Acupuncture
Mitigating the Side Effects Of Holiday Indulging
As all of our stomachs, intestines, livers, and pancreases quiver in fear, anticipating the overindulgences to come in the next six weeks, there are steps we can take to mitigate their onslaught of abuse, first and foremost of which is to potentially be mindful to not over-abuse—an unrealistic request for enough of us! So, what OTHER MEASURES can we take?
- Strength training: By making good use of the excess proteins and calories we can getbigger and badder musculature, and since the muscles draw upon the pancreas and stomach for tonification, strength-training provides the additional benefit of putting less burden on these organs, enabling them to better deal with the burden of parties.
- Hot tea: Booze if you must leading up to, during, and even after the meal, but bookmark your gluttony with hot tea—either Pu-Erh, which contains naturally occurring pro-biotics, or whichever flavor floats the boat. Hot tea will dilate and relax the blood vessels of your enteric nervous system (belly) which aids in digestion by breaking down the inevitable accumulations of gravy, yams, and butter.
- Breakfast! Some people make the mistake of skipping breakfast (or even lunch) the morning of Thanksgiving to “make room” for the feast to come. This is an error, as skipping breakfast actually sacrifices some of the gut’s enzymes and beneficial acids, which can make digesting the feast more difficult. Fine if you want to go small, but have something, preferably, oatmeal, millet congee, or eggs and vegetables.
- Stress management: The holidays bring at least one challenging individual into our homes, so in the words of my daughter’s favorite song: “Let it go.” Ignore if possible, just for the day, and re-address if you must the next time you speak to them.
- CHINESE HERBS! Last but not least, YOU GUESSED IT! Commonly used ingredients include hawthorn berry, which can lower cholestrol, magnolia bark if you’re the type who feels gassy and stuffiness in the chest, tangerine peel if you feel too low on appetite to get properly gluttonous, obviously ginger and licorice, the latter if you tend to GERD, also barley sprouts or medicated leaven, which are great for food stagnation.
If you’d like a brief consultation to determine what is the best gluttony-support formulation for your body type and indulgence to come, please don’t hesitate. If not for my own gout disease and general health awareness, I myself would have the inclination to over-indulge frequently, regardless of holiday season.
A brief expression of gratitude. I realize that Chinese medicine is inconvenient. It’s expensive, it tastes bad or it hurts for a moment, it takes time out of the day, etc. etc. I am grateful to all of my patients for trusting me, relying upon me, and staying the course, often through the trial-and-error process that in my opinion real medicine should look like. Happy Thanksgiving!
Chinese Medical Dermatology
November is skin care awareness month, and although it is not a subject I discuss often in my blog or instagram, dermatology makes up a huge part of Chinese medical literature. As always, I hope and believe people will consider us to treat the actual root (not “the root” that certain pharmaceuticals’ TV ads claim to) of any skin issues that might befall them.
The first time my daughter had Covid she recovered quickly, as most babies and toddlers do, but it left her with some atopic skin issue on her face. We applied some topical creams that had been helpful with issues in the past, but to no avail. I consulted a teacher of mine, who recommended a formula we don’t generally think of for dermatology. It would be more categorized—that is oversimplified—as an immunological treatment, containing all the usual suspects for an exterior virus: Ephedra, ginger, wild ginger, cinnamon branch, etc.
My apologies for the cliche, magical resolution anecdote, but it does happen and did so here, probably and partially because of how young and fundamentally healthy she is. Her skin cleared up within 24 hours, to never return. We didn’t even finish the recommended dosages.
In Chinese medicine the liver is said to connect to our tendons, the stomach to our muscles (which is why proper diet can potentiate strength training), kidneys to the bones, and lungs to the skin. One way or another, most skin issues can be traced back to either our lungs, or their “paired organ,” the large intestine. In the case of my daughter, it was obviously the former.
There are 2 fundamental reasons why our skin erupts. Either inflammation trapped somewhere in the body is seeking an escape route, or a lack of blood and vital substances in the body are failing to reach the surface to lubricate and/or nourish our proverbial “exterior.” To assign the same prescription to both patterns based on a biomedical label would be ludicrous.
Cases of the former generally present as hot, red, itchy, and angry, whereas the latter are paler in color, dryer in texture, and more troubling cosmetically than anything else. Nevertheless, cosmetics matter. We’re all entitled to nice skin—more importantly to the quality and quantity of blood that belies it.
