Sina Leslie Smith LAc MD

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United States
Chicago, IL
Sina Leslie Smith LAc MD

Medical Doctor, Acupuncturist, Integrative & Functional Medicine, Homeopathy, Nutrition, Pain Expert Practicing in Illinois and via telemedicine/telehealth.

Holistically-minded modern medicine: Japanese and Chinese acupuncture; medicinal herbs, supplements, and nutraceuticals; integrative medicine; functional medicine; homeopathy; and manual therapies. Physical offices in Chicago are currently closed but look for reopening Fall 2022.

05/27/2026

One of the things I love about 5 Element theory is that it gives us a map for understanding ourselves…not just who we are on a good day, but also when things get hard.

In Chinese medicine, each of us has a primary elemental constitution. These patterns can help you start to see your stress responses with a lot more compassion (and less confusion).

Here's a look at all five elements and what happens under pressure, plus one simple thing each type can do to come back to center.

🔥 Fire

You're the connector, the spark, the one who lights up a room. Under stress, that brightness can spark. You go from warmth and engagement to jumping between people, conversations, and ideas without landing anywhere.

What helps is getting grounded in one conversation, one relationship, one moment. Fire needs a hearth, not just a spark.

🌍 Earth

You hold things together. You're steady, inclusive, and reliable, the person everyone comes to. Under stress, that steadiness turns into over-accommodation. You keep saying yes and taking on more until you've lost track of your own needs.

What helps is one honest "no" or a request for support. Earth needs reciprocity to stay nurtured.

⚙️ Metal

You see clearly. Your standards, your precision, your eye for quality are real gifts. But under stress, clarity tips into rigidity. You hold tighter to rules, process, and "the right way" when things feel uncertain.

What would help is to find one place to soften. Ask whether the standard you're holding is for service or control.

💧 Water

You think ahead. You see what others miss, and you're not easily rattled by uncertainty, because you've already thought through the contingencies. In stress, that foresight turns inward. You pull back, go still, and disappear into yourself.

What helps here is a small connection to a trusted person. Water needs a container to flow from.

🌿 Wood

You drive things forward, solve problems, and push through obstacles with remarkable focus. Under stress, that drive turns into impatience. You need it done, done right, and done now.

What helps you is to slow the pace just enough to check in. Wood grows best when it's rooted, not just reaching.

Which element do you recognize in yourself?

05/25/2026

Most teams struggle for reasons that have nothing to do with effort or talent…

They are built on the (unspoken) assumption that everyone should think, lead, and operate the same way, and that assumption works against the group from the inside out.

Healthy team dynamics are built on diversity.

Each team needs a person who generates momentum, a person who steadies the room, a person who sees problems forming before anyone else does, a person who holds the structure together, and a person who opens up what is possible.

None of those functions is more valuable than any other. They are all load-bearing. Where many popular workplace profiles rank people by their most desirable trait, 5ET is built on the idea that a healthy system needs all of them.

5ET is a comprehensive framework for understanding how different human functions interact inside a system, and what happens to a group when any one of those functions is missing or overrepresented.

When you start looking at teams through that lens, the dynamics that used to feel personal start to feel architectural. The friction, the gaps, the places where things break down, they point to something about the system, not the people in it.

This applies across every kind of group: leadership teams, families, partnerships, classrooms, clinical practices, and organizations at every scale.

This idea has the potential to revolutionize your team and your business for the better. The link in the comments is a good place to start to explore what that looks like.

05/21/2026

Ever meet someone and instantly feel at ease? Conversation flows, there's no overthinking, and you feel more like yourself, not less.

In Five Element Theory, this is explained through the “generating cycle,” the way each element naturally supports the next. Wood feeds Fire. Fire creates Earth. Earth bears Metal. Metal carries Water. Water nourishes Wood.

Each element carries its own character traits. Wood is driven and expansive, oriented toward growth and vision. Fire is warm, expressive, and relational. Earth is steady, nurturing, and grounding. Metal is precise, principled, and clear. Water is reflective, adaptive, and deeply resourceful.

The generating cycle shows how these qualities support one another, and that same dynamic plays out in relationships.

When someone's dominant element generates yours, their way of being will support yours. It can feel like they bring out your energy without effort, like you're understood without having to explain yourself, like there's natural momentum between you.

A person with strong Wood energy may feel expansive around someone with Water tendencies, because Water nourishes Wood's growth. Someone with Earth energy may feel grounded around strong Fire, because Fire creates Earth.

This is one way to understand the chemistry between us.

It doesn't mean every easy connection is perfect, or that difficult ones have nothing to offer. But having a framework for why some relationships feel immediately natural, while others require more effort to find rhythm, can be useful and bring understanding.

Chemistry is rarely random. When you understand the elements at play, you start to see your relationships differently, not as things that happen to you, but as patterns you can actually work with.

05/18/2026

This is what Five Element Theory actually looks like when you live it.

