Archive for November, 2010

Stay Comfier, Warmer, And Healthier In Two Thin Blankets

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Since July 2010, the central and eastern equatorial Pacific has continued to cool with the sea surface temperatures getting cooler than normal (by 0.5 degree Celsius or more).  The latest forecasts by a good few climate models across the world suggest that the sea surface temperatures will stay below normal in the coming months and the situation will develop into a La Nina event by December.  Meaning? We are almost certainly going to have a wetter and colder winter (December to February), especially the Pacific Northwest.

Misfortunes never come singly—most fuel rates have risen, and people who use oil or propane to heat their homes will pay the most.  Therefore, for a less pricey winter, we must find ways to minimize the heating bills.  Tips like using a space heater in the room you are hanging out and keep your house cool is one of good practices.

As for slumber time, you can still have good nights sleep and save on your bills.

“Many people go to bed wrap themselves in a thick, heavy blanket.  Nonetheless, it never is as good as snuggling down under two thin blankets; they not only are lighter and comfier, but also warmer,” Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Practitioner said.

Since air is a poor conductor of heat energy, if you cuddle under two thin blankets, a layer of air will be formed between the two blankets, which can increase the effectiveness of thermal insulation.  As a matter of fact, even though the combined weight of two thin blankets are as same as a thick one, the former definitely will provide better thermal performance.

“In addition, if you constantly feel tired and have stiff limbs after night-long sleep but otherwise healthy, go check your blanket see if it is too thick and heavy,”  TCM Practitioner continued.  “If it is, replace it with two thin ones, or else, your health will be affected in a long run resulting from a poor circulation of blood and low-quality sleep.”

Image by ohsohappytogether / Jessica

A Glitch From Heart And Spleen: Aphthous Ulcer

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Aphthous ulcers (canker sore) are little, yet they are powerful enough to spoil your mood.

Every time you eat, especially hot, sour, and spicy food; brush your teeth; or even talk to someone, the pain reminds you that happiness in itself cannot be granted, even the “little” ones.

According to Western Medicine, the causes of aphthous ulcers include impaired immune function, infections, nutritional deficiency, and Vitamin B Group insufficiency. In general, they can be healed in seven to 10 days.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), on the other hand, regards that our facial organs correspond with our internal organs.  Take tongue and mouth as examples; while the heart opens into the tongue, the spleen leads to the mouth, suggesting that tongue and mouth diseases are mostly related to heart and spleen.  In fact, the mouth as a whole is the sensory organ linked to the spleen and actually a branch of the spleen meridian extended to the bottom of the tongue.  As for the tongue, in particular the tip, is connected to the heart.

Having said that, when a TCM Practitioner makes a diagnosis of the disease, the first thing he/she needs to do is to determine whether the condition is “excess” or “deficiency” (Yin, Yang, External, Internal, Cold, Hot, Deficiency, and Excess all belong to the “Eight Principles”, one of the most important diagnostic systems in TCM.)

Although both are aphthous ulcers, the symptoms that patients experience are rather different.  “Excess-type aphthous ulcer is red in color and painful; it has swelling around the rim with yellow discharge.  In addition, patients usually are accompanied by bitter mouth, bad breath, constipation, swollen gums, etc,” TCM Practitioner said.  “This type of aphthous ulcer likely is induced by heart/spleen accumulated heat due to improper diet such as excessive spicy and deep-fried food, or staying up late.”

As for deficiency-type aphthous ulcer, it mostly is caused by a weak stomach and kidney function.  Despite the ulcer area has little pain and color, it persists for a long time and recurs constantly.  Sufferers generally are accompanied by loss of appetite, lack of energy, and insomnia.

“According to TCM, aphthous ulcer actually is an indicator that the environment in our body is imbalanced,” TCM Practitioner said.  “In TCM’s approach, in conjunction with medicating the ulcers, patient’s lifestyles and general constitution will be properly modulated (with herbal medicine and other treatments) as they are brought to light, so that the contributing factors of the problem can be diminished.”

There are two DIY home remedies, though, that can mitigate your aphthous ulcers.  Whether you prefer “salt” or “tea,” either one is simple and convenient.

Pour boiling water into a cup with five teaspoons of salt OR one teaspoon of black tea leaves.  Rinse your mouth with the water after it turns warm.  Twice per day, one in the morning and one at night.

