#97 - Exploring the 5 Element Theory with Dr. Andria D’Amato, Part 1

Welcome to another episode of The Factor Podcast. My name is Jessica Riddle. Welcome and thank you for tuning in today. Today, we're diving into the fascinating world of Five Element Acupuncture with our guest instructor, Dr. Andrea D'Amato, and we're exploring how this ancient practice can elevate patient outcomes and transform your clinical approach, even if you are not a healthcare provider that offers acupuncture as one of your services. In part 1 of this 2-part series, we'll dive into the Five Element Theory, which is an integral part of Traditional Chinese Medicine. You'll also hear us refer to this as TCM for short. That has been practiced for thousands of years. The theory outlines how the 5 natural elements of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood interconnect to impact physical health, emotional well-being, and overall balance. But what makes this approach truly unique is how it views the body holistically, connecting organ systems, emotions, and external factors like the seasons and environment. Dr. D'Amato will explain how understanding this framework isn't just for providers that practice acupuncture or TCM. Integrating the principles of the Five Element Theory into your treatment approach can improve your diagnostic abilities, help you better understand your patients' needs, and even offer innovative ways to address stress and emotional imbalances that can often manifest physically. So go ahead and download this episode. Be sure to hit the follow button for our show so that you're sure to receive a notification when part 2 is released in 2 weeks. This is definitely one you're going to want to visit more than once. Let's dive in.

Thank you so much. Welcome everybody. I appreciate you showing up for this. Wanting to learn a little bit more about acupuncture or ways that we can integrate that into your practice. This is informative, helpful. If you don't know acupuncture, you won't be lost. So just sit tight, enjoy it. We're gonna have an activity, a little introspection, and talk about how the wellness side of your practice can be accessed with some Five Element Acupuncture. So we're gonna review that theory a little bit in the upcoming slides. And then we'll have a little activity, like I said, for getting to know what your element is, and then talk a little bit about the characteristics and qualities of a Chinese element theory. So again, you don't have to be an expert to be on today of Eastern medicine or acupuncture. Just come with an open mind and curiosity. That's how I started with acupuncture in the first place. And here I am doing things like this during lunch hours. So your course outlines and objectives, Jessica talked a little bit about those. So we wanna be able to understand wellness through that TCM, traditional Chinese medicine, 5-element perspective. We're gonna, like I said, review that 5-element. We'll learn 8 dimensions of wellness in a Western perspective. These were developed by UCLA. So we'll talk a little bit about that component of, of how wellness is viewed in, in the West. So that's gonna help us better navigate stressors, worries, components that are interrupting and affecting our patient population's wellbeing, as well as possibly our own. It's not just That physical, mental, emotional side of things. There's other components to that wellness umbrella as well that I think we aren't always taught to review and understand. So this is just an opportunity to explore further into that and give us one more way to better have compassion and support with our patient population. We'll have that self-quiz like I talked about. We'll understand and utilize the strengths of that dominant 5 element that you're gonna discover, as well as maybe appreciate the weakness side of things of that 5 element. That might be in your personal perspective. So again, fun, informative, educational. This is something that hopefully you can take away and share with your patients. If you have other opportunities to speak, by all means, this is a great way to do wellness lectures that make acupuncture less intimidating to either discuss, or if you're new to acupuncture, please feel free to share this information. Like I said, the sources are in here. So if it's something that appeals to you and you want to use it as an educational opportunity and speaking opportunities to enhance your practice, by all means, like I encourage everyone to accept and integrate this in where it's going to serve you best in your patient population or your community. So if this is not something again that you're an acupuncture provider yet, but you're curious about it, hopefully this piques more interest. And also teaches your community members more about it. So if we're strictly looking at what wellness means, it's that active process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a more healthy and fulfilling life. So it's more than just being free from an illness, as it says on the slide, but it's that dynamic process of change and growth. So again, it's