Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Can it address male pattern baldness?   How about, prematurely graying hair?   How do herbal supplements, acupuncture and yin and yang fit into our desire for remedies from these afflictions?

First of all, we have to separate our Western compunction for immediate results against the better course of addressing the multitude of issues that have lead to our current state of deterioration.  That’s right, I’m saying that our bodies, our hair, our face and our sexual organs are responding to numerous affronts that are presenting themselves in these symptoms.

The question today is, whether we can incorporate alternative medicines as a means to alleviate these symptoms.  The short answer is – Yes!  The long answer is, it takes study.

The human body responds to many forces.  Things like stress can deplete our energy, put strain upon our heart or, at the very least, lead to ulcers.  Prior to these major events occurring, however, our bodies provide indications that “not all is going well.”

Stress has been labeled the culprit responsible for everything from hair loss to hypertension, heart disease, and loss of libido.  There is actually supporting documentation from medical professionals for each of these events!

What are we to think?  That the medical profession is in a conspiracy to get us to succumb to additional medical treatments?  How about we relax for a minute and look at the facts.

A body in stress tenses.  Tensed muscles create an additional need for glucose or glycogen – the sugars that provide energy for muscle contraction and release.  Sugar that is used to energize tensed muscles is no longer available for use in other body functions such as artery contraction.  Wow!  Converted sugars, then, are assigned to perform myriads of bodily tasks.  When they become unavailable those organs do not perform well. 

Ever feel like you lacked mental energy – that your mind felt muddled? Chances are, important chemicals are not reaching your brain.  Have you ever experienced the feeling of tiredness after eating a meal?  Oftentimes that is because your body is busy sending converted food chemicals to body organs that are crying out for assistance.  Your body is going to protect life first.  It will therefore attempt to send operational assistance to your internal organs, first.  Even then however, it can become diverted. If you muscles are tensed, it has to respond! At this point, your body has a limited amount of energy to spend, according to what you have provided it.  In the Western World, when our bodies send this signal, we push through the temporary lassitude, drink something caffeinated and cause further distress to our over-taxed system that now has to make a chemical adjustment.  It is no wonder there is nothing left with which to rejuvenate hair, make our skin glow or give us abounding energy

Alternative medicines, including Traditional Chinese Medicine , can tell a lot about what is going on inside your body by observing the condition of your skin tone, your face color and your body posture.  By the time you seek help, your body is usually in crisis.  At that point, they have to address the most pressing issues in order to stabilize your system. The same would be true if you were in a medical physician’s office.  They too would be taking emergency measures to stabilize you.  At this point, your body’s adrenal system may be taxed from attempting to rid your body of toxins that your liver, skin and/or kidneys can no longer respond to, because they are so over-worked.  Thus, an alternative medicine practitioner’s choice of an herbal remedy to ward off the crisis is not  going to be the herb that can help address hair loss.  It will be the one that prevents your liver or other internal organs from failing!

Ever since we in the Western World realized that alternative medicines had tapped into nature’s capacity to heal naturally, we have been attempting to self-medicate with herbs that treat our most annoying symptoms, or that will make us cosmetically more appealing.  Sadly, we have not studied well enough to realize that most alternative medicinal practices are based on solid research that, when applied as intended, can address the whole person and thus help us build health, layer upon layer.

When you realize that the body completely rebuilds tissues, bone and cell structure every seven years, you begin to appreciate the opportunity this truly provides. That’s a great gift! With the assistance of educated practitioners in Traditional Chinese Medicine, holistic medicine and other soundly-based alternative approaches that, when applied correctly, can help us understand and appreciate the workings of our body, mind and spirit, we could soon be on the road to the kind of healing that will last a lifetime. 

It is time we took the opportunity to find out why some have dedicated their entire lives to these methodologies, and to appreciate the knowledge they so freely offer to share.  If we followed their instruction, more than just libido and hair loss might be alleviated.  Mental clarity and an abundance of energy might follow, as well.