We are just finishing with winter. At Best Acupuncture LLC, the highly acclaimed Chinese Medical facility in Woodland, WA, now is the perfect time to talk about “Wei Qi”. I’m going to share with you why you want to strengthen your Wei Qi and how we can work together to help build your Wei Qi before next winter.
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First, what is Wei Qi? In Chinese Medicine our Wei Qi is our most superficial layer that protects us from the elements. The stronger our Wei Qi, the less likely we are to get sick or catch the flu. The most common Western reference for Wei Qi is our immune system.
You remember the flus this season where people were flat on their backs, in bed, sick for weeks at a time. You remember the endless coughing, the vomiting, the diarrhea! If there was a way to help us avoid all that, who wouldn’t want to avoid it?
Well, I know I want to avoid all that. And last year wasn’t my best year for taking care of myself. Like many of us, 2016 was a bit overwhelming with a whole lot going in my personal life that took my attention away from myself. And just like many of us when we get too busy, I was just too exhausted to think about myself.
I remember talking with another practitioner. I really needed to make myself one of my famous herbal formulas, but I was just too tired and didn’t want to pull out all the different herbs to compound a formula. Well, he wanted to help me see that I was being unreasonable and the effort was minimal.
He asked me questions like, “Well, how much time would it take you to make the formula?”
“Fifteen minutes,” I replied.
But, you know, I was pissed off with his question. Sure, I got it. I knew it wasn’t going to take that long to make the formula. But sometimes, when you are so exhausted, you just need a break and need someone else to do the heavy lifting. Sometimes you need someone that you can count on to take care of you and that was where I was.
I really didn’t acknowledge my exhaustion at the time. And a couple of months later, my lack of attention to my own health backfired. I caught the summer flu, then the December flu, and then the stomach flu before I sat up and started addressing me again.
Now granted, I had a bit of an advantage over most of us. With a full-service Chinese Medical facility at my disposal, I could quickly address each flu I got. So, only the summer flu put me flat on my back for three days.
Yet, I hadn’t been sick in years. I forgot how unpleasant and miserable being sick really is. Just being sick made me realize I wanted to strengthen my Wei Qi before next winter. I don’t want a repeat of this winter. I like being healthy and vibrant. It’s my preferred mode of operation.
Here is the thing, though. More is going on than just one rough flu season.
With the mutation of the swine flu a couple of years ago, the flu season has been getting progressively worse. Across the globe, there are increasingly scientific conversations about another influenza pandemic. Not the potential. They all agree there will be another pandemic (2-4) and the key concern is another mutation with something like the bird flu.
All this chatter got further support last June when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended and received approval to not use the nasal spray flu vaccine for the 2016-2017 flu season. Their recommendation was based on data collected by the US Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network of the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) which showed effectiveness had dropped to just 3% in 2015 instead of 40%-50% (1).
The ACIP is trying to understand why the nasal flu vaccine suddenly became ineffective. I think understanding why the nasal spray vaccine is ineffective is critical. We still have the injectable vaccines, but we must see how the injectable have done this year and right now the data doesn’t look promising.
There are a lot of reasons why strengthening your immune system and defenses is important. Most importantly, no one wants to be sick and leading a healthy, vibrant life is our best defense. Even with the flus becoming more virulent, we have an opportunity to do something that can improve our immune system allowing us to avoid the severity of the flu or the flu all together.
Now, the key difference with Chinese Medicine, is that you, as a whole person, is addressed. We aren’t a one size fits all society. Each of us is unique and addressing our own weaknesses as well as our strengths is what gives us a full line of defense.
We don’t have to feel miserable or lose time. We also don’t have to feel overwhelmed. In the real world, we can’t do everything ourselves. Even as much as I would like to believe I can do everything myself, I know and my husband knows I can’t.
And when we can’t do it all ourselves, we turn to each other. Life gets a whole lot easier when we don’t have to do it all ourselves. Just like we rely on specialist to do our taxes, cut our hair, help with our financial planning, buy insurance, complete home repair and maintenance tasks, we also rely on specialist for our health. History has conditioned us to use medical specialist to address things after the fact. Today, we need to start address our health before things happens.
A simple one-on-one 30-minute conversation that comes with your own personal road map and you could find your way to a new, stronger you who can avoid the winter flus and stay healthy and vibrant. And that’s what it’s all about – being healthy and vibrant.
We can experience life to its fullest when we are healthy and vibrant. Vacations, time off, special events are never impacted when we are healthy. When we are healthy, we can continue doing all those things we love and want to do. Whether it’s being able to make it to your child’s sport event, music recital, or weekend at the beach, attending a key meeting, or enjoying a day off.
Your life is all about you and how you want to live it. Living it healthy and vibrant means life has more to offer. For the next three months, March, April, and May of 2017 Best Acupuncture LLC is offering your own personal prevention plan and, in addition, I’ll add in a special acupuncture session to address stress.
Not only will you be able to build up your winter armor to get more time back in your life, you will also get the opportunity to experience acupuncture to relieve stress, the largest cause of a weakened immune system.
Now, why I’m only offering this for the next three months is because of a couple reasons. First, this past flu season was the worse that I’ve seen in my whole life, and I wanted to find a way to give back to everyone. Second, Chinese Medical theory states that in order to prevent something, you have to start in the seasons before. So, in order to prevent Fall and Winter flus, the latest we could start is summer of 2017 and by May, we’re into summer.
For the next three months, I’m offering you your own printed personal health evaluation highlighting your strengths and weakness including key steps you can incorporate into your daily life to strengthen your Wei Qi before next winter and a special acupuncture session to relieve stress.
Getting a head start on next winter’s flu season is on my list and needs to be on your list, too. A simple half hour conversation could give you back up to 4 weeks of your life and let you enjoy all that time doing things you love to do. Give me a call at 360-841-7558 and let’s see if Best Acupuncture can help you.
Information on 2016-2017 Flu Season
Concern for another 1918 flu pandemic
Concern for a bird flu mutation
Are we ready for a global flu pandemic?