never too early or too late to work towards being the healthiest version. of yourself. And that means, as you'll see in the future slides, not just physically healthy. So we're gonna talk about those components that integrate into our overall health and wellbeing. The World Health Organization identifies wellness as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not necessarily the absence of that disease or infirmity. And then the National Wellness Institute identifies it as a conscious, self-directed, and evolving process of achieving full potential. So if this doesn't sound like things in our holistic healthcare-minded wheelhouse, it's just one more opportunity for us to expand on that and become the experts for ourselves, our families, our communities, and sharing of this information. So in a 5-element theory, we'll review that chart, we'll review some of the components of each element, But if you don't know anything about acupuncture, our 5-element theory in the simplest form is that holistic approach to health and overall wellbeing. So again, if that isn't mirroring that World Health Organization wellness definition there, that TCM 5-element theory is also— has been part of numerous alternative medicine practices, including TCM for centuries. Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years. I don't expect that anybody listening today and reviewing this and watching it on a recording is going to be an expert in acupuncture in an hour over lunchtime. So all of us that are geared that way who want to be, we have to get comfortable with saying either I don't know or to be determined. So just be patient with yourself if something kind of feels like it doesn't make a lot of sense. This isn't something that is, in my opinion, I hope I'm never an expert on it, even though it's ironic that I'm doing it. In a lunchtime lecture. And the reason I say that is it's thousands of years old. I hope I'm constantly evolving as a practitioner and provider in this field. And so that's where if you today don't leave feeling like an acupuncture expert, but you feel like you know how to apply acupuncture theories in a wellness model practice, that is a great reasonable goal. And that's a great way to kind of approach learning acupuncture in the first place. Be curious and see if you need to answer in here, question and answer why, or say, I don't know, as you discover it. So again, thousands of years of traditional Chinese medicine in a lunchtime hour will not make any of us experts, and that's okay. So just do your best to integrate and accept some of the information in at face value. Teresa Biggs is a doctorate in oriental medicine, and she relates the 5 elements as demonstrating how all aspects of human health are interconnected with your natural environment and nature in itself. So 5 element theory looks at how the fire— like, the 5 elements of earth are associated with our connection in nature, as well as traditional Chinese medicine 5 element theory. So as this slide demonstrates, we've got fire, earth, water, wood, and metal. If you've studied traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture, this is also going to be familiar where each element system is going to have an associated color with it, characteristics like personality qualities. It's gonna be also associated with the seasonal type of year or change of year, as well as organ systems. Those are the meridian systems as well. So organs or meridians, if you know acupuncture. If you are unfamiliar with acupuncture, you're gonna know it as meridian systems or organ systems. I liken those to like highway systems on the body. So if you have a traffic jam anywhere on a highway system, you might have symptoms somewhere physically. So if we just think about it that way, even patient education-wise, explaining it in that way, sometimes it can be helpful. And so that's where that organ system meridian line is gonna be associated with those organs. It's gonna also relate to tissues, sensory organs, emotions, and tastes. So if you are familiar with acupuncture, hopefully this is not too triggering for you for a board questionnaire or anything like that. It's a really great way to be introspective or a great way to diagnose according to taste, emotion, color, season of the year. So that's where you can kind of apply this. And even if you aren't trained in acupuncture fully yet, but you have that curiosity about it, you might look at this chart and be able to say, you know what, somebody in the wintertime is, is coming in with, with arthritic pain. And you might be able to look and be like, well, water is the time of winter, so maybe something on this particular individual Would have an elemental disruption, so to speak, in their water element is what you can see on the sign on the chart here too. If you look at the tissue, it affects and impacts bone. I don't know, I'm, I'm in Ohio, so our winters here are pretty long. I have quite a large geriatric population, and in the wintertime their bones hurt. So that's where you may have already been hearing about this and implementing