Bone-Tired

Adrenal fatigue. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve had people come in over the last few months complaining of adrenal fatigue. And yet, according to Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profit medical education and research organization, the condition isn’t even an “accepted” medical diagnosis. I am sure my Naturopath colleagues would have something radically different to say on the subject; but as for us Chinese medicine practitioners, we certainly understand what it means to feel bone-tired.

For everything that we do there is a give-and-take. There’s no exception here! You can’t cheat needing to give and you can’t cheat needing to get. It is just as healthy and universal a need to receive support as it is for us to contribute, and be recognized for our unique contribution. But how often do we find ourselves trying not to be ‘needy’? Trying to show we can do more with less? Trying to show we are more capable than the next guy because we can cut more corners? Our society demands almost nothing less.

We’ve started to notice a trend in our children – an inability to stay present and focused with a single task at a time. The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) found that in just 4 years parent-reported cases [of ever having] Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children ages 3-17 increased by almost 22%. (Yowza!) Increased awareness of the issue has brought learning aid to millions of children. But what about adults?

On the job, adults are managing more information than ever. The landline rings, a colleague stops in to get an answer, the smartphone buzzes you have a new text, the computer pops up a reminder that you have a meeting; you need to get on Skype in 10 minutes to have a meeting with Japan. And forget business owners – who on top of doing their job have to then talk about doing their job on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. One thing leads to another, and Bam!  About 75% of the US adult population find themselves working over 40 hours/week (2006). And guess what else? We also start to see Attention Deficit Trait in adults. More and more people are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.

In Chinese medicine, we talk about two sources of energy in the body – one is like the gas we add to a vehicle, the other like the vehicle’s battery. Our fuel is our sleep, our food, our friendships, our alone time. Our battery is our deepest resource – our fuel to be alive.  Feeling bone-tired is deeper than having too much to do. It’s about not knowing when to rest (i.e. not enough fuel); and when we don’t rest we can start to lose touch with our drive for life– a sign that we’ve fully depleted our fuel and are actually starting to drain our body’s most precious battery.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are great tools to help your body get back on track; and knowing when to ask for help is integral to the healing process. So is listening to your body’s queues: Does your stomach feel tight? Have you been experiencing more headaches? Has your heart been racing? Is it difficult for you to fall asleep? Remember, sometimes actually doing less will help you accomplish more.

Interested to read more? I love this article on how long you’ll truly be productive at work (note to self: that’s only 6 hours/day for thinkers). In fact, they’ve shown folks who consistently sleep less than 6 hours/night have shown cognitive impairment equivalent to not having slept at all for two nights.

Go team!!

Diet Lost to Dieting

It’s Spring, and detox is on the air! In Chinese medicine we associate this season with the Liver; and now is a natural time for purging (who hasn’t heard the expression, “spring cleaning”?). I have had quite a few people come in recently asking, “What can I do to shed pounds?” Often it’s something prompted by Dr. Oz. One week it’s, “Do you have raspberry ketones?” Next week it’s, “Do you have green coffee bean extract?” But, I’m pretty sure in all the time my clients and customers have asked me about their weight concerns, I’ve never had someone come in and ask, “Why do I weigh more than I’d like to? Am I healthy? What can I eat that would be most healthy for my current situation and constitution?”

And weight fluctuates! Not just on our bodies– but in our perception of what is healthy. In the 1600s these lush, Rubenesque women clearly depicted the rich life both literally and figuratively. Now, society feasts on photos of rail-thin models. (Scroll through a visual history.) Math and science tell us health can be more or less calculated using the Body Adiposity Index (BAI), Body Mass Index (BMI), and/or waist-to-hip ratio. But people prove that numbers aren’t everything!

A friend of mine, Elaine Howley, is an incredible swimmer recognized by the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. Among her many amazing feats, she’s completed the “triple crown” by swimming around the island of Manhattan (28.5 miles); Catalina Island to the California mainland (21 miles); and the English Channel (21 miles). Now, that’s not 28.5 miles with a tea break, or a stop to watch your favorite show  - that’s 28.5 miles treading water without stopping. (Do you remember ever having to tread water to pass a swim test? Yea, that’s usually only 10-15 minutes. Now, imagine struggling through that and having the lifeguard tell you have to do it 51 more times in a row, no stopping. That’s the kind of athlete we’re talking about here.)  What else is notable about this incredible woman? To the average person, she’d be considered unhealthily overweight. She calls her round belly her “beer baby,” as preparing for these long swims in 45 degree water often means tanking up on beer and ice cream. Not that I’m suggesting beer and ice cream are healthy, but I am suggesting there’s more to life than the obvious. Read up on the differences between brown and white fat, the former can actually burn the latter.

