A Guide to Using Chinese Medicine for Women’s Health- Part Two- Understanding our Organs

You may find this section surprising, but digestive health and nutrition are HUGE factors in maintaining hormone balance, Women's health and life itself.

Did you ever consider all that is involved for a woman to have regular menstrual periods and healthy fertility? That her stomach, spleen, pancreas, liver, hormones, AND emotions must be working in tandem with other organs to make that possible?

Pretty incredible, yes?! So many parts to the process; from literally making the substance of blood to then helping it circulate and provide nourishment to all parts of the body. And let's face it, even with some pretty bad habits, things can still function pretty well! At least for a while...

So let's just start there. No matter what challenges you may face, or what you have been through... things can be reset, you CAN make some changes to feel better and wholeness is your nature!!

So much is going RIGHT for you to be here right now...

Organ Health

Did you know the liver alone has over 300 functions to perform every day?!

Again, it's pretty incredible to think about.

Your body is working 24/7, 365 to keep it all in balance. To digest and absorb nutrients, eliminate waste, release sexual hormones at the proper times, make the blood and body fluids, pump the blood, BREATHE... and on and on!

We are all living beings that are designed at a cellular level to seek for homeostasis or balance. In terms of our topic of Women's Health, and the foundation of yin/yang, we can simplify this into two main categories that a body seeks homeostasis from; excess or deficiency.

If there is an imbalance, you might experience one or some of these symptoms related to your hormone cycle:

Deficiency Type (Qi and Blood Deficiency)

-anemia, fatigue, depression and weakness; if yin deficiency specifically more night sweats, hot flashes coming from not enough cooling yin.

OR

Excess Type (Qi and Blood stagnation)

-fibroids, PMS, anger and breast tenderness.

OR sometimes

BOTH! in cycles. Fun.

Sometimes, even if a person is eating well and taking nutritional support, there are still deficiencies. WHY? Because the absorption/breakdown is being overlooked. Nourishing the spleen/stomach is a process that takes time and consistency to balance.

It may also relate to the health and tone of the vagus nerve for others. For some of us, calming practices must be introduced along with nutrients for best results and healing of the "rest and digest" system. More on that in a future post.

Here’s how your body organs fit in and how the digestive health can impact overall health outcomes as well as fertility, hormone balance etc... and what you can do to support yourself better:

Stomach Health

According to the eastern view, our stomach is more like a fire and needs to “cook” the food you eat before it can be properly digested. To do this, it uses digestive enzymes supplied by the liver and digestive acids. This tends to be less when a person has undergone a lot or a long period of stress.

If this process is interrupted or not performed properly, you may experience bloating, indigestion, or diarrhea.

In Chinese Medicine, we look at the "energetics" ie; heating/cooling nature of food and not only the nutrition part.

For example; if a person has deficient spleen and stomach qi, or "no digestive fire" and is feeling tired and cold, we would not recommend a "cold" diet or therapy. Even "healthy" foods like salads may not be medicine for you if you don't have enough digestive fire. You would instead want to focus on what might bring the cold into balance like warm foods, room temp beverages, heat on the abdomen directly and so on.

**Please note: If you are currently eating anything that makes you feel poorly after, or you have undigested food in your stool or watery stool, consider eliminating raw food for a while until you have more clarity about what is happening. Think about foods like ice cream- considered the "enemy of the spleen" haha.

No joke! It truly overwhelms the digestion and may create a tummy ache or worse after eating. If thats the case for you, eliminate it and anything cold to improve your digestion. Favor lightly steamed or cooked food until your stool is firm and your energy improves.

In terms of fertility, poor digestive health can definitely increase your chances of becoming infertile. In Chinese medicine, one diagnosis for infertility can be “cold uterus". An effective remedy for this example is to "warm" the stomach with herbal formulas and foods such as cinnamon, ginger or lemon tea. Also very important to avoid cold raw foods and beverages and submerging the lower body in cold water, especially during menstrual time.

The stomach is meant to be an "acid" organ at a pH of about 2 to fully cleave and breakdown proteins. So sometimes, even acid reflux is actually due to not enough acid!! (But that is a separate blog in itself...just food for thought if thats your challenge).

If we have inadequate digestive power, it will ultimately result in a lack of absorption of nutrients, lack of vitality and eventually blood and yin deficiency as well.

Pancreatic Health (also "spleen" in Chinese medicine)

The spleen/pancreas helps to absorb foods by providing pancreatic acids. A diet of sweets and highly processed foods such as white flour and pasta can damage the pancreas and negatively affect blood sugar levels.

You can improve the health of your pancreas by replacing white flour and pasta with healthier options such as whole grains and drying grains like millet, buckwheat, and barley.

