The Five Elements system is ancient and comprises a holistic way of approaching health and wellness that organizes all natural phenomena into five groups. The five groups, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, each have an association with a season, a direction, climate, organs, emotion, taste, color, and sound among many, many, many other associations. Each element pushes and pulls the natural order of our bodies into states of excess or deficiency. This approach is to ensures that there is balance with no disharmony between the elemental factors. For this week’s blog, we are offer summer wellness tips by association to help you stay in healthy for the fire element season. Several tips and ideas are recycled from previous post for those just now joining our blog. Welcome!

Fire Element Organ

Imperial Fire ~ Heart (yin) and Small Intestine (yang): The fire element governs the heart and small intestine.

Ministerial Fire ~ Pericardium (yin) and San Jiao/Triple Warmer (yang): The fire element also governs the pericardium and triple warmer.

Fire Sensory Organ: The tongue is the sensory organ related to the heart and the tongue’s appearance reflects the condition of the heart and other organs. The tongue is a healthy red color when the fire element is in balance; whereas, the tongue will be pale if there is insufficient blood circulation in the heart. Cracks or lines down the center of the tongue also suggest a heart health issue. Engorged veins under the tongue represent stagnation. The coating reveals the body’s ability to regulate fluid and heat.

The tongue can be divided into zones representing the elements. The tip of the tongue is the fire element zone, which corresponds to the heart-small intestine network. Emotional issues of the heart, such as stress and anxiety, are indicated by a red color and red dots on the tip of the tongue.

TIP 1: Take care of your heart by reducing stress, increasing cardiovascular exercise and syncing with the luminous yellow dwarf star that illuminates our days. Start your morning off with yoga by practicing Sun Salutation. The Sun Salutation originated as a series of prostrations to the sun, honoring Surya as the source of energy and light for the world. Known in Sanskrit as surya namaskar. Traditionally, it is performed at dawn, facing the rising sun. See our previous post for instruction in Sun Salutation. Rise early ~ start your day with  a sunrise.  Take a break during the heat of the day.  Enjoy long evenings and watch a magical sunset and the glorious afterglow!

Incorporate play and exercise by hooping!

Incorporate play and exercise by hooping and dancing in circular movements. Not only is it aerobic for our hearts, it uses muscles otherwise neglected in our everyday workouts and it gives our small intestine and triple warmer a good workout. Our favorite local Birmingham hooping outfit is Hoop for Fitness. Hoop for Fitness brings hoop dance classes to the greater Birmingham area. I met Hoop for Fitness founder, Robbie Lewis, at a bluegrass music festival years ago, where she offered hoop lessons.  She helped me create my own personalized hoop (or four – hehe). We keep hoops around the office for quick breaks on beautiful days. Hoop for Fitness conducts hoop classes for exercise as well as hooping for birthday parties with games, hoop dance moves, and instruction. You can also find them hooping for fitness at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen every Tuesday and Thursday. See their website for class schedules and more information about parties (yes they travel to Tuscaloosa!), school programs, and create-a-hoop workshops. 

Don’t miss our Q&A with Robbie below! 

TIP 2: Treat your small intestines right by opting for green juice or a smoothie brought from home instead of the sugary donuts and cakes often found at work places, social events, and school class rooms. See last week’s post about no-recipe green smoothies. At the AOW, kiwis are just about ripe and almost ready for you to U Pick!  They are the perfect sweet tart for including in green smoothies. For summer travel, pack a travel cooler by bringing fruits and veggies from home and restocking on the road at grocery stores and fresh food/markets.

Kiwis are almost ripe at AOW!

 Fire Element Sound-Laughter releases endorphins into the blood stream bringing with it a rush of good feelings. A deep belly laugh is medicine and we can purposefully include laughter in our lives to promote good health.  Studies show that laughter and humor have a positive effect on anxiety, depression, and sleep so practice the fire element sound by vocalizing a deep~Haaaaw!

Our fur babies bring joy and laughter to life.

TIP 3: Watch a funny movie or cat video, go see a comedic play or stand up performance, tickle your loved ones, spend time with children and pets, which are endless sources of comedic relief. Pet lovers, you know what I’m talking about, right? Laughter is heart healthy! A recent study by Turkish medical professionals suggests that watching comedy movies has a positive effect on postoperative pain and anxiety in surgical oncology patients.

Know any good jokes?

