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Commonhealth: Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Shamanism, Astrology, 400 James Street, Carrboro, NC (2025)

09/12/2013

CHINESE HERBS FOR FERTILITY,
A CLINICIAN’S EYE VIEW

The question asked: are Chinese Herbs effective for fertility issues? This herbal clinician’s answer is: yes, but there are limits. What do Chinese Herbs do best? Here is what the herbal clinician thinks:

For women:
• Chinese Herbs can frequently correct the timing of ovulations and periods, as well as the timing of uterine temperature variations — two crucial factors in getting pregnant.
• Chinese Herbs can frequently correct other menstrual problems that interfere with getting pregnant that express themselves as mild or severe clotting of blood and/or scanty or excess menstrual flow during periods or headache, breast tenderness or general malaise before periods
• Chinese Herbs for fertility are generally nourishing; they create a better uterine environment enhancing chances for pregnancy but also benefit the developing fetus as well and help to prevent miscarriages
• Chinese Herbs can also be simply relaxing and an aid to mood enhancement, a not unimportant factor in getting pregnant. In conjunction with Chinese Herbs, acupuncture can be very helpful as an adjunct therapy promoting relaxation and the positive flow of energy and blood.
• Chinese Herbs can help with other problems that interfere as well with getting pregnant. Consult with the herbalist to find out if Chinese Herbs can help you.

For men:
• Chinese Herbs may be able to increase the motility of (the speed) and number of s***m — for men, two crucial factors in creating pregnancy
• Chinese Herbs may be able to correct other erectile dysfunction problems: desire, stamina, ability to have an er****on, etc.
• Chinese Herbs may be used to promote relaxation.
• Chinese Herbs can help with other problems that interfere as well with getting pregnant. Consult with the herbalist to find out if Chinese Herbs can help you.

Chinese Herbs’ Limits
Chinese Herbs will not be successful where there are major structural problems, injures or deficiencies. For example, scarring of fallopian tubes, when eggs cannot travel from the ovaries to the uterus, in that case, Chinese Herbs cannot correct this problem and therapy would not be successful.
If for genetic reasons — not hormonal problems in which case Chinese Herbs may be quite beneficial — it is impossible for women to produce eggs or men to produce s***m, Chinese Herbs cannot correct this problem and therapy would not be successful.
Other severe problems may require a physician fertility specialist as well. Chinese Herbs are not a panacea treatment for infertility, but for the many problems women and men are experiencing of common imbalances today, Chinese Herbs are less invasive, do not require taking strong and potent drugs and are generally free of side effects — except that raw herb teas taste bad and are somewhat difficult to digest.
The herbalist can help you figure out if Chinese Herbs will possibly help you.

A Personal Story & Testimonials

I have two granddaughters and now a third coming. My daughters had both been married several years, were into their 30s and having trouble for several years getting pregnant. It just was not happening and my youngest daughter mentioned to her mom that she was thinking of going to a fertility specialist. Since I had been successful helping women in the past, I urged her to try Chinese Herbs with acupuncture first. After three months I could see that her cycle was perfect and I had no doubt she would get pregnant soon — the odds are 1 in 4 even when everything is going fine.
She became pregnant that next month. Her older sister was on the phone the next day and wanted to start treatments as well. A couple of months later and she was pregnant, too.
I am overjoyed to be a grandfather and as our daughters live close by, I get to see them frequently. My heart sings everytime I see them, especially knowing that I could help bring them about.
But there have been others as well through my years in general practice that now are happy parents due to the assistance of Chinese Herbs.

09/12/2013

ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is the insertion of thin needles through the skin at therapeutically strategic locations. Acupuncture has been used in China for at least 5000 years; and, the oldest books on this procedure and the ancient medical understanding that informs its use date from around 2000 years ago.
Acupuncture therapy in the modern clinic is used for a variety of medical problems but most effectively for:

Aches and pains of the muscles, tendons and joints:
½ of any general acupuncture practice is the treatment of ordinary and debilitating aches and pains. Shoulder pain, neck pain, lower to middle to upper back pain, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel and wrist and hand pains, knees, ankles, sciatic nerve pain, when the pain is in the muscles, tendons and around or in the joints, acupuncture is very often effective and highly efficient. Relief can be quick and long lasting.
When there is structural damage, as in a herniated disc of the spine, a ruptured Achilles tendon, and the like, or the calcium deposits left by rheumatoid arthritis or the brittle and porous condition of osteoarthritis, acupuncture may be able to more or less temporarily help with pain, but it cannot repair the ripped tendon or porous bone.
Acupuncture treats pain and inflammation well, but it is the body or the surgeon or some other method that repairs.

