Grief and the Five ElementsWe’ve all individually and as a society, had more loss than we deserved the past several years. In the past several years I’ve worked with many patients struggling with loss. The way Chinese Medicine thinks about emotion can serve as a useful lens to reframe our perspective and experience of loss. If you are suffering from the pain of a recent (or not so recent) loss. I encourage you to read along. See if this perspective guides you to a place where you can transition into a healthy relationship with your grief. There are some conceptual pieces that, when patients grasp them at a deep level, make this transition easier. A brief description of emotions from a Chinese Medicine perspective is necessary in order to give you the foundational understanding necessary to be able to apply this process in your own life. Each of these emotional transitions have associated acupuncture points, organ systems, therapeutic processes, and mental exercises that can be used to encourage the resolution of obstacles. However, just gaining awareness of the road map can immensely help in your transition. The Five Element System In Chinese Medicine and, before that, the philosophies of Chinese culture, there was an effort to view all phenomenon as a progression through different phases. The popular symbol Yin/Yang is an example of this in which all processes and phenomena are divided into either yin (cool, stagnant, calm, solid) or yang (energetic, active, hot, moving). Taking this basic delineation further, a more nuanced division breaks all phenomena into 5 phases. Those are Metal, Water, Wood, Fire, and Earth. These operate as a set of elements encouraging the growth of the next (as water to wood) or keeping each other in check (such as water controlling fire, or metal cutting wood). Take a moment to study the image below. You can see how the Elements are organized in a circle so that each supports the generation of the one after. Water supports the growth of Wood, which provides the fuel for Fire, which burns down to become Earth, which is where we mine Metal, where condensed Water accumulates and so on. This simple framework is the roadmap by which all cycles of growth and transformation ultimately follow. The arch of a life’s story, the growth and fulfillment of a project, the stages of a relationship and the four seasons follow this process.
Water represents winter, at the bottom, dormant, calm and settled. Next an upward and outward movement is symbolized by the Wood element, and representative of the spring season. The Fire element represents the intensity and climax of summer. As the energy peaks and begins to descend, the late summer energy is manifested in the Earth element. This is akin to that moment of calm and relaxed savoring when fruits are ripe, work is done and temperatures are comfortable for relaxing, the slowly radiating heat of embers smoldering after a passionate blaze. This energy can also be captured in that feeling you get after the accomplishment of a difficult or strenuous task. It’s a calm savoring that is all the more enjoyable because of the intensity of the period that just ended. Next we move into Fall, the Metal element. As the energy starts to move downward and inwards, the excitement of the summer fades further. The passion and exuberance of the preceding active phases calms and recedes. By fall the seeds have been released and have fallen down to incorporate into the soil. The Water element follows and corresponds to the cold, still winter. Those seeds cast in fall lie dormant through winter, awaiting their perfect opportunity for spring. Finally, rebirth, in the explosive growth of spring with the opening of those seeds as Spring renews with a return to the wood element. The Seasons of Love Now, looking at a relationship through this same lens we learn about how grief becomes a natural stage in this (and indeed in all phenomena): In the process of our interaction with another human, a person we love, we also go through these phases. We carry in us the dormant phase (our water element) the seeds and distillations from previous cycles and experiences, our loves, battles, wounds and so on. Informed by these seeds we recognize in another person what we love and we are drawn to. These come from a deep place, the resonance of all the previous seeds planted from our previous experiences. It’s deep and subconscious and powerful. As we interact with them the energy rises suddenly and we move and grow in our relationship with them. This is of course, the spring phase, the Wood element. There is growth and interest and looking into the future, envisioning a future with them. (That aspect of vision is crucial and is a key factor of the wood element. As fresh sprouts reach to find sun and spread vines and canopy, so too our growing love sees a future and plans and moves towards it like a fresh tender shoot breaking through the pavement.) Next the energy moves into the Fire element. In the Fire Element we reach a climax of love, passion and attachment. This is the honeymoon phase, passionate, characterized by excitement and activity. The heat and high energy of this phase provides the needed momentum to grow and expand our connection with this other person. The Fire element associates with light and heat, love and seeing and being seen by another person exposing one another with the light of the fire growing between us. It’s a time in which two people are exploring one another and lighting and warming each other deeply to see their depths of character and form a powerful