Amelia’s Recycling Project

Happy birthday to Amelia, a regular patient of mine who has been coming in since 1992. She’s now seventy. You could say I have gotten to know her (and her husband, daughters, and grandkids, too) pretty well. She likes to sew. She’s been making the cutest heating pads out of fabric scraps, which she fills with rice and star anise. We sell them here in our office, so we...

Un-Bag It for your Health

Why does everything we bring home have to come in a bag or some plastic wrap? It turns out, a lot of plastic is not recyclable, even if it does have a little number in a triangle on the bottom. And it’s bad for us. How is that, you say? In the documentary, Bag It, you’ll find out. I watched the movie Friday night at the Packing House in...

Fibromyalgia Smells Lemony Fresh

When you have fibromyalgia, you hurt all over. Your purse feels like it weighs a ton. You wake up feeling like you need to get some rest. You go in for lab work to see if anything can explain why you are feeling so badly, but the tests come back normal. Sometimes, even going to the chiropractor can make you feel worse instead of better. Frustrating, isn’t it? I...

Chip Clips, now Canning Jar Funnel

Anybody here have a “chip clip” in their kitchen? How about a canning jar funnel? It’s interesting what our stuff says about us. One of best things you can do to support your healthier lifestyle is to look around for some kitchen tools that make your job of prepping and storing whole foods more fun. Here’s a link to a recent post by Mrs. Homegrown of Homegrown Evolution http://www.homegrownevolution.com…check...

Community Gardens for Rancho Cucamonga

The next great thing to happen to Rancho Cucamonga is going to be our Community Garden project.  Fifteen acres of land near the southwest corner of Day Creek and Foothill have been donated, and it looks like ground breaking will take place in early 2011.  A planning meeting open to all will take place January 6, 2011 in the Lion’s Center West at 7:00 p.m.  For more information go...

Is it Organic?

I was telling a patient recently to check out one of the new Asian supermarkets in town.  In the produce section, you can find wonderful greens, purple sweet potatoes, exotic mushrooms still growing in their little plastic tubs, and more.  “But they don’t have organic, do they?” my patient asked.  Not as much, I admitted, as say, Henry’s or Whole Foods.  But today I got my McDougall newsletter (sign...

McMansion Economics

In last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times there was an opinion piece written by three economists.  Entitled McMansion Economics, their essay points out that the size of the average American home has ballooned from 1700 square feet to over 2400 square feet since 1980.  Larger homes mean higher utility bills, more stuff and furnishings, a bigger mortgage.  They write, “if Americans are willing to rethink their assumptions about what their...