In this, the third part of the
series on acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I am going to be speaking about
what are probably the two most common organs that are negatively affected by
the average American lifestyle; the Spleen and the Liver. Before I get into that, I would recommend
reading over the first blog in the series to get some background information,
you can do so by following this link. I
also want to reiterate that when I mention an organ in Chinese medicine, I am
talking about a set of jobs and not the piece of meat in your body (the Liver
versus your liver).
Firstly, I want to go over the
Liver. The Liver is in charge of the
smooth flow of Qi throughout the body, and for women, it stores the menstrual
blood. It is also affected by irritability
and anger. I often give the analogy of
driving and traffic; when the roads are open and everyone is moving, then
things are good. During rush hour
though, traffic is blocked and nothing is moving, we get stressed and
angry. Common problems stemming from a
blocked Liver can be headaches, high blood pressure, any issue which seems to
get worse with stress (such as headaches or digestion), and for women a variety
of menstrual symptoms which include cramping, breast tenderness, headaches,
irritability, loose stools, clotting, irregular menstruation and more.
An important note when coming to
acupuncture for stress relief (which is what most people say when they have
Liver issues), Chinese medicine cannot take the stressors from your life, but
when you are healthier and your body is functioning better, then you can handle
more and those issues that were too much for you before are now much easier to
handle. The body gets stressed when it
cannot handle what is being thrown at it; by strengthening the body, it can
handle more. The biggest change you can
make in your life to help benefit the Liver is to move around. Cardio (whether it be biking, martial arts,
yoga, treadmill or an elliptical) is great for the Liver because you are
essentially helping the Liver with its job, you are getting energy flowing
throughout the whole body at once. Even
going for a walk is enough to help get things moving.
Exercise is great, it helps the
Liver a ton, and every physician you talk to will say the two most important
things for a healthy life are a good diet and proper exercise. We have just talked about the Liver and how
moving around can help out, now I want to discuss the Spleen and the importance
of a proper diet. The Spleen is in
charge of digestion, turning food into energy for the body, holding things (the
blood, muscles, organs, etc.) in place (raising, or uplifting, of Qi), and the
muscles and is harmed by overthinking, or constantly worrying. Common problems stemming from Spleen weakness
are digestive upset (gas, bloating, loose stool, constipation, tiredness after
eating, and more), heavy or sluggish feeling in the body, fuzzy thinking or
mental sluggishness, organ prolapse and fatigue.
Many patients I see tend to have
some form of digestive issue and this is in large part because the standard
American diet has a lot of processed foods and chemical additives which the
body is not used to digesting. As the
body tries to break down the food, it comes to these additives which it does
not know how to quickly break down, and as a result they get stored in the body
as what we call Dampness, or unhealthy fluids.
These unhealthy fluids can cause all manner of problems (many of those
listed above) as well as just sitting around as extra weight. Natural and organic foods are much easier for
the body to digest (our bodies have been doing so for thousands of years), and
cooked foods are easier still because the body does not need to heat them up
(as is the case with cold or raw foods).
I hope this helps you understand
the importance of diet and exercise, and how it relates to Chinese medicine. Sometimes, though, we
have good diets and move around but still have these issues; this is where
Chinese medicine can make a large impact.
Diet and exercise are the broad strokes we use to get and stay healthy,
but sometimes we need to get more specific to tackle certain issues. Acupuncture and herbal medicine can do a lot
to fix these issues and lead to a healthier, happier and less stressful life.
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