connection. The next phase is the Earth phase. It has moved from the passionate high energy honeymoon period into a period of relative calm and content relaxation. There’s mutual love and the passionate intensity of early love has burned into the long enduring coals of adoration. This is where mature and healthy relationships reach and stay as long as things don’t change. The next phase is the Metal phase and this is where, from the broader perspective of the relationship as a whole, we move to when we lose someone we love, whether this is a separation or from the death of a loved one. Metal is manifest in nature by the energy of the fall season, things calm, the morning air gets crisp, the colors seems colder, sharper and metallic. There’s a feeling in the fall that makes us go silent. It’s like the energy of walking into a church or a sacred place. There’s a solemn sort of still quality about Fall. Contemplation becomes a natural state. This all happens because the energy of fall, of the Metal element, drives the energy back in and down. Year after year, season after season for as long as life has been on Earth this process has occurred. Gather during the warm months, store during the cold months. Experience life during the summer and think about it during the winter. That’s the rhythm, how it’s always been. Every year we go in two circles, one exterior in the world, and one interior in ourselves. We trace one large figure eight, interacting with the exterior and then retracing those steps but on the inside: in our minds, hearts, families and our inner worlds. Metal is that transition from external to internal. In nature that internal gathering process concentrates into a seed. Fruits (and people) when forming their seed make adjustments based on the environment. We call this epigenetics in people. The seed represents a perfect response to the environment, designed to be an improved version of the parent, given the external world the parent has experienced. That seed falls and lays dormant through the winter to erupt with growth in the next spring (or a future spring when the time is ripe). Savoring our Memories When the grieving process meets the metal element, similarly, we are to think back (painfully at times) to our memories, favorite moments, fights, the quirks of their personalities, the great lucky moments we had, the interesting turns of events, our favorite things about them. We are revisiting them, over and over. It’s not usually something we do intentionally, and it’s something a lot of people try not to do, understandably. But we do it because it is the process of healing. We return to certain memories more than others. Some fall away while others become central to our remembering because we come to recognize that they are somehow emblematic of who they were, of our experience of them. Those memories that are so frequent in our remembrance that we replay so many times distill down into our understanding of the essence of our time together. They will in turn become the seeds that ultimately find rest in the Water element, the winter phase of our minds and hearts. That process moves our grief to the next stage, to where our memories of them can give rise to new growth and a new perspective on the world. The seeds that were gained through the difficult and painful process of revisiting the memories you shared with them finally can manifest the world in a new way. Because you did the work of sorting through your memories with them, you’ve allowed those seeds to find purchase and grow into new perspectives, wisdom, and depth of experience in your world. The grief doesn’t go away, but it can transform. You can see them in people around you, or more accurately, you see beauty in the world that you didn’t notice before, newly informed by a richer perspective allowing you to see with wiser eyes. You see opportunities to send your energy into something because you see them in it, and therefore see the value in it. When you are going about your day and you stop to appreciate something, a beautiful sight or a moment with a person because it resonates with something in you, that’s them. It’s not an exaggeration to say the world itself has been reshaped to honor their memory. There are a few key places in this progression where your intentional guidance is helpful. Ruminating on the past is a process that we get from our capacity within the Earth element. It is the same energy that gives us the ability to carefully turn over an issue and think of it from all sides or for that matter, to break down a swallowed bite and extract the nutrition from it. In the case of our memories however, the rumination can become pathogenic when it becomes never-ending and habitual. In a healthy state we contemplate and then decide on a conclusion. In the example of the seasons this rumination is like the ripening of fruits or the savoring of late summer. It happens to move into the production of the healthy seeds that move the whole process forward. In the case of our rumination about our lost loved one, the same process should be happening. I find that switching the language to “savoring” rather than rumination helps. In savoring, we’re enjoying something specifically because we are aware that it is finite. The memories are the same. Our memories of them will slowly fade. This is devastating to many people, but hopefully you can find some relief in the knowledge that as you are forgetting aspects your approaching a more complete knowing. Of course we won’t forget them, but the details will fade, the specifics will become fuzzy, and