Hydration- the key to all is H2O

Water plays the most important role of all the things that we take into our bodies from the external world and many Americans actually live in a state of chronic dehydration without even realizing it.

Besides making up about 60% of the body and being required by every cell in the body to function, it is also the solvent which allows us to absorb vital nutrients, like electrolytes and glucose and distribute them to our cells where they are used to make energy. Water is essential for digestion, lubricates the joints and improves blood circulation, helps regulate body temperature, flushes toxins out of the body, helps cells maintain their electrical properties, and many other vital functions. We can go up to eight weeks without ingesting food, but only mere days without water.

Just like with everything, individual requirements vary from person to person based on bio-individual needs, but there are a few good rules of thumb that may help you get the most from the water that you are drinking:

-       Most importantly, drink clean water!

o   The environmental working group has shown that there are as many as 38 low level contaminates (such as fluoride, disinfectants, arsenic, lead, medical waste, birth control, antibiotics, agricultural run-off, nitrates etc…) in our tap water. Berkey filters makes a great product that removes 99.99% of harmful pathogens from water, and another great way to get water is to go to find a spring and look for a local spring to visit and bottle your own water (preferably in glass for storage).

-       Add a pinch of unrefined Himalayan pink sea salt to your water

o   Adding a bit of sea salt that is high in mineral content to your water is a great way to increase the absorption of that water through electrolytes and also adds trace minerals such as potassium, magnesium and calcium.

-       Drink the bulk of your water away from your meals

o   The idea behind this is to avoid diluting your stomach acid, thereby negatively impacting digestion.

-       Don’t drink too much water

o   Consuming too much water can be just as harmful to your body as not getting enough. Most people should not be drinking more than a gallon per day, and it is most beneficial to drink water in small sips rather than chugging large amounts all at once.

FAT(ty Acids)- Friend Not Foe!

Fat is good for us, and so necessary for our bodies to thrive! We’ve been told for too long now to steer clear of fatty foods, to eat lean meats, low fat dairy, vegetable based oils, to skip the butter or worse to replace it with margarine. However, fatty acids are essential and when derived from high quality fat sources are critical to the health of all of our organ systems (most importantly our heart and brain), our endocrine system, the structure of our cells, our metabolic system, our microbiome and many other functions that our bodies carry out when they are working properly.

Fat is by far the most misunderstood of all of the macronutrients, particularly saturated fats (solid at room temperature and found generally in animal fat and tropical oils) and monounsaturated fats (olives, avocados, nuts etc.) which are vital for many of our body’s structures and functions. Our ancestors ate these foods in abundance and it wasn’t until the 1950’s that we became convinced through inaccurate science known as the “lipid hypothesis” that these fats were the cause of heart disease, high cholesterol, clogged arteries and obesity. Even though this theory has now been debunked for some time, people who were raised with this dogma have a very hard time coming back to the wisdom of their grandparents, especially since low-fat and “diet” foods are such a staple of food marketing.

The irony of these foods obviously being that when you take healthy fats out of foods, not only do they taste very bland and therefore need to be amended with synthetic flavors and sugar, but they also deprive the body of essential nutrients, weaken the overall cellular structure- thereby creating deficiencies which lead not only to disease, but also to eating much more food (generally refined carbohydrates and sugar) which in turn cause obesity (the outcome that those eating these foods were trying to avoid in the first place).

However,  not all fats are created equally. The Saturated fats found in animal lard or tropical oils do not go rancid easily and are safest for cooking, whereas monounsaturated fats like olive oil, avocado oil and some nut oils go rancid easily and should only be used for cooking at low temperatures. Polyunsaturated fats are fish oils, and seed oils (like flax). These oils, while imperative to our diets, are very unstable and go rancid easily when exposed to light, heat or oxygen, they should never be heated and always consumed raw. Another category of fats are those that are unsafe to consume under any circumstance and are ubiquitously found in most processed and prepared foods, including most restaurants. These are oils that have been extracted generally from genetically modified plants that are heavily sprayed with glyphosate, put through dangerous chemical extraction processes, then deodorized to mask their rancidity. They then sit on shelves in their clear plastic bottles absorbing petrochemicals, only for us to then turn around and use them at high heats which further damages these oils rendering them even more toxic. These oils are canola, soybean/vegetable, cottonseed, corn, vegetable shortening, and all partially hydrogenated oils. 

