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Fertility and the Importance of the Earth Element: Part 2

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Hi, I’m Dr. Martha Lucas. I’ve been practicing Chinese medicine for more than 20 years. I have practices in Denver, Colorado, which is my private practice, and then I practice in a Western medicine clinic two days a week in Littleton, Colorado. And my Teaching site is lucas teachings.com, and then my private practice site is acupuncture woman.com.

Today I’m going to present fertility and the importance of the Earth element part two, and I wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council for allowing me to present this information to you. So let’s go to the slides.

in part one. We talked a lot about the importance of earth or the importance of good gut health for when people are having fertility challenges, both the men and the women. Having good digestion, as we know, is super important in Chinese medicine. It’s how we make our energy and One of the things we need to do with our couples is make sure that their guts are working well or all our patients.

We probably all focus on the gut for our patients, and I’m saying trust your gut is not a silly thing to do. Our guts were our first brains before the conscious . Brain came around before the conscious mind came around and made us start to not trust our gut. How many times have you heard people say that, oh, I should’ve listened to my gut.

It was telling me not to do that thing, and it didn’t work out exactly how I wanted. That’s because our gut is still giving us advice, but our conscious brain sometimes says no, that looks pretty good. I’m just gonna over, I’m not gonna listen to what my gut is saying. Turns out that our gut has millions of nerve cells that respond.

To stimulate and send signals to us. Think about how anxious you get before you do something new or forget. Have to give your first presentation at work. Those butterflies in your stomach are signals, your brain sends to your body indicating that something is up, something is different, something’s gonna happen.

Because your gut is so in tune with the rest of your body, it is important to take good care of it, especially when trying to conceive. In addition to the millions of nerve cells, your gut is lined with bacterial microbes that produce serotonin. That allows us to convert the food we eat into energy for our body to use, and that would partly be creating a warm, fertile environment where conception can occur.

There are three to 500 different kinds of bacteria, as well as more than 2 million genes in the gut. All of that is matched up with viruses, fungi, and other microscopic organisms that make up the microbiome that is affected by genetics, stress, lifestyle, diet, et cetera. Your microbiome affects everything from your metabolism to your propensity to certain illnesses, to your ability to conceive.

Gut health is a major concern for those trying to conceive, especially for those that have one of the following conditions. Crohn’s disease. Ulcerative colitis celiac disease. In my last presentation, I talked about the relationship between celiac disease and some fertility challenges. Inflammatory bowel disease, I B D, irritable Bowel syndrome, I B S, and those conditions can make it difficult to conceive for both men and women.

As I always say in my classes about fertility. Don’t forget about the man’s health. It’s yin and yang. It takes two, however you wanna say it. Sometimes just opening the man’s dai. Can improve conception success and also those conditions just mentioned can cause a decrease in libido. And so many of our couples, and I’m sure you’ve heard it again and again, the intercourse just becomes a chore.

The, I’ve treated so many men who are like, yeah, I do it, but it’s not the most pleasant thing. I’m tired of hearing about . Mucus and hormones and days of the month. I wish we could just be natural. It’s hard to be natural when natural isn’t working so well for you. So looking back at the gut health of both the male and the female can sometimes lead to an answer.

Other symptoms to look for that indicate gut issues include stomach pain, craving sweetss. We know that means the digestion is out of balance, gaining or losing weight unintentionally. The onset of anxiety or depression, rashes, . Or that they have an autoimmune condition that is getting worse, and that can all be because of an imbalance in gut bacteria that can cause inflammation, which may lead to a flare up in their autoimmune issue.

So now the blah, blah, blah part about how to change your diet, to improve your gut. But the good news is that I will talk about some specific food recommendations, some pulses and some treatment ideas. So what’s some general advice? Eliminate processed food for one thing. Processed foods have a lot of heat in them.

They use heat to process it, right? They use heat to take a nice fruit or whatever that’s nice and full of juice and liquid and turn it into something that’s processed that you can. Get out of a bag or a box. That’s toxic in our medicine. So trying to eliminate as many processed foods as we can.

Eat a diet with a blend of protein, fiber, fruits and vegetables include specific foods that improve gut health, which could be bananas. Oats, pistachios and give your patients a, an a good, interesting list, not just two or three things. Quinoa, chia, kombucha. ’cause some people don’t like certain things on the list.

Remember, kimchi, kafi, yogurt sauerkraut. All can improve gut health. Olive oil is a healthy, stable, it’s one of the. Things we have as a health stable in our kitchens. Its fatty acid content is well received by the gut bacteria, which is why it’s such a healthy oil. And so you can make your own or your patients can make their own simple vinegarette.

They can use extra virgin olive oil. A little vinegar. Avoid the plain white vinegar, salt, pepper, some citrus juice, Dijon mustard and herbs of their choice. Throw in a sprig of basil is really nice, or throw in dill or change it up a little bit with some herbs, some fresh herb of your choice.

believe it or not, because of its high fiber content. Popcorn is good for your gut, but not the prepackaged microwave kind. Again, toxic heat in there and the chemical lining of the bag is not good for your gut and the microwave popcorn is high in sodium. A little too high in sodium, you can make popcorn naturally yourself and dress it up with, make it.

You can make it sweet, you can make it savory. Ground cinnamon, curry powder, sea salt. Again, Italian herbs, any herbs, maple syrup, cocoa powder, or paprika to get some extra fiber. For a sweeter snack, you can make your own trail mix with walnuts and almonds for the omega threes. Blueberries, which have folate and vitamin C in them.

Good for the gut and for fertility and banana chips for some fiber. You can also add dark chocolate, coconut plates and sunflower seeds. So again, looking at foods that improve the gut and also can help with the relationship between the gut and hormones and fertility. Raspberry leaf tea is another thing that can help with irregular periods.

Or hormone imbalance. It also helps reduce swelling. Also, chamomile tea is particularly good. I don’t have that in the list. I think for digestion because it reduces inflammation. It actually has nice properties that can help both . Things like anxiety and depression and gut health because it reduces inflammation and it’s also calming.

So chamomile tea is another raspberry leaf is a middle, little more specific for hormone imbalance, but chamomile tea is really good to reduce, especially inflammation in the gut. And then you can try to. Eliminate as much sugar as you can. I keep saying you, but your patients, your fertility patients well, and these are actually probably good advice for everybody’s gut health.

Eating too many refined carbohydrates and sugary foods can cause imbalances in blood sugar and exacerbate conditions like P C O S and insulin resistance. So too much sugar also are kidneys. Can only process so much sugar. So if you’re eating too much sugar and you get, for example, an acne breakout, that can be your body telling you Uhoh, too much sugar for the kidneys.

They can’t process it. And so they use your skin as an exit. They use your skin as a detox organ because remember, our skin is an organ. Cutting down on sugar B. Vitamin rich foods help support energy levels blood cell production, and reduce the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida and other brain defects in the fetus.

B rich foods include grass fed red meat, pasture raised chicken and eggs, and sustain sustainably sourced fish, avocados and leafy greens. Proper iron intake can help prevent low birth weight of the baby and increase hemoglobin for the mom. Hema iron is the form of iron that is most readily absorbed by the body and it can be found in grass fed red meat, pasture raised chicken and eggs, and sustainably sourced fish.

Foods high in folate, and we’re focusing here on folate, not folic acid can help reduce the risk of neural tube defects that we just talked about and include . How you can get it, folate, pasture raised chicken, lentils, spinach, strawberries, and a spice.

And remember what I call the burden of conception is not only on the woman, so how can the male conception partner change his diet in order to burst? Boost fertility well optimally. The male would also reduce eating highly processed foods. He will hopefully reduce the number of sugars he is eating, the amount of sugar he is eating.

Nutrients like zinc, folate, and omega three fatty acids can all improve sperm quality. It’s not only about the number, it’s about the quality. And men would also take care to avoid excess alcohol, excess caffeine, and phytoestrogenic foods like soy and meats that contain antibiotics and hormones. I’ve had a little theory in my mind working for years that some of the.

40% of male infertility that we’re seeing is due to them growing up eating foods with estrogen in them, and so their hormones can get way outta balance because it’s only been in the last decade or so I think, that we’re learning about meat and dairy that has estrogen in it, which would not only affect women, but would affect men as well.

So some meal ideas that include some of those foods I just went over and are gonna help the gut and . Fertility success includes something like a salmon stir fry with vegetables, slow cooking, beef and vegetables, right? Getting the warmth in there with the slow cooking, a spring salad with chicken or salmon to warm up the coolness of the salad, make.

A chicken and sweet potato dish, right earth food, warm or salmon and sweet potatoes, Turkey burgers if you want a low fat burger option. Egg salad, hard boiled eggs, deviled eggs, the ones that are pasture raised, a wild rice salad. Or add that to a dish with protein like salmon. Now, food advice specifically from a Chinese medicine perspective.

Would be one of the issues to avoid is dampness. When you’re trying to conceive, we wanna avoid creating any dampness because dampness causes blockages or stagnations in the body, right? So foods that create dampness. Or for which stamp ness is a side effect, include cheese. I just tell my patients dairy in general, white flour and sugar.

I had a patient, in fact, who was starting to have little like clear skin tags, flat skin tags, and this guy ate so much. Dairy, ice cream almost every day. Frozen dairy, pretty much the worst thing you can put in your body according to the theory of Chinese medicine and drank a ton of milk. And again, not that there’s anything wrong with that, if your body is tolerating that well, but I just suggested to him, can you just give up dairy or cut way, way down.

I’d love it to be zero for two weeks and just see what’s happens to your skin. And sure enough, he turns out he, those skin tags went away and he got tested for lactose intolerance and was lactose intolerance. So our body, his body was telling him, look, I’m creating dampness. This, Daryl, this dairy you’re eating is creating a symptom.

