To Work or Not to Work? That is the Fertile Question

Your dilemma is a common one and quitting your job doesn't always equate with less stress. There are some questions you want to ask yourself. Can you afford financially to quit your job? Does your job bring you happiness and satisfaction? If you do quit your job how will you fill your daily life: sitting around watching television or taking up yoga and cooking with whole foods? The latter will bring more healthful rewards and will increase your fertility and the former weight gain and depression. Quitting your job may actually add more stress to your life but that is for you do decide.


If your job is producing an extraordinary amount of stress then yes, it will increase your fertility to quit and here is why:


Most people don’t realize the stressors we endure in modern day life. Just as I write this I have numerous stressors that I have learned to ignore 1. The traffic driving by just beyond my computer screen 2. The phone ringing 3. Music in the background 4. The lingering list of to-do for Christmas preparation 5. The pesky worry of the future that pops up from my conscience to every day awareness 6. My husband typing on his computer… you get the idea. We don’t perceive these things as stress but the modern person is constantly multi-taking even in our peaceful office with aroma therapy and soothing music. The majority of people have real intense pressures from spouses, in-laws, neighbors, bosses, and financial institutions. This constant attack we endure stresses our sympathetic nervous system putting our body in a constant state of fight or flight wreaking havoc on our endocrine system and literally shutting down our reproductive system.



Fight or flight is a state in which we feel under attack that some have theorized was built into our bodies for survival against savage animals when we lived in the wild. When we feel our lives are at stake our pupils dilate to see better, our heart rate increases dramatically propelled by adrenaline so we can run quickly and our breath quickens. Unfortunately our digestive, urinary, bowel and reproductive systems get cut off. There is no need to reproduce or go to the bathroom when all of our energy needs to be expended in order to survive and flee as quickly as possible.



How this translates to modern day time is that our stressors are constant and overwhelming. The modern conveniences push us to do more, work more, be more. The intensity of the daily news is so traumatic one can’t help but be stressed by the devastating news of the world at large. We are constantly answering phones, texts, emails, paper mail just to get out the door in the morning and get our real work done. We are constantly bombarded by advertisers, telemarketers, politicians, local business men and women, churches, schools, and neighbors, to give, drive, celebrate and donate. We have accepted this as the way of life but it costly us all dearly in our health, weight, emotional well-being and our fertility.



We often run out the door with coffee sloshing in our mugs taxing our adrenals and slowing blood flow to our reproductive organs. Maybe a handful of crackers are shoved haphazardly in our mouths as we race down the road to sit in traffic and ward off maniac drivers. Then we turn on the radio to be bombarded with talk and gossip and dread. We rush into our offices only to find our irritated boss with a deadline to meet and a pay cut delivered and it’s only 7:30 a.m. The madness must stop. We all need to slow down, calm ourselves and take a good look at our lives to discover how we can reduce stress thereby improving our reproductive successes.



Here is a list of suggestions of how to reduce stress:
Work no more than 40 hours a week

Always plan something fun on the weekends

Exercise is a priority not a luxury

Swap Coffee for Green Tea or Teccino (herbal non caffeinated coffee substitute)

Learn to Meditate or Buy a Mind Body CD

Pray

Enjoy laughter with girlfriends

Make Love when you are NOT fertile

Love your job or change careers

Turn off your TV

Go on a news fast

Have lavender aroma therapy at home, work and your car

Listen to classical music

Learn to Belly Breathe

Get Acupuncture Even if your OBGYN says “You are Fine” Unexplained infertility responds well

Take a yoga Class

Spend time only with people who nourish you; avoid those who don’t

Rent a funny movie

Join Resolve (the non-profit that helps couples who have a hard time conceiving or staying pregnant)

Just say no to baby showers

Let it go

Use an ovulation predictor kit (clear blue easy around $200 is more helpful than just the wands)

Know that what you are going through is one of the hardest things any human can face but you will get through this so try to find the gems in the journey: meeting fabulous people, rediscovering compassion through your own suffering, a stronger relationship with

5 Fast Tips to Heal from the Loss of Your Baby

Miscarriage is a devastating loss to most women and the further along the more haunting the emotions are that follow. Here are 5 Fast tips to help women after they have miscarried whether it happened yesterday or 10 years ago.


