This is a short message to let you know that the podcast is taking a short break while I focus on a few other projects.

In the meantime, I’d love to share with you this gentle, guided meditation to cultivate your Qi – your life force energy, nourish your Three Treasures (more on these in episode 50 & 32) and power inner connection. This Qi meditation is a powerful way to bring coherence to body, mind and soul.

For those who prefer to meditate seated – this can be a great way to break up the day, clear & recharge your Qi – your life force energy – and come back to yourself. This is just one of the many Qi-charging rituals in the Radiant Energy Reset (we also have a luscious, lying down version). If you’d like to go deeper into this ancient wisdom that supports you in feeling radiant, clear & energised, you can learn more here.  And in light of everything that we talked about in recent episodes, this meditation can be a great way to support further self-connection, self-knowledge and deep embodiment.

A g

(00:00) Intro (00:09) A message from Dr. Maz (03:17) Qi Meditation

You can also find the Qi Meditation on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@drmaz_qi

But what about the cost to our own life force energy, our Qi?

We say that “where our attention goes, energy flows”, so where are we placing our power when we outsource our thinking, creation and communication to a non-living entity?

And how does that impact our own vitality, which rests upon the cultivation of energy – Qi – within our body, mind and soul? As we will discuss, health is so much more than just the absence of disease. Rather, it manifests when we are living as the most glorious expression of ourselves, deeply embodied in body, mind and soul.

In this episode, I share my thoughts as a doctor of Chinese and Taoist Medicine – and offer powerful ways to empower our connection within.

(05:08) Heart, Soul, the organs of creation & our unique voice: Fire element (11:23) The Three Treasures and how they relate to our expression & integrity (16:51) Heaven, Human, Earth: we are conduits for cosmic & earthly Qi (19:43) What is health? (22:44) Outsourcing to AI, and loss of joy and inspiration (24:02) AI makes mistakes and provides incorrect information (28:26) The unexpected gift of generative AI (31:51) Content vs. connection (34:11) Rituals and habits to reclaim soul connection and inner empowerment

Subscribe to the YouTube channel to be notified when I share my embodiment mediation https://www.youtube.com/@drmaz_qi

The Snake Year that is currently drawing to a close has pushed us to shed our skins and release that which no longer fits, so that we can shine bright with the essential Fire energies of this Year of the Fire Horse.

I’m so excited for the unbridled, wild and untameable energies of this coming year – but the Fire Horse has not always been welcome. Indeed, individuals born in Fire Horse years were painted as ungovernable (yay!), reckless and dangerous – precisely because of their independent nature, fiery will and authentic expression of their truest selves. And none were more stigmatised than Fire Horse women.

Women born in the Year of the Fire Horse were shunned as wives – seen as too wild, too free and too full of passion. Female foetuses were aborted, and unlucky “accidents” befell female babies. The lucky ones had their birth years misattributed to the neighbouring years. This data is clearly documented in the 1966 birthrate in Japan, which dropped by a staggering 25%.

Why are these qualities of passion, self-authority and living one’s truest impulses so feared? I have some thoughts. And I also believe that this coming 2026 Year of the Fire Horse is a potent opportunity for all of us – Fire Horse or not, woman or not – to embody even more of our most wild, essential selves. To be guided by our hearts and souls – both aspects of the Fire element.

• what IS the Year of the Fire Horse, and why is it so potent – and so feared? • how to harness and align with the explosive energies of this year • how urgently the qualities the Fire Horse are needed in our modern world • are we being a vessel for “Shen” (Spirit, ruled by Fire)… or a vessel for AI? • habits to balance the Double Fire year with simple habits & rituals (and a Feng Shui tip)

One of the practices that is so important in grounded and capacitating these powerful Fire Horse energies is Qi Gong – literally, “energy work”. I have created a beautiful, self-paced experience that guides you through energy work practices in just 10 minutes a day. Open up the flow in your meridians, alchemise blocks, unlock the secrets of your energy centres (chakras), charge up your Qi and tune up your biofield – so that you can best harness these powerful energies coming our way. Learn more here.

Transcript

(0:04) Hi everyone, welcome to the Balanced Natural Health podcast where we share (0:09) insights from the ancient science and timeless wisdom of Chinese medicine. (0:13) Information from the old natural ways of healing can support us in leading more (0:18) beautiful, more vibrant and more vital lives today. In this podcast I share (0:23) simple, natural and accessible tips that you can incorporate into your everyday (0:28) life for more vibrant health and wellness. I’m so glad you’re here. (0:32)

Hello beautiful beings and welcome to episode 49 of the podcast. I’m Dr. Maz and in today’s (0:40) episode I would like to dive into something really timely and very exciting because as (0:45) many of you may know we are about to head into a new lunar year.

The Chinese New Year is (0:53) coming up. It begins on February the 17th here in Australia and this year upcoming is a really (1:01) exciting, powerful, dynamic one. It’s ripe with possibility and opportunity and it is the year (1:08) of the fire horse.

I’m just so excited about the energy that’s about to come through and how (1:14) we’ve been getting ready for this new power that’s going to pour through us with the snake year that (1:20) we’ve just been through. So we’ve just been through a shedding of skins, releasing of anything(1:25) that might be clouding or dimming our power and the way it shines through us and this has all (1:32) been in service to clear the way for the wild, untamable power of the fire horse. So in today’s (1:39) episode we will talk about why this is such a powerful year, what it means for feminine power, (1:46) the rising of the deep, wild, sacred, untamed feminine within all of us because we all contain (1:53) at least a seed of the masculine and the feminine.

We’re going to talk about what that means for (1:59) reclaiming our essential, truest, most vibrant expression of selves. We will also talk about how (2:06) we can best support ourselves to capacitate the flow of this powerful energy in this fire horse (2:13) year. So things to look out for and practices that we can put into place to ground and hold (2:20) this huge influx, this surge of fire horse energy that’s coming our way.

And maybe you’re tapping (2:26) into this energy as well, perhaps you’re feeling like it’s been a weird kind of stop start or not (2:32) quite start to the Gregorian calendar and maybe you’re feeling an upwelling of excitement or (2:38) something’s really brewing and that is the fire horse year that is coming. So first of all, (2:44) let’s take a look at what is the horse year and what is the fire horse year. So in the Chinese (2:52) view of the world and in the Chinese calendar perspective, we have a 60 year calendar.

It’s (2:59) a beautiful calendar called the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches. And this calendar has (3:06) been used for millennia to map climate cycles, weather patterns, to harness the best harvest, (3:15) to best align ourselves with the environment, because in Chinese medicine, we acknowledge that (3:20) we are woven into the web of life all around us. And so knowing how we can balance ourselves to (3:27) be in the best alignment with the prevailing energies of the climate and the weather for (3:33) each particular year is really beneficial.

This is something that has been honed to a fine art. (3:39) So the 60 year calendar is based on the 10 Heavenly Stems and the 12 Earthly Branches. (3:47) So there’s 12 animals.

These are the 12 Earthly Branches. And this is where we get animals like the (3:55) snake, which we’re having this year, or which we’re just wrapping up, and the horse which is (4:00) coming up. So each of the 12 animals have unique attributes.

So for example, the snake likes to (4:07) stay quiet, close to the ground. It’s really tuned into frequency and vibration. And it is well known (4:15) for its ability to shed skins.

And the horse, in contrast, is full of dynamic bursting forth. So (4:24) the horse is known for its energy, its love of movement, its freedom, its independence, and (4:32) generally enthusiastic and outgoing nature, and so on for all of the other 12 animals. So we’ve got (4:39) the 12 Earthly Branches and the 10 Heavenly Stems.

The 10 Heavenly Stems are based on a yin and (4:46) yang version of each of the five elements. So the five elements are a really key way in which we (4:52) describe the world in Chinese medicine and Taoist medicine, Taoist thought. So the five elements are (4:59) fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.

And for each of these, we have a yin and yang counterparts. (5:06) We’ve got yang fire and yin fire within the Heavenly Stems. So what happens is we have 12 (5:13) animals, but we have a 60 year cycle.

Each of the animals gets a go in one of the five elements. (5:21) So you might be wondering, hang on a minute, there’s 12 animals and 10 Heavenly Stems, which (5:27) would make 120, not 60, and you are correct. But there is a rule that only yang stems get (5:34) matched with yang branches, so animals that are yang, and yin stems, so yin type elements, get (5:41) matched with yin branches, so yin animals.

Now in the case of the horse, the horse has a yang nature (5:48) because it likes to move, it likes to be dynamic, to move explosively, it likes to run free, it has (5:55) a really fiery active energy. And in addition to that, the horse is ruled by fire. So no matter (6:03) what element it falls in, the element associated with horse is fire.

So this year, when the horse (6:11) falls into the fire element, we have double fire. So there is potential for so much transmutation, (6:20) transformation, alchemizing so much, because fire is the element of transformation. It turns one (6:27) thing into another, it’s dynamic, it’s full of energy, it’s the life force within all of us.

(6:33) And this is why this year holds so much power for all of us, whether we’re a fire horse or not. (6:39) There is an opportunity to claim this wild untameable power within us all for ourselves.(6:47) And the fire horse is the most dynamic of all the horses.

In another 12 years, we’ll have (6:54) the earth horse year, and the element of earth moderates that fiery yang nature of the horse (7:01) that is innate to the horse anyway. So earth horses are said to be more grounded. For example, a water (7:08) horse will be more balanced than a fire horse in as far as their dynamism goes, because water and (7:15) fire have a polarity, they balance each other out.

So if someone is a water horse, they will possibly (7:22) be less impulsive, explosive, dynamic than a fire horse. Now, because of its double fire nature, (7:29) there’s been a lot of stigma around people born in the fire horse year over the centuries, and (7:35) particularly women. So because of the nature of society that liked women to be biddable and meek (7:43) and submissive and to surrender to the will of others, and particularly in a society that valued (7:51) collectivism, I guess, and submission to authority, then ...]]> 0:24:54 false https://podcast.show/balanced_natural_health/balanced_natural_health/151190834/ep-48-why-do-we-get-sick-part-2-how-does-the-human-body-self-heal/ 151190834 https://drmaz.earth/?p=2586 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Fri, 02 Jan 2026 19:16:22 -0500 We continue our exploration from the previous episode, and consider: how does the human body self-heal?

How are symptoms actually an indication of the body’s infinite wisdom & self-healing power, and how can we support these processes to move to completion and healing (rather than suppressing them)? What happens if we do suppress them?? How does the human body self-heal then?

Unlike modern medicine, Chinese Medicine supports the body’s self-healing processes, helping them to move towards their completion. In this episode, I share perspectives on health through the lens of the oldest science in the world, Chinese Medicine. A science that has persisted for over 5,000 years (some say 8,000… and it may be older still!) and is all about living in harmony, both within and without.

Listen for simple ways that we can cultivate these vital aspects of ourselves, for radiant health and self-healing.

(00:00) Welcome to the podcast (00:32) Episode into, recap of why we get sick & how does the human body self-heal? (04:11) what do symptoms like phlegmy lungs, sinus congestion & fever indicate? (05:08) We humans have more microbial cells than “human” cells! (07:05) How does the human body self-heal? Bacteria & other microbes help us (10:35) How Chinese Medicine supports the body’s self-healing, rather than suppressing it (11:22) The Eight Strategies, or Ba Fa, of Chinese Herbal Medicine (17:41) Our bodies are infinitely wise & always move towards healing (18:16) Case study: how a Candida “infection” benefitted the greater whole (24:35) Mould sickness & our inner terrain, Dampness, low Yang

And if you’d like my guidance in building daily rituals and habits for radiantly robust health, I have created something simple yet powerful for you. As we know, our daily habits are the foundation for our health and “immunity”. Every moment, meal, drink, thought, habit, etc. can bring us into greater alignment and can charge up our Qi – the life force energy that fuels every aspect of health.

This is why I created the Radiant Energy Reset. A gentle, self-guided path of ancient health rituals to cultivate Qi, Yin, Yang and connection – guided by the wisdom of your own body. A real solution for those ready to ditch the fads & feel clear, energised and in control again. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends. Instant access for you here.

And, as we learned in episode 47, “when the Qi and Shen are present and sound, no pathogen can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues are near”. I show you how to cultivate and boost your Qi and your Shen – your spirit, soul, consciousness. Just 10 minutes a day of Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy to connect to YOUR innate wisdom & guidance – and feel grounded in YOU. You already have all you need within. A gentle embodiment journey – Coming Home to You. Instant access.

(00:00) Hi everyone, welcome to the Balanced Natural Health podcast where we share insights from the ancient science and timeless wisdom of Chinese medicine. Information from the old natural ways of healing can support us in leading more beautiful, more vibrant and more vital lives today. In this podcast I share simple, natural and accessible tips that you can incorporate into your everyday life for more vibrant health and wellness. I’m so glad you’re here.

(00:32) Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Maz and welcome back to episode 48 of the podcast. In today’s episode, we are continuing on from our exploration in the last episode about what it is that makes us sick, from a Chinese Medicine perspective, and does the human body self-heal.

And it is not invisible baddies, or germs / bacteria / microbes / viruses that we “catch” from other people that make us sick. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, the main causes of disease are a loss of harmony and balance, both with our world within – our inner world of emotions – and the world without – the environment, the climate and conditions around us. So in Chinese Medicine, staying balanced and in harmony with our inner world and our outer world is what maintains health, and allows our brilliant system to heal itself.

(01:25)We understand that emotions can be a major contributor to disease because we are energetic beings, and emotions are simply energy in motion. And when they’re not in motion – when our emotions aren’t moving, when they’re stuck or repressed or ignored – they can snag our energy body, our biofield, our aura. And when our energy field and our Qi meridians are not flowing smoothly, and they’re not communicating as ideally as they should be, then we can start to see disease: this is because things aren’t moving where they need to be moving, and information isn’t being passed in a timely manner.

(02:05) And we learned that another contributor to disease is an imbalance of our bodies in relation to the external environment. So for example, in Chinese Medicine, we say that Wind is the “spearhead of 1000 diseases”. This is why we bundle up against winds, we protect against drafts, we don’t sleep under fans, and we wear scarves in windy weather, because the neck is where Wind can get in. And when Wind and Cold get into the meridians that traverse our neck (and also our lower back, we like to keep that covered and toasty as well), we get frozen and flow is trapped on the surface.

And that is when an early stage “Cold” can arise. So, we might get tightness in the muscles of the neck, we might get that achy feeling that might indicate that a cold or flu is brewing, we might feel lightly flushed, and we might have some light sweating or fever. And all of this is, in fact, the body’s wise response to that Cold, and the resultant freezing of the surface: the body is trying to bring warmth to the surface to push that cold back out.

(03:18) So we can see that these disruptions to internal harmony and outer harmony provide a very different view of health than the militaristic mindset of being constantly on edge against invisible baddies and “germs” that we need to defend against. I love that the focus is on harmony and balance, rather than waging war. And I think that that shift alone really benefits our nervous systems in the long run, too – that focus on what we’re creating, rather than what we’re fighting against, especially when it’s not the true cause of disease.

And I think it’s also interesting that this microbe idea or germ theory of disease is relatively recent, whereas Chinese Medicine has held its view of health for millennia, at least 5000 years, if not longer. And it has stood the test of time, so there is so much we can learn from it!

(04:12) In this episode, we’re going to look at a Chinese Medicine perspective on what happens when we do manifest symptoms. What does it mean, for example, when we get phlegm on the lungs or in the sinuses, or when we have a fever, or diarrhoea? How do we explain that from a Chinese Medicine perspective – and how does the human body self-heal?

We will also look at the Eight methods or the Eight Strategies of herbal medicine, and they describe different ways that we use herbs – and tastes and flavours – to support the body’s processes of restoring balance when it has been disrupted. So, for example, if we have constipation, we will use a certain treatment strategy, and if we have phlegm on the chest, we use a different treatment strategy. So we’ll learn more about that as well.

