Barefoot Doctor's Journal

Take control of your health with this guide to natural health and healing. Get expert advice to help you alleviate pain and live healthy naturally. Access to tools, information and opportunities.

Take control of your health

For 5000 years Traditional Chinese Medicine has help people to relieve pain and achieve a healthy longevity naturally.

A comprehensive guide to natural health and healing, the Barefoot Doctor’s Journal seeks to empower it's readers to take control of their own health, find their own inspiration, help create healthier communities and share the adventure with whoever is interested. Internationally recognized experts in the fields of healthy aging and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Living Younger Longer Institute has helped hundreds of people each year to live healthy naturally.

News You Can Use!

Providing members with the latest scientific research on the ancient healing secrets of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Get information, access to tools, and enjoyable opportunities for a lifetime of active adventure!

March 6, 2022
Joe Brady

Evidence-based Medicine and Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced in China and other Asian countries for thousands of years. Modern scientists have made great strides in studying its effects on a wide variety of health problems, yet many individuals and even doctors are unaware of the wealth of research available about its effectiveness. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit, judicious, and reasonable use of modern, best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients using the best available research information. Most physicians would agree with this approach to medicine, yet medical professionals, are, above all people, and as people, we all have our biases. Many physicians hesitate to prescribe acupuncture because they believe that there is not enough scientifically-based evidence as to its safety and efficacy. This attitude ignores the over 10,000 random control trials that have been conducted on acupuncture since 1975. To be fair most practicing physicians cannot be expected to read the thousands of medical research studies published each year. Review studies however synthesize the results of many studies together and give the practicing physician an overview of the current research on a particular topic. A recent systematic review of 2471 reviews analyzed the results of a great many observational studies and random controlled trials. The review found acupuncture to be effective for the treatment of chronic pain and significant differences between true and sham acupuncture indicate that acupuncture is more than just a placebo and is a reasonable referral option for patients with chronic pain. With moderate to good levels of evidence on its effects on over 70 different disorders.

Read more about the evidence base from the National Institutes of Health behind the modern application of acupuncture in medicine.

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February 23, 2022
Joe Brady

Mind and Body Practices for Fibromyalgia

What the Science Says

Fibromyalgia is a common disorder that involves widespread pain, tenderness, fatigue, and other symptoms. It’s not a form of arthritis, but like arthritis, it can interfere with a person’s ability to perform everyday activities. An estimated 5 million American adults have fibromyalgia. Between 80 and 90 percent of people with fibromyalgia are women, but men and children can also have this condition.

In addition to pain and fatigue, people with fibromyalgia may have other symptoms, such as cognitive and memory problems, sleep disturbances, morning stiffness, headaches, painful menstrual periods, numbness or tingling of the extremities, restless legs syndrome, temperature sensitivity, and sensitivity to loud noises or bright lights.

The exact cause of fibromyalgia is unclear, but it may be related to injury, emotional distress, or viruses that change the way the brain perceives pain. There’s no diagnostic test for fibromyalgia, so health care providers diagnose it by examining the patient, evaluating symptoms, and ruling out other conditions.

Exercise in general and tai chi, in particular, are excellent treatments for fibromyalgia

Research has repeatedly shown that regular exercise is one of the most effective treatments for fibromyalgia. People with fibromyalgia who have too much pain or fatigue to do vigorous exercise should begin with tai chi or walking or other gentle exercise and build their endurance and intensity slowly.

Recent systematic reviews and randomized clinical trials provide encouraging evidence that practices such as tai chi, acupuncture, mindfulness, and biofeedback may help relieve some fibromyalgia symptoms. There is insufficient evidence that any natural products can relieve fibromyalgia pain, with the possible exception of vitamin D supplementation, which may reduce pain in people with fibromyalgia who have vitamin D deficiencies. For more on the actual research and references to the scientific literature read on.

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February 15, 2022
Joe Brady

Integrative Medicine Approaches and Depression

COVID-19 has tripled the rate of depression in US adults in all demographic groups—especially in those with financial worries—and the rise is much higher than after previous major traumatic events, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. Many people with depression turn to a complementary health approach in addition to or in place of conventional treatment. Research suggests that some approaches can be helpful in reducing depression symptoms in patients with mild to moderate levels of depression. For other approaches, benefits are uncertain or there are safety concerns. In severe cases of depression, complementary approaches can help reduce the need for medications, thus reducing the risk of side effects.

