Good morning dear readers,

Today our text is dedicated to talk a little about Diet Therapy and Phytotherapy and their importance in the practice of Chinese Medicine.

In Chinese Medicine, diseases are classified as Excess or Deficiency, and what does that mean?

Excess Diseases are those in which there is stagnation of Qi and/or Blood or the presence of Pathogenic Factors (heat, dampness, dryness, cold, wind or phlegm). In many cases, stagnation occurs due to the presence of one of these pathogenic factors. From this definition, we can say that to treat a patient who is suffering from an excess condition, all the therapist has to do is move the stagnations and remove the pathogenic factors when they exist.

For this, there are acupuncture points with these energetic actions:

• Remove Heat, Damp, Wind and Phlegm
• Move the Qi
• Move the Blood

The points must be chosen according to the blocks and existing pathogenic factors and the patient’s improvement is very fast, and can be noticed even in the first acupuncture session.

Deficiency Diseases are characterized by deficient production of Qi, Blood and/or Body Fluids. The body, for some internal and chronic reason, is no longer able to carry out the necessary transformations to obtain these vital substances.

There are also acupuncture points to treat these issues, with the following energetic actions:

• Tonify the Qi
• Tonify the Blood
• Tonify Body Fluids

However, Deficiency Diseases are considered more difficult to treat, because just using the points, without giving the body the raw material for the production of vital substances, will not bring the expected results in the treatment.

It is, at this moment, that Diet Therapy and Phytotherapy become extremely important for the Chinese Medicine professional. Only through the correctly indicated Foods and Herbs used as medicine we will have the opportunity to provide the body with what it needs, to produce what it needs and the acupuncture points will only organize its production.

In some literatures we find phrases such as: “It is impossible to treat Deficiency Diseases only with Acupuncture” or even “Diet Therapy and Phytotherapy are the main forms of treatment of Deficiency Diseases”.

For this reason, if you are a Chinese Medicine therapist and do not have the knowledge to apply Chinese Therapeutic Food or Phytotherapy, know that having this knowledge is essential, and when applied, it will beneficially affect the results in your office.

The following are very common Diseases / Deficiency Syndromes that appear in our office:

• Infertility – Liver or Spleen Blood Deficiency or Kidney Yin Deficiency
• Anemia – Deficiency of Spleen Blood.
• Amenorrhea – Deficiency of Blood in the Spleen or Liver.
• Chronic Fatigue – Deficiency of Yin or Kidney Qi or Spleen Qi
• Body weight problems/Water retention: Deficient Spleen Qi
• Chronic Cough / Dry Skin – Lung Yin Deficiency

And many other examples could be given.

Thus, we can conclude that each food and each herb can and should be indicated to the patient according to the existing Deficiency, until, together with the acupuncture points, the body is able to resume the production of the deficient vital substance, restoring the health of the patient. As soon as the patient is no longer in the state of Deficiency, the therapist must reassess the need to maintain the treatment with diet therapy and phytotherapy.

I hope you enjoyed it and that you are encouraged to study the areas that are still deficient for you!
A big hug.

Fernanda Mara

Good morning Dear Readers,

Today we are going to talk a little about Chinese Therapeutic Food and its variations in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Also known as Chinese Diet Therapy, this treatment resource is widely used within eastern therapies to promote the patient’s energy balance.  As we are talking about energy, its indications and contraindications are very different from western diet therapy.

So be aware, reader: Therapeutic Food/Chinese Diet Therapy is NOT the same thing as a Western diet, recommended by a nutritionist, so every professional trained in Chinese Medicine can prescribe this type of treatment.

But let’s go by parts.

Food can be indicated in several ways, namely:

1) Food Color

Foods have colors that are associated with the energy balance frequency of specific organs and viscera. When there is a deficiency in the functioning of these organs and viscera, the patient should be asked to consume foods that have the color corresponding to their energy frequency:

• Red – Heart and Small Intestine.
• Yellow – Spleen and Stomach
• Whites – Lung
• Dark purples, blacks – Kidney and Bladder
• Greens – Liver and Gallbladder

This technique is the easiest to use and we use it most of the time for toning the organs and viscera. It can also be applied according to the 5 Elements rules, indicating and against indicating the colors according to the patient’s need.

