Qi Gong--the points

As I mentioned in my last post, there are a limited number of Qi Gong points that are the focus of the exercises.  Here they are:

1. On top of the forehead
2. In between the eyes (sometimes called the "third eye")
3. A point where the tongue touches the top of the upper palate inside the mouth
4. Middle of the chest
5. Navel
6. Groin
7. Point where your two legs join
8. Palms of your hands
9. On the back, at the bottom of the spine
10. Point on the front part of the sole of your feet

 The goal of Qi Gong exercise is to do things to allow you to become aware of the energy that flows through these points.  Some of the exercises are simple.  For example, walking--just plain walking--activates the point on the sole of the foot.  This is called "activating earth energy."  The key is to be as aware as possible of the point on your foot while walking.  In theory, bringing attention to this point will increase your consciousness of the energy flow and, at the same time, will bring more energy to this point.

Here are some other simple activities that can stimulate Qi energy:

Simply being next to someone else--when you are next to another person (within 3-4 feet), you are stimulating that person's energy and they are stimulating yours.  (This reminds me of Feng Shui and its focus on how the environment around you influences energy flow.)

Touching--Same as above, but now you are not only sharing energy but you are sharing what is called "conscious intention," which is the emotion you feel for that person when you touch them.

Hugging--even more of the above.  When bodies touch, the points align and the energy exchange is that much more intense.

Of course, there are more active ways to stimulate energy.  I'll focus on that for my next post.

Qi Gong--My I-Search Topic

For my I-Search research, I'm learning about Qi Gong, another form of ancient Chinese medicine.  My interest in herbal treatments, acupuncture, and Qi has lead me here, to Qi Gong. 

As I understand it so far, Qi Gong means "developing Qi."  While herbs and acupuncture needles are external stimuli designed to push the Qi around, Qi Gong has more to do with getting in touch with the power of Qi inside you and learning how to manipulate it yourself.  You do Qi Gong to yourself; there's no need for an expert (a herbalist or an acupuncturist, for example) to intervene.

Qi Gong is something that you practice daily.  It consists of a series of movements or exercises--but not "exercises" in the traditional, physical, rigorous sense.  Some of the exercises involve small, slight movements and postures; others involve different types of meditation.  It's NOT like yoga.  There's no stretching (well, hardly any) or vigorous training of muscles.  It's not about muscles; it's about Qi.  It's about getting in touch with the flow of Qi in the body and learning to concentrate in a way that will regulate this flow.

If you think of Qi as an energy flow, Qi Gong is a little easier to understand--a little.  The meditative portion of Qi Gong is all about learning to sense this flow of energy inside of us, and the more active portions are about intensifying this flow.  Think of Qi Gong as a way of putting the flow of energy (Qi) in our bodies into a state where it's functioning and flowing correctly.  Like a tune-up.

Like acupuncture, Qi Gong identifies specific points where the Qi is focused, and the practices of Qi Gong focus on these points.  However, whereas acupuncture involves many, many points, Qi Gong seems to only involve nine or so.

Next: How to practice Qi Gong.

Food for Thought

A good choice?

Just read a blog post on one of the blogs I subscribe to that discussed what food to each for an acupuncture-approved diet.  Logically--but somewhat surprisingly--the blog recommends eating like...you're in a Chinese restaurant.  Of course!  Now, this doesn't mean the local Chinese greasy spoon.  Instead, it means a healthy Chinese restaurant, something that's not easy to find in the Brookline area.  Here are some of the specific recommendations, based on what is served at a Chinese restaurant:

1.  Lots of fresh vegetables, but all slightly cooked.  Raw vegetables are harder to digest.
2.  Variety.  In other words, eat family style, a little of this and a little of that to insure a wide range of vitamins and nutrients.
3.  No ice cold water.  This is why many Chinese restaurants serve tea rather than ice water.  Ice water halts the digestive process.  Warm water speeds it up.
4. No dairy.
5.  Very little dessert.  Who ever had cake at a Chinese restaurant? Fortune cookies only.

Of course, to suit American tastes (and speed up the cooking process to meet the demands of impatient diners), much food in American Chinese restaurants is deep fried, which negates nearly all of the benefits of this diet.  This is the problem: finding a place that doesn't Americanize the food so much as to ruin all of its benefits.  Not easy. 

