In the past, before we invented stiff and constraining shoes, our feet looked very different. Here’s a fascinating article about natural feet, and how they work when not trapped inside restrictive shoes. Our feet change as footwear styles evolve. You may feel like you need arch support or a “good sturdy shoe” because that’s what you’re used to: Your feet have been slacking off and letting the shoe do the work, so they are weak. Just like any other deconditioned muscles, they can be re-trained to be strong and supple, by doing exercises and gradually transitioning to minimal shoes.
A long, long time ago, humans evolved to walk barefoot. We did just fine until we started wearing stiff, supportive shoes. Stiff shoes actually encourage a different gait – striking on the heel instead of the ball of the foot. Without the muscle of the foot softening the landing, more impact jars the body, from the ankle up to the spine.
It’s possible to retrain yourself to walk like an Egyptian (er, a pre-modern human), but it definitely takes some practice. The two graphics above are by Softstar. Their completely minimal shoes are fantastic once you have built some strength and flexibility in your feet (exercises here), but I do not recommend switching to them just yet if you’ve been wearing very stiff / supportive shoes. That’s like asking your couch potato feet to run a marathon, and injuries can happen! Note: I am a huge fan of Softstar Shoes, but they are not appropriate for everyone. If you have damage to your feet, extra weight, or spend a lot of time on concrete, you’ll need a little more support / cushioning.
The problem is compounded because we decided to make shoes not shaped like feet, for some strange reason. Compare these pictures, and see if you can spot the problem:
Modern shoes are shaped as if our third toe is the longest, but it’s always our 1st or 2nd that need the most room. Eventually, the feet will be deformed to match the shoes. The bones of the great toe, lacking the room to reach forward, will escape sideways. I see this a lot with tall men who went through a growth spurt as a teen and didn’t immediately get new shoes.If you’ve had this problem your whole life, it’s probably due to overly tight baby shoes or outgrowing your footwear as a kid – studies of “familial” bunions that looked at baby footprints generally showed that patterns of behavior were inherited, not bad feet.
Reach down and wiggle your great toe. If it is rigid and can’t get back to a natural position, it may be too late. But if it moves, we can still retrain the muscles and tendons to get your foot back to health.
WHY THIS MATTERS– YOUR GAIT AFFECTS THE REST OF YOUR BODY!
This is not just an aesthetic issue! Your toes are supposed to be doing a lot of balancing work for you. If they are bound up, all that work gets pushed up the chain, affecting ankles, knees, hips, and even the lower back. I’m NOT saying your tight shoes caused your back pain, but they definitely contributes to a complex set of issues, and they slows down your recovery.
Hammertoes form for the same reason – not enough room in the toebox. After being squinched up for a while, the tendons shorten and the crimped posture becomes that foot’s default. But we can reverse that with acupuncture, medical massage to break up fascial adhesions, and gentle daily stretching.
Please let me help you liberate your toes! I can teach you self-massage, fit you for a set of Correct Toes toe spreaders, and modify them to fit you, if necessary. Of course I can also provide gentle acupuncture and advanced medical massage to get you back to optimal performance as soon as possible! :)
If you have osteo-arthritis, an inflammatory disease (Fibromyalgia, IBS, etc), or unexplained issues, listen up: There are ways to alter your diet that will help decrease your pain! It’s also very helpful when you want to reduce inflammation after an injury or surgery. Even if you don’t want to make permanent life changes, following these guidelines when you are having a particularly bad time will help.
1) Avoid sugar. This includes soda* and high-glycemic foods that will break down quickly into sugars. White bread, pasta, and starches will all contribute to inflammation.
2) Avoid fried foods. Enough said.
3) Grain-fed red meat is a problem for some people. Grass-fed meat is less inflammatory, since the fat structure is different.
4) You can counteract pain by eating ANTI-inflammatory foods. Dark leafy greens like kale and spinach will help a lot. Berries (except for goji and blueberries), turmeric, garlic, celery, pineapple, cocoa, ginger, and foods containing good fats (extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado, salmon, nuts & seeds) are great, too. If you are sensitive to oxalates, however, be careful not to overdose on the dark leafy greens.
