Traditional Chinese Medicine Remedies at Home!

With the orange peel are you suppose to chew it or drink it as hot tea?

Hello Kevin, You stated that "Yellow means heat is inside " but didn't say how to treat this. I've only recently come up with a yellowish tongue and would like to get rid of it... any ideas?

Dear Helen, I just heard from a Chinese friend about this method in order to heal upset stomachs and was fascinated. Do you still remember some of the knowledge of your grandma in order to bring the ying/yang into harmony? If you ever find resources about this kind of treatment I would love to hear about it. It is so simple and effective. Blessings & Thank you!

This is another way of applying egg white for reducing fever that I learnt from my Chinese Grandma. Hard boil the egg and remove the egg yolk. Put the hard boiled egg white including the shell in a handkerchief. Twist the content into a ball and massage body from head to toe. Brings the temp down instantaneously. My Grandma would also insert a silver ring in the egg white content when massaging. Silver would change to different colours when rubbed on different patients. This was used to diagnose the cause of the fever and then she would use (ying/yang) herbal treatment for the illness. Sadly, I am unable to read the silver ring. My children always ask for an egg massage when they have high temperature and it always does the trick.

Am 70 and have acid reflux for years. Got herbs from the Chinese doc and things are better. If you think that you might have ulcers, cranberry juice is great. I drink it with soda water to make it more palatable - no sugar. Find that sugar really starts the acid reflux. As long as I avoid it, I'm good. Also Health food stores have some good digestion teas that help.

I am an acupunturist. Usually a white tongue or coating mean cold is inside.

Yellow means heat is inside. I know these terms seem a bit out there but using the idea of yin and yang is or cold and hot is more sophisticated than trying to figure out a single cause when the body is an orchestra or functions.

So for a white toungue one would suggest Hot or warming food. For example ginger or cinnamon or cayenne. I would also suggests other tonic herbs like ginseng but only if there is not thick coating. A thick coating means excess or too much and so to build that would make it worse. You need to decrease the thickness. This is done by taking herbs that help to clear dampness usually bitter ones or astringent like orange peel for example.

There is a whole study of toungue coating and colour out there that is foundational to chinese diagnosis. Your toungue is a great indicator of health.

So to recap white toungue means cold so get warm and the toungue will change. Literally and with warming food. DO not eat ice cream or drink cold drinks with a cold tongue.

Hi Chris... I've done a little cold showering and I'm not as dedicated as a lot of folks, but I like to start with a warm (not hot) shower in order to wash up...also, I haven't used soap in ever so long and haven't missed it, just scrub really well with a shower brush...once I'm finished washing, I turn the water just a little colder for a couple of minutes exposing my pulse points to the cooler water first, then allowing the rest of my body to be bathed in the cooler water...after 2 or 3 minutes, the water begins to feel not so cold - kind of like going swimming in the lake - once the water feels warmer, I turn it another notch colder for 2 or 3 more minutes, etc. until I feel like getting out of the shower. I read that it takes 3 minutes for our blood to completely circulate through our bodies; I have no set time that I stay in the shower but always feel really good afterward. When I do this in the evening, the boost in my circulation energizes me enough to finish my bedtime routine, get into some warm jammies and enjoy a good night's sleep!

You wrote, "Cold showers, used properly, are a tonic for the entire body." Sould you please elaborate more on how to use them properly? Thanks, Chris

I have a diploma in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine and just thought that I would share some Chinese medicine theory with you. According to Chinese medicine, one way to remove bad energy (Chi), also known as anything that ails you--pain, fatigue, insomnia, headaches etc--one way is using cold showers. It forces the blood (a mixture of good and bad energy) to rise to the skin, and the bad energy (toxins) goes out (similar in theory to heat transfer); accelerated breathing due to the cold water pulls "good Chi" in, and a person feels rejuvinatated afterwards. As far as better skin, hair, breathing, etc, in Chinese medicine, the "channel" that contains the lungs also contains the skin and hair. The Lung Channel is the first line of defense against illness, therefore, anything that "tonifies", or strengthens, the Lung Channel also strengthens the immune systems; the strength of which is demonstrated by the condition of the skin and hair. Cold showers, used properly, are a tonic for the entire body.

Old chinese meds method of stopping a bloody nose. I have used this many times: Take a snipet of your own hair or someone elses hair. Burn this to ashes, mix with a drop of water into a paste. Apply on top of the nose not in the nose. Bleeding stops in seconds!

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs: Remarkable decrease in symptoms, but I still have not been able to get off my prescribed prevacid. I've been on it for 5 years. I started reading your site for helpful information, but came away somewhat confused and frustrated. There are just so many testimonials with a dizzying amount of yay's & ney's... it actually left me feeling less hopeful than when I arrived. I've been using acupuncture & chinese herbs to help curb my GERD. I've reduced my Prevacid from 30mg once a day, to 15mg every other day. Acupuncture is a great stress reliever, so that's probably one of the reasons I find relief. The Chinese herbs I take is a formula Coptis & Evodia which you can research on the internet. One piece of information I did find helpful, was the link between pain medication and GERD. My GERD developed shortly after a 15-day hospital stay in which I was on a morphine pump that delivered a dose of morphine every 3 minutes. (I had a complication to a gallbladder removal surgery.) My theory has been that large doses of antibiotics & the lack of gallbladder & the bile it produced left my stomach vulnerable to H. pylori & unable to digest food properly. However, now reading about the pain medication theory - that would make sense too.

Hi Sue and anyone else interested in Chinese herbs, I thought you might find this audio interview of Ron Teeguarden speaking on Chinese herbs for our health very interesting. He is a master of Chinese herbalism. In it he speaks on reishi and chaga as powerful body adaptogens.

This may give you some insight into the power of herbs. Best to you, Lisa

Hello! I am from St. Louis. I order herbs online, but also noticed a Chinese Herbal practitioner the other day in Creve Coeur by my dentist's office. Thinking to go see him! It's at Four Seasons Shopping Center (strip mall). Hope this helps?

Hi Sue, Well, I would first ask that you find out who the Chinese herbalist is that you would be consulting locally and what their background/ years of experience is. I have been fortunate since I am here in LA, to have amazing Chinese herbalists both locally and at Dragon Herbs. I guess you could say, I have the best of both worlds.

I think Dragon Herbs are world-class herbal remedies and would not hesitate to recommend them as the finest quality available. I know for certain they will do phone consultations and then recommend a program tailored to your specific needs. It would be done by asking you a series of questions. On the other hand, to visit a Traditional Chinese medicine Dr., they would be able to look at your tongue, look at your eyes, take your pulses of which there are six pulses! It is quite an art to be able to read these pulses as one must be quite sensitive to tune into each one and diagnose based on them. Did you go on the dragon herbs website? I am actually going to give you the link to the page on how to get started from there: http://www.dragonherbs.com/gettingstarted.asp

Anyway, I hope this helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. Lisa

LISA----how do you go about getting started on the Chinese Herbs? Should I go locally? The closest to me (in St. Louis) is Nature Health Center. Talk to someone from Dragon Herbs and go that route? Any help or advice would really be appreciated. Thank you.