Options for Painful Menstuation

When I was in my early 30's, I had such severe menstrual cramps I would be in bed for a couple of days each month. Most companies don't like employees to be off sick that much anad it was difficult to work doubled over in pain. I needed a solution to this situation.

After going to my gynecologist, the option provided was either
1) suck it up
2) take pain pills
3) get a hysterectomy

I had tried options 1+2 without much luck so I eventually opted for number 3, the hysterectomy.

Now that I am learning about Chinese Medicine, I can see there was another option; to try acupuncture. An Acupuncturist would have easily diagnosed me with "Liver-Qi or Liver-Blood stagnation", something that can be treated very successfully with acupuncture.

Acupuncture uses all aspects of a woman's menstrual cycle in the assessment and development of any treatment plan. Acupuncture is used to treat menstrual and menopausal problems of all kinds.

If you are having painful periods, experiencing blood clots during menstruation, scanty blood flow, amenhorrhea, PMS, menopausal symptoms, or any problems regulating menstruation, including trying to get pregnant, consider seeing an Acupuncturist. It's an alternative worth exploring.

Options for Painful Menstuation

Chinese Medicine has 3 Areas of Focus

Chinese medicine focuses a lot on acupuncture, nutrition, and herbs. All of these components are used to help a person improve or maintain health.

Acupuncture is good to move energy (like Qi and blood).

Diet and herbs are used to add energy.

Chinese Medicine has 3 Areas of Focus

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen

If you are interested in Chinese cooking or seeing how you can use food to help keep your body healthy, or even use food to help treat common ailments, this Chinese recipe book can help.

The book includes basic information about Chinese Medicine, along with authentic Chinese recipes and a section on how to select which recipe for which medical condition.

I have enjoyed the book and learning about different Chinese herbs and ingredients and learning about different ingredients. Many of the ingredients I had only heard of but had no experience or knowledge in how to cook them or use them. The information about these foreign sounding ingredients was easily explained along with where someone could purchase these items.

My only hesitation in purchasing the book has been the type of book to buy. I bought this as an electronic book for my Kindle and have come to realize this type of book, a reference book, works better in a hard copy format.

In a hard copy you can easily thumb through the pages and go to any section of the book. In an electronic book, such as the Kindle, if you are reading what recipes work best for the common cold, for example, and the book says "Flu Season Soup, go to page 92", you can't flip to page 92. You push a few buttons to get to the "go to section", enter page 92 and it takes the reader back to page 92 of the Kindle. Page 92 of the Kindle for someone like me using a large font so I can see the text, is not the same page as is in the hard copy version.

Needless to say, I still liked the book and would recommend it as a good place to start learning about Chinese ingredients, recipes, and how to use the ingredients in different concoctions to improve ones health.

Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen

The Art of Assessment

There is a story about a nurse who was aboard a flight when one of the passengers collapsed with a heart attack. The nurse went into action and started CPR. A physician was also present on the plane, and he too, came forward to help. He stood over the nurse and the collapsed passenger directing the nurse to start an IV in the patient’s arm.

The nurse looked up at the doctor from the CPR kneeling position and said, “do you see any damn IV’s in this airplane?”

She then continued with CPR, helping to save the passengers life. The doctor stood watch providing advice, but he did not know how to do CPR nor administer care without the use of hospital equipment.

To me this story shows how far we have strayed from knowing the basics in our health care world. Some clinicians are unable to help someone, let alone assess and treat them, without the use of sophisticated tools. The art of listening, assessing, and diagnosing with nothing more than the ability to use one’s own senses is becoming a lost skill in Western Medicine.

I think this is why I am so fascinated with learning Chinese Medicine. In these classes, we are learning how different characteristics will manifest a vast array of different characteristics in the patient in areas of the body that in Western medicine we don’t even see as being connected. For example, in Chinese Medicine, the kidney is associated with early gray hair and insomnia means the blood needs to be fortified.

What we are learning in these classes is that it is not just the patient’s complaint and presenting history that are important. We have to look at the entire person, including their emotions, spiritual aspect, climates, tissues, vital substances, sense organs, external manifestations, fluids, odors, colors, tastes, sounds, orifice, time of day, season, as well as environment and history.

