Why do we become Blood deficient? 

Here’s a quick look at the reasons we might become Blood deficient

• Irregular eating habits

• Lack of adequate rest or sleep

• Constitutional (born with it) factors such as weak Heart, Kidney, Lungs or Spleen

• Mal nourishment

• Excessive blood loss including excessive menstrual flows

• Pregnancy, labor and nursing

• Weak digestive system

• Excessive mental and emotional overwork or stress

• Excessive physical labor

Fortunately, there are many ways to nourish Blood, but let’s look first at Blood’s functions.

 

HEART - The Heart is the ruler of the Blood. It physically pumps the Blood and enlivens it with Qi, and uses it to house the mind (Shen), keeping us warm physically and emotionally, and we are calm and clear. Our Shen is nicely snuggled up and housed in our Heart, when it is nourished with abundant Blood we respond appropriately to our environment.  It allows us to build meaningful relationships, be calm, experience joy and to feel rooted and to be able to adapt. When the Shen is unsettled or not anchored with Blood emotional problems arise. Symptoms may include: anxiety, nervousness, dream disturbed sleep, mood swings, depression, sensation of floating out of the body, inability to root or ground, speech disturbances like stuttering, palpitations or irregular heart rates, breathlessness, exhaustion, insomnia and an inability to form rewarding relationships. In extreme cases there may be irrational behavior, hysteria, insanity, manic disorder and delirium. We definitely want our Shen anchored.

 

LUNGS - Move the Blood through their descending and dispersing function. Each breath you take helps to regulate your Heart’s beating and to move Qi, Blood and Fluids to organs and the extremities. Need better circulation? Practice breathing exercise like Qigong, Yoga or T’ai Chi and move your body.

 

LIVER - Regulates the volume of Blood circulating at any given time in the body.  During exercise or times of need, it releases more. During times of rest, it pulls it back in to cleanse the Blood.  If it’s deficient, the Liver will not have adequate amounts of Blood to move and this may lead to stagnation.  Deficiency of Liver Blood will also mean the skin, hair and nails aren’t nourished and moistens or will fail to thrive.

 

SPLEEN - Holds the Blood. One of the Spleen’s major functions is to hold things in their place. When it comes to Blood, the Spleen holds the blood in the vessels. A failing of this function can mean easy bruising, prolapse, incontinence and varicosities.

As you can see, it is quite the refined system and if at any given time an organ system chooses to not play its part, and Blood becomes deficient, the system will start to tumble and problems will start to manifest. If any of these organs are weak or lacking in their required substances, deficiency will arise.

Tips for building Blood

 

Eat healthy food - The basis for Blood is the refined Qi of food. The higher the quality of food, the faster the recovery will be. Eating animal and bone broths is the first place to start. Protein is hydrophilic. The way that it pulls fluids quickly increases circulatory volume. Animal products can build Blood fast. Please make wise choices with sustainably raised, GMO and hormone free. Darker meats and organ meats are the most building. Anyone with blood deficiency needs good, clean protein that is digestible.

 

Bone broth - Marrow stock is deeply nourishing and quickly builds the Blood, Qi, Yang and Fluids.  I sometimes toss in egg shells into the stock pot (incredible for ligaments and Blood).

 

Eat chlorophyll rich foods - This category is huge, with good reason, we are meant to eat a lot of chlorophyll rich foods and they build the blood quickly. Chlorophyll rich foods include dark leafy greens (COOKED kale, chard, dandelion, etc.),  macro-algaes (seaweeds), micro-algaes (spirulina, etc.), nettles and cereal grass (wheat and barley grass).  Eat it if it’s naturally green.