accepting that is important. The understanding that this is a process with an eventual end in sight recasts the experience into a journey with an end and a rebirth of them. That acceptance of this as a process in turn makes the next step easier. You’re allowing them to complete their mission in this world by being truly incorporated into it. Release is a Gift We Give to those We’ve Lost The other moment where you can put intention into making this a useful process is the energy move from that earth phase of savoring into the metal phase of release. We need to allow those memories to consolidate and transition to their next phase. It is in that letting go of those memories that we are able to distill our shared experiences with them down to those seeds of truth, those kernels of personality that define how this person lived in relation to their world. The seeds need to be resown out into the world to find new root and a new life for them as our grieving process passes through its winter and finds rebirth in our interaction with the world that is still here. The splash that person made in life sent out ripples. When you allow those seeds to form the ripples can bounce off the far shore and spread again across the water. I hope for your peace, happiness and growth in all the losses you’ve had in your life. In Health, Kieran Jones
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Welcome to the year of the Wood Dragon! In Chinese astrology each year is denoted by two aspects: an elemental type (wood) and a zodiac association (dragon). This year we have a powerful combination of the two most dynamic aspects combining together to set us up for a year of profound growth and potential!! Wood: The wood energy is reflected in the enthusiastic growth and reckless initiative of youth. Like tender shoots pushing stubbornly skyward, wood energy springs forth, grows towards goals, and moves quickly with determination. Dragon: This is the most dynamic of the zodiac signs. With charisma, fierce intelligence, and a desire to shine in the spotlight, the Dragon ensures a year of intensity and boundless potential. The most important take away: This is the year to take that leap. The energies are conspiring to provide a healthy tailwind towards your goals. But don’t you dare leap blindly. While the energetics make this a favorable year to move forward on goals that you’ve been delaying, that same energy makes this the year that we might convince ourselves to move rashly in decisions that are self-destructive. Gather, plan and leap! Don’t squander the capacity for dynamic change! Make sure that the steps your taking are rooted in an authentic expression of your true self! Want to dive deeper? This article by Daoist practitioners Claudia Anfuso and Erin Langley provides a deep dive into various considerations about this year and a sign by sign guide to how you personally will be affected by this year. Enjoy! https://considerastrology.com/wood-dragon-year-2024/ See you in the clinic soon! Kieran Jones One of the things that I find especially attractive about the practice of Chinese Medicine is that it doesn’t simply treat illness but it lays out clear instructions for safeguarding health, promoting longevity, and even living in a more complete manifestation of one’s true nature. It provides a world view that enables use to live in harmony with our surroundings. It’s doesn’t just make us well, it takes us when we’re well and makes us better. Seasonal attunement is a great example. For each season there is a way of being that takes best advantage of the unique energy and opportunities of that season. For example, summer is for expansion and winter is for…well, we could say contraction, but I think that sends the wrong idea. A better word might be…”magnification” or “inspection”, or really if we’re being accurate, “depth of integration”. During the summer months it’s easy to send our energy in many directions: meeting new friends, starting new hobbies and projects, seeing new places, etc. We’re taking a perspective that is more of a superficial and broad survey…of life, of our community, of our area of work. We’re sending our energy outward. During the winter we are uniquely predisposed to take a few of those areas that we were able to shine summer sun on and move them indoors to the calm focussed study of quiet winter evenings. Our energy naturally moves inwards and we can understand a concept more deeply, make a deeper connection to a person that allows us to really know them, or develop our skills in an area of interest from amateur to expert. What are you choosing to take inside for the winter? We have Gift Certificates and Free Acupuncture with Prepaid Packages!It’s nearing the end of year when many are scrambling to capture their FSA money before they lose it. We accept FSA and HSA cards for prepaid packages of treatments. And as an extra bonus, for every 9 either community or private treatments purchased, we’ll credit you with one treatment on the house. We also offer Gift Certificates that can be purchased in office or over the phone. They make great stocking stuffers. Everybody has that one person that could really use acupuncture but they just won’t go. This gift certificate might be the perfect nudge… Holiday ScheduleOur clinic will be closed from Saturday the 23rd of December through Sunday the 7th for both Community and Private treatment. Kieran will be seeing limited number of patients on Wednesday the 3rd for Private treatment to support those patients that aren’t able to make it then entire break without support.
