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I'm Hormonal | functional hormone insight + advice
If you're looking for information on women's hormone health, how to support your menstrual cycle, and what you need to know for long term wellness--look no further. I'm Hormonal host, Bridget Walton, provides you with the information you need to get your hormones in balance so you can feel your best.
I'm Hormonal | functional hormone insight + advice
Your body is the healer: acupuncture & herbalism with Daniel Schwartz | Ep. 29
#29. Are you curious about acupuncture, herbalism, and Chinese medicine? Have you considered how seeking a plan tailored to your specific symptoms and experience could help you achieve your health and hormone goals?
Bridget interviewed Daniel Schwartz, an Acupuncturist and Herbal Medicine Practitioner, who shared his perspective on the importance of building a foundation of healthy living, a focus on recognition that your body is the healer and heals itself, and how Chinese medicine practices can be used to elevate your health.
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Important note: Acupressure points are NOT recommended for those of you gals who are pregnant.
This conversation touches on:
- How Daniel got started in acupuncture and herbalism
- Your body is the healer
- The basics of acupuncture
- Yin and yang
- Using a pulse to identify health status of other organs and energy system
- Bringing us back to following nature is an essential part of health
- The eight branches of east Asian medicine (nutrition, movement, meditation, medical massage, cupping and gua sha, moxibustion, herbal medicine, acupuncture)
- A foundation of health is essential and there are no quick fixes
- Chinese medicine not as "alternative" medicine but just as medicine
- The balance between western and Chinese medicines for optimal health
- Acupuncture as a supplement and support for fertility and pregnancy
- Acupressure points to consider for hormone balance and pain relief
DANIEL'S INSTAGRAM - @apolloacu
DANIEL'S WEBSITE - www.apolloacu.com
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Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally, I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hello there, my friend, it is so good to have you here listening.
Speaker 1:I'm glad that you tuned in this week, and if this is your first time listening to I'm Hormonal, then a special welcome to you.
Speaker 1:I'll just share with you that I started this podcast late last year because I think that we all deserve better information and more information about how our body works, what our symptoms mean, what we can do to improve the way that we feel. So that's what I'm here to do, and there's a stigma about being hormonal that I think is time we peel back and de-stigmatize, because it's not really serving you, it's not serving me, and so together I think we can all better represent ourselves and honor the hormonal changes that help us live our lives. So thanks, it's good to have you here and I'm really excited for you to listen to this conversation that I had with Daniel Schwartz. Daniel is an acupuncturist and herbal medicine practitioner. He's also a Marine Corps veteran and he lives here in Southern California and practices here as well. Daniel's business, his acupuncturist practice, is called Apollo Acupuncture and you can connect with him by going to Instagram and finding him at Apollo Acu. You can find links in the show notes to connect with Daniel and, if you are in the local area, here in.
Speaker 1:Southern California and you want to make an appointment with him, then you'll find that link there as well. But I think you're really going to like this conversation. We talked about acupuncture, about Chinese medicine, herbalism. We talked about how building a foundation for your health is so essential and how it's really important to look at health as a lifestyle as opposed to looking for quick fixes for things. At the end of our conversation, daniel shared a couple of recommendations when it comes to acupressure points that you can press on use pressure acupressure if you are having headaches or any pain and generally to help with hormone balance. So acupressure if you are having headaches or any pain and generally to help with hormone balance. So stick around until the end if you want to hear more about his recommendations there.
Speaker 1:As always, I'd like to remind you that everything that I share with you today is for educational purposes only, and it shouldn't be used as a replacement for any sort of diagnosis or one-on-one support from a certified practitioner. With that being said, if you are somebody who is in the market to work with a certified practitioner, then you can always reach out to me through the link in the show notes or on Instagram at Bridget Walton to see how we can connect, how we can work together. I want to let you know that I am about to open up my beta coaching group, which means that I'm going to be opening it up for 10 menstruators to work with me at no cost for my three-month coaching package, and, if that's something that you have interest in, if you are missing your cycle, if it is irregular, if you have heavy bleeding, if you have another hormonal imbalance or symptoms that you want some help addressing and accountability and that one-on-one support from a certified practitioner then check out the link in the show notes to connect with me and get more information about this beta group to see if it would be a good fit for you All. Right, well, with all of that being said, I hope you enjoyed this conversation that I had with Daniel and I will see you on the other side.
