Why Do Some Women Age So Fast at 35? What to Do When Your Period Stops at 49? — Doctor Ni Haixia on the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun of the Huang Di Nei Jing (Part Two)
Patient search terms: why does my face turn yellow at 35 / my period stopped at 49 / a 28-day menstrual cycle / why is my period pale / why is my period black / when do children change their teeth / is drinking milk good or bad / growth hormone side effects / the three pulses on the foot / how to avoid blood vessels when needling / do fibroids stop your period / a 72-year-old suddenly menstruating / how to nourish the kidneys / moxibustion at Zusanli
Corresponding medical names: the Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun · the female seven-year cycle · the male eight-year cycle · tian gui (the heavenly essence that ripens at puberty) · decline of the yang brightness vessels · breast milk and menstrual blood share the same source · steaming by the fire of the small intestine · the Chongyang (ST42) and Taixi (KI3) pulses · the kidney stores water and governs lifespan · the True Person, the Sage, and the worthy person
Opening: continuing from the last lecture, starting with kidney qi
The previous lecture ended with the girl of seven whose kidney qi flourishes. This one continues from the line, “the kidney’s splendor is in the hair” — Doctor Ni Haixia walks through the entire growth cycle of a woman’s life, then a man’s, and finally arrives at the most central idea in Chinese medicine: water, and the highest realms of health cultivation.
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The kidney’s splendor is in the hair — whether the kidneys are good or not, look at the hair. The kidney governs the bones, and the teeth are the surplus of the bones. So at seven, the hair begins to grow and the teeth begin to change; at fourteen — twice seven — tian gui arrives and menstruation comes. At this point the Conception Vessel (ren mai) opens and the Thoroughfare Vessel (chong mai) flourishes, so one is able to bear children.
Women are governed by cycles of seven, men by cycles of eight — this is how the Huang Di Nei Jing defines the growth of the human body. The Conception Vessel runs from the perineum up the midline: Qugu (CV2), Zhongji (CV3), Guanyuan (CV4), Shimen (CV5), Yinjiao (CV7), Qihai (CV6)… when the Conception Vessel begins to flow freely, menstruation arrives.
Today’s children are all developing too early
Having laid out the standard definition, Doctor Ni Haixia turns and points straight at the children of today:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Material life is too good now. When children are small, they are fed breast milk — and that is not enough — after weaning they keep drinking milk, and on top of that they take a whole pile of nutritional supplements — it is too much nourishment. Some children start changing teeth at five or six, and get their period at eleven; in America there are girls who start at ten — that is wrong. If you menstruate early and change your teeth early, you are accelerating the process and shortening your lifespan. So do not forget the definition given by Chinese medicine: teeth at seven and menstruation at fourteen is the standard. Changing teeth at five is pulling up the seedlings to help them grow. Children should not take supplements!
The three pulses of the foot: Taichong, Chongyang, Taixi — push the pulse aside before needling
Speaking of the Thoroughfare Pulse, Doctor Ni Haixia takes the opportunity to teach the most basic skill of acupuncture — the three pulses of the foot:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: There are three pulses on the foot. The first is Taichong (LR3, on the liver meridian), the second is Chongyang (ST42, on the stomach meridian), the third is Taixi (KI3, on the kidney meridian). The Chongyang pulse sits on top of the instep — it is the place to diagnose stomach qi — where there is stomach qi, there is life. Taixi lies exactly in the middle of the inner ankle and governs the kidney meridian. When you needle, use your fingernail to push the pulse aside, push it away a little, and then insert the needle — keep as far as you can from the blood vessels.
Do not be frightened by the prohibitions in the classics:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The books say, “If you strike an artery, blood pours out and the person dies” — that was because the needles of old were thick, like matchsticks. Pure gold and pure silver cannot be drawn fine: silver is too brittle and snaps when you needle; gold is too soft and collapses when drawn thin — so ancient needles had to be made thick. Of course striking an artery made the blood flow without stopping. The needles of today are alloy and stainless steel, drawn very fine — even if you touch a blood vessel, the bleeding stops quickly. So do not be scared off by the prohibitions in the books.
Breast milk is menstrual blood: the secret of the 28 days
Next comes the most important theory of the whole lecture — breast milk and menstrual blood share the same source. Doctor Ni Haixia draws a cross-section of the body to explain:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The nipple opens to the interior, and directly beneath it lies the liver. When the liver qi of the Taichong pulse flourishes, the liver qi surges and drives the heart; the heart accelerates — which is why the normal menstrual cycle is 28 days — a multiple of 7, four sevens.