So what do I tell patients? I often recommend to them a book, TCM: A Natural Guide to Weight Loss that Lasts by Dr. Nan Lu. (Side note: I recently saw Dr. Nan Lu in the movie, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Not sure what that means for his future in medicine, but I can say the book is still a great read for folks interested in learning about diet and exercise. I was super surprised by his cameo, nonetheless.) I recommend asking, “What am I holding on to?” “What am I afraid to let go?” “What am I afraid to let closer?”Look at the basics – are you burning more calories than you’re eating? If not, why? Do you need to exercise more or does your body’s function need improvement? What are you eating and how is it affecting your body-mind-spirit? Why do you eat–for nourishment, to satiate hunger or for reward? We need to shift from what we don’t want to what we do want; we have to reclaim diet from “dieting.” By working to see this bigger picture, we create longer-lasting change and can foster genuine interest in one’s own wellbeing. This is healthy!

Love what’s working; work to find love in your motivations. Can’t stand exercise? Start with a walk or the stairs. Can’t stand feeling alone? Join a group. Want guidance? Come on in!

Just Who Do You Think You Are?

In all our experience, there is what we see and what we don’t see; what we know, and what we don’t know. And how often do we let what we know be directly informed by what we see? Even in language what is actually said is worth less in communication than looks and tone. Most everyone has probably had opportunity to feel sarcasm and judgment in simple language. (I absolutely love a bit by Eddie Izzard talking about just this – the 70% is how you look, 20% how you sound and 10% what you say.)

So, with the body – there is what we see, which we call a human; but if you looked at what comprised that “human,” you would see we harbor 100 trillion microbes and that, in fact, 9 out of 10 “human” cells don’t even contain the human genome. In the gut alone there are 5600 known unique strains of bacteria just hanging out and loving life. Well, until you flush them down the drain, of course…

Antibiotics can do a serious number on our good bacteria – washing it out with the bad. We often see symptoms of diarrhea and electrolyte imbalance here. I get a lot of questions about how to replenish what gets lost and whether yogurt is a good idea. I am immediately reminded of when I had strep as a kid. It was so painful, and I felt like I could hardly eat anything. At the time, I don’t think anyone in my family had even heard of probiotics, but we definitely knew about yogurt. And I’ll say – sure, it felt great to have something easy to swallow and cool to the throat – but boy, not 2 minutes later came the awful feeling that I wasn’t sure I was able to breathe… oh, mucus! Truth is, yogurt is pretty low in probiotics, and while it may not actual increase mucus in the body, it may increase the viscosity of mucus. And anyone who’s felt the heavy hand of mucus on their breathing can tell you – increasing its thickness is not ideal!

Probiotics, on the other hand, offer the best of both worlds – ranging in number from 1 billion to over 100 billion cells per serving; and quite a few companies are now sourcing dairy-free options. While someone on antibiotics might take somewhere around 24 billion or more cells per day, folks with skin disorders, stress imbalance and low immune health may also benefit from taking these little critters.

In 2011 they did a study on Lactobacillus rhamnosus in mice and found that the strain was able to actually reduce stress-induced corticosterone and subsequently modulate behaviours associated with anxiety and depression. In fact, 95% of the body’s serotonin is in the gut. Want to feel groovy? Think bowels! Want your kids to stay in school? Think bowels!

In 2009 they showed kids who supplemented with probiotics for 6 months had fewer sick days and missed less days due to illness than their peers. And kids have the upper hand in disease prevention – if you want to prevent eczema or allergy, you know it… consider probiotics!

So if we are in part what we “aren’t,” consider where our lives might overlap with the lives of others. What do we share in common? How can we treat the lives of others–humans, animals, or other–with the same “humanity” each deserves? Be kind, and always consider that in any situation, there may be more there than meets the eye!

Does the Mood Strike You?

