At Health Solutions I am very passionate about helping people overcome depression and anxiety and find treating the inextricable connection between mind and body to be fascinating and very rewarding. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine offer excellent natural solutions.
The Oriental medical way of treating these conditions is drastically different from the conventional approach. We treat the whole person, depression and anxiety being specific manifestations of imbalance of the greater system.

In contrast the conventional pharmaceutical drugs narrowly but powerfully focus on altering the biochemistry of our neurotransmitters deep in the central nervous system. The pharmaceutical approach is fraught with dangers, especially with the SSRI class of antidepressants which are becoming widely known for their serious negative side effects. If you have any doubt of these dangers here is a database of over 4.800 media articles describing the negative impact of SSRI drugs. http://ssristories.com/

With Oriental medicine we can go way beyond unnaturally elevating seratonin levels to cover up signs of depression. What we do is carefully diagnose the root cause of depression based on signs and symptoms in the body and mind. Our emotions reflect the state and health of the body. It has long been known that certain emotions and neurological patterns are related to specific organs.  With treatment, most often it is not just the depression and / or anxiety that is alleaviated, but a host other related ailments.True wellness can be felt!

Depression may be caused by various disturbances and or deficiencies in the central nervous system and body. As an example: the most common modern imbalance leading to depression has to do with disturbance of the Liver system. The liver is very sensitive to chronic stress and or physical toxicity. Long term emotional stresses of job, family, and finances can depress the function of the liver, leading to depression. Also the toxicity of regular self medication with alcohol and coffee and other pollutants can dispose us to depression. If liver Qi stagnation is the diagnosis than regulating the liver with acupuncture, herbs, and exercise can produce dramatic improvement and true healing. No need to tamper with your neurotransmitters by tweaking them with herbs like Saint Johns Wort or  supplements like 5HTP.

Anxiety is most often related to the Heart, to the Digestion, and to the Kidneys. As an example: one the more common imbalances leading to anxiety is called Blood Deficiency. This is why women are more predisposed to anxiety, losing blood with each cycle. When the blood is poor it fails to nourish the heart center predisposing the person to anxiety, palpitations, emotional sensitivity, insomnia, short term memory loss, muscle tension, headaches and a host of other conditions. An accompanying imbalance is often digestive Qi deficiency, known as spleen Qi deficiency. People with this also tend to ruminate and over think things.
Another common imbalance is yin deficiency to the heart and kidneys, this refers to the drying up of hormones and cooling moisture with aging or illness. People with this imbalance will often feel worse at night and may have flushes of heat with anxiety. As with depression, anxiety can be very reliably treated with acupuncture to normalize the nervous system and herbs to nourish and calm.

Remember the mind reflects the state of our health!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to contact me with questions.

Miklos Hubay L.Ac.

805 895-6015      mikhubay@gmail.com

Whether it is breaking old habits, getting fit, losing weight or creating more wellness and happiness in your life, Health Solutions has the tools to help you succeed!

At Health Solutions I offer Health Maintenance Packages, they are a way of getting regular treatments at an affordable price. They also help you commit to stay on track and gain results. Each package is custom tailored to the specific needs of the person. I offer therapeutic massage, acupuncture, herbal medicine and supplements and can build a program based on your needs to help you realize your goals.

Many people use Health Maintenance Packages at Health Solutions. I have many busy working professionals, executives, athletes and students who rely on regular treatments to help them overcome stress and overwork, maintain physical endurance and prevent or treat injuries.

If your resolutions are about changing habits – acupuncture and massage are invaluable for creating endorphins and a sense of wellness which make it a lot easier to break old habits. Herbs and supplements can also be used in conjunction as well to help create balance internally and help you move on from a rut.

Feel free to call or email and get a quote on a custom Health Maintenance Package. I am here to help you succeed! Happy New Year!

Miklos Hubay L.Ac.

805 895-6015                  mikhubay@gmail.com              sbacupuncture.com

Miklos ties together decades of experience using many different massage styles and the deep knowledge of Oriental medicine to produce a powerful yet sensitive treatments to help free people of stress and pain. Miklos’ style is described as strong / deep but sensitive and flowing. Also, a highly intuitive ability to seek and treat troubled areas. He uses synergistic blends of Swedish, deep tissue, trigger point, myofacial release, reflexology and cranio-sacral therapy. Miklos’ advanced knowledge of the acupuncture and meridian systems is also applied to massage to create synergistic treatments to effect release of stresses held deep in the central nervous system. When people leave Miklos’ treatment room they invariably feel euphoric like they are floating off the ground, like a weight has been lifted.

The anatomy of a great massage by Miklos:

The foundation of massage therapy is conscious touch, focusing the attention / mind through the hands to commune with the body. This is how a practitioner can feel where your troubled / stressed areas are, a combination of mindful sensitivity and intimate knowledge of anatomy.