it. Kind of observationally into your practice and not maybe realizing there is that Eastern medicine or traditional Chinese medicine 5-element theory that you're already curious about. So this is just something to be quickly reviewed. Again, thousands of years old of TCM practice in, I don't know, 45 seconds. So you're already, you're already learning things. This is that 5-element chart. So if you are Familiar with acupuncture, I'm sure you can regurgitate this, or at one point in your life could have. So this is just that visual cue for you of the way those elements build and grow into nurturing the next one down the line. So fire is going to help develop earth, earth metal, metal water, water wood. You have that constructing cycle or the destructive cycle on the inside. Just again, remembering some of those terms that you might have heard. In your 100-hour courses of acupuncture, or if you're going to be taking it, you will be hearing these words. There is another in the top corner, another chart with the different colors, the different tastes, scents, emotions, body parts, and then some of the climate. This is an additional component to that. So, if you ever looked at any of the reference material for acupuncture, like this, much of the information is exactly the same. Some other sources will provide different information, like this one has climate. So that's where you can kind of observe. Pick the thing— if you've already studied it and know this like the back of your hand, or did at one point, pick the reference material that you already know. It's very difficult, in my opinion, to go back and relearn something in a different visual aid that you've already mastered in a different form. So if this is how you're familiar with the 5-element theory, stick with this particular type of reference material and explain things that way to your patient population. It's got a nice review of the yin and the yang side, the positive and the negative aspects of our personalities. However, if you are new to acupuncture and this seems very confusing and intimidating, or if you're experienced with acupuncture and this still feels very intimidating and unapproachable, go back to this one and have this one as your reference material. If you are visual and like clean, organized lines, this is as much of that information from a context standpoint as this one holds. It just— this one gives you the points. So if you don't know the points or don't want to remember them, move past this one. It's just, again, that visual reminder of Each way you might have learned the material or are getting introduced to it in this format.

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So if we think about 5 elements as an umbrella big picture, they actually play a role in so much of our lifestyle. Herbs and supplements, acupuncture, of course, massage, because again, that elemental side of what bone and body part, a meridian system or an element system might relate to. Body therapy like tai chi and qigong is gonna move different meridian systems. Different times of the year, you're going to have different beneficial processes for it. In your meditation, in your food and diet, your mental and emotional health, aka wellness, the whole topic of this, this presentation. Our organ systems, as we've reviewed. The way our personality expresses itself is actually influenced, as we'll learn later on in this presentation, By our dominant element, each one of us is going to have a dominant element of that fire, earth, metal, water, wood. And then with those dominant elements will also come strengths and weaknesses. So that's where our personality and expression can come through with an understanding. Same thing for the sense organs: taste, smell, hearing, all that stuff, tissues. And then again, we talked about the seasonal impact of. what those 5 elements mean to us at times of the year. Next, we're going to talk about how Eastern wellness meets Western wellness. So in this slide, like I talked about in the introduction, we're going to be addressing those 8 dimensions of wellness as identified by UCLA UC Davis campus. Those 8 dimensions of wellness umbrella more than just our physical and emotional wellness. As you'll see here, Occupational wellness is a component of our overall well-being. That emotional we talked about, spiritual, environmental, financial wellness, your physical wellness as mentioned, social, and then also intellectual wellness are each all going to interrelate with each other and have that vital importance in our optimal— in our pursuit of optimal health. So one necessarily can't reach that level of Of wellness without also achieving wellness measures in the other ones. So they're, they're interdependent, just like those 5 elements are in our overall wellbeing and personal measure of success from a wellness standpoint. So if we're looking at things from an emotional wellness, no surprise, that's gonna relate to understanding how our feelings, what our feelings, how understanding our feelings, and then coping effectively with the stress.

Mm-hmm.

