How to Feel Better: 7 Keys to Physical and Emotional Well-Being

In Chinese medicine, there is an understanding that if we aren't well physically we won't feel well emotionally, and vice versa; the two are intertwined. This is why if we can cover our most basic healthcare needs we can help improve how we feel no matter what we have going on. There are certain general recommendations that are made over and over again in the treatment of disease, whether physical or emotional, chronic or acute, active or latent. Below are seven of the most essential keys for improving your overall well-being.

1. Eat More Whole Foods

Every cell, tissue, organ, and system in our bodies requires nutrients in order to function properly. For optimal health choose foods that are fresh, whole, organic, and in season. These contain the highest levels of vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. They also contain the most chi so they can help replenish ours. In general, most of us need to eat more fresh produce, especially leafy greens, so try to eat some every day. If you eat animal products, choose those from healthy animals who were treated well, fed well, and allowed to go outside vs. those raised in factory farms. On the other hand, try and limit foods that are highly processed, like canned, frozen, and dehydrated foods. These types of foods are deficient in nutrients, low in chi, high in sodium, and contain chemicals like preservatives and artificial ingredients that our organs have a hard time breaking down. Processed foods also include products like the so-called "empty calorie" foods, such as white flour and white sugar, which have had nutrients removed during refinement. These types of foods require more nutrients and energy to process than they give back so they are depleting in the long run.

2. Stay Hydrated

Every single cell in our bodies contains water. In fact, we are more water than anything else. Staying hydrated is essential to our overall energy levels and brain function, improving cognition, memory, concentration, reaction time, and mood. It also helps us regulate our body temperature, keeps our joints lubricated to prevent injury and pain, and keeps the mucosal membranes in our respiratory system moist so they can trap pathogens and prevent illness. As a solvent, water prevents kidney stones and helps us break down our food. The electrolytes that are dissolved into the water in our bodies are essential for the firing of both nerve and muscle cells, especially the electrical system that makes our hearts beat. This is why staying properly hydrated requires both water and electrolytes. Most of us get enough electrolytes, like sodium and potassium, from the foods we eat. When our electrolytes become depleted due to heat, exercise, fevers, or diarrhea, we need to supplement them by including mineral salts in our fluid intake. This can be done by drinking mineral water, adding a pinch of unrefined salt to our beverages, or by drinking special electrolyte products like the instant packets that can be mixed into water or pre-made electrolyte drinks like Gatorade. Another important part of staying hydrated is avoiding excesses of dehydrating liquids like soda, coffee, caffeinated teas, and alcohol.

3. Move Your Body

All of the systems in our body depend on movement. Movement opens our lungs so we can breathe more deeply and oxygenate our blood. It increases our heart rate, circulating blood to all of our cells and preventing the formation of clots. It helps our organs move food down along the digestive tract and waste fluids down toward the bladder. Movement also lubricates our joints and gets the blood pumping through our muscles to nourish cells and prevent us from stiffening up. For those of us who hold stress and tension in our tissues, movement releases this, helping us unwind and let go. For example, the swinging action of our arms when we walk releases tension in the neck and shoulders. Movement can even help us work through things on a mental level, enhancing the flow of the thought process, helping us work things out while we work out. Flowing movements like dance and tai chi can be emotionally expressive, too, allowing us to express and release things that are difficult to articulate. Since our bodies function best when everything is flowing and coordinated, movement that is gentle and incorporates the whole body is best: walking, swimming, yoga, dancing, tai chi, chi gong, and bicycling.

4. Get Outside

Everything is connected to everything else, including us. We are an integral part of this world, immersed in the gasses that make up our atmosphere, with the water and nutrients that we take in merely borrowed for a time, flowing through us to return to the environment once again. Even though we are woven into the web of life, when we stay inside all the time in our artificial environments we can start to feel lonely, isolated, depressed, and out of touch. To feel well we can reintegrate ourselves by getting outside into the natural world. Going out and getting some fresh mountain air not only clears our lungs, it also helps us clear our heads. Jumping into a wild river purifies us and immerses us in the literal flow of our planet's chi. Walking on the earth in our bare feet or working the earth with our hands grounds us both physically and emotionally. Being out in the sunshine nourishes us with some essential vitamin D but also warms our inner fire. The aromas of flowers, evergreens, and autumn leaves can lift our spirits. Standing at an overlook, taking in the view of our beautiful mountains isn't just the reward of a good hike, it is also emotionally moving. Getting outside is especially important for those of us who spend a lot of time at home, drive everywhere instead of walking, work inside, and exercise indoors instead of outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

