After you’ve listened to this episode, drop a comment down below — how do you feel about your own ability to age gracefully?
This week’s episode of The Natural Healing Podcast is all about healthy aging.
The fundamental cause of accelerated aging, as well as a myriad of chronic degenerative diseases, is not what you might think. You'll learn the leading contributory factors to blood stagnation and what you can do to remedy and prevent it. By understanding these factors, you can improve your overall health and longevity, and support your mind and body to age more gracefully.
Our Dear Friend Ann Fabrizio, a Testament to the Possibilities of Aging
Celebrating Ann on her 100th birthday
Ann Fabrizio is a dear friend of ours – she was Salvador’s neighbor growing up and a mentor for his writing. In high school, he would often send over his essays for her to look over and almost always ended up with a A. He credits his writing ability to her, for he would watch how she would think things through and then imitate it.
Ann also just celebrated her 100th birthday! This woman lives entirely independently, is an incredibly intelligent person, quick thinker and masterfully articulate – you’ll likely learn a new word or two in any conversation you have with her.
She is a perfect representation of all the possibilities of what aging can be like — when you arrive at a point in life where you’re considered “old,” but your mind and body are healthy, and you’re still able to live a fulfilling life.
The Conditioned Idea of Aging vs Classical Chinese Medicine
In society today, there’s this idea that as we age we’re getting weaker in mind, body and spirit, bringing forth this sense of “doom.” When we think of aging, most us will think about becoming immobile, unhealthy, unhappy because we are no longer able to do what we once could.
However, many of the factors we attribute to aging “normally” are considered manifestations of pathological according to Classical Chinese Medicine. And the primary pathological factor that accelerates aging is blood stagnation. Blood stagnation can also manifest due to blood deficiency; when you have weak blood, poor circulation, your energy will be low and your body will not be properly nourished. Improving the circulation of blood within the body allows us to, biologically and mentally, prevent those typical signs of aging.
Poor circulation is due to an imbalance within the Heart System, which is tied to the Fire Element within Classical Chinese Medicine. The Heart System controls the blood within the body, and the blood in our bodies is a representation of our Spirit, or Shen, which holds the memories of our life, as well as our emotions.
Emotional Stagnation is a Root Cause
Trauma that we have yet to let go, whether big or small, will cause emotional stagnation. We all will experience this, because we have all been through some form of trauma in our lives. The key to preventing long term effects is to process the emotional trauma, and let it go to prevent blood stagnation from accumulating in the body.
Your emotional stagnation is relative to your personal life experience.
Some emotionally traumatic experiences may be heavily debilitating for one person, but may barely affect another and vice versa. How blood stagnation will manifest within your body in regards to your emotional stagnation is dependent on how you react to it, or if you react at all.
Along with experiencing traumatic events, obsessing over them and your responses to them, can also generate excess heat within your body which will cause a similar reaction to placing a pot of blood on the stove – coagulation occurs. When this excess of heat occurs long term, that heat can burn up your Qi, your energy, which can lead to your body being more cold, also affecting the circulation of your blood.
Either of these intense situations can cause blood stagnation, and we’re all dealing with it whether we’re aware of it or not.
Ways to be More Aware of Blood Stagnation to Promote Healthy Aging
One of the ways you can see if you have blood stagnation is to look at your veins. Do you have a lot of broken blood vessels? Spider veins? Do you have varicosities? These are common presentations of blood stasis.
A common sign that you have poor blood circulation is frigid hands and feet. If you experience this, it’s imperative to begin using tools and practices to improve your blood circulation to prevent chronic issues and accelerated aging.
In Chinese Medicine we do abdominal palpation to see the signs of blood stasis, especially around the navel and lower abdomen. We also check the tongue to see if it has a blue-ish color to it. The sides of the tongue may also have blue streaks and the veins under the tongue will start to get dark as well if blood stasis is present.
Harmonizing Yin and Yang
Going back to Episode 48 of our podcast, where we talked about harmonizing Yin and Yang – the Water and Fire Paths. In our modern society, we are over-activating our Fire Path (Yang), generating a tremendous amount of heat in our bodies due to this idea we must constantly be “doing something” to be seen as a valued, productive member of society. These activities we need to be “doing” range from going to work, running errands, staring at our screens for work or pleasure – they all consistently generate heat within our biological systems.
The more heat you generate within your system, when not activating the Water Path (Yin), the Fire Path (Yang) overtakes and dries up the Water Path. This can sometimes occur as a blood deficiency, since blood is tied to your Water Path (Yin), and blood deficiency can lead to blood stagnation and vice versa.
When our Water Path (Yin) is not being activated, our bodies will often accumulate more fat in our bellies, hips and thighs — factors of a Yin Stasis which will correspond to blood stasis.
