Chinese Natural Healing

Herbal medicine, Acupressure, Acupuncture, Qi Gong and more.

Posts Tagged Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology

Hand Acupressure for abdominal distention (intestinal gas), belching(burping)/bloating/flatulence(farting)

Oct 21

Posted by conrad in Abdominal Distention, Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Belching, Bloating, Digestive System Disorders, Eructation (Belching or Burping), Flatulence (Farting), Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, Illnesses A-Z, Intestinal Gas, Intestine Disorders | No Comments

Most of the time, flatulence, also known as farting, and belching, which also known as blurping, make us embarrassed. However, if it happens in the wrong moment, wrong place and wrong time, it’s not going to be funny, or even have some critical effects on certain decisions.

If belching, bloating or flatulence happen too often, there may be some disorder with the digestive system. If you always feel bloating, you may need to pay attention. There may be diseases or conditions that are causing this trouble. Bloating is a feeling, while abdominal distention means physically the abdomen is larger than normal, so they’re different. There are different reasons I found from the researches, but I’m not going to list them all here for now, just some of them. Diet like taking too much high fiber, high starch food, and hard-to-digest food (which means the hard food that takes longer to digest) will produce more intestine gas. Eating too fast, or eating while walking and using straws too much will bring air into our stomach.

Whenever you feel like you have some intestinal gas, or going to blurb or fart in wrong timing, you can stimulate the large intestine acupoint, “er jian” and the reflexive area for stomach, spleen and large intestine about 4-5 times each . (see diagrams) That should relieve the problem. Doing these stimulation regular can also help with the bloating problem in a long term.

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Hand Acupressure to prevent cerebral hemorrhage (stroke)

Oct 11

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Arteriosclerosis, Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Cerebral Hemorrhage (Stroke), Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, High Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Hypertension, Stroke | 1 Comment

In the last three posts I talked about hand therapy for high blood pressure and low blood pressure. One top disease related to high blood pressure that kills a lot of people is cerebral hemorrhage. It was the top cause of death before, but now it’s behind cancer and heart attack because of the change of healthier, less salt diet now. However, it’s still one of the top killers. Cerebral hemorrhage is mostly caused by arteriosclerosis, or artery hardening, which can happen when getting old, psychological issues, or too much fat in the blood, or diabetes etc.. Certain shock is going to break the blood vessels in the brain and ruin brain cells. Even if it’s a stroke that didn’t kill the patient’s life, the result of numbness, weakness and activities inconvenience are still terrible to anyone.

To people who have high blood pressure, diabetes, or under a lot of stress for long term, Any preventive method of cerebral hemorrhage is always a good thing to practice. Stimulating certain acupoints on your hand can also help prevention.  A lot of potential cerebral hemorrhage patients have reddish or even blackish spots on their fingernails. These spots indicate the inefficient blood circulation in your body, which is a big warning sign for a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. When these spots appear, don’t panic. we can stimulate three acupressure points: on the roots of index fingernail at the corner towards the thumb (Shang Yang); on the roots of ring fingernails at the corner towards the little finger (Guan Chong); on the roots of little fingernails at the corner towards the ring finger (Shao Chung). See diagram.

Rub and massage these acupoints often until the spots disappear, and then keep stimulating these acupoints to help the blood circulation to help prevent the cerebral hemorrhage.

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Hand Acupressure/Reflexology for low blood pressure

Oct 8

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Cerebral Anemia, Cold Limbs, Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, Headache (see also Migraine), Tinnitus | No Comments

In contrast of the energetic high blood pressure patients, low blood pressure is definitely the opposite, causing the patient sleepy all the time, and their limbs are usually cold. High blood pressure is definitely dangerous, but low blood pressure is painful as well. Usually the standard readings of low blood pressure on the meter are maximum under 100mm and minimum under 60mm. The cause of low blood pressure are usually genetic reasons. Low blood pressure patients are usually tend to be weak, but they have longer life. The price of this kind of longevity is that there are a lot of little health problems in daily life, and don’t feel well. Symptoms include fainting when standing, cerebral anemia, cold limbs, headache, tinnitus…etc. Women may have inconsistent period as well.

No matter what, blood pressure shouldn’t be too high or too low. There are four acupressure points for treating low blood pressure: Zhong Zhu and Yang Chi on the back of the hand,  Shen Men and Tai Ling on the palm side. (See diagram) Note that Shen Men and Tai Ling are below right below the palm, when you turn your wrist inward and you’ll see three wrinkles, these two acupoints are both located on the middle wrinkle. These acupoints are all on the “channels” that control blood circulations. Stimulate these 4 acupoints every day can help raising the blood pressure, then the cold limbs and headache symptoms will eventually disappear. Note we’ll need to massage these acupoints until we feel the warmth on the areas around those acupoints.