5. Make Time for Both Sleep and Rest

Life is a marathon; in order to have a long and healthy one we must pace ourselves. We are not made to go, go, go indefinitely. Unfortunately, we live in a high-pressure workaholic society where most people run on a sleep deficit and feel guilty about resting, even for a few minutes. However, in addition to activity, we need adequate amounts of both sleep and rest to feel well physically and emotionally. During sleep, our brain and internal organs are actually very active doing essential tasks. Our brains process and store new information, rewire neural connections, and flush out metabolic waste with fresh cerebrospinal fluid. Sleep is also when we dream, repair cells in our tissues and organs, replenish energy stores, filter our blood of toxins, release neurotransmitters that are essential to emotional well-being, and produce cytokines, substances secreted by our immune system that help us fight infections and chronic inflammation. Unlike sleep, rest occurs when we are awake. Physical rest gives our bodies a break from exertion, preventing injury and exhaustion, while mental rest gives us time to reflect on, understand, and integrate the experiences of our lives. When it comes to activities like meditation, mental rest can also help us simplify our thoughts and declutter our minds, leading to enhanced creativity, productivity, and decision-making. In general, rest is also calming, centering, and grounding so it is a healthy coping mechanism for countering stress, anxiety, and depression.

6. Limit Your Intake of Toxins

We are exposed to some level of toxins every day in what we eat, drink, and breathe. Fortunately, our internal organs are designed to neutralize and eliminate them. However, compared to the millions of years that humans have been around, there are now many novel toxins in existence. These include everything from pharmaceutical drugs and microplastics to pesticides and the airborne particulates from burning coal and gasoline. If our organs are unable to identify any of the toxins we take in, they will compartmentalize them by storing them away, typically in our fatty tissues. These toxins build up over time, a process that accelerates with aging as our ability to process toxins declines along with the functioning of our internal organs. If we get run down or go through an illness that damages our organs, this can add to the problem. Unfortunately, the more toxic our bodies become, the more off we feel emotionally. One of the best ways to avoid toxin overload is to reduce the amount that you take in, especially alcohol, nicotine, recreational drugs, caffeine, refined flours and sugars, hydrogenated fats, and foods that contain high levels of lab-manufactured chemicals like preservatives, synthetic sweeteners, artificial colors, and artificial flavors. Another key to promoting natural detoxification is to regularly flush your system with plenty of water, increase your intake of high-fiber nutrient-dense foods like vegetables and fruits, and clear your lungs with fresh air on a regular basis. Limiting toxins can even mean evaluating our personal and professional relationships and transforming or eliminating the ones that drain us or make us feel bad.

7. Keep a Regular Schedule

The universe has patterns. Two of the most dominant patterns that affect us are the 24-hour cycle of day and night and the shifting of the seasons. Just like all of the other living creatures on planet earth, we do best if we align ourselves with these natural rhythms. Our physical processes and emotions both flow more easily when we can keep a regular schedule day-to-day. This is especially important when it comes to our eating, sleeping, working, and exercise patterns. By doing these things at regular times, our bodies can learn to anticipate and prepare for them, smoothing out the process. In addition to daily cycles, it is also important to follow the larger seasonal shifts. One way to do this is by eating fresh, local produce and seasonal dishes. Another is to adjust our activity levels and sleeping schedule so we do more and sleep less in the summer and do less and sleep more in the winter. Participating in seasonal activities and rituals can attune us to the seasons as well. This can mean anything from apple picking in the fall to celebrating the summer solstice outside around a bonfire.

Chinese New Year 01/22/23

Sunday, January 22nd marks the first day of the 2023 Chinese New Year of the Water Rabbit. Since it is based on the ancient Chinese calendar, the date of the New Year changes annually, typically falling on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice. Your Chinese zodiac sign is determined by the year you were born, not the month. There are 12 zodiac signs and five elements (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood), meaning that it takes you a full 60 years to go through every combination and come back around to the beginning of the cycle. Because the New Year can fall any time in January or February, if you were born in those months you need to check its date in your birth year in order to correctly determine your zodiac sign.

Rabbits are considered to be the luckiest of all the twelve zodiac signs. Like rabbits, people born under this sign are alert and quick so they can be witty and innovative. They are also gentle, kind, quiet, calm, and peaceful so they avoid fighting and arguing at all costs. To keep the peace they can be reluctant to reveal their minds to others and have a tendency to escape reality. Since the rabbit is the companion of the moon goddess Chang'e it is an auspicious symbol of hope, longevity, and purity. The strengths of those born under this sign include optimism, grace, generosity, and kindness, while their weaknesses include vanity, emotional instability, and passivity. Since this is a Water Rabit year, and water is yin, this combination of energies is predicted to lead to an especially harmonious and peaceful year. This is a good year for diplomacy and communication, with a focus on relationships and building bridges instead of walls. The Water Rabbit is also said to bring good luck and unexpected opportunities, so be open to new possibilities and don't be afraid to take risks.

