Cooking with herbs...Herbal beef strog

Cooking with Herbs – Herbal Beef Strog

This is my herbal version of a classic Russian dish. Herbal beef Strog switches out cream for yoghurt, and by adding some Chinese herbs and vegetable chowder to the dish is still rich and hearty but more healthier than it’s original.

Purpose in Chinese Medicine:

Tonfiy Blood and Yin

It's got some warming herbs (pepper) as well as blood building dang gui, beef and

Yoghurt can moisturize and help Yin...as well as Huang Qi which is great if you get a bit of dry skin in winter.

Perfect Season: WINTER

Chinese Herbs Used:

Huang Qi – Astragalus

  Dang Gui – Angelica Root

These 2 herbs are super easy to get in Asian grocery stores. You will need to grind the Huang Qi into a powder in a coffee grinder yourself. If you can't grind it up, you can use it in the same way as the Dang Gui and take out before serving, but you might need to add more cornflower at the thickening end of the recipies.

You have two options with cooking, both methods start out using the frypan.

• cook in a fry pain – 30 mins cooking time
• cook in slow cooker – 5-6hrs cooking time. – this is better if you have the time, the meat will be more tender, easier to digest. A much better cooking method for a depleted person. (Spleen Qi, Blood or Yang deficient person)

INGREDIENTS:

1 Onion – red or brown

4 pieces of garlic

9-12 button /normal mushrooms

½ cup Greek Yoghurt

2 beef steaks (about 600-800g beef)

olive oil or butter

400ml Chicken stock

3 tblsp cornflower

250ml thick vegetable chowder stock (home made – see recipe)

3 pieces Dang Gui

3 teaspoons powdered huang Qi

3 tablespoons Woostershire Sauce

Black pepper, ground (about 10 grinds)

10 sprig of parsley

1. Dice onion and garlic. Sauté in Fry pan until browed    
2. Cut beef into strips and add beef strips to onion and garlic mix. Cook until beef is browned. Remove from pan and set aside. 
3. Wash and slice mushrooms. In fry pan, add a small amount of butter or oil and add sliced mushrooms, stirring until mushrooms are slightly browned.
   1. Use butter (if you have no dampness) or oil (have some dampness)

OPTION A: FRY PAN METHOD (Quicker)

1. In mushroom pan, add woostershire sauce, stir through mushrooms.
2. Add beef mixture
3. Add vegetable chowder (can be added from frozen and defrost in pan as you go), chicken stock, about 10 grinds of black pepper, 8 sprigs of chopped parsley (use the other 2 for garnish) and Dang Gui pieces. Stir thoroughly on medium heat.

Adding the vege stock from frozen cup

beef, mushrooms and chicken stock mixture

Chicken stock...add about 400ml

1. Mix through your powdered Huang Qi which will thicken the mixture slightly.
2. Cover frypan with lid, and let mixture simmer on medium heat for around 20 minutes, stirring as needed (do not let stick to bottom).
3. While this is cooking you can prepare and cook vegetables or pasta part of the stroganoff dish.
4. After 20 minutes the meat will start to become tender, and your sauce will be full of flavour. Before the last step, you will need to stir the dish and remove the 4 pieces of dang gui. They will look much more soggy than before. If you can’t remove them, it is ok to eat the herb, but it will taste rather woody, so best to remove it before serving to your guests!
5. The last part of the dish will be to thicken the mixture. Add 1 teaspoon at a time of heaped teaspoon cornflower and stir immediately. Around 3-4 teaspoons will be needed to thicken the mixture.

1. Turn off stove and add around ½ cup of Greek yoghurt, this will thicken the mixture and turn it the classic stroganoff creamy colour.

