Vanessa was soft spoken and committed to doing whatever it took to have a baby.  She had a history of an eating disorder, mild depression, and low energy.  Vanessa assured me, however, that she was eating well, and was trying unsuccessfully to gain weight.  Vanessa had a Chinese medical diagnosis of sinking Spleen Qi (energy).

In Western medicine, your internal organs are considered solid entities that have physiologic functions and live in a specific place in your body.  However, in Chinese medicine, your organs are considered symbolic systems of functioning, and are related to many physical, emotional, and energetic processes in your body.

The job of the Chinese Spleen is to convert the food you eat into energy, blood, and nutrients.  However, one of the Spleen’s secondary functions is to hold things in and hold things up.  Symptoms that the holding function of the Spleen is not up to par may include easy bruising, chronic diarrhea, prolapsed (sinking) organs, and a history of frequent miscarriages.  Frequently, these symptoms are accompanied by fatigue, mental depression, and a sense of heaviness or bearing downward.

There are a number of tools an acupuncturist could use in treating sinking Qi.  First, they would perform acupuncture, choosing specific acupuncture points that strengthen your Spleen and move energy upward. Second, they might prescribe a variety of herbs that also have the action of moving things upward.   The formula, Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang is frequently used for that purpose, as it strengthens your Spleen to improve its holding function.  Finally, through dietary therapy it is possible to strengthen your digestion, and ultimately your Spleen.  Your practitioner can help you choose foods that are best for that purpose and which foods to avoid. 

In Vanessa’s case, her Spleen and digestion had been damaged by her past eating disorder.  Along with acupuncture, we worked on choosing foods that she could easily digest and concentrated on gaining some weight.  In addition, Vanessa took an herbal formula to strengthen the holding function of her Spleen.  In short order, Vanessa became pregnant.  At that time, we concentrated solely on strengthening her ability to hold the fetus to avoid another miscarriage.

Vanessa made it through the first trimester of her pregnancy without miscarrying.  At that point, we began to decrease the frequency of her treatments.  Vanessa ultimately had a healthy pregnancy and gave birth to an equally healthy baby boy.

My most amazing story occured many years ago while I was still in school studying acupuncture.  As part of my masters program, I was required to spend several hundred hours in the school’s teaching clinic treating patients.

One afternoon, I treated a woman who came to the clinic for chronic headaches.  I don’t remember her name, but I’ll call her Mary.  Mary was in her sixties, and had been battling headaches for years.  She had tried a number of treatments, and had even had some kind of a surgical procedure in an attempt to alleviate her pain.  The surgery didn’t help, and in fact left her with neuromuscular damage in her foot.  She was seeking acupuncture as a last resort.

I did a thorough intake interview with Mary, and during the course of our conversation, I noticed that Mary’s right foot was continually moving.  Her toes and the front of her foot moved like she was pressing and releasing the gas pedal of a car–about 30 or 40 times a minute!  Mary explained that this movement in her foot was nerve damage and the direct result of her unsuccessful surgery.  Mary told me that her foot never stopped moving, and it was most noticeable and annoying in the summer when she wore sandals.

I developed a point prescription and began to treat Mary with acupuncture.  She was primarily concerned with the headaches, because she believed that there was  nothing that could be done with her foot.  I began by placing needles in or near the area of her headaches, as well as some in her hands and lower legs.  I had also chosen to use an acupuncture point on the top of each of Mary’s feet.  I inserted the needle into her left foot, but her right foot was a little tricky.  It felt a little like coming in while playing jump rope–I had to time my insertion with the movement of her foot.

I inserted the needle and her foot stopped moving.  

Mary and I looked at each other.  I said “Huh!” and Mary shrugged her shoulders. Her foot did not move again during the course of the treatment.  She walked out of the clinic that day with her right foot still; something it hadn’t been for years.  Sadly, because I was treating Mary in a teaching clinic, I never saw her again.  I don’t know if her foot remained still or if her headaches were ever resolved.

However, whenever I struggle with a patient who isn’t responding to treatment as well as I would like, and  I begin to question the effectiveness of acupuncture, I think about Mary’s foot.

Diagnosing a patient in Chinese medicine is a long and complicated process.  A complete diagnosis has four key ingredients:  observation, listening, smelling (really!), and asking.  While practitioners can determine their treatment plans primarily by asking a patient about their symptoms and health history, observation can often be more valuable in determining how to proceed.

When Tom walks into the clinic, he is giving me a clue as to the nature of his energy or vitality.  It’s clear when he’s feeling tired and in pain—I don’t even have to ask.  On his good days, however, his vitality is apparent—his face lights up, he stands up a little straighter, and he cracks a few jokes about his upcoming treatment.

