Health Blog by YinTeing

Even though there are as many studies that claim coffee is good for health, the deeper effects of coffee on our health are often not known. Just like we know that cigarrettes are not good for our lungs, many people sort of instinctively know that coffee may not be good for health as some claim or as they would like it to be. Herein, I want to offer some insight into the effects of coffee from the aspect of chi regulation in the Chinese healing systems.

Coffee, even decaffeinated ones is known to be one of the most disruptive substance affecting the smooth flow of liver chi. It is said that it would be tough to correct any liver imbalances if a person is a frequent coffee drinker. Coffee also heats the liver and greatly amplify a person’s emotional temperament.

However, a caffeine addict would suffer withdrawal symptoms when they do not take coffee. At first, try using green tea that is cooling in nature to replace coffee for caffeine dose. Then slowly reduce the amount and eventually eliminate it all together.

In Chinese healing systems, the liver affects the following functions in the body:

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This is a ‘calories-for-thought’ for those who love 3-in-1 (coffee/milk with sugar and creamer) pre-packet tea/coffee. On average, one packet of this is equivalent to almost half hour of leisurely walk in the park.

So you may want to rethink if you are taking more than a packet a day: 

Note: Over 95% (and sometimes 100%) of the fat content is saturated fat (lemak tepu) as stated on most the packets. 

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 Dr Joseph J Sweere, in his book, Golden Rules for Vibrant Health in Body, Mind, and Spirit: A Holistic Approach to Health and Wellness, wrote about the significance of recurring dreams/nightmares and the health message that your higher consciousness may be trying to bring you.  

Personally, I’ve had recurring dreams for about 10 years- leaving me with fatigue problems and inability to wake up. When I left a successful job that had clashed with my core values, and face up to things that I’ve been subsciously running away from (and what I felt I was placed on this earth to do), the nightmares subsized, and I’ve been sleeping better. With that, I am able to slowly transition from a night owl to a morning person.

The book contained a lot of advice and tips on areas of complementary healing, and the not-so obvious cause of diseases and health conditions like cancer, stroke, arthritis (he mentioned that if an arthritis person is more forgiving, the pain would be reduced), etc. Below is a case study on one of his patient (I type almost word for word), found on pages 51- 53 of the book:

Interpreting Dreams

Louise had been referred to me for arthritis and the degeneration in her spine, hips, knees, and ankles that had become progressively more disabling every year. She moved very slowly and was in obvious pain as she entered my consultation room. Using two sturdy wooden canes to help support her every step, this large-boned, significantly overweight woman could barely fit between armrests of the generously sized chair next to my desk. In reviewing the comprehensive history form Louise had filled out, I noted she wrote that, in addition to having advanced stages of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis for many years, she also had bloating, congestive heart failure, extreme fatigue, fluid retention, high blood pressure, long standing constipation, and shortness of breath. She listed ten separate prescription drugs that she took, along with several over-the-counter pain relievers. Louise said she almost never drank water, but did drink about 10 cups of coffee a day and two or three cans of diet soda. She needed the caffeine, she said, to help her stay awake because she was always tired. She simply was not getting enough sleep due to the same recurring nightmare, a nightmare that she had experienced many times over a forty-year span.

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As mentioned in my previous article, after discussion with a friend, I’ve decided to change my workout time from night to morning.

Initially, it was a bit difficult to drag myself out of bed to go to the gym early in the morning. What I did was to prepare my gym outfits and pack everything the night before. For non morning persons, when we wake up feeling a bit fuzzy, we will surely be tempted to sleep in- especially when the bags are not packed- these task weighed on our heads and literally stop us from getting up from bed.

So far, I’ve been to a few morning sessions in the gym- and through personal experience, I have to admit it is better. At other times, I lose the battle with the pillow- so I sleep in and skipped the gym. Even though I am not a naturally morning person, I must say that morning exercise is better than at night. It gives me a starter boost for the day.

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After I began to be more physically active, episodes of hypoglycemia has reduced tremendously. That’s why I’ve always encourage folks out there to begin an exercise program- it does wonders to regulate blood sugar in your body, improve circulation, and reduce chronic body pains.

If you find that you are physically hungry even though you have just eaten not long, you may be suffering from a mild hypoglycemia attack, ie your blood sugar dipped. This is normally triggered when you take food that are high on GI, ie food that converts quickly to blood sugar. Think of white bread, sweet drinks, doughnuts, biscuits, etc.

However, I’ve noticed that I do suffer from hypoglycemia if I take the following food combinations with coffee (especially those high in caffeine content):

• biscuits
• white bread with butter and jam

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You are at your desk, hunched in front of your laptop working for hours to meet that looming deadline. You feel maxed out and your brain’s very tired. To top it off, you have not been having enough sleep for the past few days, partly due to insomnia, and partly due to the nightmares about not being able to finish your project in time.