Migraine headaches:
By any measure, acupuncture is the world’s best treatment for migraine headaches. Again, where the problem is any underlying structural problem like a herniated neck disc or severe disease process like a brain tumor, other therapies are more appropriate. However, many studies have confirmed that acupuncture is far superior to any available medication in both temporarily or permanently giving relief or curing migraine headaches.

Allergies and asthma:
As acupuncture is an especially good therapy for inflammation, it is also an especially good therapy for respiratory allergies and mild to moderate asthma. For severe asthma, emphysema, cystic fibrosis and other serious lung disease, acupuncture is only marginally effective at best, sometimes not at all.
Relief can be either temporary or long lasting and some cases of allergy or asthma can be cured with acupuncture.

Insomnia:
Although it is the insertion of needles penetrating the skin, nonetheless, acupuncture is calming and relaxing. Acupuncture can be effective alone or it is especially effective in conjunction with Chinese herbs. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs are non-addictive and do not lead to any kind of dependency on the therapy as with some medications.

Nervous stress and its related problems:
Like treating insomnia, acupuncture that is relaxing and calming is used extensively for stress that has become internalized in the individual’s mind and body. Work stress or family stress or relationship stress or any number or kinds of stress are treated and helped in many acupuncture clinics all the time. It is most likely the second most common kind of complaint that acupuncturists treat.
Of course, stress can lead to a variety of common complaints like acid reflux disease or headaches or insomnia or fatigue and depression or chronic anxiety or dizziness or menstrual pain or …. the list is fairly endless. But with acupuncture relaxation, these problems may disappear.

A variety of problems:
When all else fails, when other therapies have not relieved the problem, many try acupuncture for a variety of problems rare and common. Acupuncture is very good at helping some of these problems and sometimes not. Acupuncture appears to be a good therapy some of the time for autoimmune illnesses, e.g. lupus, etc. Since it is a good therapy for inflammatory problems, where chronic inflammation is the problem, acupuncture may be effective.
Where deterioration of the body or the absence of a particular neurotransmitter is at issue as in Parkinson’s disease or MS, again, acupuncture may give some relief from some symptoms but it cannot stop the disease process.

CONTACT THE ACUPUNCTURIST TO SEE IF ACUPUNCTURE MAY BE APPROPRIATE FOR YOU.

09/12/2013

Therapeutic Massage

My therapeutic massage and bodywork practice has been created and expanded over the past twelve years. Whether you present tight and aching muscles, the need to reduce the stresses carried in your body from your life, you are seeking rest and some deep relaxation to rejuvenate your spirit, or you need some quiet, nourishing space to slow your mind and breathe more deeply, together we will plan a treatment that will meet your needs. I have discovered that in helping clients think about what is being sensed in their muscles they are bringing their minds away from their busy thoughts and are pulled into the present moment. A gift of awareness.

The modalities you receive during one of our sessions may include:
- Fascia work
- Craniosacral therapy
- Reflexology
- La Stone therapy or another form of hydrotherapy
- Deep tissue techniques
- Swedish strokes
- Reiki energy
- Healing Touch work

I feel that it is an honor to have the license to touch another human being. It is as sacred as a prayer to place my hands on my client for their therapeutic session. The most diverse sensory organ is our skin. Body/mind pathways can be challenged by simple touch and encouraged to relax, detox and de-stress, assisting each client in finding balance and a deep peace within themselves. Massage not only relieves tension in muscles and fascia but during a session it brings nutrition to every cell and clears out cellular waste that has built up in our bodies. Massage is well documented as one of the very powerful ways to support each person’s health and wellness plan. I am grateful for my role in this process.

