Tibetan Medicine for Menopause

As one of the richest and most ancient medical traditions from the East, Tibetan medicine can serve as an alternative healing system to modern medicine, complete in and of itself. It can also complement Western medicine successfully as a preventive or integrative medicine.

The Tibetans call Tibetan medicine sowa rigpa: "Sowa" means "to heal," and "rigpa" means "to study" or "the knowledge of something." Used together, "sowa rigpa" means "the studying of or knowledge of healing" and is considered the essence of all medicine among all traditional healings. It has been practiced for more than four thousand years.

The fundamentals of Tibetan medicine are that the body, disease, and treatment all share common principles and consist of the four elements: earth, fire, water, and air (sometimes a fifth element, space, is included). Everything in the universe plants, animals, and human beings, including all of our internal organs, skin, skeletal system, and even emotions are composed of these five elements. Each element plays a major role and maintains reciprocal relationships with the other elements.

The four or five elements also make up another important concept in Tibetan medicine: the three Nyepas (pronounced "nyay pa"). These are lung (pronounced long), tripa (pronounced tree pa, and peken (pronounced pay ken). Each are made up of some of these elements, and symptoms of balance or imbalance between the three Nyepas can be seen in the body and mind. Air and space elements make up lung, the fire element makes up tripa, and earth and water make up peken. When the five elements and the three Nyepas are in balance, they help each other to promote well-being. However, if any of these elements or Nyepas become disturbed, they all start to lose their balance and deconstruct our health. The treatment principle is to balance the elements through diet, according to an individual's constitution. Herbal formulas and other accessory therapies are also utilized, including blood letting, burning of medicinal herbs, the application of heat or cold, medicinal baths, enemas, and Tibetan massage.

A Tibetan physician may diagnose disease with three main methods. He or she will utilize the observing method to analyze the appearance of the tongue and the urine. By analyzing the pulses at the wrist arteries and other specific locations on the body, the physician employs the palpating method. Like Western physicians, the Tibetan physician will use the inquiring method to find out how a disease was caused, what all the symptoms are, personal and family health histories, and what makes the patient's ailment better or worse.

According to the rGyud bshi, "The major goals of sowa rigpa are maintaining a healthy state of body, mind, and speech through balance as an overall preventive approach; assisting those who want to be successful in their physical body and spiritual fields; providing treatment methods for sick people, and promoting or aiding in longevity."

An Alternative Approach to Menopause

Id like to use menopause as an example to illustrate this concept. The managing of menopause in the West has become especially visible as baby-boomers start to experience "the change." Many women have used hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) to control uncomfortable symptoms. However, recently the Women's Health Initiative study showed that some forms of HRT actually increase the risk of cardiac disease, vaginal bleeding, and breast and uterine cancer,1 and women are looking for alternative ways of dealing with menopausal symptoms without harmful side effects. Id like to share how Tibetan women cope with menopause naturally, and how Tibetan medicine prevents and relieves symptoms, while also treating their root.

Menopause is similar to "lung tsub" ("loong tsoob"), a Tibetan diagnosis meaning that the lung, one of the three Nyepas (which includes air and space), has become relatively more dominant than the other two, causing disharmony. Lung tsub can have different causes. One of the common reasons is the natural change of the body constitution as we age. Another reason could be not having treated gynecological problems or menstrual irregularities that began earlier in life.

Lung tsub is divided into six types of disorders or syndromes, each of which are related to functions of either the head, bone, heart, kidney, stomach, or intestines. For example, osteoporosis is a lung tsub syndrome related to bone, although in Western medicine osteoporosis is usually considered a post-menopausal disease. This is because lung energy travels through and is stored in the bone. When the bone becomes malnourished, it will become dry, brittle, and rough, and much more fragile and breakable. Analysis of the bone will show very porous bones where we can actually see that the amount of air or space in the bone (the lung elements) has become greater, and the bones are weakened as a result.

Another example of lung tsub is emotional problems related to menopause such as forgetfulness, very short temper, feelings of insanity, crying spells, uncontrollable emotions, and racing mind. These are all caused by the body not being sufficiently nourished. The relatively excess air or space from not having enough nutrition (which is heavier and more material) causes our emotions to float up to the surface and not be grounded or settled down.

The method of prevention and treatment of lung tsub is to use warming external therapies, such as Tibetan massage, placing warm oil on specific secret points and internal therapies, such as eating food with a warming temperature and quality. This may seem paradoxical because the hot flashes and night sweats that menopausal women experience seem to be from a heat disease. However, in Tibetan medicine, the root cause is considered to be excessive lung with deficient earth and water energy manifesting as heat. If we try to use only cold antidotes to counter the heat, we can actually increase the lung and aggravate the symptoms. Therefore warming therapy is used externally and internally to treat the problem. Good nutrition is also emphasized, and dairy products, which tend to be heavier and anchoring, are especially useful (but not goat milk products which can worsen symptoms).