Speaker 1:Daniel, I'm really excited to be having this conversation with you today because I mean for one from our conversation so far, I know that you are so passionate about providing, like, really high quality care to your clients or patients through Chinese medicine, and also because you know I'm mostly used to Western medicine, like many listeners, and so I know that I'm going to be learning a ton about Chinese medicine instead of a listener. So with that would you kick us off by just introducing yourself? Give us the rundown on your practice. How do you support your patients when it comes to hormonal imbalances or anything that they're looking to work on, and then we'll kind of take it from there.
Speaker 2:Great. My name is Daniel Schwartz. I am an acupuncturist and herbal medicine practitioner. I'm also a Marine Corps veteran and that is how I got into this medicine. I had some injuries knee and back and assortment of sleep issues, mental health issues that pretty much everyone gets issued to in the military. If you are familiar with that, and you know I wasn't really getting the help that I needed through the Veterans Hospital and pretty much their options were okay, do you want pills or surgery? And I didn't want either of those. So I was just like all right, I guess I'm just shit out of luck. I just got to deal with these things and one of my friends recommended acupuncture and honestly the rest is history.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of the start of it. Before then I got into biohacking and hormone optimization and how our environment and our food and the chemicals that we introduce into our bodies, that we introduce into our bodies whether it be from the food that we eat, the products that we use or the pesticides in our foods or the fragrances all these things how it has an impact on our body and our health and our hormones. So this was all kind of around the same time. I was learning this holistic approach through the lens of Chinese medicine, but then also holistic approach through biohacking and Dave Asprey Bulletproof. I don't know if you're familiar with that guy.
Speaker 1:A little bit yeah, and where is the overlap between, yeah, like the biohacking side of things and Chinese medicine? Or maybe, if we could take it back a step, like, will you give us the? I don't know. However, we can squeeze it into the. You know the 60 second rundown of Chinese medicine. You mentioned whole body approach, so we'll come back to that too. But like Chinese medicine, what is the focus there? And then, how does like the biohacking, like, where are the intersections there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the biohacking stuff and learning about hormone optimization happened before I discovered acupuncture and Chinese medicine. But then it all like tied together and through the lens of Chinese medicine, it is a whole body, holistic approach and everything plays a role in this balance and it really comes down to the balance of these two opposing and interconnected energies called yin and yang, and everything just surrounds around or surrounds around that, and there's so much to get into it. I don't want to make this a, like Chinese medicine, 101, 301, like 501 class, because it can go deep. Well, why don't we then?
Speaker 1:let's focus then maybe first on acupuncture and I know I kind of cut you off from my first question of like at your practice, when you're working with your patients, like, what does that look like and what sort of hormonal conditions are you working with your clients on in that regard?
Speaker 2:Totally yeah. So the reason I brought up the biohacking stuff and that before the acupuncture practice is because that led me into what I'm doing today. So my injuries from the from the Marines led me into the sports medicine side of my practice, but then my knowledge and understanding and deep diving into hormone health led me into the hormonal fertility, reproductive medicine side of my practice as well. So it brings it full circle and with that for my clients, the way that I talk to them about acupuncture and herbal medicine. It's very, very similar. The goal is the same for both and that is to bring your body back to balance, bring your body back into a state where it can heal itself. And oftentimes there will be people in my field that will say like, oh, I'm a healer, so on and so forth, and I can resonate with that. But one thing that I'd like to tell my clients is I'm not the healer. Your body is the healer and I'm just facilitating healing and I'm looking for where the blockages are in their body so that we can bring it back to balance, so that it can heal itself. Because oftentimes we are in this, we're stuck in this fight or flight state that inhibits our own self healing. So bringing a little more science. Fight or flight is the sympathetic nervous system and rest and digest, which is the opposite, is the parasympathetic nervous system. So acupuncture helps to take you out of a sympathetic, fight or flight state into a parasympathetic, rest, digest, growth and healing state, and the body just takes over and does the rest. But my job is to find where the imbalances are based on questions. When I ask my clients, based on their concerns, their chief complaints and so on, and also looking at the overall system, someone's coming in for neck pain and insomnia, for example, and then I'm like great, tell me about your neck pain, tell me about your insomnia, what's going on there? Then I'm asking them how's your digestion, how are your bowel movements, how are your urination Like if it's a woman, how's your menstrual cycle if they're menstruating, if it's postmenopausal, so on and so forth Thirst, body temperature, sweat and sleep that we talked about insomnia before. And you're like why are you asking me about my poop when I'm talking about sleep?