09/12/2013

CHINESE HERBS

The use of herbs medicinally predates civilization, East and West. Yet, once we write things down and centralize knowledge — so that we will know what to use next time — herbalists begin an extensive compilation of the information about herbs from their age old tribal origins. They then can begin rudimentary and then more extensive — in our early and later modern eras — testing and experimentation. They also begin and continue systematizing and adjusting use.
The first comprehensive books on Chinese herbs are compiled a little after the first comprehensive books on Chinese acupuncture. Yet, interestingly, the theories of Yin and Yang and Five Element-Phases that informs and determines the placement of acupuncture needles at specific points at specific places, is not the same theories used for herbs until the Song Dynasty, around 1100 A.D., about one thousand years later.
For a thousand years, herbs are either used practically and symptomatically — you take ‘this’ for ‘that’ — or for “colds.” In fact, the first systematic herbal is titled, “On Cold Damage,” an approach that establishes phases of illness through what we would, in our era call a cold, flu or respiratory infection. Different herbs are appropriate for each of the different phases. The herbs given at the beginning of a cold different from what is prescribed if the cold lingers and turns into a more serious condition.
So the formula for chills and a mild fever is different than the formula for the cold that turns into pneumonia in the lungs.
Herbs as medicine go out of fashion, to a great extent, in Europe and America with the advent of modern medicine. Although, interestingly enough, modern medicines, per se, are a continuation of and refinement of Western herbal traditions, even as the most modern of medicinal drugs is an artificial synthesis of organic chemicals taking hints from the organic chemicals of herbs.
Herbs, for the rest of the world, and especially in China and India, where the herbal traditions are well established, highly functional and effective and literate — there are written records going back hundreds and then a few thousand years — herbs have not at all gone out of fashion. And for good reason.
Herbs, used well, are good medicine.
Chinese herbs are especially effective for many of the conditions written about on this website.
Chinese herbs are not in competition with Western drugs. In fact, they should complement one another.
Chinese herbs can be effective — and in many instances more effective — than Western drugs in areas like gynecology and gastro-enterology and as tonics, to name just a few. However, Western drugs are clearly effective — and in most instances more effective than Chinese herbs — for infections and cancer, among others.
The great advantage of Chinese herbs is that they are far less toxic than Western drugs, with far far fewer side effects. Yet, again, they are not always the therapy of choice. Sometimes putting up with side effects is the price of therapeutic value.
I believe that all physicians should be trained in a serious herbal tradition — and am professionally and personally committed to setting up and teaching Chinese herbs to Western professionals — so that their repertoire and therapeutic effectiveness will increase. (I also believe that more herbalists should be better trained in Western medicine and pharmaceuticals and be able to prescribe those as well.)
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHETHER THE USE OF CHINESE HERBS IS FOR YOU, CALL THE HERBALIST AND ASK. THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR JUST ASKING.

09/12/2013

CommonHealth is the home-offices of Philip and Patricia Kosdan. Philip Kosdan is a Licensed Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist with masters degrees in Chinese Medicine and Western Psychology. He also interprets astrology charts and performs shamanic journeys for interested clients. He is President Emeritus of the North Carolina Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Patricia Kosdan is a Licensed Therapeutic Massage practitioner and teacher of Touch Drawing.

CommonHealth also provides Chinese Herb Services by phone. It is a means of having Chinese herbs prescribed by an experienced Chinese herbalist, Philip Kosdan, and conveniently delivered through the mail. A thorough approximately one hour traditional questioning and evaluation is required in order to prescribe herbs that fit both the person and the individual’s problem.

