this is part two of Menopause and Weight Loss

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 Tsao-Lin Moy, and this is part two of Menopause and Weight Loss. This is a really important thing and what makes Chinese medicine practitioners acupuncturists different from a Western model is we’re not looking to fix them. We’re gonna help them . To get a better grasp on how their body actually works.

Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance?

We can help them understand from that perspective of how to get themselves into a place of balance. For, again identifying the constitutional type, the yin and yang within the body constitution plus . What else is going on? How are they eating their environmental stressors? We can’t be there all the time.

So these are things that they’re gonna have to identify and then work with. So body and fluids are really . Believed to be derived from food and drink, and they serve to nourish and warm the muscles and the skin and lubricate our joints, right? And they also surround our brain. This is really like something to not just address with herbs, but really incorporate dietary recommendations.

Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save

So I just wanna give like an example of one of my patients she’s 52. I actually treated her 20 years ago. So I really know what her constitution was when she was younger. Was a very, let’s say lung, large intestine, stomach, spleen type. She had chronic constipation, a lot of weight on below, right?

She was and why I say lung, large intestine is she emotionally was dealing with like trauma from her childhood, like grief, loss of a parent. And then also like holding on to. Things that weren’t really true, but as a child she believed them and she was also very damp ’cause she had a lot of squishy fluid.

So recently she came to see me and after, having kids and then she had moved to the south very damp and hot where she was which was not great for her constitution. So this is also, we look at . Seasonally, you can figure out someone’s constitution also, like how they are seasonally, what do they prefer?

How are they’re a lot better. Some people are perfectly fine in a hundred degree weather and 90% humidity. I’m not one of them. But some people even will need a sweater. They’re very dry and they are always cold and they, so the heat and the moisture they love so working.

So she’s been working a lot and stressing, her main complaint was this weight gain and swelling, right? That she was starting to swell. She was having frequent urination, but she was still . Gaining all of the water. So she, was working a lot high cortisol overall not getting enough sleep.

And especially at night, this is this circadian rhythm. And again, going back to women have a cycle, men too, right? If men don’t sleep. At night, it’s actually really affects their fertility and their sperm production. So we are creatures that need to be much closer to nature.

So when someone’s not sleeping, then we know that’s also, they’re off balance. And so strategy, because she’s in menopause, I was looking, both her yin and yang were diminishing though, not at the same rate. So lots of water. In her body. Am I thinking kidney? Yes. Because of her adrenals.

And also that the jing is depleting and her constitution. But also from a five elements perspective. The water is not nourishing the wood, so she was . Had this liver defic deficiency, right? Because liver is involved with the blood, it’s involved with the uterus reproduction, it’s responsible for the smooth flow of qi and blood and our emotions.

So really, the strategy was like, okay, how can we address this simply, right? Because when the body is in a state of fluctuation, you wanna have a clear direction. To the body. So the more complex a person’s symptoms, then the more simple you want the the treatment to be. The first order is how can I bring this person into balance?

How can I help them so that then their body is going to heal, they’ll balance out, and then they’ll get stronger and they can at the same time make adjustments. So in terms of let’s say the strategy . With acupuncture. So this is where you’re, we’re looking at what methods do we have? We have food, we have acupuncture, we have herbs, we’ve got some cupping.

We’re doing a, we’re checking constitutionally and where the person is, we have teas as well. Okay. So in terms of . The strategy for this person, and I think this is something that is no matter what you can you’re not gonna do any harm with somebody is to look at source points and also shoe points.

So for this patient really my focus was, spleen, spleen three, liver three, large intestine, four combination, like kind of move, get things moving adding in spleen nine or seven for all the dampness. CV nine for that fluid. So fluid accumulation. Also dimmi because a lot of the fluid was below.

So like sitting in water. Kidney seven. Which actually goes to Dai. So really, and then according to Kiko, Matsumoto style, really like looking at stomach chi, which is, finding the points. And that’s around stomach, 36, 37, 39. So really looking at the stomach, the large intestine, small intestine, because we are looking at digestion right now in terms of food.

Warm foods, . For someone who has the damp, we want warm and like gentle dispersing. So I always think of something like a little bit of cinnamon. So that actually increases a little bit of the peripheral circulation and it’s actually warm. It’s also great for someone who might be, have a difficulty with sugar metabolism and maybe even pre-diabetic is, that’s actually something that can be incorporated, in addition. Looking at excellent probiotic with your patients. You also want to look at dietary adjustments. These are absolutely a must and a kind of detoxification support, whether it’s lymphatic. Some different kinds of foods to clear out to help the system release metabolic waste, let’s say.

And also, oftentimes in menopause with lower estrogen, there’s an increase of what is known as the non-alcoholic fatty liver, which is an means that there is this weight gain because the liver is not able to process, right? So everything gets backed up. In terms of formulas, basic formulas, I like ones that are less than 10 ingredients.

And again, because we’re looking at . The perimenopause menopausal state is in fluctuation, so it’s not that stable. So you start adding a lot into the mix. Then what happens is that you’re sending mixed messages. So better to go simple. I love like jwe shaan, right? The shaan for someone who has a spleen, like kinda worrying.

Type of personality Ong or Swan again for yin and blood deficiency. And this is this recent research with Iwe to and Shan Ma Huang, which are very close was actually used for premature ovarian failure they’re looking at. So it also gently nourishes the yin and the blood, and so

Nothing wrong with, possibly adding those formulas if you know your patient and you also know herbs, right? So we don’t wanna just give herbs based on formula based on a protocol only, right? We need to do a good diagnosis. Okay? So in terms of food and diet I cannot, emphasize more.