There can be such clarity in simple expressions. Mood: often we feel overwhelmed by how we are feeling, or how we want to be feeling, that we forget our moods simply come and go. How we feel in a moment is not who we are at heart. Nonetheless, our feelings give us great insight to our needs–and that is something well worth addressing!

Physically, our body is a well-oiled machine of incredible capacity. Caring for it must include an awareness of how we nourish it, what we demand of it, how we treat it, and how we think about it. “What the Bleep Do We Know” is a super cool movie that illustrates this point, that our thoughts can directly affect the function of our bodies. Dr. Masaru Emoto in Japan proved that using words to deliver intention to water can even physically affect the shape of its crystals. So what does that mean for us in how we talk to ourselves, think to ourselves about how we are and how we would like to be?

While moods may wash over us seemingly out of nowhere, there are a few fantastic methods to help get to the bottom of what’s going on. I love the Non-Violent Communication model set up by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. It’s simple enough in its approach–it has four basic parts: (1) Everyone has the same, universal needs. (2) Our feelings indicate whether our needs are or are not being met. (3) We each choose strategies to ensure our needs get met. (4) Everyone can get their respective needs met by choosing cooperative strategies. For those who battle with anger, depression, and anxiety, this can be a very powerful tool. Just to be aware that it’s not being “needy” to have needs can be extremely liberating! It’s also empowering to start recognizing that in each action, we are always striving for the same thing — to get our needs met. So, when we don’t like the outcome our of choices, we can have clarity that it’s not our needs that are the problem, but our strategies. This can create space for the important shift out of pessimism (something internal, i.e. “What’s wrong with me?”) to optimism (something external, i.e. “This didn’t go well for me.”). The more and more we create a separation between what we experience and who we are, the easier it is to respond creatively to our situation, and remain open-hearted.

“The Pathway” is another fantastic resource I recommend to patients. In this book, author Laurel Mellin, MA, RD describes the method of doing what are called “cycles” as a method to move through the mood. The cycle roughly breaks down into asking one’s self: (1) How am I feeling? (2) Are my expectations reasonable? (3) Are my thoughts powerful and positive?  (4) What is the essential pain/earned reward? (5) What do I need? Do I need support? You’d be amazed what can get uncovered in a cycle with simply applying attention! I think about our brains like massive storage houses — with endless drawers for our experiences. We carefully and carelessly place and toss our happiness, our frustration, our being seen, our being forgotten, our hopes and our desperation. Each drawer deepens and widens with each year of our lives. Then we get a new experience — Uh! Goes in the drawer! But guess what? Each time we open it we’re reminded of all the junk and all the joy we’ve known before! That is, of course, unless we regularly empty the drawers…. All the more reason to parse out our feelings and needs daily!

Chemistry is no small part of it, too. Studies have shown vitamin and mineral levels do make a difference. Key players include chromium, phosphorus, zinc and an array of B vitamins among others. B vitamins in particular can be crucial in treating mood disorders; and supplementing with a methylated folic acid (i.e. B9) and B12 can make a significant difference to those inefficient at activating these vitamins. I mention this just as an example to remind everyone that we’re talking about the mind-body-spirit connection. Treating the body, we affect the mind. Working with the mind, we affect the body. The best healing works on all levels.

I personally love Reiki’s ability to listen deeply to the spirit while working with the body-mind. It’s a great avenue for cultivating awareness of what beliefs we hold, what fears we have, what holds us back from being our full, true selves. Honoring the sacred voice in each of us, Reiki can light the path when things have grown dim. I treasure the softness, kindness, and wisdom that come straight from the heart of each person I meet. When things grow dim, come on in!

 

Medicinal Herbs Not All the Same

How many plants are in your backyard? How many different types of rock? How many animals come through? Is it possible to imagine how many more exist in your state, region, or country? It is almost unfathomable to consider all the species of plant, animal and mineral that exist across the globe when just under 2.5 acres of the Amazon alone contain 750 different types of trees and 1500 different plants! (Who’s ever counted anything above 100?) And yet, despite the challenges, some brave folks have made great leaps and bounds in identifying what they find, what may be dangerous, and what may be potentially medicinal. You can imagine that even being able to do this for your own backyard would be challenging enough – but for an entire state, country? You’d need time– a few lifetimes!

