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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
I’m going to be speaking about supporting the immune system with Chinese medicine in winter. So can we start the slides
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Moshe Heller and I’m from Moshen Herbs. I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for today’s show, and today I’m going to be speaking about supporting the immune system with Chinese medicine in winter. So can we start the slides? Good. This today’s topic will be how can we support the immune system with Chinese medicine in the winter months.
And I wanted to just note that I, in my office I’ve been seeing a lot of flu patients and this year there’s actually a lot of stomach flu going around in winter, which is usually strange because usually this is a summer flu. But I have been seeing a lot of. Winter flus also.
Just wanted to re remind everybody that as practitioners we always should tell our patients that when they feel that a cold is coming on, when they’re feeling not right, that it is the best time to come for treatment. Rather than not, because a lot of patients might say, oh, it’s just a bit of a cold, so I don’t wanna come in.
Actually this is the best time to give treatment is when things are starting up. I also wanted to remind everybody that there is a link between our immune system, our neurological is system, and our gastrointestinal system. So this connection is what we work on in Chinese medicine in general.
So it’s really important to remember that when we’re talking about an immune system issue, we need to also look at the gastrointestinal system and. Talk about diet and our neurological system, meaning how can we prevent stress and and stay in a more calm state. Also wanted to remind everybody that this.
Idea comes from this concept that in our gastro in our digestive system in Chinese medicine, spleen and stomach are in charge of creating this are way chi are defense chi and our nutritive chi, which are really important to support our immune system. So when we’re looking at.
Supporting the immune system. These are things that we need to take into account. First before we go into treatment of the flu, I wanted to discuss prevention. Because prevention is always the best way to provide support rather than treating the disease itself. The most famous preventative or supporting the immune system formula in Chinese medicine is called Yan.
And Moshen herbs has a variation of that. Which is called shield, and it is, basically an enhanced Yan that helps to boost the immune system and prevent occurrence of colds and flus. Some classical practitioners might also use yin chaan and a low dose as a preventative formula, or the formula.
Shia Huang supporting the xang level. In order to prevent an invasion of a pathogenic influence. The shield is based on, as I said, ying sun. And I combine it with kuang to support or harmonize the ying and the way and therefore support the immune system. We also added a little bit of CIA and Chen p or what is called sometimes too urchin tongue. And that’s to transform dampness because dampness definitely hinders our ability to produce to hinders our immune system. So we wanna stay damp or phlegm free, so too cured. Or urchin tongue is the formula for that.
Finally we added Gogan tongue to harmonize the muscle layer and linger to support the immune system. It’s an adaptogenic m mushroom that really helps with the immune system. Here’s a look at how shield looks like and then. In terms of acupuncture, I, what would correlate to that is points like stomach 36 and CV six.
Supporting the qi. UB 12 is like the back shoe of wind and helps to support that and also UB 13 to support the lung. These are all really important points to use as preventative. And we of course we can use OX on stomach 36 to strengthen the overall chi. Avoiding phlegm producing foods is something that we should recommend to our patients and is also very important.
When we’re treating a pathogenic influence, we need to consider a lot of times where is the pathogen and how do we need to address it. But we can use points like large intestine four and triple burner five, and as well as g gov governing vessel 14 and gallbladder 20. And we can also treat by using cupping and of course.
Supporting the avoiding phlegm producing food not enough to stress that. In terms of formula selections, we have a variety of formulas. Yin chaan is for the start of a wind heat sung to yin in on the contrary use. Is when wind, heat is causing cough. So cough is a big sign for San Ang is when there is a deficiency and the wind cold concurrently and ling.
I usually think of it when we have a sore throat involved because it has herbs that relieve toxicity from the throat. Ing ng tongue is a, is also when cough is involved, but a little more. With some cold, damp in involvement. Defend is a new formula from Moshen herbs that combines yin, chaan and san together and creates.
This general formula for the beginning of the cold, and I added conning tongue here, or curing pill, which many years ago was called curing pill, but now we find it as conning tongue is the formula for a stomach flu. And it works fantastically and it comes in patent and you can find it in Chinese stores or many other distributors of Chinese.