2) Taste of Food

Just like the colors, each flavor has an energetic connection with each organ and viscera. When there is a malfunction of one of them, the corresponding flavor can be indicated:

• Sour – Heart and Small Intestine.
• Sweet – Spleen and Stomach
• Spicy – Lungs and Large Intestine
• Salty – Kidney and Bladder
• Acid – Liver and Gallbladder.

It is very important for the therapist to know that often what we feel in the mouth is not always the classification of food by flavors. For example, rice, which we tend to think of as salty, has a sweet essence. Milk, which we tend to think of as something neutral, is acid. Therefore, the therapist must follow tables so as not to make a mistake when prescribing.

Still following the same technique of colors, flavors can be indicated directly to organs and viscera when they are in deficiency and have the potential to rebalance energy when using the laws of the 5 Elements.

3) Thermic Essence of Food

The Thermal Essence of Food is the best way to indicate and contraindicate foods when the therapist works, in Chinese Medicine, with evaluation through Syndromes.

Food is divided into Cold, Fresh, Neutral, Warm and Hot and for each of the Elements there is a table with these subdivisions.

As a rule:

• Cold foods – solve heat illness
• Fresh Food – cools the heat and produces fluids (including Blood)
• Neutral Foods – balances Qi and Blood
• Warm foods – move Qi and Blood and warm the cold.
• Hot Foods – solve cold diseases.

Thus, the therapist, knowing which syndrome the patient is suffering from, will be able to properly indicate the food according to its thermal essence in the amount and number of days that is necessary.

In summary, there are many ways to treat the patient using Therapeutic Food. All of them bring many benefits to patients and are often the best resource that can be indicated in the cure and prevention of some energy imbalances.

I hope you liked the text.

A big hug.

Fernanda Mara

Good morning dear readers,

I know how much you like a tongue assessment, so today I’m going to write a little with Tongue, which presents a fissure at the tip

In Chinese Medicine you know that the tongue is a microsystem, that is, it is a region of the body that has a representation of the rest of the whole body. The tip of the tongue represents the Heart. So we can imagine that a patient who already have a fissure on the tip of the tongue can suffer with physical, emotional or energetic Heart imbalance.

We usually make the tongue assessment through its color, shape and condition of the coating (white covering of the tongue).

Thus, the fissure belongs to the assessment of shape change. A fissure shows that the tongue is not in its normal condition. The energy that maintains the contours of the body’s structures, including the tongue, is Yin energy.

Whenever we have a change in body form or structure, that includes a change in the efficiency of Yin Energy. Thus, a fissure in the tongue represents a Deficiency of Yin Energy of the reflex organ that occupies the position of the tongue in question, that is, if at the tip, a Deficiency of Yin of the Heart.

Yin energy represents cold, fluids, humidity. Therefore, when in Deficiency, it will produce symptoms of heat and dryness.

This fissure is at the tip, so we must think of symptoms of heat and dryness affecting the Heart and Heart, in addition to controlling blood circulation, it is extremely important with regard to the patient’s behavior and mental balance. It also controls sleep and speech.

So, thinking: with a deficiency of  the Yin of the Heart, the symptoms can be high heart rate, high blood pressure, restless mind, anxiety attacks, racing thoughts, lack of focus, frequent alertness, will talk too much and talk loud.

Obviously, the patient mentioned may not have all the symptoms, but without a doubt this knowledge is important to begin the diagnosis.

Other aspects of this tongue would be interesting to discuss, however, today the idea was to focus only on the tip.

I hope you enjoyed the analysis and tell us on our instagram page @facilitandoacupuntura if you want others like this one.

A big hug,

Fernanda Mara

Good morning Readers,

This week we celebrate “Acupuncturist Day”, here in Brazil. This date was created to exalt the importance of us Chinese Medicine professionals in the health of so many people.

Acupuncture is known to have many benefits, such as the ability to relieve pain, calm anxiety and stress, help with fertility and labor, improve sleep quality among many other benefits.

But, does acupuncture have scientific proof? Can we be Acupuncturists who work based on the Philosophy of Chinese Medicine but also based on Scientific Evidence?

