What's The Right Tea For You?

In Chinese Medicine, the goal is to bring harmony and balance to the body, mind, and soul. We can accomplish this through acupuncture, food therapy, or even choosing the right teas. Your body's imbalances speak loudly in many ways, and if we are attuned to how we feel we can choose the right tea to re-balance ourselves. Green tea has become quite popular nowadays with all the research indicating green tea has high antioxidant qualities. However, green tea is considered cooling in Chinese Medicine and may not be right for everyone.

1. Peppermint Tea

If you feel cold all the time, or generally low in energy, green tea may not be the healthiest choice for you. If, however, you tend to feel hot easily, get nose bleeds, mouth sores, or are suffering from a sore throat, peppermint tea could make you feel better. Peppermint has cooling qualities that clear heat and soothe the liver, an organ which can get quite heated in a high stress environment. This makes peppermint a perfect way to rebalance after a heated discussing, or a stressful day at the office. 

2. Black Tea

On the other hand, black tea's high caffeine content, and energizing properties might be the right choice if you feel sluggish, tired, or just need a boost of energy. In fact, a common tradition which is still carried out today is to drink black tea at Dim Sum. This is because alot of food served at Dim Sum can be quite greasy, and cause some of us to feel tired, and heavy after the meal. Pu-Erh tea, served at Dim Sum, is used to help cut the grease, boost energy, and wake you up again. This tea gets its name from Pu'Er, a city in Yunnan province, China where the tea is fermented, and aged. 

3. Rose Tea & Chai Tea

Feeling cold at the office? this may be due to a lack of circulation, or a lack of warmth in the body. I have two options for you - rose tea and chai tea. More than just a romantic gesture, roses, when consumed as tea are good for gently warming the body, while promoting circulation. Its invigorating qualities help to remove stagnation, which builds up when we're constantly doing something we don't want to do. It also has medicinal properties which nourish the skin, and promote digestion. In Chinese medicine, it is occasionally used for people that have irregular menstruation, blood clots, or painful periods. Chai tea on the other hand, has its origins in India, and blends black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian  spices and herbs. With strong invigorating, and warming properties, this makes it a great choice in the winter time if you're feeling a runny nose, or the beginning stages of a cold. It will not only warm your body up from the inside out, but could potentially cause you to break a sweat, preventing exterior pathogens from invading your body. 

4. Matcha Tea

Feeling anxious, panicky or just not well grounded? Matcha tea is known as an anticancer tea, having 137 times more antioxidants compared to regular green tea. It's interesting to note Matcha tea's cultivation, and production are closely related to the effects it has on the body. Grown in a shaded environment for up to 3 weeks, this makes Matcha tea a more cooling, and calming tea. Once picked, it is stone-ground into a fine powder - having the ability to ground your mind at times of anxiety and fear. In fact, traditionally at Japanese and Chinese ceremonies, matcha tea was prepared and served as a way of embodying a meditative spirit. A great tea to have at the end of a long work week, when you are looking to wind down, quiet the thoughts of the mind, and focus on yourself. 

4 Key Recipes For Fall

Looking for ways to stay balanced this fall? Listed below are four recipes that taste great AND boost your body's immune system during this cool & dry season. As temperatures begin to dip, it's important that we stay covered up. It's time to put on that scarf, and fall jacket again to avoid catching a cold. For those of us that tend to feel cold easily, stay balanced by eating foods with warming properties. This brings me to my first recipe.

1. Carrot Ginger Soup

This is a simple warming soup with minimal ingredients. Ginger's immune boosting effects combined with carrots will give you the energy you need to combat a cold, or replenish your body at the end of a long day at work.

What you need:
Immersion blender
Coconut oil or Butter (2 tbsp - butter has warming properties that are beneficial during the fall/winter months.)
Ginger (1 tsp)
Carrots (6-7 large carrots peeled and chopped)
Chicken or vegetable stock (0.5 litres)
Onions (1 large or 2 small onions chopped)
Water (0.5 litres)

Directions:
1. Heat coconut oil/butter on medium heat in a large pot.
2. Add onions, and carrots saute for 5-7 minutes.
3. Add the stock, water, and ginger
4. Bring to a boil, and simmer on low for 25 minutes (until carrots are soft)
5. Use your immersion blender to blend the carrots.
6. Add salt & pepper to taste. Enjoy!

