Digestive Disorders
Herbal Profile: Chi Xiao Dou (Adzuki Beans)!
In Mexico black or refried beans are most popular. Caribbeans eat black peas, Indians more lentils, and of course Americans prefer the sweetest of all, baked beans. In China though, adzuki beans are more than just a delicacy—they are an important ingredient in our classical pharmacopeia, often used to treat conditions of the intestines or skin, the latter frequently manifesting pathologies of the former, thereby informing us of the underlying pattern.
For example, while redness around the forehead points to suspected biofilms of the intestines, acne that falls more around the jawline, chest, or upper back suggests biofilms of the stomach. Chi Xiao Dou, or Adzuki Bean, can be used to treat either, provided it is appropriately dosed within the context of an accurate holistic formula. It is also useful for eliminating or minimizing liver spots, pus accumulation around the eyes, and other random skin discolorations.
Listed in our texts as sweet, sour, and neutral in properties, its neutrality allows it to diffuse dampness in the body that is either cold/inhibitory or hot/excitatory in nature. Its sweetness encourages the body to generate a healthy amount of fluids, and its astringency obviously helps our body to hold that which is leaking, or sinking. It is said to gently promote blood circulation between the bowels and the skin layer.
This might explain why it comprises half of the formula, Dang Gui Chi Xiao Dou Tang, most commonly prescribed to treat certain types of hemorrhoids and skin issues around the buttocks.
If the shoe doesn’t fit—that is if this formula does not fit your pattern, but you still suffer with chronic hemorrhoids, it is advisable to regularly consume adzuki beans with your meals to take advantage of its biofilm dissolving properties. By relieving intestinal vessels of inflammation this should take pressure off of the rectum.
Adzuki beans go well with rice and/or Latin or Asian dishes, also within rice congees plus a boiled egg, providing additional protein to an otherwise dish of just white rice. If you don’t love the taste as much you can also do what I do for my daughter, which is mix the adzuki beans with baked beans as a side dish on hamburger and hotdog nights.
To treat skin conditions Chi Xiao Dou is generally paired one way or the other:
- With the aforementioned, Dang Gui to not only help to generate red and white blood cells, but also to courier them to the surface to nourish and lubricate the skin.
- With more bitter, inhibitory, heat clearing medicinals, such as rehmannia root to mitigate the body’s inflammatory response, known to flare upwards in the form of jawline or upper back acne (“Backnee”).
If you think adzuki beans might help you or a loved one reach out—or just go to the store, purchase, and cook them up! Preferably organic, as inorganic legumes can be particularly vulnerable to chemicals and pesticides. Any recipe or preparation questions, let me know!
Point Profile for Reflux: Stomach 36
The first acupuncture point whose name I learned and was able to identify while my (first) acupuncturist was needling me was “Stomach 36”—”Zu San Li,” or “Three Leg Mile,” in reference to its alleged ability to help the patient walk three additional miles, as all transportation at the time of its discovery was obviously by foot.
“Li,” in Chinese, may also be used as a homonym for “to rectify,” in reference to the energy the point provides, either to our internal physiologies or our kneecaps it resides just inches below. (Yes, this is the point that should feel like a brief surge of shin splint down your tibia)
In modern times we are not as concerned with the need to walk a few extra miles, but the physiological intent holds relevant. Located along the anterior tibial nerve, Stomach 36 can be used to improve energy by its mechanism of increasing blood flow to the stomach, when indicated. That is, if someone is lethargic because they had five drinks the night before and only slept five hours it’s not because their organs are lacking blood. They probably need a different acu-point combination (and a nap).
Besides GERD or acid reflux, Stomach 36 is useful for treating numerous pathologies, including but not limited to diarrhea, bloating, pain of the abdomen, vomiting, belching, also conditions of the throat, chest, and lungs because of the gastrointestinal microbiome’s connection to the respiratory microbiome; finally anxiety, depression, and dizziness, because of the gut brain connection. This 2023 NCBI study concluded its ability to increase the length and mean basal pressure of the lower esophageal sphincter, of which both mechanisms reduce reflux.
According to Peter Deadman’s Manual of Acupuncture, “the great Han dynasty physician (and weren’t all great physicians from the Han??), Hua Tou, is said to have valued the use of ‘ST-36’ to treat the ‘five taxations’ and the ‘seven injuries.’”
The 5 Taxations:
- Excessive use of the eyes injures the blood (even before cell phones—imagine now!)
- Excessive lying down injures the qi (i.e. hypersomnia begets more hypersomnia)
- Excessive sitting injures the flesh (i.e. lack of exercise saps our energy)
- Excessive standing injures the bones (poor security guards)
- Excessive walking injures the sinews (any other New Yorkers remarkably inflexible?!)
Because everything starts and circulates out from the gut, if I had to choose one point to needle on every patient for the rest of my career it would be Zu San Li, Stomach 36. With appropriate metabolic fluids, we can optimize our production of nutrients, which in turn reaches all other systems of the body. Basic science.
Herbal Profile: British Yellowhead
Meet “Xuan Fu Hua,” or the British Yellowhead flower, an herb commonly used to treat acid reflux, cough, or allergies, outlined in the Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica as “salty, warm, and slightly toxic,” originally indicated for fullness below the rib sides and fright palpitations.
