357: [Repost] Intro to Women’s Hormones from a Chinese Medicine Perspective | Dr. Chloe Weber
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Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential. Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques, and approaches from both sides of the world to help you optimize your health and live with vitality. Let's bridge the gap between ancient practices and cutting-edge medicine. Let's get started.

Hello, friends. Dr. Motley here with the Ancient Health Podcast. Today, I have my good friend, Dr. Chloe Weber. And Dr. Chloe Weber was with us

A few months ago, and we talked about the basics of Chinese medicine. We talked about the subject matter, about how she is helping her son, Remy, with different neurological conditions. And we talked about how Chinese medicine and herbs and CBD were mixed together to help individuals with this type of condition. And even with ADHD and OCD and different things that many of you out there may be facing or your loved ones are.

So we're really thankful to have Dr. Chloe Weber back with us today. And I just want to tell you that her background, I'll give you a brief overview from the last time

She created a gorgeous line called Radical Roots. And with my patients, it's already showing that patients with different types of neurological effects, Doc, that they have actually been reducing their anxiety. They've been actually healing their liver and their gallbladder. And we're going to get more into that. And with her education, she's been educating people all over the world. She has her own line to help people with the specific issues. And this one, let's just dive into some women's health. We got some questions here that I want to go through with you. And we got them written down. But

But for anybody out there that has any extra questions, please send them because we had some really great questions that were sent to Dr. Chloe from our last episode. So without further ado, Doc, I know that we're going to talk about your line of different types of things and herbs and concoctions that are your actual help with this. But one of the biggest questions that you're going to hear is why do you believe that Chinese medicine as a whole is really important for women's health? Because

I don't think many times people consider that Chinese medicine is for women's health. They always think that I just need to go to the hormone doctor. But how is it so important for your health? Oh, man. Well, this is such a big question and it's so...

So important. This is actually probably the most important thing that I want anybody to ever hear come out of my mouth. So as humans and as particularly as women, we are created with this innate intelligence within our bodies. And if you're a woman, if you're a mother and you have created a human, you know that your body is literally miraculous and has this innate intelligence that can help us create life.

So if you think about that, it's also the innate intelligence that can help us heal. And currently we are facing an epidemic of chronic health disorders. We're facing an epidemic of reproductive disorders, hormonal disorders. And Chinese medicine really gets to the root of what's going on within the body and looks at nature and looks at the dynamic function within our body, the ecology of our entire body in order to balance it and optimize it.

So when it comes to women's health and Western medicine, still often we're prescribed birth control for pretty much any sort of hormonal regulation, which is just absolutely absurd. You know, like if you're thinking of giving your teenager birth control pills,

Really look at the side effects and the long-term effects of birth control because it can have really deleterious effects and it's really challenging. Whereas with Chinese medicine, we can look at that and look at the underlying patterns of disharmony, support the body, support the mind, and support the hormones in a way that are really natural. So we're actually, especially when we're using Chinese herbs...

We're using the innate intelligence of nature in order to support the innate intelligence of our bodies. So it really just makes so much sense as a practitioner. I know you agree. It's really such a dynamic medicine and it supports women's health so beautifully. And it really honors the differences of

I like to say the different cycles of a woman's pattern and the different seasons of a woman's life, you know, so we're not just giving a one size fits all approach to any sort of disorder when it comes to Chinese medicine. I really love that. You're right. It's, I love the term you say it's not a one size fits all because, um,

With this, like when we talk about how the interrelationship in Chinese medicine, especially with organ function and how it's interrelated, especially with women's health. And I think it's one thing that anyone that researches your page and researches your information understands.

about in Chinese medicine, like with hormone imbalance, with neurotransmitter imbalance, but the interconnectedness of how one organ's function can actually produce or give energy or pull energy from another organ and how you interrelate it and how it's all connected in that manner. And so I love how you say it's all interconnected because, for instance, I want to ask you,

What are some of the issues or some of the differences that you would see in Western medicine as opposed to Eastern medicine? Like you don't have to give every example, but, you know, at times like a patient just came in this morning and they were talking about pregnenolone and they were talking about I need extra pregnenolone. And one of my first things that I would suggest, like when I was checking some of her in Chinese medicine, you know, analysis was pregnenolone.

