Mental Health and Acupuncture: an overview

Hello, how's everybody doing out there? Um, just last minute rearranging of my tools to try to make it as convenient as possible. Anyway, um, welcome everybody. It's uh, it's been a long time, I think too long since I've done one of these, so I'm really excited to get back into that groove this year and keep bringing you more content about Chinese medicine because let's be real, I just can't stop myself. So um, welcome if you're joining us live, um, I'll be keeping track of comments and questions as we go along and I'll try to answer them as best I can. And um, if you're watching this on replay, go ahead and just put a hashtag replay in there and I will make sure that I respond to you, um, if and when you get the chance to ask your questions, um, because as you all know, educate, empower, and heal, that is our tagline. We want you to walk away feeling like, you know, just a little bit more about what it is we're doing. So without further ado, I'm going to begin our conversation today on mental health and Chinese medicine. Uh, this is going to just be an overview for you guys because, um, subjects just too broad to go into, but I thought we could hit a few of the highlights today, um, and maybe just kind of whet your appetite for some more. And I promise that if there's something that you like or are interested in, um, let me know, we'll go ahead and dig into it deeper. I definitely have plans to expand upon some of this content more in future videos. So I just wanted to give you a bit of an update here for me. Excuse me. Um, my name is Dr. Beth Walker-Grant and I'm an acupuncturist and a Chinese medical herbalist. Um, as I said before, our company ethos is educate, empower, and heal here at Elemental Wellness. And so you find that, uh, when you work with me personally, or in this context that I'm really all about, um, giving you as much information as you can have so that you really feel empowered to make the best decisions that you can for your health. Um, and I practice Chinese medicine. So most of what I can educate you about in terms of your body has to do with how we organize it according to the theories of Chinese medicine. And I know that seems a bit foreign for a lot of people, but, um, I promise you even as a born and raised California girl, uh, it makes sense to me, um, sort of naturally. So anyway, um, I studied on a five year full-time course to qualify with a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. So I have spent the better part of a decade doing this with my life. Um, and, um, and I really do love it. It's just, it's the way that it all makes sense to me. I also have a special interest in, um, using Chinese medicine to treat mental health disorders. So, um, I did, um, a rotation in my clinical education, doing a lot of work with people who were suffering from mental health problems from anxiety and depression all the way to, um, other forms of more serious mental health issues. And, uh, I was trained in the San Francisco Bay area. So, um, a large population of people living in that area suffer, um, with mental health issues and are living with those. And, um, a lot of that stuff, Western medicine doesn't really have a solution for. Um, and I found when I was studying Chinese medicine, there were things that popped up to me where it was like, we have a solution for that. Why aren't we using it? So, um, that really piqued my interest in being able to use Chinese medicine to help treat mental health conditions. And, um, in addition to what I had during my doctoral degree, I also went on to do some more study outside of school, um, in, in Chinese medicine and specifically its use in mental health. So I have continuing education certified, um, certification in treating trauma and, um, also depression using Chinese medicine. Uh, so we'll talk a little bit more about some of that later on. And, um, I just wanted to start out because I feel like the really important thing to know about mental health from a Chinese medicine perspective is, and you're going to hear me say this all the time, but it's a holistic approach to all kinds of health, but also to mental health. And I think that's one of the things that really gives Chinese medicine an edge is that it's always looked at the integration of mental health and physical health. We've never made a separation between those things. Um, according to Chinese medicine theory going back thousands of years. So, um, when you're looking to treat mental health issues, being able to go to a system of health that looks at those things within the context of holistic medicine, um, it's really helpful. So, um, it's, you'll find that it's both physical, it's spiritual, it's natural, uh, emotional, and we have science now chemical. So, um, so let's keep that in mind as we're moving forward. So from the spiritual, I know you're all going to kind of look at spiritual medicine. It is spiritual medicine. And I think it's funny because, you know, really the ancient roots of Chinese medicine were shamanic. And I think this is part of the reason why a lot of people discount Chinese medicine as a legitimate, um, you know, practice of medicine. Um, because of course the early writing, some of our earliest, um, written evidence of Chinese medicine, we talk about mental illness within the context of demonic possession and the treatments were actually administered by local shamans. Uh, and so this is in