Dear Patient,
I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on the Midlife Fulfilled podcast, a show about the journey to finding fulfillment in midlife, hosted by Bernie Borges. Bernie and I talked about the many ways acupuncture can promote health at midlife and beyond, and by the end of the conversation, I think I had convinced Bernie to try acupuncture for himself. Another win for acupuncture!
Our conversation got me thinking about how we view aging and life cycles in Chinese Medicine. One of our classic texts, the Huang Di Nei Jing (translated as the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, and sometimes shortened to Nei Jing), describes the concept of the 7 and 8-year life cycles. According to the Nei Jing, women undergo a life cycle change every 7 years and men do so every 8 years. Peak health occurs at the transition from the fourth to fifth cycles, so for a woman that’s age 28, and for a man it’s age 32. That’s when things start to go downhill.
According to the Nei Jing, by age 35, a woman’s face withers and her hair begins to fall out. By age 40, a man’s hair falls out and his teeth begin to wither. The descriptions of the cycles conclude at age 49 for women, and at age 64 for men. The text was compiled about 2,000 years ago, and most people didn’t expect to live much past midlife. What happened to the body after age 49 for women and age 64 for men was anyone’s guess.
Fortunately, advances in modern medicine and nutrition have helped us stave off some of these physical declines, and enjoy healthy lives far beyond midlife. But the point is that in Chinese Medicine, we think of aging as a natural and expected part of life. Health is a state of living in harmony with nature. We don’t try to suppress or override the processes encoded into our DNA. We aren’t meant to stay forever young.
Even with the healthiest diet, and regular exercise, and clean living and avoiding toxins and spending time in nature and all the other practices that help extend our longevity, most people notice changes in midlife that remind us that are bodies simply aren’t programmed to last forever. Joints stiffen. Vision blurs. Movement slows. Things just don’t work the way they used to.
But here’s the opportunity. When these changes occur—these changes that are a natural and expected privilege of living a long life—this is an invitation to form a deeper and more loving relationship with your body. Because it’s easy to love your body when it’s working pretty well. But to love your body when it’s in pain, or not moving the way you want it to move, or it’s not doing what you want it to do, or doesn’t look the way society thinks it should look—that becomes a deeper, more authentic type of love.
It’s a lesson we can learn, and re-learn, at any age.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
You can listen to the Midlife Fulfilled podcast online or on any podcast player. I’ve learned a lot from Bernie’s guests, and I love his hopeful perspective on midlife and beyond.
I tell my patients daily that none of can make it through this life unscathed. SOMETHING is going to go wrong. All we can do is try to push that inevitably out as far as we can with healthy practices. But, do not be surprised when things go awry. We are flesh and bone, after all. Acceptance and love!
learning to love your body when it's in pain is indeed an honored privilege and a truly deep love. it takes us all a while I think to be able to come home, to our one given home, our body and for sure it's a blessing, may we all know our true way home.
thanks for your ongoing words of wisdom. right now with allopathic medicine being able to look so far and yet understand little I have been recommending acupuncture as trusty treatment on mass.