sort. Eczema, psoriasis, contact dermatitis, etc.
• Anyone with arthritis.
• Anyone with heart disease/cholesterol problems.
  

O3FAs are great for breaking the cycle of inflammation. This is why they get recommended to so many of my patients! While they don't work quite like an anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen, over time they can be extremely useful for reducing the amount of inflammation in your system. They have even been used in higher doses as an anti-histamine to break the cycle of allergic inflammation often associated with hayfever!

O3FAs have also been found to be useful in reducing the inflammation associated with heart disease and in lower "bad" cholesterol levels.

So where does one get O3FAs. The best, of course is if you can get natural, whole food sources of O3FAs. Some common sources are:

• The flesh of fish - particularly the gray area between the skin and the "regular" flesh.
• Flax seeds
• Walnuts
• Soybeans - including, in lesser amounts, tofu

If you don't feel like it's doable, or enough to just eat a diet high in O3FA foods, you can take it in liquid or capsule form. There are vegetarian forms, usually made with flax seed oil, and fish sources. If you decide to take the fish-sourced oil, make sure to look for one that is certified heavy metal free (heavy metals would certainly counteract the whole point of taking the O3FAs in the first place!).

As always, talk with your acupuncturist or other health care provider about appropriate doses for you.

Hippocrates said, "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food." It seems as though we've lost sight of that very wise piece of advice. As a society we feed ourselves foods that are easy for on-the-go eating. These foods, in the name of convenience, have been stripped of their nutritional value and have had some very unhealthy additives included. It's no wonder we find ourselves in such a poor state of affairs. We're not taking our medicines!

Here are a few things that you can do to improve your health, not through medications, but through your food!

• Keep a food diary for one week. Be honest. Don't change your diet to make it look better on paper. This is meant to make you aware of what you're eating, not beat you up about it! Feel no guilt about the way you have eaten in the past, get excited about the changes you're going to make that are going to positively affect your health!
• Add one serving of fruit or vegetable a day. Yep, that's it! We're not talking making HUGE changes here. Baby steps! Add a banana to your morning cereal. Or Take an apple to lunch. Take a second serving of vegetables at dinner, or add a second type of vegetable. Do this consistently for two weeks, then add another serving.
  
• Stop consistently eating something that doesn't lead you toward health. For example: Greatly decrease the number of sodas you drink per day, or discontinue them completely. You can take this in baby steps as well. If you drink 5 sodas per day, decrease to 4 for two weeks, then decrease to 3 for two more weeks, etc. I'm not saying that you can't ever have the food or drink ever again. What I'm saying is, save it as a treat. All of a sudden this food that you ate everyday becomes the most luxurious treat you've ever consumed!

In Chinese medicine, every food has healing properties to it, much like herbs, only milder. Some are great for improving digestion (oats, corn, millet, rice), some are helpful with nausea (lychee, pomelo, orange), some are great at clearing a phlegmy cough (pear, eggplant).

If we all started to think of our kitchens as our pharmacies and only stocked the cupboards with "medicines" that will lead us toward health, just think how our lives could change for the better!

It's what the doctor ordered!