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Hand Acupressure/Reflexology for high blood pressure, part 2

Oct 7

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Arteriosclerosis, Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Cerebral Hemorrhage (Stroke), Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, Headache (see also Migraine), High Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Hypertension, Illnesses A-Z, Myocardial Infarction, Shoulder Stiffness, Stroke, Tinnitus | No Comments

Last post I talked about acupoints for treating high blood pressure. This second part, like usual, is about the reflexive area that you can massage to help control high blood pressure.

When you wake up in the morning and totally feel energetic about the busy work; in the next event you totally feel like a brand new person with a loud, confident voice and never feel tired; and then you think, “I feel really healthy and strong now.” If you’re really confident about it, you may really be the type that is young and healthy. However, another cause of this sudden “energetic” manner can be high blood pressure. Because a lot of high blood pressure patients or “potential” patients are quite energetic and even a little “hyper” with activities.

Many think that high blood pressure is a disease that mostly occurs in middle age group. Although it’s partly true, but many young people may have that as well, especially the genetic  ones. Usually when we were young, the blood vessels are more soft and flexible that can take more impacts with change of blood pressure. But if we’re over confident with our health, that may become a problem. Because working over time, alcohol, smoking, stay up too late, too much salt intake….for a period of time – will easily cause high blood pressure.

May be we can start massaging our hands everyday to start adjusting our body condition. High blood pressure is not a quick thing to cure no matter in eastern or western medicine. So, patience and continuation of hand reflexology is a helpful thing to do.

The reflexive areas treating high blood pressure are mostly on the thumbs. The palm side and  the back side of the thumbs belong to “head reflexive area”, “neck reflexive area” and “bronchus reflexive area”. (See diagram)

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Clip on the thumbs from the side of them to stimulate the area, keep twisting and waving the wrists at the same time. That may help lower the blood pressure. Massage the thumb tips every day whenever possible such as on the way to work. If blood pressure is already quite high, taking breaths in mind with the same tempo of the massage will make it more effective.

If we meet a person who got sudden rise of blood pressure, ask him or her to sit down and rub the wrist tendon on the little finger side with the direction from arm to hand. This should help lower the blood pressure immediately. And since that may cause a little temporary low blood pressure, that’s why the patient need to sit down first.

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Hand Acupressure/Reflexology for high blood pressure, part 1

Oct 5

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Cerebral Hemorrhage (Stroke), Cholesterol (high), Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, Hardening of the Arteries (Arteriosclerosis), Headache (see also Migraine), Heart Attack (see Myocardial Infarction), High Blood Pressure (see Hypertension), Hypertension, Myocardial Infarction, Overweight, Palpitation, Shoulder Stiffness, Stroke, Tinnitus | 1 Comment

After a whole week of flu, I finally can come back to the monitor and write again. When I was coughing, I tried the hand acupressure I wrote about a while ago as well. And it did relieve my cough a bit, but the treatment took quite long to make it work.

Anyway, as I’ve been doing lately, I’m going to talk about hand acupoints for high blood pressure in first part, and reflexive area in the second part. High blood pressure means the blood flow in our body doesn’t go well because of certain resistance, and cause the heart to pump harder and give higher pressure to keep the blood flowing. The causes of high blood pressure vary. Most of the time is caused by other health problems, but overweight and inappropriate diet can also be catalysts of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure can cause some self aware symptoms like headache, shoulder stiffness, tinnitus, palpitation etc. But the most scary one would be arteriosclerosis caused by high blood pressure. It’s because when blood pressure is high, the arteries of the whole body will have to share the extra pressure evenly, some blood vessels get weaker and may cause stroke or myocardial infarction (MI)

Treatment of high blood pressure is usually taking medicine to control the pressure. But we can’t ignore the side effects of these medicines. So acupuncture and acupressure on acupoints would probably be a more natural treatment. There are 3 acupoints on the back and the side of the hands. The first one is called “Yang Xi”, which locates on the inner side of the wrist under the root of thumb, where the concave area is.  The second one is called “He Gu” on the back of the hand in between the thumb and the index finger,  locates at about the length of the first segment of the thumb counting inward. The third one is called “Luo Ling Wu” on the back of the hand in between the knuckles of index finger and middle finger. Most high blood pressure patient can feel the little pulse at those acupoints, so it’s not too difficult to find them. (See diagrams)