2. Spiced Apple Cider

Apples are in season during fall, if you have time I recommend going to an apple farm to pick your own! This way you can see the practices that farm uses, and ensure you're getting fresh, and ripe fruit. What to do with all those apples? Apples are great for moistening the lungs, and provide a good source of energy.

By combining warming and moistening properties from cinnamon and apple, apple cider can warm you up, while soothing a dry cough. 

What you need:
Apples (10 quartered)
brown sugar (3/4 cup)
Ground cinnamon (1 tbsp)
Nutmeg (1/8 tsp)
Cloves (4)

Directions:
1. Place apples in a large pot and add enough water cover by 2 inches. 
2. Stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Bring to a boil. 
3. Boil, uncovered, for 1 hour. 
4. Cover pot, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 hours.
5. Strain apple mixture though a fine mesh sieve. Discard solids. 
6. Enjoy!

3. Beet Root Soup

In TCM, we say that overwork can consume your body's Qi (energy), and blood. Signs of blood deficiency are feeling dizzy, lightheaded, especially after a long day. For women that have scanty periods, or find that their vision blurs in and out randomly, or have a pale face, and pale tongue, these are all signs of blood deficiency. A common theme in TCM is that the appearance of food represents what your body needs. Red foods, are good for nourishing blood. Beets are no exception and are a very good blood tonic. Make this recipe when you're feeling out of it, as blood has the ability to ground the spirit and when deficient can make you feel as though you are floating, or not quite grounded. 

What you need:
- 900mL Vegetable stock
- 1 medium onion
- 3 large beets
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- dill weed

Directions:
1. Add oil to a large saucepan over medium heat
2. Add onions, let cook until they begin to soften
3. Add Beets, cook for 1-2 minutes
4. Add vegetable stock
5. Bring to a boil, and then simmer on low for 20 minutes
6. Add 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, stir
7. Add salt and pepper for taste
8. Enjoy!

4. Pinenut garlic spread

This is an easy and tasty spread to make for garlic lovers. Especially good for reducing blood pressure as garlic is a natural blood thinner. Garlic is also a pungent-warming spice making it an ideal choice if you feel the start of a cold coming on. Pinenuts are moistening, once again good if you have dryness in the lungs, or suffer from constipation. A great combination for Fall. You may have to go to a bulk barn, or whole foods to find these nuts.

What you need:
6-8 cloves of raw garlic
½ cup pinenuts
juice of ¼ lemon
1 teaspoon dried basil
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
 
Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients in a spice or coffee grinder or a food processor with a small bowl attachment.
2. Blend until smooth
 

Hope you enjoyed these recipes!

6 Tips To Improve Your Sleep

Feeling restless at night? Unable to turn off your mind? or waking up at the same odd hour each night? Sleep is crucial to your overall well-being. Not only does it determine your mood for the day, but your body actually repairs and restores itself at night - a crucial function of the liver. Here I’m going to share some tips on optimizing liver health for improved sleep quality:

1. 'Eat Your Bitter Greens'

The bitter flavour can have a calming effect on the Heart in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM). This organ helps you to get a good night's rest in TCM. The more calm your Heart is, the better your sleep will be. Perfect examples include bitter melon, mustard greens, kale, arugula, or brussels sprouts. 

2. Vitamin A & Liver Health

Many clients often complain of having difficulty falling asleep at night. In TCM, this is often seen as an excess of heat in the liver - due to overthinking, overplanning, and overconsidering any potential threats - from work or your personal life.

Eating foods higher in vitamin A, can gently support the liver, nourish it, and help it calm down for a better night’s rest.

The hours of 1AM - 3AM is considered the Liver time. This is when it stores blood, which leads to repairs, and feeling refreshed the next time. Skip this time, or wake up at this time, and it could disrupt optimal rest, and healing.

