Episode 50: True Wellness with guest Dr. Catherine Kurosu (Part 1)
About Dr. Catherine Kurosu
Born, raised, and trained in Canada, Dr. Catherine Kurosu graduated from the University of Toronto School of Medicine in 1990, then specialized in obstetrics and gynecology.
One of her duties as an obstetrician was to turn breech babies from the bottom down to head down by hand before the mother went into labour. Catherine really dislike doing this procedure. It was very uncomfortable for the mother and it could have complications that would jeopardize the baby. In some cases, you would have to do an emergency cesarean section.
When Dr. Kurosu came across a randomized controlled trial about how to turn breech babies by burning a certain herb over a certain acupuncture point. So, she found an acupuncturist in her area that would take her patients. Her success rate was about 2 out of the 3 breech babies would turn head down without having to go through any uncomfortable or dangerous procedures. Dr. Kurosu started to send other sorts of patients to this acupuncturist - e.g., women with chronic pelvic pain. Within very few treatments with acupuncture and herbs, they were feeling 80% better or more.
Dr. Kurosu started to become very intrigued and an acupuncturist offered to supervise her. Dr. Kurosu subsequently trained as an acupuncturist and integrated this modality into her medical practice. Hoping to raise awareness of the benefits of this approach to well-being, she has co-authored a series of books called “True Wellness” that explains how to combine the best of Western and Eastern medicine for optimal health.
Western vs. Eastern Approaches to Medicine
Western medicine is the conventional care in terms of the system that arose from the Greek, Socrates and European approaches around the area of the industrial revolution. Medicine changed from a more holistic approach to looking for the single initiating cause of an illness or the single active ingredient in a plant that could be isolated to turn into a medication. Medical approaches are broken down into smaller and smaller parts and didn't look at the whole as much. Currently, though, Western medicine is going back to a more holistic approach, but Eastern medicine has always had a whole systems approach to health.
Example: Diabetes & the Role of Lifestyle
In a Western approach to medicine, treating type 1 diabetes requires that you determine what’s causing the diabetes, which – in this case – is a lack of insulin. You then isolate the insulin (which was done in Canada) to treat diabetics who would otherwise have died.
In contrast, in type 2 diabetes, there is a decreased response of the cell to the insulin that's already there. There are numerous studies that demonstrate the importance of healthy lifestyle changes – e.g, food, exercise and sleep - that will make your body more responsive to the insulin that's already there. This treatment follows a more “whole systems” approach. This holistic lifestyle approach to the treatment of type 2 diabetes is in line with the Eastern approaches to medicine.
While some people do need medications, it has been shown time and time again that people who are diligent and committed to healthy lifestyle changes very often will not need any medication or get off all of their medications. Reducing the use of unneeded medications also decreases the risk for other related illnesses like heart disease.
NOTE: Both approaches are extremely valid. For example, no matter how well a type 1 diabetic ate, exercised or slept, they would not be able to overcome the lack of insulin. So, Western medicine is very important. Nobody could imagine life without an emergency room or surgery or being able to do a cesarean section. Dr. Kurosu is in no way denigrating Western medicine. It is very important.
True Wellness: How to Combine the Best of Western and Eastern Medicine for Optimal Health
Dr. Kurosu’s book, “True Wellness: How to Combine the Best of Western and Eastern Medicine for Optimal Health” starts by looking at the history and philosophy of Eastern and Western medicine. The authors then go on to look at the problems with current conventional care in terms of how expensive it is and how the results compared to a lot of other countries in the world just don't measure up. They then talk about the benefits and scientific evidence to support the utility of Eastern modalities such as acupuncture, Tai Chi and Qigong, which are related, and meditation and talk about how useful it is to integrate both Western and Eastern medicine together.
The Importance of this Book
The way medicine is currently practice is unsustainable. There is not going to the money to treat everybody. Also, in terms of how well people are treated, even currently under the system, they're just not getting better from all these chronic illnesses. It puts a great strain financially on the system and a great strain on the individual and their families.
Modifying lifestyle and incorporating acupuncture, Qigong and meditation has a multitude of benefits:
Health generally improves
Pain decreases
Get off unneeded medications
Anxiety or depression is lifted
More functional in society.
For Dr. Kurosu writing this book was important in order to help people make changes. The book serves as a guide about making small steps along the reader’s health journey.
