Western medicine sees this as an infection and antibiotics are usually prescribed.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is an imbalance of the yang energy impacting the spleen and/or bladder organs. The term we use is damp heat in the Lower Jiao or Lower Burner. This simply means that the body has a kind of turbid moisture combined with heat residing in the lower part of the body preventing the urine from flowing properly.

By clearing this damp heat the problem will disappear.

Dampness is said to be like chewing gum on the bottom of your shoe, it’s a bugger to get rid of. It kind of just sticks there. We can experience damp cold or damp heat, the latter being the cause of the cystitis. Dampness usually starts off as cold and then after sitting there for a while it will heat up like a compost pile until the problem presents itself as damp heat.

The organ that is most responsible for dampness is the spleen. The spleen is the partner of the stomach and makes up the rotting and ripening process of the digestive system. When the food enters the stomach, the stomach distributes the lesser pure substances to the small intestine for further processing and the pure nutrient rich substances onto the spleen. The spleen which needs warmth continues breaking down the nutrients even further by transforming it into blood and refined fluids to be absorbed by the body as nourishment – the spleen is our friend. If the spleen is weak, cold, run down and not functioning properly fluid and food does not distribute properly and just sits and turns into the dampness I referred to earlier. The dampness then seeps to the lower part of the body (like the bladder) where it will combine with heat, and you then experience such conditions as cystitis.

If your spleen isn’t strong a simple way to strength it is have drink some ginger tea regularly or include it in your diet. If you already have cystitis, a simple way to relieve the pain is to make up a batch of corn tea. Boil up several whole corn cobs, husk and all for 30 minutes, strain and drink it frequently throughout the day. A few doses of acupuncture and properly prescribed herbs also work wonders.  The nasty thing with cystitis is that if the dampness is not treated, it will continue to linger (even after a course of antibiotics) and often the problem will recur, turning it into a pesky chronic condition.

If you liked this article please share it around and if you would like to read more of these, simply visit www.backonyourfeet.com.au and click on the articles tab and the top of the page.

The old texts state that,

“Wind is the Spear Head of a Thousand Diseases!”

Headaches, Upper back and Neck pains are more often than not due to an attack of wind.

At this time of year when we go outside into the cold, the westerly winds attack us like a knife in the back. If your body is weak the wind will get under the skin lodging itself into the muscles. The muscles will spasm to stop further penetration into the body. Once in spasm, the muscles will pull the vertebras out of alignment impinging on the nerves and give you neck pain.

With this neck pain you are most likely to experience headaches as well. If the headache is caused by wind it usually feels like a clamp or a wet towel tightly rapped around the head. You’ll feel dizzy, blurry and have heavy eyelids as if you need sleep. You’re likely to have a runny nose and tension at the back of your head, just below the skull. (This area is called the wind gate because it’s where the wind enters)

• If it was a stress related headache your eyes may also be sore and the headache would be sharp instead of dull. And you are mostly likely to be irritable and anxious with a stress headache.

All of this happens because your “wei Qi” pronounced (whey chee) has been compromised by the wind. Your Wei Qi works just like the earth’s ozone layer protecting us from external pathogens but when your Wei Qi is weak the opening and closing of your pores becomes slow. So instead of your pores closing as you leave the warmth of your home or office they stay open for a while longer giving the speedy wind a chance to dive straight in and give you all the above symptoms.

How to avoid this from happening?

• If you know you are run down be sure to cover your neck and shoulders when ever moving from a warm area into a cold area and this includes bed to the bathroom!
• Avoid working out at the gym under an aircon. When you are sweating, your pores are open, a perfect opportunity for that wind (from the aircon) to dive straight in there.
• Going from the shower to another room cover your shoulders before leaving the bathroom.
• Also cold and wind can even penetrate the body if your back is exposed to the glass of a window when sleeping.
• But the number one way to prevent it is strengthen your body’s Qi and keep it strong.