The answer to these two questions is YES.

Today, there is a lot of quality scientific research proving the effectiveness of Acupuncture. When we write on the “Google Scholar” channel, specialized in scientific articles, the words “Benefits + Acupuncture”, in a few seconds, return more than 60 million results.

Today, using the database of the website https://www.evidencebasedacupuncture.org/ I will talk about some scientific results of the benefits of Acupuncture:

Pediatrics – Nocturnal Enuresis

A 2017 study evaluated 22 patients between the ages of 6 and 22 and found that acupuncture benefited nocturnal enuresis symptoms, as well as improved sleep and quality of life.
These results were supported by a 2015 review in which 21 studies were surveyed in which 1,590 patients showed encouraging results for acupuncture as a treatment for nocturnal enuresis. Outcome measures included the number of weekly wet nights and the maximum voided volume. (References 1 and 2)

Mental Health – Anxiety

According to the most up-to-date evidence, acupuncture is an effective treatment for anxiety. In 2017, The Acupuncture Evidence Project, co-authored by Dr. John McDonald, PhD and Dr. Stephen Janz, has been published, providing an up-to-date comparative review of the clinical and scientific evidence for acupuncture. This document determined that acupuncture is effective in treating anxiety according to high-level evidence. The largest of these studies, which included 120 randomized patients, found that acupuncture had a large effect in reducing anxiety and depression compared with conventional treatment involving pharmacological approaches and psychotherapy, with a more than doubling reduction in symptoms. (References: 3, 4, 5 and 6)

Respiratory System – Allergic Rhinitis

A review of studies of 12 randomized controlled trials, with a frequency of between two and five treatments per week, showed that real acupuncture was significantly more effective than sham acupuncture (8 studies) and medication (4 studies).
Symptoms continued to improve after treatment for up to 3 months. Studies measuring changes in the immune system also reported significant reductions in inflammatory mediators, including substance P (SP), vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), interleukin 4, and mite-specific IgE. Acupuncture has been recommended in the Otolaryngology Head Neck Surgery Foundation’s Allergic Rhinitis Clinical Practice Guideline in the USA as a treatment option for those who prefer a non-pharmacological treatment. (References: 6, to 10)

Pain Control

For chronic pain, the largest study to date showed that 454,920 patients were treated with acupuncture for headache, low back pain, and/or osteoarthritis in an open-label pragmatic study. Efficacy was rated as marked or moderate in 76% of cases by the 8,727 attending physicians. In a 2-year retrospective survey of over 89,000 patients published in 2016, 93% of patients said their acupuncturist was successful in treating their musculoskeletal pain. (References 11 and 12).

I’m sure that after these few articles mentioned here, many will seek deeper knowledge in Acupuncture, others will have the courage to go ahead with their research. And most importantly, the general population, including patients and health professionals, can be informed that Acupuncture is not a belief, but a science with proven data and with much still to offer and prove.

I hope you enjoyed my simple tribute to Acupuncturist Day.

I especially thank teacher Sandro Graça who created and maintains the scientific channel of knowledge mentioned in this text (Evidence Based Acupuncture).

A big hug to everyone.

Fernanda Mara

References:

Good morning Readers,

Today we are going to talk a little about emotional trauma. After 2 years going through a Covid 19 pandemic and currently following a moment of war in Europe, certainly talking about emotional trauma is really relevant.

Let’s start by defining what emotional trauma is. According to the psychologist Luciene Fogaça (at https://psicologaluciene.com.br/traumas-emocionais-e-psicologicos/): “emotional traumas are sequelae left by situations that caused suffering or pain, whether emotional or physical, of which the consequences were so great that they end up affecting the person’s thinking and behavior”.

Emotional trauma is very common in people who have been through situations of aggression, violence, rape, illness, accidents, assaults, betrayals, death of close people, etc.

