Weight loss

Weight loss is the concern of most obese people. By this I mean those whose BMI or Body Mass Index is beyond the normal range. BMI is calculated by diving the body weight in kg by height (in metre) squared. For example, I am 1.60 metre and 60 kg in weight. My BMI is 60 / 1.6X1.6 which is 60/2.56 and my final BMI is 23.43. I am normal in weight and height because the normal range is 18.5 to 24.9.

Those with BMI exceeding 24.9 is overweight and those below 18.5 is underweight.

The former group will think of ways to effect weight loss so as to fall within the normal BMI range.

You can achieve your weight loss through dieting, that is cutting down on the intake of fat, starch and sugar. Exercising regularly will also enable you to cause weight loss in your body.

My friend tells me of a way to bring about weight loss. According to him, when you have your lunch or dinner, start by eating the vegetables and meat first because by then your stomach will have been filled with food and fluid and you will eat less of rice.

If your state of being overweight is due to hormonal causes, you will have to see your doctor to rectify it so that weight loss will be rendered possible.

Proper diet and exercising are the best ways to solve the problem of having to think of ways to effect weight loss to your body.

How to prevent rheumatism

I just came back from visiting a few places in China and I learnt quite a lot of things during this trip. In this post, I would like to share what I have learnt from people who reside in Suzhou. The people there seldom suffer from rheumatism. The secret is wearing slippers while walking in the house. It seems that the floor is considered damp and this dampness will permeate to your leg causing rheumatism.

Hence it is advisable to wear slippers while walking in the house if you want to keep rheumatism at bay.

Pressing acupuncture point 'he gu' to relieve sinus allergies

I read of a way to alleviate sinus allergies whose symptoms include runny nose and heaps of sneezing. It is really very simple. All you need to do is to press the acupunture point called 'he gu' for 72 times daily.

To locate the point, just press you thumb against the forefinger. The tip of the raised portion is the intended point. Just press it withu your thumb until a sensation of numbness is experienced.

Another way to achieve the same effect is to put 10 'Xin Yi Flower' in a cup and pour boiling water into it. Drink this water regularly and the sinus allergy can be reduced.

Food for preventing osteoporosis

In today's post I would like to share some information about preventing osteoporosis. In the past, we used to believe that it is caused by the lack of calcium. Recent medical research shows that it is spinal fracture that triggers oteoporosis. The connective tissue known collagen plays a vital part in preventing oesteoporosis.

The increase of blood sugar will cause the connective tissue to fuse thereby causing it to lose its function of acting as lubricant resulting in spinal fracture. Hence it is important to check the increase in the blood sugar. Luckily, we can take certain food to achieve thise effect.

The food in question includes mackerel, sardine, clams, folic acid, brocolli, spinach, garland chrysanthemum (tong hou in Cantonese), soybeans and asparagus.

On the good sides of tumeric and garlic

As I was waiting in the hospital for my wife who attended to her father who went for dialysis, I browse through a magazine provided. I chanced to read about some interesting facts which I would like to share here.

The first fact is tumeric in curry contains curcumin which can kill cancer cells. In other words, it is beneficial to eat curry with tumeric as one of the ingredients.

Another fact of interest to health-conscious people is garlic contains allicin which can block enzymes that cause viral and bacterial infections. It just mean that we can fight cold by consuming garlic regularly.

Water can 'see', 'hear' and 'react'

Water can see and hear as well as react. There is a Japanese researcher who did experiment on water to see its reaction when being abused and praised.

First he filled five bottles with water and have the words 'I love you' in five languages on the walls of the bottles. He allowed the water to 'see' the words for two hours. After that, he subjected the bottles of water to temperatures below five degrees Celcius. The he looked at the crystals of ice. He was able to see beautiful crystals formed.

He repeated the experiment with the same water which was defrozened. The words on the bottles were changed to 'I hate you.' The Japanese researcher was surprised to see ugly crystals.

When he did the experiment again with music. He obtained the same results. When air is exposed to beautiful music, beautiful crystals were formed. When rap and heavy metal music were bombarding the water, it showe ulgy crystals.

The moral of the experiment is we should say good words to our body which consists of 70% water. Abstain from anger so that good water condition exists and not otherwise. When water is our body exists in very good condition, we will be healthy. In Zhineng Qigong, we always say, 'My heart is good, my liver is good, my lungs are good, my eyes are good and so on'. Through suggestions such as these, we will be able to generate good karmic force in the water inside ourselves.

How to increase the density of calcium in the bones

I read an interesting fact about how to increase the density of calcium in bones to prevent osteoporosis through email which I received.

