Winter And Traditional Chinese Medicine

Winter has no doubt arrived in Pittsburgh! With the temperatures below freezing for a week and counting, I think it's time to discuss winter, traditional Chinese medicine, and ways to keep warm!

Winter is the time of year which corresponds the water element. In our bodies, that relates to our Kidneys and Bladder. In five element theory, the color correspondence is black or blue, and the emotion is fear.

Symptoms which may be associated with the Water element include

• bladder and/or kidney infections
• low back pain
• knee pain
• cavities in teeth
• weak or broken bones
• infertility
• premature gray hair or hair loss
• ringing in the ears
• increase of phobias or fears

To strengthen the Water energy and keep the body in balance, it's important to keep yourself warm. Wear scarves around your neck and extra layers or scarves around your mid-section (in Japan, this is called a haramaki, or belly warmer: a tube of material which can be fashionable, which goes around your midsection to keep your abdomen and kidneys warm.)

If you are on a high raw or 100% raw food diet, you can add spices such as ginger to your juices and cinnamon to your foods. You can gently warm soups, and make sure to eat plenty of well blended food, as these meals are easier to digest. Fresh cranberries also make a nice addition to juices or purees this time of year, and help protect the bladder and kidneys from infection as well (especially if you are prone to this type of infection.)

Here is one of my favorite winter juice recipes:

Juice the following:

• 5 carrots
• 3 apples
• 1 cup fresh cranberries
• 1 inch knob fresh ginger

I usually add water to the juice, especially because this one is so sweet.

Warm miso soup is also a wonderful meal: heat the water and let it cool back down to ninety or one hundred degrees (warm to the touch.) Add scallions, sliced mushrooms, wakame (a sea vegetable), grated ginger and carrots, and miso, which is best first made into a paste with warm water and then added to the soup. Enjoy this soup warm.

In macrobiotic cooking, aduki beans and black beans are beneficial for the kidneys. Millet and winter squash are also good choices for balancing energy this time of year.

Herbs which benefit the kidneys are nettles, he shou wu (also known as Foti root), and the formula Liu Wei Di Huang Wan, or Rehmannia Six.

Now is a wonderful time of year to get acupuncture, especially if you notice any of the above symptoms. Points such as K3 and K6 on the ankle are helpful to boost the Kidney energy, as well as bladder points along the spine on the back. Moxibustion is wonderful this time of year to help add heat to the body via the acu-points, abdomen and meridians.


Stay cozy and warm!

5 Flavor Coleslaw

This delicious coleslaw is a great way to end cravings and balance health and emotions by balancing all five flavors (bitter, sweet, pungent/spicy, salty and sour) in your diet. Certainly you don't always have to eat a balance of flavors in every single dish, but here is one that balances all five flavors beautifully (especially with the apples added at the end!)

The dressing was made in the vitamix:

• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (sour)
• 2 Tbsp gluten-free tamari (salty)
• 1 Tbsp brown or deli style mustard (pungent, salty, bitter)
• 1/2 inch nub of ginger (pungent)
• 2 small cloves garlic (pungent)
• handful raw cashews (sweet)
• mustard (pungent, sour)
• water (enough to cover cashews, you can adjust water depending on how thick or thin you'd like the dressing.)

The salad consisted of:

• cabbage (bitter, pungent, sweet)
• beets (bitter, sweet)
• carrots (sweet)

Sliced apples (sweet) were added at the end.

Delicious!

In Health and Wellness,
~ Melissa and Dave Sokulski
Licensed Acupuncturists


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Onions Strongly Protect Us From Cold and Flu

• Easy To Make Fermented Vegetables Boost Immunity and Improve Health 

• Keep Kidneys Strong All Winter Long With Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Rejuvenate Your Liver This Spring With Dandelions

Heart Healthy Sweet Treats with Nuts and Dates

Chocolate treats don't have to be bad for you. And if you don't like cocoa/cacao, simply leave it out...these treats are no worse for it! (In fact, they taste even sweeter, because the cacao adds a bitterness that is eliminated when it is.)

They don't have to be hard to make, either. These took a few minutes (literally!) and no cooking or baking was involved.

 I took heart healthy whole ingredients: walnuts, cashews and dates, blended them in a food processor, and molded them into hearts with cookie molds. You could also simply roll them in balls. They store well in the refrigerator and will be gone before you know it!