Speaker 2:And in Chinese medicine, like everything is connected. I mentioned the balance between yin and yang, but also the balance between all of the organ systems, organ systems and meridians in our body. So the I mentioned organs and meridians are pathways throughout our body and the. There are specific points along those meridians, called acupuncture points or meridian points, that are basically like pools of energy along that pathway that can be influenced with an acupuncture needle. You know acupressure utilizing either your hands, fingers or a tool mock Sebastian and that it's a warming technique or just other movement practices. But anyway, you can kind of look at it like these pathways in our body, that's like rain gutters for your body, and when they are free, you know, the water flows like it, like it needs to, and every, every process goes along like it needs to. But then when leaves get clogged up, then it creates imbalance and dis-ease or pain, and then that's where I can help to bring them back to balance, got it?
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got a couple of questions for you and I also just want to come back to something that you said about how, for each client or for you know, for everybody, like, our body is the healer. I think that's so important to note because, yeah, putting the power back onto you know, back with rather the client who you know may have been dismissed through many, many other appointments, or whatever their situation is, I think that just yeah is worth, is worth coming back to, because having the like authority and autonomy over our own health and having that perspective, I think can be really powerful in seeing change and improving our health status. So I wanted to come back to that and improving our health status.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to come back to that and let me just kind of summarize too for somebody who hasn't, you know, a listener, who has no experience with acupuncture, but let me know if I'm if I got what you said right, that when somebody you know, when a client, comes to see you for acupuncture, what you're doing is working along the like meridians that you mentioned in their body to identify which points would make the most sense, to then, you know, use the real small, the needles that are going to help to kind of clear the needles out of the gutter I mean, sorry, the leaves out of the gutter and help to prevent those blockages. So I'll stop there, but did I get that kind of right? I'm just trying to make sure it's framed up well for somebody who's brand new to this conversation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 1:And then, when it comes to blockages, like talk more about that and specifically as it relates to hormone imbalances, so like yeah, what? What is the blockage? Is that sounds like an energy blockage, so how are you identifying that? And then how does that tie to the hormone imbalance itself?
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we're looking at let's talk about it from a woman's health perspective. I'm asking a pretty, pretty detailed intake for all of these systems, you know, digestive, for all of these systems, you know digestive, respiratory, urinary, but especially reproductive, reproductive systems. And within the, the menstrual health portion of the questionnaire you know, there there is, you know, cycle regularity. Is it regular? How long is your cycle? Is it, you know, average, 28 days, or is it longer or shorter than that? And what's the? What's the color of your blood? What's the consistency of their clots? What are the color of the clots? And you know, pain, is it dull, is it sharp? Is it better with heat or is it better pressure, or does it not like pressure?
Speaker 2:All of these things go into consideration in regards to what is the pattern of imbalance Basic? So yin and yang Yin is more feminine. Where yang is more masculine, yin is cooling. Where yang is more warming, yin is more solid. Where yang is more not solid, it was spiritual energy, things that you can't really hold onto or grab onto. That is more yang. The sun is yang, the earth and the moon is yin, the water is yin and fire is yang, so on and so forth. And another way to look at it is breaking it down to is something from heat or is something from cold, is something from a deficiency or is something from an excess or too much of something? And then is something an external cause or an internal cause? But breaking it down from that, like, what is the cause of your pain? Is it like I mentioned? Is it sharp or is it dull? And sharp pain could be from cold or it could be from what we call blood stasis and that is accompanied with heavy cloths and it's like, okay, there's a significant amount of blood stasis that will influence and guide the acupuncture point prescription but also the herbal medicine prescription. And going from there as well, as you know, with my acupuncture practice, I am palpating or I'm pressing along the meridian pathways looking for areas of blockage.
Speaker 2:But it the of the three yin meridians of the leg which all go to the uterus. You know which one has the most blockage and usually it's the liver meridian. It's very liver is like a buzzword today now, with all the detox and you know naturopaths and cleanses and all these things where it's like you need a liver cleanse and yeah, but it's not. It's more than just you know taking the right supplement and taking the. You know, drinking the, whatever juice, but the there's more to it than just that and it's also the.