5) Foods your body doesn’t like. More and more, I’m seeing personal sensitivities to foods that are healthy for others. In particular, women past menopause seem to develop food allergies. This can be a delayed response, so it’s hard to recognize. Reactions to dairy or wheat, for example, are pretty common. I’ve also seen legumes, eggs, oats, soy, and even vanilla. Every body is different. Inflammation in the gut will encourage inflammation all over the body.
My IgG reaction, for example, shows up wherever I have arthritis. For me that’s my hands and lower back, and I very much feel the difference the next morning. This doesn’t mean you have to give up the problematic food forever! You can pick your battles, and choose when it’s worth it. The best news is that – because allergies are your immune system over-reacting to a benign substance – in some cases, avoiding a particular irritant can correct the overreaction and “heal” the allergy over time! Acupuncture helps speed up this process.
The changing, adapting nature of our immune systems also means that a test more than 2 years old should probably be repeated to identify new triggers. Most MDs only test for IgE, the deadly anaphylaxis type of reaction. These three above are more subtle, but can make you miserable.
You can skip testing and do an at-home elimination diet, but that requires a serious commitment. You can also keep a spreadsheet of everything you’re eating, and track your symptoms, to find patterns. I like putting foods down the side, and dates across the top. As I eat something, I check off the box for that ingredient and that day. Since mine manifests as joint pain the next morning, I get up and color code the previous day: White for no pain, pale yellow for a twinge, yellow for moderate achiness, red for pain. After a few weeks I could look back and see which foods were causing trouble. This is what worked for me – you should use whatever format works for you.
I now also have access to blood testing (we prick your finger in the office and send off a blood spot card) that can identify which foods you’re reacting to. It’s not cheap, but it’s incredibly helpful and much easier / faster than a thorough elimination diet. Finding out all the foods that were causing trouble has eliminated my daily pain!!
I tried going off wheat and dairy for a month last year, and didn’t see a difference, so I went back to them. It turns out I was also having an inflammatory reaction to eggs and oats, which were my usual two breakfast options. Cutting them all out (in addition to the nightshades I had already banned) made a stunning difference. In three days, my extensive joint pain just evaporated. I’m pain-free for the first time in decades! I’m NOT saying everyone needs to avoid all these foods: This was how my body was reacting. You may have fewer allergies, or none at all.
After two months of eating a strictly anti-inflammatory diet, I had a weekend camping with friends, full of wheat and dairy, and still felt great. The pizza I had Sunday evening pushed me over the edge though – Monday morning my hands and lower back were definitely speaking up. I expected that would happen, and made a quality of life choice to enjoy that pizza! And yes, it was totally worth it.
6) The Nightshade (Solanaceae) plants contain a small amount of an alkaloid toxin called solanine. Some people aren’t bothered by it. Other people, especially those with auto-immune issues & arthritis, tend to be sensitive to this family of plants. Most are unaware of the pain they are causing themselves, because they eat them so often, and because the inflammation & ache are delayed up to 24 hrs.
Tomatoes Potatoes (Sweet potatoes and yams are ok) Peppers, including spicy, chili, and bell peppers, and paprika (Black, white, and green pepper is ok- it’s actually a peppercorn. Long pepper is ok, too.) Eggplant Tobacco
Although less well known, Goji berries and gooseberries are nightshades, too.
Note: Blueberries, huckleberries, artichokes, cherries, apples, sugar beets, and okra are not in the Nightshade family, but they also contain solanine.
The good news: It’s very easy to find out if you are Nightshade sensitive. Simply remove all of them from your diet for two weeks You’ll have to read labels carefully. “Spices” may contain paprika, and lots of prepared foods like shredded cheese can contain potato flour, labelled as “cellulose.” After two weeks of avoiding them, have a big dose. Enjoy that eggplant parm with marinara sauce, a pile of potatoes, or drink a V8. See how you feel that evening and the next day. If within 24 hrs your pain is worse, you are Nightshade-sensitive. Wherever you have inflammation, that’s where it will show up. If not, congrats – you can go back to all the tomatoes you want.