Here is the guide to stimulate those acupoints using finger massaging or rubbing, if problem is serious, use a bunch of 10 toothpicks or pointy device to stimulate:

1. Maximum blood pressure > 160mm reading on the meter: stimulate the first one “Yang Xi”

2. Maximum blood pressure > 180mm reading on the meter: stimulate the second one “He Gu”

3. Maximum blood pressure > 200mm reading on the meter: stimulate the third one “Luo Ling Wu”

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Hand Acupressure for lower back pain and sciatica, part 1

Sep 26

Posted by conrad in Back Pain, Cervical Spondylosis, Cupping, Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology, Lower Back Pain, Lumbar Spondylosis, Neck Pain (e.g. Cervical spondylosis), Sciatica, Spondylosis | 1 Comment

I believe a lot of people have hurt their back before, whether is the neck, upper back or lower back. At least I’ve been suffering with all these three myself. When we move something heavy with an inappropriate pose, it’s easy to hurt the back, especially the lower back. If we don’t treat that in time with a doctor, a chiropractor or an acupressure practitioner, the result can turn out really bad, something chronic like lumber spondylosis and sciatica.

Spondylosis is degenerative arthritis of the soft joints in between the pieces of the spinal vertebrae. The misplaced joints pressure the nerves around and cause different level of pain and numbness, or paresthesia in the limbs.  Sciatica is the nerves staring from lower back vertebrae to the feet got pressured or stimulated, and cause the pain of lower back and the feet. I experienced that before and was cured by moxabustion and cupping few years ago before it became severe.

I’m an example myself who didn’t go see the doctors after I got several car accidents. I got cervical spondylosis (around the neck) myself, and recently got better after some Qi Gong treatment I talked about in my very first post. I also hurt my lower back before, especially I have an extra vertebra in my lower back, which makes it easier to get hurt when getting older. Now not just cervical spondylosis, I also got slight lumber spondylosis (lower back) as well. This blog was actually inspired by all these back problems so I can remind myself the importance of health.

Other than spondylosis and sciatica, lower back pain can also be caused by soreness, or simply hurt the tendons. A lot of times people hurt their backs when moving heavy stuff, standing or sitting for too long , or using mattress that is too soft, or getting old.

There are some hand acupressure points that can help relieve lower back pain. For most lower back sore and pain, the acupoint is located at the little convex bone on the back of the hand at the merging point of index finger bone and middle finger bone. For sudden injury that hurts the lower back, the acupoint is located at the merging point of ringer finger bone and little finger bone. To relieve the pain, we can slowly apply pressure to these acupoints, then leave it for a while like a few seconds, press again, just repeat the same process until the pain gets relieve.

Acupoint for sciatica located at the back of the hand in between the knuckle bones of ring finger and little finger, and closer to the ring finger bone. Using pointy device like a pen or toothpicks to strongly stimulate this acupoint until the pain gets relieved.

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Hand Acupressure for gray hair (gray hair) and hair loss, part 2

Sep 16

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Baldness, Gray Hair (Grey Hair), Hair Loss, Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology | 1 Comment

Last post in Part 1 we talked about the acupoints on hands for treating gray hair (grey hair) and hair loss. We’re going to continue with the reflexive area on the hand that helps treating this same problem. Before you jump to the diagram and see where the reflexive areas are located, let’s read a story the practitioner told on the book from my research.

About the concern of gray hair, hair loss or even baldness, men and women are pretty much the same. But baldness is more annoying and scary for men. Indeed, it may be hard for women to imagine why men are so panic about hair turning gray or even losing hair. Gray hair actually feels like the warning that the another end of life is coming to men. Somehow it’s a strike to most men.

There’s a taxi driver who came to this practitioner’s office to treat his back pain. He’s at about his early 30, but 30% already turned gray. He asked if he should dye his hair. Then the practitioner said it’s not recommended since dye somehow is not good for health. Gray hair actually looks quite mature and stylish somehow. But the taxi driver said he looks quite old to a lot of people and even kids didn’t like him neither. So the practitioner then suggested he spend 15-20 minutes per day to massage the reflexive area and see how it goes.

As the last post indicated, hair loss and gray hair are related to the weakening function of kidneys and adrenal glands. As long as we keep these two organ strong, the hair should be fine.  So gently do a massage on the reflexive areas on the palm (see diagram) continuously should be able to stimulate the function of kidneys and adrenal glands and hence help the hair grow back to normal. So even if it’s not for hair, continuing to stimulate these areas are good for health as well.

