|
Sweet September!
Welcome to fall! Fall is the time when our energies contract after the expansive energies of summer. Fall the season to reflect and turn inward, nurturing our inner lives as well as letting go of any emotions that we may be hanging on to. Fall is associated with the lungs and grief, so dealing with grief is especially important in this season as well as taking care of your lungs to ensure they are healthy and strong. Taking walks outside and breathing in the cool fresh air is wonderful for the lungs and helps keep energies moving - bringing in the new and letting go of the old. This month we talk about The Importance of Emotions in Chinese Medicine, The Benefits of Breastfeeding and we continue our fascinating discussion with The Strangest Chinese Energy Healing Ever Reported - Part Two. We also feature a delicious fall recipe - Honeydew Melon Soup! We hope everyone had a wonderful summer and enjoys the transition into the beautiful fall season. See you next month!
Chinese Medicine Living has finally joined Instagram!! Please follow us for some visual niceness!!
Love this? Please pass it on. :)
See our articles on Acupuncture.com, Chinese Medicine Digital Magazine, and Qi Encyclopedia.
Here Are This Month's Articles...
- The Importance of Emotions in Chinese Medicine
- The Benefits of Breastfeeding
- The Strangest Chinese Energy Healing Ever Reported: Part Two
- Quote of the Month
- Inspiration - In "World-First" Scientists Reverse Brain Damage in Drowned Toddler
- Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture in the News
- Recipe of the Month - Fall Recipe - Honeydew Melon Soup
- About Chinese Medicine Living
The Importance of Emotions in Chinese Medicine
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
The emotions are an extremely important aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Emotional well being is an integral part of health in the TCM model. Each emotion is associated with an organ, which, if out of balance will cause specific symptoms. These are what the experienced acupuncturist or practitioner of TCM is looking for when you walk into their office with a complaint.
Emotions are of course a natural part of being human. Feeling joy, sadness and anger are all perfectly normal experiences we have in our day to day lives. It is when these emotions become excessive, or are repressed and turned inward that they can become pathological and cause disease. The belief is that balancing the organ associated with the emotion will balance the emotion. Sometimes the organ is out of balance and produces the emotional imbalance. But sometimes the emotional imbalance can produce the organ imbalance. The difference to the practitioner is important only in preventing a recurrence of the problem. For example, if a person is experiencing extreme fits of anger, frustration, red eyes, problems sleeping, migraines and constipation, they are seen to be suffering from an imbalance of the Liver. This can be corrected with acupuncture and herbs. The liver returns to balance, the migraines disappear, sleeping improves and the bowels return to normal. But, if the patient is in a job he hates, with coworkers that make him angry and is constantly fighting with his wife, his anger will remain and the Liver imbalance will return. This is why during the diagnostic process, the practitioner asks many questions, and to the patient, it might seem like they have no bearing on the presenting condition. The job of the practitioner is to evaluate all aspects, not just the physical, so that once the imbalance is corrected, the environment that created that imbalance no longer exists.
It is important to remember that cause and effect in TCM is not linear but circular. We usually think that something is the cause of an act, or effect such as - eating too much will give you a stomach ache. Eating too much is the cause and the stomach ache is the effect. This is linear thinking. In TCM linear cause and effect does occur when symptoms are present, for example - going outside without enough warm clothes on in the middle of winter will cause you to catch cold, resulting in symptoms like a runny nose, achy muscles and a fever. These symptoms are the effect of the cold which was the cause. However, in some cases, the symptoms are not a result of such straightforward reasoning which is especially true when we are dealing with emotions.
The Benefits of Breastfeeding
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
Chinese medicine has always seemed like such a logical, common sense approach to medicine, at least to me. It takes what is natural and enhances and supports it to gain the maximum benefits. Whenever I am wondering about something, or how to tackle a problem or health concern, I always go back to nature because while nature may not always be kind, in my opinion, it is always right.
Human beings were brilliantly designed. Chinese medicine believes that the body has its own intelligence (that far exceeds our own which we attribute mostly to our brains), and this is what is really at the heart of the philosophy of Chinese medicine. It is also one of the reasons that it works so well, even now, 4000+ years after its inception. And so, when we look at having babies, it is the same. The body amazingly, has everything it needs to create life and nourish it after it comes into the world. All we have to do is support our bodies and give them what they need, and if everything is in balance and working properly, we are able to have babies and feed them everything they need to grow and develop into healthy children and hopefully, adults.