      

OPTION B: Slow cooker option:

4. Place mushroom mix and beef strips mix to your slow cooker.
5. Turn slow cooker onto low heat
6. Add woostershire sauce, vegetable chowder (can be added from frozen and defrost in pan as you go), chicken stock, about 10 grinds of black pepper, 8 sprigs of chopped parsley (use the other 2 for garnish) and Dang Gui pieces. Stir thoroughly.
7. Mix through your powdered Huang Qi which will thicken the mixture slightly.
8. Cover with lid and let simmer on low heat for 5-6 hours.
9. After 5-6hrs, give the slow cooker mix a stir and and remove the 4 pieces of dang gui. They will look much more soggy than before. If you can’t find them to remove them, it is ok to eat the herb, but it will taste rather woody, so best to remove it before serving to your guests!
10. The last part of the dish will be to thicken the mixture. How thick you want your stroganoff to be and how thick it already is will depend on how much cornflower you need to add. Add 1 teaspoon at a time of heaped teaspoon cornflower and stir immediately. Around 3-4 teaspoons will be needed to thicken the mixture.
11. Turn off the slow cooker, and add around ½ cup of Greek yoghurt, this will thicken the mixture and turn it the classic stroganoff creamy colour.

Beef Stroganoff can be served in a number of ways. It is generally to rich to eat by itself, but can be served as a pasta sauce, with rice or with steamed vegetables or vegetable past (made from zucchini, squash and carrot etc)

RECIPIE IS COPYWRIGHT MARIE HOPKINSON 2017. Reproduce only with express permission 

What you need to know about Dampness

Damp or dampness is a name you will probably hear frequently from your Chinese medicine (CM) practitioner.
Before you discovered CM you probably never heard of dampness. It’s a concept that is unique to CM, today Herbalist Marie Hopkinson talks about damp, and everyone should know about Dampness.

Firstly, damp is one of six pathogenic influences on the body. it can come from the outside environment or accumulate internally.

Internal dampness happens when our digestive functions fail. In Chinese medicine, the digestive functions are attributed to our SPLEEN, STOMACH and INTESTINES (Small and Large Intestine) organs as well as fluids being metabolised by other organs like the SAN JIAO (or tripple heater/tripple warmer), the KIDNEYS and BLADDER.

Rather than get too bogged down in a lot of detail, I’ll focus on the main culprits of dampness and how we can go about preventing and ridding it from our body.

The Spleen and Stomach essentially function as a cooking pot on the stove model:

The Stomach receives the food, and the Spleen function is to digest it with its energy (represented by the fire below the pot). The Stomach is slightly hotter that the rest of our body (around 38 deg Celc).

The Stomach requires the Spleen’s energy to do it’s job of breaking up foods and sending them down the rest of the digestive tube to either be absorbed or eliminated as waste.

In CM, we say the Stomach/Spleen digestive combo  likes WARM, MOIST and COOKED and hates COLD, DRY, RAW. What we mean by hates and likes is that the warm, moist and cooked are easier to digest – they take up less energy so your body likes that.

Cold, dry and raw foods take up more energy (use up more of the Spleen’s power or function) so they can weaken it if you eat too much, or particularly if you already have a weak Spleen or weak body from something else (like your just getting over a surgery or severe illness or cold and flu where you sweated a lot) then your body overall might be weaker and more susceptible to the greater demand that eating COLD, DRY and RAW foods places on you.

Dampness happens when the spleen gets overwhelmed, and fails to do it’s job – that is “Transform and transport”. The Spleen function gets buggered up and overwhelmed by:

• overeating – the stomach gets too full and there is no room to digest. too much food means overworking the Spleen and its gets tired and weak
• Eating “hard to digest foods” – this is basically anything that requires more work to do, tires out the Spleen function. (raw, cold, heavily processed and dry foods are all good examples)
• Eating whilst getting upset
• eating whilst thinking too hard or doing mental activities – especially habits created where this is a regular occurrence.
• Eating irregular meals – some too big, some too small, missing meals, then having one giant big meal etc.

Think of dampness like a muddy marsh. A sludge.

it’s like a fog or cloud in our body, it weighs down the limbs and muscles – your arms and legs feel heavy and sluggish when we are overwhelmed by dampness.