So when your digestion is working well, you won’t create dampness, right? That’s the whole key. Getting the digestion to work well, according to the theory, you should be able to eat anything, and it’s not going to create any symptoms or dampness or heat if your digestion works well, but if your metabolism is off or your calories don’t burn clean, then the leftover residue

Is considered dampness, accumulated dampness, clogs, organs like lungs, causing asthma or digestion or digestive organs causing indigestion, high cholesterol, and sometimes constipation or diarrhea. Vegetables can play a major role in reducing dampness, so this can include lightly cooked vegetables, lightly steamed vegetables, and then leafy greens in the diet.

You can interchange white and brown rice to reduce dampness. White is said to be more cleansing and brown rice is more nourishing. Millet and quinoa also are clean burning and they will help drain damp. Of course our advice would be to limit cold and raw foods because we believe they form dampness and they’re difficult to process because they use too much energy to warm up as I, I think, like I said about ice cream, I think of all the energy that our gut is having to use to just warm that up to body temperature is huge.

Limiting cold ice, cold especially, and raw foods. If you need to eliminate dairy, that’s just what has to happen. Then get calcium from foods like almonds, leafy greens, and broccoli. You can get calcium from other foods besides dairy. Eliminate sugar, but eat Chinese medicine sweet foods like rice, meat, and some vegetables.

As I said, you can give your patient a list if you can eat according to the seasons. Eat warming foods in winter in summer. Cooler foods like lightly cooked vegetables, those are still cooler. Steam them rather than bake them or fry them. Of course. And if you can eat what grows in your region, that’s great.

I’m in Colorado, so when I, it’s wintertime and we’re eating, according to our region, what grows in our region. We’re eating an awful lot of potatoes and onions, occasionally throw in some beets and other root vegetables. So in pulse diagnosis for the earth. Besides the usual and customary pulse positions that we all learned in school, my system shows the uterus and the prostate in the left chair or the, what’s traditionally the kidney position.

So when you’re working with fertility issues, you may wanna pay more attention to that left kidney position. You can see I have it written down, left side uterus and prostate so you can feel if there are fibroids in the uterus so you can feel if there’s inflammation in the prostate and. When conception happens after the fetus, after the cells are a certain size, you’ll be able to feel and follow the pregnancy.

That’s where you’re gonna look over there in the left side, the right side, of course, middle pulse middle position is spleen and stomach, where you’re gonna be looking at digestion. Now, here’s a drawing of what the might look like. Poor digestion, that arrow going down in the spleen, stomach. Okay. . If you’re not feeling a nice flow of energy from the kidneys through the spleen and stomach into the lung large intestine, that means there’s a digestive issue.

This particular picture would mean that old trauma is preventing the person’s earth element from nourishing them, just like the early trauma prevented them from being nourished emotionally and maybe physically, unfortunately. That pattern stays in and their digestion doesn’t work very well. So whenever you feel an imbalance in the digestion with your fertility patients, I advise you talk to them strongly about their digestion, be and explain to them, in order to make good blood flow to the uterus, we need to have good spleen and stomach.

We need to have good earth. We need to have a balanced digestion. And then obviously you can use all the other information in this presentation in part one, to talk to them about food, to talk to them about their gut microbiome, et cetera. Because what we wanna get to is this balance, yin and yang.

Sine waves is the perfect pulse, the good healthy pulse, sine wave yang and yin sine wave yang and yin and all. As you can see in this picture, all of the organ systems communicating with each other. This is what we’re trying to get with every treatment. Our goal of every single treatment is balance in the pulses.

At least that’s the way I teach Pulse diagnosis, and that’s the way I do my practice. Honestly, after more than 20 years, it’s pulse diagnosis, the excitement of feeling things in people’s pulses. That keeps me interested in Chinese medicine. If I did prescription Chinese medicine and oh, somebody came in with infertility or fertility challenge and I did this, I would’ve been bored years and years ago.

So you can see every presentation I’m going to . Impress upon you the importance of the pulses for not only diagnosis, but for treatment. So you can reach me@lucasteachings.com. That has a contact Dr. Lucas button. My pr private practice website is acupuncture woman.com has a contact button also on lucas teachings.com.

There is some food advice. There is a A P D F that you could print out and give to your patients. I just want to. Thank you for watching. I hope you learned a lot as if you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me at one of those websites. I also wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council for sponsoring this webinar and allowing me to present this information to you.

And so I hope you have a great and enjoy treating your fertility patients. .

Fertility and the Importance of the Earth Element: Part 1

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Hi, I am Dr. Martha Lucas, and I am here to talk to you about the fertility and importance of the earth element. This is part one of a presentation. I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for allowing me to present this information to you. I have. More than 20 years of experience in Chinese medicine.

I have a private practice in Denver and also work in a western medicine clinic in Littleton, Colorado. So let’s go to the slides.

We all know the importance of good digestive health for good overall health. Digestion is how we make our energy, and that’s why I am sure that we all focus on all of our patients having good digestion. It turns out that gut health is very important for couples who are trying to conceive, because poor gut health can cause hormonal imbalance.

And when I’m talking about the earth element, of course I’m talking about spleen and stomach or digestion. And again, we know that. For example, earth and Metal, make up the immune system and earth and water make up the hormonal system. So we’re gonna be talking in these two presentations about the importance of Earth.

But again, and you all know this, we never just treat that standing alone, right? We’re always gonna treat all of the channels, all the organ systems, but hormonal imbalance would be Earth and . Kidneys, earth and water together and hormonal imbalances is one of the leading causes of infertility in both men and women.

And if you’ve heard me talk about fertility treatments before, you know that I treat the man and the woman. It’s yin and yang coming together, right? 40% of the time the fertility issue is the male’s issue. So it is very important that we also treat the male. And it is very important that we treat all the organ systems.

For example, if all you do is tonify the kidneys in water, but the dmai is blocked, then you’re, you could potentially be creating some toxic heat with all your ification. So that’s why in these presentations, I express the need to treat more than one organ system, and we are gonna be focusing on Earth in this part one and next time, part two.

When the gut microbiota is out of balance, it can lead to low grade inflammation throughout the body, including the product reproductive organs. So this is another reason why it’s so important to have the gut or the earth and Chinese medicine working well in, in western medicine, they call it the gut brain axis and the microbiome and the microbiota.

We call it earth or spleen and stomach. , that kind of inflammation, that kind of low grade inflammation can interfere with hormone production and signaling activity leading to irregular menstrual cycles, ovulation problems, and reductions in sperm quality. So you can see those are three causes, if you will, of.

Infertility or having a fertility challenge. I don’t like to use the word infertility because I feel like it’s a damning diagnosis. You’re infertile, oh, where do I go from there? So that’s why I tend to say fertility challenges. Changes or imbalances in the gut. Microbiome diversity or the gut microbiota can cause reduction or an increase in the levels of estrogen.

So either a reduction or an increase in levels of estrogen. In other words, an imbalance in estrogen, which also can lead to irregular menstrual cycles, irregular periods in terms of the bleeding part, impaired ovulation, P C O S, endometriosis. And again, all of those will ultimately or can ultimately affect fertility success.

So again, we see the importance of a balanced digestion. Unexplained infertility has been linked to systemic inflammation. Which I just said can be caused by gut imbalance and oxidative stress caused by imbalance in the gut microbiome.

Gut inflammation has been linked to decreased progesterone again. Leading to what looked like fertility challenges. Progesterone is responsible for healthy endometrial lining and implantation. So when it is low, and believe it or not, experts still aren’t really certain what too low is but when it is too low because of chronic inflammation, it can lead to implantation failure or recurrent miscarriages.

Immune system failure, sometimes caused by inflammation can lead to anti sperm antibodies, which attack the sperm and prevent implantation. Now, immune system failure would be autoimmune, right? And remember I said earlier, earth and metal, so spleen, stomach, lung, large intestine are our immune system, . We would need to, in that case, be treating, making certain, we’re getting the digestion balance, treating the immune system organ systems, and also the water.

Now the terrain is everything. This means I’m referring back to a very old argument that Pastore and Bernard had about . Is it the pathogen or is it the body’s ability to fight? And the story goes that Bernard was the one, the scientist who said, it’s so important to have important di good digestion, a good body.

And when you have a good healthy body, you can fight off germs. And of course, pastor was like, no, it’s the germ. It’s the germ. And the story goes that on his deathbed pastor said Claude Nar. Claude was right. The terrain is everything. And in Chinese medicine, that’s what we think, right?

Chinese medicine is . Primarily a preventive medicine. We’re always in our symptom mind, right? How often does a patient come in and say, I feel great, and I just wanna continue to feel great, so give me a treatment. We never do that with Western Medicine. We can’t even imagine it, right? We go in once a year for our annual exam, we feel great we make sure everything’s.

All our numbers are good, but we can’t imagine going in once a month and saying, Hey, Dr. Stroll, how you doing? But that’s how our medicine works. We get people healthy. I always tell people when they wanna know, how often should they come in? I always say how soon do you wanna get better? If this symptom is really bothering you, then I need to see you three times a week for just

Two weeks maybe, and then two times a week and one time a week. And we’ll get you to the point where I see you once a month. That’s because I believe the terrain is everything I have to get their digestion working well get their body working well again, get everything balanced and then we’ll move on to don’t let your symptom come back.

And if it does, the caveat is see you in a month. But if you need to come in earlier, then you need to come in earlier. The human gut is home to trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms that are collectively known as the microbiome. This complex ecosystem plays a crucial role in various aspects of health, including digestion, immune function, and even mental wellbeing.

The gut brain axis is very important to keep in balance. For issues like anxiety and depression. So all of those are related to the gut. The composition of the gut microbiome is influenced by a multitude of factors including diet, lifestyle, medication use, and of course stress levels. By nurturing the gut, women may be able to support their fertility journey and improve their chances of conceiving a healthy gut may just be the unexpected key to unlocking the door to parenthood.

So let’s go into some of the specifics about the gut brainin axis, and their impact on fertility. First of all, there’s nutrient absorption and metabolism. The gut microbiome aids in the breakdown and absorption of nutrients from our diet. Of course, balanced good digestion, . We’re going to be able to successfully absorb nutrients.

Certain gut bacteria are responsible for producing essential vitamins and metabolizing hormones. There we go with the hormone, the hormonal aspect or the hormonal connection imbalances in the gut microbiota can impair nutrient absorption leading to deficiencies in key nutrients that are required for reproductive health like folate, iron, and vitamin D.