Bone soup is highly recommended and here is a recipe:

Ingredients:

• Ankle joint about 2 lbs.
• Scapula about 2 lbs.
• Sacrum about 2 lbs.
• Ginger about 2 teaspoons of chopped ginger
• Long Pepper about to 1 teaspoon of nutmeg powder
• Black pepper about 1 teaspoon of black pepper powder
• Garlic about 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic
• Either sea salt or black salt about 1 to 2 teaspoons

The best choice of bone in the West is from a cow. The reason why we use these three types of bone from different parts of the same animal is that those are the most nutritive parts according to Tibetan medicine. Some Western butchers will supply the specific parts of the cow on special order, but if they are difficult to obtain it is permissible to use all of the one type, say, the ankle joint, or knuckles.

Cooking Method

Before cooking them, either crush or break the bones into smaller pieces. Then add water and the other ingredients to make soup.

The cooking process is to put the mixed bone and other ingredients in a medium or large size cooking pot, and add about 15 cups of water. Let everything soak for 30 minutes. Then put the pot on the fire to boil. Once the ingredients come to a boil, turn the fire to medium level and let it simmer down to about 10 cups of liquid. You can either serve it with your meal or drink a cup every day. It is very good for all lung condition patients as well as for menopausal women.

The amount of soup depends on the patient's condition. But for general use, you can make about 10 cups of soup. Then see how the patient is doing.

Precautions

Stop taking the broth as soon as there is a sign of a common cold, such as a sore throat or a gum infection and if there is high blood pressure.

Recommendations of Alternatives for Vegetarians:

1. Dairy products, most seeds and oils products, such as coconut milk and oil, avocado.
2. Nettle soup: Use dried nettle. Nettle has a bitter and pungent taste, but it is warm after it is digested, promotes good digestion, and especially aids in the difficult digestion of other vegetables. Nettle also nourishes the body, reduces lung (air and fire energy in the body), and dispels aged or lingering fever in which lung is involved.

Ingredients

• Dried nettle : about 2 cups
• Cold water : about 3 cups
• Salt : about 1-2 teaspoon of sea or black salt
• Ginger : about 2 teaspoons of chopped ginger
• Long pepper : about 1 teaspoon (crushed or powder)
• Black pepper : about 1 teaspoon
• Chopped garlic: about 1 teaspoon
• Ghie : 3 to 4 teaspoons

If the woman experiences more hot flashes, forgetfulness, anger or irritability, and agitation, add 1 teaspoon of nutmeg powder.

Cooking method:

Crush or chop all ingredients into pieces. Add water and other ingredients, then put into a medium size pot and mix together. Let the mixture soak for about 1015 minutes. Set the pot on the fire to boil, then turn the fire down to medium heat. Let it simmer down to about two cups of liquid.

The amount of soup depends on the patient's condition. For general use, you can make about two cups each time.

How to serve it and how often you should drink this soup:

It is recommended in rGyud bshithat the woman should drink this soup twice every day at dawn and later in the evening. It is very important to remember that the soup must be heated up before serving.

There are also herbal formulas that can be taken to prevent menopausal symptoms. Together, these simple and natural steps can prevent a lot of suffering.

Help for Illnesses

There are many types of illness for which Tibetan medicine is effective. These include internal organ disorders (heart angina, stroke, poor circulation, etc); cancer treatment side effects and symptoms; mental and emotional disturbances such as anxiety, agitation, stress, and insomnia; indigestion and digestive related disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome, poor nutrient assimilation, or food poisoning; hepatitis and jaundice; skin conditions, acute or chronic; and neurological related problems such as nerve compression, spinal stenosis, sciatica, and multiple sclerosis. In many cases, sowa rigpa helps diseases for which Western medicine is not effective because it approaches the body differently. Additionally, there are no harmful or uncomfortable side effects if used properly. Sowa rigpa can also make an excellent complement to Western medicine, as a preventive medicine as well as to treat disease and to lessen the side effects of Western therapies.

For more information about sowa rigpa, please visit: www.tibetanhealth.com or for more information on managing menopause with Tibetan medicine, contact Menpa Yangdron Kalzang (831) 239 2035 or email tibetanhealth2003@yahoo.com

Menpa (which means "medical doctor" in Tibetan) Yangdron Kalzang graduated from the Tibetan Medical University in 1994. She has been practicing Tibetan medicine and giving lectures, workshops, and seminars since her arrival in the United States. Menpa Kalzang was recently honored with an intensive apprenticeship with Guru Khampo Trout Ru Tsenang, one of the world's best-known Tibetan doctors, to continue educating herself in the field of Tibetan healing.

For the last three and a half years, Menpa Kalzang has been teaching Tibetan medicine at the Five Branches Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Santa Cruz, California where she is also working toward a Master's Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. She plans to integrate Tibetan, Chinese, and Western medicine in her practice, specially relating to women's health issues.