Cloudy thinking, muddle headedness, bloating, diarrhoea or loose stools and tiredness where you feel worse from doing things and especially heavy feeling in your body are all symptoms that can mean dampness is part of your CM diagnosis.

Some foods in CM are considered especially dampening. These are greasy, rich, sugary, creamy types of foods. Anything that is

Damp can come into our body from the environment too. In Australia we don’t see this as much because our climate is mostly dry. Living or working in damp places like a basement that’s damp, being in the pool or water a lot, working in a damp place where there is moist air can all cause symptoms of damp in the body that might be coming from the external environment rathe than an overstrain of your digestive functions (that would be called internal dampness).

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is provided in public interest of keeping people as healthy as possible. Common sense should always be applied. Too much of anything can be hazardous to health. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice or diagnosis by a health practitioner. If you have a health condition, you should check with your health care practitioner before using foods as medicine treatments, if you are in any way unsure about the suitability of the food agents, herbs or recipies for your body. In an medical emergency always contact emergency services, call 000 in Australia.

Chinese medicine organs and some words are capitalised to indicate they are different to the biomedical understanding of the organ. In Chinese medicine each organ represents the system of function according to ancient principals of understanding, including the channel system, spiritual, mental and physical functions. The traditional understanding of Chinese medicine organs is actually a functional system often encompass many now biomedically defined aspects such as lymphatic and endocrine (hormone) functions that are attributed to that organ. A lower case letter of an organ will indicate it’s reference to the biomedical organ. EG Kidney  (the Kidney functions of CM) and kidney (biomedical/physical kidney).

This article is written by Marie Hopkinson, the Chinese Herbalist & Acupuncturist at Metro Health and Medicine in North Perth. Marie is available for consultation by calling 1300 132 830 or email info@metrohealth.com.au

(C) Marie Hopkinson 2016 Reproduction permissible only with express permission of author.

Chinese Medicine's Study Stress Tips

Study Stress is normal when you've got end of year final exam time, assignments deadline looming...not to mention the normal life pressure like work, relationships, kids, family and health.

The good news is that Chinese Medicine can help you get through the end of semester season.

Herbalist and Acupuncturist Marie Hopkinson gives some study tips:

• Study overworks the EARTH element according to Chinese Medicine (CM). The Earth element relates to digestion of food as well as thoughts.
• Eating regular meals, even though things can be busy is a good idea in your study periond. Try to keep the "meals" smaller and lighter during the lunch time. Have a good breakfast, lighter lunch and a moderate dinner. making vege or vege/bone broth soup is a good way to have something pre-organised for lunch.
• Nuts are a great snack for students. Nuts are high in protien as well as in Chinese Medicine they benefit the Earth element. The best nuts for study are roasted WALNUTS (looks like a little brain!) then roasted almonds, and then any other nuts other than cashews and peanuts.
• Take light walks on your breaks. Moving around clears energy stagnation, gets blood flow to your limbs.
• During exam time start each day with some kind of exercise in the morning.
• The body and particularly the EARTH element likes regularity.
• Mix up study time between sitting and standing, read more about the benefits of creating a standing work station here.

TIPS FOR DEALING WITH STRESS.

Scents for study:

Research shows 2 scents you should be aware of when committing things to memory  Cinnamon & Lavender, one study was done with 3 groups of people doing memory puzzles in rooms with room one - no smell, room two cinnamon and room three lavender essential oils. They found Cinnamon better than no smell, and lavender worse than no smell for memory recall.

Other studies show peppermint to be positively associated with memory. Read some of the research on odours and scents here.

Essential oils are a good way to use scent for study, as they are pure and you can regulate the scent volume yourself. At metro health, we have also made one of our fragrant earth incenses called MINDFUL that helps with memory and study - it's based on Cinnamon, aniseed and ginger (which is good for the Will-Power in Chinese medicine).