The alkaloid is degraded by extreme heat. Deep-frying will destroy solanine … but fried foods are inflammatory for other reasons, so don’t get too excited. I will eat a small amount of potato chips on a special occasion because they are fried all the way through, but not french fries, since they are still squishy in the middle.
The combination of Nightshades and sugar is a doozy. I can get away with a small amount of tomato paste, but even a tiny squirt of ketchup used to make my hands ache the next day.
Following an anti-inflammatory diet is a relatively simple way to decrease your pain and make a real difference in your quality of life. Some people have inflammatory reactions to dairy or wheat, and that may be worth testing the same way as the Nightshades. You don’t have to be perfect all the time – just make conscious choices.
Spicy food junkies: Fear not! You can still enjoy horseradish & wasabi, onion, garlic, ginger, and all the peppercorns, including long pepper.
Here’s a nightshade-free curry recipe and one for NonNightshade Mexican. Substitute either cauliflower or sweet potatoes for regular potatoes. Pizza and pasta are great with pesto sauce. There are wonderful southern vinegar-based BBQ receipes. There’s even a “No-Mato” marinara sauce I found online (OMG SO GOOD!!!! I used the higher levels of spice for everything and loved it! If you use all regular beets it’s purple. If you use 50% regular beets and 50% golden beets, you’ll get a red sauce with a less “beety” taste. Freezes well, too!).
UPDATE: Now that I’ve been Nightshade-free for a while, my sensitivity has decreased drastically. There seems to be a cumulative effect. By staying away 99% of the time, and preventing a build-up of inflammation, you can enjoy the occasional indiscretion. This is more and more true as time goes on! Now, I can “cheat” about once a week without effect. I can even indulge in big naughtiness once in a while. Be patient!
*Diet soda isn’t a good solution. While it doesn’t contain sugar, the artificial sweeteners cause their own problems, including triggering the body to start storing more calories as fat.
I love teaching self care. I can do great work here in the office, but long term change usually goes better if you do your homework. Sometimes that’s stretching, postural correction, or checking in with your body and releasing tension (usually a combo of these). Of course, the trickiest part of learning a new habit is remembering to do it, so I like providing visual reminders. I have this fun selection of stickers for my patients to chose from. I recommend putting them at your work station or on a water bottle… anywhere you’ll see it frequently.
My newest one – arriving soon – says “I hope something good happens to you today.”
Since some people are more tactile than visual, I also have pocket rocks to give you! Thanks to my friend Diana, I have lots of fascinating Oregon rocks she’s found and tumbled, in a variety of sizes. People like to give me rocks, and the ones I can’t use for jewelry often end up in the pocket-rock bowl.
Oregon agates, jaspers, even some shell! Which one speaks to you?
When a patient arrives for an appointment, I always ask if they need to use the bathroom. It’s better to get that taken care of before they are undressed and full of needles! One lady responded “When do I ever NOT need to?” with a laugh. I giggled with her, agreeing wholeheartedly. Then it occurred to me…that’s not normal!
Over the years it snuck up on me, and I hadn’t even noticed… just cracked jokes about having the world’s tiniest bladder, etc. I was getting up to pee at least once a night, and up to three times on a bad one. Frequent urination is a pretty common situation with more mature women, especially those who are heavier or had children, but that doesn’t mean I had to be stuck with it!