Hot and red, itchy skin generally benefits from a (closer to) vegan diet, plus bitter and anti-inflammatory herbs and foods, such as dandelion greens, kale, green tea, and a hiatus from alcohol. Acupuncture points are used to clear heat and fluid retention. We might also bleed particular vessels near the sites of eruptions to help move stagnant blood perpetuating the vicious cycle. Herbal medicines might revolve around gardenia fruit and scutellaria bark.
Pale, dry skin earns the opposite recommendation: Meat, beef, and more meat, bone broth, eggs, and plenty of sleep to help restore and regenerate blood. Black tea instead of green tea, the latter of which might further weaken the stomach with its bitterness; and moxibustion more than acupuncture to help warm and strengthen the organs. Herbal medicines likely revolve more around angelica and peony root, both of which can also be instrumental in reducing menstrual cramps. In both patterns, abstinence from dairy is advisable.
Finally, and as always, important to get your annual skin cancer scans with your dermatologist to rule out anything that is better taken care of with modern technology.
Acupuncture Post-NYC Marathon
The NYC marathon was this past weekend, and approximately 55,000 people pursued an admirable goal, reached a self-defined mountaintop, and in the process may have caused some degree of irreparable damage to their knees and/or hearts.
Although running is not the most advisable form of exercise in Chinese medicine, it is my opinion that for most people in moderation its benefits outweigh its pitfalls, helping to improve stamina and cardiovascular health, promote circulation, and in most months out of the year a healthy, non-excessive amount of perspiration.
But just like too much perspiration ends up negating its benefit by leaching the anti-inflammatory molecules and neurotransmitters contained within it, too much running can cause more harm than good—excess sweat being just one form of it.
While I struggle to disidentify as anything but a metropolitan, I also know that humans were not intended to walk, let alone run, on cement. That concrete is an inorganic, manmade endeavor, a luxury but challenge of modern society—good for capitalism, bad for Daoism.
Repeated pounding on the knees depletes their synovial fluid, the cushioning between bones and lubrication around tendons and ligaments that keep them soft, pliable, protected. Two ways to mitigate this effect is through stretching, that is opening the vessels and collaterals that send fluids to the patellae, but also with treatment.
Local acupuncture where fluid is missing cannot offer very much, but local moxibustion can inhibit NF-kappa B (inflammatory) signaling pathways, thereby dilating local vessels enough to attract white blood cells and healthy fluids. What’s more, “sports medicine” treatment around the neuromuscular paths that surround the knees can have a similar effect. Rectus femoris, biceps femoris, vastus medialis and laterali—basically, invigorate the thighs to unburden the bones.
As for the heart, this is obviously a serious issue. Excess exercise is arguably just as hard on the body as no exercise. It is important that we all find our own unique sweet spot in the middle and engage with discipline each week. For the excess inflammatory type, who drips with sweat, whose face turns red during workouts, who over-indulges and over-extends, the best recovery formula after a marathon will likely be Bai Hu Jia Ren Shen Tang, or White Tiger and Ginseng Decoction, with gypsum stone to clear the inflammatory heat that can overstimulate the heart, plus ginseng, licorice, and that’s right, white rice, to prevent further heat from flaring.
For the more typical runner type, thin and pale, who gets easily cold and prone to getting sick or injured, a potential recovery formula is Gui Zhi jia Gui Tang, or Cinnamon Twig Decoction with licorice, ginger, red dates, and extra cinnamon to strengthen and warm the chest.
Wishing everyone a speedy recovery, whether from the madness of marathon running or that of trick-or-treating. Stay warm and take care, especially en route to the holidays!
Halloween: from a Chinese Medical View
FEAR, in Chinese medicine, is said to harm the kidneys, a mechanism that is easily relatable and biomedically translatable in that when scared, our brains signal to our adrenal glands to release cortisol and adrenaline, which in turn subjectively exhausts our hormonal reserves, or the Chinese concept of healthy blood and fluids.
This blood and fluids are necessary to attract our excitatory hormones and neurotransmitters back downwards so they can do things like transform fluids and allow us to sleep and relax. As they deplete, with age, stress, and self-destruction, we become more prone to more easily releasing cortisol, which perpetuates the vicious cycle. Eventually we run out of cortisol, adrenaline, as well as our fluids that fall under the concept of “blood,” and we die, buried in the ground like the ghouls, goblins, ghosts, and skeletons that started this whole problem in the first place!
CANDY, in Chinese medicine, is said to harm the spleen, which really just means it destroys our digestive system—the system whose job it is to produce the blood and reserves that are necessary to mitigate the side effects of adrenal and cortisol spikes that are relatively unavoidable in modern life. I’ve had many patients who grew up in foreign countries relate to me that while they had plenty of sweets and treats as kids growing up, nothing was as saccharin sweet as what they tasted upon arriving in the U.S.