This is where the gold is. Your patients absolutely must make changes. It’s really if they’re not willing to do that, then it, it be, it’s you’re constantly battling, right? . So things like eating fresh and organic, primarily plant-based, ’cause it’s a lot cooler and nourishing. I didn’t put it in the list, but in season.

And this is also a way to be in the cycle of the season and also have the body go with the season, right? And also the food is much more nutritious because you’re gonna it because it is actually gonna have a higher nutritional value to it, right? No diet drinks or artificial sweeteners.

One of the traps for women that are trying to like they’re trying to lose weight is that they start looking for diet foods and things that are zero calories or fat free and things. But that actually is very problematic because we do need fats and in fact, because. We are becoming yin and blood deficient, that it’s really important that we have fats and eating foods like a bone broth, right?

Or even marrow stews. That are gonna be nourishing. We can add in even the the dots out, the jujube beads. Really looking at more of like kind of medicinal soups and we really. Getting about it too, right? Gluten and dairy can be very inflammatory. And even when my patients say I’m not I’m fine with gluten I really encourage them to maybe

Try to limit certain foods or to do something called food combining. And that’s a strategy where if you’re gonna have a starch, then you eat it with like leafy green or leafy green with an animal protein, but you don’t eat like animal protein with a starch because that changes the absorption and the sugars the way we digest.

Alcohol. And so these are things to look into and I would actually encourage you to try them yourself, right? The best is if you’ve experience, you can also share it. The other thing too is you can decide, Hey, for all of my . Patients that are in their forties, fifties, and going through a change.

Let’s do it together. Let’s do a sleep work on our sleep, let’s work on eating more vegetables and fruits and stuff and really, come up with recipes and stuff to get involved. I think if you’re involved with your patients and you’re excited about it, that you’re gonna have a better outcome for them.

And always the idea is to teach them, right? Alcohol, preferably none. Alcohol is not. Good . It reduces the immune system. It causes inflammation. Actually, yeah. I know there’s maybe some, that’s something that people will have to make a, make decide to do that, right?

There’s plenty of evidence that it’s not really great and can cause inflammation. So why do that? And again, oh, and I mentioned the food combining. Okay. And let’s see where we are. Yes, here’s some wonderful food. One of the things that is really useful is to certain kinds of foods are can help with hormonal health, so things like seeds. One of the strategies for, for the menstrual cycle is something called seed cycling. And then using the four phases of the menstrual cycle to then have flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds.

So these are things that you can actually. And encourage. I would encourage, because again, even though like I showed in the very beginning of the slides that the . Period is ending, the cycle is still going on underneath. And so being able to look at the cycle and nourish according to where the cycle is going to make a difference.

So once you find, it’s like when you find the wave, then you can ride the wave. If you don’t know where you are on a wave, you’re gonna be tumbling and be pulled in the current. Okay. And then, okay, so this last of heart, and this is teaching your patient self-care. Now here’s the thing, consistency and commitment is gonna get a result.

And so I know oftentimes patients say how many times do I need to do it or how long before it will happen? And really everybody is different, but one thing is certain they need to commit to make that commitment and have the consistency and really look at like when do they give up? Sometimes they just give up or it’s too hard, right?

But the thing is you know, that’s where we can help and coach them through and encourage them so little wins. Let’s say they, stop drinking diet. stuff we need to say great, how long are you doing it? Helping with a mindfulness practice, this is a really big thing because stress is going to increase cortisol.

It’s gonna cause sleep problems, it’s gonna cause more problems with weight. It’s gonna interfere with hormonal balancing and emotional stability. And so having a mindfulness practice, . I encourage doing breath work. I do it every morning. I do Wim Hof breathing and I’ve done GR technique. And really what does breath work do?

It helps you with your nervous system but also when you do breath work, it actually pumps your lymph, right? It actually supports your organs, and this is important to get. Of the inflammation and move the fluids. Sleep hygiene again making sure to go to bed at night. Really important is get off of the phones.

Stop with the Netflix and the videos and the Instagram and the Facebook, even though we’re . On Facebook to really stop that because it actually interrupts our brain patterns. It also creates a lot of anxiety and a lot of worry. And then on top of that, we’ve got cortisol and the stress, and that creates more of this like cycle of doom and gloom.

Exercise and movement again to move the chi in the blood. Not overdoing it, but really looking at what is the purpose is to increase the blood flow, tone the muscles. And it could be used as a practice drainage, again with the breath work. But also I encourage teaching your patients how to actually do a little lymphatic massage on themselves or even to get some body work for that.

And then again making the dietary adjustments such as preparing food themselves. And this is something that. You can offer to your patients in your newsletter or in your posts, some healthy recipes. Again, you can decide to do, a campaign maybe in January as we’re coming up on the people making resolutions or even maybe before start, before, since we’re heading into Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the cookies, et cetera, et cetera, to really start creating things as tools for them.

This is the end of the presentation. If you have any questions, please, to put them in the chat and we can get back to you. Thank you.

 

Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance?

Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save

 

 

So today I’m gonna be talking about menopause and weight loss. And this is really menopause is, we have a 50% of our population is female, and we’re, heading into a larger . Portion of a population is gonna be over 40, over 50, moving into this phase of life.

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 Tsao-Lin Moy and I’m a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with a brick and mortar practice in New York City at Union Square. so I’d like to first thank the American Acupuncture Council for having these opportunities to speak about topics of health that are very important to us as practitioners.

And also to our patients. So today I’m gonna be talking about menopause and weight loss. And this is really menopause is, we have a 50% of our population is female, and we’re, heading into a larger portion of a population is gonna be over 40, over 50, moving into this phase of life.

We’ll go to the slides. Okay. So this is weight loss and menopause, like how to help your patients with the menopausal weight game. Lemme go here. Okay, so the key topics that I’m gonna be talking about is we’re gonna do a little review of yin and yang. Really what’s happening. I’m gonna talk about constitution.