Estrogen metabolism is another important thing about the gut estrogen. A hormone that we know is crucial for female fertility undergoes a process called metabolism in the gut. Imbalances in the gut microbiota can alter the process leading to imbalances in estrogen levels. Excessive levels of estrogen or the accumulation of certain estrogen metabolites can disrupt the delicate hormonal balance that is necessary for conception and successful pregnancy.

Remember, we have to carry it through from successful conception through successful normal natural birth. A normal, healthy birth, rather normal, healthy birth. Healthy mom is the ultimate goal. Continuing with estrogen metabolism in the gut, estrogen is needed for proper ovulation and thickening of the uterine wall for pregnancy Balanced estrogen, but excess estrogen can cause irregular periods and prevent ovulation, thereby causing

Infertility or fertility challenge. Further, estrogen dominance has been linked to endometriosis and P C O S. Estrogen deficiency, on the other hand, can cause. Amenorrhea, which is absence of periods, which leads to anovulation, disorders of ovulation, actually account for 30% of female for infertility. So here we go again with the importance of the gut and hormones.

Estrogen has an important role in male fertility as well. It affects multiple organs and tissue in the male. A deficit or a surplus of estrogen can hinder the male libido and spermatogenesis, which is an inappropriate increase in extra diol, which is an estrogen steroid hormone that has been shown to lead to a decrease in sperm production.

And also too little estrogen in males has shown to have a causative effect on erectile dysfunction. Stress and mental health. As I said earlier, the gut brain axis, the gut is a bidirectional communication pathway between the gut and the brain, and it plays a vital role in mental health and also in stress regulation that can lead to things like anxiety and depression.

Stress can influence the gut microbiota composition, which in turn can affect fertility, high levels of stress, can disrupt hormone production, interfere with ovulation and reduce sperm quality. It’s why I would love to have the time to do a retrospective study of when couples give up or decide to adopt how many get pregnant, and it’s, I

Think it’s a, seems in my fertility practice like it’s a fairly large number, and I’ve always surmised that it’s because their level of stress goes down, their level of struggle goes down. Gut health and the thyroid. When there is an imbalance in the microbiome, it impacts immunologic and metabolic functions.

A study in 2015 found that hypo and hyperthyroidism were associated with small intestinal bacteria overgrowth, or what’s called sibo. And other studies have found a relationship between dysbiosis, which is an in general name for imbalance or inflammation in the . Gut and thyroid nodules. Underactive thyroid can affect fertility in a variety of ways.

It causes decreased cellular energy, meaning less mitochondria on ovarian cells leading to irregular or absent periods. It may increase prolactin, which suppresses ovulation, and it may lead to a decrease insulin sensitivity, which means more insulin in the blood. Increases androgens, which then disrupt ovulation and is especially detrimental to women who have P C O S.

Fortunately, there are steps that individuals and couples can take to optimize their gut health and enhance their fertility. Eat a balanced diet, okay? Blah, blah, blah. We hear that all the time, right? Modern medicine suggests eating a diverse range of whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and fermented foods to promote a healthy gut microbiome.

these foods provide essential nutrients and promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. Chinese medicine recommends eating what we call earth foods, right? Ones that are sweet in nature or taste sweet according to the theory of Chinese medicine, not . Cakes and cookies and are earth colored, so yellows, oranges, browns, and also warm in temperature.

Again, either warm physically, like we’ve actually warmed it up or warm in nature according to the theory of Chinese medicine. Now prebiotics and probiotics. Probiotics are live bacteria that can be found in certain foods like yogurt, or they can be taken as supplements. They can help restore the balance of the gut Bacteria.

Prebiotics, on the other hand, are non-digestible fibers found in certain fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and they nourish the gut bacteria. Also, there’s stress reduction to help couples engaging in some stress. Reducing activities such as exercise, meditation, and mindfulness can positively impact both gut health and subsequently fertility.

These practices do help regulate the gut brain axis and promote a healthier gut microbiota.

Research has found that women with recurrent pregnancy loss, A number of miscarriages show a higher prevalence of undiagnosed gut disorders. In particular, women with recurrent pregnancy loss were found to have abnormal gut permeability, which was found to contribute to the inflammatory reactions in the body that we talked about are earlier.

The researchers hypothesize that the inflammatory reaction caused by dysbiosis may be contributing to miscarriage pathogenesis. And they recommend that proper diagnosis and treatment of intestinal disorders in order to improve pregnancy outcomes. Very important for those particular women. Further, the gut microbiome is responsible for converting bound estrogen to free active estrogen according to a recent review.

Without a healthy microbiome, estrogen metabolism and function becomes impaired and can lead to a number of health consequences, including endometriosis, P C O S, hyperplasia and infertility or fertility challenge. It seems that we are finding out that treating the gut microbiome to modulate estrogen levels should be considered as a future treatment or a current treatment for estrogen mediated diseases, including infertility.

An interesting meta-analysis found that women with unexplained infertility, so that’s. The problem when your doctor says, oh, sorry, you’re infertile, and we don’t know why. They have a three and a half, 3.5 times higher odds of having celiac disease. In fact, it’s estimated that an Good percentage of women struggling with unexplained infertility actually have undiagnosed celiac disease, and it’s been suggested that unexplained infertility may actually be the first sign of celiac disease in some women.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, chronic inflammation may impact recurrent pregnancy loss. It also may cause decreased progesterone, which leads to implantation failure and the development of autoimmune processes that impact fertility. Now, women may think that this doesn’t pertain to them because they don’t have any gut symptoms.

Unfortunately, the absence of gas, bloating, stomach pain, Does not necessarily indicate good gut health, although the token symptoms of gut dysfunction do indicate something is wrong. A complete absence of symptoms does not indicate that you have a properly functioning digestive tract. They might be having regular bowel movements, no cramping, no gas, but it by no means guarantees that their gut is in good shape.

In fact, you can feel pretty good. It turns out, as I’ve seen in with people’s pulses for years and years, they tell me they don’t have any digestive issues and it turns out that they actually do. So some non digestive symptoms that may be a red flag with your fertility patients include . Constant hunger or cravings.

Now that would be earth and stomach, maybe stomach, heat, brain fog and diminished memory, kidney and earth, joint and muscle pain. Again, kidneys and earth or chronic fatigue, kidneys and earth or signs of estrogen deficiency or dominance, kidney and earth. So you can see all of these non digestive symptoms include Earth in our medicine.

So food allergies are another thing, as well as seasonal allergies. Those are earth and metal. Those can be an early red flag. Frequent colds and flu, earth and metal skin issues like eczema, acne, rosacea. Earth and metal or autoimmune issues, earth and metal. So again, you can see earth involved in these maybe red flags for fertility issues.

And as you can see in the bottom, there’s my pulse diagnosis diagram. And you can see that infinity symbol, which is literally the attachment of sign waves this way, sign waves that way, which is yang and yin. You can see that all of the organ systems need to be balanced and communicating with each other.

If we are going to create a warm, fertile environment for proper conception, successful conception, and a healthy birth, healthy mother. All right, so next time we are going to talk in part two about fertility and the importance of earth and a little more specifics about particular foods, ideas for combinations of foods.

Again, we’ll probably talk about the importance of pulse diagnosis and some ideas. In that realm. And so I wanna thank you for listening and also thank the American Acupuncture Council for allowing me to present this information. You can see my teaching website, which is lucas teachings.com, or contact me@acupuncturewoman.com, which is my private practice site.

So I’ll see you next time. .

The Fertility Journey

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Hi, my name is Tsao-Lin Moy and I am a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist and massage therapy. With a brick and mortar office in Union Square in New York City. So I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for sponsoring these events and presentations. And today I’m gonna be talking and sharing with you about the five top things to address when you’re working with fertility patients.

And so we’re going to go to the slides right now. Okay. . So these are the top five areas that we wanna address with our patients, especially when they’re struggling to conceive. Now I’ve been practicing for over 21 years, and I do have a very high success rate with treating patients, and this is because I always ha like address these areas aside from acupuncture and herbal formulations.

These are some key things that if you don’t address them, then you’re not gonna have the same success. Okay, and go the next slide. So you probably already know that fertility is, or infertility is a really big problem and it continues to grow, not only in the US but throughout the world. In most developing countries, at least 12% of the population is struggling with issues of infertility, and in particular in the us one in eight couples are experiencing infertility, and one third of them is also related to male issues, not just female issues.

Though what I do have to say is mostly you see female patients because they’re a little more proactive and they’re, they have hormonal fluctuations and stress really will affect their hormones. So the first and most important, which I find is mindset. Many of the patients that come to see me are super stressed out, and probably the same with you, that they’ve already gone through trying on their own getting frustrated, going to a fertility clinic.

And then being told that maybe they have low A m H, high F, SS, h that their cycles are all off, that they’re getting too old. And what that does is that creates a huge negative mindset. And so one of the issues is that, If the, your couples are already thinking that they’re not gonna be able to conceive, or they’re getting lots of information that is not good for them, like off the internet, then they’re gonna be approaching everything as a problem and it’s gonna be a lot harder for them to look for a solution.

So you might find that they come to you and say, oh, how can I fix my hormones? Or oh I don’t know, when I’m ovulating or I have polycystic ovary syndrome, which is something that’s, coming up as a polycystic ovary awareness month is coming up in September. . But what we do know is that research shows is that what you think really matters and having a positive outlook is gonna help to cope better with stressful situations, especially for couples that are trying to conceive.

And it also will reduce like negative health effects on the body. So what I would say is you have to listen to your patients really carefully about what they’re saying about their fertility and then . Keep an eye on that because if that is an ongoing theme with them and they’re focusing on that, then what happens is they’re not focusing on the bigger picture, which is overall health is gonna make a difference with fertility.

So what we look at is, and this is like the number one thing that I have my patients do not just only relating to fertility, but also to anything when someone has back pain and they’re like, oh, maybe I’m never gonna be able to go skiing, or, I’m ne maybe I’m not gonna be able to go running or play tennis anymore.

