New life from backyard

the new seedling of green beans

mater convolvulus?

The history of medicine

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Trying to read a new book "The immune system cure" (by Lorna R. Vanderhaeghe & Patrick J. D. Bouic). On the head page, I just read this:
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The history of medicine

2000 BC: Here, eat this root.
1000 BC: That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1805 AD: That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 AD: That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 AD: That pill is ineffective. Here, take this antibiotic.
2000 AD: That antiboitic doesn't work anymore. Here, take this root...

---Unknown
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Chinese medicine vs. modern medicine

Just read an article about Chinese medicine practice in North America.

It was about a 10 years anniversary party for a Chinese medicine practitioner Tongnina Zhuo, in Canada. The party drew quite a big attention not only to his friends, but also several news reporters from major medias. Even prime minister of Canada and governor of province were in the list who sent him congrats cards. About total over 300 people came to the party.

Chinese medicine practice in North America never be accepted by mainstream. The author of the article asked the Chinese doctor about how he could have such influence, his answer was very simple: he cured many patients.

Here is a quote from the article:

Chinese medicine can let you live without a reasonable clue; modern medicine can let you die with many (scientific) reasons.

I believe in science, also I believe there are truths behind seemingly superstitious Chinese medicine. I also believe in future, many magic phenomenons of Chinese medicine would be demystified by science.

Am I cursed? How much phyical illness to do with morality?

Image via Wikipedia

This morning I received an email from an old friend. It was a link to a video of a lecture about how our spirit affects our physical health. It sounds good I know, but just after watching about 10 minutes, I was feeling like wasting my time to some superstitious crap!

Not only the speaker's (he looked nice and health) sluggish tone made me impatient , the contents was mostly irrational. Be fair to say, there are a few interesting things in his speech like how those ancient masters such as Confucian or Buddha made their core theories based on Five Elements - the ancient Chinese interpretation of the nature, but the relationship he made between human beings' physical illness and "moral" quality is just a pure ignorance to me.
It seems to me, that when people have no answers to some physical phenomenons, they tend to believe there are something to do with spirit, such as moral quality, faith creed, whatsoever. But the facts are out there: so many evil-spirited people are physically healthy, and so many nice people get ill. I really don't think there is a need to write an research paper to prove this. But the question is still there: do most people tend to be superstitious or religious when they are lost?

Since the video was sent by my friend who knew that I was chronic ill, I had to assume that she must believe that this video will do good to me. Even though I understood that her intention was completely innocent, I still could not help to write her an email to express my feeling of being offended (I didn't really say the contents are all crap though. Maybe I should).

Frankly speaking, I have been having trouble with my friendship for a while.. During earlier years of my illness, most of my friends seemed to be more understanding, but for such a long term, they must be tired (which I understand), or, simply don't know what to do. They either estranged themselves from me, or tried to convince me that I am not physical ill at all. So I end up losing patience because it is so much energy taking to keep communication. And needless to mention, some of their "understanding" are just destructive to my health.

Once upon a time, I had to doubt myself: am I really cursed? or do I really have big problem with making friends? Until one day I found online community and discovered lots of CFS patients had been experiencing exactly same situation like mine (guess collectivism works in some way). So I no longer doubt myself, no longer put relationship above the truth of what I know.

And that this attitude itself - putting truth above relationship - is against Chinese tradition, because due to Chinese moral tradition, (mostly confucianism) ethics is almost totally based on interaction with people, which I think is one of the most poisoning elements in Chinese cultural heritage.

So, as I mentioned earlier, as a rebel, I choose truth, instead of relationship: yes, I am chronically ill, but I am a moral and mentally healthy person.

Ginger roots and Chinese dates

Image by chaos™ via Flickr

There is a Chinese saying:

men cannot live without ginger roots even one day; women cannot live without dates (Chinese dates) even one day.

One disease, two causes.

In the book "Never be sick again", Raymond Francis (a biologist who cured himself by his own wisdom) thinks that modern medicine made diseases way more complicated than what they really are. He believes that we only have "one disease": "cell malfunction", with two causes: "lack of nutrition" and "toxicity".

More and more I am convinced this is exactly what "chronic fatigue syndrome is: lack of nutrition and toxicity. With all junk foods and drugs, also lack of exercises, our body cells get "poisoned" and weakened. So even without any visible problems in any parts of our bodies, our bodies as a whole just don't function like the way they should do.

To fix these problems, diet is so the most crucial: eat organic high protein products to feed our healthy body cells also starve yeast candidas or any other parasites by NOT eat any junk food.

Easy to say but hard to do, because organic foods are expensive. But or me, I really don't have much choices: at this point, nothing (even love) is as important as health.

Sunshine, another good way to improve health

Just read an article (in Chinese) talking about the importance of sunshine. It mentioned about one of cancer survivor Armstrong, cyclist. It is believed that one of reasons he could survive from cancer is his life style: outside sport let him received lots of sunshine.

Why? The article was written by a Chinese doctor and he believed that cancer tumors are considered as "cold", "negative" element which is opposite of "hot" and "positive" element. Of course sunshine is "warm", "hot" and "positive" so it is believed by this doctor that it can fight against the "negative" elements inside our bodies.
Even if this might sound superstitious I am still sure there are some scientific truth behind.

I realized that I have not been staying outside enough to get enough sunshine for years! I ignored such a free gift from the Nature which can make me healthy. So, as soon as the pollen is gone, I shall stay outside all day long!

Puzzle of wellness, piece by piece

Image by Steffe via Flickr

For people with CFS or any other unknown health problems, they have to get well by their own efforts --- living in the dark with huge amount of scattered pieces of puzzle, put them back one by one by guessing, lucks, or frustration. Each right piece they found took huge amount of energy, time, and money. And there is no guidelines, the only "instructions" are their own bodies.
Of course, our bodies are actually the best teachers on this course, but, we need to learn to listen to her first.

I was somehow convinced that most of us lost this ability --- listen to our bodies --- during our progress of history. Of course, this could be another huge topic but right now, all I am saying is, "listen to your body" is not as easy to it sounds. It takes nothing for someone to do it, but it could take a life time for someone else to learn.

Drinking tea is better than drinking water?

I am always wondering which is better: water, or tea? Not sure if this is the answer:

Drinking Tea Is Better For Health Than Plain Water

An article about candida yeast

I like to collect these websites for my future use. Lots of good info:
Candida—Eliminating Yeast/Fungal Overgrowth.

Candida Diet Guidelines