How can you start to learn from Chinese medicine for late summer.
I use Chinese medicine every day and I often don’t realize I do. I pay attention to what the weather is and is supposed to be the near future. If, as it is right now, it’s humid, i might stay away from a few things that help to lead to dampness in the body. That decreases the Spleen, which is the main
In late Summer in NY, where I am, it can be very humid. Many people are very susceptible to dampness, which can look like problems with yeast and fungus. People might be sluggish, they might have some loose stool, and they might just be tired. If you can it’s better to try to stay away from dairy, sugar, fried foods, and alcohol. If you must can’t satay away from those, try to add some peppermint tea into your diet. I do not have a huge tendency to dampness to currently, i indulge in some cheese, but i balance it out with not eating sugar and only very seldom have alcohol. Experiment with what you can handle and if you feel bad or are noticing issues, clean up your diet and see how you feel.
As usual move your body. find something you love and do it. Moving your body helps your physical health but it also helps your mental health.
In Chinese medicine there is also a belief in the importance of preparing your body for the season ahead. This often seems confusing to me. If it’s very hot outside, go ahead and eat some fruit and have some hibiscus and peppermint tea. If it’s a little cooler, have some roasted veggies and some meat and have ginger tea. The big thing to remember is try to find balance.
8 Ways to calm down when you’re stressed
What should you do when you are feeling anxious, can’t concentrate, or feel like you are crawling out of your skin? What most people need when this happens is to provide safely within yourself and really ground into your body. Here are some suggestions….
Move your body. Sometimes this means a walk and sometimes it means dancing or yoga. Feel yourself in your body. Remind yourself that you are safe and present in this moment.
Sit in silence and meditate. Feel yourself breathe in and out. Breathe in to count of 6, hold for a count of 7 and out for a count of 8. Get focused on your breath and be present in the moment.
Go for distraction and watch something that will suck you in and forget all your problems for a few minutes. Sometimes you just need to relax and remember that life isn’t always so serious.
Read a book about someone inspiring. It’s amazing how other people’s stories can really help sometimes. Remember that you are resilient.
Eat something healthy and nourishing for the mind, body, spirit. Go for something that is comforting but has nutritional value. Once you’ve eaten that, have the dessert but eat something that is going to calm and nourish you first. Remind yourself that you have a body and have to take care of it.
Drink a calming tea or take a calming tincture. I usually have a few varieties in the shop. I especially like, chamomile, oat straw, passion flower, tulsi, to name a few.
Remind yourself that this too shall pass and you will not feel like this forever.
Call a friend or loved one. We all need other people.
These are the things that work for me! Hopefully they will help you too!
Fertility
infertility patients had a pregnancy photo shoot
I’ve been working with people as an acupuncturist for just about 20 years now. In about 15 of those, I have specialized in fertility. Most of my patients, that take the longest, are using ART ( Assisted Reproductive Technology) which means they are seeing a Reproductive Endocrinologist. It has been incredibly rewarding and incredibly difficult. I have learned a few things in the last 15 years. Here are some of my thoughts on what to do when struggling with fertility after so many years of working with women.
It’s not about doing all the right things and then getting pregnant. There is such a loss of control when you are seeking western medical treatment for fertility. Yes, it’s important what you eat but becoming obsessed with eating the perfect diet and beating up on yourself when you don’t will not help you. If you eat a lot of junk food, processed food and sugar, you should definitely try to switch to a healthier, whole food, diet but that might or might not make a difference, for you.
Move your body but do things you love. If you are doing ART you will have times where you aren’t supposed to exercise and you have to learn to be ok with it. Walk, do yoga, lift weights, do HIIT, dance, do anything you like. Different people need different things. You have to figure out what makes YOU feel good. Just do something when you can. It helps you deal with stress too!
No one is to blame. You didn’t do anything wrong. There is this belief in the wellness world that you can just eat perfect, exercise perfectly, take the perfect supplements and you will get the body you want, the health you want, the baby you want. Life just does not work like that. It is a combo of genetics, stress, environment, race, and a bunch of other things that are factors that cannot be controlled.
Take time to enjoy your life. I know that a lot gets put on the back burner when you are struggling with fertility. You have to cancel your plans for vacation because you need to be monitored. You don’t know how much money you’re going to have to spend so you can't put money into your house. Often, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. Make sure you still do things you should enjoy.
Remember that it may not happen the way you want but, in the end, everyone I have talked to has been happy with how it works out.