(05:03) Recapping on what we learned in the previous episode, staggeringly and amazingly, we humans actually have more microbial cells than human cells. So we have more bacteria and fungal (including yeast) cells than actual human cells. And together we live in a community which comes together in symbiosis that supports life (this also forms a big piece of the answer to “how does the human body self-heal?”)

And while it might seem that bacteria or microbes are the “baddies” when we look at the fact that they might be present, for example, in phlegm or mucus cultures when there are symptoms of disease (when there is, say, bronchitis or a chest infection, we can see that there are certain bacteria that might be more prevalent) there is actually a different view that paints these little friends in a different light. And what if, in fact, they were not the problem, but they were the cleanup crew? And that is how I see it – that our friendly helpers come to the party and help us restore balance.

(06:09) Let me explain a little bit more. But firstly, I’d like to bring to mind the image of a compost heap – and what happens in a compost heap.

Those of us who’ve had a garden or a compost heap before, we know that we throw food scraps on a compost heap, and then there are worms and microbes that help to break down these discarded bits of food, and help to break them down into something that will nourish the earth, which then feeds into the next stage of the cycle of life. So it’s a way of digesting the remnants, the leftovers, into a for...]]> 0:31:05 false https://podcast.show/balanced_natural_health/balanced_natural_health/150462429/ep-47-why-do-we-get-sick-a-chinese-medicine-perspective/ 150462429 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=1295 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:30:34 -0500 Why do we get sick? (Spoiler alert: it’s not germs, or other invisible baddies)

Why do some people seem to get everything going, while others happily keep on going? Why do some have “iron guts”? And why do some individuals get allergies in the exact same environment that others are totally fine in?

We might be tempted to answer, “it’s the immune system”, but the “immune” system is both merely a working theory and a relatively new concept – one that has not been tested and proven over the course of millennia. And in its short existence, many holes and inconsistencies have already been uncovered.

A view that:

• has persisted for over 5,000 years (some say 8,000… and it may be older still!) • liberates us from the defensive mindset of waging war on disease, preventing “attack”, always keeping an eye out, etc. • trusts the wisdom of our brilliant beings – and the wisdom of Mama Nature • is about living in harmony, both within and without? • reminds us just how powerful we are?

Wouldn’t that feel so much better – more easeful, joyous and lighter – than being on constant alert for the next invisible germ or baddie out there?

And what about the fact that these invisible “germs and baddies” are actually a vital part of health? They already exist on and in us, to the extent that the number of microbial cells outnumber human cells by an estimated factor of at 10:1 (some sources now suggest that it’s closer to 100:1). In either case, we “humans” are more a community of bacteria and other microbes than anything else. Which then makes me consider – why the obsession with killing off all of the invisible microbes that we ideally live in symbiosis with us? And what IS the answer to “why do we get sick“?

This is the Chinese Medicine view.

In this episode, we look at the causes of disease through the lens of the oldest science in the world: time-tested over centuries – and millions of patients – and delivering powerful clinical results to this day.

• Loss of balance, connection and harmony • Lack, or stagnation, of Qi (our charge or life force energy) • Imbalanced Yin Yang, accumulation of Damp, Cold, Blood Stasis, etc.

• Emotions • Six Heavenly Qi – atmospheric and climatic influences, also called the Six Evils • Disconnection from Nature • “Improper” living: food, movement, routine, habits, sex, thoughts, etc. that don’t support health

This lens sees us humans as primarily energetic, electromagnetic beings, and when we cultivate our Qi and our spirit-soul-consciousness, health is the natural result. This is summed up beautifully in the quote from our ancient medical book, the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, circa 200CE):

…when the Qi and Shen* are present and sound, no pathogen** can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues*** are near. Chapter 73: Etiology of Disease

Listen for simple ways that we can cultivate these vital aspects of ourselves, for vibrant, radiant health.

(00:00) Intro (00:32) Episode Intro – the “immune system” is only a theory, and keeps us on edge (03:03) A different view of health – one rooted in connection, balance & harmony (07:50) The Chinese Medicine take on “why do we get sick” (11:25) What can disrupt our inner balance & harmony (15:30) “Improper” ways of living – and our Bladder meridian as first line “defence” (20:15) The overarching goal of Chinese Medicine (27:15) What can being out of balance look like? (34:15) Why disconnection from Nature can imbalance us (37:00) The common root of many modern dis-eases – why do we get sick?

Our daily habits are the foundation for our health and “immunity”. Every moment, meal, drink, thought, habit, etc. can bring us into greater alignment and can charge up our Qi – the life force energy that fuels every aspect of health.

This is why I created the Radiant Energy Reset. A gentle, self-guided path of ancient health rituals to cultivate Qi, Yin, Yang and connection – guided by the wisdom of your own body. A real solution for those ready to ditch the fads & feel clear, energised and in control again. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

And, as we learned in this episode “when the Qi and Shen are present and sound, no pathogen can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues are near”.

I show you how to cultivate and boost your Qi and your Shen – your spirit, soul, consciousness. Just 10 minutes a day of Qi Gong & Emotional Alchemy to connect to YOUR innate wisdom & guidance – and feel grounded in YOU. You already have all you need within. A gentle embodiment journey, instant access and at your own pace..

* Shen = spirit, soul, consciousness, awareness – the spark of life in someone’s eyes ** pathogen – literally, “pathos” and -“gen”, meaning something that is engendering suffering (not an invisible, contagious baddie or germ) *** again, this originally meant an “affliction”, not necessarily infectious

(00:00) Hi everyone, welcome to the Balanced Natural Health podcast where we share insights from the ancient science and timeless wisdom of Chinese medicine. Information from the old natural ways of healing can support us in leading more beautiful, more vibrant and more vital lives today. In this podcast I share simple, natural and accessible tips that you can incorporate into your everyday life for more vibrant health and wellness. I’m so glad you’re here.

(00:32) Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Maz! Welcome back to episode 47 of the podcast. In today’s episode I’d like to share a different perspective on why do we get sick Why do symptoms arise and why do we experience dis-ease? And why is it that some people seem to catch every bug, every flu or cold or gastro that’s going around and others seem to be totally fine? Or why is it that some people have asthma or allergies or reactions to mold or certain environments whereas other people in that same environment or around the same triggers seem to be totally impervious to any outside input? So what is behind that?

(01:22) Now if we think with our modern mainstream mindset, we might answer it’s the immune system. But there are two things to consider about this answer and that is that the immune system theory is just that. It’s a theory, a working hypothesis that has some pretty major holes. So there’s definitely some issues, it’s not airtight, it’s just a working theory.

And the other thing to consider is that it is also a relatively new idea – a relatively new construct that hasn’t had the opportunity to be proven out over thousands of years like the other view that I’m about to share with you.

So ,the modern idea of an immune system is say 100 to 150 years old, and prior to that we had a very different idea of why do we get sick – and therefore, what we can do in order to cultivate vibrant wellness, and also how to look after our health preventatively. And this other view that I’m going to present to you is a beautiful contrast to the current view of the immune system, which has us constantly on guard, on high alert, on defense for invisible baddies and all of the invisible pathogens / bugs / viruses / bacteria that are out to get us. This means that we always have our back up: our nervous system is never truly at ease or at rest because we’re in this militaristic mindset of being at the ready, to spring into attack or to defend ourselves.

(03:06) But this other view is actually about harmony – it’s about trusting the wisdom of our brilliant, brilliant beings, our brilliant body-mind-souls. It’s about trusting that we are so powerful to cultivate vibrant health, and also to rebalance from whatever ails us – and also trusting in the power and the wisdom of Mama Nature, and trusting in the power of our connection to the web of life, to the natural world around us. Because the fact of the matter is that we are woven in to the web of life, and we live in community and symbiosis with the world around us – and this is particularly true when we consider our own human environment.

You might have heard me or others talk about the idea of the microbiome, and this refers to the beautiful collection and living community of microbes. These are the tiny little organisms, like bacteria, yeast and fungi an...]]> 0:41:37 false https://podcast.show/balanced_natural_health/balanced_natural_health/149687249/ep-46-how-warm-food-can-change-your-life-anxiety-insomnia-depression-gut-health-etc/ 149687249 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=1262 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Tue, 04 Nov 2025 18:31:27 -0500 Imagine if simply choosing warm food and drink could help:

• depression • anxiety • insomnia • gas • bloating • promote healthy gut bacteria (say bye-bye to expensive probiotics) • painful periods…

All these benefits, without biohacking gadgets, expensive supplements and exotic superfoods!

This powerful tweak is something that we all can access today – and something that Chinese Medicine has been talking about for several millennia. So simple, and so empowering: each mouthful can move us towards ever-greater health.

A new study from the British Journal of Nutrition confirms what Chinese Medicine has known for well over 5,000 years.

In this episode, we learn why this works, and how you can apply it for yourself.

And if you’d like me to show you how to utilise the power of Chinese Medicine is other daily habits and tweaks, I have created the Radiant Energy Reset for you.

Cold and hot consumption and health outcomes among US Asian and White populations

Drinking water temperature affects cognitive function and progression of Alzheimer’s disease in a mouse model

Effect of cold stress on ovarian & uterine microcirculation in rats and the role of endothelin system

Visceral hypersensitivity following cold water intake in subjects with irritable bowel syndrome

Hot Water Swallows Improve Symptoms and Accelerate Esophageal Clearance in Esophageal Motility Disorders

The Pressor Response to the Drinking of Cold Water and Cold Carbonated Water in Healthy Younger and Older Adults

Hypermobility can mean a whole lot more than being double-jointed and having a selection of party tricks at your disposal ???? Because it involves the connective tissue – which is more stretchy in hypermobile individuals – it is not only joints that are affected, but also anywhere that we have connective tissue. Which is… our whole body!

This means that many systems can be impacted – digestive, nervous, cardiovascular and fluid metabolism – and that hypermobility can masquerade as other “symptoms” or “conditions”, like irritable bowel, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. If these are treated symptomatically, rather than being addressed at the root, we are only ever “managing” the situation, but not resolving or healing it.

But there is a simpler solution.

Every aspect of how hypermobility presents is ruled by the Spleen: upright posture, firm limbs, abundant energy, clear thinking, feeling grounded. Looking after the Spleen can take care of all of these manifestations of hypermobility.

Hypermobility often also presents with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). MCAS includes excessive immune cell response, leading to itching, hives, flushing, mood changes. POTS describes changes with posture, such as dizziness, palpitations, elevated heartbeat, nausea and even bladder changes. And, through a Chinese Medicine lens, both MCAS and POTS can involve the Spleen, as well as the Liver (MCAS) and Heart / Kidney / Yang deficiency (POTS).

As a “floppy” person myself, this is a topic close to my heart, because nourishing my own being with the Spleen-led approach has resolved diagnoses of:

• fibromyalgia • chronic fatigue • arthritis • irritable bowel syndrome • asthma • hayfever / allergic rhinitis

…as well as intense panic attacks.

Many “diseases”, one solution.

So ultimately, this episode is about much more than hypermobility – it’s also about bringing balance to all of the “symptoms” I’ve already mentioned here (and more!). And it is also why every single one of us can benefit from giving our Spleen extra love and care.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? This is why I created the Radiant Energy Reset. A gentle journey for your most glowing self with a 28-day path of ancient healing rituals, guided by the wisdom of your own body. A real solution for those ready to ditch the fads & feel clear, energised and in control again. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Episode 5: Beat the Bloat – Chinese Medicine digestion secrets!

Episode 14: Late Summer Diet & Lifestyle Tips

Episode 23: What is DNS, and how can it revolutionise your strength & movement for more enjoyment of life?!

Episode 29: What is the Meridian Clock, and how can we align with nature’s cycles?

Episode 42: Fasting – helpful or harmful? A Chinese Medicine perspective

What if it is a portal into a more essential, more exquisitely-aligned version of ourselves?An invitation to re-examine how we do life, and to witness and heal parts of ourselves?An initiation into our wisdom and power?

In Chinese Medicine, perimenopause is considered the “Second Spring”. A second puberty, a second metamorphosis. When we reflect on what a wild ride that first puberty was, we can begin to see the grace, space and compassion that we can offer ourselves in this transition.

Patients have shared with me that they have felt gaslit by the mainstream system, where their various concerns were instantly dismissed as “just perimenopause”, and HRT was offered as the only solution. But it is no coincidence that symptoms like fatigue, low moods, irritability, low libido, poor sleep and weight gain can show up at this time of our life. These symptoms can also be a reflection of decades of caring for others at the cost of ourselves: of self-abandonment, people-pleasing, over-giving and under-receiving.

In our medicine, we see “symptoms” as wise messages from the body. An insight into what desires to be balanced or healed. And I see common underlying patterns in women at this phase of life, which also explain the common “symptoms” of perimenopause.

In this episode, I share what those patterns are, and simple ways that we can support ourselves to move most easefully through this powerful portal!

For more info on the courses I mention in this episode, go to “OFFERINGS, or click here.

More on Hormone Health

Episode 2: Happy hormones naturally, for general health, easier periods and optimising fertility (Part 1 of 2)

Episode 3: Happy hormones for all (not “just for the ladies!”), and the role of inflammation (Part 2 of 2)

Hi everyone, welcome to the Balanced Natural Health podcast, where we share insights from the ancient science and timeless wisdom of Chinese medicine. Information from the old natural ways of healing can support us in leading more beautiful, more vibrant and more vital lives today. In this podcast, I share simple, natural and accessible tips that you can incorporate into your everyday life for more vibrant health and wellness. I’m so glad you’re here.

Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 44. In today’s episode, I would like to dive into something which feels particularly relevant to me personally, due to my age and demographic, I’m now 47 years old. And also in response to what I’m seeing a lot of on social media, in mainstream, in the world around me, and that is the perception of menopause as a pathology to be medicated. And the perception of perimenopause as the cause of all ills, and also the attribution of all of the different symptoms or vital body messages that women might be experiencing at this time, the attribution of these always to, oh, it’s just hormones and you need HRT.

Whereas, as you probably know, if you’ve been listening to me for a while, I have long retired from the position of doing battle with my body. And I now see all symptoms as vital messages from the body, mind and soul as to what my system wants me to know and what is coming up for me for integration and harmonizing at that point in time. And so in today’s episode, I would like to talk about some of these, what I see as misconceptions about perimenopause and menopause. And I would like to dispel some myths. And I would also like to share a more empowering perspective on this powerful transition – traditionally called the Second Spring – and how I personally am choosing to navigate it and step through it.

In Chinese medicine, perimenopause and the whole process of moving through menopause is viewed as the second spring. So it’s viewed as a second puberty because we are literally in the process of metamorphosing ourselves into a different version of ourselves.

We are moving from a period of our life where we are creative in the material realm, where we can create life, we can create humans, whole new human body, which is such a miracle. And we are moving into a stage of life where we create energetic gifts to the world at this time. So all of our resources, all the resources that were formerly distributed to the womb, now start to move towards the heart, which houses the Shen and our consciousness.

And together, that portal of womb and heart can bring forth and birth so many powerful energies and ideas and so much wisdom into the world. In so many cultures and over eons of time, the crone or the wise grandmother was viewed as an archetype who had so much wisdom to impart. It was a really revered and respected archetype.

And yet in our current iteration of society, we are being continually broadcast to that this is a burden, it’s a inconvenience, it’s the end of our relevance, that it’s all downhill from here, that we will put on weight, that we will have brain fog, that we will be fatigued, that we’ll have vaginal dryness, that we’ll lose our libido and our moods, and that we’ll go crazy and lash out those around us and a whole other litany of ills. And it doesn’t have to be that way. I do think that there is a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy when we keep being broadcast this message from so many angles, that it is something to be feared.

And that adds another dimension to this process of transition because stress can very much influence how we move through this really powerful period of our lives. So while I always honour and celebrate the choice of women to take HRT, I think it’s amazing that people have choices to do what they want to with their body and their health. I also think that there are other ways to move through this transition and it’s definitely not the only way to move through it.

