By: Dr. Emilie Salomons

The cold and flu season is fast approaching. Here are some tips on how to care for you and your family at the first sign of a cold.

In Chinese medicine, the common cold can be separated into several categories, the most common being wind heat and wind cold. Listed below are a few simple tips on how to recognize which type you have and what you should eat to help your body clear the cold as fast as possible.

1. Wind Cold: Symptoms may include; aching body, clear nasal discharge, headache and chills and coughing up clear phlegm.

What to do:

• Fresh ginger tea (grate ginger into a cup or tea pot, pour in hot water and let steep until there is a strong ginger taste, strain liquid and add honey if you need sweetner)
• Spicy soup (add ginger and hot peppers to a broth based soup, remember that you just want enough spices to break a sweat, nothing more)

2. Wind Heat: Symptoms may include; fever more than chills, sore throat, a hot sensation, yellow or green nasal discharge and coughing up yellow sticky phlegm.

What to do:

• Mint tea (add fresh mint if possible to hot water, let steep for 1-2 minutes, add honey to taste)
• Salt water gargle (for a sore throat, add 2 tbsp of salt to one glass of tepid water, stir until salt dissolves. Gargle full glass and repeat 2-3x/day)

Remember, these remedies should be used during the first few days of a cold. Should your cold last longer or progress in severity, please contact a health professional. If you suspect H1N1 (Swine flu) please contact, Healthlink BC at 8-1-1 and speak to a nurse anytime, day or night.

The transition from pregnancy to motherhood can be tough even under the best circumstances. Socially a woman may feel isolated, she may also feel scared, underprepared and overwhelmed. Although these feelings may pass, in some circumstances like a prolonged or difficult labor, problems during pregnancy or delivery complications, she may develop what is called Post Partum Depression.

Also known as PPD, Post Partum Depression is a type of major depression which affects a new mother within the first year after childbirth. Although it generally occurs shortly after childbirth, it may occur months after the delivery. Symptoms include, crying, irritability, uncontrollable mood swings, poor self care, a lack of interest or resentment towards the baby, excessive fatigue, isolation or a withdrawal from family and friends. If any of these symptoms start to effect daily life, PPD may be the cause.

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By Emilie Salomons

October 2008

As we approached the Kisoro hospital on our fourth day in town, we could see a lineup of patients winding through the courtyard and reaching around the building right up to the exit. It was 8:30 in the morning and already about two hundred people had lined up for acupuncture; the group at the front of the line had even slept overnight to ensure they received treatment. It was clear that it would be a busy day.

Kisoro is located on the southern tip of Uganda, bordering Congo and Rwanda. The cultural influence of its neighbours is very apparent in the area, who for over two decades have been escaping their turbulent homes in favor of the stability of Uganda. What is also apparent in the region is the toll that the mental and physical trauma of war, genocide, displacement, poverty and a general struggle for survival has taken upon its inhabitants.

The Pan African Acupuncture Project (PAAP) has now trained 162 healthcare workers throughout nine districts around Uganda. The healthcare workers have then introduced acupuncture as a new treatment tool into their small, rural health centres, clinics and hospitals. Kisoro Hospital was one of the largest and most advanced centres we had trained in to date, although it’s lack of functioning equipment demonstrated the great need for new, affordable and sustainable treatment tools such as acupuncture. The hundreds of patients who traveled from all around the district to receive treatment only emphasized this void in the current healthcare system.

The hospital superintendent was ecstatic about our training week in his hospital. He mentioned that although he had initially been unsure about what acupuncture actually was, the fact that our acupuncture clinic had managed to clear all of his hospital wards of patients certainly cemented his support for our work.

Pain was a very common complaint among patients, including chest pain, abdominal pain, headaches and musculoskeletal pain. Because of the strenuous way of life and limited healthcare in rural areas, many injuries had been left untreated for years. We also encountered many patients suffering from cysts, STDs, fungal infections and malaria whose health issues had long been without medical attention. In fact, we were often the first medical professionals to address the complaint.

As the word on the efficacy of the treatments spread throughout the community, so did the growth of our line of patients. The word was out, the acupuncture clinic was here, and its doors were open to everyone!

