Happy Valentine's Day, Here's To Your Heart

Happy Valentine's Day!

Perhaps with a nod to St. Valentine's Day, February has become American Heart Month, in honor of the health of our hearts.

There has been a lot of research about what is healthy for our hearts. Many arrows point to the incredible benefits of a plant-based diet. There are books such as The China Study, and movies like Forks Over Knives (watch for free on hulu with commercials, or if you have netflix without commercials) which highlight the correlation between heart disease and a diet high in animal products such as dairy (milk and cheese), eggs and meat.

Below is a CNN documentary, The Last Heart Attack, by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, MD featuring former President Bill Clinton. It is worth a watch.




Here at the Birch Center we advocate plant-based diets. We find that they allow people to feel lighter, happier, more energetic and healthy. We offer great recipes on this blog, but also on our sister blog Food Under Foot, which incorporates super wild foods into recipes.

We hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Do something special for your heart today! For more information or to set up an appointment you can give us a call: (412) 381-0116.

Love to all,
~ Melissa and Dave Sokulski


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Keep Your Heart Healthy and Strong with Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Breastfeeding Protects the Hearts of Mothers

Balance Emotions End Cravings With Five Tastes

In Chinese medicine, there are five elements - fire, earth, metal, water, wood - which correspond to organ systems, emotions, tastes, color, seasons, and many more attributes.

Often, when we experience cravings, it is because we are not eating a balance of all 5 tastes. In our culture, we tend to stick with sweet, salty and sour, ignoring bitter and pungent/spicy almost completely. (Incidentally, the amount of wild greens that fell into the sour category was huge!)

Check out the chart below and see if you can add more balance to your menu. You will feel more satisfied and widen your range of nutrients. The balance and health of your emotions, organs and whole body is effected by the foods we eat.

Taste	Element	Emotion	Organs	Food	Wild food
Bitter	Fire	Joy, lack of joy	Heart/small intestine	Lettuce, endive, kale, green tea	Dandelion, chicory, broad dock greens
Sweet	Earth	Compassion, worry	Spleen/stomach	Grains, spinach, squash, fruit	Lambs quarters leaves and seeds, nettles, chickweed
Pungent/spicy	Metal	Sorrow, letting go	Lungs/Lg. Intestine	Onion, garlic, arugula	Garlic mustard, onion grass, ramps
Salty	Water	Fear, wisdom, will power	Kidney/Bladder	Sea salt, seaweed, soy/tofu, swiss chard	Wild orach, plantain leaves, seaweed
Sour	Wood	Anger, creativity, growth	Liver/gall bladder	Fermented foods, cheese, collard greens	Yellow dock leaves, Japanese knotweed shoots, staghorn sumac, sheep sorrel, wood sorrel

Love to all,
~ Melissa and Dave


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Onions Strongly Protect Us From Cold and Flu

• Easy To Make Fermented Vegetables Boost Immunity and Improve Health 

• Keep Kidneys Strong All Winter Long With Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Rejuvenate Your Liver This Spring With Dandelions

Acupuncture, Herbs, And Tea to Treat Colds and Flu

photo: Wikimedia Commons

According to Chinese Medicine, when we catch a cold or the flu, an external pathogen has entered the body, like a foreign invader entering a country. We must mount our own defense and try to push them back out. The symptoms we feel: aches, headache, stuffy nose, sore throat - are evidence of the battle going on.

Acupuncture treatment helps in two ways:

1. It strengthens the body to help it mount the immune response
2. It helps to release the pathogen.

Instead of using the terms bacteria or virus, in Chinese Medicine we use the terms: Wind, Cold, and Heat. Usually Wind-cold enters the body, causing the classic cold and flu symptoms: headache, runny nose, aches, fatigue. If it turns to heat in the body, you will feel a sore throat and may have more of a fever as well. We use special herbal formulas depending on the symptoms: classically Yin Qiao for the Wind-Heat type, and Pe Min Gan Wan for the Wind Cold. If the symptoms linger in the sinuses or a sinus infection is present, we may also use Bi Yan Wan. These formulas are groups of many herbs which are specific to those symptoms.

At the Birch Center, during acupuncture we tend to use points such as:

• Spleen 6 and Stomach 36 (on the lower legs) to support the energy, giving strength to the body to be able to fight the infection
• Large Intestine 4, (on the hand) especially if headache is present
• Triple Warmer 5 (on the forearm), to help release the pathogen, especially useful if there is fever alternating with chills
• Lung 7, (wrist) to stimulate the "Protective Qi" of the body, which is controlled by the Lungs
• Large Intestine 11 (forearm, near elbow crease) which is an immune point
• We may use points on the head and face, especially if headache or sinus symptoms are present
• Gall Bladder 20 (where the back of the head meets the neck) to release the external pathogen
• Bladder 12 and 13: to clear sinuses, and stimulate the Lung energy
• Bladder 20: to help support the body's energy and digestion

We also frequently use a technique called sliding cups along the Bladder meridians of the back. This gentle treatment feels great, and also powerfully released Wind (Cold or Heat) that is trapped in the body, especially causing achiness and other symptoms.

Things you can do at home include:

• using plenty of garlic, onions and ginger
• making a tea by simmering pieces of fresh ginger and cinnamon sticks (you can add honey before drinking. Recipe below.)

All the above foods and spices are also considered herbs in Chinese medicine. They help release Wind and Cold from the body. They are also slightly warming, and the ginger cinnamon tea is great this time of year!