Why? How does the Yellowhead flower achieve this?
Salty flavors and their chemistry have a descending action in the body—one that revolves around the manipulation and distribution of fluids—that is so pathogenic fluids can be purged, allowing for healthy fluids to be re-directed, steamed upwards where they belong.
When the heart lacks blood it is more susceptible to fright and palpitations (it isn’t only your anxiety). When the neuromuscular vessels that traverse the ribs lack fluids, we feel pain or tightness. And in many cases of acid reflux the root of the problem is not an abundance of acid, but a lack of fluids and/or electrolytes around our metabolic organs.
Yellowhead flower is not always the magic bullet for all these conditions; but when their root cause is one of gases and fluids in the body failing to descend, perpetuating a vicious cycle that is due to a void of fluids below in the first place, its formulas are a primary route we’ll hope and suspect to be effective. The opposite physiological patterns of GERD will instead be aggravated, because holistic medicine.
The chemical composition of Yellowhead flower includes quercetin, which comes from the white part of grapefruits and oranges and is often sold as a supplement to treat seasonal allergies; caffeic acid, a polyphenol found in coffee beans; and chlorogenic acid, an antioxidant that is also found in coffee beans. This makes sense as the diuretic effect of coffee is obviously a downward one in the body that subsequently lifts functional chemicals upward in turn.
Acid Reflux
There is a concept in Chinese medicine called “Counterflow qi,” which is in reference to when bodily gases or fluids move in the opposite direction from how they are intended. In the digestive process everything is supposed to move down. Don’t get me wrong—not too quickly—but down nonetheless. Any symptom of movement to the contrary is evidence of metabolic dysfunction.
Belching and burping are generally not perturbing to most of their sufferers, possibly apart from the occasional social embarrassment for loved ones. Nevertheless, they are indicative of some degree of weakness and/or inadequacy of vital substances failing to fully process something in the gut.
Vomiting is the extreme version of this, but the principle is the same. Somewhere in between is acid reflux, or “GERD” (gastro-espophageal reflux disease), which usually manifests as symptoms ranging from a burning sensation in the gut, chest, or throat, to a trapped feeling “below the heart,” as Classical Chinese texts would say. Patients experience this anywhere from once or a few times a week if they “eat something wrong,” to incessantly in every waking moment, understandably prompting them to somehow medicate, one way or another.
What causes this? Frankly, metabolic weakness and/or a lack of functional organ fluids, both of which can be caused by all the usual suspects: poor diet, stress, genetic predispositions, and long-term use of pharmaceutical medications.
Ironically, the drugs most commonly prescribed by conventional medicine for GERD, proton pump inhibitors, work by blocking stomach acid, thereby causing more physiological dryness, aggravating the root cause of the condition while muting its branch. This might be okay for a little while for those suffering from “excess patterns,” where the GERD truly is caused by excessive acid—but for those whose symptoms are due more to weakness, such medications will most likely yield a short leash.
Chinese medicine first attempts to distinguish the pattern—which kind of reflux are you? Then we treat accordingly, using acupuncture points and herbal formulas to calm the metabolic organs by imbuing them with more strength, mucosal fluids, and blood, and over time proper directionality of gases and fluids should follow suit.
In the meantime, it is advisable to eat foods that are easy to digest, such as sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables, eggs, fish, tofu, white rice, and/or pasta. Obviously, avoid as much as possible spicy foods and alcohol, refined sugar, dairy, and raw, uncooked foods. (Deep) breathing can be helpful for its inherent function to descend, as can massaging the stomach with both palms of your hands in 36 clockwise circles around the belly button. Empirical symptom management en route to unearthing the root cause of your unique pattern include DGL licorice pills if your pattern is one of weakness, or mint tea if you produce too much acid.
Black Friday & Raw Ginger
Friendly reminders for the next cold month of holiday season: To ward off cold weather most of the body’s excitatory and invigorating substances rush to the surface, thereby leaving our metabolic and endocrinological layer more vulnerable to cold and/or hypo-functionality. This can be the case even in places like Los Angeles, where the climate is relatively colder than what its inhabitants are used to.
A daily cup of ginger can warm our “more internal parts,” as to do with organs and hormones. I would recommend 3 slices, as depicted here, simmered in 3-4 cups of water for 30-40 minutes. If you’re dealing with sinus and/or respiratory issues you can use 4-5 slices, which changes the chemistry of the ginger to act more upon the lungs. If your physiological pattern includes “blood deficiency,” it is advisable to combine with a teaspoon or tablespoon of honey, or a few red dates, so as to not aggravate dryness.
Little known facts about raw ginger:
- can raise blood pressure and heart rate
- Increases stomach motility and acid secretion
- Evidenced to have an antibiotic effect against Salmonella typhi (Typhoid fever), Vibrio cholerae (Cholera), and Trichomanas vaginalis (an STD). Obviously, consult your physician. If used in such cases it should be within the context of a greater, targeted, customized formula
Second and final reminder: BLACK FRIDAY!
$50 OFF all follow up sessions and $100 off initial visits between now and New Year’s. Exclusions include those with 10 discounted session packages, those receiving superbills, and of course insurance patients.