Frequently, color can tell a practitioner about what is going on.  The color red is usually associated with some kind of heat, such as infection, inflamed arthritis, or the red cheeks of a woman with hot flashes.  Conversely, white or pale skin color is an indicator of cold in your body, such as joint pain that’s aggravated by the cold.  Dampness (the inability to metabolize moisture well),  is indicated by the color yellow—think jaundice or an oozing sore; and purple shows up when there is some kind of stagnation.  For example, a purple bruise is a kind of blood stagnation, and in the extreme, someone who has difficulty breathing or is having a heart attack will have purple lips or a purple complexion.

 The general shape of your body and your posture are also telling me something about your health.  If you are carrying around a lot of excess weight, you most likely have some dampness and frequently struggle with phlegm conditions like sinus problems or asthma.  When a patient comes in who has weak or atrophied muscles, I will suspect that their digestion isn’t up to par.  Also, people who are in great pain will sit in unnatural positions in order to be comfortable.

 Your face, skin and nails give up all kinds of information, too.  Dry, flaky skin and/or brittle nails, suggest depletion of your body’s moistening substances—Yin and/or Blood.  Acne is usually associated with heat, and rashes can vary, depending on the color, moisture, and itchiness.

Every once in a while I’ll see an actor on TV or in a movie open their mouth wide enough to get a good look at their tongue—and know more than I want to about their health.   In Chinese medicine, the appearance of your tongue (or anyone’s) can give up all kinds of information.  The color, coat, and shape of your tongue are all indicators of the internal landscape of your body.  For more on tongue diagnosis, go here.

It may seem like an unlikely juxtaposition to be talking about the holidays and acupuncture.  However, the reality is that acupuncture is extremely effective for emotional conditions such as stress, anxiety, and depression.  Here’s how:

-An acupuncture treatment can sooth the movement of something called Liver Qi, which is the force behind the smooth flow of everything in your body.  This includes your digestion, menses, energy, and even your emotions.  Strong negative emotions makes your Liver Qi stagnate, causing physical symptoms, such as pain, digestive problems, and PMS, as well as emotional symptoms, the most common of which is depression.

-The Heart organ system in Chinese medicine is home to your Shen—the entity that holds your soul, thoughts, memories, and emotions. Your Shen is all about your connection—to other people, your traditions, your reason for being, and your higher power.  When your Shen is unsettled, especially when you’re unhappy, upset, frustrated, or overwhelmed, acupuncture can help nourish your Heart and calm your Shen.

-The act of acupuncture itself is relaxing.  Anyone who has ever had acupuncture can tell you that it’s actually a very calming thing to do.  During the treatment, you rest and listen to relaxing music in a comfortable environment, which is a great way to take time out of the overwhelming craziness that many people associate with the holidays.  Believe it or not, many people fall asleep during their treatment.

-Lots of research has been conducted on the physical effects of acupuncture.  Scientists have found that acupuncture alters your brain chemistry in a good way. Acupuncture stimulates your peripheral nerves (those far away from your brain), which causes an increase in the production of feel-good chemicals in your brain, called endorphins.  Commonly associated with a runner’s high, endorphins can relieve pain, calm you down, and cause mild feelings of euphoria.  Who doesn’t want that?

-The research on acupuncture also suggests that treatments can boost immunity.  When you’re stressed and run down, your immune system is one of the first things to take a hit.  A couple of treatments can be just the thing to help you ward off a nasty cold or seasonal flu.

This year, ask yourself:  Are you going to stress out and struggle through the holidays, or are you going to do something about it?  When you come up with the answer, think about acupuncture.

In Chinese medicine, the idea of immunity is something akin to a protective bubble that wards off potentially harmful pathogens (viruses, bacteria, pollen, etc.) that make you sick. This protective bubble is called Wei Qi, and when it’s strong, it keeps you healthy by fighting off colds and the flu. Unfortunately, when your Wei Qi is weak, lots of nasty bugs get through your bubble and make you sick.

So how, then, can you strengthen your Wei Qi? Well, because it’s a kind of Qi, or energy, having strong energy in general is protective. One of the best ways to do that is by eating good food–lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, which are packed with vitamins; whole grains; and small amounts of protein. As important as what you eat, is how well you digest your food. You can eat the most nutritious food in the world, but if you don’t digest it well, it does very little to protect your health. If you have digestive issues, getting them under control will strengthen your energy, and ultimately, your Wei Qi. And yes, acupuncture can help get your digestion back on track.

