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A Healthy Curiosity — Alternative Health
A Healthy Curiosity

You know that health and happiness aren’t things you can outsource. You’ve also got a full plate, and making the time to take care of yourself can be challenging. A Healthy Curiosity is here to support you.
The Mission: to explore what it takes to be well in a busy world, offer self-care strategies rooted in the traditions of Chinese Medicine, yoga, and Ayurveda along with the cutting-edge research from functional medicine. Host Brodie Welch, L.Ac., M.S.O.M. is a holistic self-care strategist and expert in Chinese Medicine and acupuncture who helps self-aware, Type-A women put themselves at the top of their own to-do lists so they can experience vibrant health, enjoy their lives, and evolve their consciousness — without losing their edge. On the show, you’ll learn self-care tips to help you feel calm, confident, and energized. You’ll hear personal chats where we explore what gets in the way of our best intentions: perfectionism, big goals, habits and routines, chronic pain, overwork and overwhelm, boundaries, limiting beliefs — and what it takes to overcome such obstacles mindfully. You’ll also get deep-dives into hormone balance, gut health, sleep issues, habit change, mindfulness, overcoming anxiety, depression and how to make time for what matters most.

Latest Episodes:

Healthy Skin & Chinese Medicine Sep 28, 2016

Show notes

In today's episode, Brodie talks with Alexa Gilmore, L.Ac. and Chinese herbalist specializing in dermatology, about treating skin conditions using Chinese Medicine. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, many skin conditions result from excess heat in the body, which can cause a varying array of symptoms including redness, rash, itching, fluid buildup, and more.

Listen in for some great information to help keep your skin looking and feeling great, and if you or someone you love is struggling with a skin condition, find out what Chinese Medicine can do to help find relief.

In this episode, we explore:

What skin conditions can be treated using acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
What does treatment for a skin condition look like in Chinese Medicine?
What kinds of variables would an acupuncturist be interested in knowing to treat a skin condition?
Are there specific prescriptions for different skin conditions?
Bio-individuality (it's back!)
What kinds of things can cause a skin condition? What does " heat" mean in terms of Chinese Medicine?
What can people do to keep their skin healthy?

Alexa has been working in a clinical setting for 12 years. She is nationally board certified, a Diplomate of Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM), and licensed to practice acupuncture as well as to formulate and prescribe custom-made Chinese herbal medicine. A love of learning and commitment to excellence drive Alexa, and she's pursued extensive post-graduate training in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and soft tissue manipulation, alike.

She graduated in the top of her class from Mazin Al-Khafaji's prestigious Chinese Medicine Dermatology Diploma Course in London, England, and now holds the highest certification in the field--the only practitioner in New England with this distinction.

Alexa takes a no-nonsense approach to the healing arts and expects positive outcomes. She works in partnership with her patients, providing high quality care as well as empowering them to make lasting changes in their life and health by incorporating simple, effective principles of Chinese medicine into their daily lives.

Resources:

Alexa's Website: www.atxacu.com

If you're wanting a deep-dive into the fundamentals of Chinese Medicine, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting this October was designed just for you. When we can act with greater self-awareness, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. Recognizing that we don't have to be bound by our go-to tendencies and habits, we are free to stretch into the fullness of our potential on all levels. You may even discover new latent superpowers —inner strengths we have yet to tap. If that's strikes you as interesting, please head over to brodiewelch.com and you can read more about it under the Learn from Home tab. We start Oct. 10th.

Emotional Healing & Acupuncture Part 3: Journal Entries Sep 21, 2016

Show notes

Episode 13: Emotional Healing & Acupuncture, Part III

In Part 3 of the Emotional Healing & Acupuncture Series, Brodie shares a series of journal entries written by a patient (who we're calling Shawna to preserve her anonymity) as she underwent a series of acupuncture treatments to help her let go of guilt and to break a parenting pattern that had been in her family for generations. Unprocessed trauma, guilt, and insecurity can hang out in the body, affecting our psychology as well as our physiology. In this episode, we explore:

The importance of setting a particular intention for a treatment
What happened on the table and how it felt
The Extraordinary Vessels and how they affect our deep "programming"
How working on these deeper levels catalyzed healing for not only herself but her relationship with her daughter

Resources: If you're wanting a deep-dive into the body-mind according to Chinese Medicine, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting October 10 was designed just for you.

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com. To subscribe to A Healthy Curiosity, click here. To like or share about A Healthy Curiosity on Facebook, click here. To reach A Healthy Curiosity in the Twitterverse and tell me what you'd like to hear about, click here.

Emotional Healing & Acupuncture, Part II Sep 14, 2016

Show notes

Episode 12: Emotional Healing & Acupuncture Part II with Cori Hall

Cori's story is a powerful one of habit change, self-healing, and accepting one's boundaries in pursuit of a healthier, happier life. When injury and illness literally knocked her off her feet, Cori found the strength to seek solutions, acknowledge unhealthy patterns, and listen to what her body was telling her.