Wishing you health and happiness this Holiday Season! Kieran Jones In this month’s edition: ~Supporting the Heart in Summer ~Scheduling Notes This is the first in a series that will explore how we view seasonal changes in traditional Chinese medicine, and how to make the most of the changes for your health and happiness. Summer is here! Slow as it may have been to arrive, we have finally left behind the the cool of the spring and landed into the deep warmth of summer. The sun’s long foray through the sky warms all of us in the end, beaming golden light through the thick grey of fog to heat us deep into our bones. All that poetic language is just right for the season of creativity, open-heartedness and companionship. Summer is ruled by the heart, which thrives when we laugh, celebrate, sing, and talk with people with love. We can also nourish the heart through all the creative arts and taking an artistic approach to daily living. Summer heat and long days can be challenging to our systems. One of the theories of Chinese medicine includes the division of the natural world into five elements, to which various aspects of our health and bodies align. Fire is one of those elements, and its natural exuberance can be a little intense during this season of heat (fingers crossed that it’s not so literal this year!). In our bodies, we associate Fire with our Hearts. And so when we go out of balance, we may notice traditional Heart-related symptoms such as palpitations, trouble sleeping, excessive sweating, and feeling tongue-tied. Come in for a tune-up, and check out the graphic below for some home remedies as well: Seasonal notes The summer solstice was our peak “yang” moment of the year- the most brightness, the longest days- and in accordance with the teachings of the Tao Te Ching, it is also the very beginning of the move toward winter. The extreme of the longest day signals the beginning of the decline in day length. Understanding that the beginning of winter resides in the peak of summer also reflects the truths of life that can be more difficult. The more that we love people, for example, the more we have to lose when the ones we love pass from our lives. What we value becomes all the more precious when it is gone. Flowers are so beautiful in part because they are ephemeral. Accepting this dual nature of life is part of how we develop wisdom: learning to cherish each moment as it arises, and letting it go once it is complete. So be sure to stop and smell the roses while they are blooming! Scheduling notes:
We are still transitioning to our new scheduling software, so give the clinic a call to set up your appointments at 707-242-6812. Our wonderful receptionist, Maria, will be happy to get you booked! Thank you for reading! As always, we gladly welcome your feedback; tell us what is working for you, and please let us know what we can do better! Take good care, Demetra Demetra Markis, L.Ac., Community Room Director Cotati Community Acupuncture Want to share with a friend? Please feel free to forward this email, or the next time you’re in, pick up a card for a friend to give them a discounted First Visit to the Community Room. First, the big news! Our electricity is coming back on tomorrow! It’s been a loooong 9 months! Did we mention that we appreciate you? Like a lot? Our amazing patients have stood by us and supported us and displayed patience with all the quirks of our self powered office these past months. You all are amazing! We’re so grateful for you. PGE and the great folks at Sun Solar are getting us set up this afternoon and we should be switched over to PGE power tomorrow morning! There may be utility trucks in our parking lot today and tomorrow as this process gets buttoned up. And there will be some construction noise coming from next door this afternoon. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. There is still lots of street parking available on La Plaza. A Few Notifications
Surgical Preparation & Response One of the things that I love about the medicine that we do is how seamlessly it integrates with allopathic Medicine to improve outcomes and smooth out the side effects for people requiring more invasive treatment. Surgery is a traumatizing process in ways that are physical, emotional and biochemical. We support you in all these areas. Musculature and joints can benefit from a tune-up. When surgical incisions cross important fascial planes or muscles the body responds by reducing neurological connection to those structures. Whether that means that a muscle now only fires at 50%, or the sensory information from proprioceptive nerve fibers aren’t received by the brain, the result is the same: altered movement movement. Acupuncture should be incorporated into a post-surgical protocol in the first weeks to ensure that these pathways are opened back up and functioning properly. Adding physical therapy to that protocol can also be helpful at times. The musculoskeletal impact of surgery can be far reaching. It isn’t uncommon for example, to find altered right shoulder function that resolves dramatically when old surgical scars from old appendectomy surgeries area address in the lower right abdominal area. Nutritional supplementation can also be helpful, and primarily in the weeks leading up to surgery. The crucial factor is ensuring that all the necessary nutrients and structural building blocks are present in the body in sufficient amounts to allow for a healthy recovery. It’s always better to start out with sufficient body stores of the nutrients you’ll be using rather than trying to supplement them after they’ve already been depleted. The processes we want to support include wound healing, immune function, liver detoxification, and general body resilience. Starting at least a few weeks prior to surgery we want to add the following nutrients: Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, silica, collagen, vitamin C, and bioflavanoid complexes. These nutrients support your surgical preparation by reducing the risk of community acquired infections like MRSA, providing the building blocks for new skin and collagen formation and ensuring sufficient resilience to keep your body healing without stressing your body functions excessively. Following surgery, there are various herbal formulations that may be appropriate depending on your presentation. Personally, the formula Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang has been very helpful for me in recovering energy following surgery. However, the specific formulation for you will depend on your overall constitution. Finally, post surgical ileus is a common complication of abdominal surgeries where the peristaltic function of the bowels doesn’t return immediately. This can be supported through various tools in our trade including herbal medicine, acupuncture, and the prescription of specific Qi Gong exercises. This exercise specifically recovered my function in minutes and prevented the need for a scheduled enema when in the hospital following an abdominal surgery while I was still in acupuncture school: Want more information?