I have had so many clients tell me they are afraid of deep tissue therapy because they have been traumatised by it in the past. This is where conscious touch is especially important. It allows us to commune with a persons troubled / tense areas and sensitively, incrementally release it. Deep tissue done correctly will not be traumatic or overly painful.

With every treatment at Health Solutions I strive to bring my full attention and focus at every point of your treatment. Your concerns and requests are fully attended to.

Thanks for reading
Miklos Hubay L.Ac. LMT 805 895-6015

Within the perspective of oriental medicine, immunity to airborne viral pathogens is a quality belonging to the lung (respiratory) system and the skin. The vitality of these systems to keep exterior pathogenic invaders out is called Wei Qi (chi). Wei Qi also protects us from inner disturbance and vulnerability due to changing weather patterns and exposure to wind, damp, and cold. Wei Qi is considered to be yang in nature, protecting, heating, and our barrier to the ever changing external environment.

Chinese herbal medicine has numerous herbs that are famous for enhancing immunity. Western science calls this class of herbs adaptogens. They enhance and strengthen bodily systems. Herbs are synergistically used in combinations and formulated to fit individual diagnosis.

For preventing colds and flu, the bodily systems targeted for strengthening are the lung qi and the spleen (digestive) qi. A compromised digestive qi often results in weakness of the lungs as well. There are also other systems of secondary importance. If the liver is weakened or disturbed by toxicity or emotional stress, this may weaken immunity. The kidney qi, which can be congenitally weak (inherited) or run down from overwork, lack of sleep or traumas can also result in weak digestion, lungs and immunity. So one can see there are different factors going on for different people. At Health Solutions Acupuncture I do carefully individualized diagnoses to help at the deepest level possible.

One of the most famous of the adaptogenic herbs is Astragalus, known in China as Huang Qi. Huang Qi strongly boosts defensive qi and digestive qi. It is generally invigorating and strengthening (a yang quality) and it also removes dampness from the lungs. Many of my cold / flu prevention formulas include it.

An important concept known in oriental medicine but not known to many popular western herbal preparations for cold and flu is that the adaptogenic herbs, like astragalus, are only to be used for prevention and not used once a person has become sick. The adaptogenic herbs are strengthening and building, once a person becomes invaded by a pathogen, then herbs specific for venting and detoxifying pathogens are used.  This is how specific Chinese herbology is.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions feel free to email or call:

Miklos Hubay L.Ac.   mikhubay@gmail.com     805 895-6015

Oriental Medicine offers highly individualized diagnosis and treatments addressing headaches. As with most health conditions headaches result from a combination of external stresses or triggers and internal imbalances that make a person susceptible.

My treatments usually start with focused therapeutic massage. Using sensitive deep tissue and trigger point therapy to release pent up stored nervous energy from key muscle groups that are often involved in the genesis of a headache. The muscles hold chronic tensions built up from both postural and emotional stresses. Often we are not fully aware of these stresses as they happen, and with repetition of years, the stresses have become fixtures in our nervous systems and entrenched patterns in our muscles. The most important areas are the upper back, shoulders, neck and base of the skull.

The next step is to use acupuncture to release and neutralize stress patterns deep in the central nervous system. Needles are placed in key locations to disrupt neurological patterns stuck in a rut of negative functioning. This allows the central nervous system to reboot if you will and take a break.

Lastly if the headaches are severe and / or chronic, then deep seated predispositional imbalances need to be addressed with herbal formulas. With headaches the most important organs we look at is the state of the liver and secondarily kidneys. We look at the liver and kidneys not in terms of modern physical medicine but in terms of yin and yang balance. The liver is an organ intimately associated with stress and muscle tension and is responsible for the smooth flow of Qi and blood in the body. The kidneys are the root or origin of yin and yang and usually need to be treated along with the liver.

As an example, the most common type of imbalance in oriental medical diagnosis is referred to as liver yang rising. Yang is energy and heat and it likes to rise upwards toward the head if it is not balanced or held by Yin. Yin refers to the fluid, cooling and calming aspects of the body and also for women the female essence – the hormonal balance.

If there is significant imbalance in the organ systems then external stresses like postural strains or emotional stress can easily trigger a negative event. With careful diagnosis and specific herbal treatment we can stabilize the patients system so that the acupuncture and massage therapy can have lasting effects.

If you have any questions about treating headaches or any other health issue feel free to email me at: mikhubay@gmail.com or call me at: 805 895-6015

Welcome to the first Health Solutions Acupuncture blog post. As a first blog post I thought it would be fitting to provide an overview of acupuncture and Oriental medicine so the reader may get a conceptual grasp of the practice. Many generic descriptions of Oriental medicine use vague terms such as Qi (Chi), yin and yang, and balance. But what do these terms really mean? Let us take a closer look and demystify these concepts to understand their practical value applied to health.

