Everybody says the election campaign is heating up. In America that has come to mean that the Republicans will start even more spinning and lying and fear mongering and dividing and pandering to everyone's basest fears and insecurities for political gain. We've been living with that for eight years and...

Many years ago when Naropa Institute was just getting going as a Buddhist center of higher learning out in Boulder Colorado, I went to hear Gregory Bateson, to my mind of of the great thinkers of the 20th Century, talk there. Amidst his eloquent goings on, he cautioned us young...

So, I supported Obama through the difficult and sometimes very nasty primary season, offered publicly to be his private cook and acupuncturist during the upcoming campaign, and now want to look at the changes which, as a healthy care practitioner, I would give top priority in planning the HEALTHY LIVE...

I have colleagues and acquaintances who have been personal chefs to various celebrities, preparing daily beautiful meals of the finest quality whole foods, mostly plants, always delicious. Inspired by their work and by my own work offering delicious healthy foods to my acupuncture patients over the years, I've decided to...

Let's proclaim this National Stress Reduction Week.

Try as we may to avoid it, in our techno-driven culture we are still essentially and completely biological beings, linked inextricably with natural cycles of moon, sun, heat, cold, and time. Our bodies and minds, not that they are separate, are on...

I rarely lose sleep over politics, but last night, after the Texas and Ohio primary results were in, I found myself tossing and turning over Hillary's "W" factor. That's Dubayou...not for woman, but for the mentor in mean spirited politics...and his genius band of Wiley and Vicious Negators, she's had...

Dedicated to Barbara Seaman/Women's Health Pioneer and Author of The Doctors Case Against the Pill

In the early 1970s I was lucky to teach teenagers not much younger than myself at the Walden School on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Many of the parents were interesting people...

I just finished one of my favorite gigs of the year, teaching relaxation and meditation to 15 year olds at a nearby school with a wonderfully diverse and interesting student body. We made our way into the subject of disciplining and resting the mind and body by acknowledging together our...

As the new energy bill passed through Congress and we saw, within hours, a denial of states' legal rights to add complexity and even confusion to the national mix by setting their own fuel emission standards, the unwillingness of our market driven economy and life style to really come to...

We are in the time of year when many people feel that they are supposed to feel cheerful and even happy, but often don't. In addition to their everyday pressures, many people feel under even more pressure of time, money, relationships, diets and other manner of obligations and deadlines. Trying...

There is now a whole body of books and other writing about the depressed, anxious, disconnected, binging world of American adolescent stress-out. As more and more casualties fall off the hamster wheel of current college preparatory life and on-campus life style, I find myself asking ever more frequently: "Why are...

Because my acupuncture practice involves healing, it often involves difficult transitions and doesn't always stay in a patient's usual comfort zone. In that context, I have some maxims that I often use, and I thought they might help others, as people face a time of year that isn't always...

This week I heard three separate news stories that made me think that, as a populace, Americans are being treated as infantile helpless indulgents by some data sources. The first was about a report on airline safety. The person interviewed basically said that the situation and the number of "near...

I had the good fortune to have been at many of the landmark moments of the "60's"....Woodstock, marches on the pentagon during the Viet Nam War, certain Dylan concerts and Jimi Hendrix at the Filmore East on News Year's Eve. Then there was Columbia University,'68, the strike that shut the...

I had a new patient this morning who was 80 years old and came in for acupuncture treatment for a common neuromuscular problem. I Expected to take a long and complicated history from someone his age. I was both surprised and delighted, as we ran through his "review of systems,"...

In the post "9/11" world, the way we sustain our health will be parallel to the way we sustain life, peace, and fairness on the planet; they can't be separated. Though this has always been true, it's blaring at us right now. Knowing the breadth of what we can't control:...

In the post "9/11" world, the way we sustain our health will be parallel to the way we sustain life, peace, and fairness on the planet; they can't be separated. Though this has always been true, it's blaring at us right now. Knowing the breadth of what we can't control:...

I live in a rural community about 90 miles north of New York City. Popular bumper stickers, for those so inclined, include advice to buy and eat local and buy and eat organic, and include reminders such as "no farms......no food" and "have you hugged a farmer today?"

When...

I've been teaching stress reduction and relaxation classes in a variety of local high schools, and other organizations, private and public, for over 20 years. I used to fancy that there would never be a generation gap between me and my young students because I'm such a cool, open and...

In previous posts I've talked about the importance of healthy care vs. Health Care as it currently exists, stuffed into the big, deep pockets of Big Pharma and Big Insura. So, I promised a follow up: what would healthy care mean, and what would it look like? Do we have...