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Monday, March 27, 2017

Chinese Diagnostic Approach to Healing

Chinese medicine, with its thousands of years of history of development through trial and error, is different from Western medicine in many respects, and one of which is its diagnostic approach to disease and healing. According to Chinese medicine, disease diagnosis is important not just from the standpoint of healing but also from the perspective of preventing disease in the future.


In traditional Chinese medicine, disease diagnosis is not about running tests on the patient, as in the case of Western medicine; instead, it is about taking and evaluating data of the patient in terms of "yin" and "yang" as well as the "deficiency" or "excess” of  "qi," which is the internal life energy coursing through the meridians connecting all the body organs. Given that Chinese medicine focuses on the balance of "yin" and "yang" Chinese healing is based on the harmony of "yin" and "yang" expressed in the Five Elements, which represent different body organs, as well as the free flow of "qi." Any blockage or stagnation of "qi" will result in "deficiency"or "excess," either of which will lead to disharmony or disease. The purpose of Chinese diagnostic approach to disease and healing is to find out not only the causes but also the underlying patterns of disharmony, thereby instrumental in promoting natural cures as well as preventing relapses in the future.

For thousands of years, in Chinese health system, disease diagnosis has been comprehensive in that it includes the environment, the social factors, and the conditions of the patient, such as food and nutrition, as well as lifestyle. Therefore, Chinese diagnostic approach to disease and healing is detailed and all-inclusive.

In Chinese medicine today, diagnosis begins with data collection through observing, asking, listening, and touching.

The first level of Chinese disease diagnosis is visual inspection and observation of shen or spirit. Shen is the spirit of the body, manifested in the consciousness, personality, intellect, and other abstract qualities. Disharmony of shen in the patient is reflected in confused or distorted thinking, heavy body motion, dull and slow response, insomnia, and other mental and psychological disorders and problems. On the other hand, good shen is revealed in good eye contact, clear skin, and healthy complexion. The presence of shen, or the lack of it, is basically a reflection of the balance or disharmony of “yin” and “yang.”

The second visual diagnosis is the examination of the colors associated with the internal organs on the surface of the skin, such as red for heart, green for liver, yellow for spleen, white for lungs, and black for kidneys. Chinese medical practitioners look for specific places to identify the colors associated with different body organs; for example, the skin under the eyes, the temples, the skin by the nose, the lips, and the forearms are strategic areas for physicians to identify colors of the patient for disease diagnosis.

The most important observation is that of the tongue. For centuries, Chinese physicians have extensively observed the size and shape (e.g. long or short; swollen or thin; cracked or smooth), the contour, the margins, and the color of the tongue to determine the presence of disease and the overall health of an individual. To illustrate, the light or heavy coating of the tongue indicates the absence or presence of body fluids (stomach fluids); if the coat is thick, the fluids are sluggish; a thick white coat is considered normal and indicative of a relative fluid balance; a blackish coat indicates internal imbalance.

The lifestyle of the patient, such as his or her appetite, diet, digestion, elimination, sweat, sleep, energy level, exercise, and sexual activity, among others, is also part of the diagnostic approach to disease and healing.

Listening and smelling are other unobtrusive methods of disease diagnosis. In listening diagnosis, the Chinese physician listens for sound of voice and quality of speech to determine the health conditions of the patient. In smelling, the physician uses body odor, or quality of breath, to determine the intensity of internal imbalance of the patient.

Touching is based on the pulse of the patient--a major index of the patient's internal health. In Chinese medicine, there are twenty-eight types of pulses, according to their speed, width, length, and rhythm. The abnormalities of the pulse indicate weakness or excess of "qi" in different body organs.

In Western medicine, doctors look for one single point where disease begins, and treatment is applied to remove or suppress the symptoms associated with the disease. The Chinese diagnostic approach to disease and healing is much more comprehensive and extensive in that the diagnosis aims at finding an underlying pattern of disharmony and identifying the organ and meridian that are the culprits, thereby instrumental in designing healing strategies for the disease.

For more information on Chinese healing, visit my website: Chinese Natural Healing.

Stephen Lau
Copyright © 2017 by Stephen Lau

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Conscious of the Mind

“Living is consciousness in that you must always be aware that your mind does not get in your own way, especially if you just don’t die and have to continue the rest of your life journey.

Consciousness of the Subconscious

 The human mind is intelligent in that it inherently knows how to organize life experiences into different patterns so that they may be easily and readily available. These thinking patterns are just like a filing cabinet with its many different drawers and many different folders, each with a different tag to indicate what that is. That filing cabinet has become the subconscious of the individual who has created it; whenever looking for information, that individual would automatically go and search through the many drawers and folders in his or her filing cabinet.

