How long does it take to stop a panic attack?

I had occasion to find out when my wife awakened me a few nights ago in a full-blown panic attack. Her heart was pounding and rapid, her breath was short, and she was experiencing large muscle twitches all over her body. She had all the emotional anxiety that typically accompanies a panic attack as well. It was as if she had lost control of her body completely, and it was frankly terrifying for her.

What would you do?

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Do you treat kids in your office? If you don’t, you really should. A week or so ago, I had an 8-year-old child come into my clinic for constipation. The mother informed me that he is afraid of needles and wanted to know if I could still treat him. Luckily, I had multiple options for treatment–so of course I said YES. As it turned out, the chief complaint was constipation, but he also had ADD. Have you ever had a kid come into your office with ADD? It can be a little bit difficult.

Let’s take a look at this case study.

TREATMENT #1:

I wound up using several tools for treatment.

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The other day, my eight year old asked me what the word population meant. I used the same answer that my mom gave me when I was a kid:  “Go and look it up in a dictionary.” She looked at me funny and then asked:  “What is a dictionary?” I shook my head and showed her an old dictionary on the bookshelf. She then asked if she could just use the computer to look it up on Google. Sometimes I am jealous of my kids. They live in a world with digital cameras, cell phones, text messaging, Google, iPad, and laptop computers. They can pull together a term paper in a fraction of the time it took me. Why? Because the resources they have at their fingertips are just amazing!

I loved being a college student, and I’ll have to admit that I was a TCM nerd. My books became worn and ragged because I would spend hours studying. I have boxes of hand written notes tucked away in the garage, files and files of notes in my computer from lectures, and textbooks  filled with hand written notes in the margins.  I hold onto these notes because they are filled with valuable information—but I don’t have access to them when I need them in my clinic.

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We’re pleased to announce Headache: our latest App release for iPhone and iPod touch!

The aptly named “Headache” is an acupuncture reference specifically for researching and treating headache pain.

Treating?

Yes, that’s right. Now you can use your iPhone to research the cause of headache pain according to Chinese Medicine, then go one step further by actually treating the recommended acupuncture points with sound, vibration or pressure.

Headache helps you (or your patients) quickly distinguish between the various headache syndromes and then choose the appropriate treatment points. It’s a great way to introduce your patients to the principles of Chinese Medicine, or even help them provide self-therapy between treatments. Go take a look and see what we’ve been up to.

While you’re there, check out our other iPhone/iPod applications. Click on any of the icons below for more information, and turn your iPhone into your clinical library!