Those are . Worrisome. And so the focus is really, it’s not just only on the pain, it’s also gonna be on the stress that, what does that mean for an active life? A key thing which I would say is that many women’s self-worth is attached to their ability to getting pregnant. And they have these secret fears and limiting beliefs that are gonna leak into their thoughts, and that undermines their confidence. So even though they may be coming and doing all of those things that they actually might be working against themselves, right? So we’re creating this resistance or creating more internal stress.

So the beliefs and fears, they actually create an energetic, spiritual, and emotional block. And that actually affects the physical body. So what we’re offering them is an experience of themselves in a new way. So when they come for acupuncture, when they come and they get herbs and we speak to them Not so much in the Western medical, dialogue, but really talking about balancing their yin and yang increasing the blood flow, the flow of their tea improving sleep.

Those kinds of things are not the same language that will trigger them into worry. Okay. So this is one of the exercises that I give to my patients and it helps them to develop that fertility mindset. And it’s an exercise. So oftentimes, we don’t realize, and this applies to everything, that we speak negatively to ourselves, all a lot.

And that’s what causes a lot of that tension and stress. Can I do it? I can’t do it, or I’m not good enough. So what I have my patients do is think of two or three of these secret fears or limiting beliefs around conceiving a child or even being a parent. So things like I hear often, my eggs aren’t good, there must be something wrong.

It’s taking so long. I’m all alone or I’m too old. Instead, what they need to do is replace each one of these with something that’s gonna be empowering to them and help pull them forward. My eggs are in my body are strong. I’m completely functional and normal. I trust my partner will be a good parent.

My hormones are perfectly balanced and the time is now. So these are things to counter the negative beliefs. Oftentimes, you can’t stop ’em. What you can do is replace them. And another thing too is really that visualizing that it’s gonna happen. So oftentimes I have them create, I don’t have it in the slideshow, but create the a vision board really, whatever it is that you want.

Looking through a magazine, this beautiful car, this beautiful home, or what is that? That it’s really important that there is a positive image for them. So they keep moving in that direction versus looking at things or worrying about things that are, that haven’t happened and really aren’t true. So the second thing the second tip is to remove the causes of unnecessary strep.

Stress and to help your patients with the strategy. So one of the strategies is helping them with that mindset. This is also an exercise to encourage and support that. So one of the things that I would say is clear the cookies on your computer or your phone, all of the searches. Oftentimes, I’m sure you find that patients are searching their condition finding all of these like chat rooms that have problems and really the worst things that are there.

And then you get stuck in an algorithm that has a lot of clickbait and negative stories and tragedy, right? And so this is something that they need to stop doing. And really if they have a question to, to talk to you about it and you help them also, what I find is when my patients are going to fertility clinics that they’ll tend to filter for the negative stuff instead of the positive.

So they’ll . Tell me, oh, my doctor said I might have this, or this could be a problem. Or they’re testing for something and then they tend to focus on something that’s negative and not on what is actually positive. And then oftentimes in a medical office, there’s this kind of a, I don’t want to have, encourage too much positive expectations so you’re not disappointed.

So they like to manage disappointment which is . In my opinion, not their job, . And then the other thing is really what I call, French Way. If you’ve ever heard of that, people who are not helpful. Start to give you their opinion or talk about all the negative things. Oh, I know someone who had never happened and they spent, a hundred thousand dollars on I V F, or, then they had children, problem child or something like that.

And so these are really things that you teach your patients to create this container. For this thing that they want. And this not just applies with getting pregnant and having a family, but it also applies to everything else. If you wanna lose weight or get healthier, start to run a marathon.

Do things for your, develop a practice. It’s really you have to look at who are the people surrounding you and if your patients are coming to you. For help and assistance in this area, they’re already looking for something different, so we don’t wanna feed back to them the same kind of negativity and fears that they may have.

And a lot of that too is gonna have to do with, our dialogue. How do we talk to them? Do we use a lot of western dialogue or do we help to shift them into the language and metaphor of Chinese medicine? So the third tip that I suggest to my patients is to ditch those digital apps.

And those are because they cause a lot of stress. And the other thing, and then is to teach your patients how to monitor where their fertile window is, and using a low tech way to do it on paper. And the reason that I have my patients do it on paper is because the digital apps. Do they take into account like an average of a standard and really with, women individually, there might be variations in the cycle.

So oftentimes one of the problems that’ll show up is that my patients are saying like, oh, but my app says. That I should be ovulating at this time or that I should do this, or in some cases I’ve seen that an app will change their ovulation time, like go back and change the history of it to accommodate an algorithm.

And then what you have is someone trying to fit into . What a standard is, which is not necessarily for them, right? It’s like a general and we’re really looking individually. And so the other thing too is you might ask yourself, why would we use charts and thermometers and pee sticks when there are all these electronic monitors, right?

And fancy phone apps. And so here’s the thing. Electronics are a huge trigger for a stress response, and stress is one of the biggest barriers for conception, right? So this also relates to the previous exercises, like what else is, causing stress, which will disrupt hormones.

So no matter what, we know, we also need to address the diet. Now this can be a trigger for patients that might have eating disorders or previous eating disorders because it can trigger something. And also in our fast-paced, Daily life, we tend to have things delivered and it says it’s organic. But the other thing too is that all these organic drinks are in these plastic bottles.

And and also we’re trying to reduce sugar and artificial sweeteners are also become a problem with hormones and the microbiome. So cutting out processed foods, not only does it mean like fast food, I also consider things that are processed even though they’re quote unquote healthy.

So really the focus on whole and organic foods and really no alcohol is, not good for the immune system and also causes like a lot of other problems. So I don’t need to go into, for the and most . Patients are, especially the women are not drinking alcohol or even caffeine.

The thing is that their partner also needs to be like doing something as well. So a lot of the time the burden is on the female. Part of the couple and really both male and female need to participate. And even though it wasn’t in the other slide, that becomes a real issue when and I’m sure you see it, is the woman is focusing on her cycle, her chart, and when she’s fertile.

Totally stressing out. The partner may be like, whatever. And that creates a lot of distress because they’re not working on this together. So as much as you can include both of the couples or both, male and female or if it’s a, . Same sex couples in, in any way that you can have them participate as a couple, then it increases their support, especially at home, right?

’cause there’s only so much we can do. But really those are things to address. And in my practice I do ask like, how are things with your partner with it? Because when one partner gets super stressed out, That creates that can create a wedge in the relationship. And then we, I see that a lot, and sometimes the other partners, I don’t even recognize them.

They’re like so obsessed. They can become obsessed. So I put in with a star, an excellent prenatal vitamin. Now here’s the thing. A lot of patients that show up, they have done lots of research and I also find that they’re taking like way too many supplements. And this is gonna be something that’s more individual.

I would look at things that are gonna be basic in . For needs especially like B vitamins, some vitamin D like something like that. Some zinc definitely for men are gonna need to take something, some zinc, vitamin D, vitamin E, to improve the sperm. But also I just have a little star there because oftentimes, Taking lots of vitamins is equating to taking a pharmaceutical right?

Kind of not really looking oh, I don’t really need to eat well because I take vitamins. And really eating whole foods is also a practice, right? It’s something part of self-care, something you’re doing for yourself, something that you’re choosing every time instead of . Like robotically just, taking things.

And again, the partner needs to be taking supplements. It, I also added in here eliminating plastics as I mentioned. Like a lot of the drinks, even though they’re healthy, they’re in a lot of plastics and everything is in plastic. And also a lot of soaps and shampoos because those actually break down like cell membranes.

And they are hormonal disruptors. So those are our things to have your patient kind of Hey, maybe eliminate change some of these detergents and hand sanitizers. So the next is inflammation. So inflammation from . The chemicals were exposed to all around us. The pollutions the limp system is, something that helps to process metabolic waste and all hormones and nutrients and waste products actually go to and from the cells.

They pass through this intracellular matrix known as our lymph system, and we can’t remove. Toxins properly or hormonal imbalances and different kind of enzymes and stuff if our lymph system is not working properly. So all of the, that kind of inflammation and waste gets deposited in the tissues.

Now, if you’re working with patients that are undergoing fertility treatments and they’re taking a lot of hormones. One of the big complaints is that they start to gain weight around their middle. And so they get a lot of swelling, they get inflamed. And so really important is to have them do some lymphatic massage or you can show them some exercises, to move the lymph.

Exercise is one of the things that’ll help. But more like gentle exercise like yoga and tai chi, like all of those things that we prescribe our patients. But not just because it’s mindfulness, but really these are the movements that are gonna help to remove inflammation and metabolic waste and ultimately, that helps to balance the body.

And it’s also good to give them as an exercise so they’re being proactive. I. They’re on their fertility journey. I cannot emphasize more the importance of sleep. And this really ties back to what is the, our balance of yin and yang. And one of the things is like sleep deprivation is not only gonna interfere with your circadian rhythm, it’s the biological clock.

And that’s what actually . Tells the body when to release different hormones. Now, it’s not only important that you’re getting seven hours or uninterrupt like deep sleep. It’s also important that it’s at night, right? So we take advantage of the nighttime and that we’re producing enough. Melatonin, which is known as the hormone of darkness.

So that will actually then have restful sleep and have energy during the day. So studies actually show that. Sleep deprivation actually really affects men in a way. And it’s interesting because men are considered more young that it’ll affect their sperm production and really, and it’s important that they sleep at night in particular.

So there are studies around that. And really the sleep effects in relation to fertility because it is part of hormonal production, right? So this is something where we don’t have to prescribe hormones ’cause it’s not in our scope. To help to balance hormones and then also if your patients are undergoing fertility treatments to really not work against what they’re doing, right?

So you want your body to be in rhythm Alright, so just a review. I actually gave you six things mindset removing the stressors, ditching, digital addressing inflammation food and sleep. And that’s the end of the show.