None of these observations require any fancy equipment. Everything is done through observation and just listening to the patient. We have to observe the WHOLE patient and not just the complaint point or where it hurts. After all, each organ is associated with different manifests in different locations throughout the body.

I can see this ability to pull all these subtle nuances together and come up with a diagnosis and treatment plan based on just listening and observing is pretty amazing. It is an art.

I feel lucky to be learning how to become a better assessment artist.

The Art of Assessment

Why Food is Important in Chinese Medicine

One of the most surprising things to me about studying Chinese Medicine is that it is not the human heart that is the center of the human body universe. It is the spleen and stomach. The spleen and stomach are organs devoted to transforming food and they are number one when looking at your health.

Because of this, food is one of THE vital components that must be studied in Chinese Medicine. After all, it is food that is one of the ingredients to create Qi (chee), the source energy that governs life itself. Organs connected to the creation of Qi are the center of the human body universe in Chinese Medicine.

In Western Medicine, food is looked at like it is a step child in the health care world. It is almost as if it is just a necessary ingredient, but one that is not THAT important. (Have you ever eaten in a hospital cafeteria? You can see what I mean).

Food in Western Medicine is always broken down to calories, carbohydrates, and fats. There may be a bi-line thrown in with the instruction to "eat more greens" as if that is the panacea to cover good nutrition. But overall, it leaves you with an impression that one food can easily be swapped out with another if you know how to substitute the caloric value, or the fats, or the carbohydrates in the equation. For example, you can maybe swap out a spinach salad for a glass of wine and with a bit of tweaking here and there you may even come up with the same caloric value and then call it "good enough".

This concept of food swapping is not part of the Chinese Medicine's health care process.

In Chinese Medicine, EVERYTHING is seen as having value and has a job to do. One would never consider the organs as being expendable and disposable like we do in Western Medicine. In Chinese Medicine, things are just not seen as chemical compositions; everything is part of FLOW and BALANCE.

The way Chinese Medicine uses food and values food is quite the eye opener for me. Just as every organ has value and a job to do, EVERY food has a specific job to do, too. Even different flavors, and even the color of the food, can play different roles in keeping a body healthy. Even the way you prepare the food can impact the body differently. EVERYTHING about the food is important in Chinese Medicine.

This whole concept surrounding food is causing me to pause. I can no longer think that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie because now, every morsel of food can have a different job to do and can have a different responsibility to keep someone healthy. Food is now medicine!

In Chinese Medicine the spleen and stomach are the center of the human body universe, and because of this, food plays one of the most important roles to maintaining someone's health.

Pretty interesting, huh?

Why Food is Important in Chinese Medicine

Teething Babies, Colic, + Digestion

Gripe Water is the recommended herb for young babies who are teething, according to our instructor. Gripe water contains Xiao Hui Xiang (fennel), ginger, and chamomile. It is used to help teething, colic, and digestive problems in young children.

Xiao Hui Xiang is fennel seed and is known to soothe and warm the digestive track. Sometimes you will see a bowl of fennel at Indian restaurants. Fennel helps move the Qi in the stomach, so next time you see a bowl of it in a restaurant, take a bit and see if it helps relax and soothe your stomach.

Teething Babies, Colic, + Digestion

Jing and Goji Berries

Jing is considered one of the vital substances in Chinese Medicine. The vital substances include blood, body fluids, Qi, shen (or mind), and JING.

Jing is considered Essence and is what you inherited from your parents. It regulates the body's growth and development as well as works to protect the body from harmful factors.

The functions of Essence are:

• growth, reproduction, and development
• producer of marrow
• basis of constitutional strength
• basis for the three treasures - Essence-Qi-Mind

Some say your Essence can not be replenished and you only have what you were born with. Others say it can be replenished, but with difficulty. Goji berries, also known as wolfberries, are a food that some believe may help replace Jing (if it can be replenished). In the USA, goji berries are usually available as dried fruit (around $20/lb...YIKES!!)

Jing and Goji Berries

Treating Colds the Chinese Medicine Way

According to Chinese Medicine, colds are considered a wind attack and can quickly move through the body. You can combat the illness head on with some herbal remedies.

Yin Qiao San for the early onset of a soar throat.

• The formula includes Honeysuckle & Forsythia Powder (san means powder).
• Dose yourself every two hours at the first signs of cold symptoms.

