Women’s Health

Gynecological Health: Dietary Guidelines

• Eat a diet of warm, cooked foods. Be particularly careful not to eat cold, raw foods during your period — it only increases cramping and discomfort.
• Avoid excess dairy products to decrease dampness and to strengthen the Spleen.
• Eliminate caffeine and drink a minimum of alcohol — which increases PMS symptoms and is linked to increased breast cancer risk. Artificial stimulants of all kinds amplify gynecological disharmonies causing Liver Qi Stagnation and Liver and Heart Fire.
• Eat a low-fat diet — since excess body fat increases estrogen production and can lead to various gynecological problems. A fatty diet can also increase Qi stagnation and dampness, which is associated with depression and lack of energy.
• Increase fiber and grain in diet to avoid premenstrual constipation.
• Eliminate excess salt from diet to ease water retention. Pure foods contribute enough salt to the diet to maintain health. The use of processed and packaged foods and the addition of salt to home-cooked meals is unnecessary and can be detrimental to your health. According to the Five Phases diagnoses, excess salt injures the Kidney Water, counteracts with Earth and injures the Spleen.

1. Sit comfortably in a chair or lie down on a mat on your back.
2. Allow your body to begin to relax. Close your eyes. Close your mouth and place the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth — this connects the Yin and Yang channels and allows for Qi flow.
3. With your eyes closed, bring your attention to the area around and below your navel; in Japanese it is called the hara; in Chinese the dan tien. This is one area where Qi is stored.
4. Allow yourself to begin to breathe into the area. You may use either breathing technique.
5. And as you breathe into the abdomen, into the belly, into the dan tien, notice a warmth from the center of the abdomen, beginning as a small glow and getting brighter and brighter until there is a ball of light filling your abdomen. Allow yourself to feel this ball of light, any color that you’d like.
6. Now, as you breathe, notice the energy moving up into the area of your heart and opening up into your chest.
7. Now feel it move to the area in front of the arm, just below the shoulder bone. This energy moves from the area below the shoulder bone, down the outside the arm all the way to the thumb, on the inside of the thumb.
8. Feel the warmth and the movement of energy down this channel.
9. When it gets to the end of the channel at the tip of the thumb, move your focus over to the index finger, where the Large Intestine Channel begins.
10. The Qi then moves through the hand, up the outside of the arm, coming up over the shoulder, up the side of the neck, and up to the outside of the nose.
11. Then move to the Stomach Channel, which begins below the eye. It flows down the neck, over the front of the body, through the chest, down outside the navel, around the pubic area, then down the outside of the leg, to a very important point, just below the knee, where the energy of the body becomes very strong. It then moves on down across the front of the foot and into the top of the toes, where it meets the Spleen Channel.
12. The Spleen Channel allows food energy to move through the body and impacts digestion.
13. Begin inside the big toe, coming up the arch of the foot, in front of the ankle bone, on the inside of the leg, all the way up by the knee, continuing inside the leg, and up the front of the body, curving around the ribs, and ending in the sides of the torso, also known as the costal area.
14. The Spleen Channel then connects internally with the heart.
15. The Heart Channel emerges from the heart into the center of the armpit, moving down the inside of the arm, all the way to the small finger, where it attaches to the Small Intestine Channel.
16. The Small Intestine Channel is a very good channel to help open up the brain.
17. This channel runs up the outside of the arm, coming all the way back up, across the scapula, up the back of the neck and around the ear, where it ends in front of the ear.
18. This connects to the Bladder Channel, the longest channel, at the inside of the eye.
19. From the eye, the channel comes up across the top of the head, down the back of the neck where it splits into two parallel lines which they extend down the whole back on either side of the spine, connecting the organs together.
20. The two rows of the Bladder Channel are side by side, then connect again at the back of the buttocks, coming down the back of the middle of the leg through the knee, all the way down the leg, around the ankle bones and into the little toe.
21. The Bladder Channel connects with the Kidney Channel on the very bottom of the foot. The Kidney Channel moves up from the foot, around the inside of the ankle, all the way up the inside of the leg, up around the navel. And this channel comes all the way up to the upper part of the chest, where there are some of the most important points in Chinese Medicine for meditation and connection with the Spirit.
22. Here the Kidney Channel connects with the Pericardium Channel which starts in front of the arm, moves down the very middle of the arm, into the palm of the hand, to the middle finger, where it then connects with the Triple Burner Channel, the channel that helps to regulate the temperature of our bodies. This begins on the fourth finger, comes up over the top of the hand, all the way up the arm and around the elbow, over the shoulder, coming up the neck and around the ear, where it connects with the Gallbladder Channel.
23. The Gallbladder Channel is the most crooked channel on the body. It zigzags across the top of the head, comes down the back of the neck, across the shoulder, down the side of the body, zigzagging again on the side of the body, and all the way down over the hip and the deepest point in the muscle of the body in the buttocks, then moving down the side of the leg, all the way down to the top of the toes, to the fourth toe.
24. You pick up the Liver Channel on the big toe. It comes across the top of the foot, and again towards the inside of the foot and around the ankle, up the middle of the inside of the leg by the knee, all the way up the inside of the leg. This channel circles the genital area, coming up into the ribcage near the liver, yet on both sides of the body. And then we return again to the lungs.
25. Once you have completed the cycle, sit or lie peacefully, allowing yourself time to make the transition back to your surrounding environment in a graceful manner.

Gynecological Health: Soaks & Compresses

Compresses and brief soaks can ease some of the discomfort associated with cramps and low back pain during onset of period. You have to tune into what temperature is best for you. If you are already feeling too hot or dizzy, then keep water temperature and saunas below 101°F. If you feel Cold Dampness, hotter compress, soaks and saunas can be beneficial.