Hello!

It has been too long and I miss you. Moving and getting settled definitely took a bit more than I expected, but my surrounding are now feeling homey, the beauty and serenity of Whidbey Island are beginning to penetrate.

These little newsletters will come out about once a month unless one of you sends me something that you would like more information on. If that happens, I will get it out sooner in order to address it in a timely manner. In general, these will include a brief update, a bit of medical information, a bit of Chinese astrology and a bit of philosophy.

First, a bit on digestion and hormones. FINALLY studies are coming out on the gut biome and hormones! Estrogen and your gut. “Modulation of the microbiome com- position subsequently impacts the metabolic profile, and vice versa, and has been shown to alleviate many of the estrogen-modulated disease states.” Long story short, a less diverse gut biome decreases your body’s ability to break down estrogen into usable compounds (the estrobolome). This was previously only believed to happen in the liver, and as I have mentioned multiple times, there had to also be a gut connection. So many women get gut issues along with hormone balancing issues. This study goes through different health issues and how the gut and estrogen link can help to treat them (fertility, PCOS, endometriosis, menopausal symptoms, cancer, etc.). Not only do they mention the additional aspect of estrogen processing in the gut, they also found that phytoestrogen will activate estrogen receptors and can decrease negative estrogenic effects. “Novel estrogen modulation methods through microbiome alteration and/or phytoestrogen consumption may have greater efficacy and provide an alternative to current treatment of estrogen-mediated conditions and disease.” This research on what they are now referring to as the “estrobolome” (estrogen biome) is expected to launch a new area of research that can have really positive impacts for the field of women’s health. The key takeaway for self care is to look for a wide range probiotic that includes multiple strains so that the biome stays balanced and you don’t have too many or too little bacteria that secrete β-glucuronidase, which is what activates estrogens.

I can’t tell you how vindicated I feel now that this is coming out, I had to share.

On the less scientific front, we are getting into the winter months now. In Chinese astrology, there are small partitions called qi nodes that last about two weeks each. We are currently in Little Snow and at the end of the week we will move into Great Snow. Usually we get a cold dip and sometimes can even get a first bit of lowland snow around this time. This year the other astrological trends have more to do with fire and wood elements so we can expect more temperate weather. We’ll see if that holds! Remember to nourish yourselves, bone broths are always great. If you’re feeling a little low energy, use adaptogens that are most potent during this time of the year: reishi mushroom, ashwaganda, eleuthro, and rhodiola. Vitamin packed fruits like oranges, pomegranates and persimmons are also great for keeping the body strong and preventing cold from seeping in. While cold doesn’t directly cause illness, it weakens the immune system and makes it easer to catch a cold.

Remember to treat your body as a whole, not just symptom by symptom. During my meetings with the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) as well as my philosophy studies, looking at and working with the body as an interrelated complex system is coming up more and more. Overly simplistic silver bullet type solutions are proving to lead to more issues than they solve in the long run. The level of complexity of the issue should match the level of complexity offered from the solution. This is the reason why herbal medicine can be so powerful without producing side-effects. It may take longer, but the treatment offers a more thorough therapy.

As an herbalist, I see plants as teachers. They are ingested and become a part of us and we have an opportunity to absorb plant knowledge. What does that look like? Well, believe it of not there is a genuine field of Plant Philosophy. To check out more on this go here. This guy wrote a book, very left brained, on communing with plants. If you’re more into the right brain shamanic aspect of this, check out this book from Amazon : Plant, Spirit, Medicine. Incidentally, the winter time is when all of our energy turns inward. It is a time for introspection and slowing down to conserve energy, just as the plants do. This is why roots, minerals, and seeds are all particularly nourishing in the winter months. It is said that even the dragons would go to sleep high in the mountains, resting within the frozen lakes. In the spring the shamans would come out of their mountain caves and play their flutes, the music riding the tendrils of the breeze that would then awaken the dragons and usher in the winds of spring and carry our winter dreamings to take on life in the world. What will you dream?