09/12/2013

SHAMANISM
The Oldest Healing Practice of All

Shamanism is as old as the hills; it is prehistoric, historic and contemporary. It harkens back to time before recorded history but also many of its practices have been described in the written record and it is still practiced to this day around the world.
“Shamanism” is a term that anthropologists borrowed from Siberian tribes who called their spiritual medicine practitioners “shamans.” We now use it to refer to the rituals and healings of all tribal shamans and some of us in non-tribal modern society who use similar practices.
• What does a shaman do?
A shaman travels or “journeys” to the world of the spirits — animal (e.g. power animals), vegetable (e.g. plant spirits) or human (e.g. guardian angels, wise teachers and guides) — to bring back some kind of aid for the suffering subject before them. The shaman may experience a kind of conscious dream or literally move out of body during a healing session.
• Can I “journey”? Or can only shamans do this?
Anyone with some training can do this. Shamans simply have a great deal of training or an exceptional ability to have this super-imaginary experience; and with this experience, the aptitude for healing.
• What is the experience?
Some shamans have visions; some hear spirit voices; some feel sensations in their bodies; some travel out of their bodies and see, hear or feel these things as well. Personally, as in a visual dream, I see whole scenes when I journey. The difference between a dream and a journey is that whereas in a dream I have little control, will and intention, in a journey I go with an intention, can exercise my will and can get out of trouble immediately if I feel I need to.
My intention is generally to help others or myself; and, the spirits of the shamanic universe are more than willing to help out.
• What comes back?
Examples of what a shaman can bring back from the spirit world to help someone:
Soul Retrieval: Traumas at any time of life can cause part of our soul to escape further damage by retreating into the safe world of the spirit world. Frequently what is brought back in a soul retrieval is a lost child who was abused at an early age or a part of us that left in, for example, a serious automobile accident or when someone close to us dies and we want, at least in part, to go with them. There are many reasons for soul loss.
When the shaman coaxes the soul piece to return you may feel whole again, yourself, your natural self.
Extraction: Sometimes the shaman finds entities in your spirit that do not belong there, that are burdening you and must be removed for your well being and health. And even sometimes someone you know who wishes you harm or is inappropriately attached to you has intruded into your spirit, in which case a type of extraction called a depossession is performed.
But it need not be another person that shows up unwelcome in your spirit, but symbolic things or entities, that should not stay. Whether it is a barbed wire fence or a hot dog, it does not belong in your spirit and has to go. There is, of course, a reason it is there and burdening you — a feeling of restriction for the barbed wire fence or a feeling of having overeaten for the hot dog, for examples — and the shaman is there to remove it. And later you feel free and clear and much better, perhaps unfettered and without cravings for fast foods.

Power Animal Retrieval: A shaman can find sources of power and ability that you did not know you had or have lay dormant. A shaman can find that power and return it to you for your aid and assistance in navigating in this world.
Advice: Journeys to the spirit world often involve spirits, especially human spirits giving the subject good advice. Whether the spirit that wants to help you is your guardian angel, your long dead uncle Ralph or any other benevolent and wise advisor, shamans can return to you answers to profound questions concerning your life.
Soul Portraits: From the perspective of the spirits of the spirit world, who you really a truly are and what you might do with your life, what the purpose of your incarnation is — a shaman can bring back a picture or series of meaningful images that can help inform you of the nature of your very soul.
Rituals and More: There is much that a shaman traveling to the world of the spirit can do. There is a rich variety of helpers from the plant spirit world, from the animal spirit world, from the human spirit world: creative solutions to life’s problems and sufferings that these spirits can help with. They can create rituals for you to perform or perform rituals on their own to help you.
Direct Healing: Sometimes shamans can perform what seems to be miraculous healings. With the help of some part or someone in the spirit worlds, they bring back immediate and profound relief to this world.
Of course, as in all healing work, some shamans are frauds and their healings are illusory at best; and sometimes, an intended healing does not happen, either because of the abilities of the shaman or the depth and impossibility of the problem. Nonetheless, shamans have and do heal — just not every last single time.

