Magnolia buds are out in Melbourne. We use them for the nasal congestion of colds, sinusitis, and hayfever. The hairs can be a little irritating though so the buds are put in cloth bags when we brew tea from them.
The drawing is from “Famous Flowers of China”
Go for complete diets not cherry picked ‘superfoods’, and whole foods rather than supplements. Whole foods are less likely to have enough of any bio-active constituent to cause immediate adverse effects, and in complete diets there are often foods that balance and moderate the possiblity of excessive consumption of each other.
There’s an albizzia tree in my neighbourhood. We use the flowers and bark to loosen up mental and emotional blockage, and the physical conditions that can occur with them. The flowers work more on the emotions and lift mood, the bark acts more on the physical conditions that come from getting hung up about things.
The flowers are gorgeous on the tree, but they go an earthy brown colour when they dry.
Hung up. Does anyone say that these days?
Sometimes ‘old-fashioned remedies’ make more sense, like using a topical treatment for localised infection.
Recently I went to a GP because I had a blind cyst in my ear lobe. Naively I expected that he would lance it, but he said they didn’t do that kind of thing anymore and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic. Don’t get me wrong, antibiotics are an indispensable weapon in the fight against potentially fatal disease, but most people are now aware of both the personal and population wide consequences of unnecessary antibiotic use. And it seems like the nuclear option to use a systemic anti-bacterial to treat a small local area of infection.
I applied a poultice of ground herbs called San Huang Xi Ji and after three days the cyst was gone.
The next time I went to a GP it was because I thought I had an ingrown toenail, and expected to get a referral to a podiatrist. But because the tissue next to the toenail was inflamed an antibiotic was again prescribed. San Huang Xi Ji was not the ideal poultice to use, but I had some ground up so that’s what I went with. Four days of application overnight relieved the inflammation.
The picture isn’t of my ear, and nobody wants to see my toenail.
As if to order, The Guardian is running an article on anti-biotic resistance this weekend, it seems to be a major concern of England’s chief medical officer.
A journalist recently asked me for some explanations of people’s expectations of Chinese Medicine. She had been commissioned to write an article for the LUX* Resort group, and she probably hope for some pithy quotes that she could tie together in a brief wrapup. If only explaining Chinese Medicine were that easy.
The journalist asked me because I’m going there, I’m on their page.
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The Moxa Punk will often show people how they can keep themselves well. Here’s a video showing how to do Japanese rice grain moxibustion. Thanks to Michael Warren.
Join me in the cosy, ecologically friendly warmth of the Van Raay Centre at CERES to learn how to cup and scrape. We Chinese Medicine practitioners use these methods to treat a range of conditions, but historically they are folk medicine practices used by regular folk. So this workshop is intended to teach people who are not health professionals how to use these methods to keep themselves, their friends, and family well.
Come dressed so that you can expose your shoulders and upper back.
Just 16 places for this one, get in quick.
Chinese Medicine says that you shouldn’t ride your bicycle with your back exposed, but so did my cycling coach in the 80’s. [Read more…]
Germs don’t cause colds and flu, low immunity does. How’s that for a controversial opening?
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Germs are not all bad. Even H. Pylori that can cause peptic ulcers may be healthy for some.
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