Feng Shui

The four Elements of Feng Shui: Fire, Water, Earth and Wood

While I've been reading articles and books about acupuncture and ancient Chinese medicine, I've come across a lot about Feng Shui, a part of ancient Chinese belief that has to do with ordering and arranging the physical environment (natural and also man-made) so as to best orient ourselves with the flow of Qi around us.  On the one hand, this field has become widely popular, especially in design circles both in the East and (recently) in the West.  On the other hand, this stuff strikes me as incredibly mystical and hard to accept.  But I know I need to be patient and learn more before I make any judgment.

The basis of Feng Shui, as I understand it, is that there are forces of Qi and other energies that flow through the world around us.  The ancient Chinese saw these--literally or symbolically, I'm not sure--as manifestations of dragons' breath, which is both positive and negative.  The idea is that to live a life full of health, happiness, and good luck, one must arrange his or her surroundings so as to channel the flow of dangerous, negative energies away from us and the flow of positive forces towards us.  This might involve building our homes in a certain relationship to a hill or local mountain; designing the main openings of our houses to face a certain way; placing the furniture in our rooms in certain positions; or putting plants in certain places to deflect a negative energy's flow. 

Of course, there's a lot more to it that this.  It's easy to dismiss this idea as silly mysticism, but that's too easy.  Again, lots of people--lots of smart people--are using these theories to direct the way they construct houses, buildings, and even entire cities.  I suspect that much of the way the West has embraced Feng Shui (as reported in magazines like the New York Times Sunday Magazine and others) has more to do with style than with substance.  That is, without understanding the underlying philosophical and historical roots, Western designers are adopting the sleek, simply look of some Chinese homes.  My own home is so full of clutter that ANY new aesthetic might help!  What do I have to lose.

I'll keep reading.  I'm more interested in the energies that flow within the body than the ones that flow outside, but perhaps I'm missing half of the picture. 

Treating Colds

So, my attempt to use mushroom-based medicine to prevent my cold totally failed, so, with the help of someone who really knew what she was talking about, I'm exploring two other herbal medicines to treat the cold that I couldn't prevent.  That's what I'm writing about today.

1.  Astragalus: Astragalus is a plant, I suspect, but the medicinal form is derived from the root.  It can be made into a tablet, but it's most commonly found in tincture form (a liquid that you add to hot water to make a tea).  Astragalus has been found to strengthen the immune system, the system that gets compromised when you get a cold.  Astgragalus should help the immune system fight of the continued presence of a cold, shortening its duration.

2.  Echinacea: Echinacea is actually an herbal remedy from the Western medicine tradition, originally used by the Plains Indians (including the Chayanne, Lakota, Pawnee and Kiowa) long ago.  Echinacea is a flower, and the medicine is derived from grinding up the petals of this flower.  It's a local plant and easy to grow; I've had it in my back yard.  Recently, it's become a popular treatment for colds, and for this reason scientists have begun testing to determine the effectiveness of echinacea--with mixed results.  Some have found that taking the herb reduces the changes of getting a cold and, if taken after you have a cold, it can reduce the during of the cold.  Others are less convinced.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has begun testing herbal medicines and supplements more rigorously in recent years as more and more people have begun taking them.  Again, the results are mixed.  This is something I should look into more.  (Though I also have to say that my experiences with approved cold medicines are also very mixed; some say that most of them are worthless.)

mushroom power?

As of today, all three of the other members of my household (wife and 2 kids) have colds, and this has got me thinking about what I can do to prevent getting my yearly never-ending cold myself.  I usually get a cold in late October, one that I can't shake until the late spring.  I might as well buy stock in the Kleenex corporation.

In the past, I've tried to prevent and then ward off this cold with vitamins (esp. C, but also some others), but this hasn't worked too well.  Last year I went herbal, and this worked a little better but not much. 

So this year, in the spirit of my new interest in Chinese medicine, I will be trying...mushrooms.  Based on my reading, mushrooms have very strong powers for building up the immune system.  People in China rarely get colds (the web site I'm reading claims--I wonder if this is true), and it's because, at this time of year, they drink broths and teas that use a mushroom base.

I went to my alternative medicine supplier of choice (Whole Foods), and spoke with the kind man who works in the vitamin and supplements section.  First off, he's got a million tattoos and those weird ear things that makes it look as if he's got elf ears.  And he called me "dude."  But he seemed to know a ton about the wares in his section, so...I listened.

He told me a lot about mushroom-based treatments.  The taste of mushroom is not all that familiar to the US diet (he explained), so we've begun importing mushroom in pill forms.  (AND it was on sale!)