I don’t think that mama nature makes any mistakes. And we, when we look at the world around us, there are seasons and cycles to everything and our bodies, minds and souls are no different. So while it might be touted in the mainstream that it’s protective to the body, to your bones, to your cardiovascular system, to keep pumping your body full of these external hormones, which your body is no longer producing, I really question what the long-term effects of that are.

Because as I said, mama nature doesn’t make mistakes. So if we’re meant to sustain this level of circulating hormones and hormone production, our body would be producing it, right? And when we look into the literature around the potential side effects of supplementation, external supplementation like this, we can see that there definitely are risks. So this is a conversation for another time.

In this podcast, I just want to share a different perspective on how we might be able to view perimenopause and second spring and this second puberty. And I love this idea of this transition, this perimenopausal transition as a second puberty, because when we think about what a wild transition our first puberty was, then it gives us an inkling of how much grace and spaciousness and tenderness, compassion, patience, we might want to give ourselves as we move through this second transition. Like think how wild the ride was with fluctuating hormones back in our teens when we were going through that transition and all the different emotional landscapes that came up and how we responded to different things, how we were finding our own power and expression into the world.

And this period is no different. I think it’s a really exciting invitation to look at how we’ve been living, what kind of beliefs and assumptions we’ve had about ourselves, what kind of life habits we’ve fallen into and how we might want to live our lives going forward. And one symptom that is a symptom that is often talked about with regards to perimenopause is the mood swings.

And this is often attributed to the fluctuations of specifically estrogen, but also progesterone because estrogen is our buffering hormone. It is soft and juicy making, and it is what allows us to put up with shit basically, or put up with things that are maybe not in alignment with our highest good. It allows us to put up with self-sacrificing situations or enmeshment.

And what I have found as my estrogen has dropped throughout this transition is that I have had to look at where I have been people pleasing, where I have been giving away my power. And also having less estrogen has made me less inclined to self-abandon and sacrifice my energy to compromise my boundaries. And just to say no to things that are leaking my energy or things that are no longer serving me.

So whether that’s activities or relationships or certain types of emotional bonding, for example like bonding over drama, it’s just not available for that anymore because it’s such an energy drain. So to me this Second Spring has been a gift. To me having this drop in estrogen has shown me where I’ve been compromising my own energy, where there’s been leaks.

If I was supplementing with that hormone then perhaps I wouldn’t have had that clear vision of seeing where I’ve been self-abandoning and what I can do to live my life differently and what I can do to call back that energy to myself.

I also think that these m...]]> 0:38:06 false https://podcast.show/balanced_natural_health/balanced_natural_health/145362927/ep-43-essence-spirit-longevity-sex-fertility-living-your-destiny/ 145362927 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=1195 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Mon, 12 May 2025 02:29:05 -0400 Have you heard of the Three Treasures, and how they relate to feeling great, aging vibrantly, manifesting your destiny and living your soul purpose?

Together with our Qi, our Jing (Essence) and our Shen (Spirit) make up the Three Treasures – treasures, because they are the precious substances that form the foundation for our health and longevity.

Jing can be translated variously as our DNA, our genetic endowment, our constitution.

Qi is the total of all of our energetic and metabolic processes that govern daily function, like digestion, respiration, circulation, cellular function, tissue structure and integrity (more in episode 41).

Shen is our spirit, our presence, our consciousness – the spark of life in our eyes.

Jing-Qi-Shen are interrelated and dependent upon each other. When they are in coherence and harmony, we manifest our destiny in this lifetime – our soul purpose. We feel lighter, clearer and more vibrant – and are well resourced for life’s adventures.

Many of our Chinese Medicine health cultivation practices centre around preserving and refining the Three Treasures. In this episode, Dr. Maz shares simple practices that you can incorporate into your everyday to boost your Qi, protect your Essence and help your Spirit shine bright!

The simple Qi Gong move, practised slowly, with intent and slow breathing, can be a powerful way to connect the energies of Heaven and Earth. Bonus points if you do it barefoot outside!

When I was asked my thoughts on fasting, the answer, while tending to alignment with The Middle Way, had some nuances that I share with you in this episode.

We touch on:

• the view of our ancient medical texts on fasting (scroll down for a quote)

• eating close to nature and the seasons vs. processed foods, preservatives, seed oils and, frankly, non-foods that pop up in the modern “diet”

• intermittent fasting, the Chinese Medicine Organ / Meridian Clock and circadian rhythms

• the “hollow” organs – what even are they, their relationship to health (and consciousness)

• how fasting can cause our systems to dip into our Jing – the vital “Essence” that we come into this world with, and that nourishes us throughout our lifespan.

Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine), Chapter 18: Pulse Analysis; circa 200CE

Put simply, life (and health!) is about how well we can gain and hold charge, and how effectively our systems work with it.

Chinese Medicine has a profound understanding of this. Our view of health and healing focuses greatly on Qi and its many expressions, qualities and functions within mind, body and soul. Qi is often loosely translated as “energy”, but it is so much more than that. It describes function, metabolism, processes of transformation, directions of movement… the list goes on!

In our medicine, we understand that when the body is well-resourced and abundant in Qi – and when the Qi channels, or meridians – are open and harmoniously organised, vibrant health naturally follows.

Here we talk about the concept of health as charge – and our ability to hold and use it effectively – and the many ways, both ancient and new, that we can charge up our Qi today.

PRODUCT SHOUTOUT

I talk in the episode about native frequencies (or EMFs) vs non-native ones. A common source of non-native EMFs are many lightbulbs – the wavelength of these lights can be disruptive to our body clock, or circadian rhythm. This in turn can derail everything from hormones to nervous system, sleep, repair and whole host of other important processes. This is why our house is full of natural wavelength lightbulbs from Block Blue Light.

The link below gets you 10% off, or just enter “DrMaz” at checkout.

https://www.blockbluelight.com.au/?ref=DrMaz

What I have observed over the years – both in my own health journey and in my many years in clinic – is that simple & natural is most often best.

While extreme or heroic practices, and expensive biohacks & supplements, may seem glamorous and exciting and may promise the world, I see that we can achieve the same benefits with the simple – often free! – consistent things that we do each day (grounding, sunlight, movement, emotional expression) and by living as closely to Mama Nature as we can (wholefoods, clean & coherent water, natural light & frequencies, aligning with daily / seasonal rhythms).

I also have witnessed that while it may be tempting to ADD more to our lives in an attempt to gain more vitality, it is very often what we REMOVE that frees up our vital force to go about its job of healing, repair and restoration. Reducing the load in our “toxin bucket” by limiting what we throw in there (food additives, chemicals, synthetic fragrances, toxin in personal care & home products, non-native electromagnetic fields, artificial lighting, etc.) can be just as – if not more – profound as what we add to our lives. I can also add to this the witnessing & releasing of limiting beliefs, “congestive” emotional habits and stored trauma is another important piece of the puzzle – letting go of these liberates vast amounts of our innate healing powers.

In this episode I share the simple, daily practices that I include to nourish my health, and easy ways you can apply them yourself.

CAVEAT: the practices discussed are suitable for most of us who are in at least a reasonable state of health. There are times when systems may be so depleted, overloaded with toxins or in such an pronounced state of compensation (“disease”) that more extreme measures – practices, supplements, devices – may be temporarily necessary in order to restore a baseline level of vital energy to the system, which can then take it from there.

CLEAN 15 & DIRTY DOZEN

WATER FILTERS I USE

EPISODE 2: Happy hormones naturally, for better health (“detox”)

EPISODE 3: Happy hormones naturally, for better health (“detox”)

Recent research has found that the heart has receptors for both the bitter and sweet taste, and that these receptors are believed to modulate the function of the heart. In our oldest medical text, the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine), it is stated that:

“the Heart is benefited by the bitter taste” and “bitter-tasting substances can clear the Heart” 

“sweet herbs are used to sedate” but “too much sweet taste can disturb the Heart Qi”  

And it gets even better!

In Chinese Medicine, the Heart is connected to the Uterus and  testicles via the Bao Mai. And, guess where else in the body can bitter taste receptors are found??

You guessed it! The uterine lining and the testicles. Wild, huh?

Chinese Medicine has such a profound and nuanced understanding of health. It’s a complete system of healing that has been proven over millennia, with rich detail on how to use herbs & flavours for health, and a holistic understanding of the connection between the visceral organs (like the Heart) and the sense organs (like the tongue). This can offer up new perspectives and potential for health and healing.

In this episode, we explore the connection between:

• Heart & tongue

• Kidneys & ears

• Liver & eyes

• Spleen & mouth

• Lungs & nose

We share modern research and clinical case studies that beautifully illustrate this connection, and discuss some acupressure points to support the vitality of the sensory organs.

From a Chinese Medicine perspective – which honours, stokes and cultivates the “spark of life” at all costs, and protects the Yang (vital warmth) of the body – the answer is a resounding YES!

We address many of the common objections to my statement, looking more closely at claims of historical use of ice baths, as well as the effect on the stress hormones and nervous system. The Kidneys – a vital foundation for health and vitality at all life stages – are very much affected by sitting static in cold water. Ruled by the Water element, the Kidneys are easily overwhelmed by cold, water and shock/fear – a common trifecta of ice baths! The Kidneys are also responsible for the health of bones, teeth and cognitive function, and healthy Kidneys mean that we get to feel vibrant at all life stages (or, “age well”).

As always, we also look to Mama Nature and our own inner messages for guidance. Our body-mind-souls are infinitely wise, and will guide us towards whatever it is that we need (or don’t need!) in order to move towards the most vibrant expression of ourselves.

In Chinese Medicine, we aspire to balance – “The Middle Way”. We don’t glorify extreme practices, instead choosing to “nourish life” in the myriad actions of everyday life: what and how we eat, how we move / breathe / rest / sleep, how we express and feel, to name a few. This, from our perspective, is the path to lasting health.

In this episode, I talk about what the Year of the Snake may hold for us, and what opportunities it may bring. We will talk a little about how the Chinese New Year or Lunar festival is celebrated, and I’ll be sharing some of my musings about “new years” in general – there are many different “new years” out there (beyond January 1st!). I believe that new beginnings, new chapters and a “new you” can come at any time – each inhale can invite the new, each exhale can release the old.

I’ve been reflecting on the fact that the Gregorian calendar (prevalent in the modern Western world)  holds no personal resonance for me as a marker of beginnings and endings; I see it as arbitrary and man-made, disconnected from nature. Perhaps you feel the same –  are there periods or seasons of your life that carry more meaning for you?

As a herbalist, practitioner of natural medicine (which sees us woven into the web of life), surfer, vegetable grower and as a woman connected to monthly rhythms within my own body, I feel more connected to the cycles of nature – tides, moon, seasons, stars, plants & animals – and look to these as a compass to align my flow with life, and with Mama Nature. These are the cycles that nourish life! I also love learning the cycles and seasons of my own physical place in the world: summer swells and summer storms, the clear blue skies of winter, the first call of the Pacific Koel bird when it arrives in summer – and the absence of its call when it returns north, which heralds the turning towards cooler weather.

I particularly loved the perspective of Jill Lander, Feng Shui practitioner, on what this coming year may hold:

“We are entering into a year of death and rebirth, a year to make responsible decisions to evolve spiritually, moving away from old ways and habits that no longer serve us well. Among all living creatures, the Snake is the best equipped due to its magnetic resonance to hear the heartbeat of Mother Earth. It is a dynamic year to learn from the past, moving forward with wisdom, awareness, transformation and compassion.

Mythology recognises the Snake as a creature of healing, which influences the physical body to shift to a more spiritual outlook. A great deal of quiet progress can be made in 2025 with the help of this planetary energy. Honour this transformative beginning every day with positive thoughts”.

https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/lifestyle/leisure/article/3293097/chinese-horoscopes-year-wood-snake-2025-predictions-health-wealth-work-and-love-plus-wood-snakes#

Toko-pa Turner, Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Homehttps://www.instagram.com/tokopa/

What if Candida (and other microbes) are actually working to support our human bodies to detoxify or eliminate non-beneficial substances that our human cells can’t metabolise? Is killing off Candida overgrowth just killing the messenger (or clean-up crew, as it were)? Is the presence of Candida sending us a message – and how can we respond in order to support balance?

Chinese Medicine generally views Candida as result of excessive Damp in the body. Like the soil that sprouts mushrooms after damp, rainy periods, our bodies too can sprout an overgrowth of fungi if the internal environment is too Damp. Luckily, Chinese Medicine offers many simple lifestyle and diet tweaks that can clear Damp and restore vital health!

SHOW NOTES

EMFs and Heavy Metals

Effect of Clove and Thyme Essential Oils on Candida Biofilm Formation and the Oil Distribution in Yeast Cells

More Chinese Medicine wisdom on nourishing and bolstering the Earth / Spleen, for healthy microbial balance

Episode 2: Happy hormones naturally, for general health, easier periods and optimising fertility (Part 1 of 2)

Episode 3: Happy hormones for all (not “just for the ladies!”), and the role of inflammation (Part 2 of 2)

Episode 5: Beat the Bloat – Chinese Medicine digestion secrets!

Episode 14: Late Summer Diet & Lifestyle Tips

Candida & electromagnetic health

Episode 16: We are light beings – on biophotons and our electromagnetic health

Episode 17: Cultivating our light bodies – on biophotons and our electromagnetic health

Topical Wash

Ku Shen / Sophora / Yellow Pagoda tree

She Chuang Zi / Cnidium

Bring to boil, simmer 20 minutes, strain and apply to skin. Promptly relieves itch due to Damp and overgrowth.

ST36: Zu San Li 足三里

Image source: Deadman, P., Al-Khafaji, M. & Baker, K; A Manual of Acupuncture

Chinese Medicine offers many therapies which can speed the release of “frozen shoulder”, also known as adhesive capsulitis. The treatment clue is in the name: what is “frozen” is cold and immobilised, and so by heating and promoting movement with acupuncture, moxa, heat lamps and herbal medicine, we can help people regain their function and movement in an accelerated timeframe.

In this episode, we discuss these therapies in more detail, and offer simple remedies you can also try at home. We discuss also the importance of supporting general health to speed recovery, and allowing for the flow and expression of emotions.

ST38: Tiao Kou 條口

SP9: Yin Ling Quan 阴陵泉

LU5: Chi Ze 尺澤

Image source: Deadman, P., Al-Khafaji, M. & Baker, K; A Manual of Acupuncture

In this episode, I share my perspectives:

• there are other ways of “knowing” and “measuring” that are beyond the external (to us) technologies and tools that we have available today;

• the present focus on materialism has been to the detriment and neglect of our subtler senses and ways of knowing;

• the ancients had an advanced somatic-knowledge, through practices such as Qi Gong (energy work), Nei Gong (inner work), Nei Dan (inner alchemy), Dao Yin (somewhat like yoga), yoga, pranayama (breathwork) and meditation;

• this knowledge was potentiated by living in alignment with Nature, and in observation of her cycles;

• we all have access to subtle ways of knowing and sensing – it is an inherent ability;

• simple ways to cultivate this awareness with Qi Gong and energetic practices you can do at home.

https://thecrdchallenge.com/

The Invisible Rainbow, by Changling Zhang

Heavenly Streams: Meridian Theory in Nei Gong, by Damo Mitchell

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.

From the Huang Di Nei Jing, circa 220 BCEChapter 1: The Universal Truth

In the past, people practiced the Tao, the Way of Life. They understood the principle of balance, of Yin and Yang, as represented by the transformation of the energies of the universe. Thus, they formulated practices such as Dao-Yin, an exercise combining stretching, massaging, and breathing to promote energy flow, and meditation to help maintain and harmonize themselves with the universe. They ate a balanced diet at regular times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided overstressing their bodies and minds, and refrained from overindulgence of all kinds.

