Cough, aches and more: The TCM approach

Hong Kong is notorious for its high humidity, the blazing hot summers and high humidity can affect the body and cause dampness in the body to accumulate. To curb the this effect, using traditional Chinese medicinal herbs in brewing a home-made remedy to help drain dampness from the body will not only work wonders, but is very easy to do!

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What is dampness?

Dampness is a term common to locals, referring to water retention in the body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, dampness is an underlying factor that can lead to several other health conditions such as cough, phlegm, joint pains, digestive problems, loss of appetite, acne, and low energy, to name just a few. It is believed that dampness is cause by both external environment, such as the weather, food and drinks, as well as internal conditions – how our organs function. 

How to prevent dampness accumulating in the body?

The best way to avoid dampness from accumulating in the body is to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet and exercise.

It may be refreshing to quench your thirst with a cold beverage during the warmer weather, but it may also be the culprit to your respiratory, digestive and joint issues. TCM doctors believe that consuming too much raw and cold food, such as sushi and iced drinks affects the way the spleen functions.

Physical activities, on the other hand, keeps the spleen, kidney and lungs active, keeping the qi in your body to circulate better, improve fluid metabolism and encourages the dampness in the body to be released. If you aren’t keen on breaking a sweat, sunbathing, saunas and hot baths are also fun, viable options. 

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Also Read: Cupping Therapy: The different types, which to go for and where?

Ingredients that drain dampness in the body

However, if the dampness in the body is excessive enough to cause discomfort, illness and aches in the body, you might want to consider TCM herbs to drain dampness from the body. There are about 21 medicinal herbs that help relieve dampness in the body, here we’ve listed  the most common found ingredients that you can easily prepare at home.

Dried Tangerine Peel

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Dried Orange Peel helps regulate the qi and fortifies the spleen. It helps drain dampness, improves digestion, and reduces phlegm.

How to prepare it: Soak and rinse the dried orange peel in cold water. Then, add peels to boiling water until soft, and drink. The steam itself should be provide relief from headaches and make the room smell refreshing, while the beverage will help relieve cough and phlegm. 

Licorice Root

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Licorice Root is an ingredient used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but can also be found in diet supplements too. It is praised for its anti-inflammatory properties that help relieve digestive and menopausal symptoms, as well as eliminating bacterial and viral infections from the body. It has been claimed that this medicinal root has been beneficial in preventing SARS and H1N1 influenza in some people. 

How to prepare it: To a pot, add licorice root with a cup of water to brew. To relieve sore throat and cough, add a cinnamon stick and a slice of ginger. Licorice roots are naturally sweet, so there is no need to add sugar.

Also Read: Beyond Beauty: Five wellness benefits of Gua Sha

Fu Ling (Poria)

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Poria, known as Fu Ling is a type of fungus that serves great health benefits. It is used to promote fluid metabolism, dis-inhibit urination and relieve edema and digestive problems.  It is can also improve qi in the spleen, improve appetite, and calms the spirit, which may benefit those suffering from insomnia or anxiety. 

How to prepare it: Soak the Fu Ling in water overnight. Then, boil it in four cups of water on high heat for at least 30 minutes before cooling it down. Once cooled, blend it into a paste and add to the fu ling water it was boiled in. It can be combined with tangerine or orange peel for a sweeter taste and to complement the benefits of both ingredients. It can also be used in boiling soup. 

Coix Seed (Coix Barley)

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Coix seed, sometimes referred to coix barley, is known to have anti-allergic, anti-pyretic and detoxification properties, perfect for pollen allergy season, and to relieve digestion problems – including diarrhea, joint pains, even improving the skin’s complexion.  

How to prepare it: Rinse and soak the coix seed in water for about an hour. Then boil in the same water for an hour. Add chrysanthemum flowers or honey for a sweeter taste.  Alternatively, you can simply place the coix seed in a tea bag or tea sieve and sit them in boiling water. 

Also Read: Tea Time – A comprehensive guide to China’s myriad brews

Five surprising ways hypnotherapy can benefit your health and well-being

Hypnosis vs Hypnotherapy
The mind is a powerful tool that utilises habits and defence mechanisms as a form of managing emotions and mental processes. While hypnotherapy is the holistic and non-invasive technique that promotes positive behavioural changes, hypnosis, on the other hand, creates a state of hyper-focus and increased suggestibility used to feed positive suggestions to the subconscious mind and replace negative associations of specific triggers until the individual’s actions begin to automatically reflect their newly established mindset. In the case of physical pain management, it is used as a complementary therapy to medical treatments such as cancer, depression and chronic pain management. 

1. Hypnotherapy for building good habits
Although initially used to break bad habits like smoking and addiction, recent studies have found that hypnotherapy can also eliminate other less detrimental habits such as nail biting and procrastination. Most habits are formed during childhood which makes them almost automatic and harder to break. Hypnotherapy allows for positive suggestions to reframe the way the unconscious mind reacts to specific emotional triggers, disconnecting the two from each other.  

2. Hypnotherapy for losing weight
Say goodbye to slimming pills and rigid fad diets, similar to breaking bad habits, hypnotherapy can help change an individual’s relationships with food through a three-step technique called preframe, reframe and deframe which basically puts a close focus on the individual’s relationship with food by identifying their triggers for cravings and deconstructing that relationship. 

3. Hypnotherapy for reducing anxiety
A holistic and medication-free therapy for anxiety, hypnotherapy can change the way a person responds to stress and anxiety triggers by helping the mind cope with the external factors that activate these response. Typically, calming words of affirmation and encouragement are used to feed the mind of the individual in their hypnotised state allowing their physical condition to relax. 