keeping, of course, with much of indigenous medicine throughout the world where the medicine bringers were also the spiritual leaders of the village. But what I think is most interesting about this is that the cultural context within which they can address mental illness, right? It normalizes the present, its presence, like the presence of mental illness as something that's out of balance, rather than a sort of terminal pathology, um, of the individual human, which kind of, I think is at the root of some of our modern stigmas against mental health. So I know that on the front end, it's going to sound like, Oh, you know, are you practicing shamanic medicine? And a lot of people do, you can pick up on the roots of that. We're going to talk a little bit about that progression because you'll see how that comes through. A lot of our terminology remains the same, um, and it does have its roots there. Um, but the thing that I like about those roots is that it really helps us to, to have language, to talk about these things from a cultural context that is not stigmatizing. Um, and, and that's, I think it can sometimes help. And again, that goes back to the holistic as well. Um, so this is a quote from, um, a well-known scholar of Chinese medicine, um, Elizabeth Gershaw at the Ballet, who does a lot of, um, translation work of Chinese medicine, uh, texts. And she just has really beautiful insight into the language, um, that we use in Chinese medicine and specifically a lot of the schools of medicine that I've studied and that I like, but this is, the spirits are the spirits of heaven. And she uses these Chinese characters and words here, tian shen, who lead all the beings to appear. And I like this idea of taking the shen, which is our Chinese medicine word for spirit, right? And we're going to break it down a little bit. If you want more information on shen, you can definitely go back to, um, one of my earlier lectures on the, uh, the fundamentals of Chinese medicine, where I talk about the shen as one of the vital substances, because we, we use that word in Chinese medicine, but I'll show you a little today. It's not as simple as that. Um, but she uses this word tian shen, all beings to appear. And I think this speaks a little bit to that concept of demonic possession as though those are spiritual beings, but also talking about our own mental health, um, the shen of us, right? Our spiritual being. And that sometimes illness happens when you have the meeting of something that is both not of yourself, right? It doesn't belong there. It's not, not giving you balance and of yourself, right? This is your own emotional health. And I think a lot of times people who suffer from mental illness do feel that way. They feel like there's a disconnect between that part of themselves and their spiritual personality that is not them. And that is them. Um, and I think it's important for us to remember that that's all shen. Um, and I like that part of Chinese medicine. So Chinese medicine is natural medicine and a theory evolved, right? Um, our TCM theory evolved. We began to incorporate more of the natural world into our models. So by 200 BCE, um, the theory mostly had replaced, the natural theory had replaced these spiritual theories, these shamanic, uh, practices of the earlier days of the medicine. And it was sort of now administered by people who were physicians and not, um, not spiritual leaders so much. So, but as I was saying earlier that the root of that, the language that we use to talk about the thing still kind of remained the same. So you'll have a lot of names and labels that we have for points or herbs where we use the language of the spiritual medicine because it's, it's still there. It's still a piece of evolution. Um, and it falls within that holistic construct of the chi system, right? Um, and this is where we begin to see that shen that I was talking about before in that quote, right? The soul, the mind, the spirit. Um, it's also during this time that we begin to see syndromes that we actually can recognize as actual psychiatric conditions. So many of our diagnostic practices are, um, from today even come from this period of time where, um, where we were, we're looking at the natural world to help us identify the cause of illness. And, um, we still use a lot of that today, right? And I, I particularly like the herbal treatments from this period. So there's a lot of our classical texts that make up part of our education, a lot of herbal references. And, uh, I like them because when you're looking at formulas to treat, um, you know, mental health, psychiatric illness, a lot of the, um, herbal treatments that we use, uh, in comparison to, you know, modern psychotropic medications you can get from your doctor or even like, um, like the symbols that we use from Western medicine, where you've got like, um, euthanogenic medicine and things like that. Um, herbal medicine that we use today, modern or in traditional Western context as well, but the Chinese medicine formulas are tend to be really gentle. So one of the biggest complaints I hear people talking about in terms of the treatment that's available to them, um, is that they don't like the way their medicine makes them feel, or, you know, they, um, they've got negative side effects. Um, a lot of the, uh, the Western herbal medicines we use to treat mental health, um, are really harsh. I mean, they're, they can be beautiful too, but they can also