I think we often forget to look at our patient’s constitution look at some treatment strategies a little bit about acupuncture, herbs and supplements, and diet, which is gonna be really important. And . Self-care, right? So if your patients are not involved in their health and taking care of themselves when they’re not seeing you or they don’t have homework or something to do, then oftentimes they end up quitting or giving up or just deciding they’re gonna take, drugs or, go on some crazy weight loss diet.

Yin and yang again, is something that is a dynamic balance. It’s not yin or yang. It’s really yin and yang. And women are relatively more yin, right? And in this, picture, it’s, it is the four stages of a menstrual cycle. So women’s biology is actually very cyclical, with, it’s known as a moon phase.

And so even when women stop bleeding, they still have a cycle. And so it’s really important to recognize that women’s biology, . Their cycle is very different from a man’s. It’s not the same. It’s always going through, um, a a blood phase, a yin phase, a chief phase, and then again, into the yang phase, right?

And so even though the bleeding may stop, there is still this phase. And so what often happens is this is a slide that looks at . What is happening with the hormones? So if we look at, pre menopause and we look at post menopause, in the end, both the estrogen and progesterone are going to end up being like the relatively in the same position except for less, right?

So women are relatively more yin, and this is because . It’s part of our physiology is making blood and being able to hold onto life, right? So always as we head towards menopause, we’re looking at, we’re losing the yin part. And so when we have the hot flashes, this is relative yang, but overall both yin and yang are starting to decline.

So the hormonal fluctuations actually cause . The hot and cold flashes, interruption of the circadian rhythm, like sleep interruption of the result of yin and yang kind of trying to stabilize uh, blood deficiency results in more yang excess, but it’s really relative excess. But not like from abundant young, right?

So you can have someone . Who’s hot? A woman will hot flash, but she always gets cold, hands and feet. So we’re really like looking at this kind of circulation. So this is just a little bit of a review. So what happens is this. The dynamic balance becomes a little bit unstable. And so what we can observe is that when this yin declines, it can’t balance the yang.

And that’s that experience, the hot flashes, right? And the night sweats. So losing more of the yin. And eventually though, as you can see in the slide, that the hormones, the yin and yang kind of balance out. But before that, it can be extremely uncomfortable. Now, for menopause complaints, what I’d say hot flashes really at the top.

Weight gain, skin and hair insomnia, usually from the hot flashes. And the ups and downs are also showing. But for the most, what I’ve found, and I’m guessing that. Because there’s the media, because there’s this aspect of we always have to be thin, that when women start to gain weight it’s very upsetting.

wOmen are always trying to lose weight, stay fit, look good, and then as we enter into this particular phase and our body starts to feel a little bit out of sorts, and then all of a sudden what’s happening is this weight gain, and especially around the middle. Weight gain is in general, I would say a sign that there’s something systemically getting blocked or backed up.

There’s also going to be inflammation in the body as weight gain is office excess fluid. It’s often that and fat that will store waste. So when we have metabolic waste or a lot of chemicals, what’ll happen is our body will try, will store it, convert it into fat, and oftentimes it’s going and especially hormonally.

So if as with women are doing fertility treatments and they’re injecting themselves with all kinds of hormones that they tend to gain a lot of weight around the middle. . This is also due to stress, but it’s also due to the fluctuations of hormones. And then there’s this metabolic waste, or we can call it like turbidity, right?

That’s in the system. So one of the things is that you can also be a endocrine problem, such as thyroid. Or fatty liver, which is also metabolic. But for sure we know that this is part of the digestion because this is postnatal, the digestion is gonna be involved, right? So it’s not just diet, but it’s also

The ability to absorb food nutrients and then make the hormones and make the blood, and make the fluids so for the skin and the hair, right? So all of these things, so we’re looking at. We have our jing, or our Jing that we’re born with which is kinda like a blueprint for life.

And then as we develop, our environment is very much a part of affecting, how we develop, right? So we got a blueprint, and then we have the environment, which will give us a range of how tall we’re gonna be. How healthy, like all of those things. But also we’ve got our, genetic makeup that’s there.

And so once we’re born really environmentally, we’re looking at that postnatal cheese. So environment, and then what are we bringing into our body not just food and nutrients, but also, energetically, emotionally, what else is happening for us? And stress is a big issue, right? Because that’s gonna actually affect our our nervous system.

Okay, so a quick overview. Constitutional body types, right? We’ve got yang, we’ve got yin type, damp phlegm, dry, and then we have neutral, so women are gonna be more in the yin and the damp phlegm, and then also neutral. As menopause, like perimenopause starts to come, this is going to show up and be more exacerbated.

In terms of the characteristics. So if we look at, a young body type is gonna be really like sturdy, energetic, that red complexion to. Tend towards like heat preferring cold drinks. So this is they, if somebody who’s tends towards young starts eating a lot of spicy foods, it’s gonna be problematic.

So looking at the constitution of the person. Is gonna be really important because that’s really like that kind of underlying blueprint that they’re born with, right? Something that their constitution. And so always we’re gonna be looking at constitutionally, how is this pattern emerging?

So it’s not just the signs and symptoms where we can say, oh it’s a yin deficiency, it’s blood deficiency. It’s really, we’re like, oh, in a young person or in a yin person, what is that gonna look like? Because that’s gonna, I, that is actually going to direct you towards like how you’re gonna treat that person, right?

Someone who’s very damp and Fleming is gonna be like more watery. But water is inflammation. Even if it’s not hot. We’re looking at, the body is retaining fluid to dilute some kind of inflammation, and over time it can actually get hot. So in, in terms of a strategy, you wanna be careful, someone is cool and damp.

