Tuesday, August 4, 2009

TCM

*While we are vacaying at Yellowstone, please enjoy this post on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Okay, so I pretty much know next to nothing about TCM. But with a history of over 3,000 years, I'm convinced some of it has to actually work. And since it was so cheap, (in China, not here) I gave most of it a try, including taking herbs that tasted and looked exactly like dog food. Truth be told, I only took the Dog Food Herbs for a few days...and by all accounts they probably were dog food. Those were "prescribed" (and by 'prescribed' I mean the receptionist handed me a baggie of herbs as I walked out the door) by a TCM doctor my friend, Anita, found. He was the doctor that told us if we would squat for 15 minutes a day we would loose 30 pounds. Always happy to be the guinea pig, here are some of my experiences with TCM:

Acupuncture
Best I understand, acupuncture works to "reprogram" your Chi energy. You can get acupuncture for just about any ailment you might have, including weight loss. I had a "doctor" come to our house when one of my knees was hurting. I told him my right knee hurt so he started by putting needles in my left elbow. He then did "something" back there (I'm still not sure what he did) and I felt like a rush of air. It was enough to make me squeal out a little (not in pain, just an odd feeling) and he said, "That's your energy." Well, whether it was my energy or not, it did seem to make my knee feel better. After the elbow stick portion, he loaded my legs up with needles. You can see they were just about everywhere, but it didn't hurt a bit.

Yes, I had blue toenails that day...when you can get a weekly $5 pedicure it's okay to be "cool" every once in awhile.

Foot Reflexology Massage
Needless to say, this is the one I miss the most. I've written before how we'd get the full body massages which included "butt flaps". We called those massages the "Shuka-Shukas" since that's the sound the bottle would make when the masseuses would shake and squeeze the lotion out. Foot massage or Shuka-Shuka? Such a tough choice. I do think there really can be health benefits to foot massages. And those that have studied Foot Reflexology can at least make you think they're diagnosing your ailments. When my dad had a foot massage his masseuse told him "bad stomach". Maybe he tells that to all his Western clients, but he had my dad convinced that he knew he (my dad) was diabetic.

Cupping
I had seen cupping on TV and really wanted to try it. I was scared it would hurt, so I always badgered any of my friends that had done it to show me their backs and tell me about it. Cupping is supposed to make you feel better by drawing out your impurities. The "blacker" your bruises appear, the more impurities you supposedly had in that part of the body. Or as Jason says, "No, they just got a better suction there." When I finally got up the nerve to try it, they put alcohol inside a cup, lit it on fire, then stuck the cup on my back. Obviously it didn't burn me, but I could definitely feel the heat. They left the cups on for about 10 minutes, and although I wouldn't say it hurt, it sure didn't "tickle". Now to be fair, I didn't try cupping when anything was wrong with me, but all I can say it did for me was make my back sore for about 3 days. It took about 2 weeks for all the bruises to all go away. And, yes, that's me...the most naked I ever hope to be on the Internet!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, for a Chinese foot massage! Worth the trip to China(not that everything else wasn't worth the trip).
Lu