Another supplementary method is bending your fingers and “grind” the fingernails of both hands on both sides. That is going to stimulate the end of nerves.

Other than that, balance diet is also a key. Eating black beans, sesame, sea weeds are going to help the hair. Relieving stress and adjust the mood with variety of activities and interests are very important as well.

After two months, that same taxi driver came back for his back again. This time he pointed at his hair told the practitioner that his gray hair had been reducing lately. The practitioner even forgot about that but now it seemed like the taxi driver did follow his directions and worked.

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Hand Acupressure for gray hair (gray hair) and hair loss, part 1

Sep 15

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Baldness, Gray Hair (Grey Hair), Hair Loss, Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology | 1 Comment

Either men and women both worry about gray hair (grey hair) and hair loss once they are about to be middle age. And even some young people now have this problem because of nutrition and stress. Certain people have gray hair come earlier. Hand acupressure can prevent treat gray hair and hair loss, if you insist on doing the simple massage for a long period of time.

Simply put, hair turn gray or white because the condition of nutrients growing the hair is turning weak, and the enzyme or hormone that makes black pigment is decreasing as one getting older. The reason of decreasing of the hormone still have no exact conclusion yet. In Chinese acupuncture theory, Gray (Grey) hair and hair loss are considered caused by weakening function of kidney and adrenal gland.

The acupressure points, or acupoints that help the kidney and adrenal gland would be on your palm side of your little finger. The kidney acupoint (”Shen Xue”) is located on the first segment while the adrenal gland acupoint (”Ming Men”) are on the second segment. Each hand’s acupoints helps one side of kidneys and adrenal glands. Another two acupoints that can work as supplements are the center of the palm (”Shou Xin”), and the corner of the root of the middle finger that is close to the index finger called “Zhong Chong”. (See diagram)

To treat gray hair and hair loss, STRONG stimulations are PROHIBITED. Or else the stimulation will catalyze even more gray hair to grow. So, when we stimulate these acupoints, it’s going to take longer time with some gentle acupressure or massage. Press and massage the kidney and adrenal glands acupoint slowly on both little fingers for about 5-10 minutes every day. After 2-3 months, you should be able to see some improvement with your hair. (See the second diagram)

Next post I’ll talk about the reflexive area healing gray hair as well. A story from a practitioner.

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Brief introduction of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment methods

Aug 16

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Bathing and Washing, Cupping, Herbal Healing, Moxabustion, Qi Gong, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in general | No Comments

About a week ago I had a post talking about Traditional Chinese Medical Diagnosis. At the end I mentioned a treatment plan being developed after the diagnosis. A treatment plan is designed with different appropriate therapies, usually includes one or a combination of acupuncture, herbal medicine, moxabustion, cupping, five star plum blossom, acupressure (also called “Tui Na” in Chinese), bathing and washing methods.

Acupuncture is a therapy that uses needles pinched into specific acupuncture points (or acupoints in short) to affect the flow of vital energy (Qi or Chi). There are a big web of acupuncture points and the collection is called Meridians system, which has 12 principal meridians (or called channels) that correspond to the yin and yang organs and the pericardium. (Yin organs mostly are those without an empty cavity, and include the heart, liver, lungs, spleen, and kidneys. As the opposite, Yang organs usually have an empty cavity such as the gall bladder, stomach, small intestine, large intestine and bladder. Pericardium is not an independent organ, it refers to the tissues surrounding the heart, or say it is a membrane that protects the heart.) Meridians work as a channel system that carries Qi and blood, but they are not blood vessels and there is no anatomical channel structure. There are 365 acupuncture points in our body,  and each points belongs to a specific meridian channel that connects to particular  organs.

Moxabustion is a form of heat therapy that uses the herb mugwort applied to specific points or areas of the body for healing purpose. Usually it’s learned with acupuncture and combined as one expertise. Cupping is a skill that uses suction cups made of bamboo or glasses. There was I time I had a serious flu, the doctor used acupuncture and cupping at the same time, and then I got a lot better just the next day.

Herbal medicine involves the use of botanical, mineral, and zoological substances for the cure if disease. This blog will talk more about herbal medicines in the future, and what diseases they can cure. Of course, these are just like an introduction and let the readers know what’s possible with TCM. The complex prescription will need a doctor or practitioner to design, or some patent remedies that have been tested for hundreds of years.

Acupressure, or called Tui Na in some translations (actually that’s how it’s pronounced in Chinese), is a Chinese therapeutic massage. There are a lot of different acupressure techniques, from pressing acupuncture points to fix the injuries of limps, from head to toe, acupressure can be applied.

