Using Nature’s Secrets to Look Great and Feel Terrific, Stay young, slim, strong, and energetic – Naturally
Tag Archives: aches
Calm in a Storm: 小柴胡汤 (Thorowax/bupleurm Root Soup) Relaxing, Detoxifying, Balancing These are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls, and our nerves and our budget. Herbal relief comes in the form of a stringy looking twig called thorowax known for thousands of years in Chinese medicine as chai hu in Latin: bupleurum. It was first described in a medical text dating back to the first century BC and is widely grown and used all over China today.
Ayurveda, the collected health and beauty wisdom of ancient India, includes natural treatments to encourage vibrant longevity. A vegetarian diet and meditative lifestyle including yoga and devotion to service and compassion help to ease daily stress and prevent disease. A centuries long tradition of healing Ayurvedic herbs are easily available to us today in order to provide freedom from pain, physical weakness, emotional vulnerability and aging.
Are you outside in the cold raking leaves, shoveling snow? You need to stay warm to avoid aches, cramps, weakness and hypothermia. If you start to feel tired, depressed, or have numb extremities after being outside in cold weather take a pinch of cinnamon and place it on your tongue or in a cup of warm water. This hot, sweet cooking spice will help you to sweat out chills and prevent colds, flu, weakness, aches and other signs of exposure to cold weather conditions. Is eating a cinnamon roll good enough? No. To get the energy benefits of a spice you have to eat or drink it like a tea separated from other food and beverages. Cinnamon can also be used by girls who have a painful menstruation that feels better after the flow starts. They tend to be weak, pale, and chilled. Cinnamon stimulates blood circulation. That is how it helps eliminate pain. Do you obsess about problems? Some health experts recommend cinnamon as a way to refresh mental as well as physical vitality. Cinnamon is also highly recommended for regular use in diabetes. To improve insulin uptake, add 1/4 tsp of cinnamon powder daily to tea, oatmeal or water.
It is baby season in Vermont. It comes after mud season and at the end of black fly season. Babies are everywhere. I see fuzzy little geese, ducks, turkeys, and the lovely brown eyes of Bambi peeking from behind a tree. Heavy rains have kept them out of sight, but they are nestled close to mother’s care. The air in Vermont is wet. Chinese herbal doctors refer to soggy, low energy, water retention and phlegmy congestion as dampness. Ayurvedic doctors use the term Kapha when referring to heaviness from poor energy, digestion, and climate. The humid weather works in the body to dampen vitality and enthusiasm. But I am far away in thoughts of Asia. I am listening to ragas, breathing perfumed incense, and warming vitality with Asian herbs.
How often do you take a break from work to walk around, drink water, or stretch? Sitting for hours makes the lower back support the body, which strains circulation and energy from the waist-down. Eventually it can drain internal organs. Staring into a screen also stiffens the neck and shoulders. Neck-related headache, called cervical headache, is most often felt in the back of the head and upper neck, where muscles extending along the skull are contiguous with neck muscles that may become tense or go into spasm. It is aggravated by neck movement and often accompanied by stiffness and tenderness of neck muscles. Characteristics of the pain: You hardly notice work-related pain until you stop working. Pains may be dull, aching, fixed (not moving), and persistent. Pain is worse with fatigue, stress, and emotional upset. There may also be chest tightness, wrist pain and numbness in the hands
I have been honoring my need for rest, warmth and comfort as the weather is colder and days shorter. Winter is a time to nourish your dreams and imagination. Nerve-soothing oils such as sesame are rejuvenating. Apply it to your skin all over and inside the nose. Allow the rich proteins to soften your complexion and penetrate your senses with renewed vitality for 15 minutes. Then wash with warm water. If you have acne or a ruddy complexion, another fine oil to use is Argana, made from a Moroccan tree bark. It feels more cooling than sesame and is also rejuvenating. Increase warming spices such as ginger, pepper, clove, cinnamon and hing (asafoetida for bloating) unless you have an ulcer. The tastes to stress in winter, according to Ayurveda, are warming, salty and sweet, less bitter. Bitter (coffee and black tea) increase nervousness and pain. I have been greatly enjoying adding Peruvian maca powder to my morning mild green tea or warm water. It tastes a bit like yam, a comforting root vegetable that grows high in the Andes. It stimulates the pituitary to enhance the functioning of the entire endocrine system–for enhanced energy, breath, adrenal strength, and libido. It is hormone-balancing for men and women. People in Peru eat the cooked root with meat and potatoes and also use it as an aphrodisiac. It is also said to reduce menopausal complaints. I find it comforting and mood-lifting.
Does cold, damp weather penetrate leaving you feeling numb, achy, chilled, and tired? Steamed Tienchi ginseng (AKA san qi; pseudo-ginseng) activates circulation, warms your body, and eases pains made worse from nasty weather. During the Ming Dynasty, this form of ginseng was more valuable than gold. Today, you can buy Steamed Tienchi Powder online. Used regularly, it reduces cholesterol and protects the heart and circulation. Add 1/4 tsp. to cook with chicken soup or to water and drink it as a tea. It lifts your spirit and eliminates carpal tunnel and other pain and numbness in arms, legs, and extremities. If application of warmth makes you feel better, you need STEAMED Tienchi. If cold feels better, if you have chronic fevers, hypertension, or hot flashes, if you smoke or have rosacea–use RAW Tienchi Powder, which is cooling. Steamed Tienchi is a warming, energizing blood tonic for anemia suitable for adults and children. Avoid using either tienchi during a cold or flu. At those times, you need to kill germs and reduce fever. Avoid tienchi during pregnancy. Both Steamed and Raw Tienchi activate circulation.
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