This morning I woke up a little depleted. I had stayed up too late with a good book, and I could feel it. So instead of forcing a high-output start to my day, I let my knowledge of Five Element Theory guide me back to center.

Every choice you saw in this video was a direct response to what my system needed in that moment: movement that was gentle and supportive rather than demanding, hydration that was intentional and clearing, and food that my body could actually receive and use.

That's the question Five Element Theory teaches you to ask: not “what should I do today?” but instead, “what does my system need to function well today?”

It's a small shift in language that changes everything.

Five Element Theory (5ET) works across four core patterns. Water, which governs restoration and reserves; Wood, which drives movement and momentum; Earth, which supports digestion and stability; and Fire, which fuels connection and vitality.

Most of us have a dominant pattern, and you've probably already felt it without having the exact language for it. Once you do, every choice becomes an opportunity to respond to what you know your system is actually asking for.

And that’s what Five Element Theory offers: a clear enough understanding of your own patterns that the way you move, eat, rest, and recover all become acts of genuine support for your energy, your resilience, and your ability to show up fully in your life.

05/15/2026

Finished a stressful day with a float. 💞🌊 If you have never done one of these sensory deprivation floats, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Oto Float is absolutely my favorite. You can see how clean and professional and welcoming and relaxing this place is. Check it out.

05/13/2026

What if the way you were wired actually had a name?

Not a personality type, not a label… a very clear pattern.

One that shows up in how your body responds to stress, how your emotions organize themselves, how you make decisions when things feel uncertain, and how you relate to others when life gets hard.

That's exactly what Five Element Theory describes.

In Chinese medicine, everything, the body, the mind, the seasons, the way energy moves, is understood through five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

Each one reflects a distinct way of being in the world, physiologically, behaviorally, and emotionally. Most people have a dominant pattern, and it shows up everywhere once you know what you're looking for.

What I love most about this framework is how immediately practical it becomes. It's something you integrate everywhere: in the choices you make in the morning, in how you move your body, in what you eat, and even in how you recover when you're tired.

And the beautiful thing is that this isn't a static system. It moves with the seasons, with your circumstances, and with you… which makes it one of the most genuinely useful and accurate frameworks I've ever encountered.

Over the next several posts, I'll break down each element, what it looks like in the body, how it shows up in daily life, and how understanding your own pattern can open a whole new way of approaching your health.

I hope you'll follow along! You're really going to enjoy this one.

05/12/2026

Finishing up the day at a book signing for my writing buddy, new book at ! Wonderful event, great coffee shop, and great book! If you’re into or be sure to check it out!

05/11/2026

There is SO much hard science behind how works.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, who continues to set the standard for what healthy aging can look like.

At 82, she's strong, independent, and deeply engaged in her life. She lives in a multistory home, drives herself wherever she wants to go, sings in choirs, hosts book clubs, and shows up fully for the people and things she loves.

None of this is accidental.

She moves her body. She drinks her water. She eats her vegetables. And she does all of it with a steady discipline that is never perceived as a sacrifice. It’s just the way she's chosen to live.

I've spent years talking about longevity with patients, but my clearest picture of what it actually looks like has always been her.

I'm grateful not only for her love, but for her example. I'm very much following in her footsteps, and proud to say so!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

05/06/2026

Life does not always go as planned. Sometimes, it turns out better.

For 11 years, I lived with chronic pain.

Toward the end of my general surgery residency, I developed severe pain in my forearms from operating. It progressed to radial tunnel syndrome, and eventually, my right hand became paralyzed. I couldn’t sleep, drive, or even press the buttons on a remote control.

After years of training, I was facing the very real (and grieving) possibility that I might not be able to finish my residency. I was crushed. I had wanted to be a physician since I was a child. I had my MD, but without the final 14 months of surgical training, I had no other option.

I was in pain, overwhelmed, and unsure how I’d move forward.

I pursued every conventional treatment available. Nothing worked.

Until a friend suggested acupuncture…

It helped my pain, and just as importantly, it gave me space to process everything I was carrying. That experience shifted something in me. I became curious. I started reading, learning, questioning what I thought I knew about healing.

What I found wasn’t an alternative to the medicine I’d learned so much about… it was an expansion of it.

That curiosity became the foundation of my new path.

From there, I founded Chicago Healing Center, a practice where conventional and complementary approaches work together. I went on to earn my Master’s in Acupuncture, my licensure, and my board diplomate… and eventually brought that same integrative philosophy into dentistry through Oris Dental Academy, where I now teach clinicians how to use practical tools to improve their own practices.

I’ve come to find that growth rarely looks linear. It usually comes through (lots of) disruption, discomfort, and turns you didn’t see coming.

And sometimes, those turns bring you somewhere more aligned and fulfilling than you ever could’ve imagined on your own.

For me, that turn brought me right where I am today… and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Address

Chicago, IL
60610

Website

https://SinaSmithMD.com/

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