Transcript for:
Treating Adrenal Fatigue with Chinese Medicine

I think there's a misconception when it comes  to Adrenal Fatigue using Chinese medicine to   treat it often my students think it's a Kidney  deficiency because Adrenals are resting on the   anatomical Kidneys however in TCM it is not the  same so today I'm going to address the myth and   explain how we treat adrenal fatigue using  acupuncture and Chinese medicine Hi there   if it's your first time here I'm Clara and  I create Chinese medicine and acupuncture   content for students and practitioners making  it easy to grasp and fun to learn let's do this   this is our Five Element generating sequence and  I think that often we can see in clinical practice   one of the major cause is Liver Qi stagnation or  being really stressed for a long time depleting   our skin and stomach right and that creates  fatigue so if there's stress for a long time our   Liver Qi gets stagnated which overacts on Spleen  and when it overacts on Spleen it depletes the   Spleen so when people talk about Adrenal fatigue  so Adrenal fatigue is represented by your Adrenals   which are obviously sitting on your kidneys and  their the cortisol level is going to shoot up   at night and be really depleted in the morning so  what happened is people are on the fight or flight   all the time they're using the central nervous  system they're sympathetic central nervous system   when you're on acupuncture treatment you're  using the parasympathetic system to rest and   recover but the fight or flight which affect  the cortisol level is a lot of people are on   that because they're so stressed right and so when  there is Adrenal fatigue a lot of time students of   mine would think oh Adrenal sits on your Kidney  so it's a Kidney deficiency in TCM but it's not   because remember that's not the same right the  organ is a system it's it's not just an organ   it's a full system with Meridian and emotions and  seasons and everything that we present each system   so when there's Adrenal fatigue a lot of time we  think that it's a Kidney because we're thinking   Adrenal but it's often a Spleen deficiency because  it's that that happened it's the Wood overacting   on the Earth or it's the Liver Qi stagnation  depleting Spleen and now we're fatigued because   what happened with Adrenal fatigue is a lot of  people have poor appetite they have cravings   for sugar they are tired in the morning worse  in the morning they're very tired all the time   they have irregular eating habits it's very much  a Spleen deficiency not a Kidney so that's really   interesting right because when we tonify when  we're going to do treatment for that we are going   to tonify the Spleen however if this is the case  for years and years right not just a few weeks but   months and years and the person is on a fight or  flight all the time they're depleting the Spleen   but the Spleen is also going to deplete the Kidney  right it is going to deplete the Kidney because   the Spleen controls the Water or Earth controls  Water so now it's going to overpower it so what   happened is that the stress is depleting the  Spleen but years and years of Spleen Qi deficiency   due to stress and Adrenal fatigue is going to age  us faster so now Kidney will be deficient that's   the next step right if it's long enough that's  next step so we can in our treatment protect   the Kidney as well as tonify the Spleen and move  Liver Qi relax the person get the stress away we   can do that in our treatment so we would have to  always remember the Five Element tells you where   it all started it's like the root cause that  way you could do all three and protect the two   that are depleted and move the one that's the real  cause right with the affect does that make sense   hopefully that makes sense you guys so that's  very common with Adrenal fatigue to see that a   perspective instead of thinking just Kidney think  of Spleen first being Qi deficient and sometimes   she's sinking because it's so fatigued we're  exhausted we can't even lift up right we can't   get out of bed that is chronic fatigue syndrome  that's also a Spleen Qi Deficiency as well often   Hypothyroidism can also create fatigue that's  also a Spleen Qi deficiency so not all fatigue   or Spleen Qi deficiency but that's an example okay  of course if we don't sleep well at night which is   Fire that can create a lot of issues including  Spleen deficiency including low immune system   right there's a lot that can come up with not  sleeping because that's part of their lifestyle   and that can be the cause of fatigue for not  sleeping but usually if someone's not sleeping   well we need to figure out why they're not  sleeping well is it due to stress right the amount   of stress creates insomnia and insomnia depleted  or the immune system or the digestive system of   the Spleen right so use the Five Element as well  to figure out which elements are affected and how   many are there so we can do treatment for that  okay I'm going to take the Five Elements before   we go and talk about points there is a Formula  a Chinese herbal formula that I absolutely love   it's Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang Zhong means middle Yi Qi  means raise Qi Bu Zhong means boosting the middle   like tonifying raising