Climate, Health and TCM II

Leave a reply

Dry arid environments in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were considered to be damaging to the health of the airways, skin and colon, these 3 organs were grouped together in TCM because they were all considered to be organs of excretion. Two of these ofcourse have ongoing continuous contact to the air around us and if we suffer from a condition such as eczema with asthma for instance the dryness of the air can have a profound effect on the way we feel.

Dry air can come from air conditioning indoors and drought outdoors, dusty and smoky places tend to dry the air too. Our airways are not suited to such conditions because an important part of what protects our lungs is the moist lining of the nose, pharynx and trachea- our whole windpipe. If the lining dries up then dust, pollen, germs and soot do not get trapped in the sticky moist airways mucosa (skin that is naturally moist like inside your mouth).

Smoking is a common cause of airway dryness too and also has the effect of suppressing the fine hairs (cilia) lining your windpipe that normally help brush trapped airborn particles backwards out of your lungs. Dryness in TCM when applied to it’s effects on the colon explains alot of constipation. Dryness is said to help dissipate chi, like water leaving through our breath, we lose far more water through our lungs than through our bladders.

Coldness in TCM is said to make your energy sink, it can really stiffen you up particularly in your joints, most of our joints are not very well padded at all so if it is cold outside our knees and spine lose mobility particularly as we get older. Bones are easier to break  in cold weather and the action of the kidneys and bladder were considered impaired in the cold too, it always seems harder to withhold yourself from urinating when you are cold and we then even feel colder once we do so because something warm (urine) has left  the body. Our procreative potentials were regarded as the domain of our kidney chi, this is why TCM explains the feeling of sudden heat loss after sexual climax.

The action of the adrenal glands in TCM were considered to be part of your kidney energy or chi because they are physically attached to the top of the kidney,  in Western Medicine (WM) the adrenals are considered to be a part of the endocrine system because they secrete hormones, the most well known of which is adrenaline. It is considered in TCM that too much coldness exhausts your adrenals faster and lowers the libido too. Coldness is considered in TCM to be strongly related to the emotion of fear and is often one of the last things a person feels before they die.

TCM explains health concepts as a series of relationships, it is a science of pattern identification where all things can be considered as connected through a web of influence between diet, rest, stress, environment.

Climate and Health in TCM

Leave a reply

As the experts debate the climates’ present and future trends locally and globally, the question of what it all means for human health crops up.  Tropical disease can creep into sub tropical zones with a rise of mean temperature and extreme weather conditions can cause quite acute health concerns for us but day to day how do seasonal weather changes affect us?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) weather conditions have been considered relevant to human health for many centuries, not just in broad terms for everybody but for individuals too. This is obvious to some extent in the preferences that we as indivuals have for hot or cold, humid or dry and moving (wind) or still air. In TCM wind is referred as the “spear-head of all disease”, in TCM theory the wind is believed to cause colds and flu’s which somewhat stands to reason when we think about how viruses, bacteria, spores, pollens and particle pollution are swept up into the air by wind and are therefore much easier for us to breath in.

Wind was also thought to make people and even animals more aggressive, unpredictable and impatient, this is because wind is considered to be a “Yang” (male-like) force so something already quite Yang like a  man, a child or a dog becomes too Yang and over excited whereas women tend to like the wind more because they are usually not as Yang to begin with.

Ask any primary school teacher what they think of windy days and you will see them roll there eyes and tell you how unruly the kids can get on those days. My father when he was a boy living on a farm would set rabbit snares of a night time with his brothers and they always would catch more rabbits on a windy night because the rabbits seemed to run around more. Dogs seem to yap more too. In the Sahara being constantly buffetted by the Sirroc (strong seasonal winds) for days on end are said to at times drive men mad.

Women in TCM are generally considered to be more adversely effected by stints of damp weather rather than the wind*(unless a woman’s energy type is considered to be more “wooden”), digestive concerns tend to be more prevalent during rainy spells. An extreme example of too much rain is severe gastric and cholera in flood conditions.

Women in many cultures are considered to be more lunar and water like (emotional) than men are, the length of the lunar year is even the same length as the menstrual cycle. Women tend to suffer from fluid retention more than men do and feel less energised when it is wet than men do. Dampness tends to slow people in their thinking as well as their actions, even flies are easier to swat when there is high humidity in the air. As we age our climate preferences become stronger because our resistance to what doesn’t agree with us lessens.

You may have heard about a well known health study that concluded “feeling cold” doesn’t “give you a cold” Adding wind to the equation may have changed the conclusion.

Diet, Eating and TCM

Leave a reply

There are numerous types of diet aimed at weight control and better digestive function but how and when we actually eat matters too. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), not only is the nutritional content in our food important but so too is eating in a peaceful setting, away from the work station and not thinking about anything that upsets us. In TCM it is thought that whatever we are thinking when we eat is swallowed with our food, that our digestive organs are more open and sensitive to emotional upset when we eat.

There are good physiological reasons why eating on the run is not good for us too. When we ingest food our digestive organs spring into action and need more of our circulating blood to power the digestive process, if we insist on being physically and/or mentally active while we eat, our muscles and brain actively compete with our bellies for more of our precious blood flow.

This is easy to prove to oneself, try eating identical meals in two different scenarios at the same time of day, what feels better between eating in peace and quiet with no distractions or answering the phone between mouthfuls as you hurriedly walk back from the take-away? Is it possible to enjoy what you eat when you are just “filling the hole” ? Do you think you might be more susceptible to indigestion eating this way? Is it really hygeinic dropping crumbs all over your work station? Recent health studies have shown that your PC keyboard has more germs on it than toilet seats do.