How to Strengthen Your Qi

• Be sure you get plenty of sleep and eat well.
• Eat root vegetables more often – they have qi strengthening properties
• Be sure to do some type of exercise at least 3 times a week – Yoga , Tai Chi and Qi gong are all ideal for strengthening Qi.
• Have acupuncture and herbs before your body is run down, that way you are building on the strength of your Qi instead of recovering from an illness and then have to build up after the illness has gone.

If you have the above symptoms can it be treated?

Yes, absolutely! You will need cupping, acupuncture and maybe some herbs, all this will depend on what level the wind is at. It can dive 6 levels into the body, all the way to the bone marrow. If it gets there, you will be in a lot of pain and no matter what you do to get warm it won’t work. At this stage you will need herbs for sure. So don’t let it get there!

I hope you found this [boyf News Letter] interesting?
If you have not been to my website for a while please visit, there are new things added all the time and there is also a whole bunch of other articles in there as well.

If you have any questions or you would like me to write on a particular health problem please just email me at info@backonyourfeet.com.au and for treatment please call 9233-3800

Feel free to pass this on to a friend or love one. And if your friend wants to receive these articles please ask them to submit their details on the right hand side of this website www.backonyourfeet.com.au

Take care

Sincerely,
Scott

Everybody will get to a point in their life where if you don’t keep your body and mind in a state of peace that your body will go down hill and age rapidly. A man and woman’s body does not need to age it’s just a concept that us as human beings use to justify why all our ancestors dropped off in their 60’s & 80’s. We actually have a brand new body every two years, so if it is new why does it date so quickly? STRESS!

I once visited a Buddhist monastery in Thailand where there was a monk who at the age of approx 83 died. He new he was going to die and instructed his family not to bury or burn his body and instead leave it on display to show the world what peace of mind can achieve.

So what this monk did was he went into a deep state of meditation and from there he passed away. His body is fully intact and has been for 20 years the only thing missing is his eye balls so they put sunnies on him, (Cool dead monk!)

Ok he did not live into his hundreds but he offered the world something else, he has shown that the body can preserve its self if it’s free of stress. It is said that when we die we see our lives before our eyes like a movie show and due to the stress of our past life is the reason why our body rapidly breaks down and decays. The monks body was not injected with preservatives and was not prepared in any other preserving way, the body simply sits there with his hair and fingernails still intact. The body is in-cased in a glass box to stop the animals from eating him but otherwise nothing, nudda, 0, just a peaceful dead monk.

If you are thinking, what has this got to do with you living today? Well if you are constantly complaining, over weight, have a sore back, have re-curing headaches, sleep and wake up as if you haven’t slept, don’t have a bowel movement for days and yes some people weeks, if you are in a job and you don’t know why, you are in a non supportive relationship or you have period pain these are all signs of stress in your body causing you to age much faster than you should.

Stress is the cause of disease, whether it’s from environmental pollutants, emotions, or even side effects from medicines stress will have our body’s break down and die. To free ourselves of stress we must keep check of our health, emotions and the way we think. What is Stress exactly? It’s when a situation arises either mentally or physically that we have trouble dealing with and then react in a negative way to rid that discomfort. A way to deal with stress is to learn about the situation at hand and this will take away the anxiety. Understanding the truth, the laws of cause and effect will free you from stress.

In the old texts its states that to live a long healthy life the key is to keep the heart calm in all activities including exercise. The analogy was that of a turtle, they travel hundreds of miles yearly, live into their hundreds and they have one of the slowest heart beats of all animals.

Over exerting the heart will have you age faster than one who doesn’t. My Kung Fu teacher who was in his 80’s would have us feel his heart rate and then he would do 5 minutes of very physical kung fu exercise and when he finished he would quickly have us feel his heart beat again, it was the same. He laughed and then walked away. Why do you see top athletes age rapidly from the age of around 40? It’s because of their intense training! Don’t get me wrong we all need a bit of competition in our lives it keeps the spirit strong and reflexes sharp but if you plan on living a long healthy life consider keeping the heart calm.

