Blood in Chinese medicine
In Chinese medicine blood is considered a Yin fluid. It is essential for life, it is seen as much more than a chemical constitution of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets the way western medicine analyzes it. But in Chinese medicine it is said to contain our emotions, our essence and spirit. It is seen as a deep feminine force in the body, Qi is the commander of the blood so our life force pushes the blood around our body to nourish our skin, body and provide nutrition.

Signs of blood deficiency: pale complexion, low energy, fatigue, poor and brittle nails, hair falling out, anxiety, palpitations, thin uterine lining, scanty menstrual flow.

How to support your blood?

Heal your digestion
Blood is made from the food we eat. This food has to be broken down and assimilated into nutrients for our body to use. This is why it’s so important how we eat, not what we eat. Is the food warm and nutritious, easy to digest or is it a cold salad that will take longer for the digestive system to break down. When the nutrients are gathered from the stomach, this can be used as blood which is then stored in the liver.

How to build blood

Meat – iron from meat sources is more easily absorbed and used by our body than plant sources or even iron supplements. The Qi converting mechanism when we eat animal meat is so similar to our bodies that we are able to take these nutrients and use them more readily.
Liver – the most blood supportive food for health and fertility is liver. It has the right amount of bioavailable iron, copper that our body needs
Warm food – warm soups and stews are essential to our health and digestive system. It takes less energy for our stomach to break down and digest meats from stews and broths, meaning more nutrition can be taken by our body to support our blood.
Herbal blood support – Nettle tea, Chinese dates, Goji berries, Black molasses

Tips to build blood

• Avoid over exercising
• Eat at regular intervals throughout the day, avoid skipping meals
• Eat breakfast with real whole foods and high-protein
• Adequate protein intake at least 46g per day
• Avoid cold drinks, foods and smoothies
• Avoid substituting smoothies as a meal
• Go to bed early
• Rest
• Blue light from laptop and mobile phones damage our Liver blood. Avoid using
  mobiles at night or wear blue blocker glasses to avoid this.
• Drink water with minerals (bone broth, coconut water, infused herbal teas)
• Prescription chinese herbs can help to build and nourish blood

Iron deficient: Do I need to take iron?
Many people are diagnosed as anemic and then prescribed an iron supplement. These capsules can wreak havoc on your digestive system (providing your stomach is able to break down and digest them) and cause constipation. Doctors prescribe iron without looking at the other elements in the body much as copper and magnesium.

When these supplements are taken only a small portion is absorbed and the rest is floating around the blood as free iron, this iron can build up in the tissues and liver causing toxicity.

The best way to heal iron deficiency is to eat iron in a more bioavailable form. Liver is one of the best sources of this. Liver has Vit A, iron, folate, all of the essential nutrients to allow iron to be fully absorbed and used by the body.

Blood as lifeforce energy
When tonifying blood, it is important to look at our current life experience. Where are you investing your lifeblood, we can often invest it into people, our families, our job, overthinking, overgiving. Asking ourselves hard questions in life, what needs to change in my life? What are my own dreams and goals?

In the Chinese Tao, the meaning of life is to find our destiny and live this in accordance with nature and life will naturally manifest itself through us. Disease manifests when we are living out of this divine alignment. When building blood, an important question to ask is what truly nourishes my life. Blood will flow and be regenerated from this, as it’s in true alignment with your life force energy.

Blood is essential to life, it gives us stability and grounding. Honour and support your blood and feminine nature.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out: jennysmithherbalist@gmail.com