Grief and Fertility Challenges: Part 2

So we’re going to continue with grief and fertility challenges, and let’s go to the slides. Then there are the women who are diagnosed with secondary infertility.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi, this is Dr. Martha Lucas, and we are going to today continue with the presentation on grief and fertility challenges. So if you didn’t get to see the last presentation, the first part of this, make sure you go back and watch it. I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for hosting this webinar and remind you that.

I have a private practice in Denver, Colorado, and Littleton, Colorado, and I am happy for you to contact me if you have any questions about this presentation. So we’re going to continue with grief and fertility challenges, and let’s go to the slides. Then there are the women who are diagnosed with secondary infertility.

Now, this is a little bit of a nebulous term, and it means these women have had a successful pregnancy. They’ve given birth, but they are struggling to get pregnant. I. The second time, and it’s interesting to them because they’re like shocked. What happened? I had a baby already. I, and statistics show that once you have a pregnancy, once you give, have a successful birth, that your chances of getting pregnant are higher.

The second time, but there is this thing called secondary infertility where women have a little bit of a hard time getting pregnant that second time. Now why? Did they get, have some scarring on the fallopian tubes? Did they have a previous C-section that led to some scarring? The causes can be varied.

And grief can also become a factor in grieving the idea that their child doesn’t have a sibling. Because again, I’ve worked with many women who only have one child. They, for some health reason or whatever, they couldn’t have another child, and so they have a layer of grief about I wanted to have more than one child.

My whole life, all I thought about was being a mother and having a . Whole slew of kids around. I want my child to have a playmate. Some people feel sorry for their only child. They feel like maybe they’re lonely. They don’t have anybody to walk to school with. They have to play by themselves, and all of that can increase their grief.

They can grieve who they used to. To be before their diagnosis. Now, it seems that everything is about appointments that you have to set up, you have to show up for, you have to infuse all your energy into all of these processes and procedures, and sometimes all of this. Grief, just even generalized grief, not even fertility.

Challenge grief can take away the comfort that we used to get in the little things like taking a walk or meeting a friend for lunch or reading, going to a coffee shop, or going to a park and reading. And then even the bigger things, not being happy at family gatherings in with grief sometimes, especially longstanding grief.

It. It just takes away the satisfaction or joy that you get in what used to be joyful experiences. Sometimes women who used to pursue hobbies or their passions are now too tired, too distracted, or too sad to do those things that used to bring them joy. They feel like they used to be a generally happy, optimistic, hopeful person, but now they feel like a shell over their formal.

Former selves, they say they watch those things in life happen. Like they’re watching them on a TV screen, they’re not really experiencing them. They’re in the room, they’re in the family event, but inside they are not experiencing the happiness of the event. They want to engage in life the way they used to before they had to start their infertility treatment, but they just can’t do it.

They just long for their pre. Diagnosis self, but the grief just takes over. Now what about the woman who suffers through recurrent pregnancy losses? This includes what is called a chemical pregnancy, which the pregnancy test results get lighter over time. I. Hormone levels go down and then, and sometimes unfortunately, that first promising ultrasound ends in a loss, losing a child and deciding to continue with pregnancy treatments can be the most excruciating emotional experience that a woman or a couple can have.

They for them. It seems like the losses go on and on. The things to grieve go on and on. So this is partly what we need to support people through when they’re going through this in their fertility treatment. And unfortunately, infertility is lonely. Even though you have a million appointments and you seem to have a support system, all of that does not take away that grief of trying to have or grow a family.

The wonderful support does not inherently change the circumstances of the woman plus the woman. You know it, we all want support, right? But. Part of the problem with the support is the person feeling like she’s constantly explaining what part of the process are you in right now? Or feel the myriad of responses of people saying, oh how did that go for you?

How did that last treatment turn out? Constant answering questions about what’s going on with your treatment. Where are you in the process? Are you going to do it again? There’s all of that, that even though support is good, having a support system is good. Part of a support system is having to talk about it.

And then of course the drugs, a lots of them cause powerful treatment effects, which is a good thing. But they also have strong side effects. For example, oral birth control pills. Can have very powerful side effects. And the rate of depression in women taking birth control pills is five to 50% being more common, most common in the progesterone dominant formulas.

So what does it mean in Chinese medicine? How are the organs involved? The liver is known to regulate the flow of chi and emotions. We all know that the commander of qi, it stores blood and regulates substances. Emotions cause physical disease. How? Through stagnation. Through stagnation, that causes deficiency through stagnation that causes excess.

Through the deficiency of blood. For example, the liver, blood, heart, blood, the heart governs blood and stores the she emotional stress can make heart, blood and yin deficients. See, thereby of course, there we find the shen is disturbed. The emotions are disturbed and important for fertility challenges.

Blood flow to the uterus becomes compromised. Spleen helps make digestion work well. We need the digestion to make good blood in order for us to have a successful pregnancy because digestion, that doesn’t work well and worry. Remember, in a previous , Presentation I was talking about how worry makes the digestive pulses go backwards.

All of that disrupts the flow of chi in the earth, in the center, in the spleen and stomach pulses, and that is again going to negatively affect blood flow to the uterus. Worries effect on the spleen also can lead to poor appetite, fatigue, sleeplessness, brain fog. And again, all of those are gonna be a negative effect on the woman who’s trying to get pregnant.

Grief gets stuck in the lungs so the immune system is affected and the flow of Q throughout the body can be compromised because that is part of the lungs. Job right now, you’ll recall that spleen and stomach, earth and metal lung, large intestine are the immune system. So that’s why if the lung pulse is stagnated or short because of grief, then the whole immune system can be compromised.

And again, if the lungs can’t manage the flow of Q and blood, then you’re gonna have a negative effect in the uterus. The lungs are about taping in the new and letting go of the old, but old grief and continuing grief can get stuck in the lung pulses. Some people lose the ability to connect their inside world with the outside world, and metal is about that communication.

The release of grief is essential to allowing the body to heal and get the communication with the inside and outside going again. Otherwise, the person is what we call armored. They become very heavy because of their heavy emotional burden. Grief can be separating, isolating, and it can be cutting them off from their

Relationships with the rest of the world and an important message for people who are experiencing grief is it’s okay to feel your grief. You don’t have to hold it in, as I said, and any one of you have taken a class from me, know that I tell people emotions have to be expressed. You must let them out.

You can’t leave them in ’cause they’re gonna mess up your chi. Mess up the flow of oxygen and blood in your body. And I tell them it’s okay to use your voice while you’re crying. The frontal lobe, our San Jou area will go round and round and round and round and round when you cry in silence with the same message over and over and over and over again.

But when you use your voice, when you’re grieving and crying, that . Cuts off that San Jal frontal lobe running around in a circle. So it is okay to feel your grief and it is okay to use your voice in your grief. So here’s in a, here’s a little bit of a picture of what the lung large intestine pulse might feel like.

You, it might feel like . The lung large intestine, pulse is short, it doesn’t flow. You’ll notice at the top of the picture there is the sine wave. That’s how the normal pulse would feel. Yang and yin yang and yin flowing through all of the positions. But the lung pulse in grief may feel like it’s a shorter pulse, or that little dot indicates like a naughtiness, almost like a little ball stuck in the pulse.

A spinning bean pulse, if you will. Plus the trauma of the fertility challenge and experience can leave the earth position empty. Remember, if the energy can’t flow through the lung large intestine, again, you can see it’s a flow yang and yin yang and yin all connected. But if one that’s the normal pulse on the top there.

But if the normal pulse that flow is. Stopped or stagnated by the lung pulse, then the spleen stomach isn’t going to be getting any . Energy either, and that’s the trauma pulse, that deep emptiness in the spleen stomach. And this person, believe me, if they’ve had past trauma, then this whole fertility challenge experience can key into that.

And then they’ve got a. A double problem. They’re not making good quality oxygen in blood. It’s not being floated around by the lung large intestine. And then of course, that leads to a negative effect on the flow of uterine blood. I. The patient’s experiences may also reignite, as I said, old patterns of trauma, grief from childhood, the feeling that your life is outta control.

Because believe me, as lots of women going through all of these challenges feel like their life is outta control and that their body is outta control. Their body just will not do what they want it to do, which is get pregnant and have a successful birth. So all of that can lead to that empty spleen pulse from old trauma.

Now this is what we want the normal pulse to look like. We want the left and the right to connect with each other, the kidneys, to connect with the left side and the right side. And again, if in that large intestine lung position there’s a knot or it’s short and it’s not flowing, then you’re not going to get the flow of energy through all of the organ systems.

And you’ll notice those are sign waves. The infinity symbol is a sine wave yang and yin, and then a sine wave yang and yin. So we need for the kidneys to be able to support all of the other systems. Gallbladder liver to small intestine, heart, and then back to the other side, a continuous flow of sine waves.

That is the goal of every acupuncture treatment. So that’s why if grief is negatively impacting , The one position or more than one position? It is impacting more than one position because it’s stagnated. So it’s not allowing the energy to flow over to the other side. So this is the importance of figuring out how we can release the grief in that position.

Now, one way to do it is to use. Low points, right? Maybe you open the lung and the large intestine low, or you open the spleen, stomach, low points, anything that’s going to allow you to start relieving that stagnation in the lungs. I love liver. 14 lung one, liver 14 lung one pointed out. That’s an entry, exit point, treatment, and it will take some of the pressure off of the lungs.

Plus for grief, lung two is a very important point for lifting the clouds releasing the clouds or . Releasing grief, so you know, us thinking about how can I open the lungs? Sometimes I’ll do liver 14 lung one, also kidney 27 pointed out just to really open, physically open the flow of.

The chest, allowing the person to feel more. Sometimes we need to use sky points because again, the person’s energy is stagnated. They’re not in touch with their spirit anymore. I enjoy the idea of using something like Pericardium three, heart five, heart seven. That way again, I am opening up the heart protector because

Longstanding grief can definitely start to affect the pericardium because its job is to protect the shen. So sometimes going straight for the heart pulses, going straight for the heart channel with people isn’t the best choice because their shen is tender. So approaching it from the pericardium and then moving into the heart sometimes is a better

Option but the main goal is getting the lung and large intestine channel open so that it will flow over to the other kidney side. So again, you might open kidney four, the low point on the kidneys to get that energy flowing, and the kidney is more likely to accept it and get consolidated and strong to help the woman through this fertility challenge.