In this episode I talk about:

• my reflections on exclusion zone (EZ) water and the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching;

• EZ water and its relationship to Yin, Yang and Qi – and therefore our health!

• the many tools of Chinese Medicine that we can use to structure and enliven water, to support vitality;

• my musings on a unique type of water mentioned in our ancient medical texts, ganlanshui, 甘瀾水 (literally, sweet rippling water), and what modern research tells us about this practice

• Five Elements (or Five Phases / Agents) and their parallels with information and frequency medicine;

• pulse diagnosis, your amazing human technology and bioresonance;

• humans as conduits between Heaven and Earth;

• simple practices to charge up our beings for the fullest expression of health.

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.

From the Tao Te Ching, circa 400 BCE

Tao engenders One,One engenders Two,Two engenders Three,Three engenders the ten thousand things.

The ten thousand things carry shade and embrace sunlight,Shade and sunlight, Yin and Yang,Breath blending into harmony.– Lao Tzu

“Waiting to treat illness after they manifest is like waiting to dig a well after one is thirsty”

We consider that the more resourced and resilient we are, the more smoothly we can flow with and adapt to life and its various inputs. Looking after our foundation, and ensuring that our Qi is flowing and able to clearly receive essential information, helps us to regenerate tissues in their most optimal expression.

This is why the seemingly little things that we can do each day, like connecting to the earth, soaking up sunlight, drinking structured water, eating close to nature, feeling and releasing our emotions, moving our bodies, feeling connection, love, joy and gratitude, add up to make a profound difference to our health and vitality.

Another way that the concept of Yang Sheng, or Nourishing Life, can be expressed is as that of KNOWING YOURSELF. Ultimately, you are the expert on YOU, and while health professionals can offer help and guidance, they are not having your experience 24/7. We are all unique, and listening to yourself allows you to collect data on what best nourishes YOU.

As we get curious about, and tune into, the subtle cues of the body-mind-soul, we become ever more fluent in the messages we are constantly receiving from ourselves. We also get to deepen our knowledge about what works for us, and what doesn’t: or perhaps even the same response may “work” at some times and not others. It can also mean observing our habits, reactions, perceptions, programs, coping mechanisms and addictions (this is not limited to substance addiction – it can encompass addiction to work, busy-ness, emotional states, etc.), and choosing to unwind from those that don’t serve us. It can mean looking at what foods, activities, environments and relationships leave us feeling balanced and vibrant, and which ones don’t.

One of the many aspects of Yang Sheng that excites me is that in deepening our relationship with our body-mind-souls, we (re)discover and remember that the power to heal is within each and every one of us.

Let me show you a simpler way – one that has been tried & tested for more than 5,000 years. A way that I have witnessed transform the lives of hundreds of people. And, a way that gave me my own life & health back.

Gentle, sustainable changes and simple, daily rituals, grounded in the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine. No harsh protocols, diets or dramatic hacks – just simple, natural, body-honouring foods and habits. At your own pace and in your own time.

Because your body already knows how to heal. Sometimes we just need a little guidance to put the pieces together. And this framework is what I am so excited to share with you – it’s the missing piece of the wellness puzzle.

The Radiant Energy Reset guides the way – learn more here.

Calming Qi Gong – Gathering the Sky

Qi Gong Warm Up Sequence

Wise Owl Qi Gong

Nourish your Qi – your life force energy – in just 10 minutes a day.

Because your life force energy – your Qi – is everything. When your Qi is abundant and flowing, your life battery is full and all of your systems function optimally – body, mind and soul.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just 10 minutes a day can charge up your Qi and usher you into deep self-trust and self-connection. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends.

Coming Home to You shows you how – learn more here.

In this episode, I share my musings and reflections on how I see health – and how we can flow with the manifestations that arise in order to continue supporting our vitality and fullest expression, rather than trying to suppress the vital and restorative healing processes. The body already knows how to heal – we just need to minimise the obstacles that we place upon that path, whether individually or collectively.

I share perspectives on health from sages, philosophers and doctors through the ages, and discuss some cases studies that illustrate that “dis-ease” has actually been a healing process, and that interrupting this process would have arrested the inconvenient symptoms at the cost of healing, pushing the imbalance deeper into the body-mind-soul. I also touch very briefly on the lenses of terrain theory, pleomorphism, German New Medicine, and homotoxicology, and how these overlap with Chinese Medicine.

NOTE: health is such a huge topic that I could spend literally years talking about it! This is just a very tiny sampler. The case study examples I share are here are centred around healthy responses to physical triggers – a whole episode could also be dedicated to case studies with emotional triggers – and are by no means exhaustive.

…

“Health is harmony, dis-ease is discord”Aristotle (384-322 BC)

“Our mode of life itself, the way we live, is emerging as today’s principal cause of illness”Dr Joel Elkes, Director of Behavioural Medicine, Harvard

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”Jiddu Krishnamurti

“Commercials for depression in the 90s named the cause as low levels of serotonin*. With no mention of toxic marriages. unhealthy workplace, financial security, loss of a loved one, or childhood trauma. Depression is a response. A natural response to unnatural environments or painful events”Dr. Nicole LePera, @the.holistic.psychologist *now throughly debunked

…

“One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things. He moves in harmony with the present moment, always knowing the truth of just what to do.”Lao Tzu, Dao De Ching, Chapter 8

“Symptoms” (or body messages!) like gastritis, indigestion, stomach pain & bloating, ulcers and acid reflux are common in our modern society, reflecting a departure from health practices that have withstood millennia. Luckily, our age-old medicine has many simple dietary tweaks and lifestyle guidelines to help restore balance to the digestion, in turn resolving the conditions mentioned above.

In this episode, I share easy ways that you can support your body to ease stomach pain, burn, bloat and discomfort, and help restore vitality!

I have created the Radiant Energy Reset: a gut-loving program that heals at the root. Grounded in ancient wellness principles, I show you how to create a firm foundation for health and radiance.

I have distilled years of my clinical experience into this beautiful program, so that you have all you need to nourish yourself from the root. At your own pace, in your own time. Learn more here.

Chinese Medicine is a holistic framework that views all of space-time as one interconnected web: humans are woven into the fabric of the cosmos, and our health and vitality is influenced by the cycles of the heavens, the seasons, the sun and the moon. The Meridian Clock describes our daily cycles  – our circadian rhythms.

Recognising the importance of these cycles – and the benefits that aligning with these cycles can confer upon our health – the ancient sages and doctors observed Nature, and codified her many cycles and how they impact us. The result of this is a range of lenses that look at different expanses and magnifications of space-time. These lenses are fractal in nature, describing the ebb and flow of Yin and Yang – the contraction and expansion of the cosmic breath – at each degree. Like the many instruments of an orchestra that meld together to create music, these various cycles weave together to manifest the world we inhabit.

I could do an episode on each of these cycles, so in this episode, we will focus on the Meridian Clock! The Meridian Clock is a 24-hour cycle describing the circulation of Qi throughout the 12 meridians of the body, and highlights various points of our circadian rhythm that are optimal for specific functions. It’s not surprising to me that the ancients had this cycle figured out thousands of years ago. The details which they identified are now being described by contemporary science in the forms of chronobiology, chronopharmacology and chronopathology, and it’s curious to note how diseases affecting certain organs align with the timings of this ancient clock.

In this episode, we go on a journey around the Meridian Clock, learning what it can illuminate for us about our state of wellness and vitality – as well as simple, practical things we can do to align ourselves with the flow of life and health.

In Chinese Medicine we understand that, aside from environmental effects or traumatic causes, emotions are the main cause for dis-ease in our systems. The ancient doctors and sages observed the specific effects of each emotional state on the sum total of an individual’s Qi, or the totality of their unique energetic field. Even modern science concurs that we are predominantly “empty” space – not as solid as we might think, and rather composed of a multidimensional symphony of frequencies. If not processed and allowed to move out of the field, emotions can inhibit the flow, harmony and coherence of our energy.

Luckily, the ancients also codified many simple and accessible ways that we can move through these emotions and restore balance to the body-mind-soul. In this episode, I share some basic balances for common emotional experiences that many can relate to.

This perspective is not exclusive to Chinese Medicine alone. Any truly holistic medicine will take a similar approach: acknowledging the body-mind-soul’s wisdom and brilliance in creating the adaptations (often seen as “symptoms”) that it does, and supporting the whole system towards greater vitality and health.

In contrast, allopathic medicine generally seeks to suppress the inconvenient “symptoms”, which only serves to perpetuate the “condition” – or prompts it to move into another aspect of the body-mind-soul. Most often, long-term management via pharmaceutical means is the best that can be hoped for, and resolution is not a goal. In addition, “treatment” approaches are protocolised, offering one method or drug for the same symptoms, regardless of the many contributing or coexisting factors, and the individual’s unique history and experience.

In this episode I talk more deeply on this topic, and also share the Classical Chinese Medicine lens on health – if we don’t use protocol medicine and diagnosis, how do we assess. differentiate and treat what is presenting? How do we construct treatments to support the individuals? Find out in this episode!

Luckily, we have a whole toolbox of options for restoring balance in Chinese Medicine! In this episode, I talk about:

• simple ways to kick out a cold with common herbs, Qi Gong and a special acupuncture point you can pinch if you get a chill;

• how the energy of Cold can upset fluid metabolism and affect bladder function, leading to a UTI-like presentation;

• the Water element, and how we can nourish this element not only in Winter, but at any time of year that is may require;

• messages that this element can do with some love, and simple things you can try at home;

• some basic food, flavour and cooking ideas to nourish Water;

• the magic of salt, its relation to Water, and how natural salt beautifully structured our drinking and body water.

I hope it is of interest and benefit!

Start to pinch this point, Da Zhui, on the upper spine for a minute or so. Pinch as firmly as you can handle, until you feel a light flush. You may also feel a gentle warmth spreading out from that area.

Keep the area warm and protected from further Wind and Cold after doing this technique, as the pores and surface of the body will be open (this is how we kick the Cold out, before it settles in any deeper).

Da Zhui is translated as “Great Vertebra” – a handy guide to its location in the depression below the biggest, most prominent vertebra, where your neck joins the back.

This point is a meeting point of all the Yang channels. The Yang channels govern the exterior of our body, and maintain good “boundaries” and harmony with the outside world. Certain weather – especially Cold and Wind – can breach these boundaries, and “colds” can ensue. Another way to kick an early stage cold = cinnamon, ginger and honey tea + a hot shower + bundle up well + rest.

While a gentle breeze on a hot day can be soothing, excess Wind can upset our system. We are at all times surrounded by a thin layer of warm air at our skin surface, which helps to maintain our boundaries and “immunity”.

The maintenance of this protective boundary is why we get goosebumps when we are cold – the raising of the fine body hairs helps to trap more body heat close to the skin. If this is repeatedly blown away, our muscles can tighten up in an effort to maintain the optimal levels of body heat. What we do when we are cold? We hunch our shoulders up to our ears to keep ourselves warm.

As the thinnest part of our body, and one which houses vital tissues like the spinal cord, nerves, arteries and muscles to support our head, the neck and nape are easily susceptible to Wind. If these areas get too wind-blown, we often see symptoms like headache & migraine, neck / shoulder / back pain and colds / flu as a result. This is why we consider it an important part of selfcare and health maintenance to wear a scarf to protect this vital area when it’s windy*. Plus you get to accessorise – winning!

* This also applies to air-conditioning and strong drafts (like open car windows when driving at high speeds). I’ve had patients with chronic headaches / neck pain that resolved as soon as they moved their desk to a part of the office that wasn’t under an aircon vent.

Read more about this acupressure tip here.

And learn about a simple herbal tea for kicking out a cold here.

A) it’s a big part of the actual scientific method – not the scientism that has been co-opted into dogma and religious belief, but the true spirit of inquiry through which we learn about our world, and who we are in it. In science, we ask “what if…”, “how does this work”, “how do we know this”, “why do we assume this be true”, “how can we consider this differently”, “can we look at things in a more expansive way”

B) words are spells! Our words spell out and shape our reality, the inform our subconscious minds; they shape how we think and how we relate with the world – and what kind of world we create around us.

In this episode, we ponder, what if we evolved into a different understanding and terminology for what we now call the “immune system”?

Is there another way to think of how our bodies adapt to input from the external world that is not so defensive, separating, oppositional and rooted in attack-thinking?

What if we thought of the amazing symphony of functions that helps us adjust to the world, and to process and assimilate a spectrum of information and input, as a dynamic interface – the veil between outside and inside?

Just because something is defined a certain way now doesn’t mean that it has always been that way, and we discuss some alternate perspectives on the science of health.

How can we hope to create a more beautiful world of peace and harmony from a place of fear, defensiveness, resistance and resentment? I believe that through our own liberation, healing and expansion, we can heal the world around us. When we shed our own limiting thoughts and worldviews, and become more whole and integrated, we are doing something real for the world – an infinitesimal part of healing the collective, to paraphrase Jung. It’s an inside job, and it starts with us. And so I think, if we hold certain worldviews of conflict, violence, attack, such as those that have come to the forefront in the past century with the rise of pharmaceutical medicine, what are we perpetuating into the world around us, what are we dreaming into being? What can we create from a worldview that is more connected, trusting and benevolent? Come dream with me!

I’ve always been active and have loved many different types of movement, from tennis to running, Ashtanga and other forms of yoga, Qi Gong, snowboarding, skating and surfing. But I always felt like there was a missing piece of the puzzle: despite my broad range of activity, I didn’t feel as strong and stable as I might have thought, and I sensed that there was more that I could get from my performance and my enjoyment of movement. That missing piece was DNS.

DNS basically does a factory reset on the adaptive patterns of movement, posture and proprioception (our awareness of our bodies in space) that we have collected over a lifetime. It updates our nervous system and brain to facilitate healthy movement and postural habits, and in doing so, allows us to use our whole body holistically, and in concert and coherence.

I love that DNS gives us the tools to course-correct in a home practice between sessions, and that it grows our knowledge of ourselves. I often suggest it as part of the toolkit for people who talk to me about musculoskeletal pain, injuries and postural habits, and so I thought it was time to share more in a deep dive into this amazing modality.

metapilates.com.auinsta @metapilates_aus

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With the weather getting cooler where I live, I am seeing more and more sniffles and cold-like presentations around me. I am also hearing people talk about “catching” something from each other or spreading “germs” and.I wanted to share a different perspective that is the view from ancient Chinese Medicine texts (up to 2,500 years old!), as well as the view expounded by some very bold present-day scientists, doctors and virologist – even a Nobel prize winning one, for those that get into that. This is a view that is empowering and does not place us as a victim at the mercy of invisible attackers – with all the stress and fear that that brings with it. It is view that offers a different perspective to the theory (and it’s only a theory) of contagion.

I like to remind people that only several decades ago, we were demonising bacteria and now we embrace probiotics and understanding the importance of a robustly balanced and diverse microbiome. There are no goodies and baddies.

This is a way of looking at the world that tends to our inner terrain and the health of our inner world – terrain theory, as opposed to germ theory. It explains why some people don’t get sick, even when those around them do. It may also shed light on why many practitioners and doctors can spend all day in close proximity with sniffly people, and yet we don’t magically catch those symptoms. Why is that?

Chinese Medicine considers that we are woven in to Mama Nature and the world around us. When our energy – our Qi – is coherent and anchored, when our Shen (consciousness) is clear and present, and when we are in alignment with the cycles of nature, we flow with ease and health. When not, we manifest signs of “dis-ease” – a disruption to our healthy flow and energy.

NB: it is worth pointing out that the “pathogens” mentioned in this ancient text generally refer to imbalanced energies or climatic influences.

As mentioned in the episode, cultivate your True Qi at the foundation in the Radiant Energy Reset. All the details here.