Breastfeeding Statistics
Recently, I was reading an article about the results of a study analyzing global trends in breastfeeding. I was surprised when it cited some statistics on the percentage of women who breastfed. In fact, it stated that only one in two hundred women in the UK breastfeed their babies until they are a year old. That is 0.5 percent and is in fact, the lowest rate anywhere in the world. The article continued...
"To put that in context: 27 percent in the U.S., 35 percent in Norway and 44 percent in Mexico were still breastfeeding after one year. The rates were remarkably higher in much of the developing world, with Senegal (99.4 percent), Gambia (98.7 percent) and Malawi (98.3 percent) topping the league table."
The interesting thing to me as I read the article was that breastfeeding rates were far higher in countries that were poor compared to wealthier countries where breastfeeding rates were much lower. The truth is, that women is poorer countries breastfeed because that's what they have always done, for generations. Breastfeeding is not only free, but has immense health benefits for both mama and baby. In wealthy countries like the United States, Canada and Europe pharmaceutical companies have managed to work their way into hospitals and very often new mother's are offered free formula and told it has many added benefits and that breastfeeding is inferior. Out of a desire to do what is best for their babies, mother's often take the formula and never look back. The formula company has now gained a customer, which, at least in my opinion, is the whole point.
The Strangest Chinese Energy Healing Ever Reported: Part Two
By John Voigt
In Part One details were given about an extraterrestrial sending universal healing qi-energy into a thirty-eight year old man, “Cao Gong” (an alias) which he immediately used to heal a very sick thirteen year old girl. This took place aboard a UFO in Qinhuangdao, an area about sixty miles east of Beijing. Our brief analysis continues with Cao’s return to his family’s apartment in Beijing.
Right After the Abduction and Healing
The male and female extraterrestrials and Cao Gong entered as they had left two hours and twenty minutes before, by floating in through a wall, this time into his nine year old son’s bedroom. The boy, “Cao Xing” (also an alias) awoke. He said, “What happened to the nerve [or “nerves” the Chinese is unclear] in my head that controls sleeping?” Cao Gong was amazed at such grownup words coming from his young son. (Were the ETs controlling the boy’s mind somehow? Could they have been controlling Cao Gong’s mind as well?) After the ETs left, again by floating through a wall, the boy spoke, “How did these people enter my room? And how did they leave like that?” (Later investigators saw this as circumstantial evidence that Cao Gong was not alone in actually witnessing the two extraterrestrials.)
It was now 2:20 AM. By 4:00 AM that same night Cao Gong was on the phone with a member of the Beijing UFO Research Association, a Miss Ma Linghuan, seeking an explanation for what had just happened to him.
The Investigation of the Abduction Begins
Zhang Jingping, Director of Investigations of the World Chinese UFO Federation, decided to take on the case, and by April of 2000 he began a through investigation.
After several hypnotic regression sessions, a lie detection session, physiological tests, and talks with Beijing police examiners, and other ufologists, Cao Gong’s story was found to be believable and truthful—at least he was honestly reporting what he had experienced. It seemed unlikely that he dreamt any of it: everything points to the probable fact that he was awake when his abduction took place. (His nine year old son also had seen the two aliens when his father was returned home.) On November, 2002, two years after the abduction took place, the girl, Xiao Xiaomei (an alias), now completely healthy, with a baby and a job with her a live-in lover cleaning other people’s homes, was found in Qinhuangdao, the city where the healing had taken place. The case is said to remain open, but no new information has been released as of September, 2017. Perhaps this analysis in Chinese Medicine Living will generate further information from our readers.
Quote of the Month
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
Inspiration
In A 'World-First' Scientists Reverse Brain Damage in Drowned Toddler
Eden Carlson’s parents were told that their beloved 2-year-old daughter would most likely be a vegetable for the rest of her life – but, then, an experimental therapy reversed her brain damage.
In February 2016, Eden’s mother was horrified to discover that her daughter had broken through a baby gate and drowned in their backyard pool.
The mother immediately pulled her daughter out of the cold 41º water (5ºc) and started performing CPR. The toddler was then taken to the hospital where she was given emergency treatment – and for two hours afterward, her heart didn’t beat.