The Liver, Heart, and Circulation

Since the liver and heart control the muscles and circulation in general, they play a large role in menstrual comfort, emotional balance, and fertility.

The liver has over 300 jobs remember?!

And in part we need to eat healthy proteins and fats to keep the liver cleansing and moving the blood.

When your blood doesn’t flow smoothly, or you don't have enough nutrition to feed the volume and quality of blood and your muscles are jammed due to a congesting diet or emotional upset- your period may be late, sparse, clotted or even absent.

Liver, heart and the flow of Qi are directly connected.

Excessive crying, frustration, anger, depression may also be signs of this liver/heart imbalance and create disruptions in the cycle.

Breast Health

The breast is located near the heart and affected by the liver which means that this area is impacted by detoxification, circulation and emotions as well. We face a lot of extra sources of "xeno-estrogens" or synthetic estrogens that are wreaking havoc on women's health today.

We will visit this again.

Did you know?? the average woman applies over 80 chemicals to herself before leaving the house! Not to mention house hold cleaning products.... but I digress. We will add that to the series and talk more about chemicals in a future blog. If you want to check the safety rating for the products you are using now, go to www.ewg.org to find out more.

**DO consider eliminating the use of plastic containers, water bottles, parabens in shampoos, sodium laureth sulfate, synthetic fragrance and other chemicals on your body. There are numerous studies showing a negative impact on women's health.

Because the breast health is connected with liver health, poor detoxification can also cause lumps, cysts, and even contribute to cancers of the breast.

Lumps in the breast may be created or aggravated by:

• Chronic stress • Excess caffeine use • Physical injury • Diet of congesting foods (fried, rich, fat foods, alcohol, and especially smoking)

**So far this applies also to men since men can develop breast cancers too.

**Cruciferous vegetables in particular such as broccoli and cauliflower contain a helpful, sulfur based substance called DIM that serves to break down excess estrogens to reduce breast pain and discomfort. Take as directed during the PMS week or if you are concerned with breast health.

What else can we do?!

1) Let's start with taking in less of what bothers you. As simple as this sounds, it is the #1 hardest part for most people. Delaying gratification can be tricky! And uncomfortable but is necessary to tone and train our organs and nervous system to function well. Consuming "less of" includes not only foods but also social media, tv, activities, people etc...

Its ok to step back to reset your self and your health when you find its needed. And in fact your participation and curiosity are the main parts needed for you to heal.

2) Get more information! Maybe you have even had an aha so far reading this blog... Look to understand what your body is telling you. Get new perspectives if the same 'ol isn't working. Read more, slow down or have a consultation with a professional if needed for success.

3) BE your own experiment.

Paying attention to how you feel instead of avoiding it can be a solution in and of itself. You can track the results of your daily experiences in a journal after consuming different things for any length of time but over a month long period is ideal.

This can help you to identify cycles or times when you are needing support, how things shift and if you have predictable responses or not. Depending on your goal, this can be very helpful for diagnosing the underlying issue.

What is your body reacting to?

When does the discomfort happen?

What helps it calm down? What else can you try?

Is there a thing, a place, person or circumstance that affects you?

4) On a physical level, trying a digestive enzyme, some bitters with meals or adding probiotic foods might feel good. Or of course you can talk to a practitioner of Acupuncture, or a functional medicine doctor about specific tools to implement more specifically for you.

Tongue Health

This discussion wouldn't be complete without giving you an insight into how you can get more information about your body type and how the organs are functioning.

What does your tongue look like? :)

We can look here to see a map of the inside and get a sense of where we might be able to adjust nutrition and lifestyle in order to feel better.

Always lead with curiosity.

If you see on the diagram to the left here, the tongue reveals an entire map of the digestive organs in addition to the constitutional type above. Tongue diagnosis can offer clues as to what is going on inside of your body. If you notice a sudden change on your tongue, it's good to see an Acupuncturist to see if your body needs help address the issue showing up.

Emotions

Broken heart syndrome is much more common in women than men. Its symptoms can resemble heart attack, without any problems related to cholesterol. It results from grief and can be fatal. Why is this we might wonder? Many believe that certain cancers relate to how we process emotions and approach healing, especially after life changing traumas and experiences. The way our emotional expression is received can often effect how we view ourselves as ok or not ok and can therefore make the blood and qi in our bodies flow or become stagnant.

In conclusion

Seek solutions and support that honor your sense of wholeness. You are an intricate web of yin and yang woven within the elements of nature and its ok to take time to explore this aspect of yourself.

Practice patience and gentleness as you approach whatever is needing healing.

And remember, you are already WHOLE so your job is to return home to the inner spaces for answers and relief, not become someone or something else.

All that you need is inside....

Stay tuned in Part 3 for a more specific focus on herbal support.

Bless you!