 Walnuts are full of omega 3 fatty acids (like those in salmon and flax), anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories. Walnuts are protective against metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular problems, and type 2 diabetes. Cashews are good for the heart, good for the teeth, and eating whole raw nuts can actually aid in weight loss. Dates are an incredibly sweet whole fruit that easily takes the place of any added sugar, honey or syrup in any recipe. Dates contain fiber, nourish the muscles by containing high amounts of calcium, iron, and magnesium (among many other minerals and vitamins.) Dates are great for the intestines, preventing constipation while also protecting against diarrhea (high potassium content.)

Heart Healthy Sweet Treats:

•  1/2 cup raw walnuts
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 1 cup medjool dates, pitted
• 2 Tbsp shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, or *raw cacao (optional)
• pinch sea salt
• pinch pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves)

Blend in food processor. Mold into shape or roll into balls. Eat immediately or refrigerate to preserve.

Looking at our 5 taste chart, we can see this is a balanced food that will satisfy and reduce cravings.

The sweetness is produced by the dates, cashews and coconut.
Bitter is provided by walnuts and cacao (or cocoa.)
Sour is given by walnuts.
Salty: I added a pinch of sea salt.
Pungent: I added some pumpkin pie spice, which has ginger and cinnamon.


Love to all,
~ Melissa and Dave


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Onions Strongly Protect Us From Cold and Flu

• Keep Kidneys Strong All Winter Long With Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Rejuvenate Your Liver This Spring With Dandelions 

Balance Emotions End Cravings With Five Tastes

In Chinese medicine, there are five elements - fire, earth, metal, water, wood - which correspond to organ systems, emotions, tastes, color, seasons, and many more attributes.

Often, when we experience cravings, it is because we are not eating a balance of all 5 tastes. In our culture, we tend to stick with sweet, salty and sour, ignoring bitter and pungent/spicy almost completely. (Incidentally, the amount of wild greens that fell into the sour category was huge!)

Check out the chart below and see if you can add more balance to your menu. You will feel more satisfied and widen your range of nutrients. The balance and health of your emotions, organs and whole body is effected by the foods we eat.

Taste	Element	Emotion	Organs	Food	Wild food
Bitter	Fire	Joy, lack of joy	Heart/small intestine	Lettuce, endive, kale, green tea	Dandelion, chicory, broad dock greens
Sweet	Earth	Compassion, worry	Spleen/stomach	Grains, spinach, squash, fruit	Lambs quarters leaves and seeds, nettles, chickweed
Pungent/spicy	Metal	Sorrow, letting go	Lungs/Lg. Intestine	Onion, garlic, arugula	Garlic mustard, onion grass, ramps
Salty	Water	Fear, wisdom, will power	Kidney/Bladder	Sea salt, seaweed, soy/tofu, swiss chard	Wild orach, plantain leaves, seaweed
Sour	Wood	Anger, creativity, growth	Liver/gall bladder	Fermented foods, cheese, collard greens	Yellow dock leaves, Japanese knotweed shoots, staghorn sumac, sheep sorrel, wood sorrel

Love to all,
~ Melissa and Dave


Read these articles by Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac. in Natural News for more information:

• Cinnamon, Ginger, and Onions Strongly Protect Us From Cold and Flu

• Easy To Make Fermented Vegetables Boost Immunity and Improve Health 

• Keep Kidneys Strong All Winter Long With Traditional Chinese Medicine

• Rejuvenate Your Liver This Spring With Dandelions

Pumpkins Remedy Seasonal Ailments

Happy Autumn!

Here's some information about Five Element Theory, and the most seasonal healing food around this time of year: the pumpkin:

(Originally published in NaturalNews)

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, autumn is represented by the metal element, which corresponds to the Lungs and Large Intestine. Weakness in this element shows up as ailments in the Lung and Intestines: allergies, asthma and constipation. The remedy can be found in this season's most notable food: the pumpkin or squash.

The pumpkin is round, orange and sweet. It corresponds to the earth element in the five element cycle. Earth is the mother of metal. In Chinese medicine there is a saying: ...(Read the rest of the article, including a delicious recipe for nourishing pumpkin soup.)

Hope you enjoy the fall!

In Health,

David and Melissa Sokulski, L.Acs.

Licensed Acupuncturists
The Birch Center for Health
(412) 381-0116

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Autumn: The Metal Element

Autumn is here! In Chinese Medicine, the fall corresponds to the Metal Element (of the Five Element Cycle). The metal is the element of the Lungs and Large Intestine (paired organs.) The emotion is grief and letting go, the color is white.