Speaker 2:When I mentioned the organ systems, it's the organ and the meridian. So the liver organ, you know, is it's over your upper right quadrant in your abdomen, but then the liver meridian starts at your big toe and then comes up your leg and then it actually ends over the liver. So it also has a very intimate relationship with the uterus in women and just genitals, reproductive system in general for people. So finding where the blockage is, and then that's for the acupuncture side of things, so meridian palpation, meridian palpation, and then for the herbal side of things, I am, I'm checking in, reading their pulse, you know, like reading their pulse. What does that mean? You know, isn't it just like you check someone's pulse to see if they're alive and like, oh, you're 68 beats per minute, you're healthy, and you know it's a lot more, a lot more than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Checking the yeah.
Speaker 2:Checking the quality of the pulse. I'm checking the, the depth or the superficial superficialness of the pulse, checking the tension along the pulse, checking, uh, three different positions on each side. So on the on the left side, uh, left side, um, the first position tells me about the heart and the small intestine, and the second position tells me about the liver and the gallbladder. The third position tells me about the kidneys and the urinary bladder, and, on the right side, lung, large intestine, stomach and spleen, slash, pancreas. And then the last position is the pericardium, the heart protector, and then basically our whole energy system.
Speaker 2:There's not really a western, uh, physical organ that they connect that to, but anyway, uh, feeling the pulse and what I, what I like to tell clients is like I am, it's like I'm talking, I'm talking to their body, their pulse, and asking them actually I don't needle the heart meridian, I use the pericardium meridian because you know, in the classics they talk about you don't speak directly to the emperor or the empress, and but the way you do is through the pulse. So it's like having a heart to heart communication or heart to heart conversation with my client and ask them like what, what is it that you need and that guides the herbal side of my practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is so. That's so interesting, I'm sure that well for me and for the listener as well, probably I'm like feeling my pulse like Empress. What have we got in the news for today?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's new to me.
Speaker 2:I think that's really interesting 12 organ and meridian systems. It's like well, where, where does form, where do hormones play in that? And from the perspective of yin and yang, the balance between yin and yang, and observing nature, observing the change in the four seasons and the five elements and the 12 organ systems and meridian systems. But they didn't have like a pinpoint, like oh well, they took this blood test and they found that your estrogen is low or high or whatever.
Speaker 2:It is this pulse tells me that there's an imbalance between the liver meridian and, let's say, the heart or the stomach and spleen or whatever it is going into. Well, this is how the body works through this lens. And then now we re, we know, through science and medical discovery and so on and so forth, like what these specific things are. But Chinese medicine knew what it was but didn't have the name for it. So, when it comes to hormones, you know there's groupings of them. Okay, well, estrogen is more yin, where testosterone and progesterone is more yang. So the symptoms that you're having are they more of a yang deficient type or are they more a yin deficient or a yin excess type? You know whatever it is, you know whatever it is and bringing balance through that lens, and then things self-regulate. So maybe, if someone you know, and maybe it's a complex case and I'm not getting the results that I, you know, wanted to in the time that you know, myself and the client wants.
Speaker 2:And then we look at some other markers, like, okay, let's get a Dutch test and it will tell a lot. So maybe, if I'm not getting the results that I wanted, I'm like, okay, let's see what I'm missing here, because obviously I'm not a master or an expert in this. I mean, I have a level of expertise in my practice and I'm still learning. And it's called a practice for a reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we talk about, or I talk about the Dutch test here a lot. So listeners, if they've been here before, are probably familiar and yeah, I know that it can be a really good tool when you need the quantifiables to like help redirect or confirm what's going on, definitely. One other thought, too, that I have, like hearing everything you're saying, is that you know the work that you do with your clients must be just so individualized to that person. It doesn't sound like there's a lot of blanket statements that you can make for people, for recommendations or otherwise. It's like very unique and very much a kind of one-on-one relationship that you have with them. Or, you know, if it's a couple that you're working with, then the three of you. But yeah, that's the sense that I'm getting from you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It has to be individualized. The style of medicine that I practice is very individualized and I need to one be with them in person to know what's going on, to feel the imbalances in the meridians and also feel the imbalances in the pulse, to know the interactions of the organs and meridians so that I can provide the best care that I possibly can. So it has to be in person and it has to be customized.