Another way to boost your Wei Qi, is through your lungs. In Chinese medicine, your lungs also help build Qi, and are considered the most exterior of your organs. That just means that with every breath, your lungs are coming into contact with the outside world. As the most external organ, your lungs are the protector of the outside of your body, too–that protective bubble called Wei Qi.

Taking care of your lungs, then, is a way to boost your immunity. Deep relaxing breathing; exercise; avoiding breathing really cold air; and if possible, not getting sick are all ways to keep your lungs healthy.

Getting enough sleep is important too, for a variety of reasons. However, as it relates to strengthening your Wei Qi, it’s imperative. Your body heals and rejuvenates itself while you’re asleep. If the quality of your sleep is compromised, immunity suffers.

Stress, especially long-term unrelieved stress also has a negative impact on many of your body’s systems, including immunity. During the fight or flight response associated with stressful situations, your body turns down the volume on the systems you don’t need right now to deal with the stress. Immunity gets put on the back burner until your stress dies down. Unfortunately for many of us, stress is a regular part of our lives, so immunity is kept on the back burner indefinitely. Dealing with your stress, altering long-term stressful situations, and slowing down will ultimately help strengthen your immunity.

Finally, Chinese medicine itself offers a number of ways to bolster Wei Qi. Acupuncture is effective to fortify your protective bubble, eliminate stress, enhance the quality of your sleep, and strengthen your lungs. In addition, there are a number of herbal formulas, as well as vitamins (A, C, E, D, and zinc), that can boost Wei Qi, and if all else fails, treat the symptoms of colds and flu.

One of the most common patterns of imbalance that I see in the clinic is something called a Liver and Spleen disharmony. This just means that strong emotions are interfering with the digestive process. The example I use is when my high school boyfriend dumped me, I couldn’t eat for the better part of a month. A Liver and Spleen disharmony is the same thing—just in slow motion.

Your Chinese Liver is an organ system that oversees the smooth flow of everything in your body, including digestion, bowels, circulation, menses, and emotions. Stress, anger, or an emotional upset can cause the Liver system to stagnate. When this happens, one of the first things it affects is your Chinese Spleen, which is your organ of digestion.

In the clinic this pattern is a player in many, if not most, conditions affecting my patients. It can manifest in conditions such as Irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, depression, insomnia, PMS, fatigue, and even obesity, to name just a few.

So what exactly is happening when you are stressed out, upset or worried? Your stomach is a muscle, and when you’re in the emotional wringer that stomach muscle contracts, making it difficult for you to digest much of anything.

Why you have this reaction goes back to the fight or flight response you experience when you are stressed or feel threatened. Your body responds by shutting down those functions that aren’t necessary to run or fight, including digestion. The idea is that in ancient times, feeling threatened was a short-lived affair—only as long as it took to chase off or kill the wild animal lingering in front of your cave.

Today, however, many of us are in a constant state of fight or flight due to the unrelenting stress of our daily lives—whether it’s a cranky boss, a sick kid, a late mortgage payment, or having too much to do. Constant emotional upheaval doesn’t give your body time to recover its equilibrium, and your digestion stays on the back burner, unable to do its job effectively.

What can you do to get your digestion back on track and working efficiently? The most important thing to know is that it’s a two-step process: getting your stress and emotions under control, while you pamper your digestive tract. Acupuncture can be extremely effective for this kind of imbalance. In fact, many of my patients who have recovered from this kind of pattern never dreamt that they could ever feel good again. Some things you can do for yourself:

-Calm down and chill out. This may seem to be the most obvious, but is often the hardest thing to do. Find time during your day to relax; whether you take a yoga class, meditate, go fishing, or take a stroll in the woods. Without decompressing, your emotions and digestion will not have an opportunity to recover.

-Pamper your digestion. This means sitting down and actually eating a meal—not something on the run in between meetings or kids’ sporting events. This also means eating good food, fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains and a little protein. Cooking most of your food makes it easier to digest—raw foods take more digestive effort to break down. The same goes for very cold foods; when you drink or eat something frozen, it uses up a lot of your digestive energy. Chewing your food and enjoying the dining process will help you digest your meal more effectively.

L-Tryptophan is an amino acid found in foods. It’s found in turkey in high concentrations, and is partially responsible for that drowsy feeling you get after Thanksgiving dinner. Tryptophan can be taken in supplement form for such conditions as anxiety, depression, PMS, and insomnia. In 1989, an outbreak of a strange illness was traced to the supplement tryptophan. The symptoms of the illness included paralysis, neurological issues, muscle aches, headaches, fatigue, memory loss, and lots of other awful symptoms.

