Are you frustrated that you're doing everything possible but not seeing results? Chances are, you might not be making the right types of changes.
Here is what to expect in this episode:
• Three layers of the fertility iceberg
• Explanation of the five major organs involved in reproductive health
• Discussion of the five elements and their connections to the five major organs
FREEBIE ALERT: to discover YOUR fertility archetype, go to www.adriennewei.com/archetype.
You'll get a free gift from me after you discover your archetype.
Follow me on instagram @dradriennewei
Website: www.adriennewei.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Practically Fertile Podcast.
I'm Adrienne Wee, doctor ofAcupuncture and Chinese Medicine
, functional MedicinePractitioner and Functional
Nutritionist.
I specialize in using anevidence-based method, blending
principles of East Asianmedicine and modern functional
medicine to help women optimizefertility and get pregnant.
(00:22):
I believe in a world whereevery woman who wants to be a
mother becomes one.
If you're tired of being toldthat you're infertile and you
want to take the right steps toget pregnant naturally and
quickly, this podcast is for you.
I'm really excited for today,because today I'm going to help
(00:43):
you figure out where theinflammation is in your body and
the exact obstacles standing inyour way of getting pregnant.
How do we do that?
Through discovering what yourfertility archetype is.
I have been looking forward tothis episode.
Fertility archetyping is whatmakes the practically fertile
(01:04):
methodology so different and soeffective.
All right, to get started, Iwant you to picture an iceberg.
The tip of the iceberg iswhat's happening right now on
the surface the hormonalimbalances, infertility, pcos,
endometriosis, whatever you'redealing with and this is
(01:24):
typically what conventionalmedicine would view as the root
cause.
But we know that that's notcorrect.
It's what's happening below theiceberg that are the true root
causes.
You probably already know thatand you might be thinking okay,
so what's below the surface isthe usual diet, lifestyle,
stress, environmental factors.
(01:45):
But these are actually at thevery bottom of the iceberg.
There's one more layer in themiddle.
Let me ask you this how manytimes have you gotten so
frustrated over the fact thatyou've worked really hard to
change your diet, change yourlifestyle?
You're managing your stress,minimizing toxins these are all
(02:07):
the things that everyone'stalking about will help to boost
your fertility, but you'restill not seeing results.
And the reason you're notseeing results is because you
can't truly improve yourlifestyle, improve your diet, if
you didn't understand how theywere affecting you in the first
place and without knowing thatyou might not be making the
(02:29):
right types of changes.
This middle layer is whereChinese medicine comes in, and
I've talked so much on thispodcast already.
Chinese medicine can identifythe patterns of imbalances that
are affecting your health andfertility.
Here's another way to look atthe relationships between these
(02:49):
three layers External factorslead to inflammation, which
affects your overall health, andthen these unresolved
imbalances lead to hormoneimbalances, infertility, pcos,
low ovarian reserve, etc.
Etc.
So this is how everything fitstogether in this fertility
(03:11):
iceberg theory and Chinesemedicine groups these signs of
imbalances caused byinflammation into patterns, and
that's why a pattern ofimbalance doesn't just describe
one symptom.
It describes a group ofsymptoms or a syndrome, and
these patterns will affect usall differently, and that's what
(03:32):
makes all of us unique.
You might be wondering how manypatterns are there.
I've mentioned several commonones, but in reality there are
actually many, many, manypatterns, and you can have a
combination of patterns.
So how do you know which one isreally causing the problem?
Well, turns out, majority ofthese patterns can be traced
(03:56):
back to imbalances stemming fromthe four substances and the
five major organs that theyinfluence.
The four substances, just forreview, are qi, blood, yin and
yang, and these five organs areheart, spleen, liver, kidneys
and lung.
These five organs are prettymuch the most important organs
(04:21):
responsible for maintainingoptimal health.
Any imbalances between themwill cause problems and they fit
into a larger system called thefive elements fire, earth,
water, metal and wood.
The five elements demonstratethe interconnectedness of the
(04:41):
systems in the body and also howthey're related and affected by
the external environment.
And what I mean by that is eachelement pairs with one of the
five organs and one of the fourvital substances also an emotion
, a physiological function, ataste of a food, a type of sound
(05:05):
, a season and many, many, manymore, including your predominant
personality.
So let's look at these elementsin detail.
First of all, here are the organand elemental pairings.
Fire element pairs with a heart, wood and liver, earth and
(05:25):
spleen, water and kidneys andmetal and lung.
Let's get started with a fireelement.