Zinc

• Zinc is a good anti-viral

Ren Shen Bai Du San for long-term colds

• This boots energy and treats the pathogen.

Zhong GenLing for really, really bad colds

• This is an anti-viral.

Can Cao to regulate the cough (use ONLY if you don't have high blood pressure. Contra-indicated for those with hypertension).

How can you prevent a cold?

• Get enough sleep.
• Don't hold onto stress.
• Get physical exercise.
• Eat healthy. Refined sugar, which is so prevalent in the American diet, has a direct negative effect on the immune system. It almost eliminates your ability to fight off infection, so don't eat sugar.
• Vitamin D. Cabbage is good for the immune system. Fermented food is good for the immune system. So eat up!
  

Treating Colds the Chinese Medicine Way

Five Elements in Nature - a Foundation in Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine has existed for about 5,000 years, before CT scans, before X-Rays, before microscopes. Our instructor kept telling us that if we observe and understand nature, we can translate the same principles into Chinese Medicine. He then went on to share the foundation from which the concepts are built on, known as the five elements of nature.

The elements of nature in many cultures are typically the four elements of fire, earth, water, and wood. Aristotle, Hindu, and Buddhism added a fifth esoteric element, the esoteric aether, but in the Chinese culture, metal is the fifth element.

In Chinese culture, the list of natural elements is and their state of constant interaction and flux with one another is the foundation from which everything is built. The different characteristics, correspondences, and inter-relationships in nature uses the exact same principles to assess the body, diagnose problems, and treat diseases. That is why it is so important to have the foundation of understanding how nature works. You will need that same information to know how the body, disease, and treatment works.

This is known as the Cycle of Mutual Promotion of the Five Elements:

• Water promotes wood.
• Wood promotes fire.
• Fire promotes earth (when burning down wood).
• Earth promotes metal (when burying wood).
• Metal promotes water (when melted by fire).

This is known as the Cycle of Mutual Control of the Five Elements:

• Metal controls (chops) wood but controlled by fire.
• Fire controls metal but controlled by water.
• Water controls fire but controlled by earth.
• Earth controls water but controlled by wood.
• Wood controls earth but controlled by metal.

Here is how these cycles of promotion and control are often depicted:

These same characteristics of the five elements in nature, and their affect on each other, is the same paradigm used in the body. Each of the five elements in nature has a major Yin and Yang organ of the body associated with that element.

• The liver has the same characteristics as wood, growing and unfolding.
• The heart is the same as fire, warming and flaring up.
• The spleen is the same as earth, receiving, transforming and generating.
• The lung is the same as metal, purifying and descending.
• The kidneys are the same as water, nourishing and flowing downward.

As a result, the organs of the body can now be placed and used in the same cycle of of promotion and control used for the elements in nature:

In summary, the promotion works like this:

• Kidney (water) promotes liver (wood).
• Liver (wood) promotes heart (fire).
• Heart (fire) promotes spleen (earth).
• Spleen (earth) promotes lung (metal).
• Lung (metal) promotes kidney (water).

Control of the five vital organs works like this:

• Lung (metal) controls liver (wood) but controlled by heart (fire).
• Heart (fire) controls lung (metal) but controlled by kidney (water).
• Kidney (water) controls heart (fire) but controlled by spleen (earth).
• Spleen (earth) controls kidney (water) but controlled by liver (wood).
• Liver (wood) controls spleen (earth) but controlled by lung (metal).

By applying the law of nature to our body system, Chinese medicine can interpret the symptoms and determine the causes of our health problems. When one organ fails, the symptoms usually show up in another. For example, when the lung energy is weak, the liver energy becomes out of control and develops into headaches or high blood pressure. In this case, treating the lungs is necessary in curing liver-related symptoms.

Chinese Medicine also looks at the orifices and openings in a person's face as if they are mirrors to what is going on in the internal vital organs. By observing the orifices and the tissues of the face, the eyes, tongue, mouth, nose, and ears, you can tell what is going on inside a person's organs.

Chinese Medicine also takes into account each season and climate in their assessment and treatment plans. The reason they do this is because each season can have adverse effects on one of our organs. Seasons can also be used to know when to help nurture and store up certain organs to prepare for oncoming seasons and they often prepare for seasons with the use of nutrition. They have determined the five tastes of sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty can have health promotional effects on the five organs and use this as part of their treatment and prevention of disease process.