Speaker 1:So for somebody, if you're a listener who is, you know, wanting to conceive and they want to, or maybe they've been having troubles conceiving and they want to work with you, or somebody another acupuncturist local to them, talk about what that relationship looks like. Or you know, just kind of at a high level, like when you're working with a client like that, how does that process go? And then I guess, as a final question, I'm you know, is that relationship that like kind of a, I guess, lifelong, well, as long as it can be sort of thing? Or you know, I imagine you're not just seeing clients for you know, a couple of times and then we'll see you when you see you. So I don't know if that makes sense, but tell me, tell me what you think about that and how that normally looks when you're working with clients in that capacity.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so in terms of I'll answer the uh, the last one first, and in terms of I'll answer the last one first, and in terms of timing and everything. We in a Western culture and society have grown accustomed to getting a quick fix and, oh, I want the quick thing Give me the pill, give me the surgery or whatever it is, and that really hasn't been serving us or whatever it is and that really hasn't been serving us. And with acupuncture and with East Asian medicine, because it is a holistic and whole body approach and bringing your body back to balance, it takes time. It definitely takes time. There's this saying from one of the classics in chinese medicine that man follows the earth, the earth follows the heavens, the heavens follow the dao and the dao follows nature. And we can shorten that to man follows nature and that's part of that's part of the medicine. Yes, acupuncture, herbal medicine, bring your body back to balance, but bringing us back to following nature. And you know what does that look like? You know we can look at, look like, look at that through the lens of the sun. And you know we used to wake with the sun and, and we used to wake with the sun and go to bed with the sun. Now we have artificial light. We used to follow the seasons where we literally could only get the food that would grow then in our local area. So following nature, that's one part of it.
Speaker 2:And then there are the eight branches of East Asian medicine. The first one is the first. Three are just lifestyle. So let's start with first. One is nutrition and nourishment of your body, like how are you nourishing your body? Next one is movement, like how are you moving your body?
Speaker 2:A lot of things in East Asian medicine talk about, you know, stagnation and stasis. And when we're, when we're stagnant and not moving, you know things, things get stuck. So nourishment, movement, meditation is the is the third. And then then there it comes into more interventions. So then we get into medical massage, or tui na. Then we get into cupping and gua sha. Those are kind of an extension of manual massage therapy, but with the use of tools, because if your hands aren't cutting it, let's bring in some extra tools to help. And then from there a warming technique called moxibustion, herbal medicine. And then, lastly, is acupuncture in the origins. You know, a village would have a doctor and they would make sure everyone had all of these things set. They were nourishing their bodies well, they're moving their bodies well. They had a meditation practice and then, as things started to like, the dis-ease pattern started.
Speaker 2:then they would bring in interventions, and the last one was acupuncture yeah but now we don't have that village system anymore and we get into this, these patterns of disharmony and imbalance, where things just build up and build up and build up and it's like a million things going on and it's like, okay, well, let's, let's bring you back to balance, as you know, quickly, as as we can and utilizing acupuncture from that lens. But you know, that's part of the, the origins of it.
Speaker 2:And when, when someone is coming to me with something that's been going on for five, 10 plus years, it's not going to happen overnight, it's not going to get better overnight. And I tell them that, like realistically, like this issue has been going on for 15 years, like, how, how long will you give me to help you get better? And they're like, well, it's been going on for a while, so let's say maybe three months. I'm like, okay, that's a really good starting place.
Speaker 1:That's a good reference Might take longer than that.
Speaker 2:But let's see how you do in these next 12 weeks and then we can go from there and with that the air plan can change from okay, well, this thing has been chronic 15 years and you have 10 out of 10 level pain. Come to see me twice a week for the next six weeks, and then once a week for the next six weeks and then we can reassess and maybe we drop that down to every other week, and then maybe every three weeks and then maybe to a maintenance level of once once a month or every other month and if something happens, we for somebody who's thinking, yeah, this is something that I want to investigate more.
Speaker 1:Like what is the time commitment? Like the other thing that I was thinking as you were going through the eight branches are or is something that I talk about a lot of. Like it's really is the lifestyle change. Like, if you want to be healthy, you have to live a healthy lifestyle and there's not a lot of quick fixes. So that really resonated with me. Just, you have to have you know ABCDEF in line and then use some of these other I don't know if interventions is a good word, but to help get you you know the last mile, basically to where you want to be.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And when it comes to hormone health and fertility and reproductive health, I I like to create this roadmap and you know, talk about all the lifestyle things, the, you know, foundation being nourishment how you're nourishing your body and then sleep. Lifestyle in the terms of exercise, but also all the things that you're using, like in your, in your home, and what kind of toxins, whether it be something that you eat or something that you touch, and whatever cleaner you're using.
Speaker 2:And then the last part is supplementation, and it's at the very end, because it's to be a supplement, not to be a quick fix of oh well, you know I I'm eating like shit, I sleep like shit and I use all of these crazy chemicals, but I'm just going to take these supplements and make it all better and you you can't out supplement a shitty diet.