1. Acupuncture treats both physiological and emotional imbalances so the best thing to do is to resume treatment. Some women come in while they are in the midst of mis-carrying so acupuncture can reduce and sometime eliminate the cramping, stabbing pain. Others come in days later and we address the grieving aspect of the loss. 2. Have a ceremony or even a burial. This helps bring closure and honors the life you feel so connected to.
3. Join a Support Group- Resolve.org, Empty Cradle or your local hospital may have a group where you can share your sorrow and heal your heart.
4. If Anxiety and Depression sets in see your Herbalist for a personalized prescription to treat the emotional aspects of the heart for joy and the lungs for grief.
5. Once pregnant again, get acupuncture to support pregnancy and prevent miscarriage.



www.AmericanAcu.com Kristen N. Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M. is a nationally recognized Acupuncturist and Herbalist who has been featured in Parenting Magazine, Natural Health Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR) and KUSI TV News. Ms. Burris' expertise includes: women’s health, fertility, recurrent miscarriage, pregnancy, difficult menstrual cycles, menopausal symptoms, digestive problems, and pain. Ms. Burris has also taught acupuncture to graduate students at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She and her husband Tony Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M treat patients with acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition as natural medicine in their family-owned, private practice, American Acupuncture Center in Eagle, Idaho. Ms. Burris has treated patients at Top Fertility Centers Nationwide, San Diego Hospice, University of California in San Diego (UCSD) Integrative Clinic, and for UCSD Dental Study. Ms Burris was the creator of fertility retreats for couples and served on the board of RESOLVE, the non-profit organization supporting couples with infertility.







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Kristen Burris L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M.

Founder and Medical Director

American Acupuncture Center

128 S. Eagle Road

Eagle, Id 83616

(208) 938-1277

www.AmericanAcu.com

http://FertilityFound.blogspot.com/

http://idahoacupuncture.blogspot.com/

Just Be Happy You Have A Baby and Other Hurtful Words

Secondary infertility is just as emotionally devastating as Infertility. Secondary Infertility happens when couple was able to conceive, carry and birth their first baby but are unable during their next attempt at having another baby. Seemingly helpful comments by loving friends and family penetrate deeply into the hearts of those trying for a second child. Too often they hear “You already have a baby, can’t you just focus on the happiness of that?” or “Some people don’t have any children, at least you have one”.


It’s so difficult to ignore the natural desire to have more children. Often parents have an idea of what their family will look like well before they are even married: two children including one boy, one girl, two golden retrievers and a goldfish. Seriously, this fantasy becomes our vision of our future. Veering off this path even slightly can send some women into years of anxiety and depression.

As friends families grow so does our envy. We try to put it out of our mind, be grateful for what we have but it often haunts our every thought.

What can couples do to cope?


Acupuncture and Mind/Body Techniques can enhance fertility, protect ovarian reserve, increase sperm count and improve In-Vitro Fertilization Results by over 160%. November 27, 2009 – New research has revealed that women who took part in a stress management program prior to, or during their second IVF cycle, had a 160% greater pregnancy rate than those that did not. The groundbreaking study conducted by Harvard University and The Domar Center at Boston IVF was presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s 65th annual meeting in Atlanta.

The study, designed to educate women on the benefits of cognitive, relaxation and lifestyle techniques to manage stress and improve conception, revealed a 52% pregnancy rate for those who participated in a stress management program, as compared to a 20% pregnancy rate for those that did not. The stress management programs had an even greater impact on pregnancy rates for women who showed higher baseline symptoms of depression.