Fire Element Emotion-Joy: In balance, the fire element manifests as joy, happiness, and love; while out of balance, it manifests as hatred, coldness and depression. Excessive fire element may display as over-excitement. Living a joyful, honest, life and expressing your emotions will keep your heart full and your body healthy.

Research shows that daily experiences of awe, curiosity, gratitude, joy, and love can put the average person on a trajectory of growth, success, and positive social connection, and can also prevent those who are suffering from following a downward spiral.

TIP 4: Go play! Get out there and enjoy life. Spend time outdoors. Do whatever suits your fancy and brings you joy. It may be spending time with family, hiking, camping, road tripping, gardening, singing, playing music, listening to music, dancing, cooking, swimming, skiing, picnicking, sailing, flying a kite, flying a plane, scuba diving, volunteering, reading to children…..get the picture? An active and playful lifestyle season brings joy. So go get to it!

Enjoy life! Dance like your heart depends on it.

Fire Element Color-Red: The color red nourishes the heart. A face turns a healthy reddish glow when the heart is exuberant and joyful, or a person with a heart imbalance may have a reddish/ruddy complexion.

TIP 5: In Chinese dietetics, we suggest that you eat a heart healthy diet of red foods such as tomatoes (not recommended for some people with intolerance to the nightshade family), cherries, beets, radishes, strawberries (not for those with histamine concerns), red beans, red lentils, red spices, and locally grown, grass fed beef (in condiment proportions).

Fire Element Flavor-Bitter: Bitter is the flavor of the fire element and goes directly to the heart. It is even used colloquially by saying someone is “bitter”, which is a fire element imbalance. Bitter flavors stimulate digestion and increase appetite and a cascade of digestive enzymes. Bitter teas, herbs, and tinctures aid in the digestive process by creating movement in a slow and sluggish digestion system. Studies also show bitter flavor helps in treating diabetes. 

Bitter foods and beverages to include in your diet this fire season: Bitter melon, citrus peel, green tea, hibiscus, lavender, turmeric, white pepper, bitter greens and lettuces.

TWO WORDS: EDIBLE FLOWERS!

Squash blooms

Fire expresses itself as life in full bloom. Blooming flowers surround us this time of year and they are a visual, aromatic, and culinary  expression of summer fire, joy, and growth. Edible flowers such as marigold, nasturtium, chamomile, rose, hibiscus and many other edible flowers have a bit of the bitter flavor to them. Other edible flowers to try at your summer table include squash blooms and the flowers from our favorite herbs such as calendula, mint, lavender, rosemary, and basil.

Sprinkle flower petals on a salad, add them to cocktails and mocktails, freeze them in ice cubes, embellish cakes with their beautiful blooms. I’m a Aries and adore decorating my birthday cake with spring flowers every year!! Keep flowers all year long by preserving them in vinegars, dressings and wines or liquors. Edible flowers add a touch of fabulous-ness to your summer parties and picnics! A bouquet of edible flowers is available in the South in every season! Roses are in bloom around this time or you may enjoy an encore bloom later in the summer. Roses are cherished for their strong floral scent and enchanting unfurling. Although their flavor is subtle and fruity, rose is considered a bitter flavor resonating the fire element. Roses complement most everything from salads to teas, water, deserts, spritzes for the body and ritual bathing. Of course, be sure any flower blooms used for food are grown chemical free.

Rose petals sprinkled on a carrot cake make a beautiful display.

To learn more about which seasonal blooms to cultivate around your home, check out University of Texas, Austin Lady Bird Johnson’s Wildflower Center.  You can filter by bloom color/time, state, sun/shade, moisture, height, etc  Warning:  this site is bliss.

Impress your guests by serving edible flowers frozen in ice cubes.

Q&A with Hoop for Fitness Founder and Hoop Dance Instructor Robbie Lewis. 

Hoop for Fitness Founder and Hoop Dance Instructor, Robbie Lewis.

Q: When and why did you start hooping?

A: I started hooping in 2000. I went to a musical festival in Atlanta where I saw a girl with a huge hoop, and I was just mesmerized. I thought I have to have one! So I tried to find one online with no success, but I found a site that gave instructions on how to make hoops. It was not until 2007 that I saw somebody hooping at the Acoustic Café music festival, and she taught me how to move the hoop from my waist to over my head. At that point, I started hoop dancing and began to make hoops.

Q: How did it come about that you are offering classes at St. Vincent’s One-Nineteen?

