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Please enjoy my blog posts below, or CLICK HERE to go to the new Laurel Acupuncture Clinic website. Thank you!

Welcome

Welcome to the website for Jim Chialtas, L.Ac., and Laurel Acupuncture Clinic of Functional Medicine, located in San Diego.

Click on the tabs above to learn more about what Functional Medicine is, and about many of the health concerns I specialize in. Or scroll down for my blog. You might find it helpful to use the labels in the lower right column to find topics that interest you.

In addition to seeing clients privately in my clinic, I also offer many of the same services remotely to US residents. Please feel free to contact me to set up a consultation or appointment. Thank you!

8/14/07

Open House This Weekend!

Just a quick plug today. I will be having anopen house this Saturday the 18th of August from 1 - 5pm. This will be a great time to stop by on a casual basis and learn about my services. And hey... If you sign up for an appointment during the open house you will get 50% off of the appointment! Hope to see you there!

You can also come and meet Dalila Thompson who is an Aesthetician here in my clinic. My wife and I have both received facials from Dalila as well as a handful of my patients and we all have nothing but good things to say about her services.

Be well, and have a great day today!

8/7/07

Why should I get acupuncture?

I get this question a lot... "Why should I get acupuncture? Actually the most frequent question is, "Does it hurt?" I will address the does it hurt question later though. So when deciding if acupuncture is right for you it is important to consider a couple of things.

The first thing to consider is if you are at all tired of the typical medical experience. I already gave an example of that in my previous entries. If you are, then acupuncture might be a good thing for you.

The average acupuncture appointment lasts approximately one hour. The average western medical appointment lasts approximately 12 minutes. People also usually leave the acupuncture appointment feeling better than when they came in. When was the last time that you left your doctors office feeling better than when you walked in?

Next would be to consider your prefrence for natural medicines. Acupuncturists usually use Chinese herbs along with the acupuncture. These herbs are a potent form of medicine that can help treat many different conditions without the need for western drugs. So if you are looking for a possible alternative to prescription drugs then a visit to an acupuncturist might be in order. In my practice I also offer high quality condition specific nutritional formulas to be used where appropriate.

And finally, there is always the curiosity factor. We all know someone who has had a positive experience with acupuncture. Sometimes we need to see that the people around us liked the experience before we will make the plunge ourselves. If that's the case for you, then what are you waiting for? Make the appointment and try something new!

As far as why you should come in... The best way to use Chinese Medicine is for prevention. And when preventing something of course you aren't experiencing it yet. So coming in when you feel good is a great thing to do! Keeping the body well tuned will work to strengthen the body when it does come up against an infection or an injury. You will find that problems won't come up for you as often or as bad if acupuncture is a regular part of your life. You may simply feel better, sleep better, digest better and whatever else.

There is an old Chinese saying that is worth repeating here... "Don't wait until you are thirsty to dig a well!" I couldn't agree more.

8/4/07

The Older Middle Aged Man: Part 3 - The Cholesterol Issue

In my last blog entry I covered the hormonal issues pertaining to my older middle aged man and how the therapy that he received was not only inadequate for his situation, but actually worked to do him harm. And in keeping with the concept of the Hippocratic Oath as “first do no harm,” I thought it best to now describe how this man was hurt with respect to his moderately high cholesterol.

As you may recall from my first blog entry when describing the older middle aged man I mentioned that his cholesterol was elevated and he was given Lipitor. There was no exit strategy given for this man. Most often people put on this medication are told to take it for the rest of their lives. This is often done without concern for the drug’s damaging effects to the liver or its depleting effects on Co Q-10 levels in the body which can lead to muscle pain and even cardiac abnormalities. Not to mention its questionable use at all with respect to any actual effect on mortality rates. These drugs are among the most widely prescribed medications in the country. So let’s explore this a little further and decide if it is even necessary.

I had mentioned that the cholesterol lowering model for heart disease is outdated and here’s why… Cholesterol is carried around the body contained within small bubbles called lipo-proteins. Namely High Density Lipo-protein (HDL) and Low Density Lipo-protein (LDL). This refers to the bubble carrying cholesterol and not the cholesterol itself. Most people do not realize this. It is the size and number of these carrier bubbles that determines true cardiac risk. Quite often these bubbles will be empty of cholesterol but will still lead to heart disease. That is why approximately 50% of people who die of heart disease have normal cholesterol. Simply looking at cholesterol numbers isn’t adequate to determine risk. So why then is there a multi billion dollar industry based on this model? Why are older middle aged men like the one I have described getting put on these dangerous medications. In fact, why are women, young men, people who have had heart problems, and anyone who has cholesterol over 200 getting put on these medications for life? In my opinion it is profit and profit only. Current research shows that simply lowering your cholesterol does not have any dramatic effect on mortality rates. Don’t just take it from me, look it up yourself and then look at all of the side effects of statin drugs. You will make up your own mind. And when you do, consider the risk to benefit ratios here.

So what can be done then you ask? Now that you have mustered up the nerve to challenge the medical establishment, what will you do then? The answer is plenty. One of the easiest ways to regulate your cholesterol balance is through aerobic exercise. This will work to lower the “bad” types of lipo-proteins and elevate the “good.” Finding the proper form of Niacin will lower the most dangerous type and elevate the good much more effectively than any statin can ever hope to achieve! Fish oils work very effectively to lower Triglycerides and certain types of bad cholesterol. There are also several herbal formulas that can be very helpful as well without the damaging side effects of medications.

The bottom line here is that people are being given medications without regard for their dangerous side effects. As I mentioned before, according to the CDC, MD’s are the fourth leading cause of death in America for people over 65. It is the use of medications like these that can have this effect. In the case of this older middle aged man we went into it knowing of his already depressed liver function. It is a known fact that these medications will stress the liver. So why give them to someone with already depressed liver function? In this way all by itself you have to consider the “first do no harm,” oath of medicine. But not only that, consider the implications of misleading this man into taking a medication that will probably have no effect on his risk factors anyway!

At what point did mainstream medicine loose sight of this promise to the people? Oh the poor older middle aged man!