Herbal formulas. This is concludes all the the information I wanted to give you for today, I will still, I wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council again for letting me present this. And I think it’s really important information. And if you want more information about supporting the immune system, please log into the website on the slide.
So I wanted to present the technique of using Shawnee Shoni Shen for the treatment of pediatric patients, but actually what I want to also, point out today is that this, that we can actually use sh hin for adults.
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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Moshe Heller from Jingshen pediatrics.com. I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for letting me do this show today. And today I will be talking about Shoni Shen. So let’s move to the. Slide. So I wanted to present the technique of using Shawnee Shoni Shen for the treatment of pediatric patients, but actually what I want to also, point out today is that this, that we can actually use sh hin for adults. And it all depends on how we use this technique. Generally speaking, sh hin is a technique for stimulating the channels and acupuncture points instead of using needles. And it was developed in Japan in a long time ago, and it is very effective if it’s used correctly for the treatment of both pediatrics and adult patients.
And there, although we use this, the name shone and it seems like it’s one style, but there’s actually many styles of sh and many tools. And each tools, each tool is actually a different. Used for a different style. Generally speaking, when we are using SHO Shoni Shen, we always hide the sensation from the tool.
We really should be looking at our own chi and how we are positioning ourselves and being aware of our own QI so that things are really loose and flowing well. We also should always be clear on our intention on what we’re trying to achieve when we’re using these techniques. Generally there are many techniques.
I’m going to be mentioning five techniques. And I will also show you the different tools that are appropriate for each one of them. The first. Technique is a tapping technique when we use a tool that for specific points or along a channel and we tap on the skin with the tool to bring the chi up to the surface.
We also try to tap in different angles to produce a different effect so that it’s not constantly using the same angle. The second technique is called scraping, where we use the tool to scrape along the channel. So both tapping and scraping follow the flow of the channel and usually done within the flow of the challenge.
So we’re following the flow. Of the channel, we we use both tapping and scraping. So the idea is first we tap, we call the chia up to the surface, and then we scrape in order to make the chief flow within the channel. The tool that I use or is commonly used for tapping and scraping is called the Y Yama.
I’ll have pictures in a second, but this is the tool. Where you can, it has an edge that we can use for tapping, and it has an edge that we can use for scraping. And as I mentioned, hiding the sensation is very important. So we use our, both, our finger and thumb to hide the sensation from or distract the sensation from the patient.
The other technique I wanted to present here is called a stroking technique. And for that it, we use a different type of tool. That tool is called a dashi tool, which looks like this. And a dashi tool is made for stroking, stroking. Again, as I said, in all shown hin techniques. We need to hide the sensation so it’s not so blunt, and we will stroke the patient in a certain direction.
And that’s called stroking technique. And we use the dashi tool and, and that’s a special tool for this technique. Also with the dashi, we can use either pressing or vibrating. So we use the other side of the tool and we can press on a point and vibrate it to create pressure and vibration And, so this is the use of the dashi, and the last one is called scra scratching sounds. We call it scratching, but it doesn’t, we are not scratching with anything sharp or anything like that. Scratching just means that we are not, it’s like we’re scratching our skin. We are not following the direction of the channel.
And usually we use a tool that has a wider. Or a rounder or bigger kind of edge, and we scratch along the channel, meaning going backwards and forward creating more of a dispersing effect. So these are examples of these five techniques. There are many more techniques and the idea is that we can definitely affect the points and create a very strong treatment for without using any insertion of the needles.
And this is comes from the idea of sh Shoni Shen here. I have a few pictures of for you to to look at. This is a, which is also used for more specific points. And usually comes in a very more fine, form. And then there’s engines which are wider, which I mentioned before to use for scratching.
There’s also a teardrop engine, which enables us to either vibrate or pass press specific points. And this is the Y Yama that I mentioned before. This is pictures of the dashi tool that I mentioned that I showed you, which enables us to do stroking. And and these are some other different tools that are available for different techniques.
I just want to finalize the idea that in Shoni Shen there are usually, two phases in treatment. The first phase is usually a generalized treatment, especially when we’re UU using s sh for babies. The first thing I do is do a generalized treatment where we go over most of the channels.