If you have trouble getting motivated, you might want to listen to marie's podcast on energy stagnation.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This information is provided in public interest of keeping people as healthy as possible. Common sense should always be applied. Too much of anything can be hazardous to health. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice or diagnosis by a health practitioner. If you have a health condition, you should check with your health care practitioner before using foods as medicine treatments, if you are in any way unsure about the suitability of the food agents, herbs or recipies for your body. In an medical emergency always contact emergency services, call 000 in Australia.

Chinese medicine organs and some words are capitalised to indicate they are different to the biomedical understanding of the organ. In Chinese medicine each organ represents the system of function according to ancient principals of understanding, including the channel system, spiritual, mental and physical functions. The traditional understanding of Chinese medicine organs is actually a functional system often encompass many now biomedically defined aspects such as lymphatic and endocrine (hormone) functions that are attributed to that organ. A lower case letter of an organ will indicate it’s reference to the biomedical organ. EG Kidney  (the Kidney functions of CM) and kidney (biomedical/physical kidney).

This article is written by Marie Hopkinson, the Chinese Herbalist & Acupuncturist at Metro Health and Medicine in North Perth. Marie is available for consultation by calling 1300 132 830 or email info@metrohealth.com.au

(C) Marie Hopkinson 2016 Reproduction permissible only with express permission of author.

Autumn Recipies - Huang Qi Hotpot

This simple, Autumn Huang Qi Hotpot can be made as a soup or chowder-type casserole dish and can transition the body through the Autumn to winter seasons. Also It’s Paleo, Vegetarian and Vegan friendly, and gluten free.  

Season: Autumn, Winter

Flavours: Sweet

Element: EARTH

Purpose: Nourish the Spleen and Stomach,

Can be modified for Liver Energy (Qi) Stagnation, Dampness and Blood Deficency (xu).

Cooking style: slow cooking – moistening.

Prep Time: 15-20mins

Cooking Time: 3 to 8 hours in slow cooker.

The Sweet herb of Huang Qi (Astragalus) is a tonic to the Earth Element – the Spleen and Stomach Organs. Here, I’ve combined it with another similar herb that can be used in cooking called Dang Shen or Codonopsis. Dang Shen is similar to (Ren Shen) Ginseing, but much cheaper which makes it suitable for cooking. These two herbs are a tonic to the Spleen organ / Earth Element and are moisturising to your body which is great for the season of Autumn (associated with Dryness). Because these herbs are essentially bits of wood, you don’t want to eat them, so you can pick out of the mixture before serving or place in a muslin bag during the cooking process.

INGREDIENTS:

Root vegetables:

1 Sweet potato

1 small or half a big purple sweet potato

2-3 carrots*

1 onion, or purple onion*

1 small turnip*

1 small parsnip*

*alternately, buy a “soup pack” of veges from the fruit and vege store and use that plus the sweet potatoes.

METHOD.

Cut all vegies into chunks and place into the slow cooker.

2) Add a handful of Dang Shen and 3 strips of Huang Qi

3) cover with water, so water is almost covering the vegetables. Ensure the dry herbs are fully immersed in the water

4) Place on low heat overnight (for 6-8 hours) or high heat for 3-4 hours until vegetables are cooked.

5) Remove bits of Huang Qi and Dang Shen before eating.

Modifications:

Without moderation, this food is a bland, spleen tonic, It’s not intended to be too flavoursome. It’s perfect for someone who has the weak spleen energy or earth element. There is a little bit of pungent flavour coming from the onion and

For more flavour, ½ to 1 cup of chicken stock can be added and the same amount of water removed.

• For deficiency of WOOD ELEMENT or Blood (Xue), add the chicken stock as above and change the carrots to purple carrots if available.
• For Dampness, take out 1 of the sweet potatoes and add ½ cup of barley.
• For (Liver) Qi Stagnation, add more pungent flavours, Upon serving whilst piping hot, add fresh coriander and/or lots of fresh spring onions.