A:  I began offering hoop classes at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen in 2008. I work in the wellness department for St. Vincent’s Health System as a registered dietitian, and my supervisor suggested that I start a hoop dance class for exercise at St. Vincent’s One-Nineteen. In class, we laugh a lot and have fun learning different dance moves with our hoops. Hoop dance becomes a means of self-expression with the hoop being your dance partner.

Q: I know that you raised your girls hooping. What advice or wisdom can you offer about including hooping for young girls as self-expression during the sexual development stages of life?

A:  I love to teach hooping for young girls! By the age of about 7, girls are developmentally able to push the hoop on their waist and are able to learn hoop dance. Hooping is a wonderful way to boost self-esteem for developing girls, as they are able to be successful at body movement and incorporate music into exercise. It opens their minds to a non-traditional form of exercise that is fun and has the “cool factor.” To be successful at hooping, it is important for a young person to have the right hoop. A 50 lb. girl will need a different hoop than a 80 lb. girl. The same is true for adults.

Q: How far will you travel for parties and hoop making workshops?

A:  Hoop for Fitness offers birthday parties and school programs for hoop dance instruction and Create-A-Hoop workshops. Although we are based out of Birmingham, we will travel to Tuscaloosa! A typical party includes about 20 minutes of a hoop-making craft so that each girl (or boy!) can make their own hoops followed by hoop dance instruction for the remaining hour. It’s lots of fun and allows kids to exercise and enjoy dance movement collectively.

FYI: hula hoop is trademark speak so we call it hooping or hoop dancing!

Check out this video of Robbie hooping fire dance hooping! You too can catch a Community Fire Jam at Avondale Brewery in Birmingham Oct 21, Nov 21 and Dec 19.  Follow this FB link for more information!

“If the spirit is at peace, the heart is in  harmony;  when  the  heart  is  in  harmony,  the body  is  whole;  if  the  spirit  becomes  aggravated the heart wavers, and when the heart wavers the body  becomes  injured;  if  one  seeks  to  heal  the physical  body,  therefore,  one  needs  to  regulate the  spirit  first.”

~ Liu Zhou, a 6th century Chinese philosopher.

Every organ in our bodies has functions and responsibilities. Some are physical while others are psychological and spiritual.  The fire element, which peaks during the summer season, governs the HEART as well as the small intestine, pericardium, and triple burner.  In Chinese medicine, the heart is considered the ruler or empress/emperor of all the other organs. The emotion of joy is associated with fire and when the heart is in balance, it manifests as joy and an enthusiasm for life; while out of balance, it may present as anxiety, depression, emotional coldness or hatred.

Even in our modern society with a focus on Western medicine, we refer to the heart as an organ of feeling and emotion by saying someone has a “broken heart”, knowing something “by heart”, “pulling on our heartstrings” and being “wholehearted”, “coldhearted” or “heartfelt”. And of course, as we say in the South~ “bless your heart” and “bless their heart”. These common phrases speak to an emotional organ instead of a muscle that only pumps blood. 

Joy and Hatred

General symptoms of a heart imbalance may include excess or lack of laughter, emotional coldness and even hatred, reddish/ruddy complexion or a pale face, speech problems, social awkwardness, depression, mental illness, memory loss, poor circulation, weak spirit, and heat intolerance. Fire heats up the blood and organs and too much heat in our bodies, particularly the heart, causes edginess, anxiety, insomnia, headaches, and high blood pressure. The tongue is an indicator of heart healt with a red tip suggesting excess heat or deficiency heat flaring upward. Interestingly, incessant talking, inappropriate laughter, stuttering and an inability to speak also indicate a heart imbalance.  People with healthy hearts are usually friendly, humble, and have a strong sense of mental clarity and propriety.  

The circulation and balance of energy throughout the entire meridian system generates optimum health.

The meridian system, a fundamental concept of Chinese medicine, directs the flow of energy along specific pathways throughout the body much like the circulatory system transports blood. When this energy, also known as the life force, or qi (chi), becomes blocked or out of balance, health issues and disease occur. The concept of yin and yang helps us to understand the meridian system, which is subdivided into yin and yang groups. Twelve primary meridians are laterally and symmetrically distributed along the entire body.  Six meridians, three yin and three yang, traverse each side of our bodies and these meridians connect all major organ systems. The six yin meridians run along the inner side of the body’s limbs, on the chest and abdomen; while the yang meridians run along the outer side of the limbs and along the head, face, and torso.  Each meridian plays a specific and critical role in the health of the entire body.