Download our free guide to surgical preparation here: https://www.cotaticommunityacupuncture.com/surgical-preparation.html Looking forward to seeing you in the clinic! Best, Kieran Jones April! That spring wind is kicking up, and people are feeling it. Itchiness, edginess, irritation- all of these feelings are fairly normal this time of year, when the air warms up and cools back down in fits and starts, and the wind blows around and then dies down again. That edgy, pushy energy has a purpose, however. In traditional Chinese medical theory, spring is the season of growth, and one of the images often seen is of a tenacious little tree growing right through a rock. Growth in this light means being undeterred by difficulties, flexible enough to withstand even the most daunting obstacles that may appear in your way. Think of what it takes to be a seed unfurling your first leaf in this kind of weather- icy rain and gusts of wind one day, hot sun another. You have to be pretty committed to survival to manage your first few days of life in that kind of atmosphere! That fierceness is the very signature of being alive. If you find yourself being overwhelmed or overly irritated by your response to this spring energy, you might find it helpful to get some acupuncture! Just as the weather seems all over the place at this time of year, our internal cycles can feel the same way. Using acupuncture to regulate the flow of qi in our bodies is a solution. Points on your face can help with allergy-related inflammation, and ear points and others can be utilized to help smooth that uneven flow and get you back into rhythm. A few things to try at home: 1. Use the heel of one foot to massage the top of the other, especially between the first and second toes. This area includes a famously powerful point for calming intense energy. 2. Regulate your breath to regulate your energy: close your eyes and breathe in for a slow count of four, out for a slow count of six. Continue for as long as needed. 3. Ear massage! It’s not just for your pets. Give your ears a vigorous massage for even a few seconds and notice how good it feels. Community Room Schedule for the month of May Thank you for reading! As always, we gladly welcome your feedback; tell us what is working for you, and please let us know what we can do better! Take good care, Demetra Demetra Markis, L.Ac., Community Room Director Cotati Community Acupuncture Want to share with a friend? Please feel free to forward this email, or the next time you’re in, pick up a card for a friend to give them a discounted First Visit to the Community Room. Acupuncture for back pain… in a recliner chair?I’ve been treating one of my neighbors up in the Cazadero Hills most Friday afternoons, along with his family. He’s a very athletic person, strong and fit, and so he was quite surprised when a moment of lifting firewood in an awkward position left him with back pain that just wouldn’t quit.
“Will you be able to treat it,” he texted me, “in a recliner chair?” It’s a question I’ve gotten many times in the past 13 years of doing community acupuncture, and I’m happy to say the answer is yes. But how? In Chinese medicine, practitioners view the body as being lined with meridians, much the way a landscape is lined with rivers and paths. When there is pain in an area, we understand that the meridian that moves through that part of the body has been blocked. By using a needle to stimulate the movement of energy through the meridian- in a point anywhere along that pathway- we can help the body unblock the area and restore a feeling of ease. Over years of practicing and giving thousands of treatments, I’ve come to realize certain points are much more effective at moving energy than others. That’s why if you come in with low back pain, you will find me taking time to needle several points along the sides of the foot. These points have been used since antiquity for their powerful effect on opening blocked channels and relieving pain, and I find them to be very reliable. I have also found that ensuring you are in a comfortable position will allow your nervous and musculo-skeletal systems the space to relax and come back to a place of harmony. That’s why I always take the time to check if you need a boslter or a blanket, or to make any adjustments to your position before we get started. It’s worth it! Welcome to our new monthly Community Room newsletter! In this month’s edition:
Welcome to the Year of the Yin Water Rabbit!Did you feel that? A shift in the ambient energy, culminating in a sense of more ease and space? A few days ago, the wild year of the Yang Water Tiger ended, and- heralded by the appearance of that beautiful sliver of new moon in the western sky- we entered the new year of the Yin Water Rabbit. I often see rabbits near my home. If I'm driving at night, my headlights will catch them darting rapidly this way and that, doing their best to distract me from the dens they have raced away from. If I'm walking along in the daytime, I'll often spot them motionless, watching me closely, having heard me coming- or rather, felt the vibrations of my footsteps through the earth- long before I got close enough to see them. After an intense few years (wouldn’t you say?), it’s a great relief to announce that the energy is calming down for a spell. This year, which lasts through February 9th, 2024, will allow us a chance to rest, to reconnect with our intuition and creativity, and to adjust to the new reality of the ever-changing word that we inhabit. Rabbits, in the Chinese astrological tradition, are considered to be wise, peaceful, adaptable, and strategic. If you