Upon our departure, as we had done the week prior in Mukono, a town just north of the capital, we informed our patients on the location of the clinics where the newly graduated ‘acupuncture protocol specialists’ were working. This way, patients could continue their treatments once we left. So, with smiling trainees, a very pleased hospital staff and the head of district health services bidding us farewell, the PAAP team headed off on our mountainous 14-hour, 300km journey back to the capital.

Two more districts, another 52 acupuncture trained healthcare workers later, my second trip with the Pan African Acupuncture Project in Uganda was a fabulous success.

Emilie Salomons is a licensed Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Vancouver, BC.

The Space’s Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Emilie Salomons and The Pan African Acupuncture Project (PAAP) are looking to raise money for HIV, TB, Malaria education and treatment in Uganda this August 2008.

Donate individually or as a group.

What is PAAP?

PAAP is a non-profit NGO, which trains rural African healthcare workers in basic acupuncture for the treatment of common diseases like, HIV, Malaria and TB.

Fund Goal: $2500.00 by August 1st, 2008. *Donations are tax deductible

Donations go toward:

• Training 52 Ugandan healthcare workers in sustainable, affordable and effective methods to treat or manage symptoms of HIV, Malaria and TB

• Continuing medical supplies after training

* No funds go toward airfare.

Why Acupuncture?

Benefits of the program:

• Sustainability: Acupuncture programs cost a fraction of what an average western medical program costs making it possible to implement in rural areas without hospitals or laboratories. Supplies are also much less costly than pharmaceutical drugs, therefore much more reliable and consistent.

• Reaching rural communities: Once trained, the healthcare workers are able to go back to their existing community clinics and treat patients immediately. Acupuncture is not only used for every day treatments, it also becomes an important tool to supplement their practice during medication supply droughts.

• Bridging Tradition with the West: Many villagers still resist going to western medicine because of a lack of trust. Acupuncture has proven to be a way to bridge the two worlds and create a trust. Once in the clinic, the patients can be educated and tested for STD’s and other common diseases.

This program has been incredibly successful since starting 5 years ago. Seeing the success in Uganda, neighboring countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi have also started sister PAAP projects.

To make a donation please visit: http://www.givemeaning.com/project/paap

Emilie Salomons R.TCMP, ADS, Doula

Depression has affected people for thousands of years, but with today’s pace and increasing demands at work, school and home, this treatable disease is being diagnosed more and more frequently in western medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers another view and approach to managing stress and depression. Aside from the staples of current treatments like counseling, group support - whether friends, family, or peers - and medication if clinically necessary, TCM offers an additional set of diagnostic and treatment methodologies and a new way of looking at what is going on inside our complicated bodies and minds.

Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the body, mind and spirit as one interconnected being. An imbalance in one organ can manifest or present itself through a change in mood, just as a strain to the emotions can affect the function of our vital organs. It might be helpful to think of the “butterflies” that flurry in your stomach and the sudden loss of appetite you feel when something makes you nervous.

So if everything is connected, what can we do to help lift our mood and ease our tension? Read Full Entry…

Spring is a time of new beginning, the birth of a new year. It is a time of growth and shedding. We shed the pounds we gained over winter and we clear our lives and homes of clutter. We rub our eyes and emerge from our hibernation with a new outlook on the world. Where winter was a time of hibernation and introspection, spring is a time to take that self-awareness and put it into action. Express yourself! Start something new.

Forget New Year as a time for resolutions, spring is the time to start fresh and try new things.Naturally in spring we begin to become more active, we sleep fewer hours, we tend to eat less than in winter and we start to shed our emotional baggage. Spring is a time of rapid changes, like a shoot bursting from a seed planted deep in the earth. This time can bring about a burst of energy and emotions, or these changes can be exhausting if we have not rested enough through the winter.

The organ related to spring in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the Liver. Emotions which may arise in spring and which are related to the liver are: frustration, agitation and anger. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you notice you are a little less patient than usual, to a certain extent, this is normal.

So what can we do to help this time of renewal and rejuvenation? Read Full Entry…