Here are 5 things you should know about complementary health approaches for depression:

  1. Depression can be a serious illness. Don’t use a complementary health approach to replace conventional care or to postpone seeing a health care provider about symptoms of depression. 
  2. Some evidence suggests acupuncture may modestly reduce depression symptoms.
  3. Music therapy may provide short-term benefits for people with depression. 
  4. Studies in adults, adolescents, and children have suggested that yoga may be helpful in reducing depressive symptoms.
  5. Exercise in general and Tai Chi, in particular, have been shown to have a moderate to large effect upon depression symptoms
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February 8, 2022
Joe Brady

Whole Health in the VA

Moving from “What’s the Matter with You?” to “What Matters to You?”

Osher Integrative Medicine Grand Rounds; Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Presenter: Ben Kligler, MD, MPH, Veterans Administration

Whole health is an approach to health care that empowers and equips people to take charge of their health and well-being, and live their lives to the fullest.

 Whole Health is VA’s approach to care that supports your health and well-being. Whole Health centers around what matters to you, not what is the matter with you. This means your health team will get to know you as a person to develop a personalized health plan based on your values, needs, and goals. Health outcomes in our country are poor; the US is now ranked 32nd in life expectancy, despite spending far more on health care than any other country. It is time to create a health system, rather than a disease care system; one that empowers and equips Veterans to discover a new path to health and well-being.

Whole Health puts you in control of your care. It focuses on self-care, skill-building, and support. These services are not diagnosis or disease-based but support the personal health plan of each Veteran. Approaches such as stress reduction, yoga, tai chi, mindfulness, nutrition, acupuncture, and health coaching are available. You don’t have to wait until something is wrong to improve your well-being. Whole Health encourages you to set goals based on what is important to you and work toward those goals with your health team.

Studies show Veterans who use Whole Health services report being able to manage stress better and note the care they receive as being more patient-centered.

Opioid Use reduced by 38% in those Using Whole Health Approach

 Veterans with chronic pain who used Whole Health services had a threefold reduction in opioid use.

From the Veteran Administration PDF Download here https://www.va.gov/WHOLEHEALTH/docs/LWH-Introduction_508.pdf

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Watch the video of the January 2022 Grand Rounds with Ben Kligler where he discussed the development and implementation of the Whole Health initiative in the Veterans Health Administration and share early results from the outcomes evaluation currently underway at the 18 Whole Health Flagship sites.

January 26, 2022
Joe Brady

Health Benefits of Tai chi

Top scientists in the US, athletes, and people of all ages are finding Tai Chi to be an ideal workout to counter the effects of stress in the modern world and slow the effects of aging. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen and her husband, Tom Brady, are among three million devotees in the US, with Gisele describing it as “moving meditation”.  American rock legend Lou Reed was another Tai Chi practitioner. His widow reports that when he died in 2013, the singer and songwriter was performing tai chi at home surrounded by the trees in his garden. Many people practice Tai Chi to reduce stress caused by work and hectic schedules. And as we get older Tai chi’s restorative powers can help you age more gracefully and function at a higher level than those who don’t practice it.

https://www.houseofwellness.com.au/health/fitness/health-benefits-tai-chi

Evidence-base for the health benefits of Tai Chi

The philosophical principles of Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan) have been around since the Yellow Emperors Classic on Internal Medicine of which the oldest written copies date to around 2000 years ago. The physical activity form itself has been practiced in China for the last 750 years and in the last 50 years over 500 clinical trials and 120 systematic reviews have been published in the scientific literature on the health benefits of Tai Chi. 

Patricia Huston of the University of Ottowa and her colleague Bruce McFarlane  published a review that found:

Tai Chi has excellent evidence of benefit for: 

  • Preventing falls
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Parkinson disease
  • Rehabilitation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  • Improving cognitive capacity in older adults. 

For more of the health benefits of Tai chi and a link to the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi

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