As I said, we can use the low points kidney four. The, at this time the person and the kidneys might be in a . Protective mode. So opening up the kidney pulse is very good for that. I want to thank you for watching. I also want to thank the American Acupuncture Council again.

Also you can see my teaching website is lucas teachings.com and my private practice site, which as I said is my . Clinics are located in Denver and Littleton Colorado is acupuncture woman.com and feel free to contact me if you have any questions. .

Are You Setting Yourself Up for an Audit?

Obviously, no one wants to be audited for anything. Let’s face it. No one wants to go to the I R S and be audited, but what I will say is, often the people who try to bring this up often do it in a way that they’re ultimately just trying to scare you..

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi there everyone. This is Sam Collins, the coding and billing expert for acupuncture for you and of course with the American Acupuncture Council. We’re gonna talk today a little bit about something. I know many of you hate to hear the word. In fact, it’s considered the a word audit. I’m in trouble.

What’s happening. Obviously, no one wants to be audited for anything. Let’s face it. No one wants to go to the I R S and be audited, but what I will say is, often the people who try to bring this up often do it in a way that they’re ultimately just trying to scare you and trying to elicit a response of fear so that you do something that they have like they’re the magic.

Clearly. I. Audits can be a problem, but I wanna talk about it from a standpoint. Is it really as much as people say, and are there some things that may make you more vulnerable, less vulnerable? Let’s get into that part of it. Obviously what occurs is many times an insurance company is simply looking at what you have billed and whether or not it was documented.

This doesn’t have to be insurance though. This is where people often have some misgivings. Quite frankly. If you’re doing a cash patient, there’s a complaint. They’re gonna look at your notes to see did what you say you did happen in the notes. And really, that’s all it comes down to. I’ve not really seen a lot of audits for their coming back for medical necessity, and I’ll never say that doesn’t happen.

But most often for Accu is, Hey, you build out something. Did you do it? And you have to think of what causes this? Why are they looking? I will tell you, in many instances, UnitedHealthcare recently seems to be the one that’s doing this the most, and I’m finding that often, to me, it appears they’re doing it because unfortunately, acupuncturists generically have some pretty poor documentation habits, and as a consequence, it’s low hanging fruit.

If they look at your notes. It’s not documented well, and I wanna make sure that we prevent that ’cause what triggers them to look at it, why? And often there’s these little triggers that happen. But let’s talk about it from this standpoint. Who protects you? You’re protecting yourself to start, but then you may have someone else behind you.

Like obviously I’m an expert and if you work with me in the network, I would wanna audit your notes myself to make sure they’re okay before even someone looked. But let’s talk about malpractice coverage. Obviously you all have malpractice coverage and the main reason you have it is just for that malpractice.

Frankly, there’s not a lot of malpractice, and I’m not saying it never happens, but it’s actually pretty rare. That’s why for the most part, your coverage is so low. But one of the things I want you to think of is do you have coverage for other than just malpractice by example, the most common thing I see an acupuncturist looked at for are gonna be either from the board.

Or it could be from an agency including an insurance on the documentation of your services that we call an audit. If you’re with American Acupuncture counsel for insurance, do you know it’s included up to $30,000 of defense, meaning they bring in attorneys of people to protect. You realize, invariably when I see an office audited and an insurance company has said that it’s not proper, most often it is.

Once we can work with it, or even if it isn’t, I wanna work with you to make sure, is it, and that’s how I’m gonna focus today, a little bit on that part of it, how to make sure that if you are audited, what do you need to do, but what things can trigger it. So let’s talk about the first thing that triggers someone to maybe want to look.

And frankly, it comes up when you bill something that’s unusual or out of the ordinary. In other words, if you’re floating in the middle of the stream, you’re okay. But if you get to the outsides, things can get a little bit trickier. Probably one of the big areas is your exam codes or evaluation and management codes.

What code are you choosing? Acupuncturists often will choose high level codes, which can be appropriate in many instances, but we wanna be careful if your style. Is to spend an hour with every new patient, meaning you’re billing a 9 9 2 0 5 every time. That’s a little unusual, and that’s not to say you wouldn’t have some, but to spend an hour with every patient seems a little bit odd.

Clearly, as an acupuncturist might you have a patient you spend more time with on average, simply because maybe they’ve been to two or three other providers, they have a long-term chronic condition. That history of evaluation may take longer, so certainly could be appropriate, but not everyone think of it simply.

If someone has chronic low back pain, surgical candidates been to a chio, a pt, medical doctrine, all of those things, I would bet that exam takes longer ’cause just the history of information they need to give you. Comparatively though, if someone has a hangnail, I wouldn’t expect that same type of exam.

So be conscientious. What triggers an audit or someone requesting records is when something is unusual. If you are billing a high level e and m code on a regular basis, you have a greater tendency for someone to look. Now, if you are doing that exam and can justified, I’m all in, but realize you become vulnerable.

So if you’re billing with that pattern, your documentation may be better in order. Because chances of someone looking at it means they wanna see and does it fit by example? Have you ever audited your own records? Like when you bill a 9 9 2 0 5, have you ever looked at the notes and said, do these notes meet that level of coding?

Did I have the medical decision making? Which is probably not, we don’t see things that severe Or do I have the time that justifies it? And often I found it doesn’t. So I want you to start to look and go, let’s make sure if I’m coding it, lemme make sure I know why. I’m picking that e and m code, and I would say that even applies with a 9 9 2 0 4 2 0 5.

The other place that runs into a problem is just the frequency of an exam by example. A lot of people come to me and say, Hey, Sam, how often should you bill for re-exams? And this is across the board. Really, even if you’re not an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, a medical doctor, is expected that re-exams are about every 30 days for recurring care of a patient’s condition.

If it’s sooner than 30 days, that’d be a little bit like why now? Could there be reasons for it being sooner than 30 days? Of course. What if you’re seeing someone for headaches and neck pain and then they come in on the next visit and say, Hey, last night I tried to list something. I twisted my low back, I felt a pop, and they have low back pain.

Sure an exam is appropriate ’cause it’s a new condition or new complaint. But if it’s to deal with the same area, chances are not until every 30 days. So be conscientious. What insurance companies do and what everyone does is just look at an algorithm. How often is something being billed and where do you fit with your peers?

If you fit outside the norm, someone’s gonna think we’re gonna take a look by example. Blue Cross sent out letters. Blue Cross Blue Shield sent out letters to many providers last year. On that factor about the frequency of the codes for E and s, but also the frequency of acupuncture. In the letter, it doesn’t say that you’re doing anything wrong, but it says your numbers are above the norm.

We want you to look to make sure it’s justified. To me, that’s a warning that an audit is impending. Now, I don’t care about an audit so long as we’ve documented and have the reasons, but I prefer not have to go through it. So high level e and m codes are just a very great frequency, is definitely one trigger.

So keep that in mind. If you have exams done every 30 days for ongoing care, you’re billing oh threes with an occasional oh 4 0 5, I think you’re gonna have no issue. The other area is just the sheer number of services you provide. Now for acupuncture, as I’m sure many of you are aware, you can bill up to three sets that are payable, and I haven’t found too much of an issue billing up to that number, however, Keep in mind if you bill everyone three sets, no matter what, that may be your style or technique, but be conscientious.

That shouldn’t. Some people have less or more. Now, I’ll never take away if that’s the style, but keep in mind when that number is higher, it’s gonna afford someone to look. Now, I do not care if you build three sets, two sets, whatever. Just make sure it’s documented. The problem I find is that many acupuncturists are never taught properly.

The documentation. And remember, documentation of Accu Acupuncture requires two things. You have to document the time. This is the time with the patient, and realize that time is soon as you walk in the room and say, Hey, Mrs. Jones, how are you feeling? That starts the time. It includes also tongue and pulse and evaluation, day to day-to-day, but also sterilizing your hands, preparing the points, choosing marking, inserting needles, all of those things.

So document that along with what points you have done. If you have that, we’re okay. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of offices that don’t document that they may document one way off the other. So if you’re going to document acupuncture, remember it has two things, time and the points of each set, and they must be separate.

The time a person resting on needles without any active part to acupuncture does not count, but the active part of it and realize that takes a lot more time than people realize. It’s not just the point of inserting the needles. But all the things that lead up to, into, and the removal. So make sure that’s documented.

But again, if it’s more than three, so be it. There are, most plans won’t cover more than three, so if you do more, that’s fine. It doesn’t really matter. Just make sure what’s there is documented. The other trigger, of course, is just the sheer number of visits that the patient has. If you have a patient with an uncomplicated condition that you treat for a very long time.

The chances are someone’s gonna eventually look and go, is this care working? Why is this person continuing? Are they getting better or not? And again, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong, but they’re gonna start to question the efficacy. I would say start thinking of when you say someone has a stagnation or a chief stagnation, think of that as a functional deficit.

As they get better, the she improves, which means the function improves. And if we’re demonstrating that, I think medical necessity becomes a lot easier, but length of care can be a factor. But what about length of care? Depending on the condition, simple, low back pain, I would expect not to take too long.

But what about some of that’s had chronic recurring low back pain? That’s a little different. Maybe they have more complicated conditions. Maybe they have a disc injury. So there could be factors that are involved within that. So keep in mind, all I wanna make sure is that if anyone ever looks at your notes, they’re justified.

Let’s face it, people think all the time that’s only gonna happen with insurance. No, it doesn’t. If a patient makes a complaint to the board or has an issue, the board is always gonna want your records, and the board has certain standards that must be met regardless of insurance billing. So please be careful.

Don’t think because I’m billing cash or getting paid by cash, my documentation can be sloppy. No. You still have to have the same detail to indicate what services were provided. You can’t just do, I did acupuncture and it was $75. So give me a little bit more. The other factor is just number of services, and I’m talking generally, I talked a little bit about acupuncture, but what about additional services?

