The Five Tibetans

First thing every morning, I partake in a lovely 20 minutes of rejuvenation with the Five Tibetans. They wake me up gently, work out my kinks, get my blood flowing and my energy moving. I really enjoy my daily practice with them, and you can too…

THE FIVE WHO?

The Five Tibetans, also called the Five Tibetan Rites, are a group of 5 exercises practiced in a specific sequence to affect benefits to your body that are said to include everything from core strengthening, spinal flexibility and circulation to endocrine balancing, weight loss and anti-aging.

I first learned of them when a patient was talking about wanting to make a routine of The Five Tibetan Rites every morning. She said this was a practice her mother was doing, and it completely reversed her need for eye glasses.

I’d never heard of this practice before, so I decided to look it up. It turns out this is a very old exercise regimen, that supposedly came out of a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, and has been practiced for as many as 2,500 years, though this is difficult to confirm. These practices were first introduced in the west in 1939, in a book entitled “The Eye of Revelation” by Peter Kelder, who gleaned his information from a retired British army colonel, who claimed to have traveled through Tibet, and been taught these movements at a Buddhist monastery where he lived for a time.

THE BENEFITS:

The Five Tibetan Rites, when practiced daily, are said to be beneficial in myriad ways. It is obvious from the movements that they increase strength and flexibility in the core (abdominal and spinal muscles), arms, shoulders, legs and hips. From a TCM viewpoint, this practice is sure to move stagnant Qi (reducing the effects of stress and sedentary lifestyle on the body) and it appears to “work” most of the acupuncture energy meridians with a pump-like action; which reminds me of many Kundalini Yoga practices.

Also, claims have been made regarding The Five Tibetans creating effects of anti-aging, weight loss, hormonal balancing, benefits to eye sight, skin, hair and much more.

While it is hard to say how many of these claims are valid, I decided to give it a try, to see what sort of benefits I noticed. I’d been looking for a daily practice that would be easy to learn and remember, and that would only take about 20 minutes to complete; this fit the bill.

THE PRACTICE:

Be sure to check with your doctor before starting this or any exercise program. It is best to start with 3 repetitions of each Rite. Then increase by 3 repetitions each week as your body feels stronger, until you have worked up to 21 of each. Remember, if it feels better to do so, you can put your hands under your hips in Rite 2, and keep your knees slightly bent. Do not do anything that feels painful.

The easiest way to learn The Five Tibetan Rites is to watch some videos of it. There are many to check out, but these are my favorites:

1. This lady does a great job of breaking down all the movements and breathing after showing you a quick demo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCRY8AUJxVw

2. Maryse does a lovely job as well, and does all 21 repetitions of each, so you can practice along with her video once you feel you can do all 21 reps of each Rite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qLKhvsfQKc

3. And gentlemen, lest you think only women practice the Five Tibetans… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWJo2mpI-w

Also, the original book says that doing more that 21 could have counteractive effects on your endocrine glands, so don’t do more than 21 repetitions of each Rite per day.

WHAT I HAVE NOTICED:

I’ve been doing these Five Tibetans almost every morning for about 2 months. I absolutely love it. It is the first thing I do (after feeding the cats) upon waking. I have worked up to 21 repetitions of each Rite.  Because there are several yoga poses that help keep the 3 bulging discs in my low back from becoming problematic, I have added them to the end of my Five Tibetan routine.

The whole thing takes about 20 to 25 minutes. It is a bit of a workout… my muscles are working and my heart rate and respiration increase during the practice, especially if I put a little pace on the movements. And I feel amazing afterward. My daily aches and pains are nearly gone, and my body feels stronger. I am finding that I look forward to the practice; it is my favorite part of the morning. Plus my energy is better; I no longer require any caffeine to get me going.

I am curious to see what other benefits show up as I continue this practice.

Let me know if you start the practice, and what benefits you notice!

#detoxify #corestrength #energy #weightloss #dailypractice #yoga #flexibility #stressrelief #hormonebalance

Optimizing Weight Loss with Hormonal Balance

Are you struggling with losing weight?

We all know that there is no magic pill, potion or powder. And I am not here to tell you there is. Any long-term successful weight loss program requires a healthy eating plan and a program of regular exercise. However, there is some information that may be useful to you on this journey. Information that may explain why you’ve had such a difficult time losing weight despite doing everything “right”, and how just a few changes might make all the difference.