09/12/2013

ASTROLOGY

Astrology is the age old practice of correlating events in the heavens to patterns on the Earth, patterns of life, death, personality, marriage, family life, work, healing and just about everything that might matter to human beings.
An ASTROLOGY CHART is a reading of the heavens at a particular moment in time. It is a picture of the sky, a snapshot of what is above the horizon as well as below. ASTROLOGERS then divide that picture into 12 sections — like slices of a pie — called HOUSES that corresponds to all the different kinds of activities that we might engage in: work (10th house), creative expression (5th house) and so on. The entire picture is all the possibilities of all life’s activities.
The PLANETS, situated in the sky at a particular time, have a particular place in the whole pie astrology chart and are drawn within their particular houses. Planets represent particular aspects of each individual, their tendencies, their characteristics, their minds, bodies, emotions, place in society, and every aspect of who that person is. So Mars represents the characteristic manner of one’s body ; Mercury characterizes the mind; and so on.
Because of the time of the year and day, each planet (and the Sun and the Moon) is in (has features of) a particular SIGN. Twelve signs are the twelve signs of the ZODIAC. Each sign is a kind of flavor or tone. Each sign is a kind of family with a characteristic characteristics. So Aries feels hot and fiery and burns with intense activity and leads the way at the head of the pack. Ta**us is practical, earthy and characteristically determined and easy going. And so on.
There are several kinds of astrology charts:

BIRTH CHARTS:
A birth chart is that picture of the heavens when you are born. Planets and the Sun and the Moon have a particular place in the sky and therefore, in your birth chart. It tells you much about the energies and tendencies that you came in with. It tells you much about who you are and what you are doing and thinking and feeling.
The job of an astrologer is to alert you to the meaning of each of the planets in whatever house they happen to reside and the significant relationships between those planets.
So if when you are born, the planet Mars was far below the horizon and resides in the 4th House of family and daily nurturance and personal foundations, and Mars is in the sign of Virgo, you have a tendency to attend assiduously to practical details, especially concerning cleanliness and orderliness at home. And so on and so on, through each of the positions in your chart.
But these are only trends and tendencies. Virgo can be done well or done poorly. Astrology does not determine what you do with who you are. But it can show you your personal trends.
Birth charts are an exercise in personal awareness.

COMPATABILITY CHARTS:
Two astrology charts are compared to determine the trends and tendencies of a relationship. This is naturally a complex matter; and all relationships have their personal dynamic. A compatibility chart can point out the patterns of ease as well as the patterns of stress in a relationship, what is easy, what is difficult, what will work and what may need work, where you can go wrong and where it is simple to enjoy compatibility.

TRANSIT CHARTS:
While a birth chart may tell you who you are in all your complex characteristics, a transit chart compares your birth chart to another place and time, to a chart of where the planets are at a particular moment, usually the present and the near — or even distant — future. A transit chart tells you what is up with the energies and tendencies of the world; and then compares your tendencies and characteristics to the tendencies and characteristics in the present moment.
Perhaps you would like to know if this is a good time for getting married or starting a business. By comparing what is happening at the moment with who you are, an astrologer can clue you in on the nature of your interaction with that moment, is it going to be simple or complicated, hard or easy, a stress and strain or is it workable and so on.
Things getting you down? Well, that may be because of a particular problem between a “transiting Moon” across your “natal Moon.” Cheer up, the Moon changes every couple of days and so may your mood. In a good mood, well, that also may not last, given the position of the planets in the sky next week and your chart. But a good astrologer can help you navigate those up and coming energies.

PROGRESSED CHARTS:
Progressed charts are a developmental measure. You start out with a particular birth chart but it is not only the heavens that change each moment, day, month and year. So do you. A progressed chart points out where you have been and where you are headed in your life irrespective of outside forces.
For example, if you Sun “progresses” out of your birth Sun in Leo and into Virgo, you might be changing at this time from an outgoing fun loving and inspired visual artist to a long period of work in the study, bringing your visions to practical fruition.
Progressed charts can also be compared to transit charts and the overlap between where you are headed and the direction of the rest of the world always makes for an interesting comparison.

ASTROCARTOGRAPHY CHARTS:
There are astro-cartography charts that help you with physical location in the world, what are the particular energetic characteristics of a particular place and what is the dynamic relationship of you with that place.

OTHER CHARTS: There are family charts and employmentcharts comparing your birth chart to other members of your family or co-workers or comparing your chart to the business itself. There are birth charts for nations. There are many more types of charts.

ALL CHARTS TRY TO HELP YOU TO UNDERSTAND AND BE AWARE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING TO YOU AND AROUND YOU, WHO YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU ARE GOING. AND SO MUCH MORE.

Commonhealth: Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Shamanism, Astrology

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