Vitamin A rich foods include:

• Carrots

• Sweet potato

• Cabbage (kimchi)

• Spinach

• Milk - I recommend 1 glass of milk before bedtime. You can warm it up.

• Butter

• Cheese

• Egg yolks

3. Reading Or Mini-Meditation Before Bedtime

Again, the issue of overthinking is common amongst many of us. So how do we get out of this cycle, you might wonder? Reading without screens can be less stimulating on the eyes. Bright screens overstimulate the eyes - which has a strong connection to your liver in Chinese Medicine.

5 minutes of reading or meditation can help quiet your mind before sleep. Meditation allows you to process what happened during the day, so your mind doesn't have to wrestle with it all night.

Give it a shot, it only takes 5 minutes.

4. Exercise After Work

Exercising too close to bed time can actually make it harder to calm down and rest at night. After work is a great time to do a quick run, or hit the gym. As you engage your body in physical activity, it takes your mind off work, or problems that you still haven't quite solved yet.

Usually this unnecessary lingering stress is what keeps our minds busy and unable to take a break, making it difficult to fall asleep at night.

Break the cycle of overthinking with regular exercise.

5. Avoid Alcohol, Caffeine, and Late Night Snacks

Alcohol and caffeine are considered heating foods. Excessive heat in the stomach can lead to heart-burn in TCM, and cause discomfort as you try to sleep. Snacking any time after 8pm can lead to poor assimilation of food. As food stagnates in the stomach, not only can this lead to bloating, but also causes discomfort in the upper abdomen and leads to heart burn.

6. Try Acupuncture

Acupuncture is great for many health complaints - and sleep is no exception. This includes getting a better night's rest as points are used to calm the mind, and induce a state of relaxation - again just trying to break the cycle of hyperactive overthinking.

Regardless of the cause, acupuncture treatments are uniquely customized to your body's needs and get down to the root cause of your imbalances.

If you're unsure of what's causing your troubled sleep, feel free to come in for a consultation. You can enjoy some tea, meet the practitioner, discuss your health concerns, and enjoy a nice relaxing acupuncture treatment.

4 Ways To Boost Your Immune System Naturally

With flu season approaching, you might be interested in having a few tips and tricks to boost your immune system naturally. The extra 10-15% boost may be the differentiator between feeling a bit off vs. being completely wiped out. Here we will share a few tips you can do at home to boost your immune system.

Change Your Diet According To The Season

Eat cooked/warm meals only. As we trail out of summer, we may be hanging on to certain eating habits during the warmer climate that don’t necessarily translate to better health in the fall. You might be having smoothies with ice, raw fruit, or eating lots of raw salads and feeling great during the summer. As we move into fall however, you might notice indigestion, fatigue, or a runny nose with excess raw food intake. Food in this cold state tends to take more energy from our digestive system in order to process into nutrients than if we had a warm cooked meal. If you’re looking for a way to boost your immunity, this is one tip you cannot skip.

If you’re already fighting a cold:

Add Some Spice:

Just like how Starbucks offers the pumpkin spice latte during fall, your body will benefit by consuming more ginger, cinnamon, oregano, thyme, garlic, cloves, fennel, black pepper, and onions. Indian cuisine tends to incorporate many of these spices, and can be an easy alternative to trying to make dishes yourself. You can try ginger tea, or apple cider with a cinnamon stick. This will warm the body, improve your circulation with heat - which helps to balance out cold weather!

Sauna

Try saunas! The othership is just down the street from our clinic, and the warmth helps to open the poors, and get rid of those chills just as they begin. If you’re actually having a fever, it might not be recommended to do the saunas, as this is a later stage of illness, and others might not appreciate you spreading infection. Pre-emptively though, this is a great strategy for improving your immune system.