Speaker 2:You can't also supplement, you know, shitty sleep and lifestyle. Same thing with acupuncture and in chinese herbal medicine, east asian medicine is if if I'm not supporting my clients and bringing their lifestyle back to balance, then honestly I'm just wasting their time and money by, you know, giving them acupuncture and herbs when it's not going to get to the root of the issue, like they will need to make those changes as well, on top of the interventions that I'm providing.
Speaker 1:What I'm hearing from you is that, yeah, that that foundation is really essential. So, um, I'm just thinking, you know for a listener who's like waiting for you know what are the couple of quick, not quick, but you know what are the five recommendations? It sounds like it would be. I mean just what you've said of how are you nourishing your body, how are you limiting your exposure to chemicals, how are you making sure that you're moving your body and those kind of foundations. One other question that I want to come back to. This is a couple minutes ago now, but you talked about how acupuncture helps to bring you back into a parasympathetic state, and that's something that I talk about here too. Right, whereas your nervous system at how cortisol levels can impact our, our menstrual cycle. So could we come back to that for a second? Could you talk more about how does that work in our bodies, of how does acupuncture actually bring us back into a parasympathetic state?
Speaker 2:how does acupuncture actually bring us back into a parasympathetic state? In terms of the scientific explanation, science, the research, is still changing and evolving in how the Western mind can understand how acupuncture works. And it's like how is it reducing pain? Are you coding the needle in something Like? Not at all. Um, but in terms of like, like, what does that mean? So acupuncture, you know it down, regulates the nervous system. But honestly, it doesn't just down, regulate the nervous system. It regulates the nervous system in general.
Speaker 2:Oftentimes, most people you know, you know western culture and society we are very much in sympathetic overdrive and the way to bring them back into balance is to bring them into a parasympathetic state. Now, if someone is overly parasympathetic, where they have, like, absolutely no energy and just like they're, just there's nothing, you know, acupuncture can also lift them up. So if someone's listening, like, well, I'm not in sympathetic overdrive, like, why, why would I need acupuncture? Well, it's, it's regulating to the body to bring you to where you need to be, you kind of look at it. Look at it like an adaptogenic herb based on what your body needs. Your body will like take it from there, granted, with, you know, proper point selection and herbal, herbal diagnosis and so on and so forth. You can't just treat people like a dartboard and like let's do this point and this point and like, no, there needs to be, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more well thought out plan yeah exactly, but that's part of it is regulating the nervous system to what you need, what your body needs in that moment. You know what is it doing? Well, for some people maybe it is helping to, you know, calm down their adrenals and their excess cortisol excess cortisol or maybe it's helping to eliminate or process excess estrogen or whatever it is. But it's, it's working with the nervous system and there's there's a lot more to it as well. You know it also works with endogenous, so internal um opioid production. So our body produces its own painkillers, um, and acupuncture works to release more of those, as well as other endorphins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I wonder if, um, well, and this is going way back right so you mentioned that you're a Marine Corps veteran, so am I right? I think that's probably part of why we connected so quickly to when we met earlier this year. But I just mentioned that again because most of the people who I know are also veterans who go to acupuncture or get acupuncture in order to help their pain. So that's probably where the listener is coming from too, of you know, that's their assumption. That makes me think, I guess, just coming back to acupuncture, maybe specifically when it comes to working on fertility or preconception, or while somebody's pregnant, if you could wave your magic wand, I guess of like, how would acupuncture or Chinese medicine supplement what Western medicine offers, like here, specifically in the US? Like, what do you think is, what do you recommend as the balance? Or what would you love for women who are in that phase of life or about to be? What would you love for them to know about how they can support their hormone health?
Speaker 2:This could be another episode. When it comes to fertility specifically. You know, this is kind of like a loaded question. If I could wave my magic wand, you know, it would really start much earlier, really start much earlier. There is this and this is my perspective looking from the outside in.