The liver
With Chinese medicine there are 12 major organs. 6 are yin and 6 are yang. They are said to be paired. One of those pairs is the liver and gallbladder.They are said to be the organs of the spring and the element of wood. People who are dominated by the wood element tend to have a more wiry build and strong tendons and joints. It is not uncommon for “wood” people to be naturally thin, quick to anger, and to crave lots of intense exercise. The liver is said to move the qi and blood throughout the body and be responsible for the smooth flow of qi. The Chinese say that any unfulfilled wish or desire stagnates the qi. I think most people have had some of those.
Signs of liver qi stagnation or issues with the liver are irritability, pain around rib cage, breast tenderness or PMS, headaches, alternating diarrhea and constipation, pain anywhere in the body (lack of free flow of qi is the first thing that can lead to pain,) or depression.
I most often see issues with the gallbladder as being trouble with decision making, and pain along the gallbladder meridian. It goes on the side of the head at the ear, in the occipital region, down the sides of the torso, the butt and the outside of the leg. Chronic ear issues can be helped by dealing with the gall bladder.
Why should you deal with your liver or gallbladder stagnation when the Dr. said your liver is fine? You can definitely have issues with your organs from a Chinese medicine perspective but not your organ from a western medicine view. This is how Chinese medicine works preventively. I have seen a lot of people with long term liver qi stagnation that after many years, they end up with raised liver enzymes. Issues start as energy and then, when not dealt with, become more physical. If we can deal with them when they are more energetic and not yet physical, we can keep certain things from getting diseased. I, for one, am all about dealing with them when they are not yet physical. I know that regular acupuncture helps me to feel my best. I usually see an acupuncturist periodically whether or not I am having issues. I think its good to turn it over to someone else and not do it myself. Over the last 2 years, since the pandemic started, I have only had acupuncture when I do it and I’m definitely missing it and feeling less balanced. I can’t wait until it’s time to go back!
Herbal medicine is also very important to help you to deal with issues on a long term basis. I recommend that everyone take some liver supporting supplements, like milk thistle, when they are feeling some of the signs I have mentioned above. You can also drink many things as herbal teas. I will have some in my apothecary when I update it next month.
Eating foods like greens, citrus, grapes and olives and less meat and heavy fried foods also helps, along with regular exercise. It is important to notice what’s going on in your body and deal with it, not ignore it.
Herbal Apothecary
I have been studying herbs for the last 20 years. I had to study them in acupuncture school but I wasn’t that into them. I need to understand how things work and not just memorize things to really be into them. There was just not the time then for me to really learn them so I memorized for the tests and did fine. I didn’t feel like I really was learning. Over the last 20 years, herbal medicine has been my main form of medicine personally but I didn’t really use them for work. I used some patent formulas, which are pills, teas, capsules ect with my patients but honesty, that only takes so much thought. I went to my acupuncturist/herbalist for help with herbs, mostly for my lungs, which are an issue. I havent taken a western med, had a lung X-ray or a sputum sample for years but I have taken herbs, which makes me better a lot faster than Western Meds ever did. I used formulas for some of my fertility patients, when they were not going through IVF or IUI but if someone is going through them, they cannot takes herbs through the process. I taught people about vitamins and herbs that helped support immunity too.
In this time, it was always in the back of my head that I wanted to study the herbs in a way that really felt like I was getting to know them. I wanted to grow them and feel like I had a relationship with them. Over the last couple of years, I have been reviewing my Chinese herbs and have been studying with Chestnut School of Herbs. I am forming a deeper relationship with the herbs and they are becoming allies I can use with my work and not just personally. With Chinese medicine there are often really complicated formulas with a lot of herbs. As a patient, I have often not responded well to this. With western herbalism it is more common to use one or 2 herbs which are way easier for sensitive people to process. Since I am very sensitive, that’s just the kind of people I generally work with. That’s why I opened my Apothecary. It is just the beginning. I started with a few things and will be expanding soon. In the early spring, i will come out with a more curated shop that will have some other things too. I will have a monthly tea subscription that can be customized to your needs. It’s pretty exciting and I think you will love what I’m up to. I know I do.
Herbs for Winter
For winter I will be focusing on 4 types of herbs: adaptogens, tonic, immune supporting, and warming. These are the ones we need to most in this season!
Adaptogens are a very powerful class of herbs. They help to balance out the bodies stress response. A lot of this happens within the neurological and endocrine systems of the body. They help to provide balance and support to these systems that tend to get overwhelmed but the stress of everyday lives. Adaptogens are generally easily tolerated. While I say that, everyones body is different so when I decide what goes in my teas, I stick with generally the ones that are the gentlest. My favorite adaptogen is Holy Basil, or Tulsi, so you will see me use that a decent amount.