I'm trying it.  The label lists things I've never heard of, but the more I read, the more in intrigued.  It makes sense, I suppose, and, for me, that's a key to how I make my health care decisions.  My parents (both MD's) would be appalled, but nothing else has worked, so I'm game.

We'll see.

The Power of Qi?

On Friday, I had an acupuncture experience that was totally new to me. Marlene (my acupuncturist)tells me that the meridian that runs through my right arm has been blocked so the qi cannot flow through it smoothly. (I have been feeling pain and stiffness in my right arm, so this fits with my symptoms.) To help unblock this channel, she slowly pressed my arm from shoulder down to my hand, and then...

ZAM!

I suddenly felt what seemed like a huge, electrical shock running through my index finger. And I'm not talking about a tiny, static shock. I'm talking about a jolt of electricity. It came in pulsing waves; I could feel my finger jerking up and down. It was totally freaky! It is now Tuesday--four days later--and the tip of my index finger still feels numb, sort of like the feeling you get when you slam the tip of your finger with a hammer or when you get a burn on it.

Merlene insists that this was a good experience, that it's an indication that the Qi was surging through the meridian, having been blocked for a long time. Freaky!

It makes me think that the flow of Qi must be very intense and powerful, especially after it's been blocked.

Does it hurt?

I remember when I started acupuncture, the acupuncturist told me, "It's not about the needles." I once heard that the needles were so thin that you hardly even feel them.

NOT TRUE!

I definitely feel them! They definitely hurt.

Not a ton. It's not as if I'm in agonizing pain. But they do prick when they enter the skin, often making me jump and squirm a little. I've gotten used to it, but they still hurt. Sometimes when a needle goes in, it sends a pulse of...something (Qi?)...through a meridian, and that's pretty freaky. I'm a pretty needle-phobic person and this has taken a lot of getting used to, but, even after two years, I'm not really used to it.

(My friends wonder why I do it.)

The acupuncturist (her name is Marlena) puts the needles into a number of points: some on my feet, some on my legs, some on my arms, some on my shoulders (this is where I've been aching recently), and some on my head. Yes, my head. Recently, to help with my allergies, Marlena has been putting needles in my ears, which is very weird. There's also a point between my eyes, right above--where the "third eye" in Hinduism is supposed to rest, I think--and sometimes she puts a needle there, too.

And then I flip over on my back for more.

Again, after two years of this, I've very much gotten used to it, but I certainly would never say that I don't notice it or that it doesn't bother me. I've learned to block it all out by closing my eyes and thinking about...anything else. Had I known in advance what I was getting into, I probably would have been too chicken to try it out.

But I don't have regrets; I'm glad I went into this blindly.

Qi--now things get complicated

If Qi were simply a force that flows through the body--sort of like spirit, or, on a more mundane level, blood, this would be easy to understand. But things get far, far, far more complicated when I begin to think about the fact that there are many different types of Qi and all are important for health.

For starters, we are all born with Qi. However, there's also Qi that we get from the food we eat and the things we drink--which makes diet especially important because it a bad diet can through off the Qi balance. Furthermore, the internal organs (heart, liver, lungs, etc.) generate their own Qi. And then there's the Qi that is fundamental to our gender, more commonly known as Yin and Yang-Qi. There's also heaven and earth Qi, which might be understood as the Qi that comes to us from the environment around it. The process of creating a living environment that produces balanced, healthful Qi is called "Feng Shui."

Are all these forms of Qi the same? I'm not sure. I'm not sure that "forms" is really the right term. My sense is that Qi is an energy, a force that flows through the universe and which is directed or misdirected by all of the different things we encounter: food, living conditions, psychological pressures, emotional states, conditions of our body, and a host of other elements.

For this reason, Ancient Chinese medicine (ACM) must be wholistic: it must treat the body as part of a larger, universalized system. Illness, properly understood, is caused by the mis-flowing of Qi, which can be caused by all kinds of things, both inside of us and outside of us. To restore a person to health, an ACM doctor must work to get the Qi flowing properly again.

This restoration might focus on the Qi that flows through the meridians of the body (acupuncture), Qi that flows through the body as a whole (tai Chi), Qi that flows through our living spaces (Feng Shui), Qi that flows through our spiritual life (Buddism?)...and I'm not sure what else.

I find this both complicated and cool. I like thinking about health as wholistic rather than as a simply result of microbes or viruses. It's empowering, in a way.

I've started reading a little about Feng Shui and will post about that soon.