be very powerful physical experiences and not everybody's up for that journey. So, um, I really like, I like the way we use herbal medicine in Chinese herbal medicine to treat, uh, mental health, because I just find that it's a bit of a gentler road to go. Um, next I'm going to talk a little bit about the five element theory. Again, I have other videos on this. If you want to go back to my fundamentals series, you can look at some videos on five element theory. So I'm not going to go into it heavily today, but a lot of the medicine that we use in a modern context comes back to this system of organization. Um, so you can rewatch my five element theory fundamentals lecture, um, and, and I think pay specific attention to the generation cycle and the controlling cycle, as I explained to them, because of course the overview is everything in life can be ascribed to an element. And those five elements live in a cycle where they either, you know, they form a circle where they generate each other, or they form a star actually is the pattern that we use in that same configuration where one element will control or insult the other. And using those models, um, we can sort of apply that because each element has its own associated emotion. Right. Um, and, um, and in five element theory, there's a whole school of acupuncture based on five element theory. And in this school, um, each human has a pre a predominant sort of constitutional elements that they hold and live their life with. And so you, through taking pulses and things like that, you can make your diagnosis and then you have your treatment. And, um, and the cool thing about that is that five element acupuncture is almost all about balance. So we even call it like the four needle balancing technique. So it's fewer needles, very few needles. And then, um, and, and it's all about balance. And generally when you're using a four needle technique, you'll go back and you'll, you know, you'll put a needle in and then you'll check the pulse to see if the pulse has responded. So you tend to get quite rapid effects that you can feel immediately in a pulse when you're using this. And so I like the balance that it's coming from nature. Um, I love the fact that we've got emotional context there within the five element theory. I love the five element theory of diagnosis just in general, but, um, it's, it's a major part of how we use Chinese medicine to treat mental health. Excuse me. So, um, the next piece that I think it's really important to go into, you've heard me use this word Shen a few times. Um, and I sometimes, you know, hint at the idea that there's more than one. And in fact, there is that, that Chinese character Shen, um, as Elizabeth Doris at the Valley, like she's been, um, trying to, you know, trying to explain it to us for a really long time. And I'm still not sure we all understand, but, um, I think it's important for me that there's complexity to it. And I like the way the five Shen theory kind of breaks that down a little bit, right? Because we can associate a different aspect of the Shen to each of the different internal organs and get a more complete picture of what that word Shen really encompasses. And so Shen, as it were, when we use that word generally, it's actually referring to the Emperor Shen or the Shen of the heart. And that, you know, um, that isn't, uh, you know, about your visage. It's what the, the, the way your spirit shines through your face, right? Awareness, vibrant, fluid, intelligent, right? It's all about clear eyes, responsive facial expressions. Like this is a clear Shen and that's all about the heart. And of course, because it's the Emperor Shen, it is the leader of the Shen and everybody else kind of serves the Emperor in this context. The next Shen that we have is the Jur and that is the will, and it's associated with the kidneys. And this is the intention and effort required to accomplish things. And so you'll begin to start seeing ideas of like pathology with the Jur come into effect if you start looking at it within terms of depression or something like that, where you say, oh, you know, like that will, people like, I just don't have the will, like I just can't get out of bed, you know, right? Well, we now know that whatever is affecting you is now affecting that Jur of the kidneys, right? Um, the next is the Yi or the intellect, and this is associated with the spleen and it's, this is like the conceptual mind, right? So, um, this is how you form intentions and unconscious like thought or I'm sorry, how you form intentions and you exercise discernment, right? But a Yi that's out of balance will, um, will elicit unconscious internal chatter, right? So you're going to have like overthinking or you're going to be really pensive, right? But that if it's actually in concert with its own spirit, right, it's going to be intelligent and understanding. And so we look at balances or imbalances within that, that particular aspect of the Shen. Uh, your Po is your corporeal Shen, um, or probably what most people would refer to as the soul, right? It's the piece of your body that's you, that dissolves when you die. And it's that, you know, it's, it's the thing that's attached to your, your body. So it's the thing that lives with you. So if you're an atheist, the Po is your soul, right? Um, but if you have other spiritual inclinations, you believe in an afterlife, the soul is the Hun, right? Um, which is the ethereal soul. And