Tonics work on deficiencies of qi, blood, yin and yang. The most common herbs I’ll be using, at least initially, are qi tonics. They are for low energy, poor digestion, trouble sleeping, and just basically to give you a little energy and strengthen your body. One of the best is astragalus.
Immune supporting is good at this time of year but anything that stimulates the immune system you don’t want to use for too long. There is some talk about how constantly boosting the immune system can lead to auto-immune disorder. I can kind of see that. I think it’s best to use tonic herbs long term to keep your body healthy and strong. Then you can use immune system teas and herbs when you know you’ve been exposed to something or are fighting something off. Elderberry and echinacea are two of the most often used.
Warming herbs are also good for the winter. Sometimes when it’s cold outside we need some help warming our body. Spicy herbs help do this. Ginger is one of the best to warm our entire bodies.
If you adda variety of these to your everyday life, you will get through this winter healthier and with more energy.
Chinese Medicine: Simplified
The main substances that we talk about in Chinese medicine are Qi, Blood, Yin and Yang. They all work together to give us form and movement. They make up our vitality. Sometimes there is too little of any of the substances or they are not moving smoothly around our bodies. When we do acupuncture, we are balancing their flow. We may be calling a substance to an area or we may be trying to move some stagnation in an area. We must have enough of qi, blood, yin, and yang and they must be working as they are supposed to in order to have energy for our calm times and our busy times.
Qi is the energy that moves around the body. We can have qi that is deficient and we can have qi that is in excess, which is called stagnation or stasis. It cannot truly be in excess but there can be too much qi that is stuck in one place or just not flowing smoothly around the body. This is often caused by a traumatic injury or just by stress. The liver is responsible for the smooth flow of qi throughout the body and the Chinese also say that any unmet wish or desire causes liver qi stagnation. Everyone has some degree of qi stagnation. Some signs of qi stagnation are pain, depression, anxiety, irritability, irregular periods, breast tenderness, anger, small clots during your period, mood swings and probably some others I’m forgetting at the moment. I mentioned that qi can also be deficient meaning that there just isn’t enough. This can happen from years of stress, irregular and disordered eating, poor digestion and assimilation, overwork, not enough sleep and rest, basically burning the candle at both ends. Some signs of this are fatigue, getting more tired from exercise, having issues with digestion, not getting your period and many more. Most people have a combo of deficient and stagnate qi. In school you learn about imaginary people that have clear signs of only one of them but in reality it’s usually more complicated than that.
Yang falls into the category of qi. It is what’s responsible for warming the body, It is the force of movement in the body. It is at the day, the light, the sun, male energy, it enlivens us and gives us movement. You can also be deficient in yang, but you can’t really have excess yang. Some signs of yang deficiency are having low energy, being cold all the time, having digestive issues with undigested food in the stools. not getting your period, being cold intolerant and more.
Blood is technically a type of yin. Blood deficiency is very common and because the diagnosis criteria for some things are more sensitive than western medicine sometimes blood deficiency can come with an actual western medicine diagnosis of anemia and sometimes you will show symptoms of blood deficiency without that diagnosis. Chinese medicine often catches things earlier so that if you don’t deal with it, I have often seen people become anemic. You will often hear me talking about how Chinese medicine works well preventatively. This is one of those times. Some possible symptoms of blood deficiency are fatigue, lightheadedness (especially upon first standing,) these symptoms can get worse before or during the period, pale skin, fatigue, light or no period and many more.
Yin is the feminine principle in our bodies, men have yin also, it is the calming and nutritive part of us all, it gives everything form and is the substance. Yin is also really only deficient. Midlife is most likely the time people really start showing yin deficient signs. People definitely have it earlier but midlife its hard not to have it. Peri-menopausal and menopausal women show deficiency of both yin and yang. SO do men in the same age range. We just don’t talk about it. Think about how we get wrinkles and dry out when we age, that is a deficiency of yin. Signs of yin deficiency are having a superficial energy where we feel jittery, waking up multiple times at night, feeling dry, sore throats that are not from a virus, hot flashes, sweating at night, feeling hot and more.
Some people tend more towards deficiency or excess. A quick way that I access if someone is more deficient or excess is to ask if they get more energy from exercise. If they do, I know Im not dealing with a super deficient person and if they are exhausted afterwards, I know their deficiency is super intense. Anyone who really knows Chinese medicine knows that this is an oversimplification of an, at times, very complicated medicine. Chinese medicine is at once very simple and very contemplated. It is an art and there really are no black and whites. This is probably one reason I love it so much.