The corresponding vitalsubstance for fire and heart is
blood.
That means a very commonimbalance that affects a fire
element is blood deficiency.
A very common imbalance thataffects the fire element is
(05:48):
blood deficiency.
The lack of blood productionleads to overall blood flow
becoming sluggish and can causepoor circulation, light
menstrual bleeding, lack ofperiods altogether.
The emotion that's associatedwith the fire element is joy,
which doesn't sound like animbalance, but in reality when
the fire element isoverstimulated it can have the
(06:10):
opposite effect and createsanxiety instead.
A lot of fire types also tendto overanalyze.
That adds to the anxietyBecause the fire element
corresponds to blood and bloodis red.
This element type will respondwell to foods that are red.
(06:32):
Red foods help to produce blood.
The corresponding vitalsubstance that affects earth,
wood and metal elements is qi,but in three different ways.
The earth element pairs with thespleen organ, which is the
digestive system of the body,and when spleen is overwhelmed
(06:56):
it becomes sluggish, causing qideficiency.
This type of deficiency canshow up as a lot of GI issues,
bloating, loose stools, fatigue,after meals especially, and
water retention, low energythroughout the day and mid-cycle
spotting is also a very commonsymptom.
(07:18):
The emotion of the earthelement is worry, so overwarring
depletes the spleen energy andcauses it to become more
deficient.
The spleen loves bland foodsand foods that are considered
neutral in temperature.
A lot of earth types will cravecarbohydrates because of this.
(07:40):
Personality-wise, the earthtypes are the harmonizers and
peacekeepers.
They're often the glue thatholds the group together and
they really try to avoidconflicts.
Hopefully you're nodding yourhead.
Yes, if you identify with theearth element.
(08:10):
Wood element pairs with theliver organ and this element is
most affected by qi stagnation.
Anger is the emotion of thewood element, so wood types are
typically easily frustrated,easily become irritable and they
often feel this frequent needto sigh Because when that liver
energy gets blocked and getsstuck it really pushes up on
your diaphragm and you oftenfeel like you need to take a
deep breath to relieve thestuffiness.
(08:32):
The wood types are typicallythe achievers and the
perfectionists.
So when the wood and liverenergy gets really stuck, it
causes the blood flow to otherplaces in the body to become
more sluggish as well.
This causes things like lateovulation, painful periods,
depression, headaches, ibs,constipation.
(08:55):
Green is the color of the woodelement, which means this type
will respond well to leafy greenvegetables and foods that are a
little bit cooling.
It does not respond well tospicy foods because those are
too warming.
Okay, moving on to water, in thekidneys, the water types tend
(09:16):
to be the introverts.
The color of water is black,which means foods that are black
would benefit the kidneys.
Black sesame seeds, for example, is traditionally used to help
with slowing down the graying ofhair.
Black chicken, chicken withblack skin and bones you can
usually find them in the Asianmarkets.
They are especially nourishingfor the kidneys.
(09:38):
The kidney system is one of themost important organ systems
when it comes to fertilitysystem is one of the most
important organ systems when itcomes to fertility.
They're basically thereproductive system.
If you are a water type, youhave to be especially careful
not to drain the kidney energytoo much, because this energy
(09:59):
cannot be replenished.
We can only slow down the drain.
Kidneys are affected by theimbalances of the yin and the
yang energy because we have twoof them.
The left kidney houses the yinenergy and the right houses the
yang energy.
Within the kidney systemthere's another small ecosystem
(10:20):
where the yin and yang have tobalance each other.
If one side becomes weak, itwill start to draw from the
other side.
So yin deficiency left kidneyweakness typically causes
symptoms related to dryness andwhat's similar to estrogen
deficiency, like no egg white,cervical mucus, vaginal dryness,
(10:44):
low AMH, high FSH, restlesssleep, night sweats.
Young deficiency is very rareand I know opinions really
differ, even among Chinesemedicine doctors, but I'm
trained old school and I don'tbelieve young deficiency affects
people who are less than 70years old.
(11:05):
The young energy is the lastenergy source to deplete in the
body in a natural process ofaging.
When that energy depletes, thenthere is death.
So that is why I don't believeanybody in the reproductive age
is going to have any type ofsignificant young energy
(11:26):
deficiency.
The water types tend to getburnt out very easily and that's
why they like to spend a lot oftime introspection, and that's
another reason why the watertypes have to be especially
careful not to drain the kidneyenergies too much, all right.
The last element is the metal,and it pairs with the lung.