that is the piece of your consciousness that exists beyond, right? Beyond death. And so in order to really understand the Shen, you have to understand that there's more levels to it, to that word than just mind or spirit. Like there are five of them, they all associate with different organ systems. So, and then ultimately, cause there's five elements of very Dallas theory, right? You know, when you unify them together, like a unified Shen, when all five of those Shen are operating in harmony, it's the unified mind of the Dow, right? That is what people are searching for the way of the Dow. So, you know, Shen, you say, you say soul, I say Shen, you know, it's Chinese medicine, it gets a little complicated, but ultimately it's elegant and we love it for that. Um, anybody who knows me has talked to me about Chinese medicine, particularly mental health, medicine knows that I'm a bit of an eight extraordinary meridians nerd. Um, my, my training in this is, uh, uh, I loved it. I just, I love the way it explains how a human forms. And so I kind of refer to it as TCM embryology. Um, and there are specific acupuncture treatments that really refer to each of these, uh, meridians. And so when we're treating mental health, we can go specifically into these meridians and work with points on them to move and change. And they just, they're really deep and they're formative, I guess is the right word to use. So the first ones that form, we'll go over it quickly, are the Dow and the Ren. The Ren is that mothering meridian, you know, babies are born sort of all crouched up in that fetal position. So that's the nourishing, that's the Ren all down the front of the body as they begin to, um, and that's attachment, right? We have that strong attachment. That's what's associated there. As you begin to straighten out, anybody who's seen a newborn baby does, it takes about a week. They start to unball. They're no longer little peanuts. They become little leggy things. Um, that's the Dow, right? And we call that the governing vessel. And it really is also associated with your will, right? This is, again, we go back to that concept of the, the Ger, uh, Shen, right? Where we're looking at will to move about the world. It's a very dynamic and creative force. Like all of a sudden you go, ah, I want to move, right? And that's the, that's the Dow. And then quickly thereafter, you have the development of the Chong, which is this upright rod that kind of runs through the body. And that really is part of the purpose. So it's really connected with, with your purpose and, and you know, that, that the, the independence of the, of the you-ness of you, right? Um, and so the Chong is sort of where, where we sort of begin to be people. We're not just still like, you know, unattached baby that's, you know, needs nourishment or like a willful thing that has no direction. The Chong is where we get that. And then around that same time, we also develop our dimeridian, which is called the girdling vessel. And I like to call that your trauma pocket because it's where you kind of tuck the things that you're not really able to manage at the time. And so we do also tend to work quite a bit with the dimeridian when we're dealing with situations of trauma. So, you know, trauma pocket, you die. And then you get into the Wei Mai, there's a Yin and a Yang Wei Mai. And those, um, those really give you more structure, right? We start to have external structure there, concept of self and personality and really self-love, like coming to love ourselves. Um, I don't know if it's necessarily, I feel like identity lives somewhere in between the Wei Mai and the Chao Mai, but like it's the beginnings of that. And then when you finally get to the Chao Mai, um, the Yin and the Yang Chao, um, you get that character, like the piece of you that kind of gives you that, that solid, uh, solidity and surety, like, you know, the content of your character and, and also connects you with your higher purpose, right? Your higher spiritual awareness of yourself within the context of, of the universe, really even beyond the world or yourself. So it begins to take you out of yourself and it takes until your mid twenties for the Chao Mai to actually fully develop. Um, so we see that kind of tracks biomedically with like prefrontal cortex function, for instance, which we know that your prefrontal cortex doesn't fully finish developing until you're in your early twenties. Um, unless you have ADHD, in which case it likely doesn't finish forming until later than that even. So, um, yeah, I just love looking at these sort of formations. And then when we start looking back at people who are processing, you know, either historical trauma or different kinds of barriers that are kind of coming between them and a really fulfilling, uh, emotional and spiritual life, we can go back into these eight extraordinary meridians and that embryology and see if we can't, um, you know, just kind of, I like to call it pulling strings. Do you know what I mean? As though you're playing a harp, where you just kind of pull that string and that string and allow them to work in concert within your consciousness to help you make sense of those things. I also like it because, uh, you don't have to talk to anybody. Like we have some intake. We talk about whatever you want to talk about. We have a few questions we ask, and then I put some needles in and you hang out for a half an hour in your body