were born in 1939, ’51, ’63, ’75, ’87, or ’99, you are a rabbit, and for those of you born in 1963 (Chinese astrology moves in sixty-year cycles), this is the first time the element of Yin Water has returned for you. This year is giving us a chance at collective rest before another few years of intensity and change, as 2024 is a powerful Year of the Wood Dragon. To prepare, it’s highly encouraged to take every available opportunity to restore your energy, build practices that support grounding and intuition, and honor your need for security and community. This year is a Water year, and we can observe and learn from the Water element in the natural world: as a river flowing easily around obstacles, and as the ability to shift as needed from fog to cloud to rain to ocean. As the ancient Roman poet Ovid taught, a drop of water, falling again and again over time, has the power to shape something as hard as stone through its persistence: we use this metaphor often in our medicine to illustrate the profoundly transformational power of a gentle practice like acupuncture given repeatedly over time. Feng Shui practitioner Gaela Morrison, writing for The Power Path, reminds us: “Kidneys need extra rest with all the forward growth movement. Lying down is medicine for the kidneys so cultivate napping!…Inner work, meditation, particularly breathing exercises, spiritual practices, acupuncture, Chi Gong and other healing modalities will all contribute to health and staying in balance.” We couldn’t agree more! Now more than ever, we can benefit from the power of healing in community, of resting together. We hope to see you often in this year. Take advantage of the chance to catch up and fill your cup before the fire of the dragon flares up in 2024! Thank you for reading! As always, we gladly welcome your feedback; tell us what is working for you, and please let us know what we can do better!
Take good care, Demetra Demetra Markis, L.Ac., Community Room Director Cotati Community Acupuncture Want to share with a friend? Please feel free to forward this email, or the next time you’re in, pick up a card for a friend to give them a discounted First Visit to the Community Room. What is Integrative Orthopedic Acupuncture?
I consider myself very fortunate to be doing the work I do. It provides a great combination of intriguing puzzles and positive impact. It also cultivates what I consider to be a useful perspective on the world and an increased capacity to understand complex situations. One of the ways I think it does this is that it forces me to consider a patient’s single problem as it manifests through different planes of influence. Specifically, we evaluate problems to find the pattern of dysfunction threading through their person on three different levels:
I’ll briefly walk through a new patient evaluation and how these three levels can show up simultaneously in the same set of symptoms for a patient. This patient, Nancy (not her real name) came to my office seeking assistance with chronic muscle tension, aching pain and fatigue. Nancy was a woman in her 40s, an office worker, spending long hours at a desk at work and giving entirely too much of herself to her family as she simultaneously manages the home, does all the cooking and cleaning, and works a full time job. At work she’s an emotional dumping ground for her coworkers, providing a supportive ear for them. At home she’s still providing emotional support to those around her and worrying over them all day but failing to support her own emotional nourishment. She’s understandably tired, and her emotional and relationship habits are manifesting in her health at deeper levels. She finds herself craving unhealthy foods, seeking emotional nourishment through food when she feels emptied by her life. Her poor diet impacts her digestion, resulting in poor absorption, the accumulation of inflammation and poor production of energy. The heaviness we feel when we fail to eat properly Chinese Medicine recognizes as “dampness”. The transformation and elimination of that dampness is what a healthy functioning digestive energetic accomplishes. In the absence of healthy strong digestive energy “dampness” accumulates resulting in a sensation of heaviness, fatigue and lack of motivation. We’ll look closer at each of these levels in her and how they interact and influence each other. Orthopedic: The Physical Level Her most severe pain was on the outside of her thighs and across her low back, but she also experiences dull, aching pain through her shoulders, arms, neck, and upper back. Nancy works at a desk for the majority of her working hours, and her extended sitting has altered the correct orientation of her pelvis, shortening of the muscles on the front of the hips and thighs. In turn the glutes and the IT Band are stretched to their limit as the back of the pelvis has tilted upwards. The pain down the sides of her legs feels like tension in the IT Band to her and she is drawn to stretching the glutes and IT band area, but in fact they are tight because they are already stretched to their limit. Stretching these predictably gives her temporary relief as she frees up more room in them, but of course the pain returns because this is the opposite of what is actually needed. In treatment different approaches were applied to the front aspect vs the back aspect of her legs and hips. On the front the muscles (Psoas and Rectus Femoris (the main Quad Muscle)) were locked into a shortened position and needed to shift to a longer, more relaxed state. This was accomplished through acupuncture and a specific needling technique for releasing the