There are two issues here – urgency and incontinence. I did some reading, and some thinking, and here’s what I came up with:
URGENCY:
There are two warning systems for your bladder. One triggers when it starts to fill: That’s the early notification, “Hey, start thinking about a biobreak?” Then there’s the demanding “NO, REALLY!! FIND A BATHROOM NOW!” when it’s completely full. Apparently if you always relieve yourself when the first alarm goes off, the two start to merge, and the urgency gets ramped up even at the early stages. The best way to combat this is to deliberately delay at the first warning. Distract yourself. Do something engaging so you forget you need to pee. When I first started doing this, I couldn’t put it off for long… maybe 5 minutes. But soon it became an hour, and then two! The trick here is to relax. When you feel that sudden NEED to go, the tendency is to panic, to squeeze your legs and try to hold it in while rushing to the toilet. Unfortunately, that’s just going to push it out! Instead, think about consciously relaxing your abdomen, pelvis, and thighs. Focus on your work or something else (maybe as you make your way to the bathroom, in the early stages). It can be a bit of a roulette at first, but keep with it! Retraining takes some time.
Secondly, I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to always be in a hurry. I was squeezing and firing off a pressurized firehose out of some misguided attempt to “be efficient.” This led to a buff bladder that was prone to “going hard” when activated. Instead, I made a conscious effort to relax when peeing, and just let it stream.
INCONTINENCE:
Pelvic floor health is super important. We’ve all heard of Kegels, and some docs recommend doing them while brushing your teeth, just to make it a frequent habit. Likewise, sexual activity and orgasm (alone or with a partner) can help get those muscles strong and healthy.
Absorbent “period panties” can be useful for containing small leaks. Thinx, TomboyX, and plenty of other brands make use of new fabric technology. These garments are machine washable (hang to dry) and, while the crotch panel may be slightly stiffer than usual undies, they are comfortable. They can be useful in the training period while challenging yourself to hold out. In worst case scenarios, if you are unable to retrain, they are a more dignified option than adult diapers. In the long run, they are cheaper, too.
RESULTS:
Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I started seeing changes pretty quickly. A month after I started my experiment, I slept through the night! It’s now been three nights in a row, and one was a 10 hr lazy sleep-in over the weekend.Sleep is sacred, and anything you can do to improve your slumber will have a positive impact on the rest of your day.
Another important benefit to reducing overactive bladder symptoms is the freedom to have a drink of water. I know far too many women who stay perpetually dehydrated because they are nervous about their frequent urination. Take your control back by learning to relax… it may sound counterintuitive, but it’s working for me. Let me know how it works for you!
UPDATE 12/23/22: The retraining held until I rediscovered tea. It turns out caffeine brought back the frequent pit-stops for 24-48 hrs. I do just fine on herbals and still sleep through the night! :)
Postscript 4/6/23: It occurs to me that there’s a connection between general stress / anxiety and overactive bladder issues. If you find yourself in “fight or flight” mode often, it’s worth taking a slow, deep breath… one more… give yourself a moment to relax. We weren’t meant to be on high alert all day. I do a lot of “rest and digest” mode coaching with my patients. Please let me know if I can help you with that!
2026: If the retraining above doesn’t work, you might need some pelvic floor physical therapy. Talk to me about exercises and a great practitioner!
Chinese Traditional Medicine (TCM) is based on energy management. I know that sounds woo-woo, and it was hard for me to wrap my scientific brain around that at first. I thought all those meridians (channels of energetic flow) were just superstition or a handy mnemonic to remember neuro-muscular junctions (where nerves join with muscles to control them). Instead, decades of experience has proved over and over to me that these energetics are real. I think we just don’t have the technology to see it yet, so it seems as mystical as an X-ray would to a medieval doctor.
Whether you got pregnant by surprise or had fertility treatments, it’s important to know that there’s a category of points used to promote the movement of stagnant energy. These are enormously helpful to reduce pain, and I also use them to evict overdue babies (along with some lower back points and the uterus point on the ear). I can usually help patients avoid a chemical induction that way. For a baby that’s not yet at term, I will need a doctor’s note saying it’s okay to stimulate labor before your due date.
STIMULATION OF THESE POINTS, ESPECIALLY EARLY IN A PREGNANCY, CAN LEAD TO MISCARRIAGE.
Other acupuncture is perfectly safe for pregnancy. If you have pain, I can use indirect methods to treat it symptomatically, and do the musculoskeletal work to relax your muscles and realign the bones.
