TCM - patterns of illness, rebalancing health with synergistic herbal blends. Congestion tips & more essential oils.

NOVOS Labs article on dairy milk & aging; and an update about my Substack subscription pledges.

A helpful site for Traditional Chinese Medicine information was shared in the comments - many thanks to Nattering Naybob.

• Liver Qi Stagnation, a pattern of health treated with recommended diet changes and use of an herbal blend: (meandqi.com/tcm-education-center/patterns/liver-qi-stagnation)

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese Medicine is thousands of years old compared to modern Western medicine. The idea of Qi/chi/aether energy flow is an accepted part of TCM health care along with use of acupuncture or acupressure. Restoring balance and flow to the energy within our body is a major goal of care. Herbal remedies are mixtures blended to work together synergistically - better together than any one would be alone for the person’s needs. It is much more individualized too - a blend is used with consideration of the range of symptoms the person is having rather than one blend always being considered ‘the treatment’ for one specific type of condition. Different blends might be used for the same condition in different people based on other symptoms they also are having.

Patterns of symptoms are considered when picking the blend that may be most therapeutic. I may have Stagnant Kidney Qi or Rebellious Liver Qi based on the pattern descriptions. Isn’t that more fun than ‘venous insufficiency’?

Symptom detail is much more specific than in Western medicine, more similar to how a Homeopathic remedy is selected - does the person feel better in the cold or worse? Can’t tolerate heat? Mood details? Tongue appearance? Hiccupping? Belching? Leg swelling? Worse after strenuous exercise or sexual activity? and so on. . . getting into levels of detail that can seem kind of silly until you happen on the list that goes, ding, ding, ding - that is me looking in a mirror!

The Stagnant Kidney Qi or Stomach pattern said eat hot foods, the stomach is too cold if there is hiccupping or burping. Kidney Qi said something about too much rich food at night and avoid strenuous exercise or sexual activity. It is recommended to not self diagnose/self treat with TCM herbals due to the complexity. Seek out a trained practitioner.

I read so many images, now I am not sure which mentioned hiccupping and cold food, but it seems kind of correct.

What TCM does not talk about is salicylate sensitivity or lack of B1 or B6 kind of details.

I am in agreement with Ken Wilber, a philosopher I mentioned in a recent post - most fields of study get somethings right and other things wrong - just like most people get somethings right and somethings wrong - and it is the wise person or field that is humble to say, oh, yeah, you are probably correct about that. No one can be correct 100% of the time for all scenarios because different solutions are going to be needed for some things than for other things.

Or different approaches simply are focusing on different parts of a larger whole and should not be expected to match each other.

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Not using Mucinex is helping

Day one with no Mucinex and my legs and body felt more normal but I was quite congested upon waking up and that led to nausea and vomiting - low electrolytes maybe plus the excess mucus. I wanted salt with the morning water again too. My quirky genetics cause me to have similar but not as severe congestion problems as people with Cystic Fibrosis which is also a genetic condition leading to inability to make endocannabinoids properly. The can’t make the lipid end and I can’t make the phospho part - roughly. I would need to review my previous writing on the topic. That story is in the Problem Solving episodes of my How Are You Feeling? podcast series. (The transcript)

Something about my individual differences got really messed up by the Mucinex and it being changed to lactic acid in the urine. I tend towards poor clearance of lactic acid after exercise anyway.

Day two no Mucinex wasn’t as bad with morning congestion and I tested a couple salicylate ingredients and was able to tolerate them fairly normally. Avoiding salt still seems a need. I got slightly swollen legs in the evening after having some salt and some salicylate sources.

Congestion aids - reducing body over-acidity is a need.

Hot liquids help congestion and spicy foods but after the salicylate issues I am being cautious still about hot pepper. The high dose niacin protocol has a slight mucus thinning effect. Over acidity of the body or sinuses though, increases congestion and risk of cold or flu infections then also increases. Pathogens typically like a more acidic environment.

• ‘The impact of alkaline water on acid related sinus problems,’ (energy5.com).

• ‘Ph Connections with Colds/Flu,’ (naturesfare.com).

What is congestion? Depends on who you ask. Patients think of it as too much mucus while nasal specialists think about congestion as obstruction - inflamed tissue closing a passage way. (McCoul, et al., 2019)

Having been congested much of my life - it can be both too much mucus and swollen tissue closing the nostrils.

Phlegm and congestion is a main topic in TCM and was why the meandqi link was shared with me, thanks again.

Phlegm or congestion in excess is about an imbalance in energy and fluid flow according to TCM. I’m still reading on that topic but have gained some insight - I seem to be out of balance towards being too cold which can be very true of low thyroid conditions. I stayed off iodine too long I think after having gone hyperthyroid in 2012. The PTSD information was interesting in that hyperthyroidism is fairly common for people with PTSD. Chronic stress elevates thyroid hormone production.

The TCM approach is quite different in approach than that of my Western medical based training. I’ve certainly read a lot more since, but years of schooling do instill a baseline point of view that is just really not the same as that of TCM or India’s ayurveda style of healthcare. Both look more at the person as a whole and work to restore balance rather than getting into the minutia of vitamin B1 or B6, etc.

Essential oils for congestion & over-acidity with muscle cramps - Lemongrass and Fennel are two that might help.

Yet another essential oils book arrived, an encyclopedia style work that is brand specific but the phytonutrients properties are not brand specific as long as an essential oil is of reasonable quality. I flipped open the book to page Lemongrass and found that my Thai soup additive is a decongestant for nose or body/edema and topical use was recommended. It also can help cramps and lactic acid excess and frozen shoulder/stiff muscle pain - use on the areas of concern. That sounded good and I grabbed my Fennel bottle too as it sounded good too. I checked page Fennel and yes, it also has decongestant properties and topical use on the chest/throat was recommended. It also can help edema, fluid retention and cystitis, overly acidic conditions, gout, kidney stones, and muscle cramps or spasms.