In Western Medicine, there is no single explanation for emotional trauma. What leaves one person traumatized may not traumatize another person. As well as symptoms and treatment will also depend on each case. However, it can be said that some symptoms are more common in traumatized people. According to the psychologist Luciene Fogaça, these symptoms include: insomnia, outbreaks of anger, isolation from social life, the feeling of running away from situations that remind the trauma and the constant memory of the traumatic situation, whether in dreams or during the day when awake. When it becomes even more problematic, the symptoms can also be associated with depression and anxiety.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, emotional trauma directly affects the Kidney. The Kidney is considered the organ that represents our vital energy (Jing) in addition to being the transformer of our Original Energy (Yuan Qi).

THE JING

Jing is nothing more than our essence energy, part of our DNA and linked to our genetic inheritance. It is not energy that can be replenished. Naturally, we lose Jing throughout life, physiologically, and its depletion leads to death. When we suffer an emotional trauma, there is an expenditure of Jing greater than what is considered normal and when the patient’s energy is not rebalanced and the trauma is not treated, symptoms of premature aging, lack of will towards life and deep depression may occur. Therefore, in cases of trauma, it is necessary for the acupuncturist to protect the patient’s Jing.

For this we indicate the acupuncture points:

• Ren4 – 4 fingers below the navel
• The opening and closing points of the Conception Vessel (LU7 and KI6) – being LU7 – 3 fingers away from the wrist crease towards the thumb and KI6 in the inferior curve of the medial malleolus.
• KI9 – 6 fingers above KI3 (which is between the medial malleolus and the Achilles tendon) this point regulates the function of the Kidney, protects the essence and even blocks the passage of traumas that a woman can supposedly go through during pregnancy, to the baby .

Neutral foods for the Water Element should be consumed at least 1x a day until the patient feels more confident about the situation that caused the trauma. The food table can be found at: https://www.facilitatingacupuncture.com/therapeutic-food-tables/

THE YUAN IQ

The Original Energy, produced in the Kidney, is the product of the mixture of the Jing with the Nutritive Energy (Ying Qi), produced by the Lungs. This energy circulates through all our meridians and is the perfect union between the energies we receive at birth (Pre-Celestial) and the one we acquire after birth (Post-Celestial or Acquired Energy).

As we already know, emotional traumas affect Jing, therefore, the transformation of Yuan Qi will be affected. In this way, the patient may feel weakened and discouraged. As part of the Nutritive Energy will not be used, the Lungs will produce it in less quantity, being also affected. Thus, the patient may have respiratory problems, such as recurrent sinusitis, asthma, rhinitis; skin problems such as acne, skin dryness, in addition to emotional problems with the Lung, such as: frustration, anguish, permanent feeling of mourning.

To treat the patient, we can start by strengthening the Jing, with the points mentioned above, and add the following points:

• KI4 – 0.5 tsun below K3, this point strengthens the Kidney’s energy reception from the Lungs.
• KI27 – 3 fingers on the side of the midline of the body, on the lower edge of the clavicle. This point causes the energy of the Lungs to descend and be used correctly by the Kidneys.
• LU9 – in the bend of the wrist towards the palm of the hand and thumb, this point will strengthen the Lung.

In addition to neutral foods for the Water Element, Neutral Foods for the Metal Element are indicated.

In addition to the points mentioned above, the therapist can treat points he deems necessary to calm the patient, open the orifices of the mind, give courage, improve optimism, as well as many others. In this list we can mention respectively: PC6, PC7, GB40 and GB41, DU20, etc.

Emotional trauma needs to be treated and resolved so that the patient has quality of life again and can move forward without the shackles of the past.

Hope I helped you all.

A big hug.

Fernanda Mara

Hello dear Readers!

In this new wave of the Omicron variant of Covid 19, I have received many patients with sequelae of Fatigue. Have you ever wondered, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, what does this mean? Why can a disease that primarily affects the Lungs cause such extreme fatigue?

Let’s think according to the 5 Elements to better understand what is happening with our patients.

In Chinese Medicine we know that the Lung is the body’s biggest energy producer. This is because the Lungs is responsible for producing Defense Energy (Wei Qi) and Nutritive Energy (Yin Qi) through the union of Air and Food Energies (Gu Qi).

When the individual contracts Covid, the Lung will be affected even if there are no severe symptoms. The Omicron variant has been classified as a milder form of the disease (even though severe cases are still reported) and its main symptoms are mild upper respiratory system respiratory problems and fatigue.