Many of us have been on multiple weight loss programs, eating as healthy as we know how and exercising as much as we have time for. And somehow the weight just won’t budge. This is because, as much as we have been told time and again that weight loss is merely a mathematical equation (calories in must be fewer than calories used), there is actually more to it, especially if we wish to keep the weight off. Namely, hormonal balance.

Do you know that our bodies create 3 hormones that cause fat-building and others that cause fat-burning? Though most people think of hormones as only relating to male and female characteristics (sex hormones), we have many others that serve vital purposes in our bodies. They are chemical messengers created by our endocrine glands including our thyroid, pancreas, adrenals, pituitary, hypothalamus, etc. If we can better regulate our 3 fat-building hormones then our fat-burning ones will work better and make our weight loss goals more attainable.

So, what are these 3 hormones?

1.  Cortisol. 

Produced by our adrenals glands, we need cortisol in small amounts to get us out of bed in the morning and ready to start our day. But, it is also produced in reaction to stress and to stimulants such as caffeine. When produced in excess, this hormone negatively impacts our blood sugar metabolism, depletes our adrenal gland function over time, and puts weight on us in the middle of our bodies (think lower abdomen and muffin top) as well as upper back (buffalo hump area).

Action steps to help balance cortisol:

1. Reduce your stress levels and stress responses. Adopt a stress-reduction practice, such as meditation, yoga, breath work, or prayer; anything that has you feel calm and emotionally uplifted afterward. Of course, acupuncture qualifies, but you also need something that you can do in the moment, when you need to bring your stress levels down quickly. Even taking a stroll outside can be stress-relieving; anything that is sustainably pleasurable to you without being taxing.

2. Eliminate or restrict caffeine intake, including coffee, tea, energy drinks and sodas. (If you must have something, the best option is one cup of green tea in the morning. Green tea doesn’t spike cortisol like coffee and black teas do.)

3. If you have pain, get acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy, chiropractic or other treatment to address the cause of it. Pain, especially chronic pain, is a major stressor, and triggers significant cortisol release on a regular basis.  It is very likely that if you have chronic daily pain, it will be quite difficult for you to drop weight until you can get the pain under control.

4. Allow yourself plenty of sleep. Sleep is amazingly healing to the body, to recharge the adrenal glands, and to heal the damage done to your tissues and glands as a result of too much stress. Sleep also triggers the release of growth hormone, which is a fat-burning and anti-aging hormone. The more stressful your life, the more sleep your body requires. Aim for 9 to 10 hours per night.

2.  Insulin.  

Insulin is released by the pancreas after we eat. Our bodies turn all of our food calories into “blood sugar” or glucose, so it can be used by our body cells. Insulin ushers glucose from the blood into muscle cells and other cells to fuel them. However, if our body cells already have enough glucose from the previous meal, insulin instead diverts that excess glucose into our fat cells, making them grow bigger.

Action steps to help balance insulin:

1. Avoid sugars (especially high fructose corn syrup and white sugar), refined carbs (especially white flour products), and overeating at meals. All of these spike the blood sugar releasing large amounts of insulin.

2. Do not skip meals (yes, this includes breakfast). This drops your blood sugar too low so that you will be more likely to overeat and make unhealthy choices at your next meal. It also slows your metabolism.

3. Use regular exercise to burn up the glucose in your muscle tissues. This way insulin can feed your muscles, rather than your fat cells, with the glucose from your meals (and even burn fat to feed your muscles). This does not have to be high intensity exercise (even walking, bike riding, or yoga can be great options). Try to do at least 30 minutes of some type of physical activity every day. Exercise also triggers the release of growth hormone, like sleep does.

3.  Estrogen.  

We all need estrogen. Women need more and make more estrogen than men do. However, we are all exposed to toxins in our foods, water and air that mimic estrogen in our bodies. These chemicals can displace our natural estrogen from the estrogen receptor sites on our cells. As a result, our displaced estrogen instead goes into our fat cells, growing them larger, typically in the hips, buttocks and thighs.

Action steps to help balance estrogen:

1. Reduce exposure to chemical toxins. These include hormones in non-organic meat, poultry and dairy, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, genetically modified foods (which always contain higher levels of pesticides), preservatives, plastics, chemical household cleansers, bug and weed killers, chlorine bleach, and personal care products containing artificial fragrances, parabens, phthalates and sulfates. Drink only filtered and purified water.