Or we call it a basic treatment. We go over most of the, or all of the channels, and we create a harmonious flow by tapping, scraping, or stroking or vibrating on certain points to create a harmonious flow. And then. After we do that, we usually can focus more on the basic pattern of disharmony that the patient presents and choose point and use them accordingly to create the effect that we’re, wanting. If you, sh machine is a process a technique that you study and you continuously study and get better with as you practice it, as you perform it therefore it. Something if you are interested to explore, it’s something you need to develop or find ways to learn it and develop the technique.
There are different institutions that do that. I, i, myself come from the Jingshen Pediatrics course and we also teach Shian over there. If you are interested please look into Jingshen pediatrics.com. So I hope this really helped you be interested in, Shoni Shen technique, which is a very gentle but powerful technique to add to your tools in the clinic.
And I want to thank the acu, the American Acupuncture. Counsel for letting me present this amazing technique to you all. Thank you very much for your time.
for letting me speak today about Bones and Hormones in Chinese medicine.
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Moshe Heller. I am from Moshen Herbs, and I wanted to thank the American Acupuncture Council for letting me speak today about Bones and Hormones in Chinese medicine. And so let’s go to the slides. So I wanted to speak about this subject because I actually had three cases that I had in the my office lately.
And. Those three cases all had to do with bone and they were different. And we’ll talk about that in a second. But there were also some similarities that I wanted to bring out. So the first case was this 14-year-old little. Guy who came to me with this, with an a genetic issue where his mandibular condyle and the Corona process of the left side were underdeveloped and did not fully grow as much as the other side.
So there was an imbalance, and when he was chewing, it caused him a lot of pain. Actually on the opposite side, on the right side ’cause there was a little more pressure on that aspect. He also felt that he was smaller than his peers. He really had a lack of appetite. And although he and although he gets tired easily.
He does not really complain of being fatigued or having low energy. He has regular bowels, although he may miss a day here and there and he has some seasonal allergies, but hardly gets sick. So that was the presentation and it clearly shows an. Points toward a weakness in the spleen.
And that is something that we might address in this case as a main sort of issue. In the, in, in the case. The second case was a 6-year-old woman with a fracture. She fell and broke her wrist. Wrist and wanted came in to promote the healing and help in the healing process of her bone.
Although she had hot flashes and reported having gluten sensitivity and therefore bowels tend to be soft and and frequent, she was otherwise healthy. In that case although we might want to address this hot flashes, meaning that somehow points toward some yin vacuity and.
Issues of reg yin regulation and yin and yang regulation. The main point thrust in this case would be probably to promote the movement of qian blood to the area to promote healing. So we’ll see. Some more focus on moving qian blood. And the last case was this 45-year-old woman with osteopenia which means that the bones are becoming more.
Brittle and having less calcium in them. And she did experience early menopause. She was 45 and already had not been menstruating for a couple of years. Having hot flashes, sleep issues, low back pain, and tended to be constipated. So in general, what we see in her in this case is that we would.
Might focus on strengthening the kidney and and and yin in her case. So we see three cases here. All related to, bone structure and in all three cases we might use a different focus focal point to address them. And so I. I wanted to point out the similarities or the ideas similar ideas that we’re addressing in all three cases.
And for that I wanted to review the relationship of the bone to the organ organs and ubstance and substances in our body in Chinese medicine. And I, created these seven idea seven concepts that we need to maintain when we are working on. On Bones. The first one is Jing. We have, and we’ll talk a little bit about Jing in a second and what that means.
Jing and kidneys work together. The spleen is a, is energy needs to be evaluated and making sure that it is strong and effective because in order to build yin. Or Jing, the spleen needs to be strong. Then we also need to work on liver and heart. That also relates to circulation of Q and blood respectively.
So making sure the liver chi is flowing harmoniously and the heart chi is not blocked and therefore chi and blood. Are flowing and harmoniously in our body. That’s really super important to, to support bone growth and also of course, evaluating the chi and blood is sufficient and not deficient in any way, shape or form.