Always balance out activity with stillness this will keep you balanced. Hatha Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong are all slow exercises but what they do is stress the bones and muscles without over exerting the heart and this is an ideal way to stay young.

If you have any questions please feel free to email or come in for a treatment. My focus for you is preserving your health and age. All future studies I take on will be devoted to keeping you young.

Some clients I see are often surprised to know that I do more than just treat muscular problems. Chinese Medicine is a very well rounded discipline and incorporates all sorts of tools. Below are some things I do and treat if you didn’t know already.

•  Massage – Chinese, remedial, facial

•  Stretching – based on Kung fu and a history of physical education

•  Acupuncture – body, face, ear

•  Reflective Listening – life coaching based on NLP techniques and Buddhist psychology

•  Acupuncture Face Lift

•  Moxa

•  Cupping

•  Electro stimulation

•  Herbal pills

•  Meditation

•  Qi gong training & Kung Fu body strengthening exercises

Some uncommon conditions I treat;

Sore teeth, migraine, period pain, insomnia, constipation, heart burn, nervous twitches, depression, breeched baby, infertility for men and women, preparation and post pregnancy, asthma, plus many others. If you think your condition or a friends condition is unusual and not sure if I treat that please ask. It saddens me to see people suffer for years for no reason. Many conditions that western medicine cannot treat Chinese Medicine can. The reason is because of 3000 years of trial and error, that’s a long time.

Take care and see you soon.

Ps. If you have a friend who may like my news letters please pass this on to them and ask them to send me their details.

Kind regards,

Scott Cansdell

]]> http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au/blog/53/age-one-day-at-a-time-and-stop-stressing/feed/ 0 http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au/blog/27/bad-breath/ http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au/blog/27/bad-breath/#comments Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:46:22 +0000 admin http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au/blog/acupuncture/3-reason-why-you-may-suffer-from-bad-breath

Nearly everyone during their life experiences “the” kiss of death! Yes, that kis

s! It might be your first kiss or one from a relative, but there is no-doubt it will always be remembered as the kiss of…

Nearly everyone during their life experiences “the” kiss of death! Yes, that kis

s! It might be your first kiss or one from a relative, but there is no-doubt it will always be remembered as the kiss of death.

BAD BREATH! (Halitosis)

Ever asked yourself how on earth did someone’s breath become so strong or repulsive? Worse still, how did your own breath become so potent? Actually the answer’s quite simple!

Bad breath is a result of bad digestion, an excess of strongly aromatic foods, alcohol, stress or dampness that’s giving off heat and making the breath smell nasty – to the recipient – you or another. Often we can’t smell our own breath, which can lead us blindly into a never ending cycle of unknowing or acceptance.

There are many stories of embarrassing instances where people have actually stopped talking, meeting and greeting other or becoming reclusive due to experiencing or being informed that they have bad breath.

For some it is often a lot easier to stay ‘a breath’ away than to have someone suggest “man go brush your teeth”! Unfortunately unless you know the other person well, often nothing is said at all, they just seem to ignore you or turn their heads in another direction as you speak to them.

If you are lucky, someone may comment “What have you been eating? My dog has nicer breath than you!” Sound cruel; well they may inadvertently be doing you a favour.

Bad breath may not have to be the way.
When food accumulates in the stomach, not breaking down in the time required, it ferments creating heat or heat that rises and representing an example of bad breath.

Another example is when someone has experienced a stressful situation causing their liver to over heat aggravating the stomach, which causes the stomach energy to rise instead of descend, leading to bad breath.

Another common consideration will be internal dampness. Just as a house becomes damp our body will also become damp, leading to the familiar smell of mould – not nice to experience. Dampness will accumulate in the body and in time this Yin energy will become what is considered damp heat or too much yin (negative energy).

