Tag: weight loss

Eating Disorders and Chinese Medicine

 

From time to time we’re asked whether acupuncture can help someone with an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or obsessive overeating.  As with any condition, there is no one size fits all—everyone is different and heals at their own pace and in their own way.  That said, at Acupuncture in the Park, we have worked with a number of patients who have suffered with eating disorders and who have been helped—sometimes dramatically so—from acupuncture.

Each person with an eating disorder comes with a unique set of circumstances, and can have one (or more) of a variety of  imbalances in Chinese medicine.  However, whether the condition is anorexia, bulimia, overeating, pathological food restriction, or night eating, in Chinese medicine the following organs are affected by eating disorders:

Heart.  While you tend to think of your Heart as something that primarily pumps blood and is prone to heart attacks as you get older, the Heart organ system in Chinese medicine houses something called the Shen.  The Shen is the home to your mind, memory, consciousness, and spirit.  While these functions are attributed to the brain in Western medicine, we tend to intuitively know that the Heart is also an organ of feeling.  (Think valentines, having a “broken heart” or heartfelt thanks.)

As an organ of emotion and spirituality, there is always some level of Shen imbalance in people who are struggling with an eating disorder.  We believe that your approach to eating mirrors your approach to life, and if you’re binging, vomiting, not eating, or unhealthily restricting your food intake, your heart and spirit are as out of balance as your physical body.  In Chinese medicine, an eating disorder would be considered a Shen disturbance.

Liver.  Your Chinese Liver system is also concerned with emotions.  The Liver is responsible for the smooth flow of everything in your body, including your emotions. When what you desire is very different from the reality of your life, it can evoke strong feelings of anger, frustration, and low self-worth.   When those feelings are constantly suppressed, Liver energy becomes stuck and can show up as irritability, angry outbursts, and yes,  pathological eating.  In some people, especially those with eating disorders, strong emotions are turned inward and may also become depression and anxiety.  In the patients we’ve treated with eating disorders, there is always some element of Liver stagnation.

Spleen.  The organ system most damaged by eating disorders is your Chinese Spleen.   Paired with the Stomach, your Spleen is responsible for the process of taking in food, digesting it, and converting it into the energy and nutrients your body needs to function on an everyday basis.  Your Spleen is also in charge of holding things in and up in your body.

An eating disorder can damage your Spleen in a couple of ways.  First, the digestive process can be impaired, even years after an eating disorder, causing symptoms such as stomachaches, gas, heartburn, constipation or loose stools, and even lack of energy or fatigue. 

In addition, we have seen in a couple of women in our clinic who have recovered from their eating disorder, but who have damaged the holding function of their Spleen.  This has shown up in an ability to become pregnant, but a tendency towards miscarriages (an inability to “hold” the fetus).  Another sign of damage to the Spleen is easy bruising, as the blood isn’t being “held” in the vessels very well, and chronic diarrhea as…well, you get the point.

Kidney.  Your Chinese Kidney is the home to all the vital substances in your body—Yin and Yang, Qi and Blood, and Essence, which is kind of like your DNA and body constitution all wrapped into one.  Your body constitution is a gauge of how healthy you are, and it’s affected by how you live your life.  For example, you may be a big, strong and healthy person who damages your health by partying, eating poorly and skimping on sleep—all things that can deplete your body constitution.  In contrast, you may be smaller and not be as strong, but if you guard your health by eating well, sleeping, etc. you may live to reach a ripe old age.

My point is this—eating disorders damage your body constitution, and as a result, the health of your Chinese Kidney.

The good news is that if you are suffering from an eating disorder or have a history of an eating disorder, all is not lost.  First, you need help from a mental health professional who is skilled in treating people with eating disorders.  Then, when you are ready to get your body back into balance and repair the damage, Chinese medicine, through the use of acupuncture and herbs, can help by calming your Shen, soothing your Liver, strengthening your Spleen, and rebuilding and strengthening your Kidney.

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Twenty Weight Loss Tips You Can Live With

 

Do you have certain articles of clothing in your closet that seem to shrink every winter?  They fit when you wore them the previous summer, but after a long winter, does every pair of shorts you own betray you by not getting past your hips?

It’s hard to admit that you may have had a hand in this, and your clothes may not actually be shrinking over the winter. It may be hard to own up to the fact that you’ve eaten a few too many acorns over the winter.  And, rather than buy a whole new wardrobe, you may need to drop a few pounds. 

