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An Amazing Senior In Taiwan

March 11, 2010 by Danny | No comments

A few days ago I read an amazing article in a Taiwanese newspaper. It is about a 101 year old man and his health regime.
Mr. Tray, a man who says he is one hundred and one years old, still has a mouthful of his original teeth. He shows them off proudly in the article. He is not nearsighted either, a common affliction for the elderly.
He goes on to describe his health regime. He goes to bed at nine o’clock every night and get up at four-thirty every morning. He begins his day by doing exercises while still in bed. He learned them seventy-seven years ago from a monk in China. After retiring at sixty-six, he began doing those exercises daily and has continued for thirty-five years. His bed exercise include: Breathing (one thousand times into his Dan-Tien), stretching and rubbing his face and head. He also walks at least half an hour every day. He says; “ My body is even better than before I retired.”Besides the body exercise, he also discusses the consequence of having a sanguine disposition/ taking a brighter view of life. He thinks that if you want to have real happiness in life, then you need have less of desire and cultivate a leisurely attitude.
His secrets for the health and long life were simple; “Just have enough nutrition, enough sleep, enough exercise and try to keep a pleasant mood.”
The News article link: “http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=238317” “http://mag.udn.com/mag/life/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=238316

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Make your own Chinese Herbal Salve

January 18, 2010 by Danny | 1 comment

Right now I would like to introduce you to a Chinese herbal salve called “Zi Tsao Gao” or “Purple Grass Salve.” You can make it at home all by yourself.

Efficacy: This is most effective for muscle and joint aches, sprains, headaches,insect bites, itchiness, and hand dermatitis. It is also useful in helping wounds with broken skin heal well.

Just rub the ointment onto your skin. Its pain relieving properties will work quickly to reduce aches, swelling, and other discomfort that irritates the body.

There are seven Chinese Herbs in this salve:

1.Zi Cao: English: Redroot Gromwell
Latin:Lithospermum erythrorhizon
25g
http://alternativehealing.org/zi_cao.htm

2.Dang Gui: English: Chinese Angelica
Latin: Angelica sinensis
You want Dang gui wei (tail) 20g
http://alternativehealing.org/dang_gui.htm

3.Da Huang: English: Drug Rhubarb, Medicinal Rhubarb
Latin: Rheum officinale
20g
http://alternativehealing.org/da_huang.htm

4.Bai Zhi: English: Baizhi Angelica
Latin: Angelica dahurica
15g
http://alternativehealing.org/bai_zhi.htm

5.Ru Xiang: English: Frankincense
Latin: Resina olibani
15g
http://alternativehealing.org/ru_xiang.htm

6.Mo Yao: English: Myrrh
Latin: Myrrha
15g
http://alternativehealing.org/mo_yao.htm

7.Di Gu Pi: English:Chinese Wolfberry Root-bark
Latin:Lycium barbarum L.or Lycium chinense
20g
http://alternativehealing.org/qi_zi.htm

Menthol crystals, approx 20-30 grams, are a very common additional ingredient.
Adding this will make the salve feel cool, help the medicine penetrate through your skin and give it a menthol aroma. You will have to ask a pharmacist if they have any behind the counter. With 1-2 days notice many pharmacists should be able to order a container in for you. Xenex Laboratories Inc. from Coquitlam BC is manufacturer.

The Base is made of
1.Beeswax, 18g, in small pieces or shredded for easy melting
2.Olive oil or Grapeseed oil, 200ml

You can copy the names for all the Chinese herbs then bring it to a Chinese medicine store. Try to go to a store that understands Mandarin Chinese, for there are many varieties of Zi Cao/Gromwell, the most common being a tea making variety. The kind you require are deep purple, long, dried leaves, occasionally still attached to their roots.

