Category: Nutrition

Is Nutrition Theory like blind men and an elephant?

After reading the report below, tell me what diets can help good health and long life.

“That there is no magic common healthy diet for all could not have been better validated than by Buettner’s study of the ‘Blue Zones’ that boast the highest rate of centenarians in the world.

These enclaves of healthy high longevity populations include Sardinian shepherds from Cannonau county who have a high proportion of meat in their diets and drink the polyphenol-rich local red wine four times a day.

Adventists in California on the other hand thrive on a strict regimen of vegetarian delights and no alcohol.

Greeks in the idyllic island of Ikaria feast on the Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, vegetables and seafood.

And Okinwan centenarians love generous helpings of fat-rich pork with their vegetables. There is no common dietary factor that could account for their longevity”

(The above is an extract from “Principles of Chinese Medicine: A modern interpretation” by Dr Hong Hai)

As we can see there is no common diet system that promotes the above different cultures centenarians.

So how do Western Medicine / Nutrition Theory make meaningful conclusion? Solely based on diets in term of Carbohydrate, Protein, Fat, Vitamin, etc cannot explain adequately, nor other diets system like today popular Alkaline Diet , etc.
However, 3000 years ago, ancient sages already give us clues as per YEIC. That is the critical concept of Body Constituents (体质).

What is Body Constituents?

Individual’s unique Body Constituents come from 1 ) Pre-natal, (先天) (that include hereditary，DNA etc)，and 2) Post-natal (后天)” (that include exposure to weathers, seasons, environment (whereby above different cultures have different environments) , place of stay, life habits, diets, types of exercises, moods, emotions, consciousness, personality, psychology，attitudes towards life, …etc.,)。

Hence what food is good for A, is harmful to B. Because A and B Body Constituents are different.
Not knowing one’s Body Constituents, and apply the most modern nutrition theories is like blind man and the elephant, or buy lottery tickets, sometimes win, most times lose.

The 5000 years Chinese food theory is based on what foods suitable for which aspects of body functionalities like digestion, metabolism, blood supply, respiration system, excretion etc. Unlike Western Nutrition Theory solely based on the composition of the food make-up, which cannot specifically points how it helps liver, or kidney or heart functioning !
“ Body Constituents + Diet Theory” (体质 + 饮食学说), is ½ day discussion at the 2-day YEIC training, involving many new concepts and knowledge.

This discussion involves a few key concepts which are elaborated in the online training  .
” Body Constituents 体质”，”Diets Theory 饮食学说” ，” Pre-natal, Post-natal 先天”， “后天”。
“Words in Chinese are texts from the book YEIC, 3000 years ago.”

Welcome to enroll

Video Training on the Ancient Wisdom

黄帝内经视频课程

Andrew Wong
EP Coach / Trainer / Facilitator.
心理辅导师 / 培训老师 / 带动集团学习师
Hp +6012 606 1525

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学习 “黄帝内经“博客

High Blood Pressure – Wrong Focus !!

In the Mandarin WhatsApp group, a member asks :

“Teacher, high blood pressure is due to which organ out of balance? How to avoid taking high blood pressure medicine?”

I ask : “Are you referring to western medicine ??”，she replied : “Yes”

Come to think of it, there are many illnesses require lifelong medication, including high blood pressure.

Lifelong medication to the ancient sage is a rather ridiculous thing. The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (YEIC) principle is “Restore body organs functionalities, you get well”. If herbs and acupuncture could not cure, consider daily practice of Life Cultivation 养生之道。

Back to the topic of high blood pressure, the issue is not which organ is out of balance, perhaps in the previous discussion, body organ functionalities are often mentioned.

I explain as follow.

Western Medicine focuses on “Pressure” and uses instrument to measure it.

YEIC does not use pressure as a concept. Instead a more powerful concept “Qi-blood” is used to explain many phenomena in the body functionalities or operational problems or illnesses.

When a person is very angry, he feels pressure in his head. Interestingly in Chinese language, angry (生气) ，means generate a lot of qi, resulting in pressure.

It is the qi that raises the blood pressure, and pressure is the end product.

Hence it is wise to put focus on the factor that creates pressure, i.e. qi.

Western Medicine does not have “Qi” concept, they consider high blood pressure is due to blood vessels lack elasticity, or damaged. Hence medication and necessary surgery are the main approaches.

“Qi-blood” is needed to all parts of the body. When you have high workload and the boss is impatiently waiting for your delivery of work, your head feels the pressure. That is because the body needs to send much more “Qi-blood” to your brain to help you finish your task and you feel the pressure or fainting.

If your body constituent (体质) is weak, particularly short of breath, i.e. your “Qi” is weak, and your “Qi-blood” is inadequate ( eg. anemia )，and you struggle to complete the task, besides having high blood pressure, you may have other problems like cold feet (as most qi-blood goes to the head, not feet), insomnia, anxiety attack, … which further increases your high blood pressure.

If you have blood stasis, eg. ladies with irregular periods, thick blood, or with high fat contents in the blood, and fluid part of the blood, due to poor metabolism, contains phlegm, or toxins, which manifest in your urine, stools, sweat, i.e. as per YEIC, called “Yin-Yang imbalance”, … isn’t it true then the Qi needs enormous force to move the heavy, contaminated blood and fluid, causing high blood pressure?

