Full Transcript Seasonal Transition and Lung Health 0:00 Doctors would often poo poo the idea that if you got wet or if he got rained on that you're more likely to get sick. 0:06 Well, they've done multiple studies now showing and so they would dunk one group of people on ice cold water and they wouldn't dunk the other group and 0:14 the group that they dumped got sick far more often than the. 0:18 So you want to protect your neck, particularly the back of your. 0:22 Because once that gets chilled, it chills everything. 0:26 Hi, and welcome to the balancing point. 0:29 I'm Dr. 0:30 John Needers and I am here to make traditional Chinese medicine, functional medicine and integrative health simple, practical and fun. 0:40 So you can restore balance, boost vitality and enjoy a healthier life every single day. 0:48 Hi, this is Dr. 0:49 John here again with another opportunity to do some exploration into the nature of health, wellness, and beingness. 0:57 And today I'm going to talk a little bit about transitions. 1:01 That's because we are in the season that we commonly call fall or autumn. 1:06 Now, technically, that started September 22nd. 1:10 But for me personally, I really see the big change, the transition when we fall back from daylight savings time. 1:19 So we pick up an extra hour of time, which I find quite valuable. 1:25 I don't actually change my routine in terms of what time I get up during the year. 1:31 During daylight savings time, I generally get a little before five, and when we're on real time. 1:38 I usually get right around four, but I don't want to put my body through that shock of changing back and forth. 1:47 This is a very, very important time of year, extremely important.
Protecting the Lungs and Wei Qi 1:52 It's the time the lungs, right, the metal element in traditional Chinese medicine. 1:58 Now, lungs are so critically important for so many different functions. 2:03 That, of course, is where we most directly meet the world, like our heart and our liver and the spleen, et cetera. 2:10 only come in contact with the external world via substances that we take in, etc. 2:17 But the lungs are directly exposed to the atmosphere. 2:21 It's where we exchange gases. 2:23 People think about, you know, taking in oxygen, but equally as important is getting rid of carbon dioxide. 2:29 In fact, the function of the can largely be looked at as a function of receiving and letting go. 2:37 Receiving and let go and that's on a physical level as well and maybe even more importantly on an emotional level. 2:46 In Chinese medicine, it's said that the lungs are the repository of grief. 2:51 So if someone has unresolved grief and some other traumas also, the lung function can be damaged. 2:59 Now, in Chinese Medicine, a lung functions includes actually a lot of things that we would not include in Western medicine. 3:05 includes the nasal passages, the throat, et cetera. 3:09 When the energy of the lung is disturbed, it rises upwards. 3:13 So the, energy the lungs should be bringing the down, particularly this time of year. 3:18 It's very critical. 3:20 We wanna breathe in our diaphragm, or from our diagram breathe, It'll feel like it's in your belly. 3:26 we don't wanna be doing chest breathing. 3:28 That only brings anxiety. 3:32 a patient who has recently lost a loved one, we will focus on the heart some because we don't want the hurt to get misshapen, 3:40 such as in Takotsubo syndrome, but we mostly are going to put our attention long term on our lungs. 3:47 We even have formulas that we use to release the energy of the lungs while still pulling in the oxygen that you need. 3:57 The lungs also regulate the water passages in the body. 4:00 So again, you get nasal obstruction, You can get obstruction in these station tubes. 4:06 You get obstructions in your chest. 4:07 In fact, often fullness of the chest, which people might be worried about and attribute to the heart, is very often a lung issue. 4:16 And so the governing chi, the central chi comes in to the lungs and the center of the chest. 4:23 Also, lungs distribute what's called Wei Chi or protective chi. 4:28 So it's forming this protective barrier on your skin. 4:33 And that's why the Chinese are so careful about that barrier and about keeping that healthy. 4:39 If you go to China this time of year, you will not find a single person out and without a hat and a scarf because most of the heat is going to be lost
Autumn Practices and Seasonal Eating 4:51 through the head. 4:51 They'll also have gloves on because you can lose a lot of heat through their hands, but particularly the scarf. 4:57 There are points on the back of the neck where in traditional Chinese medicine, the evils can attack. 5:03 Now that sounds kind of silly in a way, but it's actually very accurate. 5:07 They've done lots of studies. 5:09 Doctors would often poo poo the idea that if you got wet or if got rained on that you're more likely to get sick. 5:15 Well, they've got multiple studies now showing. 5:18 And so they would dunk one group of people in ice cold water, and they wouldn't dunk the other group, and the group that they dunked got sick far more 5:26 often than the others group. 5:27 So you want to protect your neck, particularly the back of your necks, because once that gets chilled, it chills everything and you don't have the ability 5:39 to maximize the use of you Wei Qi or protective Qi. 5:42 In the Yellow Emperor's classic, I actually had t-shirts made up of this, It says, when the internal Qi is righteous, external evils can't invade, 5:52 right? 5:52 So it's really that simple. 5:54 And this is a really important thing to remember. 