It turns out that the illness was traced to just one manufacturer of the supplement—Showa Denko of Japan. To make a very long story short, the news on this outbreak led consumers to believe that it was due to “impurities” in the manufacturing process. The real story is that Showa Denko was the only manufacturer of tryptophan to make and market a genetically engineered product. They were not required to label their product as genetically engineered, nor did they inform the consuming public of this fact.

Mary, a lovely and gentle woman, had the misfortune to be on the buying end of the Showa Denko supplement. She struggled with chronic pain and fatigue that damaged her health and cost her her job and her active lifestyle as a vibrant and energetic woman.

It is the rare person who does not take a vitamin or supplement of some kind. It is also the rare person who is knowledgeable about the ingredients in the supplements that they take. Here are a few things you should know and check out when you’re buying supplements:

-Quality control. Look for GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) or USP (U.S. Pharmacopoeia) on the label of vitamins and supplements. Either designation indicates that the supplement meets or exceeds U.S. regulations for manufacturing.

-Who made it? The label should say “manufactured by” not “manufactured for”. This is a subtle difference, but “manufactured for” means that the job was farmed out to another manufacturer. This increases the possibility of cross contamination, and that the supplement may not be up to the exact specifications on the label.

-Service please! There should be an 800 number that works on the label, so you can call the company and ask questions. The manufacturer should also have a good, user-friendly website that is updated regularly.

-No gifts with purchase. You should know what “other’ ingredients, are in your supplements. That means if you’re buying Vitamin C, whatever else is in the supplement is extra. Some ingredients you probably don’t want in your supplements include:

-Food colorings

-Fragrances

-Binders in tablets

-Preservatives, especially BHT and sodium benzoate. Ascorbic acid is ok.

-Fillers in capsules and tablets—lactose, dextrose, sucrose, starch, gluten, soy, and yeast

-Also, coatings on tablets are used to make them easier to swallow. Some manufacturers use shellac and call it pharmaceutical glaze, confectioner’s glaze, or natural glaze—yuk!

-A couple of lubricants used in making supplements to avoid include magnesium stereate and ascorbyl palmitate, both of which can’t be digested by your body.

-What’s the date? Oily supplements, like Vitamins D or E and fish oils should have a date on the bottle—either the date manufactured, or an expiration date. If in doubt, use your nose. Open softgels and take a whiff. You’ll be able to smell if they’re rancid.

-Finally, the gold standard for supplements is an independent assay of the ingredients. You can usually only determine if this is happening if you call the company and ask. An assay is a test to determine that what is in the capsule is actually what is supposed to be there with nothing else. Independent means that it was done by a lab—not the manufacturer. Also, biological testing determines what should not be in a supplement, such as contaminants and bacteria.

Believe it or not, there are a number of really good supplement companies out there that really care about what is in their products. You just have to do a little homework to find them!

I spent a great deal of time talking with Emily about weight loss from the perspective of Chinese medicine.  I described what would be involved for her success, including the role of digestion, stress management, adequate sleep, and physical activity—beyond just dieting. 

I treated Emily at her first appointment with acupuncture and gave her some simple dietary guidelines according to Chinese food therapy.  I set up an appointment for her to come back a week later.  The following week, Emily came into my office and told me that she didn’t think the acupuncture was working, as she hadn’t lost any weight.  It was at that point that I realized that Emily was only interested in me performing acupuncture, while her fat melted away.  Wow!

Needless to say, Emily did not come back, and I chalk this one up as most frustrating for a couple of reasons.  First, Emily wasn’t committed to doing anything other than showing up for her appointments and watching her weight drop.  Secondly, she expected it to happen after only one treatment!

That’s where Dr. Oz comes in.  For anyone living on another planet, Dr. Mehmet Oz is a cardiologist and wellness guru that first appeared on Oprah several years ago.  He has since written a number of books, including   YOU: The Owner’s Manual: An Insider’s Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger.   I’ve read a bunch of them—they are fabulous, funny, and get to the point of what you need to know to be a healthy, beautiful person who knows how to age well.

Dr. Oz has his own TV show now, and earlier this week, he did a segment on acupuncture for weight loss—and he got it right.  Acupuncture is a great choice to help you lose weight because it can help curb your appetite, decrease your cravings (especially for sugar), speed up your metabolism, and decrease stress—a common saboteur in your effort to lose weight.   Dr. Oz also emphasizes the importance of good digestion, which is considered crucial to good health in Chinese medicine.  According to the Chinese, you can eat the healthiest food in the world, but if you don’t digest it well, you might as well be hitting the drive-up window at McDonald’s every day.