Many patients report not being able to do simple things like talking on the phone, doing the dishes or playing the piano. And unlike the first version, what the patient reports is tiredness, not shortness of breath.

As the Lung is responsible for the body’s high energy production, when affected, it will try to correct its production and balanced functioning using the strength of its mother organ, that is, the Spleen. The Spleen, in turn, is responsible for capturing energy from food, and at first it will try to help the Lung in reestablishing their functions, however, with the average duration of the illness being 10 days, the Spleen becomes overloaded, not being able to perform its functions, among them, sending Gu Qi so that the Lungs work again.

Thus, fatigue is installed in the body, due to a low energy production and a low use of food.

Following the Spleen, the Stomach will be impaired. As the first viscera with a digestive function, the Stomach is responsible for breaking down food, maturing it and sending it to the Spleen to extract its essences. Since the Spleen will be weak and overloaded, it will not be able to carry out the reception of matter that comes from the Stomach.

Without reception by the Spleen, the Stomach diminishes its functions, as its work will not be efficiently used by the Spleen. With a deficient Stomach, the patient will have tiredness, lack of appetite, difficulty in digestion, intestinal malfunction, decreased production of Yin fluids by the Stomach, which will result in dry mouth, burning in the stomach and in more severe cases, persistent fever.

When the Stomach weakens, the entire energy-forming chair is broken, so the patient’s tiredness is severe. It is important, therefore, that the therapist knows how to evaluate and treat a post-Covid patient, not only strengthening his Lung, but also the Spleen and Stomach.

I suggest the following points:

• To strengthen the Lungs: Lu7, Lu9, CV17, in auriculotherapy, Lung point.
• To strengthen the Spleen: SP2, SP3, in auriculotherapy, Spleen point.
• To strengthen the Stomach: CV15, CV12, ST36 and SP6, in auriculotherapy, Stomach point.

Once the function of the Spleen is reestablished, which will be able to capture the energy of the Stomach and strengthening the Lungs so that it no longer steals the energy from the Spleen in excess, the patient will be able to resume normal energy production and the symptom of tiredness. and fatigue will resolve more quickly.

Hope it was helpful.

A big hug to everyone.

Fernanda Mara

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Good morning Dear Readers!

Today we are going to talk about 3 feelings that have appeared very intensely in acupuncture offices: Anxiety, Fear and Insecurity.

For Chinese Medicine, each organ has a relationship with a specific feeling and also with its consequences, that is, its imbalances.

We consider Anxiety a normal feeling when it occurs because of good things that are to come in a person’s life, but the kind that doesn’t take sleep, doesn’t generate palpitations or any type of symptom that resembles something negative. We say the same about Fear. Fear is considered absolutely normal when it’s related to our survival instinct, when we stop doing something because it could put our lives at risk. Insecurity, on the other hand, is one of the consequences of Fear, which shows that some organ is out of balance.

When Anxiety an imbalance,  is related, most of the time, to the Heart Heat. Thus, anxious patients have palpitations, cold sweat, insomnia or very light sleep. The tongue of the patient in this condition will have a darker red tip than the rest and there may be petechiae.

When the patient remains in a state of anxiety for a long time, we say that the Heat of the Fire Element (which represents the Heart) rises all the way to the head and dominates the individual’s mind, causing incoherent thoughts, lack of logical reasoning, lack of discernment.

With all energy concentrated at the top, that is, in the head, there is a difficulty for the energy of the rest of the body to circulate, generating several imbalances, especially in the Kidney.

In a normal situation, the Water Element (which represents the Kidney) dominates the Fire Element, literally “squeezing out” its excesses, however, when the anxiety is too great and maintained for a long period of time, the counter-dominance phenomenon begins to happen and, instead of the Water extinguishing the Fire, we have a situation where the Fire dries up the water in the Kidneys.

And what does that mean?