Speaker 2:As a man, I've heard so many stories of kind of the lack of care when it comes to to women's health and this almost like blanket approach of oh you're having hormone issues, birth control pill, oh you're you're having, you know, irregular periods pill. Oh you're having painful periods pill, you're having hormonal acne pill. And it absolutely has its place. I don't I don't want to come off sounding like I'm bashing Western medicine. I don't want that to sound like that and it could be done better. And especially women, women's health and I think that's where acupuncture, herbal medicine and east asian medicine, you know, really shines is working to help regulate the body, women's bodies, cycles, so on and so forth. That isn't just a like blanket and almost like band-aid masking symptoms through the use of synthetic hormones to turn off this signal that women's bodies like. I think it's amazing that women's bodies has this tool to tell you like this is what's wrong, this is what's wrong. Every single month they get, or you know, depending on how their cycle is, and so on and so forth, but every month they get the signals like, you know, pain here or irregular here, or clots or this, that premenstrual symptoms. You know what are these things? And it's telling us where the imbalances are, telling them where the imbalances are, telling them where the imbalances are for for guys, in terms of, like, reproductive fertility, health, like we only have one signal that something is wrong, like do you wake up with an erection or not? Like that's it, whereas women, they have a cycle that tells you like, oh, these are the things that's wrong.
Speaker 2:And again, if I could wave my magic wand, there would be so much more education in regards to, you know, cycle tracking and knowing what. Like, oh, yes, these symptoms are common, but it does not mean they're normal. And yes, and there are options. Yeah, and there are options. And when it comes to acupuncture and East Asian medicine, there's this talk of like, oh, it's alternative medicine. It's, but I hate that word, it's not alternative, it's just medicine. It's just medicine. It's just medicine. And there's also the it's kind of changing to complementary medicine, where that I also might have like some issue with the, the phrasing. I don't know the exact word. Maybe it's like integrative medicine, where there is a healthy balance between okay, yes, we have the use when we need emergency Western medicine, but then we also have the use and the respect for these powerful holistic medicines with acupuncture and herbal medicine for the chronic health issues, for preventive health issues, for women's health issues that I feel Western medicine for the most part is failing women.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can definitely, you know, co-sign everything that you said.
Speaker 1:I think it's really important to note that, yeah, there certainly are situations where using hormonal birth control is, you know, that's the right option for somebody.
Speaker 1:But I think that there's a lack of information about what is the longer term impact on your body. What does that actually mean? Western medicine is also great, because if I get my arm chopped off, I would love to information about what is the longer term impact on your body. What does that actually mean? Western medicine is also great, because if I get my arm chopped off, I would, I would love to see a doctor pronto. But when it comes to really having, you know, an empathetic listening, you know ear there to share what's going on with me about and or you know, for another person, that that's just not the way that here, at least in the US, our system is set up to really facilitate that type of care and helping to build that foundation. Coming back to that, it's just, yeah, that's not the way that it's set up here, and so you know, you and me and the rest of the gang who do things like what we do, we will chip away at that little by little of that.
Speaker 2:The fertility side. You know the birth control use from the age of 13 and so on, and then now they're, you know, maybe in their 30s and wanting like, oh well, I want to have kids, and not knowing that the long-term use of hormonal birth control can have impacts on on their fertility and reproductive health. The Western model for that is oh well, we have IVF. So if if you can't get pregnant on your own, then we will, we will, we'll save you for 10 to $20,000 a cycle and if that doesn't work, we to $20,000 a cycle.
Speaker 1:And if that doesn't?
Speaker 2:work, we'll do another. If it doesn't work, we'll do it again until you're tens and tens and tens and thousands of dollars in debt, and maybe there's no guarantee. And so that brings in acupuncture and herbal medicine, and I've heard stories of people coming in to get acupuncture and herbal medicine, and I've heard stories of people coming in to get acupuncture to relieve their stress before doing a round of IVF and then getting pregnant naturally. So to answer your question from before is like try these other options I don't even want to say alternatives try these other options first before going down that route and having that be a more well-known option versus here are your two options IUI or IVF. No, that's, that's not true. There's a lot more and let's explore those.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hopefully, through our conversation today and other ones that we'll have like this, it'll only help to, of course, expose more people, more people who want to have kids, to this idea and so that they, coming back to like having that power and autonomy to, you know, over their, over their body, and make a decision that best supports them and their goals and their happiness and their bank account balance and, um, and then again, the foundation for their overall health. As we are getting ready to close out our conversation, what thoughts, recommendations or anything else do you want to leave us with that we haven't touched on yet.