In such instance, most of us will depend on strong doses of caffeine to provide the artificial wake-up boost. Desperate times calls for desperate measure. If one cup is not enough, then five will surely do.

If you have done that, you would have invariably felt the temporarily boost, followed by your mental energy levels sinking into rock bottom- way bottom. You’ll end up feeling more tired that before you have drunk that first drop of coffee. It’s worse when during times of stress, we may be tempted to nibble at some sweets, chocolates or cakes. If you led a sedentary lifestyle- you will find your that these treats work against your favour.

When your brain felt tired or drained out, a cardio boost will help tremedously. If you keep pushing yourself on, your productivity will drop- and you will not be working efficiently as you would want to be.

What would really help is you get your heart rate up by doing some physical activitity- to boost your circulation.

My previous job used to be very stressful- often I would feel that my brain gets very saturated. Like many others, I resort to caffeine boost- in fact, I am a confirmed caffeine addict. However, the fact is, caffeine doesn’t work after a while and you have to find something else to get your brain functioning again. The best way is through exercise… and to watch your food intake- don’t load yourself too much with processed carbs.

What I used to do is I will just leave my cubie and do brisk climbs up and down the stairs- or you can take a brisk walk around the block if your boss don’t mind and if the climate is not hot and humid. Invest 10 minutes of your precious time and you will come back feeling better than before. The operative word here is ‘brisk’, means the pace should not be leisurely- the purpose of the walk is to get your heart rate up and keep it for 10 minutes. OK, if you feel stressed and want to explode, then, you may want to walk at a leisurely pace to just relax your mind.

Last weekend, I was working on a new blogdetailing my travels to Thailand. It was a time consuming process of manually transferring travel photos and notes from Webshots to a new blog but have to be done nevertheless because Webshots is just getting too commercised. I slept at almost 2am on Sunday morning- and woke up next morning in a semi-zombie state. Coffee did not help and after lunch, I felt even more tired.

Then, I decided to hit the gym- and after about 10 minutes of working out in the cardio machine, the semi-zombielike feeling just evaporated.

I used to be able to stay up till 3 or 4am easily but once the age goes up, the staying power goes down. But it is true for most night owls- you will mostly wake up with that hang over or semi-zombie like feeling. If you cannot change your lifestyle to be a morning person, then instead of resorting to frequent unhealthy caffeine boost, try switching to exercise for a change.

Do you suffer from pain in the joints and body that you can’t seemed to explain? Perhaps you have already been diagnosed with having osteoarthritis, or rhemautoid arthritis and wanting to find other ways to relieve the condition. Or you don’t have these conditions but wondering why you seemed to have chronic aches in the body.

If you suffer from any medical condition, please seek appropiate treatment from the doctors. However, I would like to recommend some holistic methods that may help you to relieve your discomfort:

Theory of Inflammation

Due to unsuited diet and inactive lifestyle, the body- fascias, joints and muscles may be inflamed. You could have eaten something that results an allergic reaction to your body- and that could escalate or cause the onset of autoimmunity diseases such as RA. 

There are 4 lifestyle changes you can make to reduce pain and inflammation on your body:

1. Drink lots and lots of water

2. Reduce sugar intake as much as you can

3. Reduce intake of deep fried (even BBQ) food (especially meat)

4. Take fish oil tablets/supplements

5. Adequate exercise

6. Reduce caffeine like coffee/ tea.

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Coffee should be drunk and not inserted up your posterior- Dr Albert Lim (oncologist)

I have heard people recommending the use of coffee enema as a form of detoxification. Cancer patients are told to use the treatment to detox the toxins from the body. Pardon my ignorance but I have no idea that coffee enema treatment means shoving a tube from the anal and then put hot coffee into it. 

Until I read the article on The Star dated 5 October 08- I was shocked. Even with the colon hydrotherapy- I have a lot of reservations about that- basically pumping water up the anus all the way to the digestive track (and if I am not mistaken, the water pressure had to be high in order to clean the intensines properly) seemed all wrong. If you want to maintain a good digestive health, you will need to practice good eating habits- drink lots of water, take fruits and veges. Eating fruits about 10 minutes after a glass of warm water first thing in the morning is good.  On an empty stomach. Why I know it is good? Because I have tried it and I know of people I know who does it. 

Think about it- if you shove pipes from the bottoms up- and clean it with water or coffee, few days later, the dirt or whatever will come back. Toxins take long time to accumulate in the body, you can’t just barbarically flush it off. And it’s worst, when the intensines are so ‘clean’ because the good bacteria obviously had been wiped out in the process, it opens to infections and indigestion. I know, after these treatment, the person normally have to abstain from certain food. But at that time, the entire intensine track is very vulnerable- it is opened to infection and attacks.

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