The smell of damp heat can be likened to wet carpet ’slowly’ drying or worse still wet nappies that have not enjoyed the refreshing sun and natures curing winds. Gross, you bet, true? You bet.

Dampness can be explained as a sticky sludge in the body, difficult to circulate as it slowly moves from one part of the body to another. Dampness therefore represents a digestive problem.

So what to do?

The stomach, spleen and intestines make up the digestive system. The intestines are not usually the cause of the problem unless you’ve experienced digestive difficulties for some time. Problems usually involve the stomach, spleen and liver. The stomach doesn’t like heat; the spleen on the other hand enjoys warmth.
The stomach feel comforted by a little moisture; however the spleen will be aggravated by excessive moisture, so a medium in the relationship between the two is required, needles to say the liver has its own favourite climate.

If you personally experience bad breath, start by reducing all heating foods from your diet. This might include chillies, curries, deep fried or oven baked and junk foods. You can assist this process by adding more green ingredients, foods high in water content like cucumber, lettuce and green leafy vegies – or supplementing your diet with a green wheatgrass ‘alkaline food’ ingredient to balance the Ph within the body.

This suggestion will address stomach heat; however let’s not overlook the spleen weakness or possible dampness issues. Consider cooking all green vegies with a slice of ginger – as ginger is a natural source of heat. You can do this by placing a little ginger with vegies whilst steaming or stir frying.

If you prefer stir-frying be sure to do so on a low heat, remembering not for to long or it could lead to over heating the ingredients.

Stress heats up the liver and this inturn affects the stomach. You can counteract this process by calming the body with cooling or calming teas and going for GENTLE walks, (in non-stressful environments like a park). Follow this process with a high vegetable diet and you’ll find the liver and anxiety levels will soon calm down.

Stress causes heat in the body, leading ultimately cause a viscous cycle of anxiety, sleepless nights, irregular bowel movement and unstable female period cycles. Over time any concentrated heat will start to make its way up to the throat – and this can eventuate in bad breath or offering some poor person, the kiss of death.

In order to maintain a fresh breath, keep the body calm, stay away from heating or damp foods, drinking ample water throughout the day to flush the body of toxin build-up. Don’t rely on chewing gum; this only goes to aggravate the stomachs digestive system, fooling it into the misconception that food is arriving. Not good.

Bad breath has nothing to do with teeth and gums, unless you have a rotting teeth and gums or chose not to undertake regular oral hygiene, Instead it has everything to do with rotting stagnant foods that continue fermenting in your stomach.

If you find yourself unsure as to the cause, step back and carefully consider your life, (work and family pressures) but more critically your diet.

If you feel stressed all the time it’s likely that the liver is under attack. If you experience clammy hands/feet and have a thick coating on your tongue, then it’s probably the spleen. Should you suffer from mouth ulcers, experience sensitive teeth and a dry mouth then it’s probably stomach heat.

Should you relate to any of the above symptoms, then come and have a consultation, before that person of your dreams suggests they’d rather kiss a stranger or worse still their dog:

Until next time,
Breathe fresh on others, be cool, take care of your diet and be happy!