It is the time of year to harvest what we have sown (in the garden and life), clean out the garden beds, tidy up. It is a wonderful time of year to let go of things: that which is cluttering our space (I was just in the garden, pulling lots of overgrown weeds, making space for some paw paw seeds and kale...can you tell?)



Speaking of Paw Paws (pictured above), fall is the time of year for some wonderful wild edible plants! Take a look over at Food Under Foot, where I have posts about two of my favorites: paw paws and black walnuts.

Back to the metal element, the change of seasons is a great time of year to come in for an acupuncture tune up. Changing seasons often bring to the front any small imbalances we may have going on...this time of year we may notice (all which may be related to the metal element):

• allergies
  
• asthma
  
• acne
  
• sinus issues
  
• constipation
  
• sadness or depression
  

as well as other imbalances coming to the forefront:

• difficulty sleeping
  
• low energy
  
• headaches, etc.
  

Sometimes just coming in four or five times a year (at the change of seasons) is all an otherwise healthy person needs to keep themselves on track and functioning at their best.

If you'd like to come in for a treatment give us a call at (412) 381-0116. We're back in Pittsburgh and regular office hours have resumed: Monday through Thursday, 8 am to 9 pm, by appointment.

If you are wondering about acupuncture and what it can do for you, please take advantage of our 20 minute, free with no obligation consultation with acupuncturist David Sokulski of the Birch Center for Health. He will be happy to sit down with you and discuss your questions and condition, and offer his thoughts about acupuncture and other health options for you. Just call us at (412) 381-0116 to set up an appointment.

And if you are in the Monroeville area, you can meet David on Friday evening, September 25, from 4 pm to 8 pm, at a FREE Wellness Fair, hosted by Palms Therapeutic Massage, LLC. The Fair will be held in the Parkway Office Complex (upper level – right above Palms Therapeutic Massage, LLC.) The address is: 4280 Old William Penn Highway, Monroeville, PA 15146.

Thanks so much! We hope to see you soon!

Melissa and David Sokulski
Licensed Acupuncturists
The Birch Center for Health
(412) 381-0116

Please sign up for our monthly newsletter! We have raw recipes, information about Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and overall wellness information. Thank you!

Treatment Tuesday...The Wood Element

Our March newsletter: Signs of Spring, is done and will go out any day! If you're not on our mailing list, please sign up here.

In this newsletter I talk about Spring (it's almost here!), and the wood element. The wood element is the element that relates to spring, the color green, the emotion anger, and the organs of the Liver and the Gallbladder.

When this element is out of balance, we may notice symptoms such as:

• a feeling of stuck-ness in life, not being able to move forward
  
• PMS and menstrual pain
  
• headaches
  
• stiffness and aches in joints
  
• insomnia
  
• not being well resting in the morning, finding it hard to get going
  

Along with other suggestions I offer in the newsletter -- such as getting outside, moving/exercising, and drinking dandelion tea (more on harvesting dandelions to make tea, coffee substitute, and tinctures in a future blog!) -- acupuncture and herbal medicine are often helpful.

There is a classic herbal formula called Xiao Yao San, or Rambling Formula, which specifically gets stuck Liver energy moving.

There is also a wonderful point combination: Liver 3 on the foot and Large Instestine 4 on the hand, which when paired are called The Four Gates. This treatment gently yet powerfully allows the energy in the entire body to flow freely.

Spring is an excellent time to come in for acupuncture. Wind is prevalent this time of year (you may have noticed the windy days!), and acupuncture helps keeps us strong and balanced, especially during the change of seasons, when we are most vulnerable to finding ourselves off balance, run down, and coming down with something. If you'd like to schedule an acupuncture treatment, please give us a call at (412) 381-0116.

In fact, I have heard the Stomach Flu is going around again. If you haven't seen it, check out this blog entry: What to Do if the Stomach Bug Gets You, which I wrote this past winter for ways to speed recovery from the stomach bug.

Thanks for reading...happy spring, and we hope to see you soon!

In health and joy,

David and Melissa Sokulski

Please sign up for our monthly newsletter! We have raw recipes, information about Acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and overall wellness information. Thank you!

www.BirchCenter.com

Treatment Tuesday: Winter, Water, and the Kidneys

In honor of all this snow, today I'll talk about the five elements, specifically the water element, which corresponds to winter.