Naturally part of the reason for the vague concepts explaining Oriental medicine is that it is a very comprehensive complex medical system based on eastern philosophies that have been evolving literally since the stone age. Stone tools that are precursors to metal acupuncture needles have been found and date back as far as 10,000 years. The first symbols for yin and yang date back to the formation of Taoist thought 8,000 years ago. At the heart of Taoist insight is an awareness of the primary universal duality and interdependent unity of Yin and Yang. We can see evidence of this everywhere in nature, the cosmos and within our own bodies. Some examples include fire and water, day and night, male and female, winter and summer, activity and rest. Both are needed to have a whole life and existence. How does this abstract concept practically relate to well- being?

Oriental medicine has a highly organized structure by which symptoms may be interpreted to find and treat deep fundamental imbalances that are known to be at the root of disease. Oriental medicine divides the being and body into 5 major organ systems, each symbolized with its own element found in nature. For instance the Heart is symbolized by fire, the kidneys by water. Each of the 5 major systems of the body are analyzed to detect various types of imbalances within them and between each other. Each of the 5 organ systems not only include the organ itself but emotions associated with that organ, and regions of the body associated with that organ.

For example: the liver, an organ of major importance, is associated with stress, irritability, anger, and depression. One can see the effects of irritating the liver in such cases as alcoholics that get angry, abusive and depressed. Conversely when a person is exposed to a chronic stressful environment it may disturb the functioning of the liver through its connections to emotion and corresponding neurology. The liver has a link to the smooth flow of qi / processes in the body and mind. A disturbance in the liver system may also reflect to other parts and processes of the body such as disrupting digestion, a woman’s cycle, the eyes, headaches and muscle tension. Each system: liver, heart, spleen (referring to digestion), lungs, and kidneys, has their own associations to various bodily regions and emotions. A trained practitioner can read the signs and evidence to see where and what type of imbalances are at the root of the patients ailments. The imbalances may be yin or yang, is a system on overdrive or under stimulated / weak? Is the system hot or cold, damp or dry? Is the system deficient in nutrients or blood? Each permutation leaves its telltale signs. The telltale signs of the imbalance(s) are further corroborated by the physical evidence of reading the pulses of the wrist and looking at the qualities of the tongue.

Once a diagnosis of imbalance is made a practitioner may choose the appropriate therapeutic measures to correct it. The main modalities used in Oriental medicine are acupuncture, herbal Formulas, diet, therapeutic exercise (Tai Qi, Qi gong) and bodywork techniques.

Acupuncture is the practice of placing fine needles in specific locations to stimulate, unblock, or normalize disturbed qi, qi (chi) meaning the life force that animates our bodies. In terms of western understanding we can say it is the electromagnetic energy found with our nervous system and the bioelectric conductivity found in the water filled micro-tubular structure of our connective tissue system that gives structure to our entire body. Acupuncture has been proven to have a profound effect on our central nervous system with its ability to regulate the stress response. Many ailments have an aspect of abnormal or stressed functioning in the central nervous system. Through strong or repeated negative influences such as long term physical or emotional stresses or acute traumas the central nervous system can develop and become entrenched in negative functioning of various sorts, and become compromised in maintaining homeostasis or balance. The acupuncture needles, specifically placed, provide a stimulus that disrupts chronic or disturbed patterns in the nervous system allowing the chance for calm and balance to happen. Across the board most people have a sense of calm euphoria after their acupuncture treatment. This makes a space for healing to happen deep in the central organizing systems of our being, in the nervous system and brain.

Herbal medicine has been evolving for thousands of years in China and Asia. The herbs, most often used in synergistic formulas, are a form of internal medicine that may be used daily to promote balance. Chinese herbal medicine strives not to merely placate symptoms naturally, but to bring about deeper healing by addressing fundamental imbalances. What baffles westerners is that often the herbs have no direct effect on the symptoms. Rather the herbs are selected for their deeper properties that promote balance systemically. Herbs have unique qualities such as: yin (imparting fluid / coolness), yang (heating / stimulating), nutrifying / building, dispersing / detoxifying etc. The inner qualities of herbs have been evaluated and experimented with and refined for millennia by masters. The properties they posses are selected for their ability to achieve balance in the five organ / element system and not to suppress symptoms.

Nutrition in Oriental medical practice is similar to herbal medicine. Foods are selected or avoided based on their nature and ability to promote balance.

Body work / massage therapies operate on a similar principal to acupuncture, working to change stuck patterns in the nervous system by manipulating the muscles and connective tissues of the body.

At Health Solutions Acupuncture I use all the therapies mentioned in this post to help people regain balance and health. If you have any health related questions you would like to discuss feel free to email or call me.
sbacupuncture.com mikhubay@gmail.com 805 895-6015

Thanks for reading.
Regards
Miklos Hubay L.Ac.