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Late Summer and The Earth Element: Seasonal Wellness

Knowing a little about Late Summer and its associated Earth element can help you to optimize your health this time of year and ensure you’re in harmony with the season. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are actually 5 seasons and 5 elements:

  • Autumn (metal)
  • Winter (water)
  • Spring (wood)
  • Summer (fire)
  • Late Summer (earth)
Each season and element has its associated emotions, temperature, organs, flavor and even color. We’re now entering the season of Late Summer, which belongs to the Earth element. Late summer begins mid-August and goes until the Autumn Equinox on September 22nd.

Qualities of Late Summer and the Earth Element:

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Maternal Healthcare Inequality- Why It Exists and What You Can Do

There are so many aspects that we need to work on to create lasting change- but one that hits closest to home for me since I am so involved in women’s health is maternal healthcare inequality. As a practitioner who is passionate about women’s health, after I began researching I was honestly embarrassed to realize the extent of my ignorance on this issue. I pledge to do better in continuing to educate myself, looking at my own unconscious bias as well as spreading awareness and donating to organizations which are making meaningful change.

Did you know that Black women in the USA are 3-4 times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than their white counterparts? In New York City, the rate is 12 times higher.

Why is this happening? I’ve been reading through many articles on the topic, and while I still have a lot of learning to do, I’ve found that researchers agree it has little to nothing to do with lifestyle factors (diet, etc), access to high quality healthcare or any genetic predisposition.

According to Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, research shows that “Black women who live in affluent neighborhoods, receive prenatal care in the first trimester, are normal weight, and have advanced degrees are still more likely to die or have their baby die than white women in poor neighborhoods, with no prenatal care, who are obese, and don’t have a high school diploma.”

We must do better. The main factors that researchers believe are responsible for increased maternal and infant mortality in the USA  are implicit (unconscious) bias on the part of healthcare practitioners as well as “weathering”, which is the cumulative physical effects of exposure to discrimination, leading to poorer health outcomes.

What can we do?  I am still learning and researching, but studies show that one solution is making free or low cost doulas available for pregnant people who can’t afford them. This additional support during pregnancy and postpartum results in improved outcomes and can literally be a lifesaving solution. We must support the community organizations that provide doula services so that they can serve more women and fairly compensate the doulas. This is not the only solution, but does help to fill in the gaps while our society works to address the underlying issue of racism.

EDUCATION STEPS:

  • Read Chapter 8 of the book “Babies are Not Pizzas” by Rebecca Dekker, RN, PhD. This chapter has generously been made available for free online- scroll to the bottom of the page for the pdf
  • Read through some of the articles on this page from Every Mother Counts, especially the first section on “The Impact of Systemic Racism on Black Maternal Health”. Please read a few articles, but if you’re just going to pick one from this list, I recommend this one.
  • Watch this short TED Talk to learn more about the effects of cumulative stress during pregnancy as well as the clinic model described in the third action step (below)

ACTION STEPS:

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Ginger Three Ways: Making Crystallized Ginger, Ginger Tea and Syrup

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, ginger is one of the most commonly used “herbs” in our toolkit. In this article, I’ll teach you what it can help with as well as some information about how it’s viewed from a Chinese Herbal standpoint. And as promised, I’ll give you a quick explanation for how to make your own crystallized ginger at home, which will also give you ginger tea and syrup. So. delicious.

As an acupuncturist and herbalist, here are the situations where I recommend ginger tea the most frequently: Read more

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How The Wisdom of Chinese Medicine Can Help You Optimize Your Cycles

When your hormones are functioning and coordinating really well, you know it. Your skin is great, there’s no bloating, your periods come on time and are not a big deal. But when things are off balance? It can impact you in a big way.

Below, I’ve outlined what I feel are the most important concepts for helping your hormones to hum along like a well-oiled machine. None of these concepts are particularly groundbreaking, but they are each absolutely vital. Pick one or two suggestions from this article (not everything at once- too overwhelming!), focus on them for a few months then see how it feels. Last of all, show yourself compassion when you’re trying to make shifts in your habits- nobody expects you to adhere to these concepts 100% of the time, and remember that when making changes it’s NORMAL and EXPECTED not to! Shoot for 80% of the time and this will still be a huge change.

Know Your Cycles

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