How to Make Lifestyle Changes
The science behind getting people to change suggest that making small incremental changes can lead to big results.
In order to make these small changes, for example, going to the gym, you have to do it in a very small step-by-step fashion. It's unrealistic to expect people to go to the gym for an hour a day, five times a week, just right off the bat if they’re not currently exercising at all.
Make the first step so easy that you can’t say no. Make it easier on yourself by requiring so little to start off.
James Clear’s Book “Atomic Habits”
James Clear wrote a book about habits called “Atomic Habits.” In his book he talks about the first step needing to be so small that you can't say no. For example, just putting on your running shoes. It is so simple you can’t say no. If you do that enough times and it becomes a habit and then the next step is stepping outside for a five minute walk and you expand from there.
Sleep & your Health
In the process of researching for this book and the next one is the importance of sleep. We all take it for granted and underestimate it.
Most people are under slept and it has very serious consequences for the biochemistry that goes on in your body and also your risk for illness. All of the tips that sleep researchers give to improve the quality and quantity of sleep are extremely important. People should be getting at least seven hours of sleep a night to function properly, and anything less than that increases your risk of:
Heart disease
Anxiety and depression
Diabetes
Cancer
In fact, the World Health Organization has designated night shift work as a risk factor for cancer.
Avoid Screens at Night
In order to get good quality sleep it is important that you get off all screens at least 60- to 90-minutes before actually going to bed.
The problem with the screen time is that the content could be overstimulating, but also the blue light from the screens tells a part of your brain in charge of your daily rhythms that it's morning, it's time to get up. A lot of people find it difficult to fall asleep for that reason.
Food & Health
One needs to look at food as though it is pleasurable and enjoyable to eat and eat with our friends and family, but it's also information. The food that you take in has a huge influence on how your body functions and what genes are turned on or turned off and in terms of the expression of those genes. From the advance study of genetics, called epigenetics, we know that what you eat and even what you think can turn on a gene that may increase your risk for developing cancer or diabetes or heart disease and eating nutritious foods, primarily plants, can help modify those risks by managing which proteins get expressed, and by turning on or turning off particular genes.
Stress
Stress has a negative connotation, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Stress is your body's response to a perceived danger or threat.
Stress gets you to do things:
Study for exams
Pay your bills on time
Meet deadlines
The problem is that, in our society, stress doesn't tend to turn off. People are under constant stress. What happens in the body is that your brain doesn't know exactly what the stress is per say. It just knows that something bad is potentially about to happen. So historically, it would prepare you to either fight an enemy (e.g., animal) or flee. The need requires that your body is able to do certain things very quickly.
The body’s response to stress, including elevated heart rate and your blood pressure goes up to supply all the blood that's needed by your limbs to run or fight. This process is overseen by the sympathetic nervous system, which is one branch of your autonomic nervous system (autonomic meaning that you don't have any particular control over it.) It's involuntary. The other aspect of the autonomic nervous system is called the parasympathetic nervous system, and it balances that fight or flight response. The parasympathetic nervous system is called the rest and digest side of it. In our society there is an imbalance and most people are ready to fight or flee.
Stress & Inflammation
When you’re stressed out, your body is expecting to be injured. So, it sends out all kinds of chemical mediators of inflammation. Inflammation is the first part of the healing process. People think of inflammation as a bad thing. But initially, it's required. You can't heal a wound without the initial process of breaking down the area that's been damaged and getting rid of all that stuff and then allowing the healing. The problem is that when low grade inflammation is constantly flowing around, the body is primed and ready to attack; so, it starts to attack its own cells. A lot of problems with autoimmune disease, allergies and obesity are related to chronic inflammation.
In fact, most diseases are related to chronic inflammation (e.g., brain disease).
Turn off chronic inflammation with
Food
Exercise
Meditation
Stress Management
Eastern Approaches to Medicine
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is just a fascinating healing modality. Dr. Kurosu likes to think of it as an information system that alerts the body to a problem in a certain area and allows the body to then fix it.
The way acupuncture works has been described in various ways. It's been used for at least 2000 years that is known of. There are very specific point prescriptions that yield reproducible results. There is something that is structurally true about the system. Acupuncture is a method by which you insert very fine, sterile needles into certain points in the body to elicit a particular change in the body. It can be used for a variety of purposes – from chronic pain to inducing labour.