Blood Sugar Regulation- Own your mood!

Between our current agricultural practices, heavily processed foods and fast paced lifestyles, blood sugar dysregulation is a roller coaster that many do not realize they are even on each day, or have a choice to get off of.

We have been taught that it is normal to wake up groggy, shuffle out of bed, chug coffee while focusing on all the overwhelming tasks of the day, hustle our kids out the door, grab something easy to-go (generally carbs/sugar) on the way out the door (or skip breakfast all together), while throughout all of this our blood sugar is rapidly rising. When our blood sugar rises too high or too fast, our body starts to overproduce insulin, which can in turn cause blood sugar levels to drop rapidly. The pancreas then releases glucagon to try and regulate it, but if it is not able to release these stored forms of glucose at the right time or in the right amount then the HPA axis comes into play and the adrenals immediately release epinephrine and cortisol to attempt to rectify the imbalance, causing the body to develop insulin resistance when this cycle is repeated time and time again. We feels this as energy spikes and crashes, cravings for carbs and sugar, afternoon exhaustion, waking up with adrenaline at all hours of the night and not being able to fall back asleep, nightsweats, feeling on the verge of hypoglycemia all the time, being ‘hangry’, and brain fog.

Our bodies have brilliantly evolved to endure stress in acute forms, and believe it or not, this type of stress is actually good for our bodies in short spurts when we are able to return to homeostasis afterwards. It is when we encounter mid level stressors throughout the day and as a result, throughout the night as well, that we get stuck on the blood sugar rollercoaster that has been increasing steadily since the industrial revolution and exponentially since the advent of the low-fat diet, when fat was replaced with sugar. Never before in history have we had the emergency need to lower blood sugar. The increased consumption of processed and refined foods, environmental toxicity and stress, create this unique and critical need.

Stable blood sugar is maintained by eating a diet that is balanced in fat, protein and complex carbohydrates (vegetables). When the body is breaking food down into building blocks, energy and storage, there is consistent energy throughout the day, metabolic flexibility, and reduced stress on the body.

Digestion- "we are what we absorb"

Because every cell in our body relies on our ability to properly transform and transport the nutrients in our food, it is even more important to consider how this system is taking things in, than it is what we are putting into it.

Digestion is a north to south process, meaning that it starts in the brain with the thought, then sight and smell of food. Before our food even touches our tongue, digestive enzymes are being produced to start our food’s southern journey. Therefore, if any part of this system is in a state of dysfunction, the rest of the sequence is likely to experience some consequences as a result.

Digestion is a parasympathic process, meaning that we must be in a state of calm and rest to be able to properly digest. When we are in a cortisol-dominant sympathetic state, blood is shunted away from our digestive system and brought to the brain for focus and acuity, and the muscles for speed and strength. So while it may seem obvious that while running from a saber toothed tiger is not a great time to eat thanksgiving dinner, in our modern society we are actually doing some version of this almost at all times when we eat. Whether we are sitting at our desk between meetings, shoveling down refined carbohydrates, or feeling slightly annoyed at our children for picking out all of the ‘green things’ from their meal after we’ve had a long day of working and then laboriously preparing a nice dinner for them, simply put, if we are stressed we are not going to properly digest.

Therefore, it is certainly possible to have a really great diet and also experience symptoms like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, IBS, heartburn, disbiosis etc… all of which likely indicate an imbalance in a northern aspect from where the symptom is showing up.

If you are experiencing digestive discomfort of any sort, try a combination of any or all of these simple things:

-       Really take in your food before you eat it. Take in the sight and smell of it, and think of all the ways you are grateful for the miraculous natural processes and human labor that went into bringing it to your plate.

