Diet/feeding:
Other daily lifestyle observations:
Thanks for reading - sorry for this extra long post. And in fine internet tradition, here is a dog-potato. Yes, I googled it and found one :P
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I admit without reserve that my background is with herbal medicine. My first master was very well known within the Hurstville Chinese community and was one of the amazing practitioners that makes his diagnoses with pulse and tongue inspection alone. He was the first Chinese practitioner that I've met and I am yet come across anyone as accurate with their diagnoses and formula prescriptions or as generous with imparting their knowledge as he was. I was first his patient and then his student. Most of what I have learnt was not covered in uni (not surprisingly, since Chinese medicine was traditionally an apprenticeship type deal). It was from him that I learnt the important art of diagnosis: being able to recognise patterns of disharmony in an often complicated and sometimes conflicting set of signs and symptoms.
I had weekly consultations along with my mother (and any one else that I was able to drag along), took herbal decoctions every day, and developed a collection of raw herbs very early on in my career. This allowed me to become familiar with herbal medicine. Despite having practiced acupcture in class and at uniclinic, I feel like my relationship with it didn't really kick off until my internship in China. Being in the busy acupuncture department of a government-operated Chinese medicine hospital, I developed point location and needling techniques to sweatshop efficiency. Perhaps some practitioners out there think that this is 'it', but I am personally convinced that these are just the very basics. Hence, I often beef up my acupuncture sessions with a channel massage and cupping routine that I have learnt from another master whose career was based on this practice. It is very effective for many health conditions that involve pain. In a lot of chronic cases, I will teach the patient the routine, as well as any lifestyle observations so that they are able to manage things at home. This also goes for my patients that come to me for internal issues, long term management involves diet therapy and lifestyle observations, as well as exercises that are suitable for their body type. This is my dream: to help bring healing into every day life through conscious living practices.
classic: The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. It makes sense too - external disease are treated via external means (acupuncture) and internal diseases via internal means (herbs), as a general rule.
I cannot begin to explain the complexities involved in acupuncture - it is so much more than just selecting the right points and sticking a needle in it. As it is with herbal medicine, there many things to take be taken into account: the season, the hour, and if it is a woman that is being treated, where she is in the menstrual cycle, the way the needle is being inserted, the order in which the needles go in, their depth, the different kinds of stimulation when the needle is in, the duration that each one of them are left in... The list goes on. Practitioners that only understand dry needling will certainly not be paying attention to those things. But now, back to herbal medicine. You're spending money for a consultation, so you're going to naturally want to make sure you are seeing someone good. Here are some things to pay attention to when you seeing a herbalist: Diagnosis - this is SUPER important. The basic tools of diagnosis is pulse taking and tongue reading. I'm not going to lie here, but pulse diagnosis takes decades of experience (in a busy hospital), and when fully developed, one is able to make accurate diagnoses without the need to ask questions... Which means someone like me will still take a patient's pulse, but will need to ask a whole host of questions in order to come to an accurate diagnosis. If a practitioner is ready to give you herbs after telling them one symptom (e.g. headache, stress, fertility). They're shit. I'm sorry for being harsh, but it's bloody lazy and if they are going to charge you for something that you can do yourself (like reading the back label of a botttle) - then they don't deserve your money! Customisation - another thing that cannot be ignored is the customisation of a formula. We often tell everyone about how Chinese medicine is very individualised and everyone is different, etc etc.. But then a lot of these very same practitioners dish out the same standard formulas to patients left right and centre - what the hell are you guys doing??! I've seen too many patients that were given 'Xiao Yao San' for stress, but it's not for everyone! A lot of them are also yin deficient, and the formula contains warm herbs such as Sheng Jiang (ginger) and Dang Gui (Chinese angelica), herbs that are highly unsuitable for Yin deficiency, not to mention exacerbate damp heat (usually through bad diet), which