http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au

Alkaline Cook Book for digestive health & weight loss

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Have you ever noticed tapping of the foot, continual picking at the body, finger nail biting, fiddling with things, pacing up and down, starting something, then moving onto another project before the first is finished.  Or cleaning something then going back to clean it again?  Not you, someone you know or have experienced in others? Well, this is anxiety! Anxiety represents a constant flow of hot blood that disturbs the mind, starving it of rest and depriving it of valuable peace. Anxiety begins in the mind as a reaction to a fear. This fear (False Evidence Appearing Real) is a result of not understanding the situation at hand, creating a state of confusion and letting the mind run rampant. A confused state will be totally unconscious because the conscious mind is preoccupied trying to work out where the problem originated. The body then reacts through the liver heating up as toxins develop from the stress leading the organ to work overtime dealing with the negative chemical reaction being experienced. This hot blood quickly circulates through the brain tissue throwing the whole homeostasis balance out.  This leads to the mind becoming unsettled with thoughts becoming more blurred, eventuating in increased confusion. The process doesn’t stop there; as the blood is over-heating it starts to irritate the heart, the heart then beats irregularly causing palpations and the occasional panic attack. While all this is occurring your body and mind is still trying to work out how to resolve the problem, and that’s not the end of it. Your organs naturally support each other, however when an organ becomes unsettled,  like the liver it will send a negative message, aimed at the digestive system (hence experiencing indigestion when upset at the dinner table). So how does Acupuncture/Chinese medicine deal with this? We start at the root of the problem – that is the physical root.  Acupuncture has an amazing ability to calm the internal organs when unsettled in addition to providing the mind with some peace for a while.  At that point (pardon the pun) your body and mind is given time to regather and think through problems in a relaxed and rational manner. To continue to keep that peace one should take up relaxation techniques like Meditation, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga and or Yoga Nidra. One helpful tip, if the problem that caused the initial confusion is something that needs serious attention, then consider learning all you can about that subject. For example, if the problem is related to relationships, study relationship behaviour, learning from success stories and any ideas that make relationships work.  Talk and learn from the experiences and skills of people that have overcome such conditions – there are some great books out there. Everything we become comes from a learning experience, these can be both negative and positive, naturally any negative experience is only going to produce a negative outcome or in relation to the above subject matter, anxiety.  On the opposing side is any positive experiences generally lead to positive results – leading to a lack of anxious moments and better health, for the body and the mind! www.backonyourfeet.com.au

Acupuncture is the art of understanding the nature of disease or weakness within someone’s body, seeing where the imbalances are and then balance them again by moving the body’s energy around.

The energy that I refer to here is called Qi and it is what circulates throughout your entire body in every moment. And by balancing this Qi your internal organs will work in harmony providing you with the perfect environment for a baby to grow.

If a woman’s spleen Qi is weak she will be anaemic, have possible recurring miscarriages and constantly be tired all the time. If her liver was hot due to stress or pollutants the blood that circulates around her uterus will not flow properly, the blood will be sticky and clot and or the blood will be too hot and in this case make the uterus an unsuitable environment for a foetus to grow.
And then there is the kidney essence. The kidneys set the temperature and provide the elixir of life. And when the kidneys are weak there will be infertility. This essence will be the foundation of your baby’s constitution and its ability to grow into a strong adult.

Acupuncture has the ability to balance your organs so they function at their optimum levels and in the event provide the ideal environment for a baby to grow and develop a strong constitution.

It’s not magic, its wisdom that has been handed down from teacher to student for longer than 3000 years. Acupuncture will help you conceive if you give it a chance. Be sure to visit a practitioner that has a strong foundation in the Traditional Chinese Medicine field and then you will know that you will be getting the best care.

Get Your Pregnancy Guarantee Here

http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au

The other day I was Chatting with a guy who did not know me or what I did. He was telling me about a neck problem he had and how bad it was so I asked have you considered acupuncture and he said no the neck is quite bad and it needs serious attention, I will go see a Chiropractor. Now, confused by that statement and thinking about the comment for a while I came to the conclusion that most people really under estimate the power of Acupuncture.

What can be justified as real or for that matter normal? Real to some people may be a feeling, to others it may represent something they visually saw, heard or experienced, but does that really justify that something is real?

When I travelled to Sri Lanka I experienced things that if I shared with you, you’d probably say “impossible” but given for me the experience was real, I’d have to admit and say it was real.
Is a magic trick real or an illusion? At what point can something be regarded as real?

I ask this question because after 3500 years there is still doubt about whether or not Acupuncture is real. Why would generations of people keep Acupuncture therapy around for so long if it wasn’t, real or working for them? What about religion, they have all been around for thousands of years, are they real?  

Could it be because someone experienced something, an event or happening that could not be explained as the experience was so moving, so (real) that they believe whatever it was, that made them feel that way, it would have proven to them to be real?