The heart meridian is relatively short with only nine acupuncture points. The heart meridian starts in the middle of the arm pit, goes down the inside of the arm, to the tip of the pinky finger. The heart meridian is also known as the Hand Shao Yin Meridian, which is connected to the Foot Shao Yin Meridian, the kidneys meridian. The heart represents the fire in the body and the kidneys are water, thus, creating a relationship in our bodies between the heart and kidneys. See upcoming winter posts for more about the kidneys.

An example of common acupuncture points used on the heart meridian  include:

HT-3- clears mucus and heat from the heart

HT-6- helps with night sweats and tones the heart blood

HT-7- The most commonly used point along the heart channel, it is used to treat insomnia, heart imbalances, palpitations, emotional distress, and memory and focus issues. The Shen Men ear point (discussed below) functions in much the same way as the HT-7 point.

The heart meridian extends from armpit to tip of pinky finger.

GET HEART HEALTHY!

Exercises that stretch and strength the arms are recommended for heart health because the heart meridians start in the armpit and extend along the inside of the arm. You can also try a simple exercise of clenching and relaxing your fists! Sit up straight and allow your arms to hang comfortably between your legs. Take even and slow breathes while slowly making fists with your hands. Clench your fists while exhaling and vocalizing the sound of the heart in the back of the throat:  haaaaw. Loosen fists and relax deeply when inhaling. Repeat at least 8 times. This simple exercise stimulates blood flow and activates the heart meridian.

Reverse Heart Disease with Ornish Lifestyle Medicine

The Ornish Lifestyle Medicine program was developed by world renowned cardiologist, Dr. Dean Ornish, the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Ornish is the first physician to prove with scientific evidence that heart disease can be reversed by natural methods, including specific dietary and lifestyle changes. Ornish’s program consists of an ultra-low fat diet, yoga, meditation , therapy/support groups, and no smoking. The Ornish diet reduces blood cholesterol levels and reverses atherosclerosis, or obstruction of the arteries, making it a highly effective therapy for treating and preventing heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. The Ornish diet is also a successful weight loss program.

The closest medical provider or facility that uses Ornish Lifestyle Medicine is the St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. Follow this link for more information about the Ornish program at St. Dominic.

Check out Dr. Ornish talking about reversing heart and lifestyle diseases below.

The Shen

The heart and associated meridian not only control blood circulation but also control our emotional and spiritual realms of consciousness, sleep, memory, and our minds. In Western medicine, we usually think of the heart as an organ that pumps blood, however, in Chinese medicine, the heart is the organ system that houses the Shen. The Shen is defined as our spirit, mind, consciousness or awareness. Some people compare Shen to the “spirit”.  All the spiritual aspects of the organs are called ‘the five Shen’ in Chinese medicine, each representing different aspects of our consciousness.

The Shen of the Heart is an awareness of oneself and living in the moment. It is virtuous. The heart must be at peace and absent of any distressing emotions in order to possess the Shen.  The health of a person’s heart is reflected in their face and a person’s eyes reflect their spirit, or Shen.

Maybe most important for heart health is a focus on reducing stress and fostering joy. A joyful and happy life leads to a healthy heart and body. For a quick and effective stress reliever, I use a simple treatment of Point Zero (also known as Point Wonderful) and Shen Men, a point on the ear that translates to “Gateway to Heaven” or “Spirit Gate”.  Shen Men is located at the apex of the triangular fossa region (the upper mid center of the ear, just above the opening canal and the surrounding concentric folds) of the ear. Used in treating almost any health condition, pressing this point helps to relieve stress, anxiety, allergies, headaches, addiction, inflammation, depression, and pain. Shen Men is similar to the HT 7 acupuncture point along the heart meridian.

I also like to send patients home with “acupuncture to go” tiny, stainless steel balls (originally perilla seeds) taped at Shen Men with instructions to press the seeds multiple times per day.  Simply having the ‘seeds’ set in the ear provide light pressure and activate the heart via the holographic representation of the body on the ear. My patients love this simple tool for decompressing at home and for busy times on the go! In the clinic we have taught many folks to apply these points at home.  We are glad to set ear seeds for you in the office or get you set up with your own home self care kit with seeds, a special prod to check tenderness, and a map of points useful for your unique balance!

In Chinese dietetics, we suggest you keep your heart in balance by eating a healthy diet of heart nourishing red foods such as tomatoes (not recommended for some people with intolerance to the nightshade family), cherries, beets, radishes, strawberries (not for those with histamine concerns), red beans, red lentils, red spices, and locally grown, grass fed beef (in condiment proportions).

Heart healthy red foods.