In addition, Chinese Medicine recognizes emotions can have damaging effects on our vital organs. Too much sadness, for example, damages our lungs. Over joyfulness can cause heart attacks. Extreme anger hurts our livers. Too much worrying causes indigestion. Extreme frightfulness damages our kidneys. Chinese Medicine takes the different emotions and associates them with certain organs and then back to the initial five main elements found in nature.

Here is a summary of what is used in Chinese Medicine and how it translates to the five elements found in nature:

	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
Yin Organ (Zang)	Liver	Heart	Spleen	Lungs	Kidneys
Yang Organ (Fu)	Gall bladder	Small intestine	Stomach	Large intestine	Bladder
Season	Spring	Summer	Late summer	Autumn	Winter
Climate	Wind	Heat	Dampness	Dryness	Cold
Orifice	Eyes	Tongue	Mouth	Nose	Ears
Tissue	Tendons	Blood vessels	Muscles	Skin	Bones
Taste	Sour	Bitter	Sweet	Pungent	Salty
Emotion	Anger	Joy	Worry	Grief	Fear

So the reason why our instructor says that if you can understand nature and how the five elements work together, you can understand Chinese Medicine. The five elements are the foundation for understanding the inter-workings and thought process used to assess, diagnose, treat, and prevent problems the Chinese Medicine way.

Five Elements in Nature - a Foundation in Chinese Medicine

Bridging Eastern and Western Medicine

Having been trained in Western medicine as a nurse, I am now learning about Eastern medicine by taking acupuncture courses in Chinese Medicine. I am trying to bridge and connect the dots between Eastern and Western medicine and I came across a wonderful book called “Power of the Five Elements”, written by a physician, Dr. Charles A Moss. He also went through a similar process of trying to bridge the concepts together after he embraced acupuncture after becoming a physician.

When the author, Dr. Moss, started to share what changes go on in the brain during an acupuncture treatment, the light went off for me and I thought, "aahhhh...that makes sense!" Here are some excerpts from his book that helped me relate and bridge these two worlds:

“By using MRI and PET scans, researchers have been able to identify the effects on the brain of stress and poor adaptation. The main hormones of the stress response are adrenalin (epinephrine) and cortisol. When a person responds to any long-term stressful situation, they first ramp up production of epinephrine, then cortisol to cope with that life challenge. If the stress continues and they are unable to disengage from that trigger, the elevated cortisol continues and they develop chronic disease and chronic inflammation (heart disease, cancer, autoimmune disease, premature aging. diabetes, obesity). Studies show that people with these problems have lower cortisol than normal.

Cortisol and other stress hormones, which are essential for survival and adaptation, become dangerous when chronically elevated and maladapted. Cortisol imbalance can lead to fatigue, weight gain, immune suppression, and susceptibility to colds, flu, joint pains, mood swings, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and digestive symptoms. These symptoms are a message of poor adaptation. The person needs to learn how to disengage from the stress. This can be done with

Acupuncture reduces the activity in the amygdale and increases the hippocampus activity which is the areas in the brain that control the production of stress hormones and regulate the activity of the adrenal glands. The affect of acupuncture on this part of the brain was the link between the ancient concept of regaining aliveness and newness and improved adoption."

The author also is able to takes the five elements that are used in Chinese Medicine (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) and uses the information to group people into different buckets or categories of behavior. He goes on to talk about these behaviors as the core to helping these patients "adapt" so they can decrease their cortical levels and become balanced, thereby managing their disease and stress.

Here are the categories of behavior he identifies and associates with the five elements:

	WOOD	FIRE	EARTH	METAL	WATER
Expectation	Get my way	True Love	Get needs met	Purify/meaning	Safety
Perception	Blocked	Hurt	Ignored	Dismissed	Danger
Stress Response	Anger/Frustration	Loss of Joy	Search for understanding	Depression	Fear

What I also enjoyed about his method of using the five elements to identify the adaptation behaviors, he also uses that information to identify what type of acupuncture each of those five element types of patients will best respond to, along with meditations and behavior modifications.

The book was helpful to me in starting that bridge between Eastern and Western medicine.

Bridging Eastern and Western Medicine