muscles. Needles were inserted into the motor points (locations where the nerves enter the muscle) and stimulated gently until they elicited a small twitch. Like a computer reseting to the factory settings after a shut-down, the twitch normalizes the tension in the muscles. Massage to lengthen these muscles was also applied and rehabilitation exercises and stretches targeting the psoas and quads were prescribed. In contrast, the back of the legs and hips were too relaxed. The muscles needed to be strengthened, or more specifically they needed to be “woken up”. Typically, it isn’t an issue with the muscle being too weak, but more that the muscle gets lazy and simply doesn’t fire when it should. These muscles are needled more gently and electrical stimulation is applied at a low level to cause small, repeated, and involuntary contractions in the muscle. These contractions remind the muscle to fire and lower the threshold needed to elicit muscular contractions in these muscles in the future. It’s analogous to taping someone on the shoulder and reminding them to stand up straight; it’s a gentle reminder for the body to do more of what it was designed to do. She was also prescribed exercises for these muscles, including short 1 minute posture correction exercises to be repeated throughout her work day to ensure that the long hours at her desk don’t continue to alter her proper alignment. Energetic Nancy’s internal medicine picture is one of poor energy production and increased systemic inflammation stemming from the digestive system. (In this article I’m trying to use language that can be easy understood by our readers, but in fact, in the course of treatment these are concepts that are far better understood and much more thoroughly explained with the language of Chinese Medicine. In her case she’s experiencing what Chinese Medicine would call Spleen Qi Deficiency failing to generate Qi and Blood, with the accumulation of dampness and Damp Bi Obstruction.) In order to resolve that dynamic we included acupuncture points to wake up the digestive system, resolve and transform dampness and reduce the inflammation. She was presenting with the signs of lymphatic congestion as well which is a common manifestation of inflammation stemming from digestion. Points addressing this and helping to circulate the lymph were added and lymphatic self massage was added to her exercise prescription. I also prescribed a custom granule formulation of Chinese Herbs using the formula Shen Ling Bai Zhu San. This formula, originally designed in the 11th century, resolves the dampness that has accumulated as a result of poor digestion, resets the digestive energy and with additional herbs added, helps to resolve swelling in the joints and muscles to reduce the pain she’s experiencing. In the first few weeks of treatment she also took part in a comprehensive nutritional consultation where we went through her current diet, time and lifestyle constraints. Then we reviewed education on proper food choices for her based on her energetic picture, troubleshot her schedule and timing difficulties around food to find some practical solutions for her, established a new shopping list, and sent her out with a new food list and set of recipes. Without addressing the real life obstacles to diet change (time, routines, cooking ability and flavor) making dietary change can be very difficult. Emotional/Spiritual Chinese Medicine has a powerful system of understanding personalities and how they are expressions of, and interact with, our bodies as a whole called the Five Element system. The Five Elements are a set of five phases of transformation that occur throughout nature. All phenomena can be categorized as belonging to one primary phase of this system. In her case, she operates from and in turn manifests imbalances within the Earth element. It’s common that our strongest element is also the source of our illnesses. Earth embodies the nurturing energy of fertile soil beneath our feet, the archetypal character of a mother, and the late summer seasonal energy. It’s an energy that absorbs, easily wraps you up in a hug, that feels non-threatening and supportive. Earth energy people are lovely and certainly do a lot of good for the world, but when they express this energy in an unbalanced way, excessively and without sufficient boundaries they erode their own energy. Imagine how poorly managed soil erodes away, without sufficient structure and boundaries our love for others can look more like enabling or self-destructive. Earth element people tend to present with patterns of disfunction characterized by dampness and a deficiency of energy. The Five Elements interact with one another in a complex dynamic. A deep explanation isn’t necessary to understand her case. So briefly, the Five Elements are Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire. Earth encompasses the digestive organs, the emotion of worry and nurturance, the season of late summer and the tissue of muscles. As seen above, when it is out of balance dampness accumulates. Wood encompasses the Liver and Gall Bladder organs, the emotions of anger and courage, the season of spring, and the tissue of tendons. Just like the roots of plants holding the soil together and preventing erosion, increasing the activity of the wood energetic in a patient helps to hold healthy boundaries within their Earth expression. Her imbalance can be seen as either an excess in the Earth element or a deficiency of the wood element failing to properly restrain and hold the Earth element. Ideally each of the elements is able to manifest sufficiently to maintain a balanced and