Therapy- Find a therapist who specializes in infertility issues as they have the most experience with your specific emotional needs and challenges.

Read- One of my favorite books on this exact subject is: The Infertility Cure by Julia Indichova. It’s touching, personal and can really help both women and men sift through the myriad of emotions that are often times overwhelming.


Pray- Prayer is powerful. The key is to pray for healing your heart and bringing you peace. Constantly praying for a baby can often increase anxiety and hopelessness. Even if you have never prayed before just close your hands and eyes and start talking.


Write- Write down your fears on paper and then burn them in the sink. Let them go. Do no allow the thoughts to haunt you daily.


Make Love- When you aren’t ovulating and there is minimal chance of pregnancy, have fun, wild sex just for the sex of it. Intimacy aids depression and helps you feel good. It’s less stressful being intimate when you aren’t fertile so you don’t mix hopeful fertile thoughts with personal and marital satisfaction.


Consider Other Options- Sometimes investigating other options like adoption or surrogacy can solidify your convictions or soften them. Writing about your family and why a lone pregnant woman may want to give her child to you can strengthen the bond you and your husband have with one another.



www.AmericanAcu.com Kristen N. Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M. is a nationally recognized Acupuncturist and Herbalist who has been featured in Parenting Magazine, Natural Health Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR) and KUSI TV News. Ms. Burris' expertise includes: women’s health, fertility, pregnancy, difficult menstrual cycles, menopausal symptoms, digestive problems, and pain. Ms. Burris has also taught acupuncture to graduate students at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She and her husband Tony Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M treat patients with acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition as natural medicine in their family-owned, private practice, American Acupuncture Center in Eagle, Idaho. Ms. Burris has treated patients at Top Fertility Centers Nationwide, San Diego Hospice, University of California in San Diego (UCSD) Integrative Clinic, and for UCSD Dental Study. Ms Burris was the creator of fertility retreats for couples and served on the board of RESOLVE, the non-profit organization supporting couples with infertility.

Finally Fertile- Studies and Centuries Prove Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Efficacy

It’s a personal life crisis. It’s Adam and Eve. It’s the driving force behind the desire to keep moving forward, enriching yourself, and dancing within the rhythm of life. Creation… reproduction…it’s having a baby. When you struggle with creating life your entire world is cold, harsh, barren, lonely and frightening. The future is terrifying when you have been labeled infertile.

What is life if not to feel God’s miracle growing inside your womb, swollen with hope of tickling toes for a lifetime? Why continue living if you cannot open your heart and body to push forth new, precious life? Dreams of suckling infants swim in and out of our consciousness our entire lives promising us joyous motherhood. Our nature is to attract, secure and procreate. Life is truly everlasting only with generations to follow us. Infertility ravishes these dreams challenging 7.3 million women and men in the U.S. every year to survive one of life’s greatest devastations-- about 12% of the reproductive-age population (Source: National Survey of Family Growth, CDC 2002).

I was told to get a hysterectomy by the time I was in my early 20’s with no official diagnosis as to why I suffered so tremendously every 28 days. Endometriosis suspected but never definitive. The pain, unimaginably ferocious inevitably tore through my body leaving me weak and infected with the fear I may never conceive. I was tossed hormones and pain killers chased by double strength pain killers with my invader never abating- not once. I was emotional, desperate, bloated, frustrated and limp with sadness. I wept tears upon tears fearing the future all the while praying and dreaming of holding a baby warm and gooey in my birthing arms.

I was 21 and at a cross-roads. Not married yet, as I was a babe myself. Every dream included children, lots of them and I was not prepared to live life childless as some of my doctors harshly projected. I was lost and abandoned by a system of medicine I had respected and depended upon my entire life.

