June 2001
 

        The question is, after it has finished "busting out", will you be too bushed to care? I am talking about a silent problem called Adrenal Insufficiency. It results from overconsumption of kidney energy. The kidney meridian can be depleted by sex hormones and adrenalin rushes – fear, stress, anger, etc. The adrenals, the glands which sit directly above your kidneys, are responsible for pumping adrenalin – energy – into the body. When the adrenals reach the end of the supply of adrenalin, you are too weak to do anything. This is the point at which you need acupuncture and a kidney tonic such as Liu-wei-di-huang wan. Failure to pay attention to your adrenals will spiral you down to something called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, in which the adrenals are so spent that you are unlikely ever to get them back up to normal levels.

       If you ask Western Medicine what causes adrenal insufficiency, you will be told that the most common cause is low-grade, constant stress coupled with too little activity. So if you’re sitting at a computer all day and the stuff on the screen is driving you nuts and threatening your job and you go home and flop on the couch in front of the TV, you are begging for trouble. It can also be brought on by high-level and constant stress – running from one task to the other coupled with insufficient sleep and too little recreational activity. In Chinese terms, this is a yang deficiency which results in a weakening of the body’s protective shield of radiant energy. The kidneys and adrenal glands are called the "root of life" because they store the body’s precious supplies of primordial energy.

        The symptoms are: a growing sense of being so fatigued that no amount of sleep helps; weepiness for no reason; temper tantrums; inability to take more than little tiny steps; sensitivity to cold; and ultimately no desire even to get up. You may also experience aches in the body, headaches, and the feeling that there is a large bowling ball in your stomach. Some people report being able to "feel" their heart and knowing it is huge.

        What do you do now? 1) acknowledge that you have a problem. The worst thing you can do is to insist on continuing to drive yourself when your adrenals are signaling "out of gas." This is a good metaphor for the problem. If your car tells you the tank is empty, you fill it. You don’t insist that the engine run another two hundred miles without fuel. 2) See your acupuncturist for balancing treatments and Liu wei di huang wan, the only known herb that will treat the problem. 3) Take aspirin for the aches and pains. 4) If you are not already taking it, start taking vitamin E. 5) You can begin taking DHEA and Pregnenolone; if you are already taking them, up the dosage and see if it helps. Too much pregnenolone in the system will cause blemishes on the face. This is not a case of "if 25 mg are good, then 50 are better". Be careful. 6) Go to bed! Early. Let your body rest. 8) Pray or meditate, sending energy to your adrenals. 7) Be patient and wait. A full-blown case of AS usually takes about 90 days to recover. 8) Consider taking yang tonic herbs on a gradual basis and as prescribed – Rehmannia (Shu-di-huang), Dioscorea (Shan-yao), Cornus (Shan-zhu-yu), Hoelan (Fu-ling), Moutan (Mu-dan-pi), Alisma (Ze-xie), Adyranthes (Niu-xi), Plantago (Che-guan-zi). These may be combined with deer horn, deer antler, cistandre curculigo, epimedium, cynomorium, morinda, fenugreek, and cusanta for impotence and aging in men.

        The news from the FDA is that certain allergy medications, Claritin™ among them, will be dropped from the "prescription" category and sold over the counter. There is a debate going on over whether this is bad news (for the medical doctors) or good news for the consumer. Actually, it is bad news for both. San Diego has come out of the first wave of allergies brought on by that little yellow stuff (mustard) that blooms along Highway 52 and on the freeway embankments, but you’ll still be sneezing and sniffling with other stuff. The answer is not antihistamines. They aren’t good for you. You are probably deficient in Gamma linoleic acid – GLA for short – and it is found in an inexpensive herbal called Black Currant Seed Oil. If you will start using Black Currant Seed Oil, you will find, after several weeks, that your allergies have disappeared. Keep taking the GLA and the allergies will not be back.

         Since a man named Veblin wrote a book called The Theory of the Leisure Class, we have all known that certain things make us appear to be better, more-successful, etc. than we really are. In Veblin’s day, everyone wanted to have pale skins because only field servants were tanned. Now, everyone wants a tan because it means you do not have to work (usually wrong) and spend your days by the pool (also wrong). What many of you are doing is using tanning booths. I beg you to stop. They are far more dangerous to your skin than the sun. Too much sun exposure is ultimately bad: 1) your skin will age. If you combine the sun and smoking, you’ll look like you’re wearing a leather suit. 2) cosmetic surgery, should you wish to have it, may be impossible. 3) You may induce cancer in your skin. Some of it is a mild variety which is easily handled. The top-of-the-line is melanoma, which can be fatal. Melanoma appears as a black spot on the skin, irregular in shape, and raised on the edges. It will grow. Do not wait – go to an oncologist. There is a new cancer drug, Gleevec, which seems to have potential for certain forms of cancer.

Don’t sunscreens help? Yes and no. If you are going to plaster yourself with tanning lotion and broil yourself on the beach for hours, nothing is going to protect you. These things have to keep being reapplied and you must put on protective headgear.

This is one of the most commonly used tonics for general vitality. It is primarily a blood and qi which is very effective for weakness and lack of energy.

Grind all of the herbs to a powder or break into pieces as small as possible. Place them in a wide-mouth jar, then pout in rice wine, good quality vodka, gin, or other alcohol until there is about 1 inch of fluid above the settled herbs. Cover the container and store it in a dark place, and shake it once daily.

Strain after two weeks and bottle for use. Dosage: 1 ounce once or twice daily.

Gensing (ren shen) 6 grams
Atractylodes (bai zu) 6 grams
Poria (fu ling) 6 grams
Licorice (gan cao) 6 grams
Prepared rehmannia (shi di huang), 6 grams
Ligusticum (chuan xiong) 6 grams
Angelica (dang gui) 6 grams
White Peony (bai shao) 6 grams
Cinnamon Bark (rou gui) 6 grams.
Astragalus (huang qi) 6 grams