If you heat them up too much, it can actually turn into that damp heat and phlegm, right? And inflammatory conditions. So that’s why going back to the basics and looking at what is their constitutional body type. And from there we’re looking at what is that pattern? It’s emerging for them, not just their, oh, they’re blood deficient.

Yes. But blood deficiency in a particular body type has a different pattern. Although we can still use the same treatments, we might even use the same herbal formulas. We still have to recognize what is the underlying pattern and not just rely on protocols or, or. Really using herbal formulas, like a supplement.

A lot of, practitioners, I would say forget they that they’re, they may have their western mind cap on and or patients think of them as, oh, give me that herb formula again. I really liked it. I felt really good. Which is great. But then we’re looking at

What else can be done? Because maybe they’re not changing their diet, maybe they’re not doing other things unless somebody’s really ill they don’t necessarily need to be on formulas for a really long time. And that’s the determination of what’s a long time. And as we know, it’s very hard to get people to make changes and especially with their diet and lifestyle, but.

This is a really important thing and what makes Chinese medicine practitioners acupuncturists different from a Western model is we’re not looking to fix them. We’re gonna help them to get a better grasp on how their body actually works. I’m gonna stop here and next time there’s gonna be part two where I’m gonna talk about simple methods on how you can treat your patients that are suffering from weight gain and menopause.

 

 

Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance?

Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save

 

 

So the title of this presentation is to Stop Treating Menopause and Aging like a Disease. And so this is really about embracing the wisdom of East Asian medicine and that holistic perspective of menopause.

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 welcome. I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for producing these lives. My name is Tsao-Lin Moy, and I’m a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist located in New York City union Square. Practicing now for 21 years. And today I’m gonna be talking about a hot topic, which is Menopause.

And so we can go to the slide.

So the title of this presentation is to Stop Treating Menopause and Aging like a Disease. And so this is really about embracing the wisdom of East Asian medicine and that holistic perspective of menopause.

By 2030, the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase to 1.2 billion. This is about one fifth of the world population. So if we’re looking at menopause as a disease, this makes it look like we’re in another pandemic. What this is an opportunity to improve how you help your patients, and particularly women before they actually reach that point of menopause.

So since 2021, we’re looking at half of the US female population is age 40 and older. So this is a mark. This is a whole group of people that are gonna be looking for natural ways to heal and not just go the route of hormones. As practitioners, we really wanna be mindful of what cultural influences are affecting our own beliefs and acting out of the fear of getting old and decrepit because this is all around us.

We see it in social media, we see it on the cover of magazines. Really all the TikTok and, all of the. The Instagram, and I don’t know what else there is because I try not to personally get onto any of those platforms other than to share information. Hopefully the people who need to hear it can actually find it.

But menopause is really, it’s a complex phase that involves biology, physiology, metabolic shifts, emotional, and also social changes in life. Puberty is very similar. It’s biological changes, physiological, metabolic, emotional, neurological, and also social right. We see this in young people finding their group.

And while we don’t call a growth cycle for puberty to be considered a disease, it is often treated with hormonal birth control. And this is the first sign of, painful period or pimples or something young women are giving are given hormonal birth control. And this is very problematic in my opinion.

I don’t think that women should be and young women should be on hormones from the time they’re 14 all the way till through to their seventies. This is also something that shows up in fertility problems with fertility. So just as a review in case you’re not somebody who reads the classics chapter one, my favorite chapter of the Yellow Webber Classic, also known as the Universal Truth, discusses Female Development that follows a seven year cycle.

And while males follow an eight year cycle, So when we start to look at each one of the cycles we see, okay, around 14 years old the fertility arrives or they consider the menses flows and the woman can have can start to bear children. And then we’re also looking at, as we’re moving through to around the age of 35, there starts to be a decline face wrinkles, hair begins to fall out.

So we start to see some of those, so those signs of aging. And it also co corresponds with. The, the struggles with fertility, right? Actually the slide might be out of order, but one of the things that I wanna address is, for most of the time with women’s health, the approach is not changed.

New tools, but basically the same attitude. And that is like hormones, hysterectomies, and antidepressants. Now, what really surprised me, Was to find out that the hysterectomy is the second most common surgery for women in the US after cesarean section. These are estimated to be one in nine mil nine women are gonna undergo a hysterectomy during their lifetime, basically would only be one time, and that’s about 600,000 procedures each year in the us.

So the question is, what does that mean for that connection? The heart and the uterine connection, the bowel line also. Research has found that over a third of women, when they go to their general practitioner with symptoms of menopause, they’re often offered antidepressants and this is really considered inappropriate.

So this is an area where we as Chinese medicine practitioners as acupuncturists can really help women’s health and in fact, women’s health is quite advanced in terms of Chinese medicine. A little review. How does blood yin and yang and chi interact with menopause? We start to look at yin and yang balance becoming a little irregular.

The blood and yin, which we could look at as estrogen becomes depleted compared to the yang and the chi, progesterone, testosterone. And really, so when you start to see the hot flash fluctuations, it’s really this kind of, the way the balance starts to be flipping from one side to the next. Now, until recently in the western world, perimenopause was thought to be around 45 or 50 years of age.

Right before menses would stop because that’s when the hot flashes were occurring. Mood swings. So we look at that, liver chi, night sweats, yin leaking, palpitations, heart blood deficiency. So we, when we look at these symptoms that we can actually look at what kind of patterns are emerging and no, in a women know, women are not quite the same.

Of course there are always. Formulas and recommendations for particular things we still need to look at personalizing. Now, in reality, trans transition into menopause is more accurately beginning 10 to 15 years earlier, and as I mentioned before, around the age 35. Some hormonal fluctuations might start to happen.

Maybe a little bit of irregular hormones and can impact getting pregnant, with fertility. So in terms of, what is that fertility cliff that is talked about a lot I don’t really believe it. And at the same time, if we’re looking at the long view, we’re starting to really look at.

