In celebration of Chinese New Year and the commencement of the Year of the Ox, Pacific College has planned free events that are open to the public on each of its three campuses.

Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York will be hosting an Open House and a free celebration for the public on Saturday, January 31, 2009. The open house will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and is an admissions information session for prospective students. From 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., the campus will hold a Chinese New Year Celebration, which will include complimentary acupuncture treatments for relaxation. Additionally, a lecture titled, "Chinese Astrology: Year of the Ox" will be presented. Qigong workshops will be held, and a lecture about health tips for winter will also be given. This event is free and open to the public.

Alex A. Kecskes

Anxiety is a mental disorder that affects literally millions of people. It's an illness that often dovetails with depression and alternates from mild discomfort to almost uncontrollable panic with physical symptoms. While some medications have been known to ease anxiety, they may also suffer from undesirable side effects, suppressing the symptoms while making individuals chemically toxic.

Steve Goodman

In today's fast paced stressed-out world insomnia and sleep disorders are on the increase. The proverbial good night's sleep seems more elusive than ever. So many people are facing so many sleepless nights, and yet they fear the side effects and addictive nature of sleep medications - as well they should.

Chronic pain is one of the most common ailments that acupuncture can relieve. The United States military has recently incorporated this Oriental health benefit into their offered medical services. Andrews Airforce Base in Maryland has begun using this ancient Chinese technique to treat wounded troops for chronic pain. This is the first high-level endorsement of acupuncture by the traditionally conservative military medical community, and marks a milestone for Oriental medicine's increasing popularity and accessibility.

The use of acupuncture is proving so successful in the Air Force that a class about "battlefield acupuncture" is scheduled to commence in the New Year. Physicians deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be adding acupuncture to their list of medical remedies. Auricular acupuncture (acupuncture of the ear) is the primary technique that will be taught. This method can alleviate wide ranges of pain (even unbearable, sharp chronic pain) for days at a time. Patients who have been suffering in a daze of drug-induced sleep as their only means at pain reduction can begin to emerge from that state into fuller consciousness without pain.

Alex A. Kecskes

With the holidays upon us, it's time to think green-in food, decorations & gift-wraps, trees, and anything else that helps sustain our planet for generations of holidays to come.

With the holidays upon us, it's time to think green-in food, decorations, and gift-wraps, trees, and anything else that helps sustain our planet for generations of holidays to come.

Kathleen Rushall

Pacific College, San Diego has redesigned its community clinic shift to reflect the original community-style acupuncture model. The high cost of health care has affected many Americans and Pacific College attempts to address this problem by serving patients who many not have the time or the finances to afford a more "private," in-depth treatment. Pacific College's San Diego campus will be offering its new community clinic every Friday from 1:30 pm to 4:15 pm and each treatment will be fifteen dollars.

Winter means many things, some of them not as positive as hot cocoa and holidays. Cold, dry weather can wreak havoc on the skin, and one place often requires special attention is a person's foot. Feet are often neglected when it comes to lotion and other skin care methods that the rest of the body daily receives. In winter, foot eczema is a common occurrence. Eczema is the result of extreme dry skin that forms into a scaly, red, often itchy rash.

Oriental herbs can effectively treat eczema and provide fast relief. Herbs that prove helpful for this condition include Flos Ionicerae (Japanese honeysuckle), Herba Mentae (peppermint), Cortex Moutan (root bark of a peony tree), Atractylodes Rhizome (the underground stem of the Atractylodes herb), and Cortex Phellodendri (Amur cork-tree bark). A licensed practitioner of Oriental medicine can prescribe and concoct a mixture of these five herbs, which can be taken orally (the extracts are placed into a pill capsule) once daily. The British Journal of Dermatology recently performed a study using this treatment and found that patients that received these herbs reported that their life improved by a third.

From the exuberant growth of spring to the chilling winds of winter, the seasons have a profound effect on our health and the way we live our lives. Nutrition in Chinese medicine considers multiple factors such as a person's body type, age, energy, and seasonal influences. In this way, a proper diet is used in Oriental medicine as both a healing and disease prevention system. By noting seasonal changes and influences and changing a diet accordingly, people can maximize their health during all times of the year.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, winter is the season in which yin gathers and hides qi (one's life force) in deeper layers. In physical terms, this means that the body is particularly susceptible to cold disorders, which can manifest as the flu, a sore throat, or breathing illness (like bronchitis).

 Winter means many things, some of them not as positive as hot cocoa and holidays. Cold, dry weather can wreak havoc on the skin, and one place often requires special attention is a person's foot. Feet are often neglected when it comes to lotion and other skin care methods that the rest of the body daily receives. In winter, foot eczema is a common occurrence. Eczema is the result of extreme dry skin that forms into a scaly, red, often itchy rash.

 Oriental herbs can effectively treat eczema and provide fast relief. Herbs that prove helpful for this condition include Flos Ionicerae (Japanese honeysuckle), Herba Mentae (peppermint), Cortex Moutan (root bark of a peony tree), Atractylodes Rhizome (the underground stem of the Atractylodes herb), and Cortex Phellodendri (Amur cork-tree bark). A licensed practitioner of Oriental medicine can prescribe and concoct a mixture of these five herbs, which can be taken orally (the extracts are placed into a pill capsule) once daily.