Deficient Blood
Losing too much blood or not making good quality blood can be a woman’s downfall. Blood is a form of Yin Qi.
It nourishes, moistens and cools in the body, also providing regenerative powers.
When actual blood is lost, or if we gradually make less (amount or quality), various aspects of self will begin to dwindle.
We may see this as being a natural consequence of the ageing process.
This may show up as any or many of the indications below – you may even be seeing several ‘specialists’ who are trying to give you drugs for aspects of all of these, not knowing that addressing the whole – and how you feel – will in turn create healing that allows all these issues to be healed.
Deficient blood may show up as:
Muscles, ligaments and tendons – may experience:
- cramping,
- spasms and
- lack of lubrication or nourishment,
resulting in such conditions as:
- carpal tunnel syndrome and
- tenosynovitis,
- stiffness,
- inflexibility,
- discomfort and tension,
- eventually turning into pain and headaches.
Often, needing to visit a chiropractor or physiotherapist is just a lack of Blood.
Loss of pain free circulation – through a lifetime of exposure to cold, wind, damp invasion, tension (Stuck Liver Qi).
This is caused/created by structural misalignment and lack of nutrients to circulate and will create pockets of pain labelled ’arthritis’, degeneration, fibromyalgia and so on.
Menstrual – deficient Blood patterns of bleeding, longer cycle, less blood lost, scant, pale flow.
It may be that periods stop early (premature menopause), resulting in a dull head, backache and abdominal aching at end of cycle.
Pregnancy and lactation – in obstetrics, Blood deficiency manifests as almost all problems that are seen as ‘normal’ difficulties in pregnancy.
These are easily managed through better nutrition and supplementation, along with Chinese herbs.
Difficulty in staying pregnant or possible malfunctioning of the placenta, habitual miscarriage, not ‘blooming’ when pregnant or any of the other above symptoms in pregnancy, or after birth, especially with depression and emotional problems, point to Blood deficiency.
As does the inability to easily breastfeed, poor quality milk and possibly head hair falling – all of which is NOT normal post birth. Also see Thyroid functioning and BBT).
Complexion / skin – Blood keeps all body tissues vibrant and healthy. We may wither and sag earlier than necessary if we have weakened Blood energy. Skin conditions show up as dull red in colour, itchy and poorly healing of skin generally.
Hair and nails – nails and hair are indicators of the strength and quality of our Blood / Jing.
Hair that is:
- falling out,
- losing its colour or vitality,
nails that are
- splitting,
- flaking or
- growing slowly
all broadcast our depleted state.
Shen disturbances:
- sleeping less deeply,
- maybe disturbed, unsettled within self,
- not feeling peaceful,
- equilibrium lost.
- Becoming emotionally vulnerable,
- needy,
- indecisive,
- anxious or, if severe,
- panic attacks.
Anxiety, palpitations and nervousness are often ‘just’ examples of having deficient Blood energy.
Mental lack of tone – this may show as a gradual lessening of self:
- dithering,
- memory unreliability,
- slow thinking and
- lack of clarity,
- inability to do one thing properly, rather than several at once and the apparent loss of previous mental capacities.
Visual problems – our ability to see well is a gift dependent upon the health and condition of our minute eye muscles that are in turn reliant on our Liver energy complex.
- Floaters,
- visual fogginess and
- general loss of vision,
- dry and
- reddened eyes – all may be improved with Blood energy Chinese herbal tonics.
This obviously is often on board for many – and shows as the mood/emotional/ digestive/ bleeding and sometimes miscarriage/unable to hold babies in place – all addressed within this system as it lets focus on you being healthy FIRST and then see what the body is able to do – especially in all matters reproductive.