Menopause Got Your MOJO, or Balancing Life: The Tao of Women’s Health - Part 2

Hello and welcome to my podcast, "Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health: Reaching the Balance Within." This podcast is focused on Classical East Asian Medicine (CEAM) and Women’s Health. The title or focus of this podcast is "Menopause Got Your MOJO, or Balancing Life: The Tao of Women’s Health."

As we go through this podcast, there will be references to documents that are available on my website, in the members' area. Alternatively, you can work along with a pen and paper.

•  A term closely linked to Balance is that of Yin and Yang
  •  Again there is a Yin and Yang Symbol on the website, Sagire.com.au, if you wish to view one for reference.
  •  The symbol speaks volumes. Nothing about it is by chance. It is quite easy for me to geek out about this. 
  •  It is possibly the most recognised but poorly understood, symbol of CM. So what does it mean and what can it tell us? 
  •  To start with It is a circle, not a square or a triangle, this is important. A circle has no beginning or end. It is smooth and can represent anything and everything. It has been used throughout human history to represent inclusion of everything, every body, entirety. 
  •  Next it has the two halves. One side is black and the other white. This represents Yin (black) and Yang (white) the two halves of everything. The ‘in and the out’, ‘the up and the down’, the ‘male and the female’, the list is indeed quite endless.
  •  However, within the Yin, there must be some Yang, within the Yang there must be some Yin, this is to maintain balance.
  •  It also shows that everything is infinitely able to be further divided into more sub sets of Yin and Yang.
  •  Again, balance, is there anything that is not connected to balance in this system? Short answer, NO!
  •  If you can take away anything from these talks, then it should be balance is the key to everything.
    •  as I said, this is a topic in and of its self; and can consume many hours of discussion. So we will leave it here for now. If you want to know more please contact me through any of the links in the podcast description), this goes for any topic that we have covered or will cover in this or any other talk.
   
 

 • Now lets move on to Diet

•  Within the CEAM framework, there is no Diet as such. We talk more about an eating style. Why, because firstly, when people talk about diets, it is easy to think of them as a temporary thing, just something ‘to be done until the weight is gone,’ as an example, or that there is one way of eating for everyone. 
•  CEAM does not think that way. There is a style of eating that should be used as a blueprint from which you can work to find what is good for you at this point in time in your life right now. It also needs to be a balanced fit for what is going on in your life and your health picture at the present point in time. So it will needs to be monitored and adjusted to suit your changing situation, to suit the seasons, the weather, your location, etc.
  •  The biggest difference is that 
  •  the Keto style goes for extremely low carbs, and also has no grains or legumes, and has a focus on very high fat, very low to no carb foods. We would see this part of there approach as heading into what  in CEAM we would consider an extreme approach, we don’t see this aspect as particularly balanced.
•  there are possibly 3 other styles of eating that are current and perhaps of interest at the moment. These different styles all have things that are good and not so good about them. So lets look at them in a broad general manner and look some of the similarities and differences compared to the East Asian style. 
•  The styles I would like to compare, are Keto, Paleo, the Mediterranean, and the East Asian styles. It is relatively easy to see that the styles have quite a few similarities. There are only one or two stark differences.

•  Now what about the similarities.
•  All emphasis whole, unprocessed foods, with an emphasis on vegetables, although the detail varies, and
•  Paleo, Med and Asian all have an aversion to processed sugars.

•  However, it is only the East Asian style incorporates the Thematic Value of foods, and uses it as an adjunct to the way of eating. The thematics or temperature of foods is both innate, that is it is in the food as a type of quality, and it is also something that we can do to it.
•  It is something that may be changed or adjust it to suit your health, or enjoyment of the food.
•  So from a Menopause stand point, this can be useful to help us adjust our balance through the eating of foods appropriate to our current condition, or what the food types is so as to help to bring back or maintain our balance.
  •  the ways we can modify the value of the food temperature is by:
  •  adding flavours, such as; cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, which may add warmth, 
  •  or by different styles of cooking; such as slow cooking which will also add warmth, or inject more Yang into the dish,
  •  or we can reduce the temperature of a dish by using cooling substances and flavours, such as mint or apple.
  •  Local
  •  colourful
  •  seasonal
•  The next aspect that is important is the 3 pillars of eating, they are:
•  Local is important so that the foods we are eating are appropriate to the place that we are live in, we are part of the environment, not separate to it. So, if you were to be living in the tropics for example, a diet of foods that are from the sub-temperate regions would not suit what the body needs to sustain it in that environment. Local also has the added benefit of helping the local community and economy, and it also means that the nutritional value of the foods is higher as the can be picked or harvested at their peak of nutrition.
•  Colourful is a way of nature communicating important information to us. In a simple manner, the colour of food is a reflection of the differing amounts of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats that are in the food. So to get a balanced diet, simply eat a colourful one. Make sure that this meal, todays meals, this weeks meals, this seasons meals etc, are as colourful as you can make them, then you will be covering all the elements needed from a nutrient stand point
•  Seasonal eating is also important as it is a way of ensuring that you are eating what is required by the body at that time of the yearly cycle. The bodies needs change through the seasons. Summer is a time to have foods that are generally higher in fluid content, also have more natural sugars, and are possible cooling in nature. All things that are needed in summer, not winter. So eating with the seasons is a way to maintain the balance and reduce the strain on the body and digestion, which in turn eases the way to a balanced healthy life. 