Depiction of Professor L. Montagnier’s experiment

READING LIST

De Aquino, F. ( 2012): Transmission of DNA Genetic Information into Water by means of Electromagnetic Fields of Extremely-low Frequencies

Montagnier, L. et al. (2010): DNA waves and water

Montagnier, L. et al. (2014): Transduction of DNA information through water and electromagnetic waves, in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 

Tang, B. Q. et al. (2018): Rate limiting factors for DNA transduction inducted by weak electromagnetic field

https://www.infopathy.com/posts/dna-transduction-induced-by-weak-em-field

• what are the signs that your liver may be sluggish? • what are your thoughts on enemas? • how to manage symptoms of menopause? • how to protect bone as we age? • can you get your eyesight back? • what is the link between a presentation of pelvic floor, bunions, thinning teeth and receding gums?

It’s interesting to note that as we go through and discuss solutions for a range of presentations, the root solutions often remain the same. Yes, there are additional remedies we can apply in specific situations for relief of the messages (symptoms), but if we keep digging to the root of the causes, very often we see common triggers such as inflammation, digestion that could do with some love, stress, limiting emotional patterns, belief habits, etc.

The good news is that if we actively work to support our foundation with key tweaks such as wholefoods, emotional expression, movement, structuring our body water, mindfulness, connection and reducing toxins, we can resolve the body-mind-soul’s calls for help and proactively create vibrant wellness in our future! Winning!

If you’d like additional guidance, the Radiant Energy Reset is ready for you here.

Health professionals can offer (often much-needed) help and guidance, but ultimately, you are the expert on YOU, and you are the one having YOUR unique body-mind-soul experience, each and every moment. Getting curious about, and listening to, the messages that your whole self is sending you allows you to collect data on what best nourishes you – and how you can live to fulfil the fullest and most vibrant expression of yourself.

One of the many things that I love about Chinese Medicine is that it is an embodied medicine that invites us to get curious about these messages from the body-mind-soul – or what some may call disease or symptoms. In this episode I would love to share with you some of the questions that I commonly ask in clinic – the asking and witnessing of which can lead to deeper communication and connection with our whole self.

All water is not created equal!

We are learning that there’s an additional, fourth, phase of water – in addition to the three standard ones (ice, liquid water and steam) we were taught at school. This fourth phase of water sits between the solid and liquid phases: it is slightly more viscous than liquid water (also called “bulk” water) as its molecules are more regularly arranged than those in standard, bulk water. Structured water is arranged in sheets of hexagonal lattices, which confers a whole host of unique properties, such as the exclusion of certain molecules (hence the name, “exclusion zone” water), conduction of electricity and higher electrical potential and changes in pH (which measures acid-alkaline status). 

By weight, we are approximately 60% water – but by molecular count (counting all the molecules that make up all the cells in all of our body parts) we are closer to 99% water. That’s a lot of water, and so the state and qualities of that water will have a direct impact on our health and vitality. Is the water in our body coherent and vital, allowing transmission of nerve signals and other messages? Are the tissues of our bodies nourished by water with greater potential to carry charge and hold electrolytes? In this episode we dive deep into structured water – what it is, why it’s vital to our health, where to find it and how to make more of it.

Four phases of water

Image source:Gerald Pollack – The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor

Hexagonal lattice sheets, stacked in layers, forming structured water

Image source:Gerald Pollack – The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor

Bulk water vs. structured water, molecular arrangement

Image source:Gerald Pollack – The Fourth Phase of Water: Beyond Solid, Liquid, and Vapor

Graphite vs. diamond, molecular arrangement

Image source:socratic.org/questions/what-are-diamond-and-graphite-in-relation-to-carbon

Our oldest medical texts codify the understanding of climatic, seasonal and environmental effects on our body-mind-soul, and offer solutions for aligning with these cycles for optimal health. The ancient sages worked out a 60 year calendar of Stems and Branches, which clearly map fluctuations in climate over this period – knowledge that has been corroborated in recent research into climatic and astronomical cycles affecting weather patterns. Modern research also aligns with ancient wisdom about the effects of cosmic and galactic weather, and the influence of heavenly bodies. On a more micro level, Feng Shui is a recognition of the importance of our local environment for our health and abundance.

In addition to our environment, whether cosmic or domestic, we are also connected across time in the form of ancestral memory and inheritance, past life / soul imprints, and in the form of shared cultural history and identity that shapes our beliefs about health and healing. The realm of ideas and beliefs — very often the unconscious and unexamined ones – also wields a profound impact on our health: just consider the powerful healing effects of “inert” placebos. Expanding our perspective beyond the physical and material gifts us so much more awareness, which in turn can lead to greater healing!

In this episode, we talk about simple, accessible things that we can easily do to nourish our light bodies and boost our health.

You may also enjoy this episode, on our circadian health, aligning with Mama Nature, and the Meridian Clock.

EDIT TO PODCAST: to clarify, it is sunspot activity / solar winds / solar flares that showed a correlation with increased heart rate, potential stress response and also times of great change, NOT the suns rays that we normally bask in, which I see as vital for health and for structuring the water in our bodies (more on that in coming episodes!)

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If all matter – including us – is light condensed into patterns, what does this mean for our health? How can we harness this knowledge for our healing? What new tools and technologies can we open up to as tools for health?

Our body-mind-souls are an invisible symphony of energetic frequencies, which can fluctuate with our physical, mental, emotional and energetic state. This is the foundational premise of a vast array of healing modalities such as acupuncture, Qi Gong, Reiki, yoga, energy medicine, homeopathy, bioresonance, sound healing and information medicine. It is also used every day in modern biomedicine, in common diagnostic tools like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the electrocardiogram (ECG) and the electroencephalogram (EEG). The ECG and EEG measure the electrical signatures of the heart and brain, respectively. In fact, these tools are the only modern medical tests that can tell us if there is still a pulse of life in a body.

This knowledge can really open up our thinking about healing, harnessing our own powers, and also considering, where do we truly end, and where does the world around us begin?? What are the borders, or edges, of who we think we are?

A short list of just some of the publications referenced:

• Long-Term Study of Heart Rate Variability Responses to Changes in the Solar and Geomagnetic Environment

• Human high intelligence is involved in spectral redshift of biophotonic activities in the brain

• New Evidence for Coherence and DNA as Source

• Distant intercellular interactions in a system of two tissue cultures.

• Fröhlich systems in cellular physiology

You may notice that the podcast took a few years break after this episode. The following episode, the original episode 16, was slated to be about terrain theory – and the beautiful overlap between it and the ancient health wisdom of Chinese Medicine.

What happened was that the events of 2020 prompted a journey of “unindoctrination” that led me deep into research, and away from this podcast for a while. Until this time, existing as I was in the holistic health space, I had not had the pressing need to examine some of the beliefs and worldviews that I had absorbed as a child. And the brainwashing was real – one of my children’s books was about the “hero” Pasteur, germ theory and contagion! However, the events of 2020 were immediately “off” to my science brain, and so off I went on a journey of discovery and unlearning.

I had thought my journey would take me deeper into terrain theory and end there, but instead I journeyed far beyond, into frequency and vibrational medicine, EMFs and structured water – and along the way, I dismantled many beliefs about society, our world, economics, law and so much more.

I have toyed with deleting my original episode 15 for several years now. I value truth and transparency about my own evolution and learning, and I am definitely not a fan of erasing information, censorship or any type of book burning. But, I also value integrity and coherence, and after consideration, I don’t feel ok about having outdated perspectives of mine in the public domain, especially when it might appear that I am condoning certain outdated – and thoroughly disproven – theories about health and “disease”.

So here we are: an updated episode 15, where I review both what I still stand by, and where my understanding has expanded. I share the liberating and empowering views of Chinese Medicine on maintaining health, as stated in the ancient text, the Huang Di Nei Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, circa 200CE):

…when the Qi and Shen* are present and sound, no pathogen** can invade a person, even when the cycles of nature are disruptive, and plagues*** are near.  Chapter 73: Etiology of Disease

I also love this deathbed quote from Louis Pasteur, acknowledging that terrain theory trumps germ theory (a nice antidote to my children’s book propaganda!). He is referring to his contemporary, Claude Bernard – the physiologist who explained many of the workings of the body through the modern, biomedical lens and was hailed as “one of the greatest of all men of science”****

“”Bernard was right: the microbe is nothing; the terrain is everything”Louis Pasteur

* Shen = spirit, soul, consciousness, awareness – the spark of life in someone’s eyes

** pathogen – literally, “pathos” and -“gen”, meaning something that is engendering suffering (not an invisible, contagious baddie or germ)

*** again, this originally meant an “affliction”, not necessarily infectious

**** by Harvard historian, Bernard Cohen

This is why I created the Radiant Energy Reset. A gentle, self-guided path of ancient health rituals, guided by the wisdom of your own body. A real solution for those ready to ditch the fads & feel clear, energised and in control again. Backed by ancient wisdom, not wellness trends. More details at the link below:

Today we continue our discussion about the Five Elements in Chinese Medicine – and how they relate to the five flavours of different foods and medicinal herbs. This knowledge forms the foundation of Chinese Herbal Medicine and dietary therapy – and it helps direct us in knowing how to use our pantry as a medicine cabinet. There’s lots to talk about, so let’s get into it!

Five Elements – generation, support and containment

Heirloom vs Cultivated Plantssource: Bill Marsh/The New York Times; illustrations by Matt Curtius

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/05/26/sunday-review/26corn-ch.html

https://www.urbanmoonshine.com/blogs/blog/bitters-and-digestive-juices

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25051278

http://www.isnff-jfb.com/index.php/JFB/article/view/89/166

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6766813/

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/87559129.2018.1438470

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/bioactive-compound

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6331972/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335903151_Bioactive_composition_and_promising_health_benefits_of_natural_food_flavors_and_colorants_potential_beyond_their_basic_functions

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-bitter-receptors-human-hearts.html

https://www.jamesmarrnaturopathy.com.au/why-heirloom-fruit-and-veg-is-better-for-your-health/

Today we demystify the 5 Elements – a central concept that we use in Chinese Medicine to classify things, symptoms, phenomena and the world around us. Stemming from Daoist philosophy, for the past several thousand years, 5 Element thought has informed Chinese science, technology and culture, influencing fields as diverse as military strategy, music, martial arts and of course, medicine! There is so much insight to be gained from an understanding of the 5 Elements concept, and how it applies to life, health and the world around us, so join me as we dive in deeper!

Five Elements – generation, support and containment

https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-meaning-of-yin-yang-2278446https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/being-happy-could-cause-you-7480609

Can we have too much of a good thing? It’s possible! Very often, I see patients who come in with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, disrupted hormones, autoimmune conditions or seeking to conceive, who are simultaneously asking a lot of their bodies with the exercise they choose. As always, it’s important to strike a supportive balance with how we live, so if life is already demanding a lot from us, a greater focus on restorative exercise may be beneficial at that point in time. Join us as we learn how to choose exercise that best supports you where you are at.

Link to blog post

People, please stop icing your injuries!! Today we are going to be busting the stubborn myth of icing. This is such an important one to raise awareness of, as it’s so entrenched in the mainstream medical field despite lack of any evidence of benefit and clear evidence of harm. So what do we do instead? Luckily Chinese Medicine has a tried and tested approach to healing, with thousands of years of clinic use. It’s so effective that the latest biomedical guidelines for healing soft tissue injuries echo traditional wisdom. So join me to find out how to heal more completely and efficiently!

Today we’re going to get into some health mythbusting, and we are going to be busting the stubborn myth of icing an injury. This is such an important one to raise awareness about, as it’s so entrenched in the mainstream medical field – and it’s often the first thing that many of us will think to do when we injure ourselves, or if we’re recovering from certain surgeries. But despite it being so prevalent, unfortunately icing an injury not only lacks any evidence of benefit, but we are also seeing clear evidence of harm, in its delay and slowing of healing. Icing is directly contradicting our understanding of how the body heals, from both an Eastern and a Western perspective. It’s really important to bust this myth apart, so let’s get into it.

When did the idea of icing become so common in the first place? Well, the widespread idea of icing an injury dates back to the 1970s ,and it was bedded down in the acronym (many of us who are a little older might remember) RICE, which was the standard first aid treatment for injuries. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation, and itwas established as best practice back in the seventies and eighties. The term RICE was coined by the sports doctor and fitness guru, Dr. Gabe Mirkin, and the idea of RICE as the first-line treatment was further spread in his bestselling title Sportsmedicine. Now since then, Dr. Mirkin has realised that icing an injury is actually harmful – not helpful – and I really admire his openmindedness and ability to admit that he was wrong. This is the scientific method and a spirit of inquiry in action, which unfortunately doesn’t always inform the advice and practice guidelines out there. So it’s really awesome to see Dr. Mirkin being openminded and continually updating his knowledge and approach. As Dr. Mirkin says “RICE is something that just stuck and it’s wrong”.

Meanwhile, in many traditional medicines, for thousands of years the standard treatment for injury is the opposite of icing. We use varying treatments that will promote circulation and the growth of new tissue, and we do this with modalities such as acupuncture, cupping therapy (which had its moment in the limelight a couple of years ago with a lot of the Olympic athletes sporting the big dark spots on their backs, and it’s also been seen gracing the red carpet!), heat therapy – whether in the form of infrared heat lamp (which feels amazing!) or moxa. Moxa is also known as moxibustion: this is an ancient practice that involves the burning of mugwort and certain other herbs which release volatile oils – these are burnt near the skin and provide a gentle, warm feeling. It feels amazing and it speeds up recovery of topical injuries, even things like insect bites, and certainly feels really lovely for arthritis and pain conditions as well. So with all of these modalities, we’re looking at improving circulation and promoting new tissue growth. We also do that with both topical and internal herbal medicines that promote recovery. Some of these herbal liniments in particular have been fine-tuned by Kung Fu fighting Shaolin monks in China. These guys have had ample opportunities over the centuries to observe the effects of herbal medicine for a vast array of training injuries, so these liniments have been tried and tested over millennia.

So where did we get the idea in the West that ice could be helpful in injuries? Well, first let’s have a look at what happens when we do injure ourselves. When that happens, whether it’s a cut, a sprain, a bruise, a fracture, a herniated disc and so on, the body mobilizes its innate healing defense system, which is characterized by inflammation. And I touched on this in some early episodes, but the process of inflammation is commonly characterized by four qualities that many of us (who have had perhaps a sprained ankle or a pulled muscle or cut ourselves) would be well familiar with. These are redness, heat, pain and swelling, and these qualities are uncomfortable and undesirable in some ways, but they’re side effects of the healing work that the body is taking care of behind the scenes. They’re an essential part of healing!

The redness that we see is a result of the dilation (or the opening up) of the smaller blood vessels near the injury, and increased blood flow to the area: this allows the flushing out of debris, allows us to deal with any bacteria or immunological threats and allows for tissue healing. The heat that is characteristic of inflammation is similarly due to increased blood flow in the area, as well as arising from some chemicals that the body releases in order to start healing the injured space. The swelling arises from additional fluid that rushes to the area, and this fluid contains white blood cells (amongst other biochemicals that the body needs to heal and protect the injured area). Together with other chemicals released by the body’s defense system, these fluids also contribute to the fourth quality, which is pain. So this understanding of why the side effects of pain, redness, heat, and swelling are occurring, helps us to see that even though it’s uncomfortable and a nuisance and it slows us down, inflammation is a fundamental and necessary step to healing. Therefore any interventions that we can apply to support this process will speed healing and allow more complete recovery, while anything that we do to hinder this can delay, or even permanently affect, healing.