And also the last point. Is the triple burner, which ties everything together. The triple burner function should be very also in in balanced and uninhibited in order for it for the triple burner to control or support the formation of Yin and bone and Jing. And that is also through the relationship of the triple burner.
To the Yuan Chi. So it is the distributor of Yuan Chi throughout the body, and that’s an important concept to remember. I also wanted to make sure that we are remembering that their, the cycles of Jing are really especially significant in the beginning and at the end of our cycles. We have in the females a seven year Jing cycle and and for males of course, eight year cycles, and we can see that we’re the idea, the concept is we’re born with a hundred percent Jing and then we’re at, when we at the end of life, we end with. Zero Jing. So we are expending Jing throughout our life. And by the way, there’s an opposite curve where sheen on the other hand, we are born with zero sheen and end up when we end up our life with a hundred percent.
She. So it’s an opposite curve, but the most important thing I want to say is that. Especially at the beginning and at the end of this Jing Cycles, when we when we have issues with those aspects, we should be thinking of. So when there are issues with a Jing cycle, especially beginning and end whether there’s a somebody born with a weakness of Jing or.
The Jing has not been or has been expanded and there’s not enough jing at the end of life. Always the herb of choice or my thinking is always because it deals, it is addresses these imbalances in the be begin, beginning and end of life. When we’re thinking of building jing, usually it requires a multifaceted approach.
So Jing is very deep. Therefore we cannot just, put a few points and expect an increase in the gene. And although we believe that we are born with a certain amount of prenatal gene, there is a concept of postnatal gene. And postnatal gene is is influenced by or can be created when our life is balanced in all aspects.
Whether it’s diet, rest, activity, emotional, everything is balanced, then we have surpluses usually in production, and therefore we can keep them or make postnatal jing that supports and reduces the amount of the. Prenatal gene that we use on a daily basis. So when we’re thinking about this multi faceted approach, we should think of both acupuncture, herbs, diet and exercise, and emotional balance in life and how we can support that.
Acupuncture wise, we always think of. UB 11 as the point we, it’s influential point of bones and essence. So when we’re trying to bring more essence to the body, UB 11 is a point to we might think of and of for of course also. The influential point of essence is gallbladder 39, and of course we need to think of kidney points.
Kidney three as more of a yin point. Kidney seven is both yin and young. That’s why I always think of her as a supported support that it supports. Jing Postnatal, Jing Production and Kidney Nine helps to also support postnatal kidney Jing production. Herbs. We look at herbs that are usually black and dark.
And because then that points towards this kind of ability to support the Jing. As I said, Sudi Huang is one, but also HW. And Huang Jing. Huang Jing is a very important because it’s actually a chee to, and it allows the spleen chi to produce more jing. It’s a very powerful herb that we should always remember when we.
When we’re addressing Jing, Ruon, GR is another one, and Gu, both are Jing tonics and strengthen the kidney and the Jing. And are very important to, to include also from a dietary point of view, bone broth is extremely important and balancing this activity and rest and emotional state are all part of this process.
If the spleen is weak, nothing happens. Meaning we cannot transform our food and our tea and our thought and our anything. It creates a stagnation. And therefore, when we are addressing Jing, we cannot forget the spleen, especially when we’re talking to kids. Especially in this first case, although he’s 14-year-old, he’s in his moving him to his.
Second, he’s in the end of the second cycle of life. Still his spleen is showing weakness and therefore we need to fortify the spleen and work on, on strengthening his spleen so he can actually, I. Transform the Gucci and make actual excess high quality, separating the pure from the impure and creating high quality product that can be also transformed into postnatal jing.
So we think of points like spleen three, stomach 36, CV 12, and new B 20 to strengthen. The spleen as well as formulas example, formulas like Ong Ichi, tongue to uplift the spleen, qi or ling ba tongue if there’s a dampness hindering the function of the spleen. I. So these are just example. We always need to support diet and make sure that they’re not that they’re eating spleen strengthening food and supportive lifestyle for that.