Exercising helps to increase the density of calcium in our bones. This is because when we exercise the pull on the muscles force the bones to produce more calcium. In this way, we need not take extra calcium from milk fortified with calcium.

I really hope it works.

'Xin' and health

The last element in 'wu chang' is 'Xin' which means trustworthiness or reliability. 'Xin' is related to the earth or soil where everything green grows. A person who is reliable and does not grumble or blame others for anything will have very good bowels or stomach. He will have to trouble with digestion and so.

When we do anything, we should have faith and trust in others. Only then will we be free of worries which will lead to diseases related to the stomach such as gastritis

A person who suffers from depression will have problem with his stomach. Poor digestion and gastritis will be manifested. One way of getting rid of depression is to do some activities that will take the mind off the things that worry a person. As suggested one patient of the Chinese physician whose talk I talked too and whose experience I share here actually asked his patient who suffered from depression to run as far as his enery allowed every day. The man followed his advice and after some time, he really forgot about what worried him as he concentrated on what he was doing, that running until he could no longer go any further every day. After this strenous activities, he was cured of depression and his stomach's normal functions were restored.

Hence we should be a reliable person and do not be too 'calculative' (thinking of gains for oneself only and will not let others gain even a little bit of benefit) in carrying out our duties and dealing with others. In so doing, we will have no trouble with diseases of the stomach.

'Zhi' and health

'Zhi' or wisdom is the fifth element in 'wu chang' (the five natural state or conditions). It is related to winter and water. To acquire 'zhi' one has to practise being humble. One good example is willing to listen to people's advice and opinions. As kidney manifests itself through the ears. A person whose qi of kidneys is strong is more ready to listen to advice and opinion of others.

What weakens the qi of kidneys is indulgence in sexual activities which will result in weak bones, poor memory and inability to learn and interact with others. When the qi of kidneys is weakened a person is more likely to suffer from fracture of the bones. There was a case of a patient who had too sexual actitivities that he broke his bone four times in a year.

Tension or stress will cause the qi of kidneys to be weakened. The symptom is insomnia. Once the stress is gone, the kidney's qi will be strong again and the patient will up and about again.

Hence we should be humble and relax our minds whenever possible in order to take good care of our kidneys.

'Li' and health

The third element of 'wu chang' (five natural states or conditions) is 'li' or manners. 'Li' is related to the heart, order,fire and summer. It always goes upwards. The heart is the master of the body. It is open-minded and the 'qi' always flows outwards. "Li' also signifies order and progress. The progress of a nation is gauged by her well-mannered people. Well-mannered refers to law-abiding and disciplined.

The opposite of open-mindedness is hatred. The 'qi' of hatred flows inwards and causes the heart to suffer from heart diseases such as uneven heart beat and so on. According to the Chinese physician who gave the talk on 'wu chang' and its relationship with the five organs in the body, a patient who harboured hatred came to consult him. She suffered from pain all along her arm. The flow of blood along the vein connected to the heart was not smooth causing pain.

The lady was cheated by a man who took her 20,000 yuan away. She hated him since the day she knew she had been cheated until she came to see the physician. This feeling of hating has caused qi to flow and accumulate in the heart causing the above condition.

The physician advised her to forget about the 20,000 yuan which could not be recovered and stopped hating him so that health would be returned to her. She really listened to the advice and stopped thinking about the loss and the man associated with it. After two weeks, when he telephoned her to find out her condition, she told him that all the pain along her arm had gone.

Hence, we should not harbour hatred towards others in order to protect our dear heart.

'Yi' and health

In my earlier post, I talked about the relationship between 'ren' (benevolence or showing concern to others) and the well-being of our liver.

Today, I will discuss the second element in 'wu chang', namely 'yi' or duty, responsibility and its relationship to health. 'Yi' is related to the lungs and autumn. People who are introvert or keep their feelings be they sadness or happiness to themselves tend to suffer from malfunctioning of the lungs. The remedy is smiling. Smile often and you will be free of diseases of the lungs.

The Chinese phyisician who gave the talk related his personal experience. He used to suffer from sinuses which is related to the nose. Malfunctioning of the lungs manifests itself through the nose. According to him, he was very pampered and cared for himself only and seldom show filial piety to his parents - the lack of 'yi' (doing his duty to his parents). Lack of 'yi' will lead to malfunctioning of the lungs. In his case, sinuses developed in his nose. When he was in Year 3 and Year 4 of his Chinese medicine course, he realised this theory and started to serve his mother and father. He started to to massage his parents to relieve them of pain in the joints. Miraculously his sinuses healed by itself after having done his 'yi' to his parents.