We encourage you to begin working more with your Water Path, to anchor and ground that Fire, to settle the overthinking mind. You can begin working with your Water Path, cooling the Fire within your body and giving you peace of mind through our Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations.
The Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations help to circulate energy throughout your body through the primary source channels of Yin and Yang, known as the Du and Ren Meridians, which are also the Fire and Water pathways of the body. In this way, these meditations also connect the Fire and Water energies, cultivating Heart-Kidney communication, which helps you realize and live out your life purpose. To purchase access to these meditations, click the button below:
Ease and Certainty are Best for Healthy Aging
When you feel at ease and are certain about everything that you’re doing — mentally, emotionally and physically — that in and of itself slows down aging. When we’re constantly on the go, elevating our cortisol, activating our Yang… life moves much more quickly.
This is why you’ll often find people saying “I can’t do everything; I’m always running out of time.” Well, if you feel that way, that means that you’re stuck in this Yang cycle.
What you really need to do is take a step back and slow things down so you don’t burn all of your Yin, the resources, in your body via excess heat, or Yang.
To focus on slowing down and grounding your mind, spirit and body through the Water Path (Yin) you want to focus on nurturing your Kidneys. While the Heart is the prominent organ of the Yang (Fire Path), the Kidneys are the prominent organ in the Yin (Water Path).
Optimizing Your Diet for Healthy Aging
Diet is another way that you may be over-activating your Yang (Fire Path). Toxicity, high protein and high acidity generate heat too much. Sugar also generates heat and dampness within the body. Sugar thickens your blood, causing blood stasis. In severe cases, those with diabetes who experience incredibly high blood sugar consistently may lose a limb due to neuropathy and nerve damage because of of a lack of proper blood circulation overtime.
However, you don’t need to have an illness like diabetes for high blood sugar to have an impact on your health. Elevated blood sugar is going to accelerate aging because it creates toxicity in your blood, thickening it which will contribute to blood stagnation — the fundamental factor behind accelerated aging.
It has been established in other studies that elevated glucose in the blood leads to what’s called protein glycation, a cross-linking of proteins that’s a known factor for accelerated aging. It’s imperative to be aware and manage our blood sugar to age gracefully and avoid chronic, degenerative diseases.
As elevated blood sugar becomes more of a prominent issue as a society as a whole, different ways of managing blood sugar will rise, such as intermittent fasting. Of course, to know whether or not intermittent fasting would be beneficial to you and your body type, you’d have to work closely with a health care practitioner.
To reach your personal nutrition and weight management goals, you need a personalized plan tailored to you and your body type. The Yin & Yang of Nutrition online course will give you a roadmap to do just that.
Rooted in the life-changing Classical Chinese Medicine based in the teachings of her long-time teacher and 88th generation Daoist Master, Dr. Jeffrey Yuen, The Yin & Yang of Nutrition online course was developed by Dr. Setareh Moafi as a vehicle with which to share the insights that transformed her lifelong digestive issues, built the foundation for her PhD dissertation, and have helped her heal countless patients.
The Yin & Yang of Nutrition online course is designed to provide you with clear, tangible tools to help you take the overwhelm out of food and nutrition and make the right choices for your health every day. You’ll learn about the energetics of food and nutrition, as well as how to assess your diet so that you can have the freedom to enjoy food while knowing exactly what to eat when. Click below to learn more and be the first to know when enrollment opens in early 2023.
The Effects of Proteolytic Enzymes
Proteolytic enzymes are what we often prescribe to patients who are dealing with poor blood circulation, on top of other recommendations related to lifestyle, diet and exercise. Proteolytic enzymes help manage the over-production of fibrin, the protein created in your blood vessels that allows your blood to clot. If there is an over-production of fibrin within your blood vessels, this will create excessive clotting leading to blood stagnation.
Please speak to a healthcare practitioner about taking proteolytic enzymes and other supplements especially if you’re currently taking any medication that thins your blood.
We prescribe in-house supplements, Cardio Clear NK and Serra Ease, for our patients with circulation issues or inflammation that are proteolytic supplements that help clear the blood of proteins and other toxins.
These proteolytic enzymes are not just great for when an issue arises, but as a form of prevention.
Resources Mentioned This Episode
Strengthen your immune system, restore your gut health, and improve joint mobility and circulation with our unique line of expertly formulated probiotics, digestive enzymes and proteolytic enzymes at www.aharabotanics.com.
Harmonize your Yin and Yang energies and cultivate freedom of movement throughout your body and life with the Microcosmic & Macrocosmic Orbit Meditations at www.setarehmoafi.com/shop.
After you’ve listened to this episode, drop a comment down below — how do you feel about your own ability to age gracefully?
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