So we also need to make sure that chi and blood are not deficient and are flowing freely. Chi and blood is something that we should have abundance of, and if there’s anything hindering in the production or the circulation, we need to address it. Making sure that the liver and heart functions are ble balanced and that’s something you need to check.
And we also, in terms of herbs, we might include things in a formula that we are addressing in each one of those cases. For example we could use a thing orb call, herb example is Git, which moves the blood and also can be used for cases in cases of va vacuity or Hui, which is another very important blood mover that helps with bone repair and building.
Woo. Yao is another QI regulator that I wanted to also point out ’cause it helps to move the qi, but it also warms the kidney. And if we want the kidney to be able to support bone building, that’s another herb we might be thinking of. And to conclude all this what we covered the triple burner ties, everything together makes everything possible.
So the it ta it, it plays an important part in the process of regulation, distribution, especially when we’re talking about kidney function. We can use herbs that affect the triple burner open or regulate herbs like WWE Zoo. We can include that in a formula that builds bone to help that things move freely.
Or a point like bladder 22, which is the black shoe of the triple burner. That to help that. Triple burner function and to regulate all three burners and making sure the kidney is gene is distributed where it needs to go. So the relationship between bones and hormones, that’s that’s another link between in the triple burner and from a Chinese medical perspective, there’s a close relationship between those two concepts.
I always think that essence and Jing. Has a relationship to the hormonal balance in our body. And a lot of times when we see hormonal shifts, we’ll see temperature fluctuations. And so it’s really important to understand that the manifestation of imbalances of hormones will. Manifest with heat, usually whether it’s deficient or excess somewhere in the body.
And we see that very clearly in, beginning in adolescence. There’s, we are seeing it in the beginning of life. We’re seeing it clearly in adolescence when there’s hormonal changes in heat, comes up. And we have acne and and a lot of smelly sweating as examples. And then in menopause, again, hot flashes of feeling imbalances in temperature.
So balancing in and yang in the end is what is important for all these things. I would like to again thank the acupuncture council for letting me present this. And I have the information here in the slide if anybody wants to connect with us with more information. And thank you again for the time.
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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
And today we’re going to talk about a topic that comes up all the time, and that is the use of smartphones and technology in children from a Chinese medicine perspective.
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Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, my name is Stephen Cowan and I’m happy to be presenting here today thanks to the American Acupuncture Council, very thankful that they have this opportunity, this platform. And I’m joined today by my dear friend and colleague, Moshe Heller, who teaches with me around the country on pediatrics and Chinese medicine.
Hi, Moshe. Hello, Stephen. Nice to be here. Nice to see you again. And today we’re going to talk about a topic that comes up all the time, and that is the use of smartphones and technology in children from a Chinese medicine perspective. So let’s go to the first slide. This is an interesting question, and I believe that Chinese medicine is more than needles.
It’s a way of life and being modern practitioners for Chinese medicine and carrying that perspective, the understanding of Smartphones and tech, this powerful technology raises an interesting dialogue that Moshe and I have been having and parents ask about it, particularly with their teenagers, but I think it’s even more important to talk about it with babies all the way up.
When is the right time to introduce a smartphone? What are the dangers, etc. Things like that. Yeah, that’s a, it’s a very big common questions. And I think one of the things that we have to understand as you mentioned here before is that we need to look at what, how can we translate what’s happening from a Chinese medicine perspective so we can help in balancing that and understand what we need to do in order to make it because Exactly.
Exactly. We can’t stop it from happening. No, the cat’s out of the bag, right? The Pandora’s box is open. You can’t make this go away. We all have smartphones. Parents are using smartphones. So it would be ridiculous to put your head in the sand and say I don’t believe in smartphones because they’re going to be here.
And there are all kinds of positives and negatives. It’s the obvious. Negatives that people know about are addiction, right? Exposure to dangerous things, pornography and violence and things that we don’t want. Bullying misinformation and, loneliness, right? These are the kind of five things that I think, We all fear when it comes to exposing young children.
Let’s go to the next slide and talk about a deeper level of Chinese medicine understanding our society. You can do the other one too. Yeah. So this idea of so much yang in our society at the expense of yin because the circle doesn’t change. If you got more yang, you got less yin. But in our case, we have both happening simultaneously.