Marie Hopkinson, Metro Health and Medicine©

Healing Vegitarian Paleo Salad

This salad is an unusual mix with a really delicious taste, and only takes 15-20 minutes to prepare.

THIS RECIPE IS VEGETARIAN, PALEO Diet Friendly Options, GLUTEN-FREE, and HEALTHY in a CHINESE MEDICINE sense. IT CAN NOURISH SPLEEN QI, NOURISH YIN and mildly CLEAR HEAT. Combines cooked and raw, eaten Warm.

I created this recipe with a friend who was post-surgery recovery in mind, to aid warding off potential infections. Both Hyssop and Mint have heat clearing functions. Hyssop has historical use dating back to the Bible, where it is often referred to in ceremonial cleaning and cleansing people of infections diseases.

INGREDIENTS:

1 can chick peas

1 purple sweet potato

1 regular sweet potato

~1/4 cup pecan nuts

~1/8 cup pistachio nuts, un-shelled.

4 tomatoes

sprig of fresh hyssop

sprig of fresh mint

Pepper or lemon pepper

METHOD: 

1) Cut up one large sweet potato (or two small sweet potatoes, I like to use half white/purple one and half the regular orange sweet potato), boil in pot on the stove until soft - 10 - 15 minutes.

2) Prepare the salad dressing

• Finely chop one sprig of fresh Hyssop and 1 large sprig of fresh mint.
• Add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil (about 30-50ml)
• Add a large handful of pecan nuts and 2 teaspoons of un-shelled pistachio nuts
• Grind some pepper or lemon-pepper into the salad dressing mix.

3) Cut up tomatoes, and any additional variation ingredients

4) Combine Tomatoes (and any additions) with 1 can of chick peas (drained) in a large, heat proof bowl.

5) once cooked potatoes are soft (but not mushy) remove from heat, strain water from them set aside in strainer ready to add at the very end.

6) Pour salad dressing mixture over the ingredients, stirring thoroughly,  then add potatoes and stir the mixture around carefully to ensure all combined but potatoes don't go mushy.

VARIATION INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Purple onion - Moves Qi (chee or energy) for Liver Qi Stagnation

PALEO DIET OPTION - Remove Chick Peas and increase cooked Vegitables, adding variety from Purple carrot, carrot or pumpkin. Baby Spinach leaves can be added just before serving.

Tips For Going Sugar-Free

Tips For Going Sugar-Free 
- Marie Hopkinson

Trying to kick Refined sugar in your life? 

1) Go cold turkey - it’s better just to quit sugar, throw away your sugary
treats and spend a few days letting your body and mind adjust. Pick a time when things aren't too stressful. After a week, the cravings will significantly subside and your body will thank you enormously.

2) Remove temptation - throw away or put the chocolates and lollies out of sight so your not visually tempted.

3) Plan your treats. Quitting sugar doesn't mean you can’t have any treats. There are tons of sugar-free recipes online. Refined sugar replacements like maple syrup, coconut sugar, dried fruits, agave syrup can be used in cooking or making raw sweet treats. I recommend getting away from the sweet flavour as much as possible but having access to some of these in the first week or 2 will make it easier.

4) Look after your Spleen. The more you nurture your Spleen Energy, the less your body will crave sugar and the better you will feel.

Why Should I quit sugar? 

Sweet is the flavour of the spleen energy in Chinese medicine. It’s a very important organ for digestive processes. A small amount of sweet helps the Spleen, but too much can overwhelm the Spleen Qi (pronounced “chee”). When we crave sweet especially after eating a meal, it indicates the Spleen Qi is weak. (You will usually get diarrhoea or loose bowel movements, and see toothmarks on the tongue as well). Since the Spleen makes energy for your body to function, when it can’t diegest well, it can be a cause of tiredness.

Refined cane sugar overwhelms the Spleen energy. In a biomedical sense, this corelates with rise and subsequent drop of blood sugar levels. This gives you an instant burst of energy or buzz, followed by a low...usually lower than you felt before you ate the chocolate or lollies.