Speaker 2:Like I mentioned, when it comes to acupuncture and herbal medicine, it's really, really helpful to be under the guidance of a licensed acupuncturist and herbal medicine practitioner to guide you through that process. In regards to what point prescription and what herbal medicine prescription you may need in that moment, that can and will change as the care plan progresses. But what are some things that people can do now? So I can provide some screenshots of exact locations of some acupressure points that people can use on a regular basis. So, looking at the hand and the wrist, let's say someone's having a lot of pain, whether it be maybe a headache, maybe it be cramping or stress, whatever it is any kind of pain. There is a great point. It's called larger touch in four and it's between your thumb and your index finger. On this you know the big, meaty portion of it and if you kind of close your those two fingers together, there's like this mound or a hill, and right on top of that or the middle, there is a pretty tender spot and if it's, if it's tender, it might be that just might be exactly where it needs to be. Uh, oftentimes specific acupressure or acupuncture points tend to be tender. One, that's where the point is. And two, that point is needed. It's like your body's like, oh, yeah, that's, that's it. Um, so be, you know, don't press super hard where it hurts, but if it's tender it's like okay, it's kind of like okay, that's, that's good. So this is a really good one for all kinds of pain.
Speaker 2:Um, I mentioned headaches first. Like this is like the main headache point, especially if it's like frontal headache or behind your eyes Uh, this point was really great. Um, if it's more like sides of your head or, um, maybe more hormonal. Uh, there's a point that is. There's a point that is three fingers up from your wrist crease on the top of your arm, so not the inside of your forearm but the top of your forearm. This point is called Sanja or triple burner five, and this is a really great one for, like one-sided headaches or one-sided pain or any anything uh, hormone related.
Speaker 2:And then, if we look at the, the foot, this is that same point, basically between your thumb and index finger, but on your foot, so between the big toe and the second toe. I'll send pictures so we can know exact spots. Please send your foot pics, daniel. Yeah, this one, it's like off the uh big, uh the ball like the um, yeah, the ball of your foot, but on the top, in between the two, the two toes, the big toe and the second toe. Um, this is a really good point for like all things um hormone related, all things menstrual health related. Um can also be good for like bringing down energy, so for headaches as well. But just like this one can like really help support um hormone health and women's health. Um, and then oh, another, there's another one okay, there's always another yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a snap for that.
Speaker 2:There's a point for that. So this one is four fingers up from the inside of your ankle. So if you put your pinky on the inside of your ankle bone and then where your index finger lands right behind that bone in your in your shin, on the inside of your leg, is called spleen six and this one is actually it's called three yin meeting point, and it's the meeting point where the three yin meridians in your body meet and connect. So so it has influence, I guess, especially on women's health and menstrual health related, um, related things. This can be really helpful for, you know, menstrual regularities or menstrual pain, so on and so forth. Um, I'll I'll send pictures of those.
Speaker 2:So people can know to press.
Speaker 1:I'll put a link those so people can know to press. I'll put a link in the show notes so that if you're listening right now, you can just go over there, click on it and you'll see pictures of where exactly we're talking about. Is there anything else that we didn't talk about, or maybe that we did that you really want to? Like put an exclamation mark on as your like?
Speaker 2:final thought as we close out for today I would have to say, really doubling down on your body is the healer. I'm just facilitating, I'm just a guide, I'm just supporting, but your body is the healer. And to feel empowered in that way, you have power over your health and you don't have to put your health in the hands of someone else, it's in your hands.
Speaker 1:Daniel, thank you so much for being with me for this conversation. I really learned a ton and I'm so appreciative. I know the listeners learned a lot as well. Listener, remember that if you want to connect with Daniel, then you can find him on Instagram at ApolloACU, which is A-P-O-L-L-O-A-C-U. His website is the same ApolloACUcom, and you can check out the link in the show notes if you want to book an appointment with Daniel Now.
Speaker 1:If you are someone who has made it all the way to the end here, then you are obviously somebody who cares a lot about your health and probably your long-term health and well-being, getting all the information you can. So I say that because you may be a good candidate to work with me in my beta coaching program, which would be a three-month coaching package where we work together. It's at no cost to you and I'll share more information with you if you check out the link in the show notes and we can connect more on it. So that's limited time only Right now.
Speaker 1:This episode comes out on the second week of April. So if you're on the fence about it, just submit your information and then at least you'll have it out of the way and know that you've got one of the spots secured. If you have a friend or a sister who you know would benefit from listening to this episode, I would so appreciate it if you would send this over to them to help me grow the I'm Hormonal community and share with them all the good information that Daniel shared with us today. Also, if you have a friend or sister who might be interested in the beta coaching package, why don't you send that information to them as well? One final thank you so much to you for listening and for making it all the way to the end here. I really appreciate you and I can't wait to see you here again next week.