One of the ways it works is by stretching the collagen fibers within the lining of the muscles called the fascia. The collagen is a three stranded cotton-like molecule and it acts like quartz crystal in that, when it's mechanically stressed, it releases little micro currents. Every time you put an acupuncture needle into somebody, you give it a little twist, and classically, the feeling you feel through the needle is called the arrival of the qi (qi = the body's energy). In this process of stretching the collagen fibers these little micro currents get sent to the brain. By choosing certain acupuncture points and combinations, sometimes even in the order in which you put them in, you're sending information to the brain.
Acupuncture can:
Increase your endorphin levels
Balance neurotransmitters (e.g., serotonin)
Locally decrease inflammation
Decrease inflammation all over the body
Influence how well your intestines function (e.g., motility & how quickly your bowels empty)
Improve your breathing
Modulate your heart rate.
After experiencing acupuncture, people report many benefits, including feeling better, sleeping better, and feeling more motivated.
Some modern acupuncturists refer to acupuncture as neuromodulation, which is essentially what you're doing. You're modulating the nervous system of the body.
Are there any risks?
The risks of acupuncture are really very small.
There's a lot less risk in acupuncture than there is even in taking any modern medication.
Sometimes the benefits can be delayed – for example, back pain may get a little worse for the first or second day. But then it will really improve on subsequent days.
If things are a little out of whack initially, the body swings back to its baseline or improves very, very quickly.
The needles are sterile. They're single use. So, the risk of infection is very small. The risk of damaging any body parts is also very small because of the training of the acupuncturist. We're all trained to angle the needles a certain way, a certain depth for the particular point to avoid damaging any nerves or organs.
Nervous about needles?
You only need very few needles to effect a change. Sometimes just using ear acupuncture is a good start. Dr. Kurosu can say without exception, every person who's come for acupuncture who is nervous about needles at the end the treatment, they would say, oh, that was easy.
One of the reasons Dr. Kurosu really like acupuncture to be included in everybody's care is just the fact that they feel better when they leave the office. Feeling better allows people to make other small steps so they feel better - e.g., going for a walk or having more broccoli. From Catherine’s perspective, acupuncture seems to be the first step in people's journey to better health.
Finding an Acupuncturist
Find somebody who is well-trained and who has a good reputation. If you know somebody who has an acupuncturist they really like, that is a good place to start. Also, go on social media and check Yelp reviews or ask your doctor. Sometimes doctors have particular acupuncturist they like to refer their patients to. Dr. Kurosu gets referrals from all sorts of doctors (e.g., oncologists, general practitioners, and orthopedic surgeons.)
Qi Gong
A lot of people haven't heard of Qi Gong, they're more familiar with Tai Chi. But, the best way of describing Qi Gong is that Tai Chi is a form of Qi Gong.
Qi Gong is a series of body movement exercises that combine deep breathing and intention in a meditative way. Qi Gong is like a moving meditation. A lot of people find it difficult to just sit and meditate. Practicing Qi Gong allows them to regulate their breath and settle the mind, so that they can then sit down more easily and meditate. Of note, the movements in Qi Gong are simpler than in Tai Chi. To start any sort of moving meditation practice, Qi Gong is the easiest place to start. A general movement sequence really does a lot just to settle the body and the mind together.
How to get started with Qi gong
Dr. Kurosu suggests having good personal instruction, if possible. There are a lot of community centers that are now offering classes in Qigong as well as in Tai Chi. But there are also a lot of online resources.
Dr. Kurosu’s co-author - Dr. Aihan Kuhn has an excellent website for Qigong and Tai Chi videos that have been sequenced and developed for specific health concerns. You can visit Dr. Kuhn’s website by CLICKING HERE.
Learning Qi Gong by reading about it in a book might be hard; so, Dr. Kurosu suggests going online or to an in-person class. Catherine personally favours going to a class, because then you have the social aspect of it too, which is also very important for people's overall health.
Conclusion
Integrating both Western and Eastern approaches to achieve optimal health is powerful and there’s lots of evidence that shows that small and consistent healthy lifestyle changes can have a huge impact on your overall well-being.
To learn more about Dr. Catherine Kurosu’s work and her “True Wellness” books, you can visit her website by CLICKING HERE.
Tune in next week for the conclusion of this two-part series with Dr. Kurosu.