 • The next aspect I would like to cover is Sleep.

•  Sleep is something that healthy people can take for granted. However, if the quality of sleep is poor, then so is you health, and the number of my menopause patients that have anything but a good sleep pattern is why this subject is so big a part of the knowledge base.
•  The important word here was quality, it is quality over quantity every time. The measure of whether your sleep is good, is not how long you sleep, but whether or not you wake rested. If you wake rested, then your mind and body have been able to rejuvenate. To wake and feel tired after 8 hours of ‘sleep’ would suggest to me that the fatigue you feel is not physical, but mental. So the mind and body are not in harmony, are not balanced. So to measure good sleep by time alone is not helpful. We need to think of sleep as a way to re-invigorate the mind and body. When this is done then we are in balance.

•  A few known triggers of a ‘bad’ sleep are;
•  if your hormones aren’t in balance,
•  a diet that is not appropriate,
•  digestive disturbances,
•  stress that is not under control, or
•  anxiety.
•  So what can be done to encourage a ‘good’ nights sleep?
  •  going to bed and getting up at the same time, these habits can educate the body to a balanced system and allow it to know what it is supposed to be doing at any point in time.
•  establish a regular routine.
•  reduce blue light exposure, is a new problem from the modern world. There are plenty of studies that link the amount of blue light exposure to a poor ability to shut the mind down.
•  this leads into the importance of allowing time for the mind to slow down. It take time for the mind to slow, to wind down to a quiet place were peace and tranquility can be achieved. This is so that it can turn inwards and re-energise.
•  next, getting enough sunlight so that your circadian rhythms can be triggered into their correct phase. This can also help with Vitamin D, which is know to be a ‘feel good’ element.
•  limiting caffeine intake later in the day, is important, as it is a stimulant and it takes time for the Liver to metabolise it out of the blood. There is nothing wrong with caffeine, but it is important to remember that it is a stimulant and it takes time to be eliminated from the body.
•  be mindful of eating close to retiring, this can cause the body to be ‘ramping up, to digest food,’ not slowing down for rest.
•  I believe that keeping a sleep diary (any health diary at all really) can help identify any patterns in your sleep that may be helpful. In the world of CEAM we can also use it to overlay it onto the Organ Clock, again available on the web site, Sagire.com.au, which is a tool that can give an insight into what organ system may be out of balance and in need of attention.

 • Now lets look at Activity, please notice activity not exercise. 

•  What we want is movement, something that again is in balance with the time, place and individual. Regular small amounts of movement are of more value than irregular excessive amounts. 
•  Within CEAM we say that movement creates movement. This is important because if your energy is not flowing smoothly, read here being unwell, or that if your blood is not flowing smoothly, that is called stagnation. It needs to be moved, so some movement of the body, can encourage movement within the body. Some types of gentle movements are;
  •  Tai Chi
  •  Yoga
  •  Walking
  •  Qi Gong
  •  etc
  •  meditation
  •  reading
  •  listen to music
  •  simply, having me time
•  However, balance is key, so with movement it is important to remember that the balance of movement is quiet. Again quiet is relative and individual, some examples to think on are;

 • Now lets move to Stress, stress is quite often referred to as a silent assassin. There is a anecdote, about a frog in the boiling water that is quite appt for explaining stress.

•  If you were to take a frog and place it in a pot of water, then place that pot on the stove and turn the heat up to bring the pot to the boil. The frog will stay in the water as it heats up and slowly boil to death. However, if you took that frog and dropped it into boiling water, it would simple jump out. So what does this mean? It says that we are the frog in the slowly heating water, we don't recognise the increasing stress we are under until it get so bad that we are overwhelmed. So what can we do?

•  First is to acknowledge that we are all stressed to some degree. It is impossible to have no stress, indeed it is not desirable to have no stress. Stress supplies some important inputs to our physiology so that we have to adapt. Adaption is an important part of being healthy, however, this also is a balancing act.
•  Because it is a balancing act, we need to identify those things that are causing us to be out of balance and under obvious stress, and see what can be done to reduce their impact, to reduce their ability to nock us off balance, or can they be eliminated all together.

•  Some signs that our stress is no longer in balance are;
•  hormones out of control,
•  an appetite that has changed, either up or down,
•  digestive issues such as bloating, gas or rumbling,
•  changes in bowel habits,
•  disturbed sleep,
•  moods that are not level or controlled,
•  BP changes,
•  a compromised or weakened immune function,
•  weight that is changing without cause, some will go up, others will lose weight,
•  poor concentration, or an inability to focus,
•  general body aches that don’t appear to have a cause.
•  all are signs that stress is having an impact that is not helping you maintain that balance that is so important to good, or great health. Because that is what we are all after, and indeed deserve! 

•  So in conclusion, there has been a recurring theme here, Balance!
•  Balance is key, it is the foundation of good if not great health. Unfortunately, though it does not just happen because we wish it. It does take work and monitoring to get there and maintain once there. But it is achievable for anyone and everyone; if we take part in our own health and take control of it, and become our own Health Champion! 

•  Once again, thanks for coming and listening to the end of my podcast on Menopause got your MOJO as part of my Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health: Reaching the Balance within series of Podcasts. If you have anything that you wish to have more information on, or a topic expanded on, please let me know by contacting me through one of the links in the podcast description.
  •  See you next time for Ancient Wisdom, Modern Health, Reaching the balance Within.