Hence we should do our duty to our parents and keep smiling to maintain good health of our lungs.

'Ren' and health

I had the chance to listen to a Chinese physician who talked about the relationship between human behaviour and mental condition known as 'wu chang' and our health.

I shall relate here the first element of 'wu chang', namely 'ren' or benevolence and its relationship with health as pointed by the said physician.

Ren is related to spring, wood, and liver. In this case, being benevolent helps to maintain the proper functioning of the liver. The opposite of benevolent is angry, demanding, ever want to win and so on. When liver is affected it will manifest in the eyes exertenally. The physician related his own experience of being very demanding and wanting to win in every exam while he was young. This mental state affects the liver causing him to suffer from shortsightedness.

The physician also quoted his clinical case about a girl who suffered from a tumour on the throat area. When he quesioned the mother, she was found to be a stubborn and ever-want- to- win girl. Once a car overtook her and she raced it and overtook in return. Hence the physican asked her to change his attitude by training to be benevolent and the best place to start is at home. He recommended she helped her mother to do all the housework and change her ever-want-to-win character. She listened to him and a week later, when she came to him again, it was found that the tumour had shrunk considerably much to the surprise of the doctor in a hospital she went to for ultrasound imaging.

The physician also mentioned an experiment done by a scientist in Stanford University on the exhaled gas collected from people who were very angry and those who were very sad. When the first type of gas goes through an indicator liquid, it turns purple while the second type of gas turns it grey. Later the scientist injected the liquids to white mice, they died. It showed that both gases were very toxic. Hence when we are angry, we produce toxic gases. I still can recall a talk by a policeman who talked on Buddhism. He said that in ancient China, there was a case of a baby who was breastfed by an angry mother died because the milk contained toxin because of her anger.

According to western doctors, when a person is angry, the energy spent is the same as that of running 3000 metres. Hence an angry man who feel tired. Furthermore, his face will be green because of the toxic gas produced and his hands will be cold because of pure circulation of blood.

Hence be compassionate all the time and refrain from anger and your liver will be in tiptop condition.

Be a vegetarian

I was listening to a talk on how to stay healthy and gained some useful information which I would like to share with readers of this blog. Food is the one stressed by the presenter. According to him, cancer has become a common disease in the world. There is nothing to fear if one should contact this disease. He enlightened us that we have to use the right method to deal with cancer cells.

In the past we have treated cancer cells as enemies and try to destroy them through radium treatment and chemotherapy but they will still be in our bodies. A doctor who had suffered from cancer treated the cells as friends. He altered his life-style and food. From a hectic schedule, he had taken things easy. He turned vegetarian. Miraculously, the tumour had reduced to a negligible size and disappeared later.

A researcher who went to China during the 80's also found that those Chinese who took mainly vegetables and fruits had rarer cases of contacting cancer.

Hence, it can be concluded that switching to vegetarian has a better chance of not contacting cancer.

Be a vegetarian then.

Food for good health

According to research in the West, weakly alkaline environment is not conducive to cancer cells to survive. As such we should take in more weakly alkaline food to prevent the growth of cancer cells in our bodies.

Weakly alkaline food includes red beans, radish, apples, cabbages,
onions, and tofu.

As for mildly alkaline food, dried radish, soya beans, carrots,
tomatoes, bananas, oranges, pumpkins strawberries, egg white, dried
plums, lemons, and spinach are the examples.

Let us eat more of this food to stay healthy and cancer-free.

Let us stay healthy always

If people ask me what matters most, I would answer 'Health, of course.'. I arrive at this answer after being ill myself and after being in the hospitals for two operations. I still remembered how I kept asking the doctor when I could be discharged. I just simply did not like to be confined to my bed, lying all the while.

To be healthy, one has to take the right type of food, exercise regularly and have the right attitude towards life.

We must avoid consuming lots of sugar and fat which are detrimental to our health. If one can forgo things delicious, vegetarian diet is the best food for our health. Even cancer patients in the West take vegetarian food while on medication to better their chances of having their cancer cured.

Exercising really helps to make one's heart function better. The easiest exercise is walking or going up stairs. If you go up stairs you work against gravity and you will pant for breath after some time.

Having positive attitude towards life means being contented with what you have. Greed will bring suffering as pointed by Buddha four thousand years ago. Just contribute whatever you can towards society and help whoever needs helping and you will have peace of mind - a state for the well-being of our bodies.