That is going on in our life. We want to pay attention to how we participate in self-care, relaxation, how we're facilitating stress reduction in our lives, and the development of those inner resources so we can learn and grow from those experiences. So we want to remind ourselves to stay positive always, which I know is easier said than done. So sometimes fake it till you make it. I know that that's like Not always the most appropriate right thing to say. We do have some information later on here that talks about positive interactions and where that fake it till you make it kind of perspective is evidence-based. So I say that kind of with that in mind. So we also can smile as part of our emotional wellness journey of support. It is very important also to seek and accept help from others when needed. Employ gratitude in your life in order to strengthen relationships with family and friends. We want to practice being mindful and increase our awareness. UCLA— or UC Davis, excuse me— recommended this to be done during various forms of meditation, accepting mistakes and learning from them for the next time, reminding us that mistakes are not terrible, they're learning experiences, and that we can balance this with our other dimensions of wellness. So hopefully those are just a nice summary of things that we can practice. That are easy. You can smile at yourself in the mirror. During, during COVID I don't know why, I probably because of things like this and, and learning this, I would, when I was, was washing my hands in between patients, the, the room that I was in had like a reflective surface. It wasn't a mirror, but it was just something where I could see myself. And as I was washing my hands, I would tell my immune system and thank it for doing such a great job to keep us all healthy and In, in times like that, I work in a hospital system. So for me, it was just this like active engagement in keeping like, good job immune system, keep up the good work. So it was sort of my way of staying physically and emotionally well in a stressful time in the very beginning part of that. So there's ways that you can implement this in. If you catch your reflection, just smile. I know it sounds silly, but sometimes it can just be that thing that turns your day around perhaps. So the next one we're gonna talk about is that financial side of wellness. And that this is gonna be the process of learning how to successfully manage your financial expenses and acknowledging that money plays a critical role in our lives and not having enough of it can impact our health as well as possibly academic performances. We don't wanna put it off. If there are financial stressors, you wanna identify and address them before they start. Kind of be accountable to whatever that means for you. Keep organized records of your finances. This was written for a university system, so taking advantage of student discounts if you are still a student, or professional discounts are available too for some, for some things in some places. Plan ahead. You want to set your budget and goals. Balance your other dimensions of wellness as they tie into your financial wellness as well. Again, same thing we talked about with the emotional side. So To balance and integrate all of those in. Our environmental wellness side of things is what's going to help us inspire to live a lifestyle that is respectful to our surroundings. So if we can try to stay in harmony with our earth, we're taking action to protect it. An environment also means like the 4 walls around you. Part of my way of creating a happy wellness space of an environment is To see things that make me joyful and happy when I come home. So I want to walk into my house and feel joyful and happy and same thing for my landscaping. I have like a cute little front porch and I have a very colorful rug on it and flowers because that's what the first thing I see when I pull into my driveway is just this beautiful like summer garden or flower garden, not summer garden necessarily, but a flower garden of things that are Just welcoming me home that are beautiful, that make me feel like I'm so happy to be home, the environment around me is joyful. So whatever that means to you, if it's pictures of things that are important to you, family, loved ones, your animals around you, find what resonates. This is very much like the environmental, like earth, if you see it here, but I have extrapolated that into also meaning your 4 walls of an environment as well. So conserving energy, recycling, volunteering with environmental organizations, and then becoming aware of the Earth's natural resources, and then spending time outdoors. So for me, having my, my front porch be like a little garden makes me want to spend some time out there and interact with the plants and the animals or the birds that come through my yard or whatever. So kind of find those things that make you feel that warm and fuzzy appreciation for the physical environmental space that you're in and allow that to be something that fosters other wellness for you. Our occupational wellness side of things is really about enjoying your occupational endeavors and appreciating the contributions that you make to that part of your, your, your life. So this is gonna encourage personal satisfaction and enrichment in one's life or the awareness of where that may not be happening and look at things that you can do to support and change that so you get to achieve this measure of