With one gentle tap my life was about to change so dramatically one couldn’t have dreamt such a milky sweet story. Acupuncture was strange, elusive, foreign and a little scary. I was timid and skeptical of these wispy medicinal matchsticks. I lay there under my Acupuncturist’s tender care vulnerable, doubtful and a touch curious. I obediently slipped handfuls of herbs down my throat with the promise of health and of course a future baby. Three months was all it took. Ninety measly days was all it took to transform my reproductive health and stave off my suffering forever.

I was deeply, souly, impenetrably moved and inspired I followed that four year path of graduate school and became an Acupuncturist and Herbalist. My passion was to change the lives of women opening their conception vessels welcoming the children they desired and deserved.

But how does it work? How does this mysterious, ancient, powerful medicine work? Its history is rich and layered and brilliant. It takes some ability to let go out of our western minds and open ourselves to the timelessness of innate healing potential within our bodies. It is a stretch for most of us but it works and it’s rather simple. The goal is balance. We may have even heard the term frigid or barren for a woman who has yet to conceive. As harsh as the words sound they reveal quite a bit about a woman’s reproductive imbalance.

In Chinese Medicine we look for patterns to explain the devastating diagnosis of “infertility”. We look at temperature, color of skin, whites of the eyes, nail beds and tongue. We feel pulses, abdomens and temperatures. As awkward as this may be and reminiscent of a schoolyard tiff, a protruding tongue can be our guide and treatment principles for an infertile man or woman. The tongue is the only muscle we can see externally and it reflects the disharmony of the internal body. If a woman’s tongue is pale, her menstrual blood is thin and pink, she is fatigued with anxiety and insomnia her infertility is due to blood deficiency that fails to nourish her uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes preventing conception. We supplement her with blood building foods like meat, beef, dark leafy greens, and beets. We may even enhance her with an iron supplement if labs indicate such severe blood deficiency we know as anemia.

One third of our four years in graduate school is spent understanding the body and illness from a western perspective. We take anatomy, physiology, cadaver lab, physical exam, ortho-neuro evaluation- to name a few. We understand what it means when a woman has poly-cystic ovarian syndrome, hypo-thyroidism or endometriosis and when a man has poor sperm count, motility and morphology. This information only adds to our ability to treat infertility.

Through Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine we can take women and men who are considered from an allopathic medical perspective to be infertile and make them fertile. The labs prove it and a blessed baby dismisses the diagnosis altogether. The cure for infertility is in fact, a baby. We have had hundreds of patients in our practice all like me: skeptical, nervous, depressed and terrified. We understand who you are and where you have been. You have choices.
Another common problem arising in infertility and habitual miscarriage patients is blood stagnation. In men it often presents as a hernia or varicocele with a propensity towards anger, irritability and high blood pressure. Women too will suffer from similar emotional outbursts yet she will notice large purple clots with her menstrual blood and she always has stabbing pain the day before her period begins. We treat these patients with acupuncture points and herbal medicine that move blood stasis to enable their reproductive organs to function appropriately.
For the woman suffering from cold in the uterus we will see a pattern where the woman detests winter months, is cold all of the time, finds some relief from a heating pad during cramping and often has loose stool or low sex drive. This woman literally has too much cold in her body. We refer to a baby as a bun in the oven and to grow any plant or animal we need adequate warmth. Just as plants and animals go into hibernation during cold temperatures so does our fertility until the warmth creates a fertile, prosperous womb. We will infuse her diet with warming foods and herbs including: cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and lamb. We even have her put a hot water bottle on her lower abdomen for 30 minutes for the two weeks prior to ovulation.

The simplicity of the medicine is mind boggling. The results: life changing. Our two boys (and millions of babies throughout the world) are loving, joyous, miraculous, proof of its brilliance and effectiveness. One of the reasons we are so effective in treating infertility is because China has a very long history of taking reproduction seriously. If you as the woman or as the physician could not bare a child or create fertility within a barren woman you risked your life. Some believe the severity of that punishment was the catalyst behind successful fertility treatments using Acupuncture and Herbal medicine.

