5 HEALTH TIPS
1. Alleviating pain
Many people come to my clinic to alleviate physical pain because acupuncture is very effective at easing pain in joints and soft tissue. I've treated a lot of back pain over the last decade.
As well as the acupuncture, I use two treatment principles which complement it brilliantly. Both of them are available to you now. They are Heat therapy and Tui Na (soft tissue) massage.
Heat therapy
Quite often when we feel the area of pain in a patient’s body, it is very cold to the touch. You may well notice this yourself, particularly if you have chronic (long term) pain somewhere. When I apply heat to the sore area on a patient’s body, there is a marked difference in the levels of pain they experience. I use heat lamps in my clinic and tend to leave them on a patient for between 10 - 30 minutes depending on the condition. Hot water bottles/wheat bags can be just as effective.
Tui Na Massage
I spent a year observing an osteopath, who was also a fully trained practitioner of Chinese medicine. He had been practicing for over 20 years, so he knew a thing or too! He said that in his experience, "massage was the single thing that made the greatest difference in a patients healing time". I couldn’t believe how simple that principle was, but I now know that to be true in my clinic also.
The term Tui na (pronounced "twee naw"), literally means 'pinch and pull' and refers to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapeutic massage and body work. It is similar to Acupuncture in the way it targets specific acupuncture points, but practitioners use fingers instead of needles to apply pressure to stimulate these points. Tui Na is often used in conjunction with acupuncture, moxibustion, fire cupping, Chinese herbalism, tai chi, qigong and other Chinese internal martial arts.
The power of touch is incredibly healing. It is also a way of moving what we call ‘Qi (energy) or Blood Stagnation’. In Chinese medicine, Stagnation is quite simply when Qi, Blood and Fluids no longer move smoothly through the body and begin to congeal in some way.
Please note: If an area of tissue has severe Blood Stagnation and is heavily bruised, then massage wouldn’t be appropriate. Patients will always tell you when massage on the area of pain is possible. Also avoid heat at this point. Wait until the bruising has dissipated and then feel the tissue for the presence of cold.
As well as the acupuncture, I use two treatment principles which complement it brilliantly. Both of them are available to you now. They are Heat therapy and Tui Na (soft tissue) massage.
Heat therapy
Quite often when we feel the area of pain in a patient’s body, it is very cold to the touch. You may well notice this yourself, particularly if you have chronic (long term) pain somewhere. When I apply heat to the sore area on a patient’s body, there is a marked difference in the levels of pain they experience. I use heat lamps in my clinic and tend to leave them on a patient for between 10 - 30 minutes depending on the condition. Hot water bottles/wheat bags can be just as effective.
Tui Na Massage
I spent a year observing an osteopath, who was also a fully trained practitioner of Chinese medicine. He had been practicing for over 20 years, so he knew a thing or too! He said that in his experience, "massage was the single thing that made the greatest difference in a patients healing time". I couldn’t believe how simple that principle was, but I now know that to be true in my clinic also.
The term Tui na (pronounced "twee naw"), literally means 'pinch and pull' and refers to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) therapeutic massage and body work. It is similar to Acupuncture in the way it targets specific acupuncture points, but practitioners use fingers instead of needles to apply pressure to stimulate these points. Tui Na is often used in conjunction with acupuncture, moxibustion, fire cupping, Chinese herbalism, tai chi, qigong and other Chinese internal martial arts.
The power of touch is incredibly healing. It is also a way of moving what we call ‘Qi (energy) or Blood Stagnation’. In Chinese medicine, Stagnation is quite simply when Qi, Blood and Fluids no longer move smoothly through the body and begin to congeal in some way.
Please note: If an area of tissue has severe Blood Stagnation and is heavily bruised, then massage wouldn’t be appropriate. Patients will always tell you when massage on the area of pain is possible. Also avoid heat at this point. Wait until the bruising has dissipated and then feel the tissue for the presence of cold.
2. Good energy levels
In China, it is not unusual for doctors to go for a power nap between 1.00 - 3.00pm. This is because the energy of the body moves from the Heart into the Small intestine. This enhances the Small intestines ability to further digests food decomposed initially by the Stomach. Chinese doctors know that if they want to optimise their performance in the day, it helps to sleep at this point.
Many of us in the West have a preconceived idea of what our working day should look like and will often push ourselves through fatigue in order to complete our day.