• The Essential Life - The World’s Most Trusted Essential Oil Reference Guide, 9th Ed., 2023, Total Wellness Publishing, (oillife.com) *independent from doTerra but the book is about doTerra products and was compiled from a group of contributors. It has a lengthy citation list - from the copyright information page. This book was a gift from my doTerra consultant. It is very nice, with beautiful photography. Thanks Tara! (Sign up link for doTerra if you would like to get the member discounts. Tara Wagner would be your consultant too then. She provide good education about essential oil use as well as some gift incentives.

• Minor flaw with the book - I do need reading glasses for some of the font - there is not high enough contrast between the font and background on some pages for visually impaired readers - in part due to the gorgeous photography as the background on many pages. It is a lovely book.

Intuitive self-care can get things wrong, but the idea is that often our gut instinct is guiding us to something we need. That is in the realm of “mystery”, but why should we expect to understand everything about everything?

Slathering on lots of lemongrass and fennel essential oils, a few drops in my massage oil mix, really did seem to help and I repeated it this morning after a Magnesium chloride bath. A few drops for the sole of each foot, a few more for the chest and sore shoulders. When using a couple oils you could mix them or layer one, then the other on the target area. Acupressure points could also be held but I am not very familiar yet with the acupoints.

Essential oils vs water or alcohol extracts - brief discussion.

Essential oils are a more modern technology than TCM herbal blends but people have been distilling plant essences for a very long time. Phytonutrients vary in solubility type - some ailments might need the water or alcohol extracts from an herb while others might get the needed phytonutrients in an oil extract. Consuming whole herbs may get the full range of benefits, but may also then include some negatives. The TCM blends are made to balance the various properties of the whole herbs.

Pomegranate peel and fruit benefits have been found to be greatest typically when using the whole fruit. The leaves and flowers of pomegranate also contain beneficial phytonutrients. Some variation was seen though for weight loss benefits between water or alcohol extracts. There is less of the beneficial ellagitannins/polyphenols in an oil extract of pomegranate seeds and pomegranate peel extract is generally water or alcohol based.

Sleep and Circadian Cycle article featuring NOVOS

Helpful, not too long, article in Vogue about the value of a good night’s sleep for health and beauty. It includes the circadian cycle strategies that are critical for the health of mitochondria and our gut microbiome too.

• How to Wake Up Earlier, Easier, and With More Energy, (vogue.com).

“VOGUE Magazine features NOVOS Founder and CEO Chris Mirabile and Head of R&D Dr. Diogo Barardo; Drawing on the expertise of NOVOS’ team members, Chris Mirabile and Dr. Diogo Barardo, this VOGUE article emphasizes the importance of addressing sleep quality and tuning our circadian rhythms. The article provides specific, actionable tips that you can incorporate as soon as tonight to help improve your sleep and wake up feeling more energized!” *Blurb from their email newsletter, sign up at their site.

• NOVOS Labs is a nutraceutical company focused on anti-aging. (novoslabs.com/about-novos-anti-aging-supplements/)

• They provide free information “Live Longer, Slow Aging; Life Extension Blog”: (novoslabs.com).

• “Don’t Drink Milk”, blog article, because milk accelerates aging. The growth stimulating hormones promote more rapid growth and growth is aging. It can also affect glucose metabolism. Dairy milk certainly does add inflammation for me but that is an individual intolerance.

Milk is designed by nature for growing babies, not for adults.

Total aside, I just saw an article somewhere yesterday about `How to adult breastfeed’ and it showed an adult man suckling. Stop the planet, I want off. Um, yes it can be done but that is not Nature’s design. It is draining for a woman to make milk and when nursing a baby for a longer time, it becomes more of a NEED to get the toddler fully weaned, because mom is exhausted! She needs her baby daddy to bring her breakfast in bed rather than asking her to give him breakfast too.

And based on the aging theory - for an adult to drink human milk would also be accelerating their growth and ultimately increasing aging even though it might seem to help health in the short term

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Substack update - I am working on setting up Payment acceptance and hope to accept the pledged subscriptions within a few weeks. I would appreciate help with my public education goals but I do not plan to set up a paywall. All my content will still be available to free subscribers. So, this is a heads-up to unpledge if you no longer want to be charged - or to pledge if you think my work and public education goals is worth supporting financially. I would not want anyone to spend money they don’t have to spend though. The site will remain unpaywalled.

I have been watching a variety of online business building courses and see the point in providing a more organized service or course but I still don’t like pop-up ads or emotionally pushy messaging. Baby steps. I’m still not sure what I want to be when I grow up - an airplane pilot or a florist? Those were my earliest career interests ;-)

My garden is growing 💗. I added more plants and a better light, with a goal of my having better lighting for my mother and I too. The cats like to sleep under the upstairs light.

TV or flowers? Flowers….

Now I have too many plants. I did a rescue of some underwatered holiday decorations and now need to give some away or have a party to decorate for. Or just enjoy more oxygen rich air and increasing humidity levels is a goal. I mist some of the plants that like moist air most days. Dry winter air alone can and will cause congestion, dry irritated mucus membranes and chapped lips and skin.

Humidity levels shouldn’t go above ~50-60% or mold becomes an issue. I keep my salt crystal lamp going to help sterilize mold spores or virus in the air. It also helps with stale smoke or musty basement odor.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.

Reference List

(McCoul, et al., 2019) McCoul ED, Mohammed AE, Debbaneh PM, Carratola M, Patel AS. Differences in the Intended Meaning of Congestion Between Patients and Clinicians. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2019;145(7):634–640. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2019.1023 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2734874