Equipment:
a med or large, heavy bottom pot
candy thermometer. You will not be able to use this for candy ever again.
large sieve with fine holes, if you don’t blend your herbs fine.
cheesecloth, 1 package (usually 274 X 91cm) and a metal colander if you do blend your herbs.
A glass 1L measuring cup for adding the beeswax to the hot oil-herb mix. Glass is easiest to remove beeswax from
small jars, approx 125cc or less, with a lid. Or metal salve containers. In sufficient quantity to hold approx 200mL, in total, of salve.
Recommended: a powerful blender I.e. Vitamix with the grain canister. Alternatively, a large mortar and pestle, or a heavy rolling pin, or a hammer and sturdy bag. You could try rolling over the herbs with your truck but I don’t know how clean they’ll be!
Recommended: simple surgical face mask or painter’s/carpenters mask: this can be very effective for avoiding irritation from menthol fumes, and even fumes from the main mix. Especially useful if you have some left over supplies from the H1N1 overreaction.

Production:
1.Try to cut the herbs into small pieces ( I used my powerful Vitamix blender). If you cannot that is ok. Break them by hand, or use a mortar and pestle, or pound them with a hammer, or roll them with a heavy rolling pin. Many Chinese leaves the herbs whole. More active ingredients can be leeched from the herbs when they are in smaller pieces.
2.Place all the herbs in a large pot and cover with oil. Let stand for 24-48 hours. You may also try to blend this mix with your regular blender once they’ve been softened in the oil. Put just small quantities in your blender at a time.
3.Slowly heat oil and herbs and maintain at 140-160° Celsius for 30 minutes. You will need a candy thermometer for this. Turn on your overhead fan and ask people with sensitive noses/asthma/breathing problems to stay far away.
4.While heating the oil, you may want to preheat the glass measuring cup. Don’t get any water inside it for the oil-wax mix may not solidify properly with water added in. A stove, toaster oven or even sitting it in a hot water bath will do it.
5.Strain the oil from the herbs while hot. You can get the purest oil, with the least amount of herbal residue, when you use cheesecloth.
Put your metal colander in a slightly larger pot. Line the colander with at least 8 layers of cheesecloth (fold the cloth).
pour the mix through the colander into the pot. You can then press the herbs with a spoon to extract as much oil as possible.
For non crushed herbs simply use your large strainer as it is. Place it over a slightly larger pot or the dry measuring cup and pour the mix into it.
6.Pour your purified oil into your hot measuring cup, if it’s not already in it. Add the beeswax and stir until the wax is completely melted. Your mix needs to be 80-100° Celsius.
I find the mix sometimes cools down too much I.e. the wax won’t melt completely. Then I need to use a double boiler to heat it up enough again. I put the measuring cup in a slightly larger pot of boiling water, making sure water doesn’t get into my oil-wax mix, and stir until all the beeswax is incorporated. You don’t have to check the heat at this stage unless you really want to. If it melts, it’s hot enough!
Beeswax is difficult to remove from things. Soap will not work, only very hot water can melt it enough. Try to use just one spoon and your glass measuring cup from this point on.
7.Add the menthol. Be careful not to inhale the fumes from the hot mix as it is an irritant to eyes and mucous membranes.
8.Pour the mix, here is where a measuring cup is very useful, into your waiting clean, dry, heat proof containers. Spatula out as much as you can. This way you won’t have to try to melt/scrape it off your cup later whole cleaning.
9.Let cool. It should be a lovely deep purple or burgundy color. The type of oil will affect the end color.
If you find that the cooled salve is too hard, make changes to your recipe. Add 50mL more oil or only 14-15g beeswax next time. I haven’t tried remelting the salve and adding more oil, though this is theoretically possible.

Precaution:
Prohibited for pregnant woman.
Keep away from fire in using it and avoid heat.
Keep it in a cool and dry place.