Too much, too fast, and too little, too late. And one of the things, Moshe, you and I teach wherever we go, is the What we’ll call the sensitivity and openness of a child’s heart mind, right? This very a kind of gentle, open, innocent heart mind, body, way of consciousness that is absorbing the world.
And here we have this modern society. And I think that’s the first place we have to sensitize parents is understanding both the yin yang philosophy and understanding the nature of a child’s mind and body, right? That quality. They’re not, the classics say children are naturally more young. and more underdeveloped in their yin.
So if you add to that this sequence that we can, everybody can see here, so many things on this list of too much, too fast, that’s cumulative, that’s adding to the natural societal yang nature, right? And then couple it with too little connection, too little exercise, too little darkness, right?
You can leave lights on all night, right? Kids sleeping with lights on. Too little slow and quiet time, too little sleep, too little exposure to natural surroundings. That’s a kind of societal yin deficiency. And so it’s a lot of that stimulation. So it creates, supports that imbalance. Yeah. Yeah.
And I think your kids went to Waldorf school where they actually were very strong in holding off on screens and technology. And There’s one thing I want to just put out. There’s actually two things. One is that actually one of the things we need to think about is that looking at a screen, whether it’s an iPad or it’s a cell phone or it’s a TV, is, on one hand it really makes the feeling that the, or the parents have a feeling that it actually calms the child where the, suddenly there’s quiet, there’s nothing there’s no interaction.
They’re plugged in. But on the other hand, what is happening is all that energy goes inside and creates excessive or extreme stimulation. So it’s actually very similar to a stimulant. Oh, absolutely. And a hypnotic stimulant in that sense. But there’s another piece that’s a really good point you’re making.
As it’s going into the being, the child, there’s a natural feeding of the mind at the expense of body. So you’re creating a tension between the more yang head and the yin. body or lower part, right? So they’re not embodied. They’re so sucked into this technology because it’s so stimulating. that they’re transfixed, but it’s pulling them out of their embodiment, right?
So you’re getting this tension split of being disembodied and engaged, and it looks like he’s learning, or he loves it, or he’s, quiet for a chance, right? How many kids with ADD come to me And they say he has no problem paying attention when he’s on his video games or when he’s on his smartphone, right?
And that’s evidence of exactly what you’re saying. They’re being sucked into this very powerful technology that’s designed to capture your attention, right? There’s another component that when I mention ADD, I have seen over and over again what I call slow modem syndrome. The more you’re exposed to fast technology, The harder it is to go back to slower analog settings, like sitting in a classroom, because it’s like working on a slow modem.
You tear your hair out. You go crazy. It’s like, why isn’t this thing responding, right? And you’re being forced, after you’ve been playing for three hours on, Your screens on Roblox, on your phone, having to sit in the classroom becomes torturous, and there’s a lot of acting out behavior, distractibility, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and then they’re being medicated for that.
So yes, I think it, you’re absolutely right that if you were expecting the child to go back to the classroom after playing a video game, that seems, Extremely impossible. So one of the questions I will ask a kid when I play that out in front of the parents, I say, Let me ask you something.
Why would you want to make school more boring than it already is? And they look at me and they say, I don’t want to make it more boring than it already is. And I said the more you play Expose yourself to this technology. By default, it’s harder to go back and all of a sudden the light goes on with somebody in the family like, Oh my God, we’re actually contributing to the problem.
And so we’re opening up those ideas. Yeah, I have a question about that because I’ve been really struggling with this kind of problem that comes from exactly this point, is that I see that there’s a lot of bargaining with many of the kids that are, that the parents have an understanding that they cannot give them free use of screen time, that they will bargain and sometimes It’s almost like this kind of fighting between the parent and the child.
Oh, definitely. I see it. I earn more time, and and if you do this I see it all the time, and it’s being used as a reward or bribery, right? If you do your homework, you can do, two hours of this. I had one kid, the father was a techie, and really deep in, made a lot of money in the tech world.
