I’ll be speaking on the heat of summer and how to… how we can support children and adults through this period of time through the summer months.
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Hi, my name is Moshe Heller, and I’m from Motion Herbs and also from The Motion Center in New York. I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for letting me present this topic today. And today we’ll be speaking… I’ll be speaking on the heat of summer and how to… how we can support children and adults through this period of time through the summer months.
So you can go to the slides
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All right. In the past right now we have just passed the summer solstice on the 21st of June. And we have in the past two months have already experienced a few heat waves, and it was very hot here in New York at least. And but the weather here in New York has actually been quite fluctuating and we’re having hot days then we’re having really cool days which is usually a cause for illness, right?
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That’s these weather fluctuations is that, is the time when we are exposed to pathogens and we can be hit by heat or cold or wind combinations. So in the summer, we usually expect more of the warm disease, summer heat, and a lot of digestive issues, a lot of damp and heat here in New York, especially.
And those are the de- disease patterns that we expect. But in this summer which I’m usually not concerned about having too much external pathogenic fa- factors influencing my patients I am actually thinking about that and supporting how can I support my patients better in these weather fluctuations.
I’d like to talk about this formula, which at Motion Herbs we call Shield. But it’s really based on a very traditional formula, which we know as Yu Ping Feng San or Jade Wind Screen. And I combine that this formula with Wei Ji Tang which helps to harmonize the yin and the wei. So these formulas together strengthen the exterior, but also harmonize the functioning of the wei and the yin qi so that if we encounter a pathogen, we can effectively resolve it very quickly or without, or not let it invade So when I formulated Shield, I wanted to make sure that the qi is supported and also the huachi, the transformation and transportation is complete.
And for this we added the combination of Ban Xia and Chen Pi, which we s- we know as the formula Er Chen Tang or two cor– two, two, two cured decoction. That will help in transformation of dampness and that usually this dampness, if it accumulates, can hinder the function of the spleen.
And we also… I also added Tai Zi Shen which we call Prince Ginseng. And it allows the formula to support the qi and the yang, but also is m- very much appropriate to children. It also supports the formula’s ability to to support fluid generation so it’s not so drying. In addition, we added Wu Wei Zi which helps to consolidate the exterior by bringing the kidney support to the lungs and supporting the exterior finally, we a- also added Ge Gen to harmonize the muscle layer and and support digestion, and Ling Zhi which is an adaptogenic mushroom and considered a potent immune system tonic.
So together it creates a very nice protection for the exterior and is something that I definitely use during winter and fall time. But in this summer I feel that patients need that added support Here you have a little bit of a structure how its shield is built. And then I want to also talk about another formula which traditionally is called Kan Ning Tang or curing, the curing pill.
This is a great preventative formula for summer digestive issues and external pathogenic factors that might be have a warm nature to them. It’s a very effective formula that a patent formula, you can get that in many Chinese herbal stores as well as different companies make version of Kan Ning Tang.
It’s you can see that this formula has a lot of herbs that drain dampness and relieve the exterior. And therefore, it’s really good for different varieties of stomach viruses or what we might call stomach heat if that is something that’s happening. On the same token, there is the other famous formula called Bao He Wan, which Motion Herbs also has a version of that which is from the Yin Nourishing School of Zhū Dānxī.
This formula really helps with reducing food accumulation if we’ve been out and eating too much and there’s some food stagnation that needs to be resolved. You can think of Bao He Wan or Digest to support that issue. So we’ve modified Bao He Wan a little bit to clear some wind heat and regulate the qi.
We included formulas herbs like Lian Qiao, Ge Gen Zhi Qiao, Ju Hua, and Tai Zi Shen similar to the ones that we had with Shield. That will support the body’s s-spleen and stomach functioning and also in case there is an external pathogenic factor, relieve that aspect of that Here’s a presentation of Digest.
You can see how the herbs are distributed. And then I created this kind of combinations that support the same aspect in terms of acupuncture. Du 14, we know clears heat as well as large intestine 11 in cases that there’s we need to clear heat from the digestive system.
Supporting the, the spleen and stomach with stomach 36, supporting s- spleen and stomach qi, as well as spleen nine to help drain dampness that may have accumulated. Stomach 25 to regulate the intestines and pericardium six if there’s any nausea involved with the heat invasion. And sometimes I will combine heart six and kidney seven if I feel that there’s an imbalance in the Shaoyang, meaning that there’s some heat that’s rising, and to bring heat down back to its source, we use this combination just as a closing remark diet in, in the summer is the the season of the fire, the yang, the growth and maturation, and therefore the food we eat has to reflect that.
Very light and colorful from all colors. Lots of vegetables that are in season. The, the… I think one of the most important thing that we have to remember is that our diet should always be according to, Chinese dietary recommendations to include a large amount of vegetables more than anything else.
I know that today most people are concerned about how much protein they’re getting in their diet, but I’m always concerned of how much vegetables you’re getting in your diet more so than the protein. That’s extremely important that we get a wide variety of different colored vegetables as part of our meals.
Cook lightly. Don’t make it too heavy. Steaming, sautéing, grilling are great ways to cook during the summer. Use slightly spicy and pi- pungent spices like ginger to warm up the interior and some bitter taste to drain heat and regulate the heart. For example a great vegetable to be eating during the summer is broccoli rabe which has a little bit of bitterness in it, and you can sauté it or steam it.
And that is a great way to get some bitterness into your food. So although we think that in the summer we dream of all these cooling foods like watermelon, etc., which are good in reg- in small quantities, but I want you to remember that in hot places usually we eat warm foods because if we wa- warm and spicy actually foods, if we warm the interior, there’s less of a difference between the interior and the exterior.
So it actually allows our body to maintain a better equilibrium if we warm the inside of our body rather than eating cold or iced things, then our interior becomes cooler and therefore there’s a bigger difference and heat can be much… has a stronger effect on our system I’d like to thank you for listening.
We are– If you want to have more information about our herbal line please log on to motionherbs.com. Also, we at Jing Cheng Pediatrics, we are doing some hands-on seminars for pediatric techniques. Thank you very much for your time, and thank you… I would like to thank the AAC for allowing me to speak, and have a wonderful day.