Health Blog by YinTeing

Does your sweat have the following:

• You generally do not sweat a lot- even though you are quite active
• When you do sweat, it is sticky and it is unpleasant
• Sometimes, you suffer from rashes or a reaction akin to allergy reaction- it’s as if you are allergic to your own sweat

Usually at the gym, many people especially guys will be literally drenched from sweating while they work out at the gym. By nature, I do not sweat a lot even though on vigorous workouts- and if you suffer from the symptoms that I do above, do read on…

From my research into Chinese healing, if you do not sweat or it is little compare to someone who is doing the same activities as you, then it’s a sign that there’s element imbalance in your body. Your body is too cooling- possibly due to the following:

• High intake of raw food like vegetable salad (cooling in nature)
• Drinking a lot of cold / refrigerated drinks
• Taking showers at night or washing hair at night

continue reading…

I read Dr Mao’s column on Secrets of Longevity at Yahoo Health news. And I find that his articles are very informative- he has attempted to put forward an ancient and effective healing technique in a way that is most easy for one to understand (because in the orthodox text of Chinese Medicine, it would be hard for the untrained to understand the terms and jargons used). 

And yet, I was shocked when I read very negative comments left by some of the readers on the articles that he had written. It is obviously left by readers who find the idea of elements in our body being totally illogical- and not even pausing or keeping an open mind, they write some very sarcastic remarks. 

You may have noticed that lately in this blog, there are more posts written with more energy healing and traditional Chinese medicine cures instead of the more conventional ones that you probably are accustomed to. I am moving and exploring to this part because I’ve found that a lot of answers that cannot be found in conventional medicine could be found in ancient healing systems. 

Following, I want to share some of my observation and personal experiences to show you that by keeping an open mind and learning about ancient healing techniques, they can greatly complement the treatment that you are undergoing now. 

I studied Biology till pre university levels- the Biology pre university paper (STPM) is a very tough paper during my time and high standards were set to it. My mom is a retired staff nurse and I still mix around with her retired friends- they were trained in the days where nursing standards were high and their qualifications were recognized in all Commonwealth countries (the subsequent batches are not longer recognized). She could have easily migrated to UK or Australia because those days, these countries were so short of nurses but she chose to stay back because we were very young then. But her friends who did went overseas to work are now PR of those countries. 

So I had the background- and some of my mom’s friends who were good at what they were doing- when I asked them about a certain health problem, they could give the prescribed options of treatment. 

And yet, most of them are suffering from either one or more of the following problems (and those in orange are what holistic branch of healing could offer):

continue reading…

There are some studies that mentioned that for people fighting cancer, it is better to take raw food because the nutrients would be absorbed by our body more easily and can be used to fight the cancer cells.

Even though studies may deduce results based on logical rationalization, one cannot ignore the wisdom of Eastern healing that have existing for thousands of years. Anything taken in moderation is okay but brought to the extreme, may result in element or energy imbalance in the body.

Raw food like salad has a ‘cooling’ effect on the body. When the body is too cooling, it causes imbalance in the internal organs such as the spleen and liver that controls the ‘chi’ that governs blood flow in the body. This may not make sense to you but do you notice that your hands, limbs and feet gets numb when you take too much of iced drinks, tea and raw food?

Taking a little iced drink during a warm hot day is okay because on a hot day, the heat can also influence the element composition in our body, causing it to be more heaty. But on cooling or windy days, taking cold drinks or raw food are not good.

continue reading…

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:

continue reading…

A friend of mine recently went for Acu cupping  treatment, a traditional Chinese treatment whereby certain meridian points and energy gateway of the body are activated.  Usually, it is believe that the dampness and wind are trapped in certain part of your body, blocking good chi and energy flow- and also bring about pain, especially during winter, when caught in the rain or in cold weather. The pain due to “wind dampness” does not show up in scans and x-rays and the usual conventional treatment is to give the patient painkillers.

Though I believe that another cause of pain could be muscle imbalance- having blocked energy, chi or meridian flow may also cause the pain.