Where does breast milk come from? Doctor Ni Haixia explains it in detail:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Chinese medicine holds that a woman’s breast milk is her menstrual blood — the two are the same thing. Breast milk originates in the spleen — the five flavors enter the mouth, and the spleen transforms and transports them; when the spleen sends them up to the lungs, they come out white. The white milk reaches the chest and the breasts. If the heart does not hold it in check, the milk will not enter the breasts — it will stay in the lungs. So when treating a woman’s menstruation, breast milk, breasts, or any gynecological complaint, you must always strengthen the heart first — because metal and fire mutually punish each other (mutual control and restraint).
The journey after 28 days:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: After the breast milk has been in the breast for 28 days, it descends along the yang brightness meridian all the way down to the ovaries and the uterus. The uterus and ovaries are connected to the small intestine; when the fire of the small intestine steams it and cooks it — like roasting meat — what is expelled is essence-blood, and it looks red.
So a single glance at the period completes the pattern discrimination:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Once you know this normal physiology, someone comes and tells you, “My period is very pale” — the small intestine fire is insufficient, it is cold. The period is very black — it is too hot. Cold and heat are done: one is cold, one is hot, and you have already finished the diagnosis. The eight-principle pattern discrimination of Chinese medicine (yin and yang, exterior and interior, deficiency and excess, cold and heat) — the Huang Di Nei Jing speaks of these from beginning to end. Sometimes a patient comes in, you hear two sentences, and it is done.
The basic skill of treating disease: knowing what “normal” means
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The five organs generate and control one another, each holding the others in check; no one is allowed to overdo it — when one goes too far, the others push it back. So the five organs must be in balance. A normal person simply tries every way to keep the five organs balanced; when a doctor treats disease, he is looking for where the imbalance is and restoring balance. So the most basic thing a doctor must know is what “normal” means.
Eastern and Western medicine do not mean the same thing by “normal”:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Western medicine thinks that if the numbers on your blood test report are normal, you can go home. Yet many people are in terrible pain while their blood tests are still normal — you cannot use that as the standard. The “normal” of Chinese medicine is the balance among the five organs — the pulling between generation and control, with both forces equal.
What Chinese medicine values most is water: the West tests blood but never tests water
Having finished the growth cycles, Doctor Ni Haixia pulls the conversation toward the worldview of Chinese medicine — water:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Western medicine says the first organ in the human body is the heart — that is wrong! The first organ is the kidney. At the very beginning inside the mother, water is generated; when this true water is present, yin and yang unite and the liver is generated — the liver governs the essence of the whole body. Once the essence exists, two weeks pass, and only then is the beating thing — the heart — produced.
His critique of the West testing only blood:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Western medicine says, “I believe only what I see” — then can you see air? You cannot see it, right? That cannot be. Chinese medicine from beginning to end places enormous weight on water; the Western medical view actually destroys water — it only looks at the blood test report. Have you ever seen a water test report? No. But water is the most important thing — it is the source from which everything is generated. Look at chemistry: many substances combine to make new substances, and in the end most of them are H₂O — when you take a drug, the water is released. Chinese medicine tries to hold the water in place; Western drugs release the water — of course they damage the other organs. That is why I do not approve of chemical things.
The female seven-cycle: at 35 the face turns yellow, at 49 the period stops
Returning to the growth cycle, Doctor Ni Haixia walks through each age of a woman:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: At twenty-one — three times seven — kidney qi is even, the wisdom teeth appear and growth reaches its limit — at 21 the teeth have grown to the top and the bones have grown to the top. At twenty-eight — four times seven — the sinews and bones are firm, the hair is at its fullest, and the body is at its peak — after menstruation one may conceive. Whether it is better to bear children early or late — Chinese medicine has never defined either one as better.
Thirty-five — five times seven — is the first threshold of aging for a woman:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: At 35, the yang brightness vessels decline; the face begins to turn sallow — you become a “yellow-faced woman” — and the hair begins to fall. The foot yang brightness meridian originates at Chengqi (ST1, near the eye bags) — which is why so many women later go in for eye-bag removal and facelifts; these are the signs appearing. After 35 the yang brightness qi declines and aging begins. So I tell everyone: moxa Zusanli (ST36) — not so that your feet can walk in the mountains, but so that stomach qi does not decay and youth stays with you. At forty-two — six times seven — the three yang vessels decline above; the face is entirely withered and the hair turns white.
Forty-nine — seven times seven:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: At forty-nine — seven sevens — the Conception Vessel empties, the Thoroughfare Vessel declines, tian gui is exhausted, the “earthly passage” is closed, the form decays and one can no longer bear children — menstruation begins to stop. But what if there are uterine fibroids or ovarian tumors? When something keeps growing inside the uterus, tian gui is actually delayed — some women are 54 or 55 and still menstruate punctually every month. Once tian gui is exhausted, the uterus and ovaries slowly shrink, and the tumors shrink along with them — this is harmless.