The failure to chew enough before swallowing makes it harder for food to be broken down by our digestive organs, poor posture crams our stomachs for space and insufficient exercise can make us more prone to constipation- there are many factors that effect our digestion. In TCM eating late at night is not considered ideal and meals are considered best when they all contain the “5 flavours” sour, sweet, spicy, salty and bitter.

We all need the same nutrients but a person with Crohn’s disease has to avoid gluten, the lactose intolerant need to avoid dairy, if you have haemachromatosis you should go lightly with your iron intake and most of us never drink enough water. Learning about our own idiosyncrasies is helpful if we want to live long and happy lives. If you do want to take suppliments it is better to get an expert opinion rather than self-diagnose and choose products that are properly absorbed in your alimentary tract, portaloo contractors often find piles of undigested tablets in the bottom of their tanks that have passed straight through their users.

One frequent area of disagreement between medical practitioners and natural doctors is the necessity of vitamin and mineral suppliments, doctors often say that suppliments are unnecessary because there are plenty of them in our food already but naturopaths may recognize their patient’s symptoms to signs of mineral and vitamin deficiency. They may both be right if the patient’s digestive tract just isn’t extracting what it should from the food they eat.

Keep an honest record of what you eat for a while and compare it to what nutritionists recommend and see what you come up with.

 

Sprains and Strains

Leave a reply

The main difference between a sprain and a strain is that strains are injuries that are confined to the muscle and sprains effect the other soft tissues around the joint as well as the muscle.

Both can be painful but strains do not effect the stability of the joint where sprains do. A strain can tear a muscle and cause restricted movement but fortunately muscles have a rich supply of  blood and therefore oxygen which means they heal faster than sprains do.

Sprains by definition can not only tear muscle but also damage the ligament, tendon and cartilege, these tissues have a poorer supply of oxygen and take longer to heal. Muscle is red because it has alot of blood inside it, ligament, tendon and cartilege are white because they contain less blood.

Sprains are graded according to the severity of the damage done, a grade 3 sprain is a complete disruption of stability of the joint where the ligament is torn away completely, when this happens to your knee good early splinting may be enough to set it on it’s course to healing but if this doesn’t work surgery may be the best option. A grade one sprain on the other hand does not disrupt the ligament and can be indistinguishable from a strain. Grade 2 spraining is in between one and three, partial ligament damage causes slight instability and if you are careful not to re-injure yourself will generally not require surgery.

Sprains to the ankle are one of  the most common and although they can be severe you have a better chance of avoiding surgery than an equivalent knee sprain.

Ice packs to your freshly sprained joint or strained muscle is usually good first aid, anti-inflammatories can help too just remember that though the pain is diminished the damage is still there so an immediate return to the activity that caused it is unadvisable.

Interferential, ultrasond and laser acupuncture directly to the injured area can be effective treatment. Massage, acupuncture, osteopathy, physio and chiropractic can be used on the injury site when the inflammation fades (when redness, swelling and touch sensitivity subsides) and can be used to contain the problem in the short to medium term.

Ignoring sprains and strains will not make them go away unless it is only mild damage,  when you are limping and favouring one side the other leg joints on both sides of your body are used more and in a lop sided way. If your knee, hip or lower back starts to inexplicably become stiff or painful weeks or even months after your sprain or strain there is a good chance it could be related.

No matter what therapy you choose a practitioner who takes a “global” approach protecting your other leg joints will help you most.

Bursitis

Leave a reply

The bursae are small fleshy sacks filled with fluid that help our joints move smoothly and absorb shock. If you think of bursa as a zip lock bag with a small amount of oil inside and no air and then rub it between your hands, your hands will easily slide against each other and this is how bursa work. There are about 160 individual bursa in your body and they are found near your joints where muscle and tendon slide against each other and over your bones, without bursa your joints would creek and grate within.

Like many other musculo-skeletal problems in the body bursitis is often age related and seems to effect women more often than men. The symptoms of bursitis may include swelling and inflammation in your joint but the main one is pain that is made worse when you press against it. Bursitis is not like that “good pain” feeling that you get when a stiff muscle is rubbed, it is aversive to the touch. Bursitis may feel like arthritis but strictly speaking it is not because it does not primarily effect the joint capsule.

Because bursitis can be age related it may manifest with other musculo-skeletal diseases, so if you doctor has told you that you have it but your symptoms are slightly different from those described here that might be why.

Bursitis is caused by repetative strain injuries, cumulative muscle micro trauma, having one leg shorter than the other, arthritis, standing for long periods, accidental trauma and poor posture. Good old fashion neglect won’t help you either, being generally unfit will not help your bursitis nor will poor water consumption.

When your bursitis is very acute doing any exercise may be painful but when you are in your normal day to day living with bursitis routine, regular stretching exercise is a great idea. Ultra-sound, friction massage, ice packs (4-5 times a day), rest and anti-inflammatories can all help relieve the symptoms of bursitis.

In serious cases of bursitis that do not respond well to other measures, fluid may be aspirated via a needle to relieve pressure inside your effected joint. This type of therapy can be effective  thougfh a little on the uncomfortable side, if you try the gentler options first aspiration may be unnecessary.

I have always found massage to be effective on bursitis (Self Massage too), not so much on where the bursitis pain is actually felt but the muscle attached to the particular tendon that the bursae is cushioning. For instance when a person has hip bursitis you will find thigh muscles not far from the pain site that need to be loosened and stretched. Bursitis usually results from the over use of particular muscles.