Moxibustion

Last but not least, moxibustion is the underappreciated side kick to acupuncture; that Robin is to Batman. This technique involving the burning of a specific herb, is particularly effective for boosting the immune system. When you’re in the early stages of feeling a chill, we apply the herb to targeted acupoints without needles and gently heat it with an incense stick. The burning herb is swiftly removed just before it reaches the skin. This process not only enhances circulation but also stimulates the body’s immune response. Our practitioners have utilized this herb in many treatments, and frequently use it themselves to combat chills or fever.

If you’re looking for that extra kick to help boost your immune system, feel free to inquire about moxibustion at our Toronto acupuncture clinic located at 54 Stewart Street, 2nd Floor (King West). We’ll assess your health concerns and provide a treatment tailored to your individual needs.

Heart Health: Nutritional Tips For Improved Circulation, Energy, and Stress

Heart disease is prevalent in North America being one of the top 2 leading causes of death in Canada and the USA. Whether you are in Toronto, or the surrounding GTA, there is a general hustle mentality, or this need to prove your value to the world. As a result, you might have decided to increase caffeine intake, work extra long hours, all on top of your 6 day workout routine.  By being in a constant state of fight-or-flight, this can raise your blood pressure, exhaust your heart, and cause circulation issues which lead to heart disease. “So, what do I do?” you wonder… Here I’m going to share my top health tips on how to improve your heart health naturally.

One of the first tell-tale signs I notice with my patients that are experiencing poor heart health, is chronic fatigue. Feeling like, no matter how little they do, or how many breaks they take they still feel exhausted. Slowing down is a great place to start, in addition to including relaxation exercises like yoga, tai chi, or going for a walk. However, sometimes you might find that your body still feels tired regardless of how little you do. This could be due to your circulation being poor.

So, you decide to work out instead. However, everytime you workout, you feel like you can’t catch your breath. These symptoms result from the heart becoming overheated due to high blood pressure, chronic stress, and not eating a balanced diet. Speaking of diet, here is my first tip:

1. Cut Down Coffee

Coffee can significantly increase your blood pressure temporarily. During this time, you feel good, with more mental clarity, but your heart is also having to work harder. If this goes on all day, without a time for rest, it can exhaust the heart. So my first tip is take a break from coffee for at least 3 days.

2. Green tea, Watermelon, Strawberries & Tomatoes

Basically all the foods you think of when it’s summer - Caprese salad to start, and watermelon and strawberries for dessert. Let’s find out why.  

Watermelon and tomatoes are cooling and refreshing on the heart, while strawberries help nourish fluids in the heart. These fruits/vegetables help keep your system cooled down and functioning optimally. This can help with trouble staying asleep at night (insomnia), night sweats, heart palpitations, plus the fatigue/shortness of breath.

Although green tea has caffeine, it’s also cooling, and can help cool your body down when you feel overheated/overwhelmed. Coffee is much more acidic, which can cause a lot of heat in the body to build up. So if you find you still need a bump of caffeine in the mornings, try green tea instead. Its cooling properties can help balance you out when you’ve been having coffee for too long.

3. Vasodillators: Spinach & Bacon

There is much out there about nitrates being bad for you. However, did you know that your saliva converts nitrates into nitric oxide? This chemical is a natural vasodillator. In other words, it helps open your vessels to improve your circulation. What a great idea for those who suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, or chronic stress. Two foods I would recommend for increasing your nitric oxide is spinach and bacon. Careful not to have too much bacon as it can lead to heart burn. You should instantly notice that your breathing is lighter and easier. Try this before your next workout.

4. Light Exercise

Switch from the heavy weights to something a little lighter. If you have difficulty catching your breath while doing cardio, start with something even lighter like tai chi, yoga, or going for a brisk walk. If you feel your fatigue lifting, you can start to include things like jogging, biking, or swimming.

You sometimes can’t feel it when you’re under immense stress, as some people just begin to normalize it. If you notice you feel lighter after trying these tips, this is a sign that you likely needed these foods/tips in order to feel more balanced. Another thing that can help greatly is coming in for acupuncture. Acupuncture is known for regulating stress hormones, improving circulation, and working on specific issues in your health - insomnia, heart palpitations, chronic fatigue, or shortness of breath. Book your tune up today with one of our practitioners by clicking here!