Four ways Chinese medicine can boost your wellbeing
THE PRINCIPLE OF SELF-CARE IS A PRIORITY IN THE FAR EAST. LISA SALMON DISCOVERS WHY WE COULD BENEFIT FROM MORE OF IT IN OUR OWN LIVES
AS the saying goes, prevention is better than cure – and that’s a philosophy that features highly in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), as does the principle of self-care – or ‘Yang Sheng’.
“Unlike Western medicine, which focuses on fixing health issues, Chinese medicine focuses on prevention alongside cure,” says Katie Brindle, author of Yang Sheng: The Art Of Chinese Self-Healing.
“For example, in Chinese medicine, a bad night’s sleep or thinning hair signifies the beginning of a deeper health issue. The principle is that if you eliminate small health niggles as they arise, you’ll prevent bigger ones happening.”
Katie (katiebrindle.com) trained to become a Chinese medicine practitioner after it helped her recover from injuries sustained in a car accident.
She says self-care is a huge part of this approach to wellness, which taps into discovering energy imbalances long before they turn into physical symptoms. “The theory is that you prevent the imbalance getting a foothold in the body and turning into something more serious. Think of it as how we address our dental care – we brush our teeth daily to prevent plaque building up and turning into an issue.”
As we enter the Year of the Ox (Chinese New Year fell on February 12 this year), we talk to Katie to find out more...
ENERGY, FLOW AND BALANCE
Katie says there are three fundamental principles to Chinese medicine’s holistic mind-body approach.
■ Ensuring the free flow of energy – qi – and blood circulation (good circulation is seen as a foundation of health).
■ Purge and nourish (if toxicity lingers in the body, it causes stagnant qi, which may eventually lead to physical symptoms and disease, so you work to clear out what you don’t need, and nourish the body to strengthen it).
■ Strengthening the five key organs (Chinese medicine says ill-health will always relate to one of the five key organs – liver, heart, spleen, lung, and kidney – so they all need to be balanced).
Katie believes Chinese medicine is “brilliant for everything” but says it works particularly well for fertility and gynaecological issues, and skin problems.
“Depending on the person and the issue, sometimes it’s an instant fix and sometimes a gentle process that happens over time,” she says.
And although she’s a huge advocate for taking this approach to supporting your health and wellbeing, she is not suggesting anybody stops seeing their regular doctor.
It’s always important to get any symptoms or health concerns checked out by your GP.
Katie says: “In an ideal world, Western and Eastern medicine would work in symbiosis, as they work really well together.”