You know what is happening really early on, shifts are happening over time. When it comes to our awareness, that’s when the symptoms are much stronger. So the idea here is that you wanna start treating your patients, talking to them, educating them, especially early on. Also if you have younger patients or your.

Female patients have daughters to really also talk about women’s health, about periods and things that they can do, especially if they’re having painful periods or bleeding or. Other things like acne that we can do a lot for naturally with diet and meditation. Like all of those tools that we have.

So here’s interesting. Studies actually show that even before puberty, which would be around age seven to nine, that there are hormonal surges that are happening, right? It’s just not one day your pubescent and then the next day you get your period. No, actually, Shifts are happening several years beforehand and this is, gives us an opportunity to really help shift the attitude towards menopause.

So this is about this yin and yang dynamic. Really as we’re shifting, just like the season, right now we’re in the summertime, so it’s much more yang compared to, daylight compared to yin of winter. With more winter and darkness, and yet at some point it’s gonna shift again. And of course we see as there are the transitions that there’s a tendency for certain kinds of illnesses to come up for people like allergies or, some colds, winter colds.

So this is to be aware, we’re always in some kind of cycle, a yin and yang cycle. I really like this particular slide because it talk it like shows where, you know, both the hormone levels, where we’re looking at yin and yang, estrogen, progesterone actually follow together, right?

So eventually those fluctuations are going to. Even out, right? So we’re always looking at, our body’s always looking to go into balance. So when one thing looks like, oh, it’s too much yang or too much yin we’re actually really looking at how the body is trying to reach that state of homeostasis.

And so it makes corrections. And eventually though, as you see, like where the blue part is really where most, like a lot more symptoms are happening as the body is shifting and transforming. So here are some of the unwanted symptoms that we find with menopause is, brain fog, hot flashes.

Weight gain, hair thinning, skin sagging, bleeding, emotional ups and downs, palpitations, poor sleep. Really what also starts to happen is like the weaker knees foot problems may occur. This is also because the connective tissue gets affected by hormones. And so you might start to, to see some of that coming in like the and know that.

That can be also addressed with some herbal formulas and acupuncture. But it’s not a disease. Not a disease. So the question is, why? Are menopausal symptoms less prevalent in Asia and other countries, and I’m really comparing like the US and some of the Western European countries.

And, what’s happening, believe it or not, what makes a difference in how women experience menopause? And I also believe puberty, coming of age is the cultural attitude towards health. And aging. So oftentimes we talk about getting a period as the curse or the shame around it.

With young girls, they’re, oh, they don’t wanna talk about it. They get made fun of. It’s something to hide and really not something celebrated in other cultures. It’s really this. Time where you recognize that you’re moving from one stage of your life into the next, and this is a beautiful thing.

So really what studies have shown is that the collective cultural attitude towards menopause plays a major role in emotional distress and physical symptoms. So why do I bring this up? Because. We have to take into consideration, we’re living in a culture that has very negative attitudes towards women’s health reproductive health.

And so the western culture, and then they find that plays a high importance on fertility and also place value on youthfulness in these cultures. Menopause reflects this age progression and loss of youth. And also loss of sexual attractiveness and leads to this negative attitude towards menopause.

There’s so many negative words that are used to describe menopause, such as fertility failure, ovarian failure versus, this is a natural progression as we shift into the next stage, of course You’re not gonna be producing children, this is, there is a window for it, but that’s normal.

There’s, we’re not part of the Handmaid’s Tale. To tell you this, I think. In my personal opinion, that that series like really normalized abuse, that it like the, in fiction becomes real, but that’s a whole other story. But what this is, it’s implying that a natural, something is a natural part of life is really a flaw or a disease.

And when your patients are coming to you, Understanding that the holistic perspective is not going to, or I would say, should not adopt this, cultural idea that it’s bad as you start to get older and mature. KO or Conki means in Japanese renewal season and energy. So in Japan, menopause is looked upon as a natural life stage, and the very word for menopause, the conki means renewal, season and energy.

So why do we have such a negative view of a natural process? While women in Asia eat more fish, less processed and refined foods less sugars, caffeine, sodas, and they walk more, et cetera, et cetera, compared to the average American. There’s also a level of respect for elders, and this is something that I think really need to examine is how we treat older people as they get older.

And one of the things that I would say is this last week I was at a conference and there were indigenous people from the Amazon and they were talking about the experience in terms of indigenous practices, of how much wisdom that elders hold, stuff that is not in a book. And when an elder actually dies.

It’s like the equivalent of the library of Alexandria burning down, right? Because what they hold wisdom that people hold within them is not something that can be reproduced. And because it’s experiential. And I think we have to really look at, as people are aging, that they also are holding a lot of experience and information.

So studies actually show menopause and menopausal symptoms are really tied to a woman’s cultural environment. So if a woman is in unhealthy environment, they’re gonna feel guilty. Shame experience for experiencing something that’s really natural. And leading to. Heightening of their physical symptoms.

It could be like flashing. It could be like poor sleep and also mental, like really heightened anxiety, depression and other countries that positively view aging and I’m repeating. And menopause such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, positively, similarly experience fewer unpleasant effects.

So not only does an optimistic and positive environment allow women to feel more comfortable when their cycles come to an end, but it also correlates with an easier transition with menopause. And that is where you as practitioners come in with support and really look at a paradigm shift. Chinese medicine is a paradigm shift, however, We do live in a culture that is constantly intruding on our views and beliefs.

So what can we do? Empowering your patients to cultivate their health and wellness and longevity. So this is really like the long, a long view, which. There aren’t really the quick fixes, right? If you get into hormone therapy, there’re always, there are consequences and side effects with that, such as increased risk of cancer.