wellness and success. You want to reflect on those occupational needs that you have. You want to see which ones you enjoy and which ones you find burdensome. And then you want to explore both paid and unpaid work and volunteer opportunities that interest you. So you can practice open communication and proper conflict management with your colleagues or your supervisors. And then you want to also set realistic goals for yourself by constantly working towards Those goals and accomplishing them. If you work for yourself in a private practice setting, check in with yourself a lot. Set, set goals for yourself. Make sure that you're not— you're, you're meeting these goals, but you're also not burning out. This part of that wellness side of things is that self-awareness to say, you know what, if I'm not here tomorrow, or I need to take some time off for your personal self-awareness. Your patients will be okay. When I first started practicing, I had a chance to go to China to study acupuncture, which was one of the most life-changing experiences that I professionally and personally could have had. And it happened to be 2 weeks on the calendar ahead of a vacation I previously had scheduled with friends for like a chiropractic school graduation. My friend went to med school, so we were— we agreed to celebrate. On a trip, we were going to Costa Rica randomly. So we had— I had 2 huge international trips planned within, like, I was gonna be gone, I think, over 3 and a half weeks out of 5 weeks, very new into my practice, potentially, if I went on this China trip. And I was so distraught about interrupting someone's treatment plan. And I'll never forget, I had 2 separate patients who both worked in the beauty industry. And one of them said to me, 2 kind of reiterated this for me, and the first one said to me, oh honey, don't you worry about it. At the end of your life, are you going to remember these 2 amazing trips? Or are you going to think, man, I really wish I would have stayed working those, those 3 or 4 weeks, that May of whatever year it was, that really changed my life. And I, it was this beautiful clarity aha moment that somebody was able to set for me very early in practice. to, to have good boundaries with work-life balance the best that I could. And so I have always been appreciative of that, that individual's interactions. And then the second one in the beauty industry also reiterated the same, the same kind of thing. And for me, when I hear things twice, I listen. I'm trying to train myself to hear things once and just be done with it at that point, but I'm not there yet. So that's where additional personal growth can happen. But for me, I've always had this agreement where if something happens and I hear things twice, Then that's it. Like I listen, I receive. Same thing if I try to do things two times. This is my rule of thumb as well for again this self-care awareness, self-awareness kind of component. I know if I try things two times and the outcome that I'm expecting isn't achieved, usually it's about like logging into something or technology related or even. Like trying to go somewhere, if I happened twice without success, I put it down and I walk away because the only thing that will happen with me perpetually trying to achieve whatever I think I want to do is I will get frustrated and I don't want to participate in a wellness umbrella of my life in that way. So that's where for me that rule of 2 kind of came from, I think, when things are said to you. So... Again, if that resonates and seems like something that is curious to you, for you to, to see, try it. If not, no big deal. It's just things that have helped me apply some of this information just through other people's support too. Our intellectual wellness here is going to involve having that open mind when you encounter new ideas and also continuing to expand your knowledge. So if you need a feather in your cap for today, I would definitely say that anybody on this webinar is 100% leaning into that intellectual wellness side of things and that curious mind. So you're participating in that scholastic cultural community activity. So congratulations on achieving one of those 8 measures without even maybe meaning to. So well done, way to go. You're already A+ students. So you want to be open-minded. We want to listen. When you participate in active listening, You become fully able to comprehend the information that's being given to you. So ways to actively listen are to kind of hold eye contact, nod, lean, take notes. Be intentional really is what it comes down to. So if, if you find that your mind is wandering away from the space that you're in and you can refocus to be fully present, then you will be receiving the personal growth that's coming from that intellectual wellness side of the experience that you're in. Picking up a hobby can be a great idea. Travel— clearly by talking about those 2 trips, you know I love to do that. Getting out of your environmental comfort zone, in my opinion, can be a great way to personally grow and, and also appreciate where you are day to day. You can express that creative side by exploring different avenues of creativity and artistic expressions as well. So find the thing That inspires you to personally evolve in, in this side of things, whatever that means. And have that open mind to change your mind if it doesn't serve you. So same thing as you study anything, even if it's the acupuncture side of things. What, what