is also very common. In short: if a practitioner who claims to be a 'herbalist' but doesn't know how to make a custom formula for their patient, they are shit. It's like going to a tailor that is sellling 'off the rack' clothing to their client, who obviously came to them for a custom fit. You know what they are? Bloody charlatans. I know not many patients are willing take raw herbs nowadays, and granules are super expensive (I don't particularly find them to be very effective either), but herbal extracts are also available - I work with Safflower, a great ethical company with high quality, customisable herbal extracts. I encourage practitioners to establish a relationship with them and help them expand their available stock. I am sure this blog entry may bring up some questions about whether my acupuncture sessions would suck because I clearly have more of a background in herbs - I assure you that they don't ;) I will address this in my next entry :) Diuretics (substances that cause your body to lose excess water through urination) these can put your kidneys under stress and is a very temporary solution, because it is fat that you want to lose, and not water (unless you have severe water retention issues, but there are healthier ways to approach this). Long term use can cause the body to become severely dehydrated. Laxatives (substances that induce bowel movements) this is again a very unhealthy solution as it disrupts nutrient absorption, which will weaken the body and can be dangerous if used over long periods of time. The Ideal Way to Approach Weightloss: Chinese herbal medicine - while there are herbs that take 'short cuts' which can achieve the above effects, but the safest, most sustainable approach will be to use formulas that regulate and boost the digestive system, speeding up metabolism. One of the "side effects" of having a more efficient digestive system is that you will be digesting food more quickly, which means that you will get hungrier quicker. It is then your duty to eat right, which leads onto the next point... Diet and eating - one of the myths associated with a 'healthy diet' is that salads are good for you... It isn't. Salads are often raw and refrigerated before eating. While I am not going to dispute its nutritional content, food that is eaten raw and cold compromise the function of the digestive system by creating un-necessary work, using up your body's precious resources to warm the food up before natural metabolic processes can take place. Warm, cooked and easily digestible foods are best, avoiding too much salt and sugar. Another thing to observe is the time in which you eat, so that your body can establish its natural rhythm, preparing stomach acids in anticipation of the next meal in a timely manner for efficient digestion. The way you eat your food should also be considered. Chew small amounts, slowly and completely. This breaks your food down into digestible pieces and coats foods in your saliva which contains enzymes that will assist in the digestive process. Naturally all of this is enhanced with a meal plan that ensures you cover all the right food groups, as an improper diet leads to low energy, meaning less capacity to exercise! I recommend seeing a nutritionist and dietician to consult on this matter - they can put you on the right path with what to include and exclude from your grocery list, as well as giving you tasty recipes that will support your weight loss goals. Exercise - something to note is that men burn more fat when they exercise before eating, women burn more fat after eating. Remember that you don't necessarily have to sweat it out at the gym using all sorts of equipment for it to count - there are many ways to exercise on your own, such as youtube yoga routines (I recommend yin yoga!) or just simply take a nice walk around the neighbourhood. For those that enjoy learning yoga routines in a friendly, sociable environment, find a nice yoga class to join in your area :) Massage and cupping - there is a special meridian massage and cupping technique that helps tighten and tone skin while removing cellulite and reduce stretch marks, providing an inside-out approach to weight loss. So far I am not sure if there are other practitioners that offer this, but I teach these skills through a three week program with tools provided so that my patients are able perform the techniques at home, speeding up results and empowering them to take charge of their own body. For more information, please visit my website. |
Other Posts
1. Why I don't specialise
2. What really grinds my gears 3. Dear patients: don't come back! 4. ♫ My Drug Dealer was a Doctor ♪ 5. Yes, I treat my pets! 6. A tribute to my friend Niels 7. AHPRA: pay up or you can't practice 8. Drugs and Chinese medicine - Marijuana 9. Chinese herbal medicine - centipede cough pills 10. Weight loss and Chinese Medicine 11. Characteristics of a Good Chinese Herbalist 12. My Background/Treatments 13. Caring for Older Dogs 14: Chinese Postpartum Care Archives |