If you are pregnant and want to stay that way, AVOID THESE POINTS when getting a massage, etc. The first three have links to more information and pictures.
Avoid acupressure and acupuncture on these points if you are pregnant and want to stay that way.
Note: These points are on both the left and right. I just marked one side for simplicity.
Explaining Nightshade sensitivities to busy waitstaff can be a nightmare… so I made these handy cards. This way they can bring one back to the kitchen for the chef to review. I’m not going to say they work perfectly – I still get cherry tomatoes in my salads! – but they definitely help.
Print these out on card stock and keep a few in your wallet. Bon appetit!
I’ve talked about fascia before in this blog, but I wanted to expand on the topic: It’s SO important, causing so many resolvable issues. It’s frustrating to me that fascia is unknown by average people, and ignored by so many types of healthcare practitioners. It’s ESSENTIAL in understanding biomechanical dysfunction and healing.
Fascia is the connective tissue that – literally – connects all of our parts. It’s why we are up walking around instead of a pile of organs and bones on the floor. These delicate layers of tissue are supposed to move past each other inside us as we move, but sometimes they get stuck. Trauma like injury or surgery, or a sedentary lifestyle over long periods, are frequent causes of fascial adhesions.
Once I bought a rotisserie chicken from a regular grocery store. As I was taking it apart, I was stunned at how bound up the bird was, compared to the free-range chickens I was used to. A lifetime of forced inactivity had created fascial adhesions all over – you know, that translucent white sheeting? The muscles were all shrink-wrapped in place. “This poor chicken needed a massage!” I told Robert. I felt so bad for it. Just another lesson on how important light, frequent movement is for our bodies.
Connective tissue / fascia (white) and muscle fibers (tan)
Tight fascia will pull on our muscles and bones, preventing free movement and potentially causing misalignments. In severe cases, it can constrict nerve and blood vessel function, creating swelling, pain, or numbness & tingling.
Resolving fascial adhesions is as simple as knowing the right medical massage technique, myofascial release. I can do it for you, and I can show you how to treat yourself and your loved ones.
For hard-to-reach areas, you can use a foam roller to soften the adhesions. I advise people to use it against a wall, rather than lying down on it, because you can control the pressure better. Remember you do NOT want to cause intense pain – that will spark an alarm response. The body will think you have a new injury and will send sticky connective tissue to glue up whatever is torn or bleeding – which means the adhesions you just broke up will reform themselves. It’s best to use the roller gently, then move. Go for a walk or do your usual workout. Movement will help release those weakened adhesions.
Likewise, those home massagers and thumpers can be helpful, but I recommend you use the lowest setting, and don’t go for more than 10 minutes.
Want to learn more? There’s a treasure trove of articles here.
I’m getting a lot of questions about daith piercings that supposedly help you lose weight or stop migraines. These are a bad idea.
1) Piercers are NOT licensed to practice medicine. There is a reason we go to school for all those years, have to pass national tests, and maintain state licenses. They don’t know how much they don’t know.
2) They are using the WRONG points! Here’s an actual map of the ear:
There are about 100 points on the ear. Millimeters matter – sloppy “daith piercing” placement by an inexperienced piercer is asking for trouble!
Here’s that migraine article again. It contains a better set of acupressure points you can use yourself.
3) Obliterating the point can give temporary relief to some, but metal piercings will cause more stagnation and problems long term. You’re setting yourself up for more pain down the road. Read this.
Heartburn can be terrible. My patients often come in complaining of a string of miserable nights when nothing can calm the burning in their chests. The ache can extend to the throat and jaw.* Acid reflux is more than just annoying. If left untreated for years, you can develop Barret’s Esophagus and eventually cancer. Soothing the pain has become a mega-industry, but your reflux is not a symptom of a Prilosec deficiency, and in fact long term use may cause Vitamin B12 deficiencies** or heart attacks.
Basic reflux defense:
Avoid alcohol, spicy or greasy foods, tomatoes, citrus, chocolate, and mint.