and you let your body talk to you and your brain talk to you because as I usually tell people, you are the highest authority on you. So, um, that kind of brings us to the third part of my talk tonight. I think I'm tracking on time. I think I'm doing good. Um, and that is that TCM is also scientific medicine. I know I started off. I'm like, oh, it's shamanic. People used to think people were possessed by the demons and they did, and it is, and that's fine. And also we now know in a modern context that it's scientific. We have modern research that shows us how acupuncture affects brain activity, function, chemistry, right? So more and more, um, we're showing that it's positively affecting brain activity in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala and the hippocampus. We're using things like functional MRI imaging to get that information. We know that it affects our brain chemistry. We've done studies that talk about how it affects your neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine and dopamine, which are just a few, many more than that. Um, it also works on an endocrine level and helps deal with, um, the, the hypothalamic pituitary axis or the HPA axis. I'm not going to go into that today because it's just too much, too much science. You guys are like glaze over if you haven't already. Um, but basically if you've watched my lecture on stress, which you can also go back and watch, you'll understand that that HPA axis is really important in regulating your autonomic nervous system and your stress responses. And so what it does, it sort of inhibits that, that response to help you manage those stressful feelings that come with things like anxiety. And it also works on an immunologic level. We know now that a lot of mental health is exacerbated by, um, by inflammation and immune issues. And so we, um, we know that from an immunological level, it works with IL-6 and TNF and helps your body regulate, um, those, those systems so that you have like increased immune function with decreased inflammation. And that's great. Um, and then the other thing that I just love about it, so many studies, uh, were coming up, there was a meta-analysis and the general feeling was that like, that it's rapid, that it works quickly, that it has long-term effect, um, and that it actually has an enhancing effect, um, uh, on whatever other treatment you're having. So if you're, if you're taking medication, it's a safe thing to use, um, to increase and enhance the effect of your medication. And the other thing that's cool is those same studies are also talking about how few side effects people actually have. So, um, not only is it safe to use with your medicine, it's not going to, um, inhibit the medicine's effect. It's not going to exacerbate the medicine's effect, um, but it's actually gonna help it work better. And you, um, aren't subject to all of the side effects that, well, I mean, if you're having medication, you've got those, but, but there's no additional side effects that are added with the addition of acupuncture to help you treat your mental health issues, which I think is great, particularly, and I just have to say this, right, acupuncture is safe when administered by a well-trained acupuncturist. Make sure you vet your practitioner, make sure they have the education and the training. A two-day course is not a course on how to safely insert needles. Um, there's a lot of bad press on, on people who aren't acupuncturists doing damaging things with needles. So there are side effects. Anybody who's been in my clinic knows that, um, I, I make sure that you all understand what the, what the possible effects are, but a well-trained acupuncturist should be able to avoid those. So, um, yeah, uh, I like this because this came from, uh, an article on anxiety. It says that studies show that acupuncture is more effective than pharmacotherapy and comparable to talking therapy, speaking of anxiety, making it a helpful referral choice. Moreover, research has revealed several known biochemical and biophysical mechanisms that may offer an explanation of how this ancient modality works. And that's just sort of like your snapshot of what I've been talking about here, which is that we know that it's effective. We know that it's safe, and we know now some of the mechanisms behind how it's working. Um, and one of those mechanisms, as I refer, as I, uh, mentioned earlier has to do with the, the, the central nervous system, the autonomic nervous system. And there's a, a lot of research that we've done into in the vagus nerve. There's some new psychological research coming out about polyvagal theory, which takes its name from the vagus nerve, right? Um, and that the vagus nerve is a primary component of the parasympathetic nervous system. Uh, and so, uh, polyvagal theory has identified like a third piece of this system, right? That's referring to social engagement. And this is the new psychological model with regard to mental health is that we now know that it's not just about neurotransmitters, but there's also like a psychosocial component where we talk about your environment and we talk about your coping mechanisms and other things that you have at place. So we're beginning to look at it, even from a Western context, we're looking at mental health from a more complex and multilayered approach. And I think polyvagal theory is kind of coming in there to, to fill that, that place where we go, oh yeah, you