While it’s nice to be nice to ourselves, forgiving and all that, I believe packaged junk food that really doesn’t expire should be invisible to us if we wish to have any hope for long term health. My wife and I unapologetically shelter our daughter from it as much as possible for as long as possible to give her organs as much time to develop sans the perversion of corporate crap.
With that said… the reason many of us experience sweet cravings when stressed is because cortisol and adrenalin are up, therefore blood and fluids are down, and what substance to better mimic the mush of mucosal fluids than SWEETS? The ancient Chinese used (relatively) sweet flavor herbs, such as red dates, licorice, and rehmannia to “calm the liver”—that is to mitigate hyper-reactions of adrenaline.
SO IT MAKES SENSE! THE LOGIC OF HALLOWEEN IS CONSISTENT WITH THAT OF DAOIST BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES! Go out, get scared, have fun, then come home and enjoy a few treats 🙂 Discard or donate the rest. Ignore candy and forget about treats for the rest of the year, or at least until Christmas, for God’s sake, and use healthier options to reattract your stressed floating “yang qi” downwards:
- Nut butters like from Fixx and Fogg
- Dark chocolates like from Blue Stripes
- Coconut yogurts maybe with red dates, goji berries, and/or maple syrup, and/or nut butters with dark chocolate… ANYTHING besides refined junk food, please.
Just as “fear harms the kidneys,” excess anger is said to harm the liver, grief does the lungs, and worry harms digestion as much, if not more than poor diet. None of us, myself included, will ever be immune to worry (no vaccine for that (yet)!), so friendly reminder to have a context of friends, spiritual practice, and/or spiritual community to lean on.
Happy Halloween!
Small Choices vs. Extreme Diets
It is relatively easy for people to follow dogmatic diets, routines, and lifestyles, be it veganism, “paleo-ism,” gluten free, resolutions like never skipping a day of running or their yoga practice no matter the weather. Any of these can be beneficial in certain ways, though rarely are any a one-size fits all magic bullet for long term, full-body health.
As is the case with environmental consciousness, most of us must constantly make small decisions each day, determine what is best for us in the present moment based on what we did or consumed the day before. For example:
If you spend the day sitting at work, obviously it makes sense to stand on the train, take the stairs, and/or walk as much as possible. Physicians wrote in our classical medical texts that “excessive sitting harms the spleen,” which translates as a sedentary lifestyle weakens our digestion. No news there (except how brilliant the ancient Chinese were sans technology)!
Conversely, if you’re incredibly active for a day or two or twenty in a row, as go the lives of parents of young children, you might get more benefit the next day from prioritizing a mid-day siesta instead of a workout.
If your friend cooked a lovely, carnivorous dinner for you over the weekend of grass-fed beef and sausage, as did mine, it makes sense to be vegan or pescatarian for the following 1-2 days after. By all means reap the benefits of the red meat, but give your organs and arteries a reprieve from beef’s heaviness. Hot green tea is also advisable the following day.
On the other hand, if your diet is omnivorous and you haven’t had any red meat during the week you should probably do so, especially if you are a woman on her menses, ideally alongside steamed or sauteed vegetables.
If you eat a bunch of raw, uncooked foods have it with hot tea. If you have a bunch of cooked, spicy foods, STILL have it with hot tea, because hot tea just generally aids digestion, and is therefore perfect, thereby nullifying my one size cannot fit all maxim. Green tea is generally preferable if you tend towards constipation. Black (Pu-Erh) tea highly preferable if you tend towards diarrhea. If caffeine causes excessive urination, it probably means your “yang qi,” or capacity for fluid transformation is failing to descend into the bladder and kidneys. This can often be rectified with some Paleo meals, Chinese herbs, and/or just a good night’s sleep.
Get to bed by 11pm, when the body and brain shift entirely into restoration and repair mode.
Don’t eat (much) after 7pm, and especially not after 9pm, when we are more insulin resistant. If you must drink alcohol do so less nights than not, so as to let your organs recuperate. Sweat from exercise, but not too much, as sweat contains within it vital neurotransmitters and substances that are necessary for metabolism andcirculation.
Socialize. Community is to modern society what food was to the ancient Chinese at the inception of our medicine. For the most part we are figuratively starving, for connection, so make it a priority to meet up with friends, even if you feel awkward reaching out 🙂
