Yanaroot Art of Health, 608 Baker Street, Nelson, BC (2026)

03/20/2024

At this time of year, it is very obvious how long the days have become. Vernal Equinox (March 20) marks the equality of night and day.

Greens are sprouting, birds are singing, and people continue to celebrate the joy of spring with flash-fired pea sprouts, savoury taro rice, and more pungent flavours like garlic and onions.

Earth season is in the air!

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03/18/2024

Stress is vital for a healthy life, it's not all bad.

There are some stressors which are considered "good stress", or eustress, like the type you feel when you are elated, excited. When you have this experience, your pulse becomes more rapid, hormones surge, and many parts of the brain and body are stimulated in a positive way.

On the other hand, "bad stress", or stress that becomes chronic has a negative impact on our health and wellbeing. It can feel like the gas pedal is stuck to the ground and you no longer have any control inside your own mind and body.

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03/15/2024

Also known as "rosy retrospection".

The Good Old Days bias is a psychological phenomenon of recalling the past more positively than it was actually experienced.

The nature of human memory is highly unreliable. Research suggests that not only do we recall the past as more positive than it was, negative emotions are exaggerated in memory just as much as positive ones.

Most research on the topic is around people who have experienced a mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI, concussion), and preliminary results suggest that people with an injury often underestimate past problems, which can impact their perceived level of current problems, recovery from injury, and return to work/sport/play.

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03/12/2024

It always feels shocking to me how biomedicine can be so slow to catch up. While there were hints of this concept in modern medicine for the past 20 years, this concept has been around in TCM for thousands of years.

Did you know that our gastrointestinal (GI) tracts evolved with their own nervous systems, which we call the "Enteric Nervous System"? It is often suggested by functional medicine practitioners that this is actually the primary 'brain' because it evolved before the brain and spinal cord.

Have you ever been so stressed out suddenly that you lose your appetite, or have loose bowels? This is an obvious relationship between the stress response on our gut-brain axis. It would be pretty inconvenient if you had to p**p while you were running from a tiger, don't you think?

It seems obvious that what happens in our guts is vital to our survival, and thus the entire body needs to be aware.

For example, if our digestive system is empty it is important that our brain sends signals of hunger so that we feed ourselves. Or if there is a problem with the processing of what we ingest, we need to be made aware so that we can fix the problem.

Stress is known to influence the permeability of intestinal lining; this means that bacteria can have easier access to places they shouldn't be.

A study done using food-borne pathogens provided evidence that bacteria in the intestines can activate stress circuits by directly activating the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system that runs from the brain to the large intestine. It is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system (rest, digest, safety, and energy conservation).

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It's important to remember that the microbes were here before humans existed, so we have evolved with these 'friends with benefits' – John Cryan (professor of anatomy and neuroscience)
~

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03/08/2024

Neuropuncture is a fusion between Medical Neuroscience and Traditional Chinese Medicine concepts. It incorporates modern research on neurophysiological effects of acupuncture and specifically electrical stimulation of acupuncture points on specific neural tissues.

I don't personally consider this Chinese Medicine, and I wouldn't even call it Acupuncture per se, but it is a method that is evidence based and clinically reproducible. It involves specific prescriptions, electrical dosages and treatment plans that can address all sorts of dysfunction in the body.

Research suggests that neuropuncture and electrical stimulation is an effective treatment for mental emotional health, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic pain and injuries, sleep and hormonal disorders, internal medicine (digestion, hypertension, diabetes), immunity and autoimmune disorders, sports medicine and orthopaedics.

I use electric stimulation in my clinic often when working to reduce inflammation, repair soft tissue injuries, strengthen musculoskeletal system or when I want to target specific nerve pathways that influence particular regions of the brain and body.

I like to joke (not joke) that acupuncturists are the electricians of the "inside" world.

Trust me, it's not as Frankenstein as it sounds.. most people are able to relax enough that they fall asleep or sometimes even forget its there at all.

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03/05/2024

The word Jing Zhe 惊蛰 means the awakening of hibernating insects.
Jing 惊 is to startle
Zhe 蛰 means hibernating insects

Traditional Chinese folklore says that during Jingzhe, thunders will shake the hibernating insects up from their winter slumbers, which implies that the weather is getting warmer.

While warmth is increasing, the weather is still wet and cool. It is important to stay warm at this time; wear clothing that is warm enough, enjoy warm cups of ginger tea and hot sesame soups.

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03/03/2024

In TCM we say that our blood houses and anchors our mind. This would mean that our mind is everywhere our blood is.