Some important Chinese New Year traditions include sweeping your house out the day before to get rid of any bad luck left over from the previous year and opening all of your doors and windows at the stroke of midnight to allow the old year to escape and the good luck of the New Year to enter. Firecrackers are used extensively on this holiday to scare away evil spirits, send off the old year, and welcome the new. It is also important to use the day to set the proper tone for the year. For example, if you lend things out on this day, you will find yourself lending things out all year. It is also taboo to talk about death or the past on this day, to use knives and scissors (they may cut off your good fortune), or to wash your hair (you will wash away your good luck). Dressing in red on New Year's scares off evil spirits, and wearing new clothing symbolizes new beginnings.

Hospice Volunteering

I am really looking forward to starting my volunteer work at CarePartners' Solace Hospice this fall. This has been many years coming. I was first introduced to the concept of hospice as a teenager when my grandfather had cancer. I was struck by the straightforward way in which the staff addressed dying head-on as a natural part of life. Death is such a taboo subject in our culture; it was refreshing to see it reframed as a universal human experience, our final rite of passage. The focus on palliative care over treatment made sense, too. I believe it is a great kindness to help minimize the suffering of others in their final days.

In my practice, I have found my work with terminal patients to be incredibly rewarding. Though I primarily act in a supportive role, helping really sick people manage their symptoms has taught me more about what constitutes true healing than any textbook ever could. In a strange and paradoxical way, it has also taught me about what it really means to live. It wasn't until a few years ago when I was studying for my doctorate, however, that I decided to formally work in hospice. What inspired me was the realization that it is the most integrative branch of medicine. I have always felt that the more people on your health care team the better and that all therapies amplify and complement each other. This philosophy is openly embraced in hospice, with most facilities offering treatments like acupuncture, massage, prayer, and aromatherapy right alongside standard care.

In early 2021 I was able to formalize my growing interest in this field with a certification course through the National Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncturists. Because of the pandemic, the volunteer program at Solace was suspended, however, so I had to wait until quite recently for it to start up again. As of this spring, the program was back on and I was able to complete my training, orientation, and health check, finalizing my requirements for volunteering. In order to do this, I need to reduce the number of days I work per week, so starting in October I will be working Monday through Thursday instead of Monday through Friday. I will still be working full days Monday through Thursday as usual, 9:30 am to 6:00 pm. I am really looking forward to volunteering and thank you all for your support as I make this shift.

Feeling The Change

Chinese medicine is based on a lot of Daoist concepts, including the idea that everything everywhere is always shifting and changing all together all at once. According to this philosophy, since change is an inevitable part of life, it is important to acknowledge it, embrace it, and go with the flow. As humans, we experience this in two significant ways: physical changes and changes in consciousness. Sometimes these changes happen bit by bit in increments so small as to be almost imperceptible. An example of this is how we go gray. Day-to-day the shift isn't very dramatic, but over time it is obvious and significant. These changes can also happen in phases. For example, even though our brains are 90% developed by age six, this process isn't complete until the prefrontal cortex matures in our late 20s. This is the part of our brain responsible for empathy, intuition, insight, and emotional intelligence.

In Chinese medicine, it is thought that the bigger, more dramatic shifts occur at regular intervals throughout our lives, like chapters, about every seven years. Western medicine recognizes a couple of these major events, namely puberty and menopause, though Chinese medicine recognizes many more. Interestingly, this theory aligns with the idea in biology that all of our cells turn over about every seven years. In other words, at seven you are a copy of an original, at 14 you are a copy of a copy, at 21 you are a copy of a copy of a copy, and so on. Each consecutive copy is physically less true to the original, resulting in the process that we call aging. However, with each replication, there also comes an evolution in consciousness. Over time our perceptions continue to shift and we become wiser and more true to ourselves. This is one of the greatest gifts of a long life - the wisdom gained over time through consciousness expansion.