boosting the middle and  raising Qi formula so this formula literally the   translation is boosting the middle the middle  is your digestive system right it's Spleen   specifically Spleen and Stomach whatever is at the  center of who we are and then raise Qi so remember   from a stand point of view of TCM function the  Spleen's function one of the Spleen's function   is to produce blood to transform and transport  food for digestion but to also raise clear Qi   and raise Qi for good energy mental and physical  so when there is fatigue either mental or physical   we have to tonify Spleen because its function is  to raise our energy to raise Qi and clear thinking   to the head right so it's super important so this  formula has one Qi in it which is Astragalus which   is the king herb in the formula Astragalus is very  good in raising Qi it has which is also Bupleurum   in Latin and that is really good also in raising  Qi so the this formula is really good to to raise   Spleen Qi when it's sinking when the person is  exhausted that is really good to take for patients   or Spleen Qi deficient or Spleen Qi sinking  that is the best formula a lot of people will   say oh is that going to create insomnia it's not  a stimulant right it doesn't have any stimulants   in it but in general because people that are  fatigued worse in the morning I would recommend   that formula for patients mostly to take it like  in the morning and at lunch right that probably   be enough okay so let's start talking about points  we don't need a lot of points but we want to put   three points so the three main points when there  is Spleen Qi sinking and extreme fatigue where we   need to raise that Spleen Qi raise the energy is  only three points first number one is Spleen 6 I   absolutely love Spleen 6 because it crosses  the three Meridian Liver Spleen and Kidney   and remember from the Five Elements when we  wrote on the board when there is Adrenal fatigue   it's due to stress which is Liver it's affecting  the Spleen which becomes exhausted and if that's   for long term it's going to deplete the Kidney  which is our aging system it will age us faster   so the Spleen 6 crosses those three Liver Spleen  and Kidney so it's such a good point because it   calms the mind which is great for that and it is  going to also address the digestive system issue   it raises energy so that is going to be the  best start of the point so the second one is   Ren 6 because Ren 6 is a Sea of Qi so it's called  Qihai which is the Sea of chi and so Ren 6 is one   of the best point to tonify Qi so when you put  Spleen 6 with Ren 6 you are starting to tonify   Qi yet another Masterpiece thank you Clara this is  one of the feedback I got on my Chinese medicine   treatments made easy book which covers over 160  common syndromes it ships all over the world or   if you'd rather have the PDF it has a lot of video  links to complement it it is absolutely one of my   best books and it's so useful in clinical practice  for students and practitioners click the link   below and get your copy today at the same time you  add up the third point which is DU 20 and you lift   the person I always say to my students Du 20 years  like a puppet you know when you're like this the   puppets like this it lifts you up right so DU  20 is going to lift our energy as you can see   from the the picture DU 20 as a dual function  that's a great point that has dual function   there's not many points to the opposite like this  a Lung 7 is also like this where depending which   direction you're needling the point it will have  a different function right if you need with the   meridian so with the meridian means in the same  flow of DU Meridian the DU Meridian starts at the   base of your spine and goes all the way to the  front so if you're needling towards your nose   right if you need all towards the nose that is  going to lift right if you're going against the   meridian and you need all towards the back of the  head that is going to calm the person calm their   mind so for this perspective because we want to  lift that energy because this person is fatigued   we are going to do Ren 6 Spleen 6 and DU 20 so Bu  Zhong Yi Qi Tang that that formula we talked about   with those three points is perfect for Spleen Qi  sinking that's a perfect combination for Spleen   Qi sinking it's Spleen6 Ren 6 DU 20 it lifts the  energy you don't need a lot of points I want to   remind ourselves that we always have to look for  the root cause right is this a disorder is this   due to diet is it due to lifestyle is it due to  stress emotional trauma is it due to medication   what is the root cause of the fatigue we need  to look are we low in iron ferritin vitamin D   vitamin B12 we have to investigate it's really  important because that will help you in your   treatment and figure out what's going on right if  it's vitamin D deficiency we need to take vitamin   D that's important right so we want to make sure  we always look for the root cause yes Adrenal   Fatigue is very common however it's not the only  fatigue there is mental fatigue versus physical   fatigue there's chronic fatigue syndrome you can  watch it all on this video here the whole video   and let me know what you think have a fantastic  day and no matter what keep rocking it using TCM