 According to Dr. Oz, there are a number of hormones that impact how you gain or lose weight.   In You: On A Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management, he describes the role of ghrelin, which is a hormone that impacts hunger as well as the secretion of leptin, which regulates your metabolism and how you store fat. Dr. Oz describes how acupuncture can influence and regulate these obesity hormones to support weight loss.

Finally, in his guidelines, Dr. Oz directs viewers to “complete a full course of treatment”, which for weight loss is usually ten treatments over the course of several weeks.  Acupuncture is a therapy, not a magic bullet. Hear that, Emily?

For the full segment, go here.

Shingles is the same virus that causes chickenpox, herpes zoster, which has found its way into your nervous system, only to reemerge when you least expect it.  People most likely to get shingles are older, stressed out, or run down in some way.

The evil twin part is that the shingles virus has been lurking in your spinal nerves for years, and sometimes decades, and when it erupts, it can be extremely painful.  Shingles causes a bright red and blistering rash that develops above the nerve on the affected side—usually on your torso, but it can occur on your head, face, neck, or legs.  The area below the rash is very sensitive and can be extremely painful.  Once the rash is gone, there can still be chronic lingering nerve pain that can be severe and debilitating, especially in older sufferers.

In Chinese medicine, Shingles are always associated with some kind of heat.  It’s possible to have too much heat in your body, which can manifest in a number of ways, such as a fever, infection, inflammation, or a nasty red and itchy rash.  In Chinese medicine, shingles is considered to be toxic heat—a condition associated with redness, swelling, and a weepy discharge (gross!).

There is also usually a damp element to shingles, as well.  In your body, dampness is what causes athlete’s food, yeast infections, and edema.  The damp element to shingles is found in the blistering quality of the rash.

While shingles seemingly comes out of nowhere to make your life miserable, there is usually a reason it’s happening now.   One of the most frequent causes is overwhelming stress, but poor diet, fatigue, having a weak or compromised immune system, or aging in general can also activate the virus.

Shingles will ultimately go away on its own, but an acupuncturist can help you speed up the healing process in a couple of ways.  Acupuncture can help with the pain associated with shingles and decrease the possibility of long-term neuralgia (nerve pain).  In addition, your acupuncturist can speed up the time it takes for your rash to resolve.  In most cases, he or she will treat the rash with acupuncture, suggest the use of Chinese herbs and food therapy to speed up healing, and address the underlying imbalance that lead to your outbreak.

Being in good health depends on your getting a good night’s sleep. Your body resets itself, heals and rejuvenates while you’re sleeping. But what if you just don’t sleep well? Can acupuncture help you?

The following is an excerpt from my book, Simple Steps: The Chinese Way to Better Health on patterns of imbalance and how an acupuncturist would treat your insomnia:

If you visit a practitioner of Chinese medicine for a specific symptom, you might be surprised to be asked all kinds of questions, that seem to have absolutely nothing to do with your symptom. In fact, you may become impatient as your practitioner asks you about your bowel movements when you’re there to be treated for acne. However, for your practitioner to arrive at an accurate diagnosis, he or she must have a complete picture of your internal makeup. Your symptom is simply a manifestation of an imbalance, and to treat it correctly your practitioner will put that symptom into the context of a pattern in order to treat the source of the imbalance.

It is interesting that a single symptom can be a manifestation of very different patterns in different people. For example, three people may come to my office wanting to be treated for insomnia. The first, a busy executive, explains that he has difficulty falling asleep because his mind is racing when he goes to bed. He shares that he frequently feels stressed by his job, and when he gets home, he’s irritable with his family. He says he feels thirsty, and his face appears red. This man would be diagnosed with a pattern called a stagnation of Liver energy, which is causing heat and restlessness.

The second person to be treated for insomnia is a smallish woman who is about fifty years old. She reports that while she can fall asleep at night, she wakes about 3:00 am. with night sweats and has difficulty getting back to sleep. She also complains that she has a chronic dull ache in her lower back and that her knees feel weak. Her face is pale, but her cheeks are red. This woman’s insomnia is due to a pattern of depleted Kidney Yin.

The third person with insomnia is a woman in her thirties, who had surgery about six months ago for appendicitis. She complains that her sleep is restless all night long, and she wakes frequently. She also has heart palpitations, occasional dizziness, dry skin and brittle nails. Her face looks pale and drawn. This woman’s sleep problem is caused by a depletion of Blood.

All three of these people would be diagnosed with insomnia in Western biomedicine, and would most likely be prescribed a sleep aid. However, in the Chinese medical model, the only thing these three people have in common is that their imbalance is manifesting as insomnia. For each, the underlying cause of their insomnia is different from the others, and each would be treated with acupuncture and herbal prescriptions unique to their particular imbalance.