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A small crash course in Chinese medicine

No jargon, no diagnosis, nothing to buy. Just the way I actually think about the body, so the rest of this site makes sense.

Chinese medicine asks a different question

Western medicine asks what is broken. Chinese medicine asks what is out of balance, and what pattern runs underneath everything you are feeling.

  • Exhausted but wired at 10pm is not a separate problem from a heavy cycle or digestion that went sideways after your last baby.
  • A symptom is information, not a malfunction. It is your body talking in the only language it has.
  • You are not separate from the plants. You are made of the same stuff as the food you eat and what grows outside, and you move with the same rhythms.
What I hear most

The things mothers tell me, over and over

3am waking tired but wired heavy or missing cycles milk supply dipping bloating after every meal rage that comes from nowhere hair falling out postpartum cold hands, cold feet headaches every afternoon anxiety in the chest no appetite, then all the appetite tension in one shoulder

None of these are random. Put together, they make a pattern, and the pattern is what I read.

In the blends

Herbs I actually reach for

Dried nettle leaf

Nettle

Mineral rich because it pulls minerals out of the soil. For the depleted, run-down years.

Dried oatstraw

Oatstraw

Calming the way it grows, slow and steady. For frayed nerves and the 3am mind.

Dried elderberries

Elderberry

The winter workhorse in my kitchen, for the season when everyone in the house is sharing everything.

Dried chamomile flowers

Chamomile

Gentle enough for the children, useful for the mother. Digestion and the wind-down hour.

Herbs are chosen for the pattern in front of me, not from a list. What is right for one mother can be wrong for another.

At home

How I actually use this

  • A nourishing infusion in the morning, most days.
  • Warm food instead of cold when I am depleted.
  • Bed at the same time, even when the house says otherwise.
  • A couple of acupressure points when someone is anxious or cannot sleep.
  • Herbs chosen for the actual pattern in front of me, not whatever is trending.

Small, boring and daily. That is why it works.

Where to start

One thing to try this week

Make the nettle and oatstraw infusion. It is free, it is on this site, and it is the same thing I have been drinking through five pregnancies and five postpartums.

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So, what has your body been trying to tell you lately that you have been too busy to sit down and listen to?

None of this is medical advice, and it is not a diagnosis. I am a Board Certified Acupuncture Physician licensed in Florida, and everywhere else this is wellness education. Please keep working with your own doctor or midwife.

Coming next

More of the crash course

  • The postpartum window, and why the first forty days matter so much
  • Warm food, cold food, and what your digestion is asking for
  • Five acupressure points every mother should know
  • Herbs for the tired years, what is safe while pregnant and nursing
  • Sleep, the liver clock, and the 3am wake up