And the kid He had set up these, rules, and it turned out the kid was cheating. He was a techie too and he had played nine hours of video games. And in one day and the father was like horrified, right? Nine hours where he was cheating, right? This particularly became a problem during the pandemic where kids were online for school and they were actually playing games or they were Look, I don’t want to demonize all of the screens.
They’re here to stay. It’s a way to make balance, which is what, That’s what Chinese medicine is about, finding that dynamic equilibrium of these two polar aspects of our engagement. The rule I use at home with people, with kids and families, is a one to one rule that I call the green to screen, ratio.
That for every minute that you’re on a screen in a day, You have to have equal number of minutes of time in an analog natural setting. That could be a walk in the park. It could be playing with blocks in your room, something that’s not plugged in to any electronics, right? And as long as you, because the time is limited in one day, you can’t bank the hours for later.
You It limits itself. And, so a kid who’s, I’ve had kids who said, all right, I just did two hours of exercise outside. Can I do some screens now? And I say, yeah, but there’s another rule, an hour before bed, because you don’t want to interfere with your melatonin levels. So an hour before bed, all screens are off in the house, including the parents.
They have to, Pretend to turn off their own addiction while the kids are going to sleep, because it’s not fair. And I’ll hear this over and over again if the parents don’t practice the same principle. The classic place where this is a problem is the dinner table. Screens at the dinner table, phones at the dinner table, and getting parents to break their own habits.
is critical, right? Yes, but there’s another thing that you mentioned in another talk We gave, Moshe, that is so dear to me and really important and that is when we’re asking the question of When is a good time to introduce a smartphone to a kid? Which is a big question I get asked. I think this idea that different kids have different Needs, different sensitivities, and you have to know the complexity of the temperament of a child.
For example, More fiery kids, where that phase, that element, is stronger in that kid, because we’re a complex of all of them. They’re more prone to addiction, because, I find a lot of fire kids just love scrolling through YouTubes and finding all kinds of wacky things that they can’t stop looking at, right?
Whereas, More of the woody kids are more prone to looking for pornography and violence and danger and, they’re just curious about it. I’m not blaming them. It’s part of their nature to be curious about those kind of things. Yes. Earth kids are more prone to the bullying that takes place in, in social media and to FOMO, fear of missing out, right?
They’re voyeuristic. They want to know, is anybody talking about me or are they including me? That’s a very earthy, spleeny way of thinking. So they’re vulnerable to that aspect. I think metal or gold kids are much more prone to misinformation because they’re collectors of information and data. And so they’re prone to get, coming up with the wackiest information, that we see that’s littered in the internet, some of it causing great fear and concern when it’s not even true. And then most, and probably most importantly, is the water temperament or the water within us all that is prone to alienation, aloneness, being cut off from the world because they’re so sucked in so deep.
So knowing the temperament of your child becomes a way of gauging age. When is that, knowing your kid and knowing how they’re developing and what are they prone to already helps guide you in terms of timing of introducing these things. Some people say There’s a movement in parents now called wait until 8th.
Wait until 8th, meaning 8th grade. Because waiting till puberty begins for a smartphone in particular, which is a full on computer that’s in your pocket, as opposed to what we’ll call a dumb phone, which you can use to call mom to pick you up from a basketball game or whatever. But smartphones are a very powerful computer that has access to the whole world.
So that’s one kind of global guideline. I don’t like global guidelines. I think it has to be fit to the needs of the family and the child specifically, but it’s something to think about. Yeah. And as you mentioned before, my daughter went to a Waldorf school where there’s a very strong anti media screen phone exposure till and they also talk about how to expose and the But their concern is mostly about The information that’s being you can be exposed to.
And that’s another, probably totally different talk. I find it interesting that your daughter, who’s a whiz at at IT now was someone who was not exposed early. So it doesn’t delay you in that, but in some kids, particularly in some kids, it makes it even more. enticing by restricting it.
So you have to know your child to know how you can go about doing this. Let’s go to the other, the next slide and talk about that. An important thing, I think to just also talk about that from Chinese medicine perspective, this kind of Excess energy that you mentioned that goes up to the mind being the heart shen can actually imbalance and create less fire in the lower part of the body, in the minstrel fire, and create what we might call now, in fire, right?