“Both salt and tea can help reduce inflammation and kill bacteria; which are able to ease the pain of the ulcers and speed up wound healing,” TCM Practitioner continued.  “If the condition is more serious, rinse can be done a few more times a day.  However, if the ulcers show no sign of improvement over a week, one should go to seek medical treatment immediately as it might be a warning of mouth cancer.”

Image by stuartpilbrow

Healthy Life In A Cool Lane

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Those apples look fresh even though they have sat in the refrigerator for days.  Despite you can’t put your body in the fridge to keep yourself from aging like the apples, you still can practice one of the longevity lifestyles from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—To preserve health with low-temperature environment.

Indeed, most of the long-lived people in the world live in the subfrigid zone such as Japan and North Europe. With population just more than five million, Georgia (a republic in Asia Minor on the Black Sea separated from Russia by the Caucasus Mountains) has over 2,000 centenarians.  Such phenomenon partly is contributed by the cool-climate living environment.  In fact, studies have shown that compared with the same species living in warmer climate, the cooler the temperature, the longer the lifespan animals inclined to have.

Nonetheless, to preserve health with low-temperature environment should not be interpreted as to lower human body’s temperature, but rather reduce the speed of cell metabolism so as to delay the aging.

“In addition to stressful living, lack of sleep and heavy diet also contribute to modern people’s ‘torrid life’,” TCM Practitioner said.  “In fact, many of them have syndrome of Yin (the energy being accumulated, assimilated and stored for later use) deficiency with internal heat that lead to illnesses.”

According to TCM, fall is just the best season to begin this healthy practice.  “Let me give you an analogy,” TCM Practitioner explained.  “What is the best time to water a dry plant?  If you do it at noon, much of the water will be vaporized; the most suitable timing is at dusk.  Similar to that, fall, when the Yin energy starts to accelerate, it also is the perfect season for us to exercise how to preserve health with low-temperature condition.”

However, as mentioned above, we can’t simply putting on less clothing and achieve the longevity.  Instead, we should pay attention to four aspects: Diet, environment, sleeping, and physical exercise.

Diet
First, cook with low temperature.  Low-temperature cooking not only can reduce the chance of carcinogens release when cooking with high heat, but also preserves the greatest amount possible nutrition in food.  Second, eat more food in “cool” nature.  Examples are animals with lower body temperature such as fish and shrimp; aquatic plants like rice, lotus root, and bamboo shoot; fungi that flourish in shady habitat; fruits ripe in winter such as mandarin and pear.  Third, always stop eating when you are 80% full.  In doing so, you reduce the total intake of calories and generate less heat.

Sleep
Go get a “low-temperature” sleep.  It doesn’t mean you should throw away your blanket and turn the air conditioning up.  Our body temperature varies throughout the day.  While it starts to drop at 9 to 11pm and reaches its lowest at 1 to 3am, it begins to rise gradually at 8am and comes to its highest at 7 to 9pm.  “If we want to preserve health, we should be in bed sleeping when our body temperature is dropping.  The bottom line is don’t stay up late, not to mention all night,” TCM Practitioner said.  “In addition, sleep in a dark environment.  In fact, when sleeping with the lights on, our metabolism will be disturbed resulting from a higher body temperature.”

Environment
Surround yourself with greens.  Grow plants in your own home and workspace to lower the room temperature.  Also, use more furniture made from rattan, bamboo, and wood in cool color.  As for the lighting, switch off the overhead lights and turn on your task lighting such as bedside light, desk lamp, or floor lamp.  In this way, you not only reduce overall lighting demands by putting the light where it is needed and make your room cooler, you actually are saving energy and your electricity bill.

Physical Exercise
Move your body.  Do more slow exercises like Tai Chi, yoga, pilates… .  When our body overheats, the excess heat energy from the body will be used to evaporate the sweat.  Therefore, to use up that heat energy will cool our body down.  “Take a trip to the river, lake, woods, or mountain is another good idea to preserve your health,” TCM Practitioner said.  “Your body will benefit from absorbing the Yin energy released from the natural world.”

Nonetheless, we are once again reminded that preserving health with low temperature is a comprehensive approach and should not be simply regarded as cooling down our body.  According to TCM Practitioner, TWO mistakes that we should always not to fall into:

1. Wear fewer clothes than we need to.  In fact, we should put on appropriate clothing accordingly.

2. Consume icy drink / food.  TCM suggests that we should take icy drink / food as less as possible, preferring instead to consume meals that are close to our body temperature.

Image by Dan Foy