you would first think, well, we just need to give you more pregnenolone. But my thinking was like, well, let's first look at the liver and I'm going to look at your adrenals and your kidneys because those have a lot to do with the function of your actual energy production, the pregnenolone in your adrenal glands. So there's that interconnectedness. I mean, asking questions. So what are some of the big differences you see between, and maybe even similarities, but how is it different than Western medicine? Well, again, when it comes to Western medicine, they're often just looking at one pathway, one,

one chemical, one answer, one part of the body. They're not looking at how the body is working as a whole, as you said. So when it comes to women's health, there are four organs in Chinese medicine that are most important for us to understand. And so for those of you who don't really understand or know Chinese medicine that well, it is a very common

complex system, but it's also very simple in a lot of ways. So when we're talking about the organs, in some ways, we're talking about the physiological actions as you know them for the organs. But mainly, we're talking about the energetic actions of the organs. So if you go to a Chinese medicine practitioner, they say that you have heart qi deficiency, that does not mean that you necessarily have an issue with your physiological heart, it means that you have

probably anxiety and stress and maybe heart palpitations, a couple other things. But so I just wanted to clear that up before I dive into this, because that gets really confusing for a lot of people out there. But so the four organs, first, I'd like to talk about the liver and the spleen, right? So the liver in Chinese medicine is in charge of the free flow of qi and blood throughout the body. So qi is our body's life force, and we want it moving freely.

So, qi and liver qi specifically gets what we call stagnant when you get stressed or when you're angry. So, then that free flow of qi and blood stops. So, the liver is on one side and on the other side of the axis is the spleen. So, the spleen is in charge of digestion. The spleen is in charge of processing both emotions and foods.

Some may say that they messed it up and it would have been the pancreas. Unclear. But this spleen in Chinese medicine is really correlated with like processing your emotions. So a lot of times if you have what we call spleen sheet efficiency, you're going to overthink. You might have monkey mind before you're going to bed. You might have a tendency to lose stools, foggy headedness, etc.

But you also might gain some weight around your middle. It might cause things like damp stagnation within your body. So those two work very closely on the same axis. So as we've seen now in Western medicine, they're starting to understand the correlation between stress and how it impacts both our digestion and our hormones. Chinese medicine has known this for a couple thousand years. Fancy that. So so.

So when you get stressed, it's going to impact your digestion and vice versa. And these two things have a very dynamic effect on your hormones as well. The other two organs we want to talk about are the heart and the kidneys. So the kidneys in Chinese medicine, similar when you're thinking about the adrenals, are sort of the foundational energy of the body. So that's where you have the energy to

not only create life, but your reproductive energy, your Jing, your essence, the energy that you brought into this world from your parents is in your kids. We also talk about kidney yin and yang. So one of the best examples or descriptions of that that I've heard is if you think of like an old fashioned candle, the yin is sort of the oil and the yang is the fire.

So yin is sort of the fluids of the body. We look at it as the shady side of the mountain. You can think of yin as like going more internal. It's more feminine aspects, whereas yang is the sunny side of the mountain. It's more active, more movement, more fire. So those are also something that we're looking for in balance, both in the kidneys and throughout the body. Okay.

Right.

And is really influential in terms of regulating your cycle. The heart, since it governs the blood, sends energy down so that you're able to get your menses every month. And that flows very evenly. And it's also really impacted by stress. So the emotions that affect the liver are anger. The emotion that affects the spleen is worry, fear.

The heart is joy and the kidneys is fear. So those also dynamically interplay with how these organs are working as well. So I know that was a little bit of a tangent. Not at all. But so it's really all about how these things are working together throughout the cycle of the month because these things cycle throughout the month and how they're interplaying so that you can optimize your body, your mind, and your hormones as best as possible.

I mean, I love the way that when you talked about the four main organs that you see, and one of the unique things about what you're talking about is that we really didn't heavily talk about, let's say, the uterus or the cervix or the ovaries. You're saying that like when people out there listening, they're going, okay, so these other organs like the heart and the kidneys and the spleen with those main functions truly have a connectivity and have a determination about how well your cycle is going to produce that function.

That month. So when in Western medicine, and no, we're not knocking Western medicine, but it's usually like we're going to just sort of focus in on the ovaries or focus in on that area or the endometrium when you're saying that, hey, there is the life force from the kidneys. There's a digestive aspect about how well you're going to actually tear apart your food. Liver is your metabolism, your cholesterol, prenatal. And then you're going to say, okay, but your heart has to be in line too about putting the blood through down to the ovaries. So,

There's an interconectus, so we're trying to look into all the, I say, the remote possibilities that could be concentrating its effect in the ovaries. So many times people who are out there, is that what you're saying, Doc? Like they're out there getting, you know, if they don't get answers, they're like, well, you just have PCOS and you just have endometriosis, lining issues and inflammation. And, you know, here's take some birth control. And that's the thing we're going to give you. But when you do an analysis, Doc, and you're looking at them, you're saying,

okay, your heart chi is, there's some stagnation there. And so the interconnecting of these four organs have a huge effect on the, on the, um, the outcome. So what, and I loved how you talked about the emotional aspect. So what I'm asking is this, when you talk about, uh, the mind of the organ, I think in Chinese medicine, we call it like, well, the Shen is like part of the heart, you know, and there's different, like the pole and the key and such there's different, um,

names for different mindsets of the organ so there has to be like like is this when we talk about what are the emotions i don't want to get ahead of myself maybe i'll back up you didn't mention a lot let's go back up we didn't mention a lot of the reproductive organs but you're saying in chinese medicine these are the four main ones that actually are the ones you would look at to manage your reproductive health right these four that you were talked about before absolutely

A lot of it makes sense even from, you know, like, so again, with lesser medicine, it's one paradigm of how we look at the body. And it has a lot of validity and a lot of, it can be really helpful in certain circumstances. IVF has been revolutionary for so many people. One out of five couples struggles with infertility now. Sperm rates are on track to be...

