The Chinese Medicine Diet For Anxiety | Best Diet for Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety is one of the most common complaints that we tend to see in the clinic in terms of acupuncture or traditional Chinese medicine. But in this video I want to share more along the thread of Chinese medical dietetics. In other words, how foods are an extension of herbal formulas, an extension of medicine. And in the case of someone with anxiety, with palpitations, insomnia, psychoemotional changes, how you can actually nudge yourself in the right direction by using a certain set of dietary principles. So in this video let's cover the basics of Chinese medical dietetics for anxiety. Hey I'm Alex Hein, author of the book Master the Day and current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. So I've included a beginner's worksheet there in the first link in the description which is a five daily habits to help you add 10 years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine. So if you're interested in that click the first link in the description and you can download it there. So in Chinese medicine where does anxiety really come from? What's the pathomechanism? Like what is the underlying etiology and how can we make this go away? Because for so many people anxiety is almost a lifelong condition and it really does not have to be. So in Chinese medicine we tend to see a couple of different organ systems involved. We tend to see the heart because it's considered almost like the storehouse of the spirit on one level in Chinese medicine. It also is related to the blood which is both anatomical and in Chinese medicine the blood is also related to spirit in a sense. So we'll talk about that more. The kidney because the kidney in one level in Chinese medicine is what anchors down the energy of the body. So if you think of a person going through like adrenal burnout, the person who's overworked their whole life. With the adrenal burnout we tend to see symptoms of ascending body vibrations, the trembling, the anxiety, insomnia, flushing, heat symptoms in the face. All of these are considered a kind of kidney deficiency. So when there's not that anchoring when the kidney's been damaged and weak you see ascending symptoms. And the last is we tend to see spleen and gallbladder. So don't think for a second that anxiety just happens by itself. The spleen in Chinese medicine also in biomedicine is strongly related to the generation of blood. And blood in Chinese medicine is key for understanding anxiety. So we're going to be talking about these more in this video but those are some of the organ systems we tend to see involved quite a lot. So first let's talk about some basic dietary advice for the person with anxiety. We'll talk about some diet and lifestyle stuff. Some may be obvious some may not be. The first thing is to really think of diet as a key way to resolve anxiety. So in Chinese medicine it's the spleen that tends to generate blood. Liver stores it and the heart has a role in the blood as well. Obviously biomedically the heart circulates the blood. It's the pump. But in Chinese medicine specifically anxiety is often related to the status of blood in the body. So blood deficiency and other issues going on with the blood. We tend to see patterns where there's like heart cheat deficiency or kidney indeficiency, spleen cheat deficiency. A lot of them are related to the status of blood in the body. And so we tend not to think of anxiety as like a physical thing in biomedicine. But in Chinese medicine because the spleen is really one of the foundations of your health you can just think of it as digestion. For the person with anxiety the diet should be a primary thing that they focus on in making sure that all the organs related to generation of blood are really functioning well. So what dietary principles should we keep in mind for generating more blood? The first thing would be more meats like beef, eggs, and ham. The second is to have more veggies related that are darker and dark leafy greens. So you could think of spinach, swiss chard, kale, and generic dark leafy greens. And also things like grapes. So overall what we tend to see is almost like the vegetables you would think of for anemia in a sense. Tend to think of spinach, swiss chard, kale, all these kinds of things. Those are really good additions on a daily basis for someone suffering from anxiety. But also just making sure that we're being cognizant of everything related to digestion. Taking the time to eat slowly, eating proper healthy food, eating more vegetables, especially dark leafy greens. There's a lot we covered in terms of just the vegetable portion of the diet. Now the last piece here is the lifestyle advice for the person with anxiety. So again blood is really the key thing we need to think about for a person with anxiety. Now anxiety and depression are almost like a yin yang where in anxiety the person's still they're depleted, they're run down, but they still have energy. So the body is still able to mount that vibratory like that response. But at some point if that becomes too depleted it can lead to depression which is the body doesn't even have enough energy to mount the vibrating anxious hypervigilant. The body's just shot and needs time to heal and recover. Now in terms of the lifestyle there's two things to think of here. The first thing is not only to think of exercise as a way to move the anxiety because remember in Chinese medicine the state of the patient's the person's spirit and blood are closely linked. So it's anyone who's gone for a good workout and feels great after knows how exercise changes their state. But in Chinese medicine one reason for that is that it circulates the blood and it gets things moving. So just like how even traumatic memories are stored in the body in terms of somatic memory we can often move things like emotional states which are a form of energy in Chinese medicine. You can move them through exercise. The second thing though is that because a lot of people with anxiety are they're tired they're classified as deficient in Chinese medicine. The blood has been run down. We need more blood and the main ways you generate more blood are really through sleep and your diet. So if obviously I get it when you're anxious I've had anxiety before too during my burnout phase. When you're anxious the most impossible thing is sleep. Trust me I get it but it is really to make those two things your priority for a year. I'm going to do everything imaginable to regulate my sleep. Everything imaginable to make sure my diet and my digestion is functioning immaculately. Those two things by themselves will be a huge help for recovering from anxiety. So I hope that helps gives a little bit of insight into the Chinese medical dietetics or diet approach to anxiety and of course we can cover many other options and many other pieces of that later. But again I've included that free download Five Daily Habits to Add 10 Years to Your Life with Traditional or Classical Chinese Medicine. The first link right there in the description. You can download that and keep it to check out. You can also see my last videos right there and right there.