(11:48):
Lung is also affected by qi,but its deficiency does not
manifest as digestive issues butrather immune function-related
problems.
The metal types typically getsick very easily and very
frequently.
The metal types typically getsick very easily and very
frequently.
(12:08):
There can also be a lot ofallergy issues, skin disorders,
autoimmune disorders,respiratory issues.
The emotion of the lung issadness.
Extreme sadness depletes theimmune system.
Metal types are the logicaltypes who thrive on structure
and they're incrediblyself-disciplined.
When the five elements arebalanced, they mutually enhance
(12:32):
each other and mutually checksand balances each other.
When one element is off balance, as you can imagine, everything
will be thrown off balance.
Now, as I'm reading off some ofthese symptoms, you might be
quick to identify yourself withan element.
Not so fast.
You will have no doubt somesigns and symptoms of imbalance
(12:56):
in each of the elements and thepairing organs.
But each of us usually willidentify with one dominant
element and this dominantelement is responsible for
causing imbalances in the otherelements.
So the system that I havedeveloped is the fertility
archetyping system that helpsyou identify what element you
(13:16):
belong to and what the patternof imbalance that's associated
with that element.
And going back to what we weretalking about in the beginning
associated with that element.
And going back to what we weretalking about in the beginning,
when you know your archetype,you'll be able to create a
personalized diet and lifestyleplan based on the unique
characteristics of yourarchetype.
So if you've been frustratedthat your friend drank beet
(13:40):
juice every day and got pregnantbut it didn't work for you,
don't feel bad.
Beet juices don't work foreveryone.
If you're an earth type, beetjuice will actually cause more
deficiency.
If you're a fire type, beetjuice might help you.
That's just one example of howevery one of us truly is
(14:01):
different, so one-size-fits-allapproaches just don't work.
Now to find out what fertilityarchetype you are, please go to
adrienneweecom slash archetype.
It's a simple quiz.
It will take you five minutesto complete and in the end, you
will know what archetype is,what your archetype is, and
(14:22):
you'll get a free gift from meFrom this point forward on the
podcast.
I hope that when I mention thefertility archetypes, you'll
know exactly what your type isso that the tips that I will
give you will make sense.
All right, that's all I havefor today.
Short and sweet episode, buthopefully impactful.
If you like what you're hearing, please give me a five-star
(14:46):
review.
I really appreciate it.
It's going to help get thispodcast out there and reach the
people that really need my help.
All right, take care ofyourself.
You're just one fertile cycleaway from getting pregnant.
Bye.
Welcome to the Practically Fertile Podcast.
I'm Adrienne Wee, doctor ofAcupuncture and Chinese Medicine
, functional MedicinePractitioner and Functional
Nutritionist.
I specialize in using anevidence-based method, blending
principles of East Asianmedicine and modern functional
medicine to help women optimizefertility and get pregnant.
(00:22):
I believe in a world whereevery woman who wants to be a
mother becomes one.
If you're tired of being toldthat you're infertile and you
want to take the right steps toget pregnant naturally and
quickly, this podcast is for you.
I'm really excited for today,because today I'm going to help
(00:43):
you figure out where theinflammation is in your body and
the exact obstacles standing inyour way of getting pregnant.
How do we do that?
Through discovering what yourfertility archetype is.
I have been looking forward tothis episode.
Fertility archetyping is whatmakes the practically fertile
(01:04):
methodology so different and soeffective.
All right, to get started, Iwant you to picture an iceberg.
The tip of the iceberg iswhat's happening right now on
the surface the hormonalimbalances, infertility, pcos,
endometriosis, whatever you'redealing with and this is
(01:24):
typically what conventionalmedicine would view as the root
cause.
But we know that that's notcorrect.
It's what's happening below theiceberg that are the true root
causes.
You probably already know thatand you might be thinking okay,
so what's below the surface isthe usual diet, lifestyle,
stress, environmental factors.
(01:45):
But these are actually at thevery bottom of the iceberg.
There's one more layer in themiddle.
Let me ask you this how manytimes have you gotten so
frustrated over the fact thatyou've worked really hard to
change your diet, change yourlifestyle?
You're managing your stress,minimizing toxins these are all
(02:07):
the things that everyone'stalking about will help to boost
your fertility, but you'restill not seeing results.
And the reason you're notseeing results is because you
can't truly improve yourlifestyle, improve your diet, if
you didn't understand how theywere affecting you in the first
place and without knowing thatyou might not be making the
(02:29):
right types of changes.