I have found that I love to learn and apply and utilize in my acupuncture side of my practice is very different from my closest colleagues who are equally as trained as I am to do acupuncture. We have different areas of interest, so don't feel like we have to all be carbon copies, probably within chiropractic or other specialties. We all do things a little differently. There's beautiful autonomy in that. So apply that same curiosity and willingness to be open-minded in different areas of wellness for yourself as well. That social side of things. So in that social wellness, we're gonna look at how we can participate in our Support network. So this is gonna allow you to develop encouraging relationships with peers as well as intimate relationships with romantic partners. So you really wanna reflect on your social, yourself and your social needs. What's that battery doing? What's your social battery doing? Does it feel like work to show up? Does it feel like you're receiving benefit, you're filling your cup by participating in some sort of social activity and environment? You want to also try to make an effort to keep in touch with those supportive friends and family. Some people do like weekly self-care checks, like you have an accountability friend and you call each other for X, Y, and Z, and that's your go-to person. I have group text message chains with many of my friends, and sometimes it's just a random emoji that resonates with our friend group or our individuals or Or just lets them know that you're thinking of them and they're thinking of you or vice versa. So however you invite that opportunity to come into your life is, it doesn't have to be complicated. We, we don't have to keep social as like in-person sometimes. We can fill this wellness dimension by participating with those friendships and relationships that are closest to us in a very fulfilling way. So group discussions, active listening, this is a great social thing to that. So don't be shy asking questions, of course. You can practice self-disclosure, join a club or organization. And going back to kind of that intellectual side, join a club organization, start a new practice of something social— hiking, biking, yoga, swimming, crocheting, knitting, adult softball leagues. I mean, anything that you are curious to try to find like-minded people, explore it without any need to commit to it in the sense of like, You can change your mind if you don't like it. So be open, that open-mindedness and that permission to change your mind so you can have the experience of wellness that you need, I think is a beautiful permission that we oftentimes need reminded to lean into, in my opinion. Physical wellness, I probably touched on a lot of those previously with the activities, hiking, biking, and all that kind of stuff. But we don't have to even make that much of an effort. Our physical wellness is gonna relate to maintaining our healthy body and seeking care when needed. I don't know about you, but I find that we as, as doctors in healthcare fields don't always make the best patients. So I would encourage everyone when needed to seek the help of their peers, friends, and colleagues in the medical community, and also remove maybe our doctor hat a little bit. Removing our doctor hat does not remove our intuition.

This wraps up Part 1 of our training on Five Element Acupuncture with Dr.

Andrea D'Amato. But this is just the beginning. In Part 2, we'll take a deeper dive into how each of the 5 elements manifests in patients— through behaviors, physical symptoms, and even personality traits— and how recognizing these patterns can guide you in providing better care. Dr. D'Amato will also share practical tips on how healthcare providers of all specialties can use this knowledge to elevate patient outcomes. You don't wanna miss it. Part 2 of this episode drops in 2 weeks. If you'd like to learn more from Dr. D'Amato, she just released a series of advanced acupuncture online courses on our online learning platform. I'll be sure to drop a link in the show notes for you. And we have a few seats remaining for our upcoming 100-hour acupuncture certification course in West Palm Beach, Florida. I'll also include a link in our show notes for that course so you can check it out if you're interested. If you enjoyed today's episode, please visit our website at factrpodcast.com. That's F-A-K-T-R podcast.com and share it with a friend. You'll find our library full of past episodes, as well as an option to leave a review, comment, or even record a voice message. We review each and every bit of listener feedback, and it helps us continue to evolve the podcast and help us better provide content that's most interesting to you. We'll see you next time. Hey guys, if you like what you heard today, I encourage you to visit our website at factor-store.com. That's spelled F-A-K-T-R-store.com to find out more information about all that we have to offer. We have a variety of online offerings as well as our hands-on Factor Rehab System course, Scheduled in cities around the globe. Be sure to also check out our event calendar and bookmark any of these upcoming live webinar dates coming up in the near future so you can join us live. And of course, the biggest compliment we can receive is for you to help us spread the word to your friends, colleagues, and classmates. You'll find all the important links as well as info about our sponsors in the show notes, so be sure to check those out.