“Five star plum blossom”, or called dermal needles, uses five needles bound together to stimulate yang energy by tapping areas of the body.

Bathing and Washing, on the other hand, is quite common. There are water cures, cold baths, sauna and steam, and the one worth most noticing is herbal baths or herbal foot baths. Certain skin problems will use herbal baths as well. Other than herbal foot bath, Herbal pillow can also be used for better sleep.

While these are traditional Chinese therapies that are useful and complementary to one another, the most popular ones are acupuncture and herbal medicine. Most licensed acupuncturist will have to learn both, or even more including some acupressure.

Qi Gong, on the other hand, still can’t be fully explained by science after all these years. The way it works is under the understanding of Qi, or vital energy control. Although the real Qi Gong master can heal many people, it’s still not an official therapy for traditional Chinese doctor to learn.

(sources: Chinese Herbal Medicine made easy by Thomas Richard Joiner, www.shen-nong.com)

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A brief introduction of Hand Acupressure

Aug 13

Posted by conrad in Acupressure (Tui Na) / Reflexology, Hand Acupressure/Massage/Reflexology | No Comments

I shared 3 different hand acupressure I learned in the last 3 posts. Some friends started to ask me questions about hand acupressure.I figured may be I should share some knowledgeable introduction about hand acupressure from my research so it makes more sense.

“Acupoints” are the critical points on the 12+2 major channels (or called meridians) for Qi (Chi) and blood flow to run. They’re all over our body. If we call our internal organs the power house, then the acupoints are adapters. By stimulating these acupoints through acupuncture or acupressure, Qi (Chi) and blow flow got adjusted and balance better. So as a metaphor, sickness is like a sudden change of charge/current, healing through acupoints are like controlling the adapter to adjust voltage. As long as we keep the power flow stable, we’re healthy.

About half of the starting points of those channels locate on our finger tips. Some call our hands as a thermometer of internal organs, or even a forecast channel of health, because our hands can tell our sickness in advance. For example, if the color of the palm looks uneven, the blood circulation may have  problem. If fingernails show red dots or even gray dots, it can be a sign of blood clot in the brain. If the color of the convex part below the root of the thumb turn purple, it’s a sign of a coming flu. Because there are many acupoints on the hand that are related to sickness, stimulating reflexive areas or acupoints on our hand can help healing. That’s really “natural” healing.

Ways of stimulation:

1. Thumb acupressure – use your fingers (usually the thumb on the front and four fingers at the back to support) to rub or massage the reflexive area and acupoints. It’s a very convenient stimulation. But it’s not strong enough for certain illnesses that needs stronger stimulation. There are two ways to massage, one is direct press, another is press and rub around the acupoint. Which way to use depends on what kind of illnesses. Usually press 1, 2, 3 and release, press 1, 2, 3 and release, repeat for as long as needed for different case.  The strength of massage is usually hard, but some illness can’t take too much stimulation.

2. Cigarette moxibustion – use a lighted cigarette or the Chinese medical moxibustion to approach the acupoints for heating stimulation. Be sure not to burn the skin. Horizontally held cigarette is actually better then pointing the acupoints vertically. Make sure you don’t burn your skin, 5mm distance should be close enough. Approach, and then away. Repeat 7-15 times. Depends on what kind of illnesses, sometimes we’ll have to do it everyday. Note that we never do this after shower or a bath.

3. Toothpick/pointy device – this is to replace the acupuncture needle while this gives a stronger stimulation then acupressure or cigarette. It’s easier to use a bunch of toothpicks (5-10) for stimulation because normally we’re not that accurate pointing to the acupoints. Although we don’t want to hurt our skin, feeling pain and stimulation during the process is important. Otherwise it’s not going to be effective. Usually 1, 2 press, 3, 4 away, 1, 2 press, 3, 4 away, keep repeating in this tempo. First timer can try like 10 times.

A normal question asked is about which hand to stimulate. The answer is that we stimulate both acupoints on both hands – they’re supposed to be the same. If we find that one acupoint on one hand feels more painful than the other during the stimulation, then we stimulate longer and more on that point.

We can do this hand stimulation anytime, or when we feel more relaxed. But after bath, exercise, drinking, or during fever, these are when we should NOT do this hand acupoints stimulation. Pregnant woman should never do it, especially the “He Gu” acupoint I mentioned last post for toothache. Strong stimulation on “He Gu” can cause miscarriage.

(sources: Hand natural healing)

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