Sweet-natured foods that can nurture the Spleen energy include root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and unrefined, cooked grains like barley, rice and millet.

In a biomedical sense, theses foods have a low gylcemic index, which means they take longer to break down and don’t require the same biochemical reaction that refined sugary-sweet natured foods do. They won’t quickly spike and lower your blood sugar level.

The golden rule of Chinese diet therapy, and longevity practices in general is EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. Balance isn’t just a  token yin-yang symbol, but it’s a guiding key principal to achieve health and longevity in life.

FREE Sugar-Free RECIPES ARE AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE

www.metrohealth.com.au 

Metro Health and Medicine

200 Whatley Crs 

Maylands, WA 6051

Beat the Heat

If you live in Australia, no doubt you know it’s summer. Where I am in Perth, it's been up to 44 degrees already! Did you know that the weather is significant in the cause of disease according to Chinese medicine? 

Heat is one of “6 Pathogens”, that can invade the body and cause disharmonies. Heat can commonly invade the channels of the neck, face and throat causing sore-throat, hayfever or seasonal allergies. Symptoms of heat include pain – usually severe or throbbing, as heat dries up fluids it can cause body fluids to congeal. For example phlegm will get thicker, yellow or sticky, urine can become more concentrated, darker and the tongue will get redder and more dry (as the moisture of the mouth can be dried up by Heat).

Heat clearing foods can be used as a preventative during the hot weather. Fruit & Veg that are watery and not too sweet like Watermelon, cucumber, lettuce are good at keeping away heat invasions. Drinking Chrysanthemum (Ju Hua) honeysuckle(Jin Yin Hua) and dandelion (Pu Gong Ying) herbs (by themselves or add to green tea) are more targeted ways to clear heat – especially from the face and throat.

Heat can invade not only via the environment but from our diet also. In Australia this weekend (26^th January) we are coming up to Australia Day – a time of national celebration where the classic Aussie thing to do is to drink alcohol. Alcohol’s nature is essentially warm-hot, so combining lots of drinking with warm weather is a perfect environment to cause Heat-invasion disharmonies. Intoxication from drinking can cause what we refer to in Chinese medicine as “toxic heat”. 

Diarrhea, vomiting, breakouts of acne are all common hangover symptoms which essentially come from the self-induced toxic heat invasion. The simplest way to avoid this is to drink less! Space drinks out with water, use some self-control, and enjoy Australia day. If you do find yourself suffering the effects of a toxic-heat hangover Chinese medicine employs more “detox” methods to clear out the toxic heat. Our Tong Kuai Hangover tea is based on the idea of clearing toxic heat from the digestive system via the bowels. Watermelon is a good hangover food as well.    

Sugar Free September - tips for success

Before I even heard of #sugarfreeseptember, 4 weeks ago I went sugar free as part of returning to the Paleo diet. Depending on your health concerns, weight loss needs you can cut out just refined sugar through to anything of the overly sweet nature including things like honey.

Going sugar free can be tough in the first few days, but rest assured your body will thank you. After a week you shouldn't feel any where near as much craving for sugar, but many people return to it because of boredom, or lack of suitable alternatives.

In Chinese medicine, the sweet flavour easily overwhelmes the Spleen energy - the core of our body's energy-making machine. A small amount of sweet helps the Spleen - in the form of sweet vegitables or moderate amounts of grains the body can best benefit from the sweet flavour.

While Chinese medicine advocates cooked over raw foods, the following raw nutty recipie is definatley better than a chocolate bar or cupcake.

I love recipies that are quick to prepare, so over the next month, I'll share my personal favourites for your successful sugar-free September:

Tasty Nut Bars 

Your food processer or blender will become your best buddy in the kitchen, I like to keep a big box of a variety of nuts (all are good except cashews and peanuts), dried fruits and seeds (like sesame seeds, pepitas etc).