4. Hypnotherapy for chronic pain management
Medical research have shown the beneficial effects of using hypnotherapy as a complementary therapy for medical treatments such as chemotherapy, burn recovery, and even assisting in achieving a calmer and gentler birth for pregnant women. The therapy redirects the attention of pain (or in the case of pregnancy, fears of birth-giving) by bypassing the conscious mind, allowing the body to relax, reserve their energy as well as regulate their breath and promote better oxygen circulation — eliminating the dependency on pain relief medications.

5. Reduce symptoms of chronic allergies
Those itching for a solution to chronic allergies will be relieved to know that hypnosis or even self-hypnosis can improve symptoms of specific allergies, though research have been limited in this field. Symptoms of allergies can be explained by the body’s defensive response to an immunity threat when exposed to an allergen. In the case of a cat allergy, for example, while the symptoms may masquerade as a defence mechanism to the animal, hypnosis might reveal an earlier emotional trauma that relates to a phobia for cats that the person may not be aware of. 

WHERE TO GO

Sonia Samtani
Certified hynotherapist, founder and director of All About You Wellness Centre. Her services offers a wide range of hypnotherapy for private as well as corporate sessions.
Location:All About You, Sheung Wan
Price: From HK$1,700
Contact: +852 2992 0828

Christine Deschemin
A certified hypnotherapist that covers a wide range of different hypnotherapy services, including hypno-birthing. She has substantial experience in aiding athletes, executives, entrepreneurs, and individuals in Hong Kong.
Location: Renewed Edge, Central
Price: From HK$2,500
Contact: +852 9884 8036

Sybille de Klebnikoff
A master hypnotherapist, and certified positive discipline parent educator, she lends her experience and expertise to Stanley Wellness Centre where she leads the hypnotherapy department in help their patients cope with addiction, anxiety, phobias, parenting and general personal development. 
Location: Stanley Wellness Centre, Stanley
Price: HK$1,300
Contact: +852 2372 9700

 

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Healing Touch: Why the world is waking up to the goodness of Traditional Chinese Medicine

For visitors to Majorca, one of Spain’s most popular tourist resorts, the St. Regis Mardavall has everything you might expect of a world class hotel, including premium yachting, golf and spa facilities. It also boasts an unlikely mastery of the arcane art of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), an expertise that has seen wellness worshippers from across Europe beating a path to its door.

Traditional Chinese Medicine
On this front, the hotel’s poster boy is Dr Lu Zhang, “currently one of the greatest TCM experts in Europe,” if his website is to be believed. Previously a professor of TCM in Beijing, he found his way to Spain as the Chinese government’s TCM ambassador to the West.
Zhang’s work with the mainland government represents one of the most recent attempts to export China’s 2,500-year-old healing and health regime to the wider international community.
It’s been a long and difficult process, but now many of the more enlightened Western practitioners acknowledge that TCM could represent a “viable alternative to Western medicine.”

Traditional Chinese Medicine
Sensing TCM’s moment might have come, last July saw China enact new legislation formalising the status of TCM and requiring local governments to launch institutions promoting its practice in medical centres across the country, while also increasing the funding available for TCM development.
Wang Guoqiang, deputy chief of China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission, says: “I’ve visited a number of countries where the head of state has expressed their desire to import TCM expertise, a sure sign that awareness of its efficacy is rising.”
Honed and refined over countless generations, TCM is a fusion of five different techniques – acupuncture, massage, herbs, dietary therapy and qigong exercises. According to its advocates, the key advantage of TCM is that focuses on prevention rather than seeking to simply provide a cure.

Traditional Chinese Medicine
Providing some insights into the essential nature of the philosophy behind TCM, Jeremy McCarthy, Global Director of Spa and Wellness at the Mandarin Oriental, says: “The Western world tends to have a dualistic approach to wellness – considering the mind and body to be wholly separate – as opposed to the more holistic and integrated approach embraced by TCM.”
Despite such high-level endorsements, TCM is still frequently criticised by the Western media for its lack of definitive methodologies and abrogation of animal rights. Taking such criticism on the chin, Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) says: “TCM has many critics and their criticisms must be addressed if it is ever to perform a legitimate role within a wider health system. It is entirely wrong, however, to dismiss the entirety of this ancient art as nothing but ‘snake oil’ medicine.”

Traditional Chinese Medicine
In Hong Kong, where the Western and Chinese medical traditions have long existed side by side, TCM has become one of the staples of the city’s wellness providers. Back in 2005, the Chuan Spa – part of Cordis Hong Kong – was one of the first to adopt TCM as one of its underlying principles. Following its success in Hong Kong, the approach was exported to 15 of the clinic’s overseas operations, including its Chicago, London and Auckland branches.
Looking to build the body of evidence in support of the efficacy of TCM, the Oriental Spa – part of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group – often collaborates with the Mayo Group, a non-profit medical practice and. research group, on the development of a range of TCM-related health and wellness initiatives.

Traditional Chinese Medicine
With the growing influence of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as a number of other Asian therapeutic traditions, such as Indian Ayuverda medicine and Middle Eastern Hammam rituals, it looks as if the direction of the flow of influence is beginning to change. For many, it’s an all but revolutionary break with centuries of Western dominance.

It’s also spurred a new thought – if, in the medical world, the West is finally catching on to something Asia has instinctively known for millennia, what else might it learn if it casts its cynicism and intransigence aside for long enough?

Text: Julienne C Raboca

For the full feature on Traditional Chinese Medicine, please check out the latest issue of Gafencu’s print magazine or the PDF version on the Gafencu app. Download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store