Our experience of being in our body is not a direct one. It is a multi-sensory interpretive experience - it is constantly moderated by our perceptual intake of information, influenced by internal information (interoception, proprioception and vestibular input), and recalibrated through stored implicit and explicit body representation (body memory).

We humans are wired to respond to our environments - action often precedes awareness. This is vital to our survival, so that we can make quick decisions about whether or not what we are experiencing is a threat or not.

When we determine there is no threat, in normal circumstances we experience a rebalancing and orienting return to baseline. In circumstances where someone has experienced trauma that has not been resolved, they might not experience the rebalancing process to return to baseline. This means that their nervous system is stuck in the ON position, and they move into a state of threat preparedness (fight, flight, freeze), even if it is unnecessary in the moment.

Trauma symptoms develop when our nervous system isn't able to recalibrate into equilibrium.

It can take time to renegotiate the trauma response in our bodies to relearn how to restore healthy reorienting responses, so that they are in the appropriate amount for the appropriate duration at the appropriate times.

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02/29/2024

Preventative care is the gold standard. The choices you make every day matter!

TCM emphasizes “prevention before disease and prevention of disease exacerbation”.

How are you choosing to take care of yourself? What does your prophylactic self-care routine look like? If your healthcare practitioner isn't asking you about these things, you need to find a new practitioner!!

I spoke with an MD recently who strongly believes that treatment outperforms prevention, adding that people are more willing to pay for treatment than invest in prevention.

It was hard to hear. It felt like a statement that steals power from people, that leaves them relying on someone else to save them. If you have been to any medical clinic recently in BC, you've probably noticed that you will be waiting a long time for someone to save you.

Prevention is grossly underfunded when compared to treatment, at least here in Canada. But there are choices we make daily that could be considered prevention, like the things we consume (food, drink, to***co, drugs), or the way we move our bodies, or how we choose to engage our minds.

Prevention through self care is the best kind of medicine.

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02/26/2024

"Qi is the root of a human being. It is the basis of all phenomena in the universe." -Giovanni Maciocia

It is not "life-force", "vital energy", or simply "energy".

It is the relationship between structure (yin) and function (yang), energy and matter.

Qi is universal. Life is a culmination of Qi.

‘It is from, calm, indifference, emptiness, and non-desiring that true qi arises. If the spirit is harboured inside, whence can illness arise? When the will is at rest and wishes little, when the heart is at peace and fears nothing, when the body labours but does not tire, then qi flows smoothly from these states, each part follows its desires, and the whole gets everything it seeks’ - The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon

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02/23/2024

In most circumstances its not about what is actually happening that keeps us where we are.. Its the self-blame, the fear of being vulnerable, guilt, shame, the thought of instability - all the potential pain we associate with what we want, consciously or subconsciously - that keep us in the same cycles, with the same people, the same cravings, the same patterns, and the same frustrations, even though we are whole-heartedly wanting something different.

Dwelling on the past means resisting the opportunity to live beyond the limiting walls of our pain boxes.

Let's dwell deeply in the present, just for a moment. Try it on for size, and then try another.

The present looks good on you ♡

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02/19/2024

Unless you live in Nelson BC... and is been raining for weeks... ;)

Inclement, wet weather is a sign that Rainy days (~ February 19) have begun.

The rain awakens the outside world while some people take this as an opportunity to rest before the true expansiveness of springtime season arrives.

Lanturn Festival (3rd week of February) lands on the first full moon and the end of the two week Chinese New Year period.

Stir fried vegetables, sweet rice balls 汤圆 (tang yuan) and steamed fish 蒸鱼 (zhēng yú) dinners are common.

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02/16/2024

"Ka mua ka muri" is a well known Māori whakataukī that translates to "walking backwards into the future".

Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Whakataukī are Māori proverbs.

This whakataukī speaks to following in the footsteps of our ancestors, learning knowledge and wisdom passed down from them, while at the same time navigating the present as we live and move into the future.

In this way, our ancestors are always with us, existing both within the spiritual realm and in the physical, alongside the living as well as within the living.

I get the most humbling feeling inside of myself while holding that thought. Within this constant cosmic movement, time has no limits – it is both past and present.

Each of us is a descendants and also an ancestor. Honouring our obligations to both, as well as the ever changing world around us, is a huge responsibility!

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Yanaroot Art of Health

03/20/2024

03/18/2024

03/15/2024

03/12/2024

03/08/2024

03/05/2024

03/03/2024

02/29/2024

02/26/2024

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02/16/2024

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