-       Make time and space especially for eating, try to really give yourself enough time to chew your food fully (20-30 times/until it is the consistency of a smoothie) before swallowing. This is not only an important part of how carbohydrates are broken down, but also this chemical digestion happening in your mouth signals the start of gastric digestion in the stomach.

-       Use digestive bitters before a meal to boost HCL (which is how we digest protein and kill pathogens that potentially ride in on our food), to stimulate digestive enzyme production, and assist in signaling to the gallbladder to release bile which helps with fat digestion.

-       Papaya enzymes are great to take after a meal to further help with nutrient absorption and gastric signaling.

Minerals- We are of the earth

Minerals may not be something most people think of on a daily basis but considering that our bodies cannot make them, and they are essential to critical life functions like pH balance and nerve conduction, they should be on everyone’s radar. 

When you further consider that our modern agricultural practices have depleted soils to the point where the mineral content of conventionally grown food is significantly impacted, it becomes even more important for people to think about where their food comes from and to ensure their bodies have the necessary cofactors in place to effectively utilize what minerals they are consuming.

MINERAL BALANCE:

Minerals may only make up 5% of the human body by weight, but they are a key component in every metabolic process including building our bones, maintaining the body’s pH, balancing hormones, regulating nerve signaling, transferring nutrients across cell membranes, and contracting and relaxing our muscles.

Because we cannot make minerals on our own, they must come from our food, beverages and our surrounding environment.  Out of the 118 minerals found on the periodic table of elements, only 18 are required for the body to function, but many more maybe prove beneficial for the body to thrive.

Minerals act like the body’s “spark plugs” creating communication between two processes which would not be able to function without them. As with everything in the body and in nature, nutrients do not work in an isolated state. Some work synergistically with others, enhancing their capabilities, while others work antagonistically inhibiting the physiological response of other nutrients.

The perfectly orchestrated symphony of your body relies on these microscopic elements to appropriately support the absorption of all of the macronutrients and water that the body needs to function in health.   

Conceptualizing Disease

As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, I am commonly asked why someone would come in and see an acupuncturist rather than their primary care physician. There is an inherent skepticism in this query which is completely natural given the sociological climate in which we live, and thus in dedicating myself to learning this medicine and aligning with the forces of nature that are constitutionally found in all living beings, I have also taken on the considerable philosophical commitment to redefine this question. What is acupuncture and how does it work, or more specifically, can acupuncture be used to treat my disease?

This question, while simple enough in it’s intention is derived from an ideology that exists to push forward in a linear dimension while correcting and repairing the things that break along the way. Chinese medicine was cultivated in a tradition that continually redefines itself in the present and attempts to align the individual with the energetic resonance that exists between heaven and earth (breath and substance). Therefore, asking whether a labeled illness, given by a system of medicine that aims to combat disease by using remedies which restrain or neutralize symptoms, will be cured by way of Chinese medicine is intrinsically flawed. It is akin to trying to rent ice skates at a bowling alley; both sports are inherently complete in and of themselves and have unique value. This is not to say that the possibility of uniting the forces indigenous to each does not exist (in the ice skating/bowling metaphor this would be the Canadian sport of curling?) it is an ever growing modality that is labeled traditional Chinese medicine. Though given the epithet ‘traditional’, TCM strives to serve the contemporary scientific language of allopathic medicine. In the practice of Five Element acupuncture, a more historical approach, diagnosis is attained through the lens of seeing the person as they are in their most balanced and whole state, and treating them by way of rectifying any qi imbalance keeping them from being so. Acupuncture addresses the symptom by looking at the individual who is presenting with that imbalance and considering the pattern or series of patterns that led up to the lack of equilibrium that they are experiencing. Often, unless the patient is a child or has a very acute symptom, the pattern has become a very practiced way of being in the world and may take a significant amount of redefining to rectify the proper flow of qi. Ultimately the most important tenet of five element acupuncture is to return a person to the unique individual that they are, standing in alignment between heaven and earth. This is accomplished by seeing them as already whole, rather than by defining them by what has gone wrong along the way.