After the treatment, my friend’s back looked horrible. But he told me that the lower back pain that had been bothering him for quite a while due to his past habit of bathing at night/after gym and taking cold drinks are now gone. He has felt much better.

My friend has been very kind- he has allowed me permission to use the photo if it could benefit others.

I know the do-it-yourself acu-cupping equipment can be bought commercially- consisting of a glass cup, sterile needles and suction equipment. But I do not suggest that you do it yourself because you may not know the correct point to poke the needle- and many people cannot bring themselves to poke their body with a needle.

As usual, you need to know that all forms of traditional treatment are usually all inclusive- that means you usually have to watch your food intake. There are certain forbidden food that will reduce the effectiveness of the treatment and certain food that you need to take more. Also you may have to make some lifestyle adjustment such as not bathing at night.

If you suffer from joint pains (especially during cold weather), or any form of arthritis (such as osteoarthritis), TCM doctors would generally tell you to avoid these foods/drinks:

1. Coconut water

Coconut water

continue reading…

I have been spending the past few years researching and trying out ways towards better health. Starting with the obvious, exercising and trying to eat right.  But realizing something was missing then moved me to look for answers. And I learned about core strength.

Developing core strength helps to reduce injury and makes the body stronger. When we normally exercise, we would stabilize the body while moving weights or doing our cardiovascular workouts or stretching. However, in the normal activities of daily living, there’re different from usual exercising. For instance, we would need to quickly stabilize ourselves when walking on a slippery fall or make use of our core muscles when moving our bodies or carrying heavy things. Core exercises like using just the body, or the stability balls or certain exercises with cable machines, medicine balls, etc mimics our activities of daily living where we usually engage the entire body. Think about it, we need our core muscles to hold us upright when we are sitting in the office the whole day- and that involves the entire head, neck, shoulders all the way to the stomach and butts.

Core exercises helped a lot- I do them often. Still, I find a vital piece of the puzzle missing.

Personally, I have a creaking knee problem- on my right knee. It’s strange- except for the fact that it creaks if you move in knee-jerk motions- they generally don’t give me pain. I can run, kick and jump like a normal person without pain or discomfort. When I check from other exercise forums, others who’ve had it shared that according to their doctors, it is okay so long as it does not give problems- unless I ate the wrong food and if the weather is really cold. I guess I got this was because of years of drinking iced milk tea and other iced drinks when my body is the “yin” type- ie is cooling by nature and therefore taking cooling stuff and ice would be detrimental. I seldom take iced drinks now.

Doing strength training exercises on my legs and building my core definitely helps because it makes the major part of my body stronger and was able to prevent more pressure and shock on my knees. That is why I recommend that for those with such problems, or showing initial signs of arthritis and osteoporosis- never avoid exercising because it will accelerate the condition.

Yet, being given this condition made me want to move towards the area of healing. I’ve now build my fitness to a level I am very happy with. But the missing puzzle would be to find other forms of healing methods such as qi gong. I’ve a gut feeling that the creaking is caused by meridian blockages in certain parts of my body. By learning to clear meridian blockages would enable proper and smooth energy, blood, and oxygen flow. And if I do figure a way out of this creaking knee problem that I have, I would be able to help others with similar and related predicament.

This is what I planned to explore in year 2010.  As I go along the way, I hope to write and publish more of these methods in this blog.

Here’s wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR

Asian diet is usually heavy in the composition of carbohydrate- predominantly using rice and noddles. Unlike our Western counterparts, we are not used to taking just meat and salad without solid carbohydrates. Some friends have tried to shift towards a more Westernized but healthy diet consisting of salad and meat.

But often, this diet is tough to work out in the long run, because everywhere we go, from restaurants to parties and gathering would consist of the typical diet such as fried rice, chicken rice, curry rice (mamak food), Indian rice, laksa mee, etc- which one finds difficult to resist. The other option is fast food which is very fattening, not to mention expensive.

If you always feel tired, bloated, unable to move or sleepy after lunch, you would need to cut down the carbs that you are taking with your lunch as well as the MSG content on the food. I used to feel tired after lunch but after making a simple adaptation, I find that I need not go for long walks after lunch:

Photo of my lunch box

continue reading…