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A Habit Becomes Natural

December 20, 2009 by Danny | 2 comments

I read an article stating; “It takes 66 days to form a habit.” It said: ”If you make a New Year’s resolution to exercise or eat healthily and do it daily until March 7, it is likely to stick – suggest researchers who claim that it takes 66 days for a “healthy” pledge to become an ingrained habit. Reporting in the European Journal of Social Psychology, the researchers started to investigate how long it took for the repetition of behavior to reach the ”automacity’stage – where it is performed whenever the situation is encountered without thinking, awareness or intention. To reach the conclusion, the study’s volunteers were asked to choose a healthy eating, drinking or exercise behaviour that they would like to make into a habit, reports The Telegraph. Results showed that whilst the average time to form a habit was 66 days, more complex behaviours took longer. An exercise habit took longer to form than a healthy eating or drinking habit.” (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5857845/It-takes-66-days-to-form-a-habit.html) (http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/09/how-long-to-form-a-habit.php)

Here is a maxim the Chinese say; ”xíguàn chéng zìrán”. It means “A habit becomes natural” or “Habit is second nature”. The original story this phrase springs from comes from a Chinese Taoist philosopher named Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu), in his book Nanhua zhenjing Chapter19: Dasheng.
“Kongzi (Confucius) was observing the view from the Lu Liang Mountains where there was a waterfall three hundred feet high. The foam and froth created by the water as it hit bottom extended for thirteen miles. Neither turtles, alligators, fish nor any other water creatures were able to swim in those rapids. He saw one man swimming in the current and figured he must be very troubled and was trying to commit suicide so he told his disciples to line up at the banks of the river and rescue him. After the man had gone a few hundred feet he popped up in the water with his hair trailing behind him like a blanket, singing as he floated, and swam up to the edge of the embankment and climbed out.
Kongzi went up to him and asked:
“I thought you must have been some sort of ghost, but now I can see you’re a man. Please excuse me for asking, but do you have a special way to flit through water like that?”
“No, I don’t have a special way. I started with what was inborn in me, grew up following my own nature, and accomplished what I have because of my fate. When I enter, I merge with the flow and let it carry me. When I exit, I allow myself to be floated up gently by the current. I follow the way of the water and don’t try to force against it. That’s how I flit through the water.”
Kongzi said: “What do you mean by starting with what is inborn, growing up following your own nature, and accomplishing due to fate?”
“I was born from a pile of dirt so I’m comfortable in the hills – that’s what’s inborn. I grew from the water, so I’m comfortable in water – that’s my nature. I don’t know why I am the way I am, but I’m comfortable being what I am – that’s fate.”
I believe that it is instinctual for people to look for ways to achieve peace of mind and comfort for the body. Some people seek exterior means, like smoking, alcohol, drugs, and/or over eating to make their body and mind feel good. This is the easiest way to do it, but it also causes people the most difficulty when they try to quit their bad habit(s), especially once they have serious health problems.
After practicing Tai Chi, Chi Kung(Qi Gong) and meditation for over twenty years, I have found that our body and mind doesn’t need exterior means to feel good. We have an natural internal ability to make our own peace and comfort. Simply exercising our bodies and practicing our mind creates this. Human beings are creatures of habit. So if you can live to be eighty years old by only taking 66 days to form a good habit that can last the rest of your life, don’t you think it is worth it?

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Peace of Mind Then Chi(Qi) Will Be in Harmony “Sing Pin Chi(Qi) He”

October 25, 2009 by Danny | No comments

In my last note, called “Press Acupuncture Points to Help Decrease High Blood Pressure”, I mentioned how a calm mind can help decrease high blood pressure. If you care to search, you can find many Western medical studies that agree with this. I.e. Hypertension in older adults and the role of positive emotions” U of Texas.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) we believe that the human body is a small universe. Body and mind exist in very close cooperation. This means physiological functions and emotions influence each other.
There is an ancient medical text, called Hungdi Neijing (The Inner Canon of Hungdi or Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon), that has been the fundamental doctrinal source for TCM for more than two millennium and is still used today. Within this text is the following table:

The Five Viscera and Six Bowels – Five Elements Table
Five Viscera(Yin) Six Bowels (Yang) Element

Heart, (Joy ) Small intestine Fire

Liver, (Anger ) Gall bladder Wood

Spleen, (Pensiveness ) Stomach Earth

Lungs, (Anxiety ) Large intestine Metal

Kidneys,, Urinary bladder, (Fear ) Pericardium with its blood Water
vessels – Triple Energiser

From this table we can see certain organs are related to emotional activities. The heart is related to joy, the liver to anger, the spleen to pensiveness, the lungs to anxiety and the kidneys to fear.
This is because the five yin-organs also produce five kinds of essential Chi(Qi) or “vital energy.” The reverse is true as well… emotions influence the functions of organ Chi(Qi). Additionally the heart controls all activity and function of viscera. It circulates blood and Chi in the body.