know, we do know about the, the parasympathetic nervous system, but you know, it's only part of the explanation. Um, and so, uh, for those of you who don't know parasympathetic, uh, nervous system, we're talking about your fight, flight and freeze response, right? And there's some really interesting stuff going on right now. One of the courses that I'm trained in, in terms of using acupuncture for trauma response, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder, where we use the five element theory, uh, to sort of differentially diagnose PTSD. And we can use acupuncture and acupressure to, um, and the polyvagal theory to help, uh, put people back into a state where they can, they can use this social engagement system to help work through their trauma. So, um, it's just an interesting new piece of science that we're using to kind of work through. And it's, it's a beautiful melding of, uh, of Chinese medical theory and, and Western medicine. Um, so I mentioned FMRI or functional MRI studies, and these are the things that really get my science brain going. I start to really geek out because, um, you know, they're doing studies right now where they, they can put you in an MRI machine and that you can like see like MRIs as it's happening. So it's a video of the MRI where you get to watch what's happening in the brain while needles are being put in the body. And so you kind of get this real time, you know, image of like where the activity is, is firing. And so we know that, you know, it's happening in the amygdala, it's happening in the hippocampus, it's happening in the prefrontal cortex. And so, and so this picture that you see here is, is a, is a brain on acupuncture, electro acupuncture, right? So you've got your control at the bottom and then you've got a hundred Hertz of acupuncture stimulation and two Hertz of acupuncture stimulation. And then the top one is manual acupuncture, but you can see in the two Hertz images, how much more activity we have in different parts of the brain. And so I just, it's, it's the thing that we haven't been able to use for a really long time where people say, oh, well, how do you have, you know, scientific evidence that acupuncture works? And it's like, well, look what happens when you put a needle in somebody and connect it to some electricity and see what happens in their brain. Right. And then we go, oh, but, you know, it helps with depression and it helps with anxiety. And they go, well, how do you know? I'm like, well, it's the amygdala and it's the hippocampus and it's all these areas of the brain that we know are heavily involved. Like neurobiology knows that these parts of the heavily involved in how our bodies process things like depression and anxiety. And so these are some of the cool pieces that are really coming into play, but I feel like this kind of evidence is really only begin coming more to the forefront in the last five years. So we're still kind of catching up a little bit, but this is the evidence that makes me really excited from a scientific perspective. And so I'm just going to end here and say that today, modern Chinese medicine marries the spiritual, natural and scientific treatment of illness. And I really like that because, because we're not just pieces and parts of, you know, flesh. We are whole human beings and science, I think it's like catching up a little bit to that thing that Chinese medicine has been saying for a really, really long time. So if you guys have any questions, I'll hang out for another couple of minutes and see if you want to talk. And if not, that's cool. If you're catching us on the replay, this is going to go ahead and be, oh, hi, Joy. You're welcome. Thanks for coming. If you're catching it on the replay, go ahead and shoot me an email. As always, I'm here. My practice is elemental wellness. There's a link to the website in the comments. It's www.elementalwellness.net. I do free 20 minute consultations. So if you're not sure if Chinese medicine is right for you, give me a call. And I promise I'll be honest. Like if I don't think it's for you, I will tell you. And I'll answer any questions you have, because it's really important that you all feel comfortable and confident with, you know, your health, because it's your body and it's your health. And I'm passionate about that. So thank you for joining me today. I hope you all have a lovely afternoon. And we've rescheduled these lectures, so I'm going to keep doing them, but I'm going to do them once a month. So third Thursdays at 4 p.m., you can come catch me here and we'll hang out. And if you've got questions, I'll answer them. And if you have an idea for a topic, if you were like, I wonder what Chinese medicine has to say about that, send me an email, leave a comment on the video and we'll add it to the list. Other than that, I think this is just going to launch us off on our mental health lecture spree. So probably the next couple ones are going to be more in-depth about how we use acupuncture. I'm not sure if we're going to make them by syndrome, if we're going to talk about like, you know, depression or anxiety separately, or if we're going to talk about the Chinese medicine theory, like if we're going to dig deeper into those. So let me know if you have a preference, right? Do we want to talk about it from a Western diagnosis? Do we talk about Chinese tools? And with that said, I wish you all a very good evening and I will talk to you soon. Bye.