Back in the seventies, when people realized that putting ice on an injury could cut down pain and swelling, icing was implemented to get injured athletes back on the field immediately after an injury. From there, the idea became more and more widespread. To the point where the idea of ice bathing or cold water bathing after training is now incorrectly and widely believed to be helpful. Pain and swelling are the body’s way of immobilizing an area, so that we can’t do any further damage to it, so therefore icing an injury will certainly stop the pain signal (allowing a sports person to get back out on the court, or allow them a few more minutes on the field), but by slowing that pain signal, it’s going to take away the body’s innate warning mechanism to prevent further loading and damage to the area. So it’s absolutely going to slow down healing in the long run! And this understanding has been backed up by a whole spate of studies that I’ve listed in the show notes. These show that there were no objective benefits to cryotherapy or icing, and in fact that it delays healing. The only noted change was that people were able to use the effected area more intensely after 24 hours of icing, but again, this is just due to inhibiting that important protective (and essential) pain signal that protects us from overusing an injured area. The same study confirmed no measurable actual benefits, or long term benefits, in healing. So we need to ask ourselves: is short term pain reduction a parameter that we want to use when we consider the best approach to healing an injury? It is literally short term gain for long term pain!

On a subconscious level, we understand that icing slows things down. It’s even in our common expression of “putting something on ice”, meaning to delay or postpone or shelve something indefinitely. And again, this is what we are literally doing to the healing and optimal function of the injured area. This extends also to the use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like Voltaren and ibuprofen – whether they’re used orally or topically as a gel. The name of the drug says it all: they are anti-inflammatories, so they deal with pain and swelling by shutting down inflammation – but at the cost of long term recovery. Likewise, cortisone, which is another popular intervention, both orally and injected into joints, similarly stops healing. There is ample evidence regarding how cortisone and other steroidal anti-inflammatories inhibit the production of healing tissue. In fact, tendon surgeon, Professor Hakan Alfredson described in a British Medical Journal (BMJ) podcast recently, how multiple cortisone shots into an area can lead to dead tissue, reduced healing and wound breakdown. Two other studies, published in Radiology and Skeletal Radiology, just last year discuss observing accelerated progression of osteoarthritis, complications with joint and bone destruction and death, bone loss, stress fratctues, and also collapse of the femoral head (which is the head of the hipbone). So all these interventions are providing potential short term pain reduction, but with a long term loss of function and degradation of the tissue.

Chinese Medicine is the original functional medicine. It has always been focused on addressing the root cause of a presenting complaint. As we see it, healthy function stems from healthy flow and circulation, and the communication of all the body systems. As one of my teachers very memorably pointed out: the difference between a live body and a dead one is heat. It’s the spark of life! And when we die, the first thing that stops is movement, so let’s not shut down that vital movement – or “spark of life” – with cold. Let’s preserve it and support it, with supportive therapies. Our bodies are sending out this message too; often when I mention to my patients the differ...]]> 0:19:50 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/episode-6-mother-natures-medicine-the-health-benefits-of-connecting-with-nature/ 53791655 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=489 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 01 Jan 2020 14:02:54 -0500

This time of year sees many of us in Australia able to enjoy some time off, and the beautiful weather makes for an additional encouragement to get outdoors. Most of us have observed how great we feel after a day at the beach, camping, going bush or hiking through forests – but the benefits are not limited to lifting our mood: time in nature has proven health benefits! Join me as we talk forest-bathing, earthing and beachtime.

Hi everyone and happy holidays – Happy New Year!! It’s the summer holidays here in Australia, and it’s a time of year that sees many of us able to enjoy some more time off – and we’ve got beautiful weather, which makes for additional encouragement to get outside. Most of us have observed how amazing we feel after a day at the beach, or camping, going bush or hiking through forests – but the benefits are not limited to just lifting our mood. Time in nature has proven health benefits, with lots of exciting research and the adoption of progressive medical practices around the world. So let’s get into it!

The past several hundred years or so have seen greater and greater technological advancements that have offered many undoubted benefits. But at the same time, these same advancements have created a greater degree of separation between us and the natural world around us – and its cycles and seasons. We humans evolved from a close relationship with nature, and despite the shiny, technologically-advanced modern lives that we lead, we still remain connected to – and affected by – Mother Nature and her cycles. For example, our biochemistry fluctuates with the diurnal rhythms of light, between night and day, and the weather has been shown to have an impact on pain levels. For example, a recent study by scientists at the University of Manchester looked at the impact of the weather on arthritis (and other pain conditions) with their excellently named app, “Cloudy with a chance of pain”. On a side note, Chinese Medicine has long referred to arthritis and other similar pain conditions as “Damp Obstruction” or “Cold Obstruction”, which relates with the contemporary findings of a greater incidence of these pain patterns in damp weather – or cold weather for some people. This understanding of our interdependence on, and our connectedness with, nature is at the foundation of Chinese Medicine philosophy. We’re all connected and we impact each other. So it’s exciting to see this recognized in research, and to see it carried through into prescribing practices.

One place where this is happening is in Scotland, where GPs, since last year have been able to start prescribing time in nature to their patients. They do this in an effort to reduce blood pressure, anxiety and to increase happiness for those living with diabetes and mental illness, stress and heart disease and so on. What the doctors can actually do is issue patients with a little brochure that has some great connecting-with-nature practices: these are seasonal practices that encourage the patients to get out there and just connect with the seasons and cycles of nature, and the magic of nature that’s all around us. I’ve included the link to the brochure in my show notes, but there’s some really awesome seasonal activities like, making beach art from natural materials, or borrow a dog and take it for a walk, touch the sea, make a bug hotel, bury your face in the grass, lots of beautiful ideas! Appreciate a cloud, talk to a pony and feed the birds in your garden – all activities that encourage us to slow down, take a breath and just appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds us. This exciting directive builds on earlier work and studies throughout the world, for example, some work in America that showed that patients recovering from surgery recovered faster and went home quicker if they had a view of trees outside their window. Other similar studies showed that a reduction in pain was available to patients from not only looking at real life nature, but also nature videos and pictures. And it’s not just nature scenery that was shown to have a positive effect – other studies looked at exposure to daylight, and found that exposure to daylight resulted in less pain, less stress and decreased use of pain medications than patients who didn’t have exposure to natural light. There’s also some preliminary work looking at the beneficial effects of hospital gardens and their ability to alleviate stress in both patients and their families. So it’s great to see that we’re starting to incorporate the magic and powerful benefits of nature into contemporary medical practice.

One place where nature as medicine has been very enthusiastically embraced is Japan, where the preventative health practice of shinrin-yoku – or forest bathing – is widely practiced. Forest bathing is so accepted in the mainstream that some companies even use it for employee health care. Shinrin-yoku practice involves time in nature, and slowing down to appreciate and connect with the beauty at our fingertips, much like the Scottish prescription booklet. There’s been quite a comprehensive body of research surrounding the measurable benefits of forest bathing on mind and body. And the list of benefits is quite amazing! The various scientists found that spending time in forest environments led to lower concentrations of cortisol, which is one of our stress hormones; it could lead to a lower pulse rate and lower blood pressure; it increased parasympathetic activity.

The parasympathetic nervous system is our rest-and-digest system – as opposed to the sympathetic, which is fight-or-flight, where we pump out those stress hormones. When we’re in parasympathetic mode, or rest-digest-repair-and-heal mode, that’s where the healing and repair of our tissue can happen. It’s a very potent state to be in for healing, and people in forest environments were seen to have greater parasympathetic nerve activity – and lower sympathetic activity – than those living in city environments. The research suggests that this occurs due to the activity of wood essential oils, which are called phytoncides – and interestingly, many of these chemical compounds are found in many Chinese herbal medicines! These phytoncides, or wood essential oils, were found to be beneficial for human endocrine and immune systems, as measured by the levels of stress hormones and dopamine levels. They were also found to bump up the activity of our natural killer cells and various immune markers, and all of these combined to have a beneficial effect on our immune function. These findings prompted the researchers to ask further questions, such as given this propensity to boost our immune function, could time in forests also have a beneficial effect for cancer patients or in cancer prevention? And they found that people living in areas of higher forest coverage had better cancer mortality outcomes, so lower cancer mortality rates, the greater the density of forest that they were living in. And the good news is that we don’t just have to be living in the forest. These same researchers also went on to discover that the benefits of the anti-cancer proteins that were produced from time in nature lasted more than seven days – and even up to 30 days after time in nature. So even a monthly trip for a bush walk, or to sit by the beach, or spend a day in the botanical gardens, can confer benefits.

The idea of forest cures, or forest medicine, was also seen in the mid to late 1800s in both Europe and America, where various doctors set up health retreats in pine forests in Germany and in the forests of New York. And they reported on the benefits of time in these pine forests for patients with tuberculosis. Previously it was believed that a dry environment would be beneficial for quicker healing from tuberculosis, but they found that despite the high moisture content of the forest, patients would heal faster there and they attributed that to potential volatile compounds in the air, which are these wood essential oils, these phytoncides that we’re learning about in the latest research.

Now luckily for us here in Australia in summer, it’s not just forests that have these myriad health benefits, but also beaches, and just time barefoot in nature. The practice of being barefoot in nature is called grounding, or earthing, and it’s an area of practice that’s been around for quite some time, but the research on it is still emerging and still new. Yet, despite that we’re seeing some really positive results and we’re seeing results similar to the forest bathing: that time spent barefoot in nature, or walking on the beach, and even soaking in the ocean can lead to health benefits such as lower stress and better nervous system regulation – again, that increased parasympathetic tone versus sympathetic (or rest-and-digest versus fight-or-flight) – decreased inflammation, reduction of pain, better sleep, a thinning of any over-coagulated blood,(for better blood flow). It was shown to be beneficial for many common health disorders, like cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions like lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis. Other research has shown that grounding can alter the numbers of circulating immune cells as well as different immune markers and various chemical factors related to inflammation.

The scientific basis behind grounding, or earthing, is that connecting barefoot with the earth connects us with the Earth’s electrons. Because humans are made of a very large percentage of water, and water conducts energy, we (throughout the course of the day and throughout the course of our lives) can not only accumulate a charge in our bodies, but even just the processes of life can lead to the production of molecules called free radicals. Free radicals lack electrons, which means that they’re positively charged, so spending time connecting to the earth, barefoot or sitting on t...]]> 0:16:17 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/episode-5-beat-the-bloat-chinese-medicine-digestion-secrets/ 53584180 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=480 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 25 Dec 2019 14:56:23 -0500

Given that this episode is coming out the day after Christmas (and considering all of the feasting that often comes with this time of year!), I thought it was a timely opportunity to talk about digestion from a Chinese Medicine perspective, and to share some pearls of wisdom that have stood the test of time over millennia. Chinese Medicine has long understood, and almost revered, the role that the gut and digestion play as a foundation for all-round health of mind and body. As a result of this, in Chinese Medicine we have a whole pillar of practice that focuses on nutrition or dietary therapy, and which offers guidelines not only on what to eat, but how to eat it. Listen in to hear some simple, natural tips to boost digestion!

image: A Manual of Acupuncture, Deadman & Al-Khafaji

image: A Manual of Acupuncture, Deadman & Al-Khafaji

image: A Manual of Acupuncture, Deadman & Al-Khafaji

Hi everyone and Merry Christmas, happy holidays. Given that this episode is coming out on Boxing Day (and considering all of the feasting that often comes with this time of year!), I thought it was a timely opportunity to talk about digestion from a Chinese Medicine perspective – and to share some pearls of wisdom that have stood the test of time over millennia. Chinese Medicine has long understood – and almost revered – the role that the gut and digestion play, as a foundation for all-round health of the mind and body and emotions. In many of the traditional diagrams that outline the interconnectedness of the various organs and systems in the body, the digestion (which we also refer to as the Spleen and Stomach, or the Earth, because it forms the foundation for everything) is often placed at the center of these schematics, which highlights its central and fundamental role.

And because of this in Chinese Medicine, we have a whole pillar of practice that is Chinese Medicine Nutrition or dietary therapy, which offers guidelines not only on what to eat, but also how to eat it. Also, many of our acupuncture points, and therapies like moxa (which is heat application) or infrared lamp and the herbs that we use – all of these modalities have been shown to have an impact on gut health as well, whether by raising certain bacterial populations in the gut, or by improving the efficacy of digestion.

This perspective regarding the importance of gut health is something that biomedicine has recently come around to as well, with an ever-growing body of research into the role of the microbiome and gut bacteria. The microbiome is the sum total of all of the bacteria and microbes that live in and on our bodies, so when we consider the number of cells that make up our body or what we think of as our human body, the number of bacterial cells of vastly outnumbers the human cells by a factor of roughly 10 to 1 – which might prompt some musing on what it means to be human, and what our perception of ourselves is based on, if 90% of the cells that make up our whole being are actually bacterial cells! It’s quite mind boggling, isn’t it?!

A healthy and balanced microbiome is fundamental to thriving, good health because the bacteria that live in and on us aren’t just freeloading – they actually have many important roles in the function of our body. This includes important processes, like the metabolism and assimilation of nutrients… they’re involved in immune regulation, And mood and brain regulation. Many of you might have heard the fact that 90% of serotonin, which is our happy feel good neurotransmitter, is made in the gut, so having a healthy, happy, balanced gut bacteria is truly essential to good health.

Meanwhile, an imbalanced microbiome has been linked to a whole range of symptoms and conditions from diabetes to depression, anxiety, autism, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and a whole host of inflammatory bowel conditions. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! In an attempt to rebalance the microbiome, we’re seeing all manner of interventions, from the relatively benign or simple probiotics (and probiotic foods), also prebiotic foods (which give us the substrate or the materials for the probiotics to thrive); we’re seeing antibiotic therapy in some cases where we’re just obliterating all of the gut bacteria (or all the susceptible bacteria), and we’re also seeing on the extreme end, things like fecal transplants, which is the transplant of healthy fecal matter – so healthy poos basically transplanted into the bowels of those who are affected by certain conditions. What we often find is that with the transplant of that bacteria, we’ll see an improvement and that can be maintained if the underlying foundation of gut health is looked after at the same time.

In Chinese Medicine, we are always looking to get to the root of the imbalance – to get to the foundation and correct it from there. So when looking at gut health and gut bacteria, we can take the analogy of a garden, for example. When we think about a garden, say, if it’s got poor soil or it’s marshy or it’s receiving insufficient light or drainage, we’re going to have trouble growing the healthy balance of plants – or bacteria – that we want in order to have the maximum benefit; what we might see instead is an overgrowth of weeds – which would be reflective of the non-beneficial bacteria which crowd out the space for everything else, and all the plants that we actually want to grow. One way to resolve the weeds, is to bomb everything – like a blanket-clearing of everything, as with antibiotics – just raze everything to the ground. It will be a short term fix, but it won’t necessarily fix the underlying imbalance, as once you’re done with the antibiotics, the non-desirables can often come back – and often in greater force as you’ve already damaged the soil in the garden. An example of this might be some of the experimental therapies looking at antibiotic infusions for people suffering with arthritis and other autoimmune conditions. They have ound that using antibiotics could confer short term benefits, but the long-term benefits were sketchy because, again, it was obliterating all of the gut bacteria. Similarly using probiotics or fecal transplants without addressing the underlying health of the soil or the underlying imbalance is like just planting desirable plants or bacteria into an unprepared or untended garden. They might hang on for a bit, but they won’t be able to gain a strong foothold unless the foundation is addressed. In Chinese medicine, this is a big part of what we do -we look at how we can support this essential function of digestion, which is so fundamental to life and health.

To bring up another analogy, in Chinese medicine – as in Ayurveda and other traditional age-old medicines – we view the digestion as a cooking pot, or cooking fire, and the healthier and more powerful our digestive fire, the better our assimilation of nutrients, and therefore the better our health and vitality. If the digestive fire is strong, we can break down all the food that we eat efficiently and completely, which allows us to absorb maximal nutrition. In Chinese medicine, this is why we say you are not only what you eat, but you are also what you can digest. You might be eating all the amazing superfoods, but if they’re not being absorbed completely, you’re not getting the maximum benefit from them. Another benefit of strong, efficient digestion is that food gets broken down in the appropriate point of the digestive tract. If digestion is weak, foods that should be more thoroughly broken down at the upper end of the digestive tract (around the stomach) reach the lower end (the intestines) insufficiently digested, and there they can cause improper fermentation, which might manifest as bloating, gas, and irritation of the gut lining. And this irritation of the gut lining is another concern, because over time when that delicate gut lining is being continually aggravated, it can contribute to a situation of leaky gut, which is where the cell junctions (of the cells lining the wall of the intestines) become looser, and allow the materials from inside the digestive tract to permeate into the body. Now the digestive tract is meant to be a sealed closed system, so when matter leaves here and leaks out of the gut into the systemic circulation, it is rightfully picked up by the body as foreign – it’s “not-self”. This can trigger a whole host of immune and autoimmune reactions such as joint pains, mucus production, lethargy, mood swings – a whole host of symptoms. And we’ll get more into this in future episodes as well, and particularly the role that gluten that is sprayed with certain substances can play in this.