When you don't have time for reading recipies, just get a whole bunch of nuts and seeds and blend them down. Using a ratio of around 4:1, (nuts to dried fruit), add your favourite dired fruits to the blender. I like figs, seedless prunes, and a few apricots. If your not too concerned with loosing weight you can add a dash of some sugar-free sweet alternative like Dark Aglave Syrup, 100% pure Maple syrup or honey. when the mixture begins to "ball up" in the food processor then it's a good consistency.

For less sweet flavour, melt a few spoons of coconut oil and add that instead of the syrup options above.

Next, line a metal tin or plastic container with greeseproof paper and press the mixture into the tin, flattening it out.

For variety, each time you make the nut bars you can change up the kinds of nuts you use, or add some carob powder, cacao powder or cocoa powder.

Another option is to roll the mix into little balls and then roll in dried coconut.

Pop your nut bar into the fridge, after about an hour it's ready to cut up and eat.

Having these nut bars or balls in the fridge is a great sugar free snack alternative to chocolates and lollies. It's particularly handy in the first week of cutting out sugar when the cravings and habits are harder to break.  I like to cut mine up and put into zippy bags to take with me so I'm not tempted at work or on the run.

Good luck on your health journey this month with Sugar Free September!

New Years Resolution...Part 2

In part one, we looked at the Spleen's role in thinking.

In the Huang Di Nei Jing it says the "Spleen stores ideas worrying beyond measure with out self-control will injure ideas" 

This concept that the Spleen stores ideas, is a link to digestion of both food and thoughts,  reinforced by another quote from the Nan Jing “...the Spleen stores ideas and intelligence”

This same passage states “the Kidneys store essence and Will”.  Will or Zhi as it is known in TCM, is the activation of our decisions into reality.

So when we make a new years resolution there is a complexity of steps involving success! Let's look at how Chinese medicine sees this process: 

An Idea – Spleen energy. Lack of ideas? Dont know what to do or what you want to do? Lots of Circular thinking - that's weak Splen energy. 

A conversation – no, talking to yourself is not a sign of madness…but you need to decide within yourself what you will do. Not every idea is a good one. Whether we “think it through” , weigh up pros and cons, imagine possible consequences. – this is all the Spleen energy which digests thoughts and imaginations.

A decision – Gall Bladder energy is needed for this part.

The Gall Bladder is responsible for courage. A person with weak Gall Bladder energy will be chronically indecisive, timid and lack courage to put forward their ideas and self into the world. Naturally assertive people who are comfortable with themselves have healthy Gall Bladder Energy. Overly confident people or those who can't help themselves in piping up, having to be right and letting everyone know can be linked to an excess of Gall Bladder Qi.

Follow through - Will Power (Zhi) to act on the decision and follow through. “The spirit of the Kidneys, the Zhi, rules the will, drive, ambition and survival instinct” Huang Di Nei Jing

This is where most new years resolutions come undone. If you already have the resolution then you’ve already decided what you want to do. Kidney energy is what’s needed for a strong Will (Zhi).

An interesting saying in Chinese medicine about the Will is that ACTIVATING THE WILL, STRENGTHENS THE WILL. Which means each time you act on the decision in accordance with your new years resolution, it further strengthens your resolve. 

My next post will focus on ways to strengthen the Will (Zhi) and Kidney Energy. 

These ancient texts of the Yellow Emperors Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing) even mention acupuncture points to strengthen the Zhi, the Gall Bladders decision making energy and other aspects of our mental functions can be treated with acupuncture and herbal medicine. 

To all my readers, Happy New Year. I truly hope this new year is better than you've had so far and more fun than you could imagine! 

Self Help - Natural ways to relieve pain

Pain is an interesting phenomena of the human body.

Firstly, you need to know why you have the pain. Pain is a signal of something wrong and shouldn’t just be ignored or self-medicated without knowing it’s cause. In Chinese medicine, practitioners are all about getting to the root cause of the problem. We don’t just treat the symptoms but the Root as well (In TCM, this theory is called the Ben and Biao).