I am now firmly in my fifties, a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. I am on the tail end of one of the biggest changes that I have ever experienced. This change is so big, in fact, that it is colloquially referred to in our culture simply as "The Change." What has been most amazing about this process is not so much the physical changes as the change in consciousness and the multiple ways in which this has manifested. The biggest one is that I find myself letting go of the concept of motherhood. I never had any children so this process has been interesting; it is kind of strange to realize that the bloodline ends with me. My thoughts about my mom, who died 15 years ago, have also changed. She is becoming more of an abstract concept, and I find myself feeling more self-reliant over time and less like I want the type of comfort and advice that only a mother can give. The smaller indicators of The Change have been just as interesting. I am letting my hair grow out for the first time in many years. I removed the skeleton key from my keychain, the one I've had since college when I shared an apartment with that friend I haven't talked to in a very long time. I am suddenly craving new music: I downloaded a bunch of stuff for my personal library and have switched the music at my office from new age to ambient. I spontaneously started doing yoga again after taking a couple of years off because at this point it's starting to feel more non-negotiable. I buried my sweet kitty's ashes in the garden under her favorite window. I've decided it's time to learn a new instrument and have chosen the electric bass. I finally took the leap and started volunteering at the hospice. I am generally feeling more sentimental.

It is said that as we age, time goes faster. I think part of this process is that over the course of our lives we stop living as much in the day-to-day and begin to see things more in terms of the bigger patterns. Our daily rhythms become more regular and fixed, we get better at sensing the seasonal shifts, we recognize the onset of a new chapter, and we see further and further into the future. The details and distractions slip away, we simplify, and we see the essence of life more clearly. I know that in my life there are many moons left, but only so many years, and just a handful of chapters. Though life is certainly starting to feel more finite, I am looking forward to the next big change.

Delayed Menstrual Cycles: Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Treatments

In addition to pregnancy, there are many reasons why a menstrual cycle may be delayed. These include conditions like chronic illness, excessive physical work, chronic bleeding disorders, too many children too close together, and excessive breastfeeding. The common denominator among all these conditions is that they are depleting in nature, using up the chi, blood, and nutrients that otherwise would have contributed to the building of the endometrial lining in the uterus. Other causes of delayed menstrual cycles include travel, emotional upsets, irregular diet, and long-standing emotional stress, all of which disrupt our natural rhythms and interfere with the smooth flow of chi and blood in the body.

The main treatment principle for delayed periods due to depletion is tonification via the use of acupuncture points and herbs that are nourishing, supportive, and replenishing. For example, if someone has a pale complexion, a pale tongue, and a history of light periods, we will choose points and herbs that tonify blood. These include points on the channels for the digestive organs, the system responsible for extracting the nutrients needed to make blood from food, and herbs like dong quai, which is naturally high in iron, a nutrient that is necessary for the oxygenation of blood. However, if someone has abdominal distention and breast tenderness, is feeling frustrated or stuck in their lives, and has a history of menstrual clots, then the main treatment principle would be to unblock the flow of chi and blood. Points used in these cases include Spleen 4, Pericardium 6, Liver 3, Liver 14, Snajiao 6, Kidney 14, Spleen 6, and Ren 4 and 6, all of which either move chi or invigorate blood in the lower abdomen. Formulas that are often prescribed for this pattern include xiao yao, a classical formula for PMS that moves chi and nourishes blood, chai hu shu gan, which moves chi and eliminates blood stagnation, or qi zhi xiang fu, which moves chi and strongly invigorates blood.

CAUTION: If there is a chance that your menstrual cycle is delayed due to pregnancy the following acupuncture points are contraindicated as they can induce labor: Large Intestine 4, Gall Bladder 21, Urinary Bladder 60 and 67, and Spleen 6. All of the points in the lower abdomen and lumbar area are also contraindicated because they can invigorate blood in the local area.
CAUTION: If there is a chance that your menstrual cycle is delayed due to pregnancy, herbs that invigorate blood are contraindicated. This includes dan shen (salvia root) jiang huang (turmeric rhizome), yi mu cao (Chinese motherwort), and yue ji hua (Chinese tea rose), hu zhang (knotweed rhizome), tao ren (peach kernel), hong hua (safflower), and fan hong hua (saffron). This also includes formulas like tao he cheng qi (Peach Pit to Order the Chi), sheng hua (Generating and Transforming), gui zhi fu ling (Cinnamon Twig and Poria), dang gui shao yao (Dong Gui and Peony), shi xiao (Sudden Smile), or huo luo xiao ling (Fantastically Effective to Invigorate the Collaterals).

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"Felt very comfortable with Dr. Nancy. She listens and tries to solve the puzzle with clues you give her with your symptoms. Just had my first appointment and look forward to next one. She is very gentle and explains everything. Appreciate that she gives you oils to try for your problem and there is no extra charge." ~Susan W.

Dr. Nancy Hyton

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

By Appointment Monday to Thursday, 9:30 to 6:00

26 Fairfax Avenue, West Asheville, NC 28806

Text or Call (828) 606-6791

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