So that explains why complete digestion – and a healthy digestive fire is so essential to our health. One of the ways that we maintain the strength of our digestive fire, and keep stoking it, in Chinese Medicine is with warm and cooked food, and warm drinks as well. And I do get a lot of eye rolls from patients when I first bring this up, especially in summer, when people say, “Oh my God, but it’s hot. What am I going to eat?” This is where we can look to a lot of the Southeast Asian cuisines, and Indian cuisines, for inspiration – or even Middle Eastern: these are all hot climates and yet we don’t see a proliferation of raw food. In fact, we see a strong focus on warm food and alsodigestive herbs and spices, like ginger or pepper for example, that help to support digestion. Also in a lot of these climates, we see people reaching for warm drinks: for example, in Hong Kong, I love how they have the hot water dispensers available in the airport and public spaces, and I love that we’re seeing these pop up at the Gold Coast picnic areas! This is awesome, and such a great way to look after our guts when we’re on the move. So yes, in a lot ...]]> 0:24:03 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/bonus-episode-5-minute-guided-seated-meditation/ 53584179 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=474 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 18 Dec 2019 12:55:24 -0500 Join Dr. Maz for a simple, guided meditation. Just 5 minutes out of your day can offer greater calm, clarity of mind and support your body towards a greater state of health.

Today I talk about a very simple and free health practice that is accessible to all of us.  You can do it anywhere, anytime and you don’t need any special tools or props to do it. It is such an important tool for maintaining health and is so effective, that not only has it stood the test of time in a range of Eastern health traditions, but we are now also seeing it prescribed by Western med practitioners, from GPs to orthopaedic surgeons and cardiologists. The magic health tool that I am talking about is meditation! In this episode, we will talk a little bit about meditation, and answer some of the common questions that I get asked about it. I’m going to share with you some exciting research that shows just how powerful this practice is – and the measurable physical outcomes that can be observed in our health as a result of integrating it into our lives. We will finish up with some easy guidelines and an intro to starting your meditation practice, which will lead up the accompanying bonus episode to this one, which is a short, guided 5 minute meditation to ease you into the benefits of the amazing practice! So let’s get into it!

Today, I’d like to talk about a very simple and free health practice that is accessible to all of us. You can do it anywhere, anytime, and you don’t need any special tools or equipment to do it. It’s such an important tool for maintaining health and is so effective that not only has this practice stood the test of time in a range of Eastern health traditions, but we are now also seeing it prescribed by Western medicine practitioners from GPs to orthopaedic surgeons and cardiologists. The magic health tool that I’m talking about here is meditation!

Today I’d like to talk a little bit about meditation and answer some of the common questions that I get asked about it – I’ll talk about why it’s important and how we can benefit from it. I’m also going to share with you some exciting research that shows just how powerful this practice is, and talk about the measurable physical outcomes that can be observed in our health as a result of integrating this practice into our lives. We will finish up with some easy guidelines and an intro into starting your own meditation practice, which will lead us up to the accompanying bonus episode to this one – a short, guided five minute meditation that will ease you into the benefits of this amazing practice. So let’s get into it.

So what is meditation? There are many different schools and traditions of meditation, but if we are talking about it from an umbrella perspective, meditation is the act of bringing our awareness to the present moment, and gently observing what is going on for our mind and body in this moment – without getting attached to it. To assist in anchoring our attention in the present, we might choose to focus on various anchor points – this might be the breath, it might be a sound or a chant, it might be a body sensation or a feeling – and these are just some examples of different focus points that we can come back to. Part of being human is our active minds: you might have heard the term “monkey mind”, or “mental chatter”, and it’s very normal for our minds to wander during a period of meditation. When it does go off on a wander, however, these focus points of breath, or sound or sensation, can help to remind us to bring our mind gently back to the task at hand.

I like to imagine a curious puppy as our mind, and it keeps escaping it’s basket. It’s in the puppy’s nature to go off and wander and explore and create adventures for itself. But we can also gently and repeatedly guide the puppy back to their resting place. And over time the puppy, like our mind, can develop the ability to stay in one place for longer. Meditation is a cumulative skill that develops with time and training. So in the same way that we wouldn’t expect to be able to run a 10 kilometre run without any training, we can take the pressure off ourselves with respect to meditation also and be gentle with our expectations around it – particularly when we’re starting out. I still have days where my mind is determined to go off in all different directions, and that passes with time – it’s important to not get frustrated about that wandering, because it’s a very normal part of the experience of our human mind. A wandering mind is common, it’s a very human aspect of ourselves, but it’s up to us what we choose to do when we discover it’s wandering during our meditation.

Another analogy that I like is that of a computer desktop that is cluttered with open windows, and all of the open windows are clamoring for our attention. So how do you feel when you think of that situation? I know for me it doesn’t feel very clear, and instead I feel foggy and heavy in the head. The act of bringing our minds to a single-pointed focus through meditation has the effect of closing all those open windows down for a while. It gives our minds and nervous systems and much needed rest – it gives them some breathing space so that they can refresh their focus and we can refresh our clarity of mind.

Common to many schools of meditation is this intention to bring the mind to a single, or soft, focus – and to quiet down all of that chatter and all of those different tangents that the mind goes off into. Part of that soft focus or attention is to also allow the mind to come back to the present moment. I’d like to talk a little bit about the importance of the present moment and the importance of it to meditation and our general health, because the present moment (when we think about it) is the only time that is real or that truly exists, the past has gone. It’s already behind us. And not only that, but it’s also often distorted by the subjectivity of our memories and the strength of our emotions. A good example of this is when we ask different people about their experience of the same situation, you might get wildly different answers. Meanwhile the future is yet to come, yet despite this, despite the fact that it’s not here yet, many of us might spend a vast majority of our time and headspace either thinking, reflecting, or reliving the past or projecting, worrying and racing ahead into the future while ignoring the precious moment right now that we’re living in. That’s not to say that we can’t reflect on the past and learn from our experiences, or that we can’t plan and hope and daydream about the future, but also it’s very important to bring our awareness to the present moment because then it allows us to have a soft awareness of what is going on for our mind and body in that moment. Again, this going off into the past and into the future is a very human thing to do – it’s what keeps us safe, by being able to learn from our experiences and plan and adapt for potential similar situations in the future.

We’ve been blessed with these beautiful minds that give us so many benefits and advantages, yet at the same time, they can also work to our detriment if they’re exhausting us by consistently rambling all over the place and thinking about a million things at once. I’m definitely speaking from personal experience here! All of that Yang and busy-ness and activity are wonderful thing, but like everything in life, we need to balance it out with the opposing energy, which is the Yin, that calm, that quiet time. I know for myself, if I go too hard on that busy-ness and mental activity without the balancing Yin time, then my health feels the effects of that on all levels – I might feel more emotionally reactive, or digestion might not work as well, or sleep might suffer. And for all of that thinking, I actually find that I have much more clarity of thought after meditating, and after actually closing down that activity, or calming down that overactivity for a little while.

Part of what happens when we’re in that hyper-stimulated mental state – when we’re overwhelmed by all the open browser windows and the mind is having a good old chatter – is that the stress and strain of juggling all of that activity can start to cause stress for the body. When we’re stressed, our body can start to release stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline) and it can come with other changes in our body that are part of the sympathetic nervous system, or the fight or flight nervous system. This might be things like elevated heartbeat, or an increase in blood pressure. This is an adaptive processes -the fight or flight system is an adaptive system that helps us to be primed to escape from danger. That’s why our heartrate goes up, our blood pressure goes up, more blood is pumped to the heart and lungs and the limbs so we can make a quick escape from danger. Now because we need all of our resources to escape danger, or what the body perceives as danger, we shut down any non-essential functions – so anything that’s not immediately relevant to our survival, like digestion, healing of tissue or any injury repair, balancing our hormones, and all of our biochemicals and molecules of information that are doing all sorts of important work in the body. All of that gets put on the backburner while our body focuses on the immediate stress – or threat – at hand. Like I said before, this is an adaptive and helpful process if it’s used in the short term or when appropriate. But in the course of our modern life, we’re faced with many situations and triggers that might cause us to feel repeated or chronic stress. When this happens, the body can end up in a state of chronic inflammation, which as we touched on in last episode, has been implicated in many – if not most – diseases today.

In light of how detrimental that chronic inflammation can be for our health and wellness, our vitality and energy levels, any health practice that is going to drop those inflammation levels and keep them under control is going to be beneficial for us on many levels. A health practic...]]> 0:22:42 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/episode-3-happy-hormones-for-all-not-just-for-the-ladies-and-the-role-of-inflammation-part-2-of-2/ 53584177 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=464 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:50:40 -0500

Continuing from episode 2, we look at the role of inflammation in imbalanced hormones and why managing inflammation is important for each and every one of us. Chronic inflammation is now being implicated in many, if not most diseases, from heart disease and cancer to depression and diabetes, so we then go on to discuss simple health hacks to tone down levels of inflammation in the body.

In today’s episode, we’re going to be building on our earlier discussion in episode two. In that episode, we looked at the role of relative estrogen excess with respect to hormone balance, and the various symptoms that can present as. Now today we’re going to go on to look at the key relationship between hormones and inflammation. Inflammation is such an important topic to understand and address because it seems that each month – and each week almost – more research comes out to suggest that chronic inflammation is linked to many if not most diseases, ranging from heart disease to cancer, depression and diabetes. This is something that Chinese Medicine has long understood – that link between inflammation and health. In Chinese medicine we’ve outlined diet, stress management and lifestyle practices to mitigate inflammation and promote health.

Let’s start with a brief look at what inflammation actually is. In basic terms, inflammation is our body’s innate protective response in the face of harm or hurt – such as a cut, a bruise, a sprained ankle, or an infection. In these situations, the body will mobilize cells, chemicals and processes that will help to clear out the muck of an injured or infected site, and to remove and break down damaged tissue; it will protect against further encroachment by bacteria or other infective agents and it will start to heal the affected area. Inflammation is classically characterized by four signs – redness, pain, heat and swelling. These four arise as byproducts of the various biochemicals and processes that the body activates in the process of healing an injury or infection. Anyone who’s had a sore throat, a cut, a bruise, a swollen joint or a sprained ankle has experienced these four signs of inflammation and when they are limited by time – meaning that they are switched off once the healing and repair has occurred – this inflammation is a healthy and adaptive response.

It feels like these days we hear a lot about inflammation. It’s a term that’s often thrown about, and it generally has negative connotations. So it’s important to point out that inflammation is not all bad. These four classic signs of inflammation that we just mentioned – redness, pain, heat and swelling – they’re byproducts of the body doing healing work, which is why shutting down inflammation with measures such as anti-inflammatories or cortisone injections will certainly limit pain, but at the same time, it will put a stop to any essential healing going on in that acute situation. And this is why we’re now finally seeing research that bears out this fact: there’s a study that I’ve attached in my show notes, and it talks about how putting cortisone shots into knees actually has poorer longterm health outcomes, both with respect to pain and mobility, and also with a greater deterioration of knee cartilage in those knees that had cortisone injected in them. And this is because it literally puts a blanket on any healing process and shuts it down. But that’s a topic for another episode, because it is something that I’d love to get into on a deeper level!

So, back to inflammation and hormones! As I mentioned, when occurring over a short, defined period, inflammation is an adaptive process, meaning that it’s a positive process that facilitates healing and helps to restore our system to a state of balance. The problem arises when the inflammation becomes chronic or repeated, and this is the side of inflammation that gets the deservedly bad rap. Unlike acute inflammation, chronic inflammation doesn’t get shut off when the injury or infection is resolved – it keeps being retriggered, which leaves the body on high alert, which then will drain resources from other areas of the body and disrupt their function. These are areas like digestion, mental health, emotional health, circulation, and of particular interest to us today – in light of this episode – also hormones or the endocrine system. Chronic inflammation very often goes hand in hand with a dysregulation or imbalance of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline). Last week in episode two we talked about a process called pregnenolone steal. This is the process by which the stress hormones will steal the common building blocks that are essential for all hormones, but particularly the sex hormones. So when we’re pumping out a lot of these stress hormones and have a high demand for them, in order for the body to make more of them, it will steal the building blocks that it also needs to use for the sex hormones, thusdepriving our levels of those.

Now, unlike acute inflammation, which is often localized and always time limited by definition, chronic inflammation can be broad, widespread, and systemic – that means diffused throughout the body and therefore disruptive to many of the body’s systems. And because of this, it’s now widely accepted to be a major factor in most diseases. Unlike acute inflammation, which has the very obvious signs of redness, pain, heat and swelling, chronic inflammation can be sneakier and less obvious to spot – it can often be silent or just have low-grade, less dramatic symptoms like fatigue or brain fog or generalized pain or joint pain and mucus. Very often when I see patients with these symptoms, we’ll have a look at what’s going on in the diet, lifestyle, stress, emotional health and so on – and we’ll investigate if there’s some inflammation going on as well.

So what are some of the culprits in chronic inflammation? Well, as it happens, there are many trigger factors for chronic inflammation that are the same ones that we discussed last week, with respect to elevated estrogen. So let’s have a look at what some of those trigger factors are – and these are in no particular order.

We’ll start with number one, and that is toxic load. Now, toxic load just refers to the generalized and sum load of all of the toxins that our body – and more specifically our liver – has to deal with in order to detox and restore our bodies back to balance. These are very often things in our immediate environment such as the phthalates and parabens in products like moisturizers, shampoos, detergents, packaged foods with their plastics leaching into them, and also things like environmental pollutants on a grander scale – whether it’s petrol fumes or even (of particular relevance to us now in New South Wales and Queensland, where we have all these tragic fires going on) is all that smoke pollution. That constant irritation of the mucus membranes of the respiratory system is going to be contributing to a perpetual state of low grade inflammation in some people.

Number two is sleep, and the pace of modern life. Sleep isn’t a sexy health hack – it’s not some shiny new gadget or superfood that’s going to give you amazing healing results. But the fact is that sleep is such a potent healing tool because when we’re asleep, our body can drop into the parasympathetic nervous system mode, which is where we rest, digest, repair and heal – and the body and brain can clean and heal at rest. So it’s so important for our health on every level. The pace of life and the society that we live in glorifies busy-ness, and being overwhelmed is almost a badge of honour and you know, rather than calling it out and consciously slowing down or letting some things drop by the wayside (and I know that may not always be possible!) we just push on, and punch down some more caffeine or sugar or energy drinks to keep us going. That can feel amazing in the short term, because all of those substances trigger our sympathetic nervous system – the fight or flight system – so they release cortisol and adrenaline, which are stress hormones. In the short term these can make us feel invincible and clear-headed, so we think “this is great, we’ll just keep going!”. What that does though, is that it doesn’t allow enough time in the parasympathetic mode – in the rest and digest mode. That’s the time when our body goes around and mops up any pockets of inflammation and just tones down the whole inflammatory response.