Implicit assumptions

We all have our own individual automatic thinking patterns to help us organize our thoughts, just like looking through our own filing cabinet, and thus enabling us to make our subjective observations, generalizations, predictions, and expectations. Automatically, they might have become the many implicit assumptions to help us see how life works or doesn’t work for us.
Indeed, we are living in an assumptive world with just too many implicit assumptions that, ironically enough, may often become stumbling blocks in our lives—in particular, in how we think. Consciousness of the subconscious may help us see the ultimate truth in our own implicit assumptions—the truth that nothing is set in stone, and that we can still teach an old dog new tricks. The truth of the matter is that we have to rethink our minds in order to believe that there are many exceptions to all our assumptions derived from our own observations, leading to our many generalizations and expectations that we might have subconsciously created for ourselves. Our consciousness of the subconscious may help us live the rest of our lives very differently, and not as what we might have erroneously assumed.
Always use your consciousness to look deeply into  what is really happening in your thinking mind—or how it might have got in your own way by providing you with superficial observations leading to over-generalizations that are often followed by automatic predictions and expectations in your implicit assumptive world. Let your consciousness deliver you from the half-truths and untruths you might have been floundering in all these years.”
The above is taken from “You Just Don’t Die!” If you want to live as if everything is a miracle, you must learn how to be conscious of what is going in your mind, especially your subconscious mind, The explanation is that your subconscious mind controls how your conscious mind acts and reacts to what happens in your life, and your life experiences then become the fabrics with which you weave the realities of your life.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Do you want to live to 100 and beyond?

Do you want to live to 100 and beyond? Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t. Irrespective of which part of your life journey you are currently on (actually, nobody knows), you have to live if you just don’t die. But how are you going to live as if everything is a miracle?
You Just Don’t Die! Is this book right for you?
Human existence is meaningless without life purpose and human happiness. The pursuit of longevity has been going on since time immemorial. Consciousness holds the key to the success of this pursuit. Consciousness is wisdom of the mind to understand the self, others, as well as how and why certain things happen. Wisdom is the capability of the self to ask self-intuitive questions along the life journey.
To live to 100 and beyond—if you just don’t die—you must ask questions about life; after all, living is about asking questions and seeking answers to the questions asked, and thereby instrumental in providing wisdom or a blueprint to continue the rest of your life journey.
The first question you should consciously ask yourself is: "How long do I wish to live?" Of course, that is only a hypothetical question because you really don’t have much of a choice—unless you would like to purposely end your life prematurely. Naturally, the answer to that question may also change over different phases in your life, depending on the quality of your life in that particular phase.
The second question you should consciously ask yourself is: "Why do I want to live long, or why not?" This question will be naturally followed by the third question: “How do I live long, or what can make me desire to live longer?”
The final question—if you just don’t die—is: "How should I live the rest of my life to overcome my daily problems and life challenges?"
This book helps you answer all the above questions, and much more.
The objective of this book is neither to convince you to crave longevity, nor to show you how to live to one hundred and beyond. It simply presents you with the consciousness of living the rest of your years as if everything is a miracle—if you just don’t die!

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Monday, March 6, 2017

The Toxic Cancer Environment

Be aware of the toxic cancer environment we are constantly exposed to.

Back in 1954, the film, The Conqueror, starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward, was made in a location of sand dunes near atomic bomb testing sites. As a result of exposure to radioactive fallout, nearly half of the film's crew contracted cancer, and many of them ultimately died of cancer, including John Wayne and Susan Hayward.

Not too long ago, Erin Brockovich, an unemployed single mother, became a legal assistant almost single-handedly brought down a California power company accused of polluting a city's water supply, causing cancers to residents nearby. It was subsequently made into a film in 2000, Erin Brockovich, directed by Steven Soderbergh, with Julia Roberts and Albert Finney. That was another illustration of how a polluted environment could cause serious health issues.

According to CNN news:

"Fifty-eight types of cancer were added to a program that treats first responders and survivors suffering from toxins emitted from the World Trade Center wreckage. . . .

Today, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health announced that those affected by the newly added cancers will be covered for free under the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act 30 days after the additions are published in the Federal Register.

The firefighters and emergency personnel who risked their lives at Ground Zero didn't question their duty to act. Some of the heroes became victims, and their illnesses became another painful part of the tragedy. The fight for compensation outlived those who lost the battle with cancer. . .  "

The report attests to the fact that a toxic environment is a breeding ground for cancer cells.

All the above examples show how a toxic environment may lead to cancers.

Some of the toxins from modern environment can be avoided, but many are unavoidable, such as toxic fumes from industrial uses and cars, and pollution in the water. No matter what, our bodies become toxic with chemicals and metals. The only option we have is to detoxify our bodies on a regular basis.

Read my book: Congratulations! You've Got Cancer to find out how to use your mind and body not only to prevent but also to combat the disease.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© Stephen Lau