Happy Chinese New Year 2022!

Tuesday, February 1st marks the first day of the 2022 Chinese New Year of the Water Tiger. Since it is based on the ancient Chinese calendar, the date of the New Year changes annually, typically falling on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice. Your Chinese zodiac sign is determined by the year you were born, not the month. There are 12 zodiac signs and five elements (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood), meaning that it takes you a full 60 years to go through every combination and come back around to the beginning of the cycle. Because the New Year can fall any time in January or February, if you were born in those months you need to check its date in your birth year in order to correctly determine your zodiac sign.

The Tiger is considered to be the king of all animals in Chinese mythology, symbolizing power, courage, confidence, leadership, and strength. It is also very special because it is an animal that expels all evil. Because of this, it is associated with good luck, bravery, and good health. Like the animal, Tiger years tend to be powerfully explosive. However, Water is a very yin element so this one should be less aggressive. The ongoing pandemic certainly has resulted in a lot of pent-up energy that will need to be expressed at some point, but hopefully, the process won't be too tumultuous. This year in particular is thought to be one that will bring about significant new changes and encourage people to overcome their challenges and difficulties.

Some important Chinese New Year traditions include sweeping your house out the day before to get rid of any bad luck left over from the previous year and opening all of your doors and windows at the stroke of midnight to allow the old year to escape and the good luck of the New Year to enter. Firecrackers are used extensively on this holiday to scare away evil spirits, send off the old year, and welcome the new. It is also important to use the day to set the proper tone for the year. For example, if you lend things out on this day, you will find yourself lending things out all year. It is also taboo to talk about death or the past on this day, to use knives and scissors (they may cut off your good fortune), or to wash your hair (you will wash away your good luck). Dressing in red on New Year's scares off evil spirits, and wearing new clothing symbolizes new beginnings.

Acupressure Points for Medical Emergencies

The Wilderness First Responder course I took in October has really inspired me to think a lot more about emergency care, especially within the field of Chinese medicine. The written record of this tradition goes back at least 2,500 years to a time when it was the only medical system in that part of the world. Over the ages, it developed into a complex and extensive system, with theories and treatments for every type of common health condition. Though most people know of acupuncture primarily as a treatment for pain, even today those in the field learn how to address a wide range of diseases of the internal organs, as well as emotional imbalances, and yes, even medical emergencies.

In China, hospitals are much more integrated and you will find acupuncture and herbal medicine being used in emergency rooms right alongside modern medical treatments like pharmaceutical drugs and surgery. Here in the United States, we are seeing this type of integration in the military, where “battlefield acupuncture” is being used on the front lines as an alternative to opiates in the treatment of acute pain. In fact, just a few years ago the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management and the Veterans Health Administration National Pain Management Program Office completed a three-year $5.4 million program in which over 2,800 providers were trained in battlefield acupuncture. Below are some examples of points that are used in medical emergencies. They can be stimulated via acupuncture or direct manual pressure (acupressure). 

• Governing Vessel 26 (Ren Zhong): loss of consciousness due to fainting or shock, acute lower back sprain, epileptic seizure. This point is located on the midline, just below the nose. Acupressure should be directed inwards and upwards. In severe cases, pressure should be applied with the fingernail.
• Heart 9 (Shao Cong): loss of consciousness due to stroke, heart pain, chest pain, heart attack. This point is located on the medial (inner) side of the pinky finger, on the skin right where the base and side of the nail meet. In an acute emergency, an individual can stimulate this point themselves by biting down on it.
• Pericardium 6 (Nei Guan): heart pain, disorders of heart rate and rhythm, anxiety attacks, incessant vomiting, stabbing abdominal pain. This point is located on the midline of the inner arm, three finger-widths above the crease of the wrist, between the tendons. Pericardium 6 is also known as the chief point for motion sickness and morning sickness.
• Calm Dyspnea (Ding Chuan): acute asthma attack. This point is located just to the side of the space below the 7th cervical vertebra. The 7th cervical vertebrae is found by locating the large bump at the base of the neck.
• Ten Diffusions (Shi Xuan): loss of consciousness due to heatstroke. This set of ten points is located on the tips of the fingers.

New Year's Resolutions - 7 Essential Keys to Health

Are you looking for some New Year’s resolutions or just interested in boosting your overall level of wellness? If you focus on these 7 keys you can feel better both physically and emotionally, improve your outcome with almost any health condition, prevent the development of illnesses in the future, elevate your quality of life, and extend your lifespan.

1. Nourishment

The focus here should be on foods that are fresh, seasonal, organic, whole, and unprocessed. Fresh foods generally have more nutrients and more chi than foods that are frozen, canned, dehydrated, or highly processed. Our amazing local tailgate markets are the best source for these types of foods. In general, most people need to eat less sugar, refined flour, and saturated fats, and more whole grains, vegetables, especially leafy greens, and polyunsaturated fats, like those we get from nuts and seeds.