The kidney has two energies: the Yin and the Yang. Yin represents the body fluids and vital essence, and Yang the ability to heat and move fluids and essence throughout the body. When there is a Fire insulting Water, 3 situations can happen, in the following sequence:

1. Kidney Yin Deficiency – when Heart Heat consumes body fluids. The individual will become even more agitated mentally, will have symptoms of dryness, such as: little urine, dry skin, dry hair, etc. He will also experience lower back and knee pain, night heat, and develop fears with no known cause, such as Panic Syndrome or attacks. This is because the vital essence is reached in this case.

2. Deficient Kidney Yang – the Heart Heat trapped in the head is not able to nourish the Kidney Yang, which is deficient, does not move the  Yin, leaving the fluids concentrated in the lower heater. In this case, the patient will have symptoms of cold, such as cold lower back and knees, high amounts of urine (which can even lead to urine loss), lack of libido, infertility, etc. And the patient will feel insecure about taking action and moving through life. He will often settle into an uncomfortable situation for fear of taking action. (Yang is the energy of movement in our lives).

3. Deficiency of Kidney Qi – over the years, when the patient does not treat Chronic Anxiety, the initial cause of Heart Heat, that can lead to the 2 previous deficiencies, the Kidney, no longer able to work properly, enters a state of Deficiency of Qi, which is nothing more than a Deficiency of Yin and Yang at the same time. All the symptoms described above add up.

Perhaps you have noticed that over the years we have become less courageous. It is very common to hear phrases like: “when I was younger I had the courage to do this, but today I think I was crazy when I was young…”

This is because over time, the vital essence from the Kidneys physiologically decreases, so fears naturally increase. If the patient becomes an anxious adult, the fears will become more intense than bearable throughout life.

Therefore, dear readers, when a patient arrives at the office complaining of insecurity or fear, check if these feelings are not caused by uncontrolled anxiety, generating Fire in the Heart.

Hope I have helped in your understanding.

A big hug!

Prof. Fernanda

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Dear readers,

Today let’s talk a bit about breastfeeding and some consequences the women might suffer during such a special period.

In Chinese Medicine, we say that mother milk isn’t just a food for the physical body, but also for the psychic and spiritual body of the baby. That is because the mother milk, from Oriental point of view, is made from Body Fluids, Blood and mother’s Essence.

Fluids are those that give the milk viscosity and allow it to circulate. Blood is the vital fluid which carries spirits that really give life encouragement and life to a new being, it is said that blood possesses celestial energy. The essences however, are the energy that rule the base, we can compare them to human genetics, being transmitted from parents to child.

With this in mind, we can observe the nobility in mother milk composition, according to Chinese Medicine. But, does such nobility and care on production consume the mother’s energy? Leading to energetic and lately physical unbalances?

The answer: Yes.

When the mother is on breastfeeding period, the bigger amount of energy absorbed from food, will be designated to blood and mother milk formation. As well as, mother’s essences and the fluids consumed, which are still being used. Thus, the mother will feel more hungry, and will need high quality aliments, many times in more quantity due to the fact that she is nourishing not only her body but the baby’s too.

If there is not adequate or sufficient alimentation, the mother might use her own vital fluids to compensate in the milk production, that is, may suffer from Spleen Blood Deficiency and the excessive spent will lead to Deficiency in Kidney’s Yin.

In case we add that up with emotional stress and overwork, the mother may develop these syndromes even more easily.

In order to avoid that such syndromes occur, we can as prevention, recommend:

1. Diet Therapy:

Recommend to the mother, consumption of fresh foods for the Elements Earth, Wood and Water, thus making Blood and Yin formation easier, improving Spleen, Liver and Kidney functions.

Besides that, roots are always welcome, to improve blood production.

2. Acupuncture Points:

It’s important that, with the diet improvement, the body is able to use the aliments to produce more Blood and dispatch more energy. The acupuncture points can help those functions. I suggest:

• SP6 and SP8: tone Spleen blood
• LV8: tone Liver blood
• KI6 and CV4: tone Kidney’s Yin energy

Avoiding the Deficiency Syndromes, the mother will be able to breastfeed the baby for a longer time, with good and health milk volume. The milk will always be rich and give the baby the opportunity to grow and develop healthier and with improved immunity.

Remember: we must be even more careful about we women who choose for free demand. 

I hope that you liked it.

My warmest regards.

Fernanda Mara

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