Emotions are considered a major internal causes of disease in TCM. Consider these Chinese sayings:
“Yan Shun Bi Si-en Yan Sing” or “To form your way of life you must first form your heart/mind”
and
“Sing Pin Chi(Qi) He” or “Achieve peace of heart/mind then Chi(Qi) will be in harmony”.

But how can we have a peace of heart/mind?

In TCM we believe that body(Yang) and mind/spirit (Yin) can not be separated. So the Chinese saying goes:
“Yan Shen Zai Dong, Yan Sing Zai Jing” or “The way to recuperate the body is in motion(Yang), the way to recuperate the heart/mind is in calm(Yin)”
If the body doesn’t move for a long time, it will be stiff. This will cause Chi(Qi) to be sluggish. If mind can not be calm then spirit will be scattered and can not focus. With their thousand (or more) years of development and practice, Yoga, T’ai Chi and Chi Kung(Qi Gong) are potent ways of helping Chi flow. Practicing meditation or even simply closing your eyes to listen to soothing music can help recuperate spirit. When Yin and Yang (Motion and Calm), are balanced then you will gain in health.

“http://www.cn939.com/en/tcm-article-read.php?id=1729”

Hungdi Neijing BHungdi Neijing picture AHungdi Neijing pictureHuang Di Nei Jing(Huangdi’s Canon of Medicine)

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UFC® 104: Rogan breaks down Velasquez vs. Rothwell

Cain Velasquez in the Octagon

YouTube has a lot of great martial arts videos these days. And it’s interesting to see all of the “I’d like to see that guy in the octagon” comments. Or, “you have to wonder how’d they do in a UFC bout”.

I think we are losing track of the many different reasons people decide to study martial arts.  We may also be losing track of who our possible opponents might be.

If you want to be successful in the octagon then you better be strong, fast, fit and trained in a well balanced assortment of martial arts before you even step foot inside.  That’s the current pinnacle of martial gladiators.  If gladiatorship is your goal, then follow that path.

If kicking and punching is your thing, just about any martial art can help.

If increasing your power, peace of mind and a healthy body interest you, along with punching and kicking and self defense, then one would do well to consider studying Tai Chi or Ba Gua from a qualified instructor.  Internal martial arts like Tai Chi can certainly help a mixed martial artist or any kind of athlete with concepts like “rooting”, “fa jin”, and “tai chi body”.

If surviving in a tough part of town against armed opponents is your goal, well, martial arts can help, but I haven’t seen Iron Shirt chi kung stop a bullet, so that’s an entirely different requirement that martial arts can’t entirely remedy.

Most likely, any person you’d have to defend yourself against with your martial arts, is going to be under the influence of alcohol with not a lot of training.  Octagon level fitness, strength, speed and skill aren’t required to stop drunken Joe at the local pub.  Fortunately, many of the people with a lot of training have learned self-control and discipline along with their martial arts, so you’re not likely going to face a highly skilled martial artist in the street.

If a person you have to defend yourself from has studied some martial arts, then you start to measure fitness, speed, strength, depth of study, type of martial art, etc to differentiate who is the better fighter and who is going to win the confrontation.  By the way, if your fight lasts longer than 30 seconds that person knows at least as much as you do.

However, if you even have to throw a punch, in a sense you’ve already lost — lost control of the situation and anything could happen.  My goal is always to control the situation like one of my old teachers did in this blog post:  Last Fight. For me, free beer from an adversary without throwing a punch is the ultimate victory!

So, for all of you who look at martial arts and artists on YouTube, and think, it looks good, but how would they do in the octagon, the answer to that is probably they wouldn’t do well.  And that’s okay.  That’s likely not their goal.  Their goal is likely to improve their health, to be able to keep themselves and their families safer for having martial arts and to share what they’ve learned.

Practice hard,

David

September 25, 2009 by David | 4 comments

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