Sleep on your left side, or with an extra pillow or bed wedge to keep your esophagus above your stomach (Note, sidesleeping requires a thicker pillow than backsleeping to support your neck).
Don’t eat large meals or late in the evening.
Most people report a big reduction in symptoms when they cut down on carbs & sugar.
Stimulate PC-6. You can do acupressure on yourself.
There are TWO types of acid dysfunction reflux:
Sometimes the stomach is making too much acid, or the lining is damaged with ulcers, cancer, etc. In these cases, reducing stomach acid via pharmaceuticals can help, particularly in the short term.
More commonly, the stomach isn’t making *enough* acid. This is because the body only bothers to promote acid when it’s in the parasympathetic / “rest and digest” mode. If you are stuck in the sympathetic / “fight or flight” mode due to stress & anxiety, your digestion will slow down.
Have you heard the old tip about using apple cider vinegar? It seems counter-intuitive to drink vinegar (acetic acid) when your throat is on fire, but it works. Here’s why: The sphincter between the esophagus and the stomach is signalled to close tight by the presence of acid. If it doesn’t cinch up, the weak acid you do have will escape upwards.
I can’t vouch for all the claimed “miracles” of apple cider vinegar (ACV), but it’s a powerful tool for fighting heartburn. In addition to providing the acidic signal, high quality ACV also contains probiotics that make your gut healthier. This is why you want the cloudy stuff in a glass bottle (Bragg’s) not the cheap clear supermarket brand in the plastic bottle.
Shake the bottle until the gross-looking glop becomes a uniform cloudiness. Pour a finger or two of the ACV into a glass, then dilute it to about 3-4 inches with water. Chug it down and follow with tooth brushing or at least a serious rinsing to protect your tooth enamel. Within seconds your heartburn should dissipate. Some just use it as needed – when symptoms appear. More diligent people drink it every day.
Protip: Pickle juice also works! Try a swig out of the jar of kosher spears in your fridge!
* Heart attack symptoms are sometimes confused for heartburn, which is why it’s important to get checked out by a doctor, especially if you are at risk or have heart disease in your family history.
**Vitamin B12 deficiency causes serious health consequences including anemia, osteoporosis, depression, memory loss, dementia, neuropathy and cardiovascular disease.
If you ever attend an event with me, soon you’ll notice people walking around with funny little stickers on their ears. Ear seeds are my mobile acupressure strategy. When people come up to me and ask what I can do about their back pain in the middle of a party… BAM! On go the ear seeds. These are radish seeds on a tiny piece of band-aid tape. There’s nothing magical about the radish – they are just the right size and shape to apply acupressure to any of the 100 points on your ear (map below).
You’re familiar with reflexology, right? You know how your entire body is reflected on your hands and feet? Same deal with the ears. I can treat pain or dysfunction anywhere in the body, emotional upheaval, anxiety, etc. This is why I’m not a huge fan of lots of piercings. It’s also why ear massages are like getting a full body massage, and terrific for immediately calming someone down. Try it the next time your migraines act up, your dog is freaked out, or your sweetheart has road rage. :) Just gently rub the entire ear – don’t worry about hitting specific points for this purpose.
Once the seeds are on, they are working. They will last 3-4 days, and you can shower normally. If you want to give the treatment a boost, and can’t feel them on your ears, give them a gentle squeeze to wake them up. If you are already aware of them, leave them alone… they will probably be pretty tender to the touch! Sometimes people find the ear seeds annoying or sore, particularly if they are side-sleepers or they are working superhard (the more active a point is, the more it can hurt). In that case, just take them off. The point is to make you feel better!
I never charge for ear seeds. Ask me for them anytime – I always have them in my purse, and you are welcome to drop by the clinic for a quick installation.
Note: Some people use ear staples for quitting smoking, weight loss, etc. I prefer earseeds, since sending someone out with an open wound is an invitation to infection. Acupressure is hugely powerful and hurts less, too!
There are about 100 points on the ear, so I can treat nearly anything. Ear seeds are quick, portable, and give you a few days of acupressure.