 

This post is really for people in chronic pain, when you know the cause and may need to manage it. There are lots of natural remedies on this earth which can alleviate pain. Please don’t take this advice as a replacement for seeing your health care professional or Western medical doctor.

Pain in the muscles or joints is a common one where we may easily know the cause. A simple over-working at the gym or sleeping incorrectly can cause us to wake up with muscular pain. If pain continues or gets worse, its advisable to seek professional advice and treatment. 

Natural ways to relieve pain:

• Warming

Heat makes blood vessels expand, which increases the blood supply to the heated area. If there is infection, then heat should NOT be applied. In Chinese medicine we usually suggest using heat at a hot but tolerable level (not a lukewarm hotpack) applied to the area for 20 minutes at a time.

Heat gets Blood flow to the area, while massage or movement can move some of the stagnation and assist repair and healing.  Heat shouldn’t be continuously applied without any movement or massage in-between each dose.

• Acupressure

Thousands of years people have been rubbing where it hurts, as an instinctive reaction to pain. Acupressure and Tuina-Chinese massage has been born out of this instinctive touching where pain occurs to relieve it. Knowing which channels and points are good for different areas of pain is the key to successful self-acupressure.

Here are some of my favourite self-acupressure points which may be useful for pain relief:

 Houxi SI 3 – Neck pain

Make a fist and look at your pinky finger. This point is just above where your pinky finger sits in the fist – under the knuckle bone of the 5^th metacarpal bone. The pressure should be directed towards the thumb under the bones, Use on the same side as the neck pain. For a stiff neck press it for about 2-3 minutes until a dull-achy sore feeling  is in the hand, continue pressing it and slowly rotate the neck from side to side according to it’s natural position.

  Hegu LI4 – Head pain, neck pain, shoulder and arm pain.

This point strongly stimulates release of the bodies natural pain killers. It is commonly called the “headache point” although in my 10+ years of practice I rarely find it a cure-all for headaches, sometimes it can make a strong headache worse. It is a very strong point for treating pain along it’s channel (the Large Intestine Channel) which goes from the index finger to the elbow and up onto the face. Press it the with your thumb or the back of a pen to get the right pressure

Diji Sp8 – Period pain

This point is the number one point for treating abdominal and period pain. It will be very sensitive during the period so the best way to use it with acupressure is to press it in with the back (not sharp) end of a pen. It is 3 cun measurements from the crease of the popliteal crease of the inside of the leg – Easy way to find it is the width of the four fingers, below the crease of the knee. See the picture that will make more sense! The point is right next to the bone.

Press this one for about 5 minutes until the pain starts to subside. When the pain is coming back you can press it again as many times as needed. 

• Plants

Plants have pain relieving properties – ranging from the opium poppy to essential oils, many of our pharmaceutical pain relieving drugs have natural plant origins.

• Essential Oils

Essential oils that can relieve muscular pain or menstrual pain (period pain) are CLARY SAGE and FRANKINSENCE oil. These are not the fragrance oils but the essential oils.

Frankinsense is a Chinese herb called Ru Xiang. It’s main function is to “move Blood” or as some author’s say it “quickens the Blood to dispel stasis”. Stasis or stagnation of Blood causes sharp and stabbing pain which is fixed in location.

These oils would normally be applied externally to the affected area. Don’t apply any oils to an open or healing scar site. It’s always appropriate to seek professional advice about whether it’s ok to use Essential oils in your specific health /sickness circumstances or in cases such as in pregnancy.

• Moxibustion

Heat is used in the treatment for pain in Chinese medicine, going back thousands of years. Heat was used in the form of Moxa, or Moxibustion well before there were microwaves to make wheat-bag hot packs.

If youre not familiar with moxa or moxibustion, you can click here for the post: Whats that Moxa smell all about?

The moxa box is a great invention of Chinese medicine which essentially houses the moxa stick and makes it easy to apply to the self.

MARIE HOPKINSON - Practice Details at www.metrohealth.com.au