This middle layer is whereChinese medicine comes in, and
I've talked so much on thispodcast already.
Chinese medicine can identifythe patterns of imbalances that
are affecting your health andfertility.
Here's another way to look atthe relationships between these
(02:49):
three layers External factorslead to inflammation, which
affects your overall health, andthen these unresolved
imbalances lead to hormoneimbalances, infertility, pcos,
low ovarian reserve, etc.
Etc.
So this is how everything fitstogether in this fertility
(03:11):
iceberg theory and Chinesemedicine groups these signs of
imbalances caused byinflammation into patterns, and
that's why a pattern ofimbalance doesn't just describe
one symptom.
It describes a group ofsymptoms or a syndrome, and
these patterns will affect usall differently, and that's what
(03:32):
makes all of us unique.
You might be wondering how manypatterns are there.
I've mentioned several commonones, but in reality there are
actually many, many, manypatterns, and you can have a
combination of patterns.
So how do you know which one isreally causing the problem?
Well, turns out, majority ofthese patterns can be traced
(03:56):
back to imbalances stemming fromthe four substances and the
five major organs that theyinfluence.
The four substances, just forreview, are qi, blood, yin and
yang, and these five organs areheart, spleen, liver, kidneys
and lung.
These five organs are prettymuch the most important organs
(04:21):
responsible for maintainingoptimal health.
Any imbalances between themwill cause problems and they fit
into a larger system called thefive elements fire, earth,
water, metal and wood.
The five elements demonstratethe interconnectedness of the
(04:41):
systems in the body and also howthey're related and affected by
the external environment.
And what I mean by that is eachelement pairs with one of the
five organs and one of the fourvital substances also an emotion
, a physiological function, ataste of a food, a type of sound
(05:05):
, a season and many, many, manymore, including your predominant
personality.
So let's look at these elementsin detail.
First of all, here are the organand elemental pairings.
Fire element pairs with a heart, wood and liver, earth and
(05:25):
spleen, water and kidneys andmetal and lung.
Let's get started with a fireelement.
The corresponding vitalsubstance for fire and heart is
blood.
That means a very commonimbalance that affects a fire
element is blood deficiency.
A very common imbalance thataffects the fire element is
(05:48):
blood deficiency.
The lack of blood productionleads to overall blood flow
becoming sluggish and can causepoor circulation, light
menstrual bleeding, lack ofperiods altogether.
The emotion that's associatedwith the fire element is joy,
which doesn't sound like animbalance, but in reality when
the fire element isoverstimulated it can have the
(06:10):
opposite effect and createsanxiety instead.
A lot of fire types also tendto overanalyze.
That adds to the anxietyBecause the fire element
corresponds to blood and bloodis red.
This element type will respondwell to foods that are red.
(06:32):
Red foods help to produce blood.
The corresponding vitalsubstance that affects earth,
wood and metal elements is qi,but in three different ways.
The earth element pairs with thespleen organ, which is the
digestive system of the body,and when spleen is overwhelmed
(06:56):
it becomes sluggish, causing qideficiency.
This type of deficiency canshow up as a lot of GI issues,
bloating, loose stools, fatigue,after meals especially, and
water retention, low energythroughout the day and mid-cycle
spotting is also a very commonsymptom.
(07:18):
The emotion of the earthelement is worry, so overwarring
depletes the spleen energy andcauses it to become more
deficient.
The spleen loves bland foodsand foods that are considered
neutral in temperature.
A lot of earth types will cravecarbohydrates because of this.
(07:40):
Personality-wise, the earthtypes are the harmonizers and
peacekeepers.
They're often the glue thatholds the group together and
they really try to avoidconflicts.
Hopefully you're nodding yourhead.
Yes, if you identify with theearth element.
(08:10):
Wood element pairs with theliver organ and this element is
most affected by qi stagnation.
Anger is the emotion of thewood element, so wood types are
typically easily frustrated,easily become irritable and they
often feel this frequent needto sigh Because when that liver
energy gets blocked and getsstuck it really pushes up on
your diaphragm and you oftenfeel like you need to take a
deep breath to relieve thestuffiness.
(08:32):
The wood types are typicallythe achievers and the
perfectionists.
So when the wood and liverenergy gets really stuck, it
causes the blood flow to otherplaces in the body to become
more sluggish as well.
This causes things like lateovulation, painful periods,
depression, headaches, ibs,constipation.
(08:55):
Green is the color of the woodelement, which means this type
will respond well to leafy greenvegetables and foods that are a
little bit cooling.