5:57 Currently, here at the end of 2026, COVID cases are up significantly from a year ago. 6:05 They just found a couple geese here in Alameda Beach, I was reading this morning, that have bird flu. 6:10 So there's a lot of stuff out there, and you want to protect your health and your lungs, because things can travel south, 6:17 so to speak, very, if you're not on top of it. 6:23 So the lungs are important for breathing, for chest function, sore throats. 6:32 In Chinese medicine, we attribute to a lung issue. 6:36 And so we really want to keep that significant. 6:39 Now, if have unresolved grief or trauma, resolve it, whatever you need to do. 6:47 In my past few episodes, I've looked at cell danger response, where the body cannot function properly because the mitochondria shut down. 6:56 This is a well proven issue now. 6:58 And one of the things that can keep people in cell-danger response is unresolved trauma. 7:06 Now this could be from when you were a year old, it could from last week, but you must resolve it. 7:12 If you can do that on your own, that's great. 7:14 You know, breathing techniques, there are a few devices that you could wear that will help with that. 7:19 But there a lot of good therapists, I know because we treat a lof of them, and they're really good people. 7:25 So if you have un-resolve grief or trauma, handle it now. 7:30 Don't wait till the middle of winter to try to handle that because you won't have the energy to deal with it. 7:37 So grief following loss or change, emotional experiences that are difficult for you to process, attachments that you're still having to things that have 7:48 gone before. 7:49 These all need to be addressed. 7:51 Now, The season of autumn or fall, the element is metal. 7:58 So it's the metal time of year, and it is associated with the lung and the large intestine. 8:05 Again, receiving and letting go, receive and let go. 8:09 The emotion of this time here again is grief and sadness. 8:12 the sense organ is the nose. 8:15 Tissue is skin and body hair. 8:19 Paired organ of the long is large intestines. 8:22 And the direction of the chi should be descending and dispersing. 8:27 So again, think lung, large intestine. 8:29 You want everything to descend down and then be dispersed. 8:35 Metal element is often understood in the qualities of refinement and boundaries. 8:41 Typically, people with a strong liver energy will have very, very good boundaries Now, life in general, this time of year is a time to contract Turn inward 8:54 and ground. 8:55 You know, if you don't have any practices, there's everything online now. 9:13 Now, again, the 4 a.m., as I mentioned, is when I get up. 9:17 And in most spiritual disciplines throughout the world, for thousands of years, 4 to 5 a .m. 9:24 was considered the magic time. 9:27 That's the purest time in the atmosphere. 9:30 It's had a long time for car exhaust to wind down. 9:35 The plants have had time to take in their carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, and it's just a magical time. 9:44 So somewhere between four and five, create a new ritual. 9:47 Right? 9:48 Could be meditation, could be breathing, it could movement, but between four and five, start a new ritual. 9:54 Also, you need to start getting more sleep. 9:57 During the summer, the classics say, go to bed late, get up early. 10:02 Well, in the fall, we want to transition and go sleep earlier. 10:12 You want to change your diet. 10:13 The Chinese are big on seasonal eating, and there's tons of studies supporting it. 10:18 Now, the color of autumn is white, so mushrooms. 10:23 I just saw a study where enoki mushrooms reduce tumor load by almost 97% in mice, but mushrooms are magical plants. 10:33 There are mushrooms to help prevent breast cancer. 10:37 There're mushrooms help your brain. 10:39 Uh, there're mushroom to increase brain-derived neurotrophic factors so that you're making more connections in your brains. 10:46 Mushrooms are amazing. 10:49 Also, it's a time when you want to start eating more red. 10:52 yellow and orange foods. 10:54 Those colors actually are indicating the very, very high antioxidant content in those foods, that's what gives them that color. 11:03 So, experiment with a few things. 11:06 I just got some Japanese sweet potatoes or yams, and I'm gonna try a new recipe with those. 11:13 Also, it's a time to start eating warmer. 11:16 Okay, not a lot of salads, you wanna cook your vegetables. 11:20 warm soups. 11:21 This is the time to start bringing the warmth to your center. 11:26 If you're a tea drinker, it's the Time to switch from green or white tea to a darker tea, perhaps an oolong. 11:33 if you are in a colder environment, you might go with something like Earl Grey, where the bergamot brings the heat to you center, 11:40 very powerful. 11:41 It clears the London fog. 11:43 And then again, a reminder, close. 11:46 Wear a scarf, wear a hat. 11:48 If it's chilly at all, then start wearing gloves. 11:51 And again this is a time of transitions. 11:53 So transition with the seasons. 11:56 The more we live with nature, the healthier we are. 12:00 You see this in all the so-called blue zones around the world that the people that live the longest and live in those areas live within the cycles of the universe. 12:11 So anyway, have a great transition, take some time to yourself. 12:15 It's a nice time that take a few days off. 12:17 And I want to thank you for joining me here on another edition of The Balancing Point. 12:22 Be happy, be healthy. 12:25 Thank you, for joing me on The balancing point. 12:28 If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow the show, share it with a friend and leave a review. 12:37 Feeling out of balance? 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