I think we have this idea that “more is more”, and we’ll just push on through, but there was a very interesting example recently in Japan, where the whole culture of overwork has actually become a major public health concern. In fact it’s so endemic that there’s even a word in Japanese, karoshi, which means “overwork death”. In light of this big burden on public health, Microsoft in Japan recently trialled a four day work week. What they found was that by cutting 20% of the workweek, rather than dropping in productivity, productivity actually went up by 40% and in a bonus to the environment, costs went down: there was 23% less electricity used and a whopping 58% less pages printed, and all for more productivity. It just goes to show that more is not always more! So when guilt potentially sets in, whenthat little voice in your head goes “well, you can’t rest, there’s more stuff to do”, I think it’s good to remember that sometimes having a rest can actually yield greater results.

Number three in the list of trigger factors for chronic inflammation are, not surprisingly, inflammatory foods. And this is something that we will go into further in future episodes, when we have more time to focus on that. But just top line, these are things like polyunsaturated vegetable oils (canola oil, sunflower oil, soy oil) which unfortunately...]]> 0:25:11 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/balanced-natural-health-with-dr-maz-episode-2/ 52753589 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=423 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 04 Dec 2019 19:37:43 -0500

This episode was inspired by the patients who come to see me with symptoms such as painful, heavy or irregular cycles, with growth such as cysts, fibroids and endometriosis – and also those who come to see me with imbalanced hormones (whether estrogen, testosterone, thyroid or stress hormones, and so on).

Because Chinese Medicine is a functional medicine, each treatment is highly personalized and can differ greatly from person to person. But what often doesn’t differ are the lifestyle and dietary tweaks that I recommend as supportive therapies. Join us as we discuss some common factors underlying imbalanced hormones, and simple health hacks we can use to restore balance.

Be sure to also catch the following episode (3) for more on this topic.

Today’s episode was inspired by the various patients who come to see me with symptoms such as painful periods, heavy bleeding, irregular cycles, with growth such as cysts, fibroids and endometriosis – and also those patients who come to see me with imbalanced hormones (whether estrogen, or low testosterone and so on).

Because Chinese Medicine is a functional medicine – and it views symptoms as the body’s cry for help – it sees symptoms as the body’s message about what is out of balance. Because it does so, it seeks out the root cause of the imbalance so that this can be corrected, rather than just masking the “cry for help” (or dialling down its volume). This means that the acupuncture and the Chinese herbal medicine that I give (for my patients with the symptoms I just mentioned) is highly personalized – it differs greatly from person to person. But what doesn’t differ, is that the lifestyle and dietary tweaks that I recommend as supportive or adjunct therapies are very often common to all of the patients who come to see me for help with these symptoms. This is because in situations of changes to the menstrual cycle – or overgrowth of tissue (as in cysts or fibroids, or the growth of tissue outside it’s physiologically-designated area, as in endometriosis), or various hormone imbalances – very often in these situations, there is an underlying foundation of inflammation, and / or of excess estrogen. Therefore, any lifestyle adjustments are going to aim to reduce inflammation, and / or rebalance the hormones as required. So before we go into these natural health hacks for happy, healthy hormones, let’s briefly talk about sex hormones.

All humans produce in varying amounts, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. There are various subtypes of each of these hormones, but for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll just stick to the three main, overarching types. These hormones – estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone – affect not only our sexual and reproductive health, and the development of secondary sexual characteristics (such as the growth of breasts, or the deepening of the voice), but they also have wide-ranging effects on the body, beyond the reproductive system. This is because we know now in modern medicine – and Chinese Medicine has been talking about this for millennia – that all of the body’s systems are integrated, and they’re in a constant interplay of communication with each other. Therefore the balance and health of our sexual hormones is going to have knock-on effects throughout the body. The hormones mostly involved in the menstrual cycle are estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen governs the first half of the cycle, and it prompts ovulation, the release of mucus, the growth of breasts and uterine lining, whereas progesterone is released midway throughout the cycle, at ovulation, and it helps to regulate the cycle. It’s important to prepare the uterus in pregnancy, but it is also important for the production of testosterone in people assigned male at birth. So it’s important for everyone, and I love the shorthand that Chinese Medicine terminology offers us when we talk about sex hormones – it’s really beautiful, because it enables us to talk about the many complex biological pathways, and all the different interactions that are going on in the body, in a simple way that’s accessible to all of us.

All of us, regardless of our gender, are a mix of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are complimentary opposites, and they’re in dynamic balance with each other; from a biomedical or Western medicine perspective, we’d see this as the state of homeostasis, or the body’s ability to return to balance in a dynamic way, in response to all the ups and downs and events of life. Yin and Yang are complimentary opposites, and each contain at least a seed of the other. There is no 100% Yin or 100% Yang in nature, as the very interplay of the two is what creates life. We can see a visual representation of this idea in the Yin and Yang symbol: we see that one half of the circle is Yin and one half is Yang, but each contains the seed of the other, and each is constantly changing into the other as well. We see that flow, or that cycle of life happening, visually represented. When we look at the root of the Chinese words for Yin and Yang, and when we look at the Chinese characters for them, we see that Yin describes a shady / shadowy part of the mountain (or the Northern side of the mountain, because it’s stemming from the Northern hemisphere); whereas the Yang character describes the sunny side of the mountain (or the Southern side of the mountain). In general, we see more activity in nature during the day, while night time is a time of rest and renewal. In biology, this translates as Yin describing the more material, dense and dark aspects of our biology – the more solid aspects like body tissues, body fluids, bones, flesh, and so on, while Yang is the dynamic, functional and active aspect.

When we think about things in this way, low Yang might manifest as low function in a particular area – it might be hypothyroidism, or depression or fatigue. Excess Yang might present as a hyperfunction in a particular area or body system, such as in hyperthyroid, or manic behaviour, or an inability to wind down. Excess Yin is an excess of substance: in Chinese Medicine, we see a relative Yin excess in cases where there might be fluid accumulation, swelling or an overgrowth of tissue – as in excess flesh or lumps like fibroids, cystic breasts and tumours.

Yin is associated with the traditionally feminine qualities, and Yang is associated with the masculine qualities, and when it comes to sex hormones, we view estrogen as more Yin in relation to the Yang of progesterone. This is because estrogen encourages growth and the proliferation of substance: it encourages more material density, and we see estrogen as being essential to fertile mucus and breast growth, it leads to ovulation – and excess estrogen can manifest as weight gain around the abdomen and hips. Meanwhile, progesterone is more concerned with boosting function – that’s more of a Yang aspect. We can see a very clear visual representation of this Yin and Yang relationship between estrogen region and progesterone, when we look at a BBT, or basal body temperature, chart. For anyone who’s ever tracked their temperature throughout the duration of their cycle, generally we’ll see that there is a fluctuation in the basal body temperature from day to day and throughout that time. The first half of the cycle is governed by estrogen, and generally has a lower body temperature, because Yin talks about the shady side of the mountain (and it’s dense and dark), Yin is associated with cold, whereas the second half of the cycle, which is governed by Yang – which is warm and dynamic and sunny – generally has an elevated temperature. We have a boost of progesterone throughout this second part of the cycle, and this is why optimizing progesterone levels is so important in fertility work, as the presence of Yang is what allows for the spark of new life. It’s also important for us in balancing menstrual and hormonal health, because progesterone keeps estrogen in check – so Yin and Yang are constantly balancing each other. And as we touched on at the beginning of this podcast, elevated estrogen is often underpinning many of the symptoms that we’re talking about today.

So why are estrogen levels so commonly elevated? in fact, they’re so commonly elevated that some people have talked about an estrogen epidemic that affects all of us. Now there are many factors that contribute to elevated or excess estrogen levels, so we’ll run through each of these in a little bit of detail.

The first one is quite an obvious one, and that is hormonal contraceptives, because very often they flood the body with much-higher-than-what-is-physiologically-normal levels of these hormones, which then leads to a disruption of the healthy balance of hormone levels. Another factor that is so important to hormone health is gut health, and the balance of gut bacteria (the microbiome). In recent years, modern science has aligned with what Chinese Medicine has been talking about for millennia: gut health being the foundation of all of our health. We’re now learning just how important gut health is in the treatment or regulation of many common conditions, and it’s just as important in the balancing of healthy hormones. We know a lot about the microbiome – that’s the whole population of bacteria and microbes that live in and on our bodies, and they outnumber our cells roughly 10 to one! So there’s definitely more of them than us, and they can be helpful to us when we live synergistically with each other, and when they’re in balance. In addition to the microbiome, there’s also the estrobolome, which is the body of microbes or bacteria that help in the metabolism, or processing, of estrogen. When the gut bacteria is healthy – and our estrobolome is in order ...]]> 0:27:42 false https://drmaz.earth/resources/balanced-natural-health-with-dr-maz-episode-1/ 52753588 https://balancedacupuncture.com.au/?p=414 Dr. Maz Roginski (BHSc. Chinese Medicine) Wed, 04 Dec 2019 19:05:31 -0500

As a doctor of Chinese Medicine, and a scientist interested in both ancient technologies and the latest biomedical research, this is one of the most common questions I’m asked. And it’s a great question to kick off this podcast, as at this point in time, not only do we have thousands of years of continuous clinical practice of this modality and many documented clinical studies from those millennia, but we also have literally tens of thousands of research papers published in contemporary scientific journals that discuss the many mechanisms and many pathways through which acupuncture has an effect on the body. Join me as a I answer this question from both an Eastern and a Western perspective

One of the main inspirations behind starting this podcast was the many amazing conversations that I have with my patients in clinic, and the awesome and insightful questions I get asked both in, and outside of, clinic throughout my daily life. One of the most common of these questions is “how does acupuncture work?” This is an important one to answer, as quite often I’ll be having a conversation with someone and they’ll say “oh, I love acupuncture and I’d love my husband / mother / co-worker to get acupuncture as they’d really benefit, but they don’t believe in it”. I find this to be an interesting statement, because acupuncture isn’t a religion – it’s not something that you believe in – it either does or it doesn’t work. And particularly at this point in time, not only do we have 5,000 years of continuous clinical practice of this modality and many documented clinical studies from those millennia, but we also have literally tens of thousands of research papers published in contemporary scientific journals that discuss the many mechanisms and many pathways through which acupuncture has an effect on the body. So, I thought this was a great question to kick of this podcast, as it can be answered on so many levels. There’s the short answer, long answer, the Chinese Medicine answer and the biomedical / scientific / contemporary research answer. So I’d like to get into all of those, but I think the best place to start is with the short answer.

So, how does acupuncture work? The short answer is that acupuncture works by supporting the body’s innate healing mechanisms. These healing mechanisms are what allow our bodies to heal from cuts and to mend fractured bones, to bounce back from infections and colds, and even in outlying cases it might be what accounts for spontaneous remissions in serious diseases. We all have these superpowers, and in an ideal world, we’d be returning to a state of dynamic balance (or what we also call homeostasis) in the face of life’s various ups and downs. Say we have too many late nights and lots of stressors, and some dietary changes and maybe exposure to some pollutants and toxins: in an ideal world, our body would be able to recalibrate and return to a state of health. But unfortunately, modern life has quite a hectic pace and quite strong demands on us, so we are not always able to live in accordance with both our internal resources (that’s how much energy we have, our current state of emotion and our biochemical reserves, for example) and living in harmony with our external resources (that’s living in harmony with the outside world: harnessing access to sunlight, fresh air and movement). that’s not necessarily always happening – we might forego movement to sit at a desk 12 hours a day, and then drive home through traffic and get stressed, get stuck in a negative mindloop and then come home and have a fight with someone in our family, and have more stresses about money / mortgage / career / all sorts of concerns. So really, we are living in a constant state of constant stress.

What this does is it overstimulates our sympathetic nervous system. This is a component of our body’s autonomic nervous system that is also termed the “fight or flight” system. This is the response that we get in the face of stress: it primes our body to escape and so it might pump more blood to the skeletal muscle of arms and legs, it will allow more energy to go to the heart and lungs to strengthen our ability to run away, but what it does is that it shuts down energy and resources going to areas of the body that it deems not immediately essential for survival, which is areas governed by the parasympathetic nervous system, also called “rest, digest and repair”. What this means is that when we’re in a constant state of stress, hypervigilance or anxiety, then we’re not getting a chance to drop into that parasympathetic nervous system, which is where the healing and repair and restoration of that dynamic balance of that body occurs. Acupuncture is a way to do that. Acupuncture has been shown to encourage parasympathetic activity in the body, and so it’s a way of letting the body – and the whole body’s systems – know that it’s safe, and that it’s able to switch off and divert all that energy away from the “high alert”, and to use those precious resources to start recalibrating.

So that’s the kind-of short answer. The Chinese Medicine is kind of similar to the short answer, just using slightly different terminology or language (and this is what I love so much about Chinese Medicine language: that it offers a shorthand for describing the many complex biochemical and biophysical pathways that are happening in the body, and it offers that in a language that is accessible to all of us, so that we can all relate to it – it’s a really humanist medicine). From a Chinese Medicine perspective, acupuncture works by restoring the flow of Qi in the body, and restoring the balance of Yin and Yang (that’s really talking about homeostasis in the body). And I just want to mention that when we are talking about restoration of the flow of Qi, and balancing Qi in the body, sometimes Qi has been (in my opinion) mistranslated to represent some mystical or magical force that can’t be proven to exist and, while that may be the case, Qi in Chinese language also refers to situations concerning air, pressure, vapours and weather, and in Chinese Medicine when we talk about Qi, we talk about the body’s metabolism and potential for movement: really, it talks about all the different functions and processes that are going on in the body. So when we look at it with that understanding in mind, we see that the Chinese Medicine understanding is that acupuncture restores correct functioning of all the body’s systems and networks. And this is really beautifully aligned with a lot of the latest biomedical understanding of the body, which is starting to view the body as a complex network of information, and interwoven systems

In the past, we had a very mechanistic view of the body – we viewed it as like, say, a mechanic would view a broken car. We’d really drill down on where we perceived the problem would be, we’d remove the broken part or patch it up, and then we’d expect that things would be all good from there. But what that view doesn’t take into account is that all the body systems are not separate, they are actually all beautifully interconnected. And this is really coming through in new fields of science, like psychoneuroimmunology, which talks about the interwoven relationship between “psycho-” (the brain and neural areas), “immuno-“ (which is the immune system) and endocrinology (which is the hormones): all those systems are involved in continual crosstalk. It used be that we thought everything was governed from the brain down, or from the central nervous system, but actually we’re seeing that all of the systems are interwoven with each other, and can affect the other. What that means is that our hormone can affect our immune system, and our immune system can affect our moods, and vice versa. It’s beautiful to see how modern medicine and tradition medicine are aligning in their view of the body.

Another area where we are seeing this is in the exciting and emerging field of epigenetics. Epigenetics just means “epi-“ (above) genetics. Previously we believed that genes were set in stone, so the genes we received from our ancestors would – previously – very much dictate our health outcomes in the future. That kind of took our agency way: it took away our input in being able to generate the health outcomes that we would hope for. But what epigenetics is teaching us, is that our genes are merely a blueprint – they are just a sketch or plan or outline for our health – but how we actually live our lives (the food that we fuel our bodes with; the appropriate rest and the balance that we strive for; even the very thoughts that we think – and that we have as our continual internal dialogue), all of these factors have very potent effects on whether genes get switched on and off (whether they get expressed), and therefore whether certain characteristics, or certain conditions, might get expressed as a result of that. So really, it puts the power much more firmly in our hands.

So that was the Chinese Medicine answer of how acupuncture works (which was followed by a bit of a detour into emerging areas of medicine and system biology). The long answer gets into some really cool biomedical research, and as I mentioned before, there’s literally tens of thousands of papers that look at how acupuncture works. Some of the earliest work in this area comes from Dr. Candace Pert, who was a very highly regarded neuroscientist and pharmacologist, and headed up (a lab) at the US Government’s National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pert was the discoverer of our endogenous opiate receptor. Opiates are painkilling substances, and not only can we be given these from external sources, but we also produce our own endogenous (endogenous means “internally generated”) substances, which means that we have access to an internal pharmacy that we can use to reduce pain. What Dr. Pert found, was that acupuncture was shown to induc...]]> 0:20:22 false