While losing a few pounds may sound simple on paper, we all know it’s not easy. Most of us have tried to lose weight at one time or another—some of us actually are successful; some struggle with weight on a daily basis; and some have just given up.  Through personal experience and by working with many patients who have figured out how to lose or maintain their weight successfully, here are our best weight loss tips: 

  1. Eat breakfast.  Get up in time to have a breakfast that includes whole grains and a little protein; it’s the best way to get through the morning without hunger pangs, sugar cravings, and low blood sugar.
  2. Plan ahead.  You know you’re going to come home from work hungry.  It’s a given that you’ll eat lunch tomorrow.  It’s not that difficult to plan for those meals and have something healthy on hand.  Stock your refrigerator and pantry with healthy foods that you like.  You can also make meals ahead of time and freeze them in meal-sized portions.
  3. Watch what you’re drinking.  For some reason, many people think that if they drink it, the calories don’t count.  Think again.  Fruit juice, alcohol, pop, lattés, and chocolate milk all have the potential to derail your weight loss efforts.
  4. Make small changes you can sustain.  While you may not be able to stick to a strict plan, you can cut out that pop you have every day with lunch.  And while you may be too busy to get to the gym, you can take the stairs to your office on the sixth floor. 
  5. Think lifestyle, not diet.  A diet is something you undertake for a limited period of time.  When you reach your goal, you go off your diet.  (And weight inexplicably reappears).  However, if you think about making lifestyle changes, you will need to choose those that you can maintain for the rest of your life.  This tip goes hand in hand with the one above—make only those changes that feel doable long-term.
  6. Quit snacking.  Or if you must snack, plan ahead and have healthy snacks on hand.
  7. Pack your lunch.  If you buy your lunch each day, you are eating one meal out of three in which you have no control over the ingredients, caloric content, preparation, portion size, or freshness. Think about it.
  8. Get your emotions under control.  Strong emotions, especially stress, cause an imbalance in a number of hormones in your body, including cortisol and insulin.  These changes mess with how you metabolize food, cause you to gain weight around the middle, and cause cravings for those fat-laden sugar bombs that you always regret eating.
  9. Get moving.  Exercise is key to losing weight.  It burns calories, relieves stress, helps you sleep better at night, and dampens your appetite.  Bonus tip:  Build muscle by lifting weights.  Muscles burn more calories than fat.
  10. Eat for good digestion.  You may be eating the healthiest diet in the world, but if your digestion is funky, you might as well be ordering your meals at the McDonald’s drive through. If you have heartburn, gas, rumbling, bloating, constipation, loose stools, stomachaches, or nausea, your digestion could definitely be better. In Chinese medicine, poor digestion is one of the most common contributors to weight gain. The first step to better digestion is to slow down and chew your food.  The second is to prepare your foods in a way that they will be better digested.  Generally cooked foods, in the form of soups, stews, stir fries, and fruit compotes take less energy  and are easier to digest than cold or raw foods.
  11. Eat foods that are locally grown and in season.  First of all, they taste better than something that’s been on a truck for the past week.  Second, according to Chinese medicine, foods should be eaten during the season in which they are grown.  For example, during the spring, your diet should be full of rich green shoots and baby lettuce.  In contrast, during late summer and early fall, you should be eating the yellow and orange veggies, like carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and corn.  Trust me on this—it’s better for you.
  12. East mostly vegetables and fruits with whole grains, a little protein, and small amounts of everything else.  This is the ideal diet according to Chinese medicine.
  13. There are really no bad foods unless you eat them all the time.  We tend to label foods as heroes and villains, and sometimes try cut out entire food groups we perceive as unhealthy.  However, we need fat in our diet; we need carbohydrates; and we need protein.  So, while you may want to beat yourself up over that doughnut you had at yesterday’s staff meeting, in reality, once in a while won’t kill you, so get past it.
  14. Exception to the above tip:  Grease-laden fast foods.
  15. Set attainable goals. If you have a lot of weight to lose, it can feel overwhelming to set a goal to lose it all at once.  However, if you set a goal to lose ten pounds, and once that’s done, then lose ten more, you’re less likely to give up, and more likely to feel successful with each goal you reach.
  16. Don’t go to a party hungry. Ditto for the grocery store and out with friends.  In every situation, your hunger will derail all your good intentions, especially when combined with cocktails.
  17. Eat foods that haven’t been processed to death.  There are a couple of tipping points here.  If you look at the label on the package and it lists more than ten ingredients, put it back on the shelf.  Also, if the food is unrecognizable as to what it once was, put it back. 
  18. Try something new.  Check out some new recipes, try a food you’ve never eaten, rethink your meal menus, and try a new grocery store or farmer’s market. It will bring you new motivation to eat more healthfully.
  19. There is no magic bullet or miracle food.  There are lots of good, healthy foods, but there is no one single food that you can eat every day that will peel off the pounds, give you boundless energy, immortality, and keep you disease-free.  For those things (except the immortality), you need an assortment of foods, with their variety of nutrients.
  20. Eat as many differently colored foods each day as possible.  This is especially true for darkly colored foods. The colors in natural foods represent their inherent nutrients. Think red peppers, tomatoes, cherries, grapes, blueberries, dark leafy greens, yellow squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, black beans, sea vegetables, eggplant, white mushrooms, turnips, and brown rice.  You can’t go wrong.

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