The 72-year-old lady who suddenly menstruated: the heart failed to manage the breast milk
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: There was a lady of 72, whose period had stopped for 22 years, when suddenly menstruation came back. She went for a gynecological check — everything was normal; no cause could be found, so they scanned her, and found a brain tumor. This is the heart failing to manage things. Generally, when there is a hard lump in the breast, or breast cancer, or a tumor that grows into the brain — these come from years of emotional frustration, of not being at ease, of worrying too much, of not being happy enough. All of these breed illness. So, everyone — if you are married, be as good to your wife as you can, keep her heart well, so that she does not run into trouble.
The male eight-cycle: 8, 16, 24 … 64
Having finished women, Doctor Ni Haixia turns to men — governed by cycles of eight, developing more slowly than women:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: At eight, a boy’s kidney qi becomes substantial — the real hair begins to grow, the baby hair falls away, and the teeth begin to grow. At sixteen — twice eight — kidney qi flourishes and tian gui arrives. Men also have tian gui — it is the sperm. The essence overflows and is discharged; when man and woman unite, reproduction is possible. At twenty-four — three times eight — kidney qi is even, the sinews and bones are strong, the wisdom teeth appear and growth reaches its limit — if a man is going to grow tall, he must finish that business before 24.
Early development in boys is also a diet problem:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: A child who starts changing teeth at six is developing too early — it is not a problem of the human body, it is too much nourishment, too much eating. Especially — drinking cow’s milk is a very bad move. You are a human being; once human milk is weaned, stop drinking milk. If you keep drinking cow’s milk after weaning, your legs turn out like a cow’s. Drinking soy milk is very good. Cow’s milk is too nourishing, excessive.
His critique of growth hormone is vivid:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Westerners invented growth hormone, and it is very hard to control — take too much and you grow too tall, or you do not grow at all. I once met someone who was short and took growth hormone — after taking it he grew sideways, broad as an ox, and even developed an ox-neck, and his voice came out like an ox. Growth hormone has no target; you cannot control it to grow upward, so it grows sideways — that is even more trouble.
Forty, forty-eight, fifty-six, sixty-four:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: At forty — five times eight — kidney qi declines; the hair falls and the teeth wither — after 40 a man’s teeth loosen and his hair begins to fall. At forty-eight — six times eight — yang qi declines above; the hair at the temples turns white and the skin of the face begins to wrinkle. At fifty-six — seven times eight — liver qi declines, the sinews can no longer move, tian gui is exhausted and the essence is scant. At sixty-four — eight times eight — the teeth and hair are gone. The kidney governs water and stores the essence of the five organs and six bowels — when the kidneys begin to decline, the five organs all weaken and the sinews and bones loosen.
The kidneys decide lifespan: keep the kidneys healthy, keep the mood good
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: This brings up the point that the kidneys decide the length of a person’s life — because they are water. So at all times you should keep the kidney function intact. Later we will discuss the growth, harvesting and storage of the four seasons — how to store without leaking, how to care for the kidneys. People who take good care of their kidneys live long — but that is the “form”; there is also the “spirit”: your emotions must be good, your mood good, and you must not be influenced by others. People scheme to attack you, curse you, to shorten your life — and you are still happy; they cannot affect you, and you will live long.
How an ordinary person cultivates:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: Keep a good mood — sit in meditation, calm and at ease. I do not have a million; I have ten thousand. The hamburger and braised pork rice I eat are the same either way — do not envy others. Having no desires makes one strong (wu yu ze gang); the heart has no worry and no fear. Do not eat until full — stop when you no longer feel hungry.
The True Person, the Sage, and the worthy person: the three realms of health cultivation
The Shang Gu Tian Zhen Lun closes with the highest realms of cultivation:
💬 Note from Doctor Ni Haixia: The True Person (zhen ren) — a monk who has truly attained the Way, who understands the principles of heaven and earth, grasps yin and yang, breathes the essence qi, and stands alone guarding the spirit. Recently there was a news story about an Indian boy who sat in meditation under a Bodhi tree, eating nothing and going to the toilet for half a year, with everything fenced off around him — he has mastered the yin and yang of heaven and earth and absorbs the essence qi of heaven and earth directly. In the theory of Chinese medicine, this is only possible by sitting in meditation with absolutely no stray thoughts; the moment a thought stirs, the moment a stray thought appears, you need nutrition. The Sage (sheng ren) — dwells in harmony with heaven and earth, follows the principle of the eight winds; he has desires but knows how to restrain them, does not lose his temper easily, and still lives in the world — an engaged, worldly life. The True Person leaves the world; the Sage lives in it.
The Huang Di Nei Jing has very many chapters — one by one they will all be introduced in detail: how to regulate the body, how to protect yourself, how to diagnose.
Compiled from Doctor Ni Haixia’s second lecture of the Ren Ji series on the Huang Di Nei Jing, presented by Doctor Luo Dalun.