Let us stay health always.

How to prevent flu using alternative methods

From my reading about health, I have gathered some interesting ways to prevent and lessen the effect of influenza. I would like to share these with readers of this blog.

1 Immerse your legs in warm water for 15 minutes per day. The legs must be red after the immersion. This practice is said to be able to prevent influenza.

2 The second way is eating raw onions regularly. If you don’t like the taste of onions skip this method of preventing influenza.

3 Gargle your mouth with salt water every morning and night. It will kill the germs in your mouth cavity as a way to prevent influenza.

4 Wash your face with cold water every day.

5 Inhaling water from hot water in a glass can reduce stuffiness during the attack of influenza.

6 Blow hot air at the area called ‘temple’ (the flat part beside your head between the forehead and the ear) or your ‘tai yang xue’ acupuncture point for 3 to 5 minutes several times per day. It will help to cure your influenza faster.

7 Rub your palms and massage the groove region (‘ying xiang xue’ acupuncture point) below your nose regularly. It will help you prevent influenza.

8 Mix equal amount of pounded garlic and honey, and add in water. Drink a tablespoon of this concoction four to six times a day. It is very good for treating influenza.

Let thumb and fingers touch to maintain memory

Very often, we find that we tend to forget where we put our keys, mobile phones and so on. Our memory seems to go downstream. Well, I would like to share with readers of this blog a way of maintaining good memory. It is very easy and every one should be able to do it.

Use your left palm to do this exercise.
1 Touch your forefinger with your thumb once.
2 Then touch your ring finger with your thumb twice or two times.
3 Next touch your little finger with your thumb thrice or three times.
4 After that touch your middle finger with your thumb four times.
5 Now touch your little finger with your thumb thrice.
6 Then touch your ring finger with your thumb twice.
7 Finally touch your forefinger with your thumb once.

Repeat Step 1 to Step 7 23 times or more.

You can exercise your thumb and fingers this way when you are free or when you are driving and have to wait for the traffic lights to turn green. You can even do it when you are watching your favourite TV programme.

My encounter with high blood pressure

My blood pressure used to be 120/80 even when I was at 40 and my family doctor always tells me that I have the body of a young man. At 50's my bp has increased to 130/90 and the doctor does not ask me to take any medicine. Ideally, our blood pressure should be 120/80.

Two weeks ago, I felt dizzy and the whole body was like having temperatures. I went to my family doctor to check my bp and it registered 145/95. He asked me to come for another two times for checking and if the blood pressure still does not go down, I will have to be on bp pill. I went to the clinic for the second bp check but he was not around and I went to a pharmacy to have my bp checked. It had gone down to 140/85.

Then I decided to go to a specialist and he put me on bp pill straight away when my bp showed a reading of 150/90. i took the pill and the pressure went down to 107/76 when I measured it with my newly-bought electronic bp meter. I stopped the drug and kept monitoring my bp and I found that my bp range was 123-130 / 78-90 for a week. I do not suffer from high blood pressure after all.

I have decided to exercise and take vegetarian diet to maintain a normal bp and I hope it works. I like to share the types of food that we should take to reduce blood pressure. These include apples, bananas, papayas, carrots, sweet potatoes and almonds. Sufficient sleep is needed too as lack of sleep will elevate blood pressure too. Above eat more fruit and green vegetables and avoid oily and fried food as well as processed food.

My blood pressure readings today are 126/81 at 1.40pm and 125/79 at 10.00pm. They were the best so far.

Acupuncture works

Yesterday I went to my physiotherapist for rehabilitation of my 'trigger finger'. This time, she inserted three needles at three different acupuncture points to reduce swelling on my forefinger. I experienced numbing sensation as the needles were being pushed into the skin. They remained there for about 20 minutes after which they were removed. When she examined my swollen finger, it had reduced considerably.

Acupuncture did wonders to my finger and now I could flex a little bit. According to her, it would take quite some time for the finger to be normal again because the tendon was swollen too. I expect to be undergoing acupuncture treatment the next time I set foot at her clinic again.

Acupuncture works.

Gargling with salt water

As influenza A(H1N1) is spreading to 176 countries in the world, people are scared of the infectious disease. I have received many e-emails telling me how to prevent getting sore-throat, a sign of infection. One of the methods will be using warm salt solution for gargling to kill and wash down the virus to the stomach where this virus cannot survive.

I have been using salt water whenever I have sore-throat and it works most of the time. Sometimes the sore gets more serious first and it goes off the next day even though I gargle again because I know it is going to work.