If you’re doing twin on gu sha cupping, those are all fine, but what if you have a person, you’re doing eight things on a visit? Does that not seem maybe just a little excessive? I’m not saying it absolutely is, but that would be unusual. Unusual things get looked at. Now, unusual on an occasional basis.

Everyone gets that unusual on a consistent basis means what’s going on in your office. That’s different. What I prefer to do is flow in the middle and when you get outside of it, if someone looks no big deal. One of the things I do with our network members when you join is I audit you. One of the requirements is I wanna see a sample of two or three claims from you, whether cash or otherwise to see are the things you billed for.

In the notes, because here’s what I found. I had an office once that had an audit, and the notes they requested, quite frankly weren’t very good. The insurance company was coming down on them, but because they’re with American Acupuncture Council Plus with me, we went back and said, yes, actually, we did an audit of this office six months prior and we found certain deficiencies and we have them correct them.

To include all the things they needed. Do you know they didn’t have to pay anything back in that audit because they showed there was compliance that, yeah, that older claim had that. But take a look at a newer claim where you can see that it was fully documented. Realize sometimes you’re just not doing things because you didn’t understand what was necessary.

If you show that correction can probably make all the difference in the world, and I see that happen way too often for you to not feel panicked oh my God, I’m gonna get in a lot of trouble. Most often, they’re just looking for you to be compliant. We see it with the VA and other plans, they just wanna make sure if they’re paying for something, that the person got it.

So if you’re doing a lot of services, great, document it, but also give me a reason why it can’t just be that’s what I do with everyone. No, it might be, that’s what I do with everyone with this particular condition. But not one that has a hangnail and a disc injury. You get my differences there. So thinking this way, don’t overly panic about an audit, but realize anytime anyone looks at your notes, they’re being audited, they’re looking, let’s make sure they’re in place.

So here’s some things that I wanna make sure that you’re doing. So let’s go to the slides, let’s talk about them so you can get a little visual of it as far as what’s happening. And you’re gonna look at what things are gonna trigger. So let’s get to the slides. I’m hoping my slide person is there to bring those up.

I’m not seeing them yet, but we’ll start there. I’ll wait for them to come in. But one of the triggers, as I mentioned, is gonna be high level evaluation and management codes. So keep in mind if you’re billing oh fours or oh fives, you have a greater chance of someone looking at you, which I do not care.

Just make sure they’re documented. So if you’re billing a 9 9 2 0 4. Or 2 0 5. What are the main things you’re gonna need to have? Remember exam codes are based on medical decision making or the time now medical decision making. I don’t think an acupuncturist is probably gonna see a condition that meets the medical decision making for a 9 9 2 0 5.

I’m not gonna say never, but very unlikely. ’cause you don’t see life or death things. However, what do you meet Time there could be a patient, let’s face it. That’s been to all these doctors that I mentioned. It could literally take a 45 minute interview plus an exam that takes an hour, so that certainly makes sense.

The same with the 2 0 4. Remember, that’s 45 to 59 minutes. Now, as an experienced acupuncturist, often once you’ve been around a while, do you really require that you spend an hour? I think in many instances, not don’t be overly concerned of, I don’t meet the medical decision making, but the time is there, which means document time.

Tell me how much time did you spend on this exam? If you’ve done that, you’re covered. Now be careful if you have an exam that you said you spent an hour and I see a half a page of information, I would go, how did that take an hour? That would seem unusual, but keep in mind, what if that person was hard of hearing?

There could be other factors, part of it. So high level e and m codes, and I’m hoping can someone go to the slides for me? The next factor is just simply evaluation and management frequency. Are you billing exams too frequently? I’ve had acupuncturists that mistakenly would bill an exam every visit. That is not appropriate an exam.

Every visit is not, it’s about every 30 days. So a lot of people think I can bill one ’cause I have to evaluate. Of course you do have to evaluate a patient each time, but the evaluation you do on a day-to-day visit is part of the acupuncture. . When you bill an e and m code or an exam, that’s when you do the big full thing.

So think of every 30 days. If it’s any sooner. Always do this check if I’m doing it than sooner than 30 days. Do I have the reasons behind it? In other words, do I have new condition, significant complaint, or change without that rethink and go why am I doing that? The next factor is greater than three sets of acupuncture.

I am all in and I have some acupuncturists that are mad and say people shouldn’t even do more than one set. I will never get into that argument. You do what you feel is necessary. Just bear in mind when you do more sets, someone’s gonna look and go, why is this always doing more sets? Nothing wrong with that.

But if you’re doing three sets of acupuncture, let’s remember what is the minimum you have to have documented? You must have 53 minutes of face-to-face time and no single set because there’s three is less than eight minutes. . So make sure the time matches and you have documentation of time and points for each set, and that’s the face-to-face time doing the acupuncture.

The other thing is just plain acupuncture documentation. Please take a moment to look at your notes and see that you have those two elements. That’s not really that hard. I wish the schools did a better job of teaching it, but this should just basically tell you from the start, always tell me time and the points.

If you have that, you’re fine. Where I think we run into a problem is people forget that and all you have to do is document it invariably, and I’ve been around acupuncture for 25 years as a patient, partly, but also as an expert on the coding and billing. And I invariably find acupuncturists generally will always tell us they see patients longer than the average provider.

I agree. I agree. I see that too. However, what do you need to do? Tell me the time. Tell me the points of each one. If you have those in place, we’re gonna be okay. And then just about therapies. If you are doing therapies in addition to acupuncture, I’m all in. But let’s be careful of not having eight or nine units of therapies.

Try to stick with four or less. If you’re doing three units of acupuncture, I would stick with maybe no more than one or two things that are therapies outside of it. Not to say never ever. But again, on a regular basis, we are not trying to do everything plus the kitchen sink. Keep it in mind. But if you’re doing more than that, what do you have to have documented the services?

If you’ve done more than four units or services, good documented. But if I did four units a time service, remember now my time has to equal 53 minutes. In addition to that, if I’m doing even more than that, I might have to as much as an hour and 15. Keep in mind, I had an offices a few weeks ago that they’re being questioned.

That they were billing for more times than their office was open. They were billing out, 20 hours of services and you’re thinking, how can you bill 20 hours of service in one day? For this office actually was quite simple. There was more than one acupuncturist working in the office. And part of it, they weren’t showing which acupuncturists were doing the care.

So they always thought it was just one when there actually were three acupuncturists. That makes sense, but it was looked at. Now, once they figured that out, they were fine. But remember, you can’t do more than one hour of acupuncture in one hour. So you can do four units, whether you’re gonna do four units on one patient or divided up among two or three or four depending.

So keep that in mind. And then just remember, always look at long-term care. If you’re doing long-term care, I get it. . But if it’s an uncomplicated condition, why? Realize there’s gonna be a point of, is the care really helpful? Now, I’m a believer in palliative care. I think it’s important, but let’s remember that isn’t always what an insurance will cover.

And this is where with insurance, it’s a bit different. If a person’s paying cash, you do palliative care all you want. Just make sure they’re aware of what it’s doing. So keep in mind here will be the point document. If you’re doing an , make sure it meets the amount of time or medical decision making, either one.

I think it’s probably more, mostly time. If you’re doing acupuncture, document the face-to-face time and the points of each set. Not a big deal. Not very hard. Once you learn that your life will be easy. In fact, I would say for acupuncturist, your documentation is quite easy, but it’s not something that you’re doing if you’ve never learned it in that way.

So time and points, and just make sure the care plan matches complexity. Simple pain or simple problems shouldn’t take as long, but things can take longer. But there’d be reasons behind it. And that’s not always documented or reflected in the diagnosis because often you’re limited to just the symptom.

But realize in the notes, don’t be afraid to include all of the complicating factors. Even the VA talks about this. What if you have a patient that’s diabetic, they’re very overweight, they’re very deconditioned. I don’t care what you’re treating ’em for. With those three things on board, it’s gonna take longer.

Even though you’re not treating the obesity, not treating the diabetes, it’s still gonna complicate it. Not to think that maybe some of those things might get better if they’re in less pain. Maybe they can be more active, lose a little weight, and all those things. But keep in mind, there’s reasoning. All I want from you is simply when you’ve billed it, make sure it’s there.

I’m your advocate. Make sure that if someone looks at your notes, they can see what you’ve done. It’s documented properly. No issue at all. I don’t care if you’re audited, just document the services. No one can ever come back and say you should have only done two sets. Who says you should do what you do?

Based upon your experience and expertise as a provider, you might wanna say, what do I ever get a chance to have that looked at? Our network service does that. I would say definitely take a look. That’s what we do. We offer you a way of looking at that beforehand, and it’s just part of the overall service.

I have a vested interest in you. . If you’re not successful, you wouldn’t need continuing education. Therefore, why would I exist? Your practice is not surviving. I’m not surviving. So we’re gonna be your advocate. The American Acupuncture Council is always gonna be your resource. Give us a call, make sure if you need help, we’re here to do that.

Until I see you next time, document. But take care of your patients and do well, my friends.

Grief and Fertility Challenges Part 1

Grief and fertility challenges. So even when the end is having a healthy baby for many couples, there is a long struggle to conceive, and it can take a really brutal toll on people emotionally and physically. Women who are undergoing assisted reproduction treatment.

Click here to download the transcript.

Hi, this is Dr. Martha Lucas, and I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for sponsoring this. Webinar on grief and fertility challenges, and we’re gonna talk about how grief can negatively affect fertility and how to help people. In my practice, this is one of my specialties. I have practices in Denver, Colorado, and Littleton, Colorado, and teach online also, and love to teach.

So I’m so happy to be here. So let’s go to the slides. Grief and fertility challenges. So even when the end is having a healthy baby for many couples, there is a long struggle to conceive, and it can take a really brutal toll on people emotionally and physically. Women who are undergoing assisted reproduction treatment.

Have so many emotions during this time, and many of them don’t become pregnant anyway, so there’s the grief about that. And then there are many who experience a pregnancy loss after their treatment. So all of this can lead to prolonged grief and mourning. Women may live with melancholy mourning throughout their fertility treatment.