As we yeah, it literally, kids where their feet are cold, and their head is hot after playing these, being online for a long time, there’s a physical effect and the poor spleen gets caught in the middle, right? Which is already dealing with absorbing information in the form of food, in the form of exposure to information online.
And gets overwhelmed, right? And so it’s a setup for this quality that, Dongyuan Li Dongyuan talked about this Yin Fire mixed pattern which I think is contributing to a lot of the disorders I see both physically and mentally in children today. Yes, that that plays to another aspect, which is very interesting, I think, is that, A lot of times when we are thinking of balancing that, we should think of the Shaoyang level and Sanjiao gallbladder kind of level where it enables to shift back some of that excess top fire back down to the minstrel fire and create a Better balance with the spleen in the center.
Yeah, I you know, I talk a lot about san jiao as the Relationship organ of the body so that everybody’s relating to each other one big happy family and these the screen addiction of our society is a breakdown in those relationships. So always think of Sanjiao. Both Sanjiao points and Sanjiao concepts as part of the Xiaoyang as integral to the kind of integration of heart, mind, kidney, pericardium, this primary, uh, yin yang relationship.
And in terms of any kid that comes into your office who’s having trouble relating, whether they’re relating to friends, relating to family, relating to the school work, relating to food, whatever, anytime you think relationship, think Sanjiao. And of course, gallbladder being one of the kind of special organs.
this unique, powerful organ that, is kind of part of the extraordinary organs related to mind. So I do, you’re right. It’s really important that we have this concept in our mind when we see the effect of early exposure to powerful technological advances will hit this complex and cause a kind of upside down pattern of yin and yang.
Correct. And, I also have been noticing that one of the a lot of, one, one symptom that I see that comes up more frequently in my practice I don’t know, I know that probably you too, is that I see much more ticks. Yeah, and particularly tics of the neck, shoulders, head, face, eyes, right?
It’s all the yang aspect that’s ticking, right? Occasionally, you’ll get a hand or a foot, but usually it starts with the head. So this is a great example of that and important to approach it with this model. And one of the things, interestingly, one of the herb formulas I’ve been using for tic disorders in general, no accident, is Buchong Ichitan, right?
Believe it or not, even though you’d think, wow, isn’t that potentiating the Qi? Yes, but we’re trying, this is one of the principles of yin fire treatment is not suppressing, right? The yang, but actually improving the relationship of yang. Yeah. The idea is that the pericardium is not necessarily it’s, That deficiency is manifesting in a excess and somewhat correlates to what we sometimes in the course that when we teach, we talk about this kind of hyperactive spleen chief acuity.
That concept also comes from this idea and the importance of strengthening the spleen more so than dispersing that kind of what may seem excess. Exactly. And so the spleen, stomach, middle, burner is what BuChong means, right? Health, unhealthy. Exactly. And I think that was the brilliance of Li Dongyuan’s idea.
It’s so applicable to pediatrics. And we get into a lot of that discussion of both Sanjiao dynamics and hyperactive spleen qi, acuity. in the course. So I think this is a great example of how to see smartphone technology from a Chinese medicine perspective. So I think at this point we can And this discussion.
We’re interested in more about treating kids. And we really encourage all practitioners to be kid friendly because kids respond so quickly. It was very rewarding in your practice. And we’re doing come visit us at the Jing Shen pediatrics site where we’re doing teachings. We have online teachings.
We’re planning some in person teachings and we welcome you guys to be there. And I also want to just point out one more very important thing that I was thinking about is that I think one of the things that when we learn go back and look at the theories and how they manifest in children It actually enables you to even treat adults in a little different way.
Absolutely. Good point that we all have a child inside us and tapping into that. This is old trauma. This is the child activating the child nature, right? Longevity. All of these things, the virtues of a child, when we can tap into that and treat that in adults, it’s very beneficial. I a hundred percent agree.
Thanks, Moshe. This is why I like teaching with you because we always play off each other and remind each other of ideas. So let’s thank the American Acupuncture Council again for hosting us and we look forward to seeing you guys again. Yes. Thank you. See you soon.