Zero at medium by 2045, as per a meta analysis that was done just a couple of years ago. So we we we in many ways need Western medicine and some of these more aggressive interventions in certain ways, in certain circumstances. You know, a lot of women have very severe endometriosis or extreme cysts.

So Western medicine can be very helpful, but in Chinese medicine, we're really looking at the body as a mind and body spirit connection and how it's all working together. And I know it sounds sort of woo-woo, like I'm from Brooklyn, so I always like...

approached Chinese medicine sort of through the Western lens as I got into it. But after 15 years of practicing and watching how incredibly effective and dynamic this is, there's nothing woo-woo about it. Like we really have to look at it as just basic common sense in some ways. Like if your diet is not optimized, if you're eating a lot of sweets,

if you're eating a lot of cold, damp foods like bananas and yogurt and smoothies and cold salads and a lot of sweets or processed foods, your digestion is not going to be good. You're not going to be getting the nutrients that you need. That's going to cause havoc, not only in your digestion, but in your hormonal system as well. If you're stressed out,

Clearly, that impacts your system. I don't know. There's no way any woman listening to this does not see a correlation or please, I really hope that you all see the correlation between your stress levels and your menstrual cycle and how much more severe your cramps may get if you're highly stressed one month or if you're very run down, which is then taxing the kidneys or

Or, you know, if you're very overwhelmed, that's going to cause, you know, some challenges with the heart. And so this system, you know, Chinese medicine has evolved. It's been tested time and time again for thousands of years. And it works and it makes sense. And it's with women's health. It's something that there's actually a lot of Western research on as well. So it's really fun to dive into both sides of that. Oh, I love it. So...

So the question that I would think that would be raised by my patients would be, OK, so, Doc, when you hear like in your own life, when you examine yourself and you say, OK, my diet is not the best. I mean, a little too much sugar. I mean, a little too much dairy or something of that sort. And you start to have hormonal issues.

I love it that these four organs, you can look at yourself and not judge yourself and try to be harsh on yourself. You're just saying, OK, my diet's not the best. So it's a clear thing that you could say this can definitely have an effect on the hormones. On the other hand, too, like you're saying that if your liver, if you're, you know, you're not treating your liver too well, if your liver congestion is up, maybe there's like, you know, too much.

alcohol too much caffeine different things of that sort that can affect it and even kidney health not drinking enough water uh not even hydrating enough and then all this like the heart and being in a stressful relationship uh being in a bad job you're saying like all these are like could create the end result so whenever you look down at the ovaries and uterus the cervix you're like we do know that those organs have a very very important role of course

But we have to look at something else that actually could be the, like you say, a root cause to them. And that's what I love about this combo because like, you know, the people out there, there may be like, I don't even know that my heart could really be in effect on that. So would, and I know, I don't want to go on your, like you started tangents, but we can go on so many of them. So this is just a side note. So if a patient came in too and said something to you like, doc, I always have chronic kidney infections.

And a patient out there goes, oh, I have chronic UTIs and kidney infection. I had yeast infections when I was a kid for like, you know, five years in a row. That could actually have an effect on their hormonal cycles and their reproductive, right? Like, because you can look at those type of symptoms like in the Western medicine world. Of course. And so in Chinese medicine, right?

Instead of looking at it like a UTI, one of the things that I like to explain to people is that we have these six pathogenic factors in Chinese medicine. So I mean, obviously, I know you know all this, but we've got wind, cold, damp, heat, dryness, and summer heat. So this is something else that people can really take and try and start to internalize. So if you have a UTI, it's

Take a guess at what that might be. That is damp heat going through the bladder, right? So if you've got an UTI, they're horrible. It's definitely heat. You can feel that. You can also think of heat like if you have a rash that's really hot, you know? So it's just something that I'd like for people to start thinking about in terms of what's going on in their body. Do I feel damp? Do I feel, you know, like what is infecting me and how is this playing out? So yeah, so...