Is your Brain real? To this day, science does not really understand how the entire brain works, or for that matter electricity but they still say its real; it has to be, without it your body would not work and neither would your microwave.

There are many things in this world that can’t be explained or I should say that can be explained but not everybody can comprehend the explanation.  In one of the old spiritual texts it is said; “when meditating, concentrate on the breath because it is all that is real, everything else is just an illusion!” The breath is real because without it you are dead!  

At this point you’re probably wondering where this story is heading?  In the Western World we are governed by what science informs us is real. Reality is measured by tangibility.  If it can be seen or measured, then it must be real, if it can’t, well, then it must be an illusion. Why are ghosts often considered a figment of our imagination? Maybe because they can’t be called upon when a scientist wants to see them?

If it can’t be summoned, called upon, measured, seen or broken down to know true nature or constituent parts, and then surely it’s not real. So where does Acupuncture come into this? When the body is dissected acupuncture points can not be found, a bit like someone having their leg cut off but still having an itch where the leg once was! Taoist say “the closer you look the bigger the whole becomes!” It is only now that quantum physicists actually agree with this theory, that if you break down the body structure eventually you arrive at a cellular level, then atoms, then energy that form the atoms and then the universe which provides the energy. Why the universe? Because all that is energy is part of the universe. So the full circle starts again. So what’s real?

My best definition of real is, if something makes you feel good, relieves some suffering and improves your life, even a little, then that experience is real, the results are real.

In due time, after science decides to stand still from chasing its own tail, breathe a little and starts to feel its own breath, then they and the no-sayers will notice that there is a vibration of something moving around their body – perhaps they’ll call it Chi or Energy?. In Chinese Medicine we call this Qi. If Science can for once say “yes there is something there because I can feel it / actually experience it” and then just accept that without trying to get to the bottom of it because getting to the bottom of the universe is perceptually possible, then the considered opinion of it won’t happen, doesn’t work, doesn’t exist and can’t be explained therefore it does not exist, may change to Yes, using the Meridians, or life paths of energy form through the body is factual and by redirecting or clearing pathways, acupuncture helps to cure and heal.

Today after no less than 3500 years many people do not believe in acupuncture and even after getting excellent results question whether the treatment was real or in just in their mind (A bit like the placebo effect).  

I can tell you without quoting texts or history, that acupuncture is very real and very serious for all conditions, even serious ones! Some of the problems I have personally treated with instant results are:

Headache
Backache
Breeched baby
Morning sickness
Nausea
Frozen shoulder
Someone unable to stand up
Asthma attack
Impotence
Indigestion
Sea sick
Knee problem
Stiffness in the hips
Fainting

A client arrives with severe leg problems; the Western Medical approach was to conduct spinal surgery – yes serious surgical procedure.  After six weeks of acupuncture, to this day he has never complained of any leg problems again, and this is from a patient that I had to pick up off the floor, as he could not use his legs, let a lone walk.  Did he go into surgery, no!  Would surgery have worked, who knows?  Would he have walked out of surgery, highly unlikely, was he walking after the first treatment of acupuncture, well, he went back to work that day.

Believe me, Acupuncture is a very serious and mostly misunderstood treatment and it works extremely well for most physical complaints. Acupuncture is a very powerful method of treating the human body.  So much so, it has been able to get women strong enough to conceive and carry the full term of pregnancy when no other intervention had worked.  In relation to the client story above, it got a grown man crying in agony up off the floor, wipe his tears away and return to work that day.

Consider this?  Every living thing in this Universe is made up of energy, literally every single atom, be it a solar system, planet, the Earth we walk on or the body we use to walk.  Our bodies are living atoms all vibrating together to keep us together.  Now and then this togetherness needs energetic correction, and that is what Acupuncture provides, it unblocks the pathways that lead to stagnant energy, allowing the body’s natural energy flows to flow.

http://www.backonyourfeet.com.au