I remember hearing a story about a trader in the city of London, who was clearly out-performing his colleges. When he was approached and asked about his high performance, he shyly admitted that he had been hiring a storage container near his place of work and would go for power naps, inside it, during the day. Brilliant!
Many of us in the West have a preconceived idea of what our working day should look like and will often push ourselves through fatigue in order to complete our day.
I remember hearing a story about a trader in the city of London, who was clearly out-performing his colleges. When he was approached and asked about his high performance, he shyly admitted that he had been hiring a storage container near his place of work and would go for power naps, inside it, during the day. Brilliant!
3. Positive mood
Emotions are a cause of disease in Chinese medicine and each organ is affected by a specific emotion but conversely the strength or weakness of our organs, affects our emotional state.
The Lungs for example are affected by grief, the Kidneys by fear, the Heart by anxiety, the Spleen by worry/overthinking and the Liver by anger.
The Chinese understand depression as having two types: deficient and excess. I’ve noticed over the years that people who suffer from depression, usually have a combination of both deficiency and excess.
Deficient type of depression
This is caused by not enough Qi (energy) or Blood in our system. For example, where there has been significant blood loss during child birth, a women might suffer with what we would call, post-natal depression.
Excess type of depression
This is where the flow of Qi and Blood is stagnant and blocked in some way. It would give us signs of depression as well as symptoms like muscle tension and headaches.
Acupuncture continues to astound me as it treats depression really well. This is primarily because it can clear the Stagnation pretty quickly, so bringing relief.
Movement can also have the same effect. If you are feeling depressed but with enough energy to move, I would do that now. It doesn’t have to be for very long and it doesn’t have to be that intense either. Just a 20 mins walk at a fairly brisk pace, is enough to shift the Stagnation and lift your mood. Even if it’s just a little.
In my book Health Toolkit - A 7-step guide to outrageous good health, I go into the emotions in a lot more detail and how we can navigate our way through our emotional landscape like a ninja.
The Lungs for example are affected by grief, the Kidneys by fear, the Heart by anxiety, the Spleen by worry/overthinking and the Liver by anger.
The Chinese understand depression as having two types: deficient and excess. I’ve noticed over the years that people who suffer from depression, usually have a combination of both deficiency and excess.
Deficient type of depression
This is caused by not enough Qi (energy) or Blood in our system. For example, where there has been significant blood loss during child birth, a women might suffer with what we would call, post-natal depression.
Excess type of depression
This is where the flow of Qi and Blood is stagnant and blocked in some way. It would give us signs of depression as well as symptoms like muscle tension and headaches.
Acupuncture continues to astound me as it treats depression really well. This is primarily because it can clear the Stagnation pretty quickly, so bringing relief.
Movement can also have the same effect. If you are feeling depressed but with enough energy to move, I would do that now. It doesn’t have to be for very long and it doesn’t have to be that intense either. Just a 20 mins walk at a fairly brisk pace, is enough to shift the Stagnation and lift your mood. Even if it’s just a little.
In my book Health Toolkit - A 7-step guide to outrageous good health, I go into the emotions in a lot more detail and how we can navigate our way through our emotional landscape like a ninja.
4. Good gut health
Poor digestion is something I see in my clinic a lot, but it’s not something that we particularly want to talk about because the signs include acid reflux, belching, bloating, gas and nausea.
Now dietary advise can be tricky because we are all so different and therefore respond quite differently to the foods we consume. However, after a decade I’ve noticed that certain foods are responsible for many of those signs previously discussed.
The Asian cultures have a way of looking at food that is quite different to us. In the West, food is described by citing its basic varying ingredients. The seven main classes of nutrients are: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. The West interprets the nutritional value of a food, as the sum total of its chemical ingredients.
In the East, food is described as possessing certain ’qualities’ such as having a ‘warming’ or ‘cooling nature’, ‘carrying certain flavours’ or ‘influencing the body in particular ways’. The East interprets the nutritional value of a food, as a set of energetic properties which describe the ‘actions’ certain foods have on the human body.
What this means is that certain foods we eat are sticky in nature and create a stickiness within our digestive system that it just can’t cope with. The Chinese call this stickiness ‘Damp’, we might label it as 'Toxicity'.