Absolutely. If there's damp heat lodged in the kidneys, then we want to clear that out. And there are herbs that are incredibly effective at doing that. There are also other ways you can do it. Obviously, acupuncture is incredibly effective. You do some incredibly badass energy work. It's so cool the different ways that practitioners use it. Obviously, I'm a massive herb nerd. And I really love that I can look at the pharmacological actions and use certain energetics of it.

Also, anybody who has a UTI, there's a Chinese herbal formula, Ba Zhang San, which is widely used for, you know, probably a couple thousand years for UTIs. And it's incredibly effective and very, very safe.

I love it because so we have this. So it's important for the ladies out there to pay attention to how they feel. Like you're saying, if I feel literally like dehydrated, dry, I feel damp. Do I feel like I have mucus? Some people come and say that. And you made a great point. And I know that I want to make sure we get all this in this podcast. This is so good already. And I want to just start running with away with some info. But one of the biggest questions, too, that I think would be very important is.

When you were talking about how a person feels internally, like they feel I feel dehydrated, I feel like my heart feels tired. You talked about the heart being joy. You talked about kidney's fear, the spleen being worry, and you were talking about how the liver could be anger. So the emotional tie to your hormonal cycle –

Could a person feel a certain way like they know their emotions really well and they need to pay attention to that? And they're like literally they can say, oh, I'm worried all the time that it can be an indicator, right? Like that can be affecting their their cycle. How does that the emotions interplay with their cycle like and how it expresses itself like in a general term?

So in Jack is nice. And again, we're looking for the balance in every sort of way. So the balance in terms of how these things are interacting and the balance in what we're looking for. So even an emotion like joy, you don't want too much joy. You want all of the emotions in balance. So, you know, for me, like I hate sadness and apparently some people love it. But to me, I would I would take anger over sadness. It was much more productive, you know.

But like, so if any of these emotions are becoming really prevalent in your life, then that's an indication that there's an imbalance within that organ. So anybody can look up a five element chart. I'm sure we can throw something like a link to one in the show notes or something. But basically, each organ is correlated with a whole different list of

So like the spleen is connected to summer, the color yellow, you know, the emotion of worry. And then there's just this whole list of things. So if you see that that's sort of where you're tending, then you might be like, okay, so I might have spleen sheet deficiency. Let me look into some of the other symptoms of what that is.

And then I'm going to support my spleen. And there are really simple ways to do that. So there's, you know, while we can go as far as Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, and more intensive interventions, there's also a lot of brilliant dietary recommendations that people can do just to support each organ. So again, with the spleen, the taste of the spleen is sweet. So

You might want to, so if you're having too many sweets, you want to dial that down. You also might want to add some like ginger or orange peels, like a really good way to support your digestion and support your spleen. She is make a tea, basic tea with ginger and orange peels. If you have some astragalus, throw it in there, drink that throughout the day. Also phenomenal for allergy season right now.

But so it's really looking at your emotions and making sure that you're actually feeling all of the five emotions and feeling them in an appropriate balance. So it's a good way to check in and be able to see, you know, this feels out of whack right now. We're going to jump into that one in just a bit. And I think with each one of these podcasts, though, Doc, I know that it.

I like to say with the outro, I just want to make sure that people know where to come see you because, you know, some people will be on the go and they're listening to this one and then the next one comes out and they need to know. But tell us how we can find you on Instagram or on the social media. And also tell us about the info about your podcast. So you can go to RadicalRootsHerbs.com. That's where I have my CBD and Chetty's Herb line. RadicalRemedy.org is my podcast and blog.

And then I'm about to launch a new Chinese herb company called Noxi, N-O-X-I, herbs.com, which will be fully dedicated to women's health because I truly feel like if we are going to make a shift in the health of our society right now,

it starts with the women and it starts with the mothers so that we can take care of ourselves and then take care of our families and shift this tide. So I'm really excited to be setting more into women's health right now. So those are the best ways to get me. Instagram, I'm kind of awful at. I go on TikTok quite a lot. So you can get me at the radical mom there or at Radical Roots Herbs. So I'll try and be better about it. But you guys can always reach me on any of those apps. We're busy, but I want everybody to...

Now, I'm on the – I think the last podcast, I really want to talk about the new line because it's very, very important for the mothers to take care of themselves. For the mom or is not healthy, how can the whole family be healthy? Before we wrap up, please remember that the information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice.

No doctor-patient relationship is formed through this podcast, and the use of information here or materials linked from this podcast is at your own risk. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with your health care provider before making any changes to your health regimen, and do not disregard or delay seeking medical advice for any condition you may have.

Thank you for joining us today on the Ancient Health Podcast. We hope you've gained valuable insights into the harmony between Eastern and Western medicine. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review.

Remember, true health is about balance, mind, body, and spirit. So stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to explore how ancient wisdom and modern science can work together to help you thrive. Here's to your health, balance, and well-being. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and I look forward to our next episode together.