So here what I’m encouraging is, To check in with your patients and find out how they’re feeling emotionally with their overall health and really address like, Hey, this. Transition that’s happening. It’s a very, it can be jarring identity, right? Your identity is changing the way cult, the culture, your society is gonna regard you.

And really don’t underestimate the impact that stress and anxiety has on health, and especially around aging and menopause. I think it’s really important to have a, To talk about that in other countries, the viewpoint is very different and we can actually adopt that viewpoint in the way that we actually treat our patients.

So again, intensity of menopausal symptoms will indicate that there might be un underlying imbalances, right? And we call those root causes that are not being addressed. So you’re, if you’re not treating the root C, you know what I wanna say is you’re treating a root cause, not the disease. All right?

If somebody is having flashing, we know that we need to balance their nervous system, like all of that, it’s not a disease. Self-care practices I give my patients homework. Really look at, what you can empower your patients with in terms of. Food, focusing on sleep. Sleep is a huge issue, right?

Because the circadian rhythm is also gonna influence reproductive hormones and overall health. Exercise and movement. Those are things that actually will help with like brain fog, but also movement is something that helps with depression. You start moving, just move your body clear out, clear the stuck energy.

Teacher patience techniques such as breath work for calming calming the nervous system and also I. Those tools, techniques, and tools are really good for managing the vasomotor symptoms, which come with the hot flashes, right? So body flashes and then get excited or anxious about it. That really calming the nervous system is actually gonna help to regulate that part.

Focus on relieving inflammation by eating, eliminating certain foods, eating other foods. I also teach my patients a kind of a self lymphatic kind of practice to help them move the lymph from their body, help to move, swelling, inflammation out. It takes. 40 seconds.

And the patients that do it can’t believe how the swelling in their overall body goes down, right? Because of all of the inflammation weight gain. One of the side effects with hormonal fluctuations is this weight gain. And things like lowered estrogen are attributed to what’s known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Or, con like liver congestion. So really looking at eating foods that are considered, that have more phytoestrogens such as flax seeds, sesame seeds, soybeans, right? Actually dried apricots and pr. And the studies show that an increase in soy actually helps reduce fatty liver.

Now there are always these concerns around consuming soy products that maybe it’s going to affect cancer it’s gonna affect the, negatively affect hormones, but those are actually really unfounded. Just discussing possible dietary Suggestions to help with symptoms could be its own presentation.

So I’d like to just, thank everyone who’s listening and please leave your comments in the bottom. And if there are any questions, you can also leave those and contact me and I will, answer what I can. Thank you.

 

 

 

And today I’m gonna be talking about super foods and this is how you can get better results for your patients.

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.

Okay.

Hi and welcome. My name is Tsao-Lin Moy and I am a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with a brick and mortar practice in Union Square in New York City. I would like to thank the Acupuncture Council for creating this opportunity to livestream information to you. And today I’m gonna be talking about super foods and this is how you can get better results for your patients.

By informing them about making these small changes and you’re gonna have, to their diet and some of their lifestyle. So we are going to go to the slides. . Okay, so super foods, and this is about getting better results for your patients and really it’s about being smarter about eating and doing it.

So they’re going to get these results. Now, every year people gain between seven to 10 pounds of weight between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that’s a lot because what happens is in the new year, We have everyone that makes resolutions that they wanna lose weight, they wanna get healthier. But after about six weeks, maybe two months, most people give up because it’s too difficult.

So if they’re not seeing the fast results, if they’re not getting encouragement, , they’re gonna stop. So here is an opportunity to give your patients these tools. Now, the US is one of the most unhealthy countries in the world with an almost the highest in healthcare cost. And as we know as practitioners that for the most part, many of our services are not covered on insurance, and patients have to pay out of pocket.

And it looks like the cost value is like, 4 trillion right, is spent on healthcare, but the quality of people’s lives is not getting better, and in fact, it gets worse. Oftentimes the solution from allopathic medicine is to end up being on multiple medications. And one of the. Main causes of death in the US is heart disease with a lot of the comorbidities of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, right?

And looking at the simple things that I’m gonna cover, that it’s gonna support your patients and yourself, they’re gonna be really easy to incorporate and help to cultivate a healthier lifestyle. . So the topics the topic is food is medicine, and I’m, we’re looking at super foods. I’m gonna talk a little bit about mushrooms.

Mushrooms have a lot of magical properties, including magic mushrooms, which I won’t talk about. Magic mushrooms just at the magic that they can produce with health. I’m gonna do an example. Different greens. I’m gonna cover also a little bit about sugar and just dairy. So this is going to be an overview.

It’s gonna stimulate you guys to do more research on your own and maybe take a look at, where you can make improvements so that the food that you have and that you’re consuming is gonna be the highest quality and nutrient dense. . So mushrooms. Mushrooms and their medicinal magic. Okay, so in this picture we’re looking at there’s Lions Main, there’s Cortis, there’s Turkey Tail, there’s Rei Chaga Maya Taki, and Shiitake mushrooms.

Mushrooms are actually from the Fungi Kingdom. Genetically we are closer to fungi than we are to other plants and so I’m not gonna go over the whole Fungi Kingdom. My suggestion is, if you haven’t already watched it, is to go and watch the movie. Fantastic fungi. There’s gonna be so much information about how mushrooms and mycelium interconnect us throughout the world and how much that we and the environment really relies on mushrooms.

There’s something called micro remediation. And this is where the mushrooms are able to clean out toxic waste. Really helping to be help our environment, right? And for us does the same thing. Mushrooms are extremely helpful and medicinal for with their properties. So most mushrooms, they have many healing properties.