Acupuncturists and Herbalists who specialize in infertility will treat: anovular cycles (no ovulation), PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome), endometriosis, unexplained infertility, amenorrhea (no period), irregular menstruation, short and long luteal phases, hypo-thyroidism, premature eggs, and male infertility including: poor sperm count, motility and morphology. We work synergistically with western trained Reproductive Endocrinologists and OBGYN’s. We also work solely on patients who have gone the western route, even as far as IVF (in-vitro fertilization) and failed. We are often referred patients who are fearful of aggressive treatments and prefer a natural, non-invasive approach that improves their overall health and produces a successful pregnancy. We have co-treated patients during embryo transfers and intra-uterine inseminations for over 10 years at the most prestigious fertility centers in the nation. For the skeptics, in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility (2002 and 2006) studies have proven that adding acupuncture to assisted reproductive technologies increases successful pregnancy by over 65%. Yes, over 65%- that is a miracle and a blessing in and of itself. It is imperative that you seek treatment from an Acupuncturist and Herbalist who expertise is infertility. This is complex but it is treatable.


You have choices. You are not a victim. You do not have to be afraid. You can dream.



To find an experienced Acupuncturist and Herbalist near you: http://www.acufinder.com/.

www.AmericanAcu.com Kristen N. Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M. is a nationally recognized Acupuncturist and Herbalist who has been featured in Parenting Magazine, Natural Health Magazine, National Public Radio (NPR) and KUSI TV News. Ms. Burris' expertise includes: women’s health, fertility, pregnancy, habitual miscarriage, difficult menstrual cycles, menopausal symptoms, digestive problems, and pain. Ms. Burris has also taught acupuncture to graduate students at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. She and her husband Tony Burris, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M treat patients with acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition as natural medicine in their family-owned, private practice, American Acupuncture Center in Eagle, Idaho. Ms. Burris has treated patients at Top Fertility Centers Nationwide, San Diego Hospice, University of California in San Diego (UCSD) Integrative Clinic, and for UCSD Dental Study. Ms. Burris served on the board of Resolve, the non-profit organization that supports people struggling with infertility. Kristen developed comprehensive retreats for infertility patients resulting in 75% success rate for all couples and individuals who attended.

Who Am I?

About Me: I'm fiery, passionate, sensitive and loving. I'm in awe of nature and its healing properties. I am social, athletic and enjoy friendships immensely but my family always comes first. I am moved by music, photography and belly-deep laughter. I believe food is medicine: "Earth to Table" & "If You Can't Read It Don't Eat It!" I am fascinated with the healing potential within every person no matter how ill they may be. I am a vessel for work that is beyond my comprehension and I am blessed and grateful for the opportunity to witness miracles every day.


Specialty: Infertility, Women's Health and Menstrual Problems. I treat the full circle of life: enhancing a woman's ability to conceive, preventing hysterectomies during menopause and alleviating pain. I am passionate about women's health and educating them about their choices integrating Acupuncture and Herbal medicine with traditional allopathic medicine.
About My Practice: I am the owner of American Acupuncture Center and an advocate for women helping them navigate the complex choices available in medicine. My heart is in every treatment, listening with a tender ear and lending compassionate advice. I am a sister, mother, friend and healer. I understand what it is to suffer. I believe there are many paths to healing, living and even dieing. I warm wombs to aid conception. I tend to broken spirits trampled by medicine that has failed them. I journey with my patients during chemotherapy watching their spirits soar as their horrific side-effects dissipate. As pain melts from my patients' bodies I witness a transformation in all aspects of their life. When a child is born to an "infertile" mother I know my work on Earth is done. I feel complete and in awe of the miraculousness of life, God and this profound medicine we call alternative.

Advice: Never, never, never, give up. You have options that are viable, profound forms of medicine within your reach. Kindness heals. Be kind to yourself and your suffering. Find the child within that is broken and wrap your arms around her to heal. Eat well, drink green tea, and laugh often.