This week we are talking all about Vata! It is Vata season , which means it is mostly cold, dry and mobile (wind) in the weather patterns. It is important to keep this dosha in balance and in its proper seat to avoid production and accumulation of toxins. Vata dosha is a combination of the air and ether elements. This represents action, movement and transportation. The qualities of Vata are dry, light, cold, rough, subtle and mobile. Vata is in our movements, actions, breathing, speech, detox, heart pumping and sense of touch. It is the kindler of digestive fire, opener of cell walls and channels, and develops and delivers babies. The seat of Vata is in the abdominal cavity bellow the belly button in the large intestine and colon. It is also in the pelvis, thighs, skin, ears, bones, heart, brain, nervous system and lungs. Each dosha (Vata, Pitta & Kapha) all have 5 subdoshas that exist. Each of these subdoshas represents the five elements (ether, air, fire, water, earth) that tie...
What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine? Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complete system of medicine comprised of eight branches: Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Nutrition, Body Work (Tui Na/Cupping/Moxibustion), Meditation, Tai Qi/Qi Gong (Exercise), Feng Shui, and Cosmology. TCM looks to the natural world and observes how human health and disease are subject to the principles of natural order. In TCM, patterns of illness may arise in the body, organs, and meridians in various ways. If the organs and channel meridians that carry the “energy” or “Qi” are stagnated, deficient, or in excess, disease arises. Through unique diagnostic methods, the TCM physician provides a diagnosis, prescription, and treatment plan encompassing the branches of TCM to the patient. During the Zhou dynasty (770-446 BC), TCM was modernized and systematized. The Yin and Yang Theory, Five Element Theory, and other foundational theories that form the basis of TCM were established during...