The toddler was resuscitated, however, and she stayed in the hospital, totally immobile and unresponsive to any stimuli. All Eden was capable of doing was squirming incessantly and shaking her head – she was unable to walk, talk, or respond to voices.
Then, Dr. Paul Harch of the LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, started giving the toddler normobaric oxygen treatments.
The treatments, administered nasally for 45 minutes twice a day, caused immediate and noticeable success. Eden became more alert and active with each session.
78 days after the incident, the family traveled to New Orleans where Eden was required to sit in a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber (HBOT) for an equal amount of time every day as her previous treatments.
After just 39 days using the chamber, doctors found that all signs of muscular dystrophy and brain damage had essentially been reversed —a feat researchers now say is a “world’s first”.
“The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration,” notes Harch. “Although it’s impossible to conclude from this single case if the sequential application of normobaric oxygen, then HBOT, would be more effective than HBOT alone, in the absence of HBOT therapy, short duration, repetitive normobaric oxygen therapy may be an option until HBOT is available. Such low-risk medical treatment may have a profound effect on recovery of function in similar patients who are neurologically devastated by drowning.”
Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine in the News
Bernie's Medicare For All Act 2017 Would Even Cover Complementary and Integrative Medicine
Could Acupuncture Get You Pregnant?
Combined Treatment of TCM and Modern Medicine Effective in Treating Liver Cirrhosis
Tai Chi Proven To Prevent Falls in Seniors
How to Treat White Tongue at Home
Medium Deborah Livingston Educates Women on How to Heal a Broken Spirit After Abuse
Acupuncturist Says Eastern Medicine Focusses on Whole Body and How it Works Together
Acupuncture May Help with Seasonal Allergies
Acupuncture Painkiller Postoperative Narcotic Boost Found
What Pressure Points Induce Labor? Here's How to Massage That Baby Out
De-Stress Yourself With Traditional Remedies
Traditional Chinese Medicine Courses Rolled Out in Chinese Schools as 12-year-olds Learn Acupuncture
Ear Acupuncture for Addiction Treatment
Conquering Crohn's - Complementary Therapies
Tips for Beating Hay Fever The Natural Way This Spring
Asia Poised to Benefit from Global Wellness Trend
TCM Can Help Students Stay Healthy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
If you would like to read about the latest scienntific studies involving Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, please see our "Current Research" page to find all the latest. :)
Recipe Of The Month with NourishU
Fall Recipe - Honeydew Melon Soup
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS
Moisturize internal systems, promote blood and boost energy.
INGREDIENTS
- Honey dew melon 青蜜瓜 – one whole
- Rehmannia Radix (sheng di) 大生地 – 30gm
- Lotus Seeds (lien zi) 蓮子 - 30gm
- Glehnia (bei sha shen) 沙參 - 30gm
- Solomon's Seal (yu ju) 玉竹 - 30gm
- Honey dates 蜜棗 - 8
- Sweet apricot kernel 南杏仁 – 60gm
- Bitter apricot kernel 北杏仁 – 12gm
- Lean pork/pork hock 豬展 – 180gm
DIRECTIONS
- Rinse pork, cut into large pieces and put in boiling water to cook for a few minutes, retrieve and rinse.
- Soak apricot kernel for at least 2 hours and keep aside.
- Remove skin and seeds of melon and dice into cubes.
- Rinse other herbal ingredients and put together with pork in a soup pot with about 2 litres of water. Bring to boil, remove foam and reduce heat to medium to cook for 30 minutes. Add melon to cook for another 15 minutes.
- Put apricot kernel in a grinder to grind into a fine paste and filter out any large pieces. Add the juice to the cooking and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Add salt to serve. Eat some melon with soup.
About Chinese Medicine Living
Chinese Medicine Living is a place where Chinese medicine principles are applied to the way we live our lives to improve health on every level. In our articles, interviews and information we strive to teach how the body and the world is seen through the eyes of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) so you can better understand its theories, and how to live a healthy balanced lifestyle according to its principles. How TCM views the body and its connections to emotions, living in harmony with the world around us, and how to achieve the balance synonymous with health are the ways in which we strive to impart the limitless wisdom of Chinese medicine. Welcome.
If you would like to contact us, please email info@chinesemedicineliving.com. We would love to hear from you.
You can visit the Chinese Medicine Living website to learn more about this wonderful medicine. <3