It does not respond well tospicy foods because those are
too warming.
Okay, moving on to water, in thekidneys, the water types tend
(09:16):
to be the introverts.
The color of water is black,which means foods that are black
would benefit the kidneys.
Black sesame seeds, for example, is traditionally used to help
with slowing down the graying ofhair.
Black chicken, chicken withblack skin and bones you can
usually find them in the Asianmarkets.
They are especially nourishingfor the kidneys.
(09:38):
The kidney system is one of themost important organ systems
when it comes to fertilitysystem is one of the most
important organ systems when itcomes to fertility.
They're basically thereproductive system.
If you are a water type, youhave to be especially careful
not to drain the kidney energytoo much, because this energy
(09:59):
cannot be replenished.
We can only slow down the drain.
Kidneys are affected by theimbalances of the yin and the
yang energy because we have twoof them.
The left kidney houses the yinenergy and the right houses the
yang energy.
Within the kidney systemthere's another small ecosystem
(10:20):
where the yin and yang have tobalance each other.
If one side becomes weak, itwill start to draw from the
other side.
So yin deficiency left kidneyweakness typically causes
symptoms related to dryness andwhat's similar to estrogen
deficiency, like no egg white,cervical mucus, vaginal dryness,
(10:44):
low AMH, high FSH, restlesssleep, night sweats.
Young deficiency is very rareand I know opinions really
differ, even among Chinesemedicine doctors, but I'm
trained old school and I don'tbelieve young deficiency affects
people who are less than 70years old.
(11:05):
The young energy is the lastenergy source to deplete in the
body in a natural process ofaging.
When that energy depletes, thenthere is death.
So that is why I don't believeanybody in the reproductive age
is going to have any type ofsignificant young energy
(11:26):
deficiency.
The water types tend to getburnt out very easily and that's
why they like to spend a lot oftime introspection, and that's
another reason why the watertypes have to be especially
careful not to drain the kidneyenergies too much, all right.
The last element is the metal,and it pairs with the lung.
(11:48):
Lung is also affected by qi,but its deficiency does not
manifest as digestive issues butrather immune function-related
problems.
The metal types typically getsick very easily and very
frequently.
The metal types typically getsick very easily and very
frequently.
(12:08):
There can also be a lot ofallergy issues, skin disorders,
autoimmune disorders,respiratory issues.
The emotion of the lung issadness.
Extreme sadness depletes theimmune system.
Metal types are the logicaltypes who thrive on structure
and they're incrediblyself-disciplined.
When the five elements arebalanced, they mutually enhance
(12:32):
each other and mutually checksand balances each other.
When one element is off balance, as you can imagine, everything
will be thrown off balance.
Now, as I'm reading off some ofthese symptoms, you might be
quick to identify yourself withan element.
Not so fast.
You will have no doubt somesigns and symptoms of imbalance
(12:56):
in each of the elements and thepairing organs.
But each of us usually willidentify with one dominant
element and this dominantelement is responsible for
causing imbalances in the otherelements.
So the system that I havedeveloped is the fertility
archetyping system that helpsyou identify what element you
(13:16):
belong to and what the patternof imbalance that's associated
with that element.
And going back to what we weretalking about in the beginning
associated with that element.
And going back to what we weretalking about in the beginning,
when you know your archetype,you'll be able to create a
personalized diet and lifestyleplan based on the unique
characteristics of yourarchetype.
So if you've been frustratedthat your friend drank beet
(13:40):
juice every day and got pregnantbut it didn't work for you,
don't feel bad.
Beet juices don't work foreveryone.
If you're an earth type, beetjuice will actually cause more
deficiency.
If you're a fire type, beetjuice might help you.
That's just one example of howevery one of us truly is
(14:01):
different, so one-size-fits-allapproaches just don't work.
Now to find out what fertilityarchetype you are, please go to
adrienneweecom slash archetype.
It's a simple quiz.
It will take you five minutesto complete and in the end, you
will know what archetype is,what your archetype is, and
(14:22):
you'll get a free gift from meFrom this point forward on the
podcast.
I hope that when I mention thefertility archetypes, you'll
know exactly what your type isso that the tips that I will
give you will make sense.
All right, that's all I havefor today.
Short and sweet episode, buthopefully impactful.
If you like what you're hearing, please give me a five-star
(14:46):
review.
I really appreciate it.
It's going to help get thispodcast out there and reach the
people that really need my help.
All right, take care ofyourself.
You're just one fertile cycleaway from getting pregnant.
Bye.
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