Ginger Cinnamon Tea

Fresh Ginger
Dried Cinnamon Sticks

• Cut 3-5 slices from the ginger and put in pot with 4 cups of water.
• Add a cinnamon stick and bring to boil.
• Turn heat down and simmer for about 20 minutes.
• Pour liquid into a mug, add honey to taste and enjoy.

*If you like a stronger tasting tea, add more ginger and/or cinnamon, or simmer longer.

Love to all,
~ Melissa and Dave


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Onions Strongly Protect Us From Cold and Flu
• Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Protect Us From Colds and Flu
• Keep Kidneys Strong All Winter Long With Traditional Chinese Medicine

2013 Is The Year Of The Snake

Picture from Wikimedia Commons

  Gung Hay Fat Choy!

According to the lunar Chinese calendar, February 10, 2013 begins the Year of the Snake.

Snakes are powerful totems. They represent transformation and healing. Creative forces are awakening this year. You may notice your intuition sharpening.

Famous people born in the year of the snake are Bob Dylan, Greta Garbo, Brad Pitt, Brooke Shields, Oprah Winfrey and Virginia Woolf. Snake years include 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, and of course 2013.

Caduceus picture, Wiki Commons

Snakes represent wholeness and infinity. You will find the snake a powerful symbol in mythology. The two intertwining snakes - caduceus - is a symbol of modern medicine, but the caduceus was also used in ancient Greece as a symbol of Hermes (as readers of  Percy Jackson will know: they were named Martha and George). They are also symbols relating to the gods/goddesses Isis, Hera and Athena. The most famous Gorgon, Medusa, had snakes for hair. Snakes are strong symbols which can evoke power as well as fear.

We hope you have a wonderful year full of healing, power, intuition and creativity. This is the year to shed your skin and transform, becoming ever closer to your true essence with each shedding.

Happy New Year, Gung Hay Fat Choy!

~ David and Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac.

Chronic Back Pain Gone! - Thanks to Dave at Birch Center

 Dear Birch Center,

I want to let everyone know how much David Sokulski of the Birch Center helped me with my chronic back pain. In fact, it is still unbelievable to me that it is completely gone.

I have been living with back pain most of my life. I am 44 years old now. It began when I was a gymnast in high school with a pinch in my low back. In college my first episode hit when I could not stand up straight or put weight on one leg because of intense pain. I went to the doctor and he said it was a herniated disc in between my sacral and lumbar vertebrae, and he wanted to operate immediately. I was terribly afraid to do this so I convinced my parents to wait. Meanwhile, the doctor gave me muscle relaxants which I took, and it felt better enough for me to play frisbee (I know, maybe not the smartest thing!), but after that the pain did not come back to that degree and surgery was off the table, thank goodness.

Throughout the years it would be better and worse. I am athletic - running, walking, swimming, yoga, and I was able to manage even with the constant sharp low back pain. I find when I cut out gluten and dairy the pain almost goes away completely, but I have let dairy back into my diet and recently the pain returned so severely I was again at the point of not being able to stand, walk, function in my daily activities. I was feeling depressed and frustrated. I was seeing a massage therapist and going to yoga. The yoga helped me through the day, yet every morning it was back worse than the day before. The massage felt great but truthfully, it hurt so badly right afterwards from laying on the table it was hard to get up and function afterward until I had stretched quite a bit. I was convinced it was my mattress.

I have had success with acupuncture for other things before but really didn't think it could possibly help (especially since I had convinced myself nothing would change until I got a new mattress, changed my diet and lost weight, all of which I have not.) However I was desperate and I gave it a try.

David put some needles into my low back/sacral area right where the pain was. I didn't even feel the needles, they are so tiny. I had to show him where the pain was and he just tapped them in. He added a couple needles to my ankle and low leg (only one leg because of how I had to lay on the table...on my side.) He simply left the needles in for half an hour and did nothing else. When he took the needles out I was shocked - I cannot express how shocked I was - the pain was gone.

The next morning I stretched and rolled in bed and cringed with fear, afraid the pain would return (this was my worst point of the day), but it didn't. Over the next couple days I noticed my depression lifting - I hadn't really connected it to my back pain but living with constant pain for so long must really take a toll. For a few days I was entirely pain free.

Then one morning I felt it return slightly as I moved around in my bed - oh no! I called Dave immediately and had another treatment. I was so scared it wouldn't work again, but it did. I got off the table totally pain free and the pain has not returned. I am still eating dairy (which I know I shouldn't, but I just want to say that I didn't get rid of this trigger) and am still on the same old mattress. I didn't think I could go skiing this year with the pain (I was unable to sled with my daughter earlier this winter), but I went cross country skiing the other day with no pain and have a day planned to go downhill.

My fear is leaving, my outlook is up, and I just feel so much better overall than I have in years. I wanted to write this and asked Dave to share it with others. I am telling everyone I know about him. Thank you so much!

~ H.C. from Pittsburgh, PA

Birch Center note:

In Chinese Medicine low back pain is often associated with Kidney energy needing to be supported. The Kidney relates to the water element, and kidney problems often increase in the winter. Other symptoms which may be associated with weakened kidney energy are:

• dental cavities
• infertility
• back pain
• knee pain
• weak bones/osteoporosis
• fear
• lack of will
• growth issues
• developmental delays
• neurological issues

Any time of year is appropriate for treatment, especially as symptoms occur. When we have symptoms associated with the water element (winter), winter is a particularly powerful and effective time to receive treatment.


We hope you are enjoying your winter! The ground hog didn't see his shadow today, so spring is surely on the way!! ;-)

~ David and Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac.