In Chinese Medicine, Fire is reflected in the Summer season. Summer’s special gift – the energy of fire – allows us to give and receive warmth, supporting the functioning of our hearts. We enhance our health by understanding the correlations between the Fire Element and Summer.

Summer is a time of activity and interaction with the outside world; a time to re-charge our batteries during the high point of the year’s own peak.

Summer is the season of the Heart and its partner organ, the Small Intestine. Although the Heart’s main function is to pump oxygen-rich blood through the arteries into all parts of the body, it also determines the state and strength of our constitution.  The Heart is also connected with the “Shen” or spirit while also being associated with the mind. In Chinese Medicine mental activity resides in the Heart, which affects our emotional health, memory, thinking and sleeping.  A strong healthy Heart results in a  mind that can balance our emotions is peaceful and happy, and is able to sleep undisturbed.

Summer is about  becoming more expansive and connecting with others through hiking, trips to the ocean and mountains, gardening, and summer gatherings. Recharging our Fire Element during the active, summer season will carry us through out the year. Connection with the Fire Element can be a source of great joy that embews us with renewed energy and enthusiasm and lightens our tasks.   When we have the strength of the Fire Element within us there is fun to be had in all that we do. When love and joy are alive in us we naturally reach out to others to share our warmth and friendship. 

Here are some tips to stoke your Fire Element:

Plan to have fun regularly.  Schedule your fun and PLAY!!!  Adult playgrounds include retreat centers such as www.kripalu.org & www.omega-inst.org

Volunteer…give of yourself and the love will be returned three-fold. You’ll feel apperciated and yes….LOVED and that does your heart good. There is no shortage of non-profits that could use your particular talents.

 I volunteer at www.youcanthrive.org and Acupuncturists without Borders:  www.acuwithoutborders.org which are great organizations.

Live your passion.  It can be as simple as whisteling or taking a walk through the woods.  If you sing in the shower and always wanted to sing with others, join a choir.   Take up painting, throwing pots (as in pottery), calligraphy, dancing, drumming….you get the idea.

Move, Move, Move….  There’s nothing like physical activity to get into your body and out of your head.  Leave your computers and blackberries behind and walk, dance, swim, bicycle, hike, kayack….or make up an activity.  Get your circulation going in any way that suits you.

I tell my patients that acupuncture has a cumulative effect and that scheduling a series of treatments is the most effective way to help resolve imbalances. Why is this so? The endorphin theory.

Bruce Pomeranz, M.D., PhD., a neurophysiology professor at the University of Toronto School of Medicine and one of the world’s foremost acupuncture researchers, has reviewed more than a dozen studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture.

To challenge the belief of many conventional doctors that acupuncture simply produces a placebo effect, Dr. Pomeranz spent 20 years trying to disprove his hypothesis that acupuncture blocks pain pathways in the brain. Put another way, the question was, does acupuncture stimulate peripheral nerves that send messages to the brain to release endorphins (morphine-like compounds)?

A Chinese student working in his lab studied acupuncture as anesthesia on animals. If it was a placebo, then it should not work, he reasoned, because  placebos only work if the patient is conscious. The student had previously observed that acupuncture worked on farm animals and infants, who cannot experience the placebo effect. His experiments on anesthetized animals demonstrated that what acupuncture actually does is block pain pathways.

In testing the acupuncture-endorphin theory, Dr. Pomeranz tested 16 lines of evidence with 16 different kinds of experiments based on 16 different assumptions—all supporting his hypothesis. He concluded that there was more evidence in favor of the acupuncture-endorphin hypothesis than there is for 95% of conventional medical treatments.

Dr. Pomeranz says the advantage of the endorphin theory is that you can improve acupuncture treatment. Endorphins have a cumulative effect. The first treatment is mildly effective, the second, if given within hours or days, is even more potent. Endorphins have a memory. If you give an acupuncture treatment a third time in close succession, it’s going to be even stronger.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology proved what I have known for some time: Acupuncture can relieve allergic rhinitis symptoms. Allergy patients who received acupuncture for 3 months, in addition to usual, routine care, not only improved significantly, but the improvements also lasted considerably beyond the treatment period.

Acupuncture has also been recognized by the American Society for Clinical Oncology for easing the side effects of head and neck cancer treatments. A trial showed that patients receiving acupuncture had significant reductions in pain, dry mouth and shoulder dysfunction after head/neck surgery.

This is no surprise to me. Over my years of experience as a classical, five-element acupuncturist, I have often successfully treated patients for the side effects of surgery, radiation and oncology. Acupuncture is also a wonderful resource for people who are enduring the effects of reducing dosages of addictive medicines or undergoing infertility treatments.

In other news, a German study published in Circulation found that acupuncture can lower blood pressure to the same extent as antihypertensive medications and aggressive lifestyle changes, including radical salt restrictions.

What these studies are just beginning to demonstrate is what acupuncturists have known for thousands of years: When the human body is thrown out of balance by illness, physical trauma or emotional distress, acupuncture is a safe and potent way to restore balance and well-being.