Newsletter 06 26 24 - Moxa Raises WBC Count in Chemo
kim soo
7/9/20244 min read
Whassup kids! They say the best newsletters are fewer than 200 words. Not my approach.
First, Business & Marketing
I am starting to advertise locally. Super local. 👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼Do you know of anyone👈🏼👈🏼👈🏼 who owns a cafe, food truck, bookstore, rehearsal-dance-martial arts studio, or any other kind of customer-based business in Brooklyn, along the L and M lines? Please refer that person to me if they’re interested in hosting one of my modest ads for a monthly fee, or using my branded bags / cups / yoga mats, or other ideas, I am wide open… Thank you!
And finally, would you like to receive my Kim Soo Healing newsletters? This is where I share information & research on lifestyle medicine, movement, and spiritual/subconscious work. I send them out about every other week, and am especially proud and excited about the one I sent yesterday which listed
4 at-home resources for recovering from CPTSD (or any Trauma), and
my big 3 movements to rehab the shoulder and keep it strong and dependable.
Most acu people are not so interested in that level of lifestyle medicine, at least in terms of getting in a newsletter or social media, and it’s cool - but I do want to ask periodically so I can help more people and build that business. I have seen it change lives. Thanks.
Now, Healing (the reason we are all here)
Moxa Increases WBC Count in Chemo Patients
This week I want to tell you about the research and my experience with acupuncture and moxa in the treatment of cancer and complications related to cancer, chemo, and other cancer treatments.
Research confirms what we have known all along - acupuncture and moxa increase White Blood Cell Count (WBC), platelette count, quality of life markers, and reduce inflammation, nausea, and severe fatigue, among other things.
Moxa Increases WBC Count in Chemo Patients -
It’s now established, in a randomized controlled trial, that moxa raises white blood cell count.
To cite just one of the articles I’m currently digging into…the main concern during chemo regarding low WBC count, is that if the numbers fall too low, the patient may be forced to stop chemo treatment until the numbers come back up. Most patients will do anything to keep their WBC within normal range, because they do not want to have to repeat a course of chemotherapy with all of its toxicity, its damage to the healthy tissues of the body, and its crippling effects on our lifestyles. My father, who passed after a 3 year battle with colon cancer, said that if he could do it over again, he would have let the disease run its course and have what little time he could as himself. Such was his suffering during chemo - he would have rather avoided it, and died sooner.
Many people feel this way. Including myself.
But some people are ready for the fight, and they do want the full course of chemo, and for them, they're also concerned greatly about other effects of chemo which can be debilitating. According to those who have gone through it, the worst experience is severe fatigue, followed by nausea, followed by vomiting and gastric upset. Not far behind are complaints about frequent colds and flus. Chemo patients with low WBC count also get infections more frequently, because of their impaired immunity and the high stress they are under.
Moxa - and acupuncture - treat all of these symptoms. And in the case of low WBC count, nausea, and lowered immunity, moxa actually works better than the medications doctors give you for these symptoms and conditions - and taking fewer toxic medications during chemo is what everyone wants and needs!
And, research articles also show that patient survival and remission rates can be as high as 1 out of 5 (=20%) for those who use acu+moxa, compared to those who do not. That’s a 20% increase in your chances of survival, remission, or increase in your experience of quality of life (QOL).
Bottom line, acupuncture + moxa can mean the difference between your surviving, or dying of cancer.
Click the pic to watch my 60-second YouTube short on moxa & low WBC in chemo
Also please subscribe, and like - that really helps me a lot. Thank you!
"WBC counts in the observation (moxa) group were higher than those in the control (non-moxa) group."
Please forward this newsletter to someone who is getting or about to get treatment for cancer. Even if they are not in my service area, I am happy to email them the information & research so they know what their options are. I’ll also include a pdf on how to talk to your oncologist or your acupuncturist about moxa, acu, and what role it can play in your healing.
Peace everyone - from your skilled and sincere care-giver, who struggles to balance the capitalist demands of the world I find myself in, without being about this world... swimming and sometimes treading in a tide that pulls me closer and then further from my own spirit. And what I learn during all of that, about taking care of myself, is yours - through acu, and through lifestyle medicine and self care.
Therefore if you know someone who could use my services - acupuncture, moxa, bone setting, breathwork, movement therapies and training, ADHD/Executive Function/Self Regulation coaching, Metabolic healing, please send them my way. I promise to take good care of them.
Btw i am leaving the terms ‘client’ and ‘patient’ behind. People, person, individual, friend…
Love,
Kim