Guess what?!? Chinese medicine does work for raw vegans! One of my favorite practitioners is an acupuncturist and he recommends a high-raw, animal free diet. A friend of mine just finished acupuncture school, and he is 100% raw, gluten-free, and vegan.

I live in LA, where the raw vegan community has a huge interface with certain members of Chinese medicine community. I mean, so many of the superfoods that we know and love are Chinese herbs, right?? I am sure Portland has its own niche of renegade acupuncturists that do not adhere to animal-based diet principles.

It is totally true that everyone has their own unique medicine. The path to happiness, energy, a strong mind, and a long life is unique to each person.

As far as I know acupuncture is the only traditional therapy covered by insurance companies. Why? Cause the medical community at large and worldwide sees it as legit.

So, when I speak of Chinese medicine, really I am speaking about the mind-body connection. Whether its needles, touch, the power of suggestion, mindfulness, mantra, crystals, feathers, prayer, or a placebo sugar pill there is certainly evidence of a mind-body connection that extends beyond technique and beyond mind.

Acupuncture itself- meaning just small needles- can do amazing things in the body and treat disorders related hormone balance, blood sugar, and even toxicity or infections in the body.

Maybe this is because there is more effort put on seeing the patterns, rather than cause and effect. There is a certain intelligence in the body that is beyond mental understanding.

So incredible! :)

Still, Chinese Medicine is not the answer for everyone. For example, it’s usually not the answer for me! One of the main reasons is that traditional Chinese Medicine (that’s a “little t” traditional, not necessarily TCM) pretty much prohibits significant amounts of raw foods and relies heavily on animal foods. So for me, an ethical vegan who inarguably feels my best when eating high-raw, Chinese Medicine just doesn’t jive with my lifestyle.

But like I said, I fully believe that it DOES work wonders for some people. Which is why I wonder how much of the success that each of us get from our healing modality of choice, is “in the mind”, as opposed to the literal result of the technique being applied!

Lovin life is a lifelong journey :)

In Chinese medicine, the mind-body connection isn’t some New Age bandwagon. Rather, it’s common sense, practical, and logical. This sort of thinking has deeeeep ancestral roots and the theories it generates are practiced in hospitals throughout the country, studied and documented in peer-reviewed journals, etc.

“Will yourself well,” may be oversimplifying the mind-body connection. You picked up as much from The Secret, What the Bleep, etc.

Nonetheless, I think it’s pretty interesting to see current science confirming on a molecular level what old medicine already knew: that there is a connection between the mind and the body and that all things are indeed interrelated.

Which is why, for example, a straight-up pharmaceutical drug can oftentimes do more harm than good in the body. Which is also why things that seem simple- TOO simple- things like diet and nutrition, or a vaginal birth and breast-feeding can all make a significant impact on health. Science explains these discoveries in health with the names of hormones, commensal bacteria, and breaking down pathways involved in the gut-brain axis. Likewise, Chinese medicine has it’s own set of words and trajectories (that’s been in use for thousands of years!!) to say the same thing, if not more because it already accepts the complexity of the human body.

Imagine being ten years old. Think about your ten-year old self. Now think about your thirty-year old self. Think about aaaaaalllll that happened in those years in between. Even if it was nothing *omg*spectacular*significant*, it was still a lot of stuff and a lot of change!

Now realize that the same amount of time will pass all over again – all that experience and memory and learning and living and growing and *changing* – will happen all over again, and then you’ll be 50.

And THEN, at that point, YOU’RE ONLY HALF WAY DONE.

Girl, you are young.