 

2. Hydration

Water helps us flush out metabolic toxins. It is essential for replenishing yin, keeping us cool and helping our mucosal membranes and joints stay moist and lubricated. Water helps us digest food and absorb nutrients and can even boost our energy and improve cognition. The general recommendation is to drink half your weight in ounces per day. If it is hot or if you are very active you will need more water, as well as electrolytes. The best quality water is fresh from natural, unpolluted sources, like spring water.

 

3. Exercise

Exercise has a host of benefits, from improving your energy levels and cardiac health to reducing high blood pressure and stress. Moderate, full-body exercises are best because they boost your chi and keep it flowing: swimming, walking, tai chi, dancing, bicycling. Though it is optimal to get some exercise most days, even just one 20-minute walk can have immediate, notable benefits. An important component of exercise is exposure to sunlight and fresh air so make sure to get outside.

 

4. Sleep

Sleep gives your body time to repair damaged tissues and replenish energy reserves. It is when we integrate our waking experiences and when our body flushes out our brains with fresh cerebrospinal fluid. Because of this, sleep improves mental alertness, memory, and problem-solving. In Chinese medicine, we recommend 8 hours of sleep per night. In the winter, the most yin time of year, when it is darker and colder and we naturally hibernate more, we recommend up to 9 hours per night.

 

5. Rest

In addition to sleep, we also need time for rest. Rest helps us be present and gives us time to reflect, reevaluate, and plan for the future. Rest is also essential for emotional health because it gives us time to decompress, reducing the toll that things like chronic stress and anxiety can have on our health. Rest even has direct physiological benefits, like reducing inflammation and improving immunity. Everyone should rest at least a little every day. Balancing activity and rest is an important way that we can balance yin and yang in our lives.

 

6. Emotional Balance

Taking care of our emotional health means many things. Making time for fun, doing things that we love, and expressing our creativity are all part of it. It also means feeling connected: to the people who are important to us, to our community at large, to nature. For most of us, feeling like we are living a life of meaning and purpose, like we are making a positive difference in the world, is also essential. In Chinese medicine physical health is absolutely essential to emotional health; they are completely intertwined and one depends on the other. 

 

7. Toxin Reduction

In the modern world, we are exposed to toxins of many types. Eating according to the guidelines above reduces the number of toxins that we take in, staying hydrated gives our body what it needs to flush toxins out, and exercising in fresh air helps clear our lungs. Other ways to reduce toxins include limiting our intake of alcohol and drugs and reducing our consumption of stimulants like tobacco and coffee. In Chinese medicine intoxicants and stimulants increase the amount of heat in the body, leading to inflammation of the organs and tissues. In addition to reducing our intake, occasional fasts or cleanses can help the body clear out accumulated toxins.

 

Herbs That Stop Bleeding

One important thing I learned during my Wilderness First Responder training is that a major priority in any emergency is to stop bleeding. Since the average person only has about five liters of blood, if the injury is severe enough it can take just minutes for them to bleed out. The main way to stop bleeding is with pressure, applying your hand, a wadded-up piece of fabric, or a medical dressing directly to the injury. There is even a special type of gauze available that is embedded with hemostatics, substances that seal injured blood vessels and/or help in the formation of blood clots.

Chinese herbal medicine also offers treatments for severe bleeding, the most famous being Yunan Baiyao. This formula was invented by a Chinese doctor in 1902 and is based on a special type of ginseng (Panax notoginseng) that stops bleeding, reduces pain, and alleviates swelling. The capsules can be taken internally for emergencies like knife wounds, gunshot wounds, traumatic injuries, hemorrhage, bleeding ulcers, and certain types of gynecological conditions. Each box of capsules also comes with a special single red pill that is specifically for severe cases where there has been the type of extreme blood loss that can predispose a person to shock. Yunan Baiyao can even be purchased as a powder and used topically, applied directly to wounds to stop bleeding and prevent infection. These affordable and widely available herbal products belong in everyone's medicine cabinet and first aid kit.

If you don't have anything like Yunan Baiyao on hand, there are other herbs that stop bleeding. These can be found in your spice cabinet (cayenne) or ornamental garden beds (yarrow), growing wild as native plants (cattail pollen, witch hazel bark, oak bark, self-heal), or as non-natives that have naturalized (plantain, mugwort). They are often applied as a powder or, especially in the case of leafy herbs like plantain, mugwort, and yarrow, as a poultice, chopped or chewed fresh and placed directly on the injury site. Any of the herbs listed above can also be taken internally. The traditional way to take most herbs is as a decoction, added to a pot of water that is boiled down over time to concentrate the medicine.