Speedlinking the Chinese medicine way
Hey folks,
I’m taking just a short break to go see the awesome Rodrigo Y Gabriela at the Oregon Zoo and hang out with my family. I’m working hard on a few articles, and will be writing as you expect soon. The first few weeks of School (we start on September 10) are always a little hectic so please forgive me if my posting frequency is a little off. I may have to supplement with some shorter posts. I am also going to be experimenting with some new formats - including guest posts (posts from other authors), polls, voice and video recording, a copule “best of” posts and more.
The topics I’ve been posting on for the last 6-7 weeks have been good. The structure has taught me a lot about what I like to write about and what you like to read. I may alter it somewhat, adding, subtracting, expanding and collapsing categories. If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see - please do leave a comment.
For today, I’d like to leave you with an annotated list of my 5 websites you may not have heard of, but should visit as soon as you can. I encourage you to try them out if you haven’t and come back and tell me what you think. Not all of them are strictly Chinese medicine related, but hey - what can you do?
1. Urban Monk.com - A blog devoted to the relentless pursuit of integral greatness on every level of the human being. Have a search through his archives, subscribe to the RSS feed and generally take advantage of one of the best personal development thinkers on the Internet.
2. TCMStudent.com - The proprieter of this site has gone to great lengths to create an awesome resource for Chinese medicine students. I particularly enjoy the forums, the practice tests and his lists of links - but there isn’t a single resource that fails to please.
3. TCMDirectory.com - A great and growing resource of annotated links to all kinds of amazing web resources related to Chinese medicine. It’s cheap to get your own practice or other business listed, and all of the links are relentlessly checked for quality.
4. HelfgottBlog.com - A new blog that I am involved with that discusses the science of natural medicine, the growing health care crisis and natural medicine as a vital part of the solution to the problem of health care in the Western world.
5. Lifehacker.com - A vast sea of tips, links and commentary about topics as diverse as memorization techniques, new gadgets, and how to create a lamp out of styrofoam cups. Learn to be more frugal, more efficient and enjoy doing it.
Thanks for putting up with me. ;) Eric
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Tags: Blogging, Personal DevelopmentRelated posts
6 Ways that Meditation is going to revolutionize your academic life
One of Deepest Health’s readers, Katrina, mentioned that she wonders about the benefits of meditation for students. There are a hundred and one articles out there showing simple meditation procedures, equally as many discussing the health benefits of this practice. So, I thought I’d take a slightly different angle and discuss the specific benefits I have experienced from meditation and then list the methods I recommend in brief. My hope is that this information will help students to see the benefit of meditation and encourage them to add a regular practice to their already busy schedule.
Tags: academics, erics-habits, focus, habits, meditation, professional-development, spirituality, students, study
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5 Simple Chinese Medicine based ways to improve your vegan (or not) diet
As you may know from my prior post about veganism and Chinese medicine, I have been vegan for several years. In that time, I’ve done a lot of tweaking of my diet trying to maintain balance and healthfulness. In the post referenced above, I list a few ways that a person could alter their diet to conform to general Chinese medicine principles. I thought I would include a more specific list of things that I do that I believe help me to improve my diet by making it more warming, less damaging to the Spleen/Stomach and more balanced within the five elements.
1. Tempeh not Tofu
Getting protein as a vegan or vegetarian isn’t as difficult as many people seem to believe. I think people are beginning to see beyond the protein hysteria and this is creating a friendlier environment for more folks to make this kind of a dietary change. However, from a Chinese medicine perspective the reliance on tofu as a protein substitute is not necessarily a good thing. Soybeans in general are a cooling food, and the addition of mineral compounds (it used to be Shi Gao, the notorious super cold herb!) in processing make tofu particularly cooling. In large amounts, this cold can negatively impact digestive fire - causing indigestion and poor absorption of the essence of food.
Most Western sources note that soy as present in fermented products like natto and tempeh is a more healthful choice. I believe that a similar realization can be had through Chinese medicine principles. I don’t have any specific information on whether the fermentation process warms soybeans, but I imagine that it does. If we think about the process of fermentation, it involves the hard work of microorganisms. I imagine that the energy that these creatures put into the soybean must warm it somewhat. Regardless, I find much less digestive upset when I consume tempeh. That being said, I do still consume tofu and products made out of it - I just use them in moderation.
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Chinese herb of the week: The qualities and uses of Ma Huang
I hope you’ll excuse me for getting this out a little later than I had hoped - the weekend was jam packed!
Ma Huang - Ephedra - 麻黄
Ma Huang is one of the most famous herbs in the Chinese Materia Medica - and with good reason. In a world where medicine is mostly unable to deal with the most common illnesses that people encounter, colds and flus, an herb that can handily address these symptoms has a right to be respected. Unfortunately, some of the popularity of this herb exists for more nefarious reasons. Ephedra has been implicated in a number of exertion related deaths, particularly in young football players and people seeking to lose weight.
Unfortunately, many people are unable or unwilling to learn the whole story. These deaths did not come from the controlled use of appropriate doses of the whole herb under the supervision of an appropriately trained Chinese medicine physician. In many cases, the herb is broken down to isolate the desired alkaloids (for example, L-ephedrine) and often mixed with other stimulating compounds to increase the metabolism of the imbiber. It is not used using the principles of formula science - and thus is dangerous. When Ma Huang is used in its natural or minimally prepared form, prescribed by a physician within a carefully constructed formula appropriate to the patient’s condition and constitution - it is absolutely safe and, even, quite beneficial.
Read more
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Quick housekeeping announcement
Hey folks,
I don’t know if it really matters or not, but I’m exclusively using http://deepesthealth.com instead of http://www.deepesthealth.com when I tell folks about my site. It’s also the preferred domain at Google. So, if you’ve got me in a blogroll or linked to an article, if you could use the non-www version, that would be great. Thanks!
Eric
Tags: Blogroll, health, tea
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