2. Be loving to your liver. It is your liver that must process all chemicals and toxins in our bodies, as well as excess hormones such as estrogen. Liver function is also vital for the proper functioning of all of our hormones, including thyroid, blood sugar balance, adrenal sufficiency and sex hormone balance. When it gets overburdened in its job due to too many toxins, the liver can fall behind in performing all of its vital work for us.

3. The liver loves fresh lemon water, beets, green veggies, onions, garlic, cruciferous vegetables, organic apples, fiber rich foods, plenty of clean water, and flax seed. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, fast food, trans fats, deep fried foods, artificial food additives, fumes of all types, vehicle exhaust, smoking and unnecessary drugs. And, reduce or eliminate intake of animal proteins, to give the liver a well-deserved break.

If you have weight or bloating in your upper abdomen, this could be excess fluid build-up from your liver struggling to keep up. In addition to the above action steps, it is recommended to reduce sodium intake and consume more potassium rich foods such as avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, beet greens, tomatoes, spinach and peaches to help flush this excess fluid.

Take these action steps and expect to have an easier time dropping the pounds. If you find that you are still struggling, come in for an evaluation. You may have a deeper imbalance that we can address with acupuncture, herbs and more specifically-targeted nutrition. These could include a clinical or subclinical thyroid imbalance, adrenal gland imbalance, sex hormone imbalance and/or a liver burdened with too many toxins, all of which can be improved, and in many cases optimized, through natural means.

Please note that if you are on medication for any hormonal or glandular condition, you should not stop your medication. You can safely implement the above suggestions while on your medication. If you wish to get off of your medication, or reduce the dosage, this is something we may be able to do, gradually, with proper natural treatment, and with the appropriate lab work findings, while keeping your prescribing physician in the loop.

Recommended Viewing:  Hungry For Change.  This documentary is available on Netflix.

Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM

This article was published in Tampa Bay Wellness, Feb 2014

#detoxify #cortisol #weightloss #liver #hormonebalance #nutrition #insulin

Lifestyle Advice for Endometriosis, Fibroids & other Estrogen-Driven Diseases

In addition to the appropriate acupuncture and Chinese herbal formulas for your specific condition, there are many things that you can do at home to help yourself.

From a natural Western medicine viewpoint, endometriosis and fibroids are usually an estrogen-dominance condition. This means there is typically too much estrogen in the body outright, or too much in relationship to the amount of progesterone. So, there are 3 main ways to reduce this excess estrogen load:

1. Support the health of the liver, which is responsible for metabolizing excess and spent estrogen.

2.  Support the health of the large intestine to have regular bowel movements, so as to keep spent estrogen that is waiting to be excreted from being reabsorbed through the bowel wall.

3.  Reduce exposure to “exogenous estrogens.”  These are chemicals that are found in our food, water, air, and environment, that mimic estrogen in the body.  These include chemical dioxins, hormones that are found in non-organic meat/dairy/eggs, and many chemicals that we find in household items.

Interestingly, from an Eastern Medicine viewpoint, again, the Liver energy is most implicated in endometriosis, but the explanation of how is a bit different.  Nonetheless, supporting the health of the Liver is paramount. So, we will explore some ways to do this. We will also look at ways to optimize your digestive energy, which is also essential to treating endometriosis and other gynecological conditions.

First, let’s look at how to support your digestion.  If you haven’t read the Nutrition Part 1 post, please do so.  It explains the differences between whole foods and processed foods.  Understanding and utilizing this concept is of utmost importance to improve all aspects of health, including Liver health. To learn more specifics about optimizing your vital energy (qi) through your food choices, also read Nutrition Part 2.

Now, let’s look at further ways to support your Liver energy and function:

Nutrition:

In addition to what you learned from Nutrition Part 1 and Part 2, you want to focus the diet on whole, natural foods including, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains for liver health. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, processed foods, additives, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and chemical ingredients, which tax the liver and contribute to inflammation.

Only eat organic options when eating animal-based foods such as meat, poultry, dairy and eggs, so as to avoid unnecessary ingestion of exogenous hormones. Also, decrease your intake of animal-based foods in general, as they can stimulate the body to produce more of its own estrogens, and can contribute to inflammation.