It makes sense given the context of possibility, that natural medicinals are largely split into subsections. It’s the only reasonable way to know these medicinal well and to learn how they interact with other medicinals in preparation. Here in Washington, many folks see Naturopaths and are taking what we call, “Western herbs;” and anyone seeing a Chinese herbalist is likely taking “Chinese herbs.” You can imagine these were the medicinals people originally found in their backyards on either sides of the globe; and as they started to record what they found and talked to other folks in their area their findings began to expand. Truth be told, what we call “herbs” in Chinese medicine is actually quite a bit more expansive than just plants; it also includes minerals and animal by-/products. For simplicity’s sake I will use the words interchangeably.

Within the Chinese pharmacopeia [of traditional medicines] alone there are  close to 13000 medicinals. Multiply that number by about 7600 and you start to see the number of ways recorded in historical text that these herbs have been combined in formula to treat illness and prevent disease. (My mind already blew at the first paragraph.) In most TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) schools in the US a student is trained to know about 300 – 400 medicinals. What does it mean to know an herb?

Each medicinal in Chinese medicine has certain properties that affects the what, how, and where of its function. For example, let’s look at chrysanthemum flower, first mentioned in medical texts around 200 CE in the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Remembering that even the same plant has many different species, we’re talking about Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat here. We consider this herb to be slightly cold in nature, sweet and bitter, entering the Lung and Liver channels. (No, this isn’t Greek!) Let’s break it down:

TEMPERATURE: We need to know the temperature to see if it is warming or cooling to the body system. Can you imagine you’re sweating under the hot summer sun – what would you prefer, a cooling, refreshing watermelon or a piping hot, pungent curry dish? (I think of my father saying if you were in the desert, you should wear a black wool sweater to stay cool – but that’s cheating! Of course the hot wool sweater will make you sweat–but it’s the sweating that keeps you cool, not the wool! So, let’s stick to the basic principle that certain things warm us us inherently, and others cool inherently.) Here, we can expect where there is heat, there may be cooling with this herb.

NATURE: The nature, in this case sweet and bitter, helps us know how it affects function in the body. For instance, everyone’s seen a child on sugary candy – all that sweetness has a tonic effect. Similarly, each taste has a certain action. Here, we can see Chrysanthemum, because it is sweet and bitter, may drain (bitter) and protect (sweet tonic) at the same time.

PROPENSITY: Lastly, what channels an herb enters tell us what aspect in the body may be affected. Channels connect organs all the way through to the outside skin. Each organ is like an umbrella for physiological functions in the body. Here, Chrysanthemum enters the Lung and Liver channels – so we can expect it treats symptoms associated with these pathways.

THE MORE IMPORTANT STUFF: Dosing. What amount of this herb is safe? Therapeutic? Too much? How does this herb interact with other herbs? Drugs?

AND THEN THE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT STUFF: What farm did the herb come from – what are their growing and processing practices (i.e. was anything added to this herb)? What testing has been done to ensure this herb is what we think it is?

I’ve tried to keep the example relatively vague just to give you an idea that for us herbalists, there’s a lot more to choosing an herb and building a formula than meets the eye. It’s really not safe for you to self-diagnose and self-treat! It’s an art that requires years of education and an appreciation of a person’s constitution, present condition, other contributing factors, and tolerability for an herb. Multiply this by usually 5 to anywhere up to 30 different medicinals and you get a formula that may be of some great use.

So, next time you think you’ll try something – try calling your herbalist first. I’m around on Tuesdays and Thursdays for consultation. ; )

A Sweet Life

With life comes the opportunity to create, to stand in awe, to contribute, to receive. It often also comes with bills, stress, and inconveniences… illness, death, and great suffering. We are bombarded with images and stories on the news and internet of the injustices occurring around the world. It would be hard not to have a visceral response to so much suffering. So, how and where do we find sweetness in this life? Can we still feel good about indulging in it?

Renowned author and self-help veteran, Louise Hay has long bridged the gap between body and mind. Her first book on the subject, Heal Your Body, was published in 1976 and is still one of my favorite books to recommend to patients. It’s more of an index than anything, in which she lists the mental causes for various ailments/illnesses and affirmations one can use to heal them. The belief is, what you concentrate on, you become. This is a common theme seen often over the last few years– what with The Secret and the renewed interest in the Law of Attraction; but it can be seen earlier, as in Napolean Hill’s works of the 1920s and 30s (e.g. Think and Grow Rich). In this book Hay writes that feeling “longing for what might have been,”–or that there is “no sweetness left” may in fact contribute to a disease of sugar imbalance in the body: Diabetes. The statistics on this disease are astounding–with over 25% of people over the age 65 experiencing symptoms; and the numbers grow among populations known to face considerably more discrimination than non-Hispanic whites. Coincidence?