So from start to finish because they start out with a little grief that they have tried to do natural ways to try to get pregnant and haven’t been able to do it. They desire their lost time as a pregnant. Woman, which interestingly enough can even happen to the women who have a baby because lots of I V F or assisted reproductive technology babies aren’t full term.

Some are born . Much more early as a preemie. And I have treated women who perhaps have to have an emergency C-section at 27 weeks, 29 weeks, 30 weeks, and they literally do mourn not having to have that whole 40 weeks as a pregnant woman. And it’s very interesting to treat them through that grief because

Even though they have a healthy baby, they bore a baby. They really do regret or grieve that they didn’t get to have that full term as a pregnant woman. If they don’t get pregnant, they miss what they call the lost love of a child. They mourn what they think of as a lost future, and some of them just as a lost role as a mother, they go through what

Can be described as an agonizing exertion of mourning because it’s hard mourning. Experiencing grief is a very hard emotion that sometimes you feel like you are never ever going to get over. Sadness can manifest in various ways. It can be just a mood that sometimes you have and sometimes you don’t.

It can be more severe sadness. It can be paralyzed thinking the person has a hard time even getting out of bed in the morning. It can be even. In extreme cases be delusional, but the common denominator for grief and fertility challenges is loss. The loss of having a baby, the loss of having the love of a child, the loss of the future that maybe you have thought about.

I. Since you were a younger woman, Freud’s description would be a state of desperate longing for reconciliation with an object or a person that is lost. Again, there’s that common theme of they have lost something I. Such women are not diagnosed with major depression. It’s not like they, oh, you have major depression and here’s your antidepressant.

It is more like a non, what we call a non ailing, productive and culturally accepted reaction to loss, or the fear of loss. Because remember I said some women go through this kind of sadness or grief throughout the whole . Fertility challenge throughout all of their work that they’re doing and all the procedures that they’re having.

So that’s the fear of loss. Now, we’ve discussed before in a webinar how fear scatters kidney energy, and we never wanna see that. We have, we must, in order to get pregnant, we need to have good, secure, solid, consolidated kidney energy. So this fear of loss that’s along with the grief also can affect the kidneys.

and then these women are constantly reconstructing their self-image as a woman, as a mother, or potential mother, and even as a partner because their partners are very affected by their emotions. Again, as I said earlier, some women who are receiving fertility treatments experience consecutive pregnancy losses.

For some, they never have a pregnancy loss or a miscarriage For others, there may even be more than one. I think we’ve all treated women who’ve had . Two miscarriages, three miscarriages. I’ve treated women that have had four or five, or even six miscarriages, and this also can lead to prolonged grief in both the woman and the partner.

Deep sadness, depressed mood, irritability, worry, anxiety, they can have changes in eating, changes in sleeping patterns. All of those are part of the normal grief response, but they can all be very disruptive to your regular life. Now, although grief is a natural non-pathological phenomenon, it can lead to complicated, more complicated grief reactions where the symptoms are more disruptive or pervasive or long lasting than what we call normal grief.

And as a practitioner, we need to realize that prolonged grief can interfere with the healing process so it’s can therefore interfere with the fertility. Process with all of the treatments and it’s going to affect their general quality of life. Could lead to substance abuse and increased risk of suicide.

And as I said, it’s can, especially according to our medicine, where we’re looking at the pulses and we’re looking at all, all the organ systems communicate with each other. Prolonged grief can interfere with the conception process. And they’re coming to us to help them create what I call a warm, fertile environment so that they can conceive.

These women may also feel like life is meaningless. They doubt their own identity or role in life again, because part of their role in life was to be a mother, and now they are having to look at that differently. And then when we’re looking at the woman, we need to look at the intensity and the duration of her grief symptoms.

A very common social factor that contributes to the grief is when the loss is not talked about. For some reason, this particular type of grief is sometimes invalidated. It’s like . Doesn’t count. Oh, you had this procedure, maybe it’s not gonna work, and then it didn’t work. So it’s just a part of the process.

That’s not the experience of the woman or the couple going through the process. To them, it’s a great loss to them. It’s, we’re trying this procedure. Oh good. We had a conception. And then of course they’re gonna be excited. Their excitement is still attenuated by worry and anxiety, but it’s. Still something that looks like it was successful, and then when it’s not successful, they’re going to have grief about it.

But as I said, sometimes this loss is something that people just take for granted, Hey, it can work, it might not work. And then the woman feels like she can’t talk about it. And then you have internalized grief. And as we know from Chinese medicine, the masters used to say that emotions caused all physical disease.

And when I first heard that . Over 20 years ago, I thought emotions cause all physical disease, but then as I started to take more and more pulses and listen to people, I realized that yes, absolutely what they meant was the emotions. Cause . Patterns in the pulses in the energetic system that then leads to physical disease because of blockages or deficiencies or excesses that the emotions cause like excess heart fire.

So it’s. Interest. When I was in graduate school and my school had two arms in the psychology department, research or clinical, I was like, oh, I don’t wanna be a clinical psychologist. I don’t wanna spend eight hours a day talking to people about their emotions. And now that’s what I do. So it’s interesting how the world turns.

So for some women, treatment can be apparently an infinite . Cycle of these things like try one, it didn’t work. Try another one. It didn’t work. Oh, first we’re gonna try the . Ai. Okay, that didn’t work. So we need to move up to something that’s a little more technological and move up and move up.

And remember this is involuntary absence of motherhood on their part. They thought, women get pregnant. I’m going to, wanna have a baby. It’s gonna be easy. And they’re, this is involuntary for them. A lot of women feel like they don’t have any control over this Also, interestingly enough, cognitive and emotional impacts of all this, like sadness and fertility treatment are linked to the maternal fetal attachment.

That’s the emotional bond that an expected mother develops with her unborn baby. And this is another reason why it’s important for us to diagnose. Pathological grief quickly. I have had women who’ve had a struggle getting pregnant, managed to, had a successful birth, then get pregnant again, and they go right back into this cycle.

And I’ve explained to them, you are creating an anxiety. Commitment connection with your unborn child instead of the emotional bond of being calm. I love you. You’re my child. If you continue to be anxious and sad worrying that you might have a miscarriage, when at this point you’re not having any symptoms of a miscarriage, And the development of this grief can be over a number of factors.

They get sometimes, depending on the bedside manner of their medical professionals, they can get . Messages that are really a little bit overwhelming. Your ovaries don’t work. Your partner’s sperm aren’t good swimmers, or they’re poor swimmers. What’s they get these diagnosis, like I say, fertility challenges because I feel like infertility is a damning.

Diagnosis. It’s like you’re infertile. That’s why I say fertility challenge. You’re experiencing a challenge. They have to go through the tests, the procedures, the waiting. There’s so many things for them to obsess about. Like any grieving process. And the five stages of grief that are mentioned by Kubler Ross.

Grief over infertility can have those same stages. Denial. That must be the wrong diagnosis. The doctors can’t be right about that. It must be my partner. Some people even blame the tests. We all know that there are, there have been lab tests before that didn’t have the right result. They, it must be a defective test.

Anger, I see this a lot too. She didn’t even wanna get pregnant and she is. Oh, I’ve been trying so hard to have a baby and why is it so easy for everybody else to get pregnant or everybody else seems to be pregnant, bla, being angry that you didn’t start earlier. Like, why did we wait for our careers to have a baby?

Then there’s the bargaining that they’ll do anything to get pregnant. There’s the depression stage. Nothing is going right. I’ll never get pregnant. My best friend is pregnant and I can’t even be happy for her, or I was invited to a baby shower, but I can’t go because it’s just . Too sad for me. And then acceptance.

It is what it is. We’ll just keep trying. I’m sure we’ve all treated women who’ve gone through cycles and cycles of treatments, and then finally just say, you know what? Whatever I’m done. I’m going to take a rest. We’ll see what happens. Now I have to say, I wish I had time to do a retrospective study of those women because

There’s a certain percent that get pregnant after that. And now from a Chinese medicine perspective, why would that happen? It would happen because they relax about it. So liver cheese stagnation gets resolved, their blood can flow better to the uterus, their bowel eye isn’t blocked anymore because they’re not so anxious, and their body literally opens up to the idea of pregnancy. And I think from a Chinese medicine perspective, it’s because they just give up and their body goes back to feeling more normal. Couples might experience loss after an unsuccessful treatment cycle, and then they are faced with the decision of, do we do the same thing?

Should we continue the same procedure, do a more complex procedure, or just move beyond ? Again, move on to the acceptance. We’re probably not gonna get pregnant stage. And then speaking of couples, infertility treatment is taking a toll on both partners. It’s not only a bunch of invasive procedures for the woman, it’s an emotional roller coaster for both of them.

Some people, some women do report that the couple are doing it together. Like I see the couple in my practice, I don’t only see the woman, I see the man and the woman because, I believe that they are doing it together for one thing. What if the male’s dmai is blocked? Then he might not be a great conception partner, so you do need to see the man also to make certain that his systems are all working well.

But unfortunately, some women do report that. And men, they have more fighting. They get a little estranged from each other, and that the treatments are having a negative effect on their sex lives, which is another loss for them. So they have the side effects of the hormone therapy, decrease in libido, mood swings, body changes like dry vagina and sensitive breasts.

All of this makes the intercourse experience less pleasant to the point where some women . don’t have sex anymore after they have the baby, just from the trauma of the pre-pregnancy. Challenges with that. And then they have another thing to mourn. They have grief about their pre infertility sex life, the emotional stability that they used to have with their partner and the harmony that they used to have with their partner.

One woman told me that she had just lost too much. Through the whole procedure, her loving husband, because their relationship was negative, affected her healthy body. She felt like her body just was completely destroyed by all the treatments. She says she had a great life before all this, and now after she had her i b F, she had a, has a daughter.

But her grief about her pre infertility, what she calls her pre infertility life, still continued. We’re gonna end here for today. . And I wanna again, thank the American Acupuncture Council for this presentation, for hosting this presentation. And next time we’re going to start with talking about the woman who has had a successful birth, but still is suffering from some grief.

And we’ll go over how you can help her using Chinese medicine. .