Also, avoid iced foods/beverages, which can create “cold in the uterus” which contributes to cramping, clotting and infertility. Avoid refined carbohydrates and sugar, which cause insulin spikes and drops, which further upset hormonal balance and deplete the Liver of essential B vitamins. Avoid foods that contribute to inflammation, such as refined or hydrogenated oils.

Stress Reduction:

In Oriental medicine, stress is a huge contributor to stagnation and congestion of the Liver energy and function, which can hinder blood flow in the pelvic area, and contribute to endometriosis and other gynecological problems.

We know from Western science that stress stimulates your body to produce more cortisol.  And, when needed, the body can actually convert its own progesterone into cortisol to keep up with the demand. When this happens, you have less progesterone to balance the estrogen, and more stress hormones.

Stress hormones, when present in higher amounts and for extended periods of time, have deleterious effects on all body systems, including hormone balance.  The way to stop this snowball effect is to decrease your body’s stress reaction, which means decreasing  the amount of stress in your life, and modifying your reaction to stress that you cannot avoid.

1. Stop over-committing your time and energy.  It is common, in our busy lives, to say “Yes” to everything that anyone asks of us, especially because many of us feel that unless we are constantly being productive, we are not “good for anything”. It is vital for your health that you remove things from your plate of responsibilities as much as possible. Try to only commit to those extra activities that are joyful to you.

2.  Find some stress-relief activities. Please make time to rest and “refill your cup.” One thing to be careful of is not relying on activities that further cause your body to release stress hormones; like watching scary or violent movies, playing violent video games, or participating in risky activities such as gambling.

Good options would be hiking in nature, praying, journaling, meditating, getting massage, getting acupuncture, walking on the beach, taking photographs of the flowers in your neighborhood, spending quality time with people you love, or taking up a new hobby.

3.  Find ways to focus more on the good things in your life, rather than the negatives.  Our perception determines how we experience our lives. If we choose to see the positives more than the negatives, we will be happier and healthier as a result.  Working with a life coach or spiritual counselor can often help in this endeavor.

4. Incorporate activities that make your body and mind more resilient to the stresses that you cannot avoid. These include getting acupuncture and taking the appropriate Chinese herbal medicine specific for you. These also include taking a Tai Chi or Qi Gong class, which are not only are good for the body, but also the mind, requiring your full attention, so you can focus on the activity at hand, rather than the stresses in your life. And they can actually help your body to recharge and revitalize.

Studies show that those who regularly practice Qi Gong or Tai Qi have less depression, more balanced hormonal profiles, fewer injuries, better athletic performance, enhanced cognitive function, stronger bones and a more positive outlook.

Reduce Exposure to Harmful Chemicals:

It is imperative that you decrease your exposure, as much as possible, to chemicals and substances that are hormone-disruptors or that act like estrogens in the body. These include:

Dioxins:  found in bleached products such as tampons, coffee filters, paper products and sanitary pads as well as pesticides, bug sprays & repellents, and weed killers.

Plastics:  avoid drinking or eating from plastic containers, especially if they have been sitting in the sun or a hot car.  Don’t drink water that tastes like the plastic bottle.  Don’t cook (or microwave) in plastic containers or plastic wrap.

For more help with endometriosis or other gynecological conditions, contact Dawn for acupuncture, herbs and individualized nutritional advice.

Dawn Potter, AP, Dipl.OM

___________________________________________________________

Sources:

Lewis, Randine.  The Infertility Cure:  the Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and having

Healthy Babies.  Little, Brown and Company.  2004.

Mills, Dian S. & Vernon, Michael. Endometriosis: A Key to Healing through Nutrition. Hammersmith, London. 2002. pg 192, 214.

Murray, Michael, M.D., Encyclopedia of Nutritional Supplements.  Three Rivers Press, NY, 1996.

www.Nutritionfacts.org

Physcians Committee for Responsible Medicine:  Endometriosis. http://www.pcrm.org/health/PDFs/pv_endometriosis.pdf

Pitchford, Paul. Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA. 1993.

Spangler, Luita D. “Xenoestrogens and Breast Cancer: Nowhere to Run.”Feminist Women’s Health Center Website. http://www.fwhc.org/health/xeno.htm#what

#health #excessestrogen #mentalattitude #fibroids #stress #bodymindconnection #estrogendominance #stressrelief #hormonebalance #endometriosis #orientalmedicine