There are five elements -- both out in nature and in our bodies -- which are interrelated and interdependent on each other: fire, earth, metal, water and wood.

One relationship is the mother-child relationship, or generating cycle, shown by the arrows forming the outer circle in the graphic to the right. Metal is the mother of Water, and Water is mother of Wood. Another is the controlling cycle: the arrows forming the inner star. Water controls (puts out) Fire, and Earth controls (dams) Water.

According to Paul Pitchford in Healing With Whole Foods, "Winter is the end of all the seasons. To unify with winter, one emphasizes the yin principle to become more receptive, introspective, and storage-oriented; one cools the surface of the body and warms the body's core....It is a time to rest, to meditate deeply , refine the spiritual essence, and store physical energy -- in the form of a little added weight -- for the cold season. Even though the slow yin processes predominate, one must stay active enough to keep the spine and joints flexible."

(More on yin and yang in an upcoming Treatment Tuesday.)

Here is a quote from an ancient text, called the Inner Classic:

The forces of winter create cold in Heaven and water on Earth. They create the kidney organ and the bones within the body...the emotion of fear, and the ability to make a groaning sound.

For a full chart with all the elements with their correspondence, click here.

The third pulse on each wrist is associated with the kidneys. The kidneys are the root of all yin and yang in the body. It also holds the jing, or essence, that we pass on to our children. We always think of supporting the Kidneys when someone is pregnant or trying to become pregnant. As we age, the qi (energy) in our kidneys decrease, but our wisdom increases, which balances it out. In many cultures, especially ancient Chinese culture from where this philosophy came, elders were respected, and ancestors taken care of with prayers, offerings, and reverence.

General symptoms of Kidney imbalance include:

• all bone problems, especially those of the knees, lower back and teeth
  
• hearing loss and ear infections and diseases (such as Meniere's disease)
  
• head-hair problems -- hair loss, split ends, premature graying
  
• any urinary, sexual and reproductive imbalances (such as infertility or inability to carry a pregnancy to term)
  
• poor growth and development of the mind and body; alternatively, premature aging
  
• excessive fear and insecurity

The Kidneys are also the source of vitality, resistance to disease and longevity, called jing or essence. We are born with "congnital" jing, passed down to us from our parents. This jing is irreplaceable and serves us throughout life. When it runs out, life ceases. However, "aquired" jing can be obtained by food and can magnify the activity of even small amounts of congenital jing.

Jing deficiency can show up as

• growth or development impairment
  
• birth defects
  
• slow physical or mental growth
  
• weak legs and bones
  
• impotence and other reproductive problems
  
• early senility
  
• dizziness
  
• loose teeth
  
• loss of head hair
  
• ringing in ears
  
• weak, painful knees and low back.

We can preserve our congenital jing by avoiding harmful habits, such as:

• stress, fear, insecurity, overwork
  
• according to ancient Chinese texts: too much semen loss in men or bearing too many children in women
  
• toxins in food and water
  
• intoxicants such as alcohol, drugs, coffee, tobacco
  
• heavy metals such as mercury, lead and aluminum
  
• excessive sweet-flavored food
  
• too much dietary protein

There is no such thing as excess jing! You can't have too much vitality. The following are suggestions to help build jing. The suggestions must be followed carefully, though. Certain foods may be more harmful than helpful if there is digestive weakness, or may be inappropriate depending on people's constitutions. If you have any questions, it's best to see a practitioner of Chinese medicine. This list is taken from Healing With Whole Foods (so for elaboration or more infomation on anything listed here, please see that text):

• Micro-algaes such as chlorella, spirulina and blue-green.
  
• Solomon's seal, almonds, raw milk, clarified butter (ghee.) These foods build bones and act as nutritive tonics.
  
• Nettles
  
• Royal Jelly and bee pollen
  
• Chinese herbs like dodder seeds, prepared rehmannia, deer antler, tortoise shell, chicken and mussel
  
• Foods which tonify Kidney energy in general, especially dark foods, beans, seaweed, millet, black sesame seeds, black soybeans, mulberries, raspberries, strawberries, walnuts.
  
• Spiritual practices

Enjoy the snow, the rest of winter, and hopefully this was helpful!

~ Melissa Sokulski, L.Ac.
The Birch Center for Health
Pittsburgh, PA