healthy psyche and the capacity to meet each situation with an appropriate and healthy response. In her case, specific acupuncture points along the Earth and Wood meridians were used to balance those energies, inviting the Wood dynamic to play a bigger role in restraining her Earth energy. Often simply discussing the Five Elements with patients is helpful in itself, as having a language to build a framework around your interaction with the world makes it possible to initiate changes that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to envision. Indeed, giving her an understanding of the the Five Elements and her place within it made it easier for her to express and manifest more Wood energy with clearer boundaries and a better preservation of her personal energy. In her case there are events in her history, upbringing and family dynamic that established or solidified the imbalances she manifests. Fortunately, uncovering and addressing the historical reasons for the imbalance isn’t necessary to make significant changes in the imbalance that they created. In fact finding a healthier balance in the here and now creates a more solid foundation to then go back and dismantle the damage that their history created. Nancy’s Response to Treatment Nancy is a great example of how ripples move through our entire system when we consider the whole person. Her primary complaint was regarding her joint pains which resolved relatively quickly. With a combination of treatments twice weekly and prescribed exercises her pains resolved to the point that she was able to manage her discomfort on her own with regular exercises over the course of 3 weeks. But the deeper work was also important, and successfully addressing her voiced complaints would not have been possible without working on the other aspects she was presenting with. Following through on exercise prescriptions and dietary change are daunting already, doing that when you’re encumbered by a general sensation of heaviness and fatigue are nearly impossible. Freeing up her energy was crucial in being able to more her to the next step. Over the course of several weeks Nancy’s pulses shifted. The “slippery” sensation, characteristic of excessive “dampness”, was improved and the positions of her pulses that reflect the wood and earth aspects of the Five Elements became more balanced. She also began establishing routines where she set aside restoration time for herself which she defended with healthy boundaries. Her demeanor shifted as she held herself straighter both physically and metaphorically. She seemed to have a more solid frame underneath her. She still returns from time to time, weekend activities might give cause her pain to return or she’ll come in for occasional tune-ups. But her experience of her life, her power over it, are significantly improved. This is a really uncomfortable condition for a lot of patients. It can be caused by diabetes, chemotherapy treatment, or sometimes from nerve damage affecting the low back. Fortunately, it responds really well to treatment with a combination of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine. Read on to find out what you can do at home, and what we do for this condition in the office. Symptoms and concerns associated withPeripheral Neuropathy include:
Chinese Medicine Diagnosis and TreatmentIn Chinese Medicine the proper function of our body is dependent on the circulation of Qi and Blood. Distributed along the pathways of our nervous, circulatory, and physical anatomy are special locations where this circulation can be altered and improved. Those locations, the acupuncture points, create changes in the available nutrients, blood, energy, and nervous function in that area the treatment is targeting. It has even been found that acupuncture points have an effect inside the brain, where they increase resources, attention and healing to a specific location or structure in the body. By choosing the proper points we can alter the potency of the nerve impulses, the available Qi and the circulation of blood to the areas of the hands or feet affected by Peripheral Neuropathy. Other points target the underlying cause for the neuropathy (these might be points support detoxification of the chemo drugs, reduction of the chronically elevated blood sugars and support of the metabolic function of glycemic control, or nerve compression in the spine.) Nutritional SupportMost of our patients being treated for Peripheral Neuropathy will also use a combination of Nutritional Supplements and Nutritional Counseling. Supplements that we often use for Peripheral Neuropathy include:
Our Nutritional Counseling sessions draw on a combination of Functional Medicine based practices, Traditional Chinese dietary theory and accountability support. We begin with templates designed by the Institute for Functional Medicine and modify them to meet our patients’ commitment level and unique presentation. We support your learning with videos, recipes, handouts, and periodic check-ins to keep you on track. Do you know someone who has been struggling with numbness or tingling in their hands or feet? Forward this newsletter, we’d love the chance to help them.
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Kieran Jones MTCM L.Ac.I'm Kieran, clinician and owner of Cotati Community Acupuncture. I'm an acupuncturist, herbalist, and functional medicine practitioner for the past 14 years. I have a deep curiosity in health, biology, culture, medicine, history, and a healthy obsession with the pursuit of the perfect state of health. Archives
July 2024
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