Special thanks go out to Cori for the great idea to create this 3-part series on emotional healing.

In this episode, we explore:

How overworking our minds and bodies can negatively affect our health
How sucking it up is probably not the best coping mechanism
How ignoring the messages our bodies are sending can lead to worse outcomes
Giving up or scaling back certain treats can be well worth the positive health outcomes
You don't know what a drastic change something can make until you try it
How emotional and mental strife can produce adverse physical effects
Slowing down and staying present, and how these things provide relief for chronic pain

Resources

The Basics of Chinese Medicine: Your Inner Ecosystem

Emotional Healing & Acupuncture Sep 07, 2016

Show notes

In Part 1 of a 3-Part series on Emotional Healing & Chinese Medicine Brodie talks with a long-time patient, "Marcia" - not her real name, per her request. Brodie and Marcia talk about how acupuncture helped her let go of emotions related to post-traumatic stress that she developed after a camping trip with her husband that led to an ER visit and emergency quadruple-bypass surgery. Marcia's story is a powerful example of how acupuncture can help us let go of stuck energy in the form of emotions.

Marcia also describes how understanding herself from a Chinese Medicine perspective helped her to develop self-compassion, self-love, and appreciation. In particular, we get into the notion of Constitutional Type. Kind of like the Myers-Briggs Personality test, your astrological sign, your Enneagram number, or your Ayurvedic Dosha, Chinese Medicine likens different aspects of our physiology, psychology, and mental tendencies to the elements of nature: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Knowing your constitutional type can help you maintain balance in your life by illuminating natural strengths and identifying challenges.

In this episode, we explore:

Issues that Marcia has used Acupuncture to help treat
What part of the acupuncture process is most helpful in treating these issues?
How the pre-treatment interview process helps patients tune in to deeper issues
Emotional release during treatment and emotions as qi
How slowing down our lives can help us feel more in control
Having compassion for yourself
How identifying your constitutional type can help you keep yourself and your life in balance
Similarities and differences between emotional healing in acupuncture and talk therapy

Resources:

If you are interested in discovering your particular constitutional type, you can take a little quiz at http://brodiewelch.com/chinese-element-quiz/
If you're wanting a deep-dive into this stuff, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting this October was designed just for you. When we can act with greater self-awareness, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. Recognizing that we don't have to be bound by our go-to tendencies and habits, we are free to stretch into the fullness of our potential on all levels. We may even discover new latent superpowers — inner strengths we have yet to tap. If that's strikes you as interesting, please head over to brodiewelch.com and you can read more about it under the "Learn from Home" tab. We start Oct. 3rd.

Healthy Periods Aug 24, 2016

Show notes

Your period doesn't have to suck. Just because symptoms like cramping and PMS are common doesn't mean that they're something all people who menstruate have to expect and resign themselves to. This episode with Bridgit Danner, L.Ac. and Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist demystifyies the menstrual cycle and how the cycle clues us into the overall health of our bodies.

Bridgit manages a community called the Women's Wellness Collaborative, which is centered around helping women increase wellness and balance in their lives, especially in relation to hormones, the menstrual cycle, and fertility. She and Brodie talk about ways in which women can learn to tune into their menstrual cycle at any age to relieve pain and irritability associated with menstruation, balance hormones, and manage fertility.

In this episode, we explore:

What functional medicine is
Lack of education around the menstrual cycle
What a standard menstrual cycle looks and feels like
Why menstrual pain may occur
What you can do to regulate and embrace your menstrual cycle
Seed cycling: what is it and how does it help?

I hope you listen whether you menstruate or not.

Resources:

The Flow Period Tracker App

Bridgit's Youtube Channel

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH

Medical Marijuana Aug 17, 2016

Show notes

Marijuana has now been legalized for medical use in 25 U.S. states (plus D.C.) and legalized recreationally in four. In light of these policy developments, marijuana has become the subject of much public debate within the political and medical arenas throughout the last several years. Like acupuncture, definitive medical research on medical marijuana is still relatively scarce, which leaves a lot of people both curious about and wary of its use. In this episode, Brodie talks with Dr. Rachna Patel, a medical marijuana expert, about how she uses medical marijuana in her treatment protocols and what people should know about using medical marijuana.