One, we know they boost the immune system. They lower cholesterol, regulate blood sugar, improve memory have cancer fighting properties they contain. Proteins, minerals and are packed with antioxidants. Now the seven strains, which are highly beneficial, are often found in a mushroom powder supplement.

And I put together, I just said STAT seven. Paul Stat is a very well known mycologist and he has a company and. He has different packaging is where will contain the Cortis, the Turkey tail, REI, makihiki, and Lions Main. Now, Cortis is also known as Caterpillar fungus, right? And it’s good for energy, for memory.

The Turkey tale research is done used for. Cancer. Also REI we know is the Lingerer in Chinese medicine, which is also used for immune and also helping with cancer. Myat. Taki this mushroom is good for blood pressure, cholesterol also blood sugar. And again, the same with shiitake mushrooms, also very healthy.

You can cook with them. Lions. is one that’s known for memory and they look at neuro regenerative properties. So maybe looking towards how it can help with motor neuron regeneration brain with like dementia Parkinson’s many issues that we’re having right now with brain fog, right post or during with from viruses and pandemics.

And then we have chaga, I put a little asterisks with Chaga because you. All of these have healing properties, but there’s also a tendency for let’s say western people to think more is better. And the one thing with the Chaga, you have to be careful because in super large quantities it can cause problems with the kidneys.

So we’re always looking at moderation and. Best way is if you can cook with the mushrooms. So most mushrooms, they’re gonna work through the middle j the spleen, the stomach, the liver. They’re also good for the lung and the heart channel. They’re good for gut health and help to regulate blood sugar and cholesterol.

And in turn, heart. With mushrooms, you really have to break them down, like cook ’em because they contain something called chitin, which is protein. They’re also very high in fiber. So we don’t really want to eat raw mushrooms. I think the little button mushrooms are okay to eat raw in a salad, but for the most part, you really need to cook.

So here what I’ve highlighted is Mya Taki mushroom. So I’m just gonna go through the Maya Taki mushroom, also known as Hen of the Woods. Now, this mushroom is known to reduce cholesterol. , it helps to clean out the blood. It’s anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and also helps with type two related diseases, other kinds of problems that show up from type two diabetes.

And I put on the bottom of this the different references for the research that’s done. I actually have a friend who. He had done some research, he had diabetes, he had high cholesterol, hypertension, like all of those three that we see so prominently in here in the west because of our diet.

And he had read about the benefits of the myat Tai mushroom and decided he was going to just intake more my Taki mushroom. And he. He made. So about one third of his diet was coming from mushrooms and ended up losing like 60 pounds and then got off, was able to get off the cholesterol, the high blood pressure medication, and also reverse his diabetes, right?

So this is really huge. This is a huge thing. So if we can avoid or minimize the amount of medication, That we’re taking this is gonna be a good thing, right? Because as we know, medication actually can cause inflammation in the liver and also cause problem with the kidneys. So oftentimes the medicines that we take and the pharmaceuticals, they have a lot of side effects, right?

And so if we can, whatever we can do on our own that’s simple would be maybe start eating some mayak mushrooms. So are there certain foods that are better to eat along with mushrooms for enhanced nutrition? Absolutely. Onions, garlic, shallots, leaks, chives. They’re excellent accompaniments for cooking with mushrooms.

So in Chinese medicine, onions and garlic are used in soups, right? We know like a miso soup cuz they open up the sinuses and the lungs. They also belong to the album genus, and those properties are also filled with vitamins, minerals, plant compounds, and antioxidants. Great for supporting immune fun immune function.

right? And reducing. They also reduce cholesterol and blood sugar. And also garlic and onions are great for flavoring. So if just in case the theme is , reducing your cholesterol, your blood sugar blood pressure and improving The your gut health. So all of these things that if we can do this, will be just, even one food that you can add in to your diet, make some changes.

It’s gonna make a really big impact and. From what I notice is that you have to give your patients really simple things that they can do. If they’re given a really complicated eat this in the morning, this in the afternoon, you have to something, then they’re gonna give up. So really like an easy thing is, have them start eating mushrooms, right?

Just say, start eating mushrooms, not with butter. But really give them a couple of easy recipes. You can roast mushrooms, right? With just a little bit of olive oil and salt in the oven. And they’re very TAs. So one of the problems in the US is sugar. So this is a, the US is the biggest consumer of sugar on the globe, and according to sources, the country’s per capita, sugar consumption is about.

30 teaspoons a day, right? And that translates into more than 10 times what the lowest recommended in intake is, which is about three teaspoons. And this translates into as it converts from grams to pounds to ounces, about over a hundred pounds of sugar per year, per person, right? Of course some people eat less.

But if you start looking at how much sugar is in like drinks and different kinds of foods that we really don’t realize, like how much that we’re consuming, right? So why do we need to cut sugar out of our diet? In the US we’ve got a lot of diabetes, 10% at least, of the adult population, which is about 34 million, has diabetes.

And then we’ve got. 34, almost 35% have pre-diabetes. So we’re already we’re trending, right? This is trending sh insulin resistance and sugar. Problems regulating sugar affect the endocrine system. We see this with a lot of problems with fertility. , a lot of women or a lot of people overall, obesity is a big problem in the us.

So we start to see problems with metabolism. The standard American diet known as the SAD diet, is really high in like animal products. A lot of animal fats dairy meat processed. Sugars and a lot of sugars and so we start to see like we need to make changes, but then all, so it’s not just stopping eating those foods or curbing it is really, we need something to help to clear out the system.

Sugar plays a role as a stimulant and it increases inflammation, right? And it can actually cause problems with yeast. It will cause problems with imbalances in mood and reproductive hormones. With a fertility. Polycystic ovary syndrome is a really big problem and we see more and more women are being diagnosed with it and often they have insulin resistance and this is what interrupts their endocrine system and reproductive hormones.

