Boosting Chi Beats Hypoglycemia.

Hypoglycemia what is it. You're tired. You can't concentrate. You feel anxious. You're shaky, pale, and dizzy. Maybe you've broken out in a cold sweat.
Those symptoms are hallmarks of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, says Maoshing Ni, O.M.D., Ph.D., a doctor of Oriental medicine and director of the Tao of Wellness Center in Santa Monica, California.

And, just like a fuel gauge, those symptoms are pointing to a very obvious fact: Your body's energy is low, and you need to increase it. Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) call that energy chi.
In the case of hypoglycemia, TCM says that the chi in your body, particularly in your pancreas and spleen, is deficient and that restoring chi to those organs will help remedy the problem. The healing can start once you get the point—the acupressure point, that is.

ACUPRESSURE: Cure Yourself in 10 Days
Chi, according to TCM, circulates in your body along energy tracks called meridians. Pressing certain acupressure points on those meridians can help send more chi to specific organs. In every case except for the CV point, you'll press the same acupressure points on both sides of your body symmetrically, first on one side, then on the other. Here are the four points that restore energy to the pancreas and spleen, says Dr. Ni.

• ST36 is four finger-widths below the lower ridge of your kneecap, in the hollow or indentation at the front of your shinbone. » SP4 is at the beginning of the arch on the inside of your toot, right behind the bone of the big toe.
• CV6 is two finger-widths below your navel, on an imaginary vertical line running down the middle of your body and directly through your navel.
• BL20 is two finger-widths from your spine, level with what doctors call the 11th thoracic vertebra, which is midway between your waist and the middle of your shoulder blades.

Use your thumb or finger to press each point with very steady pressure for 2 minutes, says Dr. Ni. You can press all of the points consecutively for quick, symptomatic relief whenever you're experiencing the symptoms of hypoglycemia, he says. For long-term relief, alternate the points every other day; for example, press ST36 and SP4 on Monday, CV6 and BL2U on Tuesday, ST36 and SP4 on Wednesday, and so on.
After 10 days, your condition should be stabilized, says Dr. Ni. As with the alignment of a car, however, he notes that your body's internal balance may go out of alignment again after a period of stress, poor diet, or other negative situations.


PROTEIN: Be Proactive with Your Diet
A diet that includes more protein sources and fewer simple carbohydrates such as white sugar and flour strengthens your spleen and pancreas, says Dr. Ni. Eat more tofu and other soy products as well as more chicken, turkey, fish, and beans.

GINSENG: Use the Right Kind
If acupressure and diet don't remedy the problem, "a person should use Chinese herbs," says Dr. Ni. He says that ginseng promotes more energy in the spleen/pancreas system, but you need to take the right type: either Chinese or Korean, not American or Siberian. American and Siberian ginseng don't have as potent an effect, according to Dr. Ni.

Chinese and Korean ginseng help the liver convert the substance glycogen to glucose, or blood sugar. Follow the dosage instructions on the label, Dr. Ni says. You will need to take it for 2 to 4 weeks before you see results. Once you have experienced no symptoms for a few days, or if you don't notice any results after several weeks, stop taking it.

CODONOPSIS : The "Poor Man's Ginseng"
If ginseng is too expensive, try the herb codonopsis, says Dr. Ni. You may also find it under the name dang shen or bellflower. It works like ginseng, only more slowly, he says, and at about one-tenth the price. He suggests taking five 300-milligram capsules three times a day.

FOOD: Beating the Blues
The American diet is reel, white, and blues: Too much fatty, fiber-tree red meat and too many refined carbohydrates like white sugar and white bread can result in the brain-numbing blues of hypoglycemia.

The remedy? Michael Janson, M.D., consultant physician at Path to Health in Burlington, Massachusetts, advocates a low-fat, mostly vegetarian diet that includes fish and emphasizes natural, high-fiber (or slowly digested complex carbohydrate) foods such as grains, vegetables, fresh fruits, legumes, seeds, and nuts. And he says that snacking on those foods between meals can also help balance blood sugar levels.