In this episode, we explore:

How marijuana works in the body
Separating fact from fiction regarding marijuana use
What conditions medical marijuana may help treat
Where marijuana use isn't backed up by medical research

Dr. Rachna Patel has been practicing in the field of Medical Marijuana since 2012. She step-by-step walks patients through how to use medical marijuana for their particular medical conditions. She completed her medical studies at Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, CA and her undergraduate studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. You can learn more about the work she does at www.DrRachnaPatel.com

Resources:

www.DrRachnaPatel.com

Youtube Channel: The Medical Marijuana (Cannabis) Expert: Dr. Rachna Patel

About Those Purple Spots on Michael Phelps Aug 11, 2016

Show notes

If you've been keeping up with our Olympians down in Rio, you may have noticed what appear to be perfectly round bruises spotting the shoulders of some swimmers and gymnasts. You may even have read an article about this "new fad". These marks are the result of a procedure called cupping, a practice that is actually rooted in ancient Chinese Medicine. Acupuncturists employ cupping for many reasons, but its main use is to relieve conditions featuring stagnating blood or fluids in the body.

In this episode, we explore:

Why blood or fluids commonly stagnate in the body
Circulation and how it affects the way our muscles feel
Fascia – what is it and how does it affect our muscles?
The relationship between cupping and acupuncture
Those spots - do they hurt…?
Conditions that can be treated with cupping
Tools used in cupping

Self-Care and Resiliency Aug 03, 2016

Show notes

Emily Vaden is an incredible young woman with a powerful story to tell. She shares her transformative self-care journey from chronic migraines, through moving and unemployment, the birth of her child, and her husband's suicide -- and how she developed an indomitable resilience.

We delve into what has helped her weather the storms with strength and grace, including:

Letting go of the need for constant control
How she makes time for self-care even as a single mom of a toddler in addition to her full-time job
Lessons of grief
Things that help: acupuncture, massage, friends, and people who get it
Learning to say no when you need to
Having an identity apart from just that of being a parent, and role-modeling happiness and self-care for her kid
Permission to have a back-up plan

I hope you find her story as inspiring, and that you love Emily as much as I do.

Resources:

TheGiftOfSecond.com for people who have lost a loved one to suicide.

Energetics of Food Jul 20, 2016

Show notes

Chinese Medicine is a big umbrella term that encompasses not only acupuncture, but Chinese Herbal medicine, bodywork, lifestyle and diet counseling, and "energy exercise" like qi gong, tai chi and meditation. As practitioners of Chinese Medicine, once we make a diagnosis, any of these branches can be used to help restore the energy in the body.

Just like Chinese herbs, which are essentially very powerful food that you only a small quantity of to get a powerful effect, anything we put in our bodies can keep us alive, move us towards greater health and balance, or move us farther away from it. And since most people eat at least 3x/ day, that's multiple opportunities to keep steering in the direction of health.

Listen as Brodie and fellow Chinese Medicine expert Ellen Goldsmith, L.Ac., explore the dietary branch of Chinese Medicine. Ellen teaches on this very topic: Chinese Dietetics and its application in western society and in their Masters of Nutrition program and in the Classical Chinese Medicine Department at National University of Natural Medicine. She's a Licensed Acupuncturist has been in the field for over 25 years a recognized educator, health advocate, and practitioner of all the branches of Chinese medicine. Ellen Goldsmith is a co-founder of Pearl Natural Health in Portland, Oregon. She's also the creator and host of Health Currents Radio and co-host of Healthwatch on KBOO in Portland, Oregon.

In this episode we explore:

Intuitive eating
How Chinese Medicine conceives of food differently than the West
Yin and Yang as related to food and body type
Bioindividuality
Respecting the energy of digestion
Warming vs. Cooling foods
The importance of rhythm in our diets
Eating on the go vs. at the table
Trying new foods in new ways
Like increases like and what you're craving isn't necessarily what you need
Balanced taste = balanced meal

Resources:

Babette's Feast

Rouxbe Cooking School

http://www.cookwithwhatyouhave.com/

To contact Ellen, you can e-mail her at elleng@pearlnaturalhealth.com, on the Pearl Natural Health Facebook page, or on Twitter @goldsmith_ellen.

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit brodiewelch.com. For a deep-dive into Chinese Medical theory including the energetics of food, check out her Basics of Chinese Medicine course. You can also follow her on twitter @brodiewelch or shoot us an email at Brodie at brodiewelch.com

Body as Ecosystem Jul 13, 2016

Show notes

Chinese Medicine expert and host Brodie Welch talks with colleague Joe Moceus, L.Ac., about one of the central principles of Chinese Medicine: the notion that the body is an ecosystem rather than a machine to be fixed.

Like a tree with lots of branches, the same root cause can give rise to a number of very different symptoms.

In this episode, we touch on:

Why Chinese Medicine focuses on patterns of disharmony rather than symptoms
If it's happening in nature, it's happening in us as well
How everything in the body affects everything else
The cycles of 7 and 8 and the phases of our lives
The Imbalance Continuum and the importance of treating beforehand
Brodie's acupuncture orbit
Treating to balance the energy within but also to balance it with our lives.

Resources:

Beinfield and Korngold Between Heaven and Earth

The Basics of Chinese Medicine, with Brodie Welch, L.Ac.

For more information on Chinese Medicine and to stay in touch with Brodie, visit www.brodiewelch.com

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