29 Jun Interview with Cristina Mora, our Balanced Living Partner

MAN IS AN INSEPARABLE BODY-MIND-SOUL UNIT AND WE MUST WORK ON THIS UNITY TO MAINTAIN HEALTH. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY TREATING PROBLEMS AT THEIR ROOT AND SOLVING THEM AT THEIR BASE IN ORDER TO FIND BALANCE AND THUS HAPPINESS.

Graduated in Traditional Chinese Medicine and ISMET, Cristina Mora has dedicated many years of her life to learning and understanding how traditional Chinese medicine, and especially acupuncture, works to improve the physical and mental health of our body.

Cristina is an acupuncturist, psychoneuroimmunologist and naturopath. She currently runs a natural fertility programme at the Balanced Living Clinic, where she also works as director. As many of you already know, fertility can be treated through therapies such as acupuncture, reflexology or yoga. Therefore, at Reproclinic we work hand in hand with specialists who believe in one very important aspect: fertility is the result of a healthy body!

1. Why did you specialise in the world of fertility?

Life made me specialise in fertility. Although I had always liked this subject, it was not my goal when I started out. However, life has been giving me teachers who specialised in this subject and I have been able to learn directly from them. I have also been treating all kinds of health problems for a long time, and this has brought me my own experience: “fertility is the expression of a healthy body”.

Thanks to working with patients with other types of much higher priority problems (disabling pain or digestive problems that radically affect the quality of life), I was able to observe that, by solving their problem, they managed to get pregnant in a natural way, when they had already given up for lost.

I feel that this is really what I have come to do and it is my mission to help couples to be able to conceive within a consciousness of self-care, in order to leave the baby the most important inheritance one can have: health. Everything that parents do before conceiving will have a direct impact on the future health, not only of the baby, but also of the human being throughout his or her adult life.

2. How important is it to connect with the body in order to have good health?

I think I have already partially answered this question with the previous one. This is where my mission is to spread the word and do my bit. We are living in a time in human history where humans have become totally DISCONNECTED from their primary needs, and this disconnection is directly affecting quality of life/health and fertility.

We live with a “mediocre” health that while it does not limit us in our daily functions, it is a health that is far from OPTIMAL. We have become accustomed to calling this mediocre health “normal” health.

We need to reconnect with real food, and move away from processed foods. We need to reconnect with circadian rhythms, and try to turn off lights and screens when the sun goes down. We need to reconnect with the body and its movement, and try to get away from sedentary lifestyles and working days that force us to sit in a chair for 8 hours at a time. We need to connect with nature, the sun, the sea and get away from the concrete and being enclosed in walls for days on end without the sun being able to touch us for more than 10 minutes a day when we leave the office to get into the metro or the car.

We live in a society that is organised to disconnect us from OUR REALITY. Our anatomy and physiology has hardly changed since our Palaeolithic ancestors, but our way of life is increasingly out of touch with the reality of our body’s needs.

3. How can acupuncture help a woman’s fertility journey?

Acupuncture itself is a complete therapy: it considers the health of the 5 elements which are the 5 main organs of the body (and all the organs and systems that are divided into these 5 groups). Acupuncture treats fertility by considering total health, as I have explained in the previous questions. That is why it is complete, because it aims to improve the health of the woman or man being treated.

There have been scientific studies where it is clear that the groups of women who do acupuncture, versus those who do not, have higher pregnancy rates in assisted reproduction, as it has been seen that it greatly reduces stress during the search, increases blood perfusion in the pelvic area and reduces vasoconstriction, among other findings.

4. What other complementary alternatives do you use when faced with a fertility problem?

Throughout our fertility career, we have been shaping our treatments to cover each of the areas that a person may need to improve their fertility (health).

In addition to acupuncture, our treatments are based on lifestyle changes, dietary changes, and the introduction of Chinese herbal supplements or the practice of naturopathy personalised for each case.

We have also created with Núria the Yoga for fertility, which is the perfect blend of physical movement, relaxation exercises and meditation, which can greatly help women, their fertility and also how they live this process that can often be very distressing.

We also have other more manual techniques: fertility massage and fertility reflexology.

5. What role does Chinese medicine play in assisted reproduction treatments?

Chinese medicine helps to prepare women for their IVF cycle. In many cases we achieve pregnancies naturally, but sometimes due to age or serious problems that cannot be solved with Chinese medicine, these women need assisted reproduction techniques to achieve pregnancy.

In these cases, it is also important to PREPARE your body. A three-month preparation will bring them many benefits:

1. They will increase your health enough to have a favourable IVF result.

2. They will face the process with much more calm, and inner peace, knowing that they are prepared for it.

3. Improved health affects the quality of the gametes and therefore actively participates in the health of your future baby in a favourable way.

6. How does it feel to help a woman or a couple achieve their dream of motherhood?

My work is absolutely wonderful! I feel very, very, very lucky to be able to accompany so many couples in their processes and help them achieve their dream of creating a family.

And above all, for helping them to sow that SEED in their lives, making them see how important it is to take care of our body, our mind and our emotions, through our habits, our diet and the way we think about life. In the end what I spread is to go back to the origins, and to be able to connect with our basic human needs.

At Reproclinic we work hand in hand with Cristina, who advises and accompanies all those patients who need her help to be able to continue on their fertility journey in an optimal way. Therefore, in our Repro June Pack we include an acupuncture session with her at Balanced Living, free of charge, so don’t think twice and make your appointment!