We all know eating sugar isn’t going to fix our problems, but it sure can feel comforting in the face of stress! The truth is it’s not uncommon that when our need for ease, joy and celebration goes unmet, we often turn to coping mechanisms. For many, this means indulging in food, or other pleasure-producing activities. And the big companies are aware of our inherent need for sweetness as they plump up our foods with corn syrups–high fructose corn syrup (see below).

People think they can cheat the system with artificial sweeteners – but the studies are showing low-glycemic sugars are only bitter-sweet. I recently read this great article by Marlene Merritt, DOM, LAc, ACN, “Think Fructose is Safe? Think Again,” in which she explains how fructose is processed through the liver, unlike glucose. Since fructose never triggers insulin, the body doesn’t know when it’s full. Likewise, when we eat falsely-sweet foods, our body surges out insulin in expectation of the incoming energy burst.  But when the energy burst from broken down carbohydrates never comes– we just end up craving them instead [to balance our insulin overload].

While the cause of sugar craving can be explained with a longing in life, or basic science, Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the relationship of organs involved and their level of functioning. When our body is running optimally, and our emotions even, health naturally follows.

The best way to enjoy a sweet life? Love, share gratitude, extend kindness–and when necessary, see your acupuncturist.

PS. Some suggest that the “first” artificial sweetener may have led [note the pun] to the fall of the Roman Empire – too bad the article didn’t also mention how aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde in the body…

James’ Reincarnation

I found this to be a compelling story; if for nothing else, for its ability to make people question their beliefs about what is possible in this world. Reincarnation is a question that comes up often for people. For some, it’s a way to explain how they feel in this life about certain things (usually the things about which they’d prefer to feel differently); for others it’s a reassuring confidence of their choices or their relationships.

In an interesting read, Many Lives, Many Masters, psychotherapist Dr. Brian L. Weiss discusses the potential for healing in this life by working with the issues carried over from past lives. He found resolving past life issues created vast shifts in his patients, and resulted in great progress. It’s a great read particularly for those who find the idea of reincarnation hard to wrap one’s brain around.

I think stories like these highlight the importance of taking stock of where we’ve been and what we’ve experienced. In this way we bring awareness to our experience–we can let go of what no longer serves us. We can grow into more of ourselves; we can find strength in our expanding resources.

Equally important, I believe it’s also important to stay present with the experience of the pain or the disconnect–regardless of the backstory. One wants to be cautious not to ‘explain away’ and/or compartmentalize our experience or feelings. It’s easy to push our feelings away when we’d rather feel something else, or when we think we “should” be feeling something else. But when we push our feelings away, we push ourselves away. We silently reject ourselves; we silently tell ourselves we’re not OK the way we are. And when we’re in pain, when we need love and compassion to get the unkind response of shame and silence–that only adds insult to injury.

If nothing else, may these stories remind us that we’ve each been places we may or may not remember; we’ve all seen things we may or may not remember; we’ve all experienced things we may or may not remember. In any moment we can be open to how we got where we are; and whether or not we get clarity on this issue, we can be open to where we are in the moment – to our feelings, to our thoughts, to our own fabricated stories. Bringing deep love and compassion to our experience, we accept ourselves just as we are; we bring healing to our disconnect, to our pain.

For those interested in seeing more reincarnation stories, try the incredible movie, “Unmistaken Child.” A Buddhist monk finds his beloved, reincarnated teacher….

An Introduction

Seattle-based Chinese medicine and Reiki practice

Hello and welcome to Black Pine Holistic Healing‘s blog where I hope to pool some interesting thoughts on life, health, and happiness for our reflection and growth. While I’ve worked with folks in San Francisco, Taos, and New York City, currently my practice is in Seattle, WA. My services include acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and reiki. I feel passionately about helping people come into deeper self-awareness, acceptance, and ease– so come on in and join the discussion! I look forward to hearing from you–

In health,

Melissa Dana

Founder
Black Pine Holistic Healing