Intro to The Five Elements

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Intro to The Five Elements

Along with yin and yang theory, the core of Asian medicine revolves around the five natural elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Within the body, each element exists as a microcosm of its existence in the outside world. Each element is associated with an organ, an acupuncture meridian, a season, a body tissue, a smell, a flavor, and more. The elements interact with one another in predictable manners in nature as well as in the body. Acupuncturists learn how the elements interact and then apply this knowledge to each patient to determine why a particular symptom is present, how best to bring the body back into harmony with the elements to alleviate the symptom, and how to stabilize the elements to prevent future symptoms from arising. Five Element Theory has many layers; this post is meant to serve merely as an introduction to the five elements and one of the many ways they can interact in the body.

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Health Advocacy: Your Rights

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Health Advocacy: Your Rights

To be an effective health advocate for yourself or others, approach health care as business. After all, health care in the United State is business: we pay for services, and profit is involved.

With any business, there are basic rules of interaction. For example, when you wear shoes and a shirt to a restaurant at lunchtime, someone takes your order and brings you food. Learning the operating rules for health care, and how to work with them to meet your goals, is at the core of health advocacy.

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Health Advocacy: The Basics

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Health Advocacy: The Basics

A health advocate is a person who campaigns actively to protect and support patient's rights in health care situations.

Ideally, all health care providers have the time and desire to advocate for each and every one of their patients. In reality, this is not always the case. I recommend that you walk into every medical situation expecting that you will need to be your own #1 health advocate.

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Autumn Energetics: Fall and Your Body

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Autumn Energetics: Fall and Your Body

Chinese medical theory is rooted in the cyclical passage of time and its effect on our bodies. As seasons wax and wane, external shifts in the environment pull our innate energy like the moon pulls the tide. Fall in particular marks a stark time of transition in the body: we move from the expansive energy of summer to the contractile energy of winter.

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