Chinese Medicine has a system of five body-mind-emotion types. This article explains one of those types.

Strategic planning for success is a trademark of Wood Personality Types in Oriental Medicine. They are driven with ambition to win. One unhealthy fuel for inspiration is coffee (espresso, caffeine). The effects of caffeine on this personality profile are negative. You can improve health and in a positive way with solutions in this article I Didn't Want To Quit Espresso

I did everything I could to avoid it. I tried different kinds. Drinking it at different times. Taking herbs to offset side effects. Giving myself acupuncture for headaches. Nothing worked. I was too irritable, too sound-sensitive. I had migraines and eye pain. I had to quit coffee.

I Needed Espresso

Actually, I quit espresso not coffee, because by that time, coffee wasn't good enough for me. I thought espresso was 'purer,' a better drug. I thought I needed it. I was too groggy in morning, and I needed to be inspired! Never mind that part of my grogginess was because I couldn't sleep that well, even if I only drank coffee in morning. Never mind that there are better ways to be inspired.

Wood Types and Coffee Don't Mix

The fact is that, constitutionally, I am a Wood type. I'm assertive with a tendency toward aggressiveness. I enjoy competition and ambition. I make quick decisions, I am disagreeable, direct, and stubborn. I don't like to be wrong. I take lead out of impatience with others. I like taking risks. I drive fast and I climb rocks without safety equipment. I loved how espresso made me feel powerful and invulnerable.

But I Didn't Really Need It

A Wood type like me doesn't need coffee. I have plenty of drive, inspiration, and creativity without it. In fact, someone like me needs balance in other direction. There are chinese herbal formulas that help… ones that move liver qi, calm shen, and protect spleen. For example, xiao yao san or its modification dan zhi xiao yao san are good. Even bitter and cold formula, long dan xie gan tang, is occasionally (in short-term) appropriate.

Are You A Wood Type Too?

I'm not trying to be self-centered and just talk about me. There are other Wood types out there - they're type A personalities, power-drivers, always-on and frequently-irritable types. If you relate, you may find out how to find balance for yourself. A wood type's stagnation can show up in a number of ways: it can attack earth leading to digestive symptoms (e.g. nausea and loss of appetite), or metal affecting breathing or elimination (shortness of breath, asthma, constipation). Stagnation of wood element qi can also rise upwards leading to headaches, red eyes, migraines, eye pain, insomnia, irritability, frustration, and anger.

First Do No Harm - Stop Hurting Yourself

I've heard it said that in treating disease, first thing you should do is STOP anything that makes it worse. Stop hurting yourself! I know… easier said than done. There's always a reason why we do what we do. Even if it hurts us, it fulfills some other need we don't think we can get met elsewhere. This is kind of like side effects; drugs often fix one thing, but cause imbalance elsewhere. Chinese herbal formulas are better at avoiding this phenomenon. If you are interested in obsession/compulsion/addiction angle, you may want to read my articles about addiction or food cravings.

The Four Categories of Knowledge

To explain how to deal with your wood type constitution, I first need to divide your knowledge into four categories:

1. What you know you know (your known abilities) 2. What you know you don't know (your known limits) 3. What you don't know you know (your hidden abilities) 4. What you don't know you don't know (your hidden limits)

A: Thanks for question, Debra.

There's just one 'c' in spelling of acupuncture. I'm not sure where this double-c misspelling came from.

Acupressure & Tui Na The massage that acupressurists do may or may not be Chinese medicine. If you ever go that route, check into how many years they were formally trained in acupuncture/meridian theory. The standard "real" massage of Chinese medicine is called Tui Na, which means "push and grasp." More about massage below.

Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Acupuncture is just one therapy you can get from Chinese medicine practitioners, who are generally called acupuncturists. “Acupuncturist” isn't a great name, since most of us also are trained in Chinese herbal medicine, cupping, moxibustion, food selection, lifestyle advice, etc. All of these therapies are based on Chinese medical system.

Accurate Fibromyalgia (FM) Diagnosis I want to make sure you've had a doctor spend enough time with you to get you a proper FM diagnosis according to standardized criteria. Too many doctors just toss this term around without using criteria (which is unethical - imagine negative emotional impact - worry, fear, etc. – that it has on patients!) Who knows how many people think they have it, when they really have something else entirely? And so long as they try to treat wrong thing, they'll use wrong remedies, and whatever condition or problem you do have will remain untreated. This is one reason why I advocate seeing health professionals instead of self-care; misdiagnosis leads to wrong treatment and perhaps even further harm. Read about criteria for FM diagnosis here, and make sure they've been applied to your case. If they haven't, get a second opinion!

The Chinese Medicine Treatment of Fibromyalgia I will defer to experience of my wife, Dr. Lynda Harvey-Carter, since she has helped hundreds of FM/CFS sufferers get better. That information is covered in this Q &A.

The upshot is that 80% of patients experienced marked improvement (decreased chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia symptoms), and 50% said they had been completely cured. This is not an instantaneous process, but most of patients had experience significant improvement within 3-4 months.

Affordable Fibromyalgia Care I know all of this care costs money. Most patients want to do whatever's going to be most effective at least cost. I can't see any other reason to worry about how many times you'd have to visit an acupuncturist, so I'm going to say more about FM treatment in terms of cost-effectiveness.

Chiropractic for Fibromyalgia? To be quite candid, for FM sufferer, I'm not convinced that chiropractic is best way to spend your money. Many FM/CFS sufferers experience greater pain and symptoms after an adjustment. This may be a neccesary part of healing, but if there's not an x-ray confirmed spinal issue to be addressed, I wouldn't do it. Though many of them are good and honest, and though I am open-minded about their role in treatment of non-spinal issues, chiropractors are well-known for their aggressive marketing techniques, so be careful. To be clear: chiropractic may help you. This isn't my area of expertise.

Massage for Fibromyalgia? Massage can be nice, but I'm not sure it's best for FM either. Deep techniques can make FM patients feel worse. The light, soothing, circulatory/Swedish style can relieve stress, and lightening load on your sympathetic nervous system and adrenals, but there are less expensive relaxation methods. I think best test is: how long does your relief last? If it's just a few hours, how much would it cost to maintain that benefit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?