So we really wanna look also can we make substitutions? So there are a few things you can do, of course, like cutting out sugar as much as possible is really you. Is gonna be the best thing that we can do to go on like a sugar fast. But oftentimes people are looking for a substitution.

So if we compare sugar to maple syrup, I know that there are a lot of recipes that say, oh, use maple syrup. So maple syrup. Comparably in calories and carbs. It has a lower glycemic index than sugar. And it also tends to be a little bit sweeter. So this is something that maybe you’d end up using less of if you use that as a substitution.

But I also looked at a comparison of something like how’s molasses, what is molasses in terms of compared to. Maple syrup, because sugar has empty calories, sugar it’s processed. It doesn’t really offer anything other than the sugars. So when we look at maple syrup, because it comes from a tree, it’s going to have other.

Properties from the tree plants like antioxidants but then looking at what does molasses contain because molasses is also sweet. It has a sweet it’s also very bitter. But it can be used as a sweetener and things like, Coffee if you want to, or even hot chocolate. Black strap molasses is like really high in iron.

So if you have people that tend towards anemia, this would be like maybe a spoonful of the black strap molasses. And looking at in this slide how it contain, Calcium, right? Iron very high in iron, molasses, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, b3, B five, b6. If you’re going to have a little bit of a sweetener itch, this could be like to really kinda look at, am I gonna have some healthy things that are gonna come with it.

So not just the sweet. And again we’re looking at maple syrup also has. , right? So if you, if we’re gonna choose something to suite, we’re gonna look at not just the fact that it’s gonna be low on the glycemic index, but really what else can it offer? . Now getting to greens. So all greens are full of antioxidants, right?

But they’re not all equal. And I actually came I was in actually a Asian. Food market. And I happened to pass by this, sea of green and I saw these little flowers and I, wow, these are really beautiful flowers. And it happened to be like the flowers from the Chinese broccoli tips.

And so I bought them and I was like, oh, it’s really interesting. I don’t always see the flowers. And they made me really curious about what are the benefits of Chinese broccoli. And what I found out is, Chinese broccoli is one of the most, most nutritious vegetables, and one of the highest calcium content has the highest calcium content of any food.

Rich in iron, vitamin A, c, and E high amounts of beta keratin, and that helps with. Eyes for as we age we get macular degeneration. And it’s also a rich source of fiber. Now, regular broccoli is also high in many nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, iron and potassium.

However, having bone health, we really wanna look at if we eat a little bit of the Chinese broccoli, That, comparing it to another green, that this may be a much healthier choice. Easy to do one green, just change it right. . Another also I looked at was the celery. What is celery?

Celery contains a lot of plant compound. A plant compound a, which is a role in traditional Chinese medicine is anti-inflammatory, right? We know that. Celery is very cooling. It’s a diuretic, right? Helps remove the toxins from the body. Studies actually show it has its antioxidant and has anti-aging properties.

Actually looking at it, it also has some neuro stem cell regeneration properties too in, in some of the research papers. The aspect you can drink celery juice, right? In Chinese medicine, drinking raw green juices is not so great cuz maybe too cold. The, in terms of nutrition it’s high in vitamin K and also modest source of B, the B vitamins.

You can chop it up and saute it. Just add it into maybe some other dishes that you have really think about just adding some more of the celery and in particular the Chinese celery is a little bit stronger in terms of flavor, so you can experiment with that. . Okay, so here we are with dairy.

The American diet has a lot of dairy and cheese, right? a lot of milk, a lot of milk products. And the thing is at least 68% of the world’s population has difficulty. Digesting dairy and milk. And so what happens is it is like a point of inflammation, even if we don’t, even if it’s not acute, right?

Oftentimes people feel like, oh I can drink milk. I don’t get a stomach ache. I’m fine. , if you have an intolerance, the symptoms actually will show up later on, right? Not everyone can tolerate dairy in their diet, and in fact Being intolerant to dairy is one of the most common food sensitivities among both children and adults.

And for the most part, we consume dairy when, with in our drinks ice cream, right? Lot of desserts, creamy, creamy foods. And so an intolerance of a food usually is gonna involve a delay, a delayed biological. So a lot of patients have i b s, they get abdominal pain, gas and bloating.

Of course you can, we recommend having foods that are are fermented or eating a probiotic to help with digest with digestion. But if somebody’s still eating dairy and it’s causing irritation they may think that it has nothing to do with it because it may not be acute. , but these symptoms, because there is a delayed biological reaction.

The important thing is like maybe to cut it out of the diet we see a lot of skin problems, eczema, psoriasis, right? Rashes, just itchy skin. We can blame it on the dry weather or we can blame it on something. . But if the patient is eating milk products, that more than likely that is contributing to the skin irritation.

We also see a lot of headaches and migraines. . And that can also be attributed to sensitivity to gluten. However dairy is really sneaky, right? Because we can put it in our coffee or tea or some in some other way. And we don’t really think of it as like the problem because it could be, we had it a couple days ago.

Dairy intolerance can cause a lot of weight gain swelling, a lot of inflammation. Also things like anxiety. , right? Any kind of food intolerance creates inflammation and then can actually affect our chemistry, fatigue, joint pain, even difficulty breathing, right? Because the inflammation is going to irritate also the lungs.

All right. I’d be very interested this is the end of the slide. If have any comments or questions what are you doing with your patients if there is something that you want to learn more about. I have started to do a lot more research into all the food that I eat.

Certain things when you’re making choices to really make those switches. And so the more you, the more you research the smarter you are and you can share with your patients. So I would like to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for the live stream. And I hope to see you in the future.

And I’m not sure who the next person is gonna be on for our presentations, but I hope everyone is gonna have a really happy holiday and a very healthy 2023.