The foods that create this Damp:
Dairy products, wheat flour, bread, yeast, beer, bananas, sugar, sugary fruits, sweeteners, saturated fats, nuts, rich meats like pork and beef, concentrated juices.
I know that these foods cause digestive problems because not only have I seen it with my patients, but I’m also personally affected by them. Over a 10-year period my digestive system has become more and more sensitive and today the foods listed above, are rarely seen on my plate.
Luckily we can also consume foods that clear Damp and remove the inflammatory toxicity from our guts.
The foods that clear this Damp:
Fresh lemon juice (in water), Green Tea, Jasmin Tea (Kombucha - which is fermented green tea works just as well), garlic, onion, parsley, Thyme radish, kidney beans, grapefruit and Peppermint. I prefer fresh mint that's been steeped in hot water for a while as it has a lovely cooling effect too.
When these food principles are applied, it's amazing how quickly the human body can come back into balance.
Now dietary advise can be tricky because we are all so different and therefore respond quite differently to the foods we consume. However, after a decade I’ve noticed that certain foods are responsible for many of those signs previously discussed.
The Asian cultures have a way of looking at food that is quite different to us. In the West, food is described by citing its basic varying ingredients. The seven main classes of nutrients are: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, fibre and water. The West interprets the nutritional value of a food, as the sum total of its chemical ingredients.
In the East, food is described as possessing certain ’qualities’ such as having a ‘warming’ or ‘cooling nature’, ‘carrying certain flavours’ or ‘influencing the body in particular ways’. The East interprets the nutritional value of a food, as a set of energetic properties which describe the ‘actions’ certain foods have on the human body.
What this means is that certain foods we eat are sticky in nature and create a stickiness within our digestive system that it just can’t cope with. The Chinese call this stickiness ‘Damp’, we might label it as 'Toxicity'.
The foods that create this Damp:
Dairy products, wheat flour, bread, yeast, beer, bananas, sugar, sugary fruits, sweeteners, saturated fats, nuts, rich meats like pork and beef, concentrated juices.
I know that these foods cause digestive problems because not only have I seen it with my patients, but I’m also personally affected by them. Over a 10-year period my digestive system has become more and more sensitive and today the foods listed above, are rarely seen on my plate.
Luckily we can also consume foods that clear Damp and remove the inflammatory toxicity from our guts.
The foods that clear this Damp:
Fresh lemon juice (in water), Green Tea, Jasmin Tea (Kombucha - which is fermented green tea works just as well), garlic, onion, parsley, Thyme radish, kidney beans, grapefruit and Peppermint. I prefer fresh mint that's been steeped in hot water for a while as it has a lovely cooling effect too.
When these food principles are applied, it's amazing how quickly the human body can come back into balance.
5. Hydration
We know it’s good for us. Drinking water helps to maintain the balance of body fluids, which in turn aids digestion, absorption, circulation, the creation of saliva, transportation of nutrients and the maintenance of body temperature.’
About 90% of my patients sit down in front of me and say “I know I don’t drink enough water, I could probably could do better.”
Consuming the amount of water that we ‘know’ is good for us during the day, can sometimes seem like a mammoth task. If I have a particularly busy day, I will often set an alarm on my phone to remind me to drink water. It goes off at 9.00am, 11.00am, 3.00pm and 5.00pm.
I also found a ridiculous easy way to hydrate myself, so created a rule I could commit to.
Drink just one large glass of water completely, before getting out of bed each morning.
That’s it, job done. By doing this, I at least start my day hydrated and I seem to have more of a natural thirst during the day which encourages me to drink. Sometimes I also add fresh lemon to ensure I clear any Damp.
About 90% of my patients sit down in front of me and say “I know I don’t drink enough water, I could probably could do better.”
Consuming the amount of water that we ‘know’ is good for us during the day, can sometimes seem like a mammoth task. If I have a particularly busy day, I will often set an alarm on my phone to remind me to drink water. It goes off at 9.00am, 11.00am, 3.00pm and 5.00pm.
I also found a ridiculous easy way to hydrate myself, so created a rule I could commit to.
Drink just one large glass of water completely, before getting out of bed each morning.
That’s it, job done. By doing this, I at least start my day hydrated and I seem to have more of a natural thirst during the day which encourages me to drink. Sometimes I also add fresh lemon to ensure I clear any Damp.
For more tips on outrageous good health, read the new book.
