Balanced Natural Health with Dr. Maz

Where I live, we are currently in the very depths of Winter – the season of the Water element, which rules the Kidney and Bladder. These channels can be most easily imbalanced by external Cold, and so at this time of year we can more often see “cold-like” presentations. Luckily, we have a whole toolbox of options for restoring balance in Chinese Medicine! In this episode, I talk...

Today I invite you to join me in a thought experiment – a journey of imagination, and perhaps, a dreaming into being of a new world. I think that it’s really important to ask these questions and consider what is possible, because: A) it’s a big part of the actual scientific method – not the scientism that has been co-opted into dogma and religious belief, but the true spirit of inquiry...

In this episode, I share my own journey with Chinese Medicine: both the profound healing I received and my path to practicing this amazing medicine. Throughout my journey in this medicine, I have seen time and again that healing is always possible, symptoms are messages that are happening FOR us (not to us) and we have the power to make change and redirect the course of our health.

In this episode, I chat with Monique Telfer of Meta Pilates. Monique is a teacher of DNS – Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilisation – a school of movement that has been absolutely life-changing for me in resolving life-long pain, and in supercharging my strength and movement. I’ve always been active and have loved many different types of movement, from tennis to running, Ashtanga and...

With the weather getting cooler where I live, I am seeing more and more sniffles and cold-like presentations around me. I am also hearing people talk about “catching” something from each other or spreading “germs” and. I wanted to share a different perspective that is the view from ancient Chinese Medicine texts (up to 2,500 years old!), as well as the view expounded by some very bold present-day...

In today’s episode, I answer some awesome questions from the community, such as: • what are the signs that your liver may be sluggish? • what are your thoughts on enemas? • how to manage symptoms of menopause? • how to protect bone as we age? • can you get your eyesight back? • what is the link between a presentation of pelvic floor, bunions, thinning teeth and receding gums? It’s interesting to n...

You are you own healer and you know your body best!   Health professionals can offer (often much-needed) help and guidance, but ultimately, you are the expert on YOU, and you are the one having YOUR unique body-mind-soul experience, each and every moment. Getting curious about, and listening to, the messages that your whole self is sending you allows you to collect data on what best nourishes you...

All water is not created equal! We are learning that there’s an additional, fourth, phase of water – in addition to the three standard ones (ice, liquid water and steam) we were taught at school. This fourth phase of water sits between the solid and liquid phases: it is slightly more viscous than liquid water (also called “bulk” water) as its molecules are more regularly arranged than those in sta...

My intention for this episode is to open up our scope of thinking and perception to include the myriad ways in which we are interconnected. One of the many, many aspects of Chinese Medicine that I love is the acknowledgment that we are woven in to the rich fabric of life and the world around us. We are not separate, and we do not end at our skin. Opening our minds to this understanding offers us m...

In the previous episode, we explored the fact that we – and all living beings – are emitting light in the form of biophotons. These patterns of our light emission carry information, can be reflective of our state of health, and are open to modulation and cultivation. Many of the ancient sciences, like Chinese Medicine and yoga, were already aware of these subtle energetic flows, and co...

EDIT TO PODCAST: to clarify, it is sunspot activity / solar winds / solar flares that showed a correlation with increased heart rate, potential stress response and also times of great change, NOT the suns rays that we normally bask in, which I see as vital for health and for structuring the water in our bodies (more on that in coming episodes!) ———————&#82...

This is a desperately-needed update to the original 2020 episode! Here’s why… You may notice that the podcast took a few years break after this episode. The following episode, the original episode 16, was slated to be about terrain theory – and the beautiful overlap between it and the ancient health wisdom of Chinese Medicine. What happened was that the events of 2020 prompted a journe...

Right now, we find ourselves in the season of Late Summer – a time of humidity and dampness that can overwhelm the organ systems related to digestion and fluid metabolism, potentially resulting in digestive symptoms, weight changes, fluid retention, swelling, fatigue and foggy thinking. Luckily, Chinese Medicine has developed simple diet and lifestyle tweaks that help us flow in harmony with the s...

Today we continue our discussion about the Five Elements in Chinese Medicine – and how they relate to the five flavours of different foods and medicinal herbs. This knowledge forms the foundation of Chinese Herbal Medicine and dietary therapy – and it helps direct us in knowing how to use our pantry as a medicine cabinet. There’s lots to talk about, so let’s get into it! Show Notes & Lin...

Today we demystify the 5 Elements – a central concept that we use in Chinese Medicine to classify things, symptoms, phenomena and the world around us. Stemming from Daoist philosophy, for the past several thousand years, 5 Element thought has informed Chinese science, technology and culture, influencing fields as diverse as military strategy, music, martial arts and of course, medicine! Ther...

It’s such an interesting time for us Doctors of Chinese Medicine right now, as we are seeing more and more of our fundamental medical concepts embraced as the foundation of the most progressive biomedicine, particularly in the spheres of functional & integrative medicine – and in medicine personalised to the individual. We also see it in the central importance of gut health to whole body...

Can we have too much of a good thing? It’s possible! Very often, I see patients who come in with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, disrupted hormones, autoimmune conditions or seeking to conceive, who are simultaneously asking a lot of their bodies with the exercise they choose. As always, it’s important to strike a supportive balance with how we live, so if life is already demanding a lo...

The Chinese New Year of the Metal Rat is just around the corner, and it’s a big party, with one quarter of the world’s population getting ready to celebrate! Let’s find out more about the Metal Rat Year, and ways that we can celebrate to bring in more luck, health and abundance in this coming year (hint: in may involve eating lots of dumplings!!)

They both use the same kind of needles, so you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re the same. In a way they are: dry needling is small subset of acupuncture – just one tool in a very big toolbox! But despite the fact that both modalities use the same tools (acupuncture needles), training, regulation, protection of the public, and evidence-based research greatly differs between the two. For exa...

People, please stop icing your injuries!! Today we are going to be busting the stubborn myth of icing. This is such an important one to raise awareness of, as it’s so entrenched in the mainstream medical field despite lack of any evidence of benefit and clear evidence of harm. So what do we do instead? Luckily Chinese Medicine has a tried and tested approach to healing, with thousands of years of...

This time of year sees many of us in Australia able to enjoy some time off, and the beautiful weather makes for an additional encouragement to get outdoors. Most of us have observed how great we feel after a day at the beach, camping, going bush or hiking through forests – but the benefits are not limited to lifting our mood: time in nature has proven health benefits! Join me as we talk forest-bat...

Given that this episode is coming out the day after Christmas (and considering all of the feasting that often comes with this time of year!), I thought it was a timely opportunity to talk about digestion from a Chinese Medicine perspective, and to share some pearls of wisdom that have stood the test of time over millennia. Chinese Medicine has long understood, and almost revered, the role that the...

Join Dr. Maz for a simple, guided meditation. Just 5 minutes out of your day can offer greater calm, clarity of mind and support your body towards a greater state of health.

Today I talk about a very simple and free health practice that is accessible to all of us.  You can do it anywhere, anytime and you don’t need any special tools or props to do it. It is such an important tool for maintaining health and is so effective, that not only has it stood the test of time in a range of Eastern health traditions, but we are now also seeing it prescribed by Western med practi...

Continuing from episode 2, we look at the role of inflammation in imbalanced hormones and why managing inflammation is important for each and every one of us. Chronic inflammation is now being implicated in many, if not most diseases, from heart disease and cancer to depression and diabetes, so we then go on to discuss simple health hacks to tone down levels of inflammation in the body. Show Notes...