Earlier we have many discussions on our diets, lack of exercises to move qi, our emotions, feelings, personality, life attitude, … affecting Yin-Yang Balance, 阴阳失调，which further affect body organs functionalities, 五脏六腑功能失调，these cause high blood pressure, which is not due to only one organ issue.

Hence if you accept the teaching of ancient wisdom, and practice daily Life Cultivation 养生，and raise the quality of Qi, Blood, body Fluid, you can do away with medication ?, and not suffer high blood pressure, don’t you agree? ???

This discussion involves a few key concepts which are elaborated in  online training.
“Qi 气”, “Life Cultivation, 养生”, Organs Functionality “五脏六腑功能”,“Qi-blood 气血”，”Fluid 津液”，”Body Constituent 体质”
“Words in Chinese are texts from the book YEIC, 3000 years ago.”

Welcome to enroll

Video Training on the Ancient Wisdom

黄帝内经视频课程

Andrew Wong
EP Coach / Trainer / Facilitator.
心理辅导师 / 培训老师 / 带动集团学习师
Hp +6012 606 1525

Click
学习 “黄帝内经“博客

Must sportsman be more Healthy?

Datuk Lee Chong Wei, a Malaysia National shuttler, is suffering from early nose cancer. Everyone feels distressed and wishes him a speedy recovery.

Someone said: “I never thought that a top-ranking player with such a disciplined and healthy life would also develop cancer.”

Many people think that sportsmen should be healthy and how can they get sick?

Today we talk about sportsmen and health.

Early we have discussed 3000 years ago ancient sages proposes illnesses theory, the various factors like internal and external causes, today we only concentrate on a few variables.

Let’s start with simple logic. (I only bring out the concept of “Qi- blood” as per YEIC)

When athletes do intense exercise, breathing and heartbeat naturally accelerated. A lot of Qi-blood needs to be supplied to the heart and lungs. The body consumes a lot of “blood” and “qi”.

Intense exercise produces internal heat, body temperature increases, burning body fluids, turning into sweat. This also consumes body fluids in the body.

The “Qi, blood, and body fluid” consumed need adequate supplement .

（blood, and body fluid = Yin, Qi=Yang)

How to provide supplement?

It is necessary to have enough sleep and a proper diet.

Western nutrition theory only has the theory of protein, vitamin, etc. There is no clear guidance on how to supplement “qi, blood, and fluid” particularly.

The ancients experimented with a variety of different foods and analyzed their effects, such as what foods can produce blood, fluid, and Qi.

At the same time, it also needs to correspond to the individual’s body constitution. Therefore, different athletes should have different types of diets as supplements.

When in intense exercise, Qi and blood is specially supplied from the other organs to the heart and lungs. This also causes other visceral imbalance.

If other visceral features are inherently dysfunctional (because they are congenitally insufficient / acquired during growing stage), then there are double imbalances to manage.

At the same time, the ancient sages also said that emotions, personality also affects the function of the organs, such as “anger affects liver”, “fear affects kidneys”, and so on. Athletes, like everyone else, also have their own emotions to balance.

Besides, sweating consumes a lot of body fluid, which also causes the metabolism to lose balance and needs conditioning.

If the functions of the internal organs are seriously out of balance or dysfunctional, all sorts of diseases can occur, not necessarily just nose cancer!

Disorders of the internal organs need to be conditioned every day.

Conditioning also needs to understand the theory of “yin and yang, qi, and five elements of doctrine” to understand the changes in yin and yang of your body every day.

Then there is another factor, a habit that everyone takes for granted, after intense exercise, feeling thirsty, drink a lot of cold drinks!

Let’s analyze it again, the heat inside the body, and then a cold drink, what effect on the body?

A person who doesn’t know how to cook, burns the rice cooker very hot and pours cold water on the pot. Over time, will not the rice pot crack? This is called “Thermal Spalling”, crack as a result of expansion and contraction.

Internal heat, sweating, drinking cold drinks, as a habit, over time, will Not the blood vessel weakened or harmed? Can Qi-blood still flow smoothly?

The ancients have always stressed the importance of “cold and hot, that is, yin and yang.” Western medicine has no theory of cold and heat.

From the above discussion, do you realize that sportsmen need to learn more about Life Cultivation as per Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic in order to truly enjoy sports healthily?

This discussion involves a few key concepts which are elaborated in the video training courses.
“Yin Yang Theory 阴阳”，”Meridian Theory 经络学说”, “Body Constituents 体质”，Personality, Psychology, Causes to illnesses.
“Words in Chinese are texts from the book YEIC, 3000 years ago.”

Welcome to enroll

Video Training on the Ancient Wisdom

黄帝内经视频课程

Andrew Wong

EP Coach / Trainer / Facilitator.
心理辅导师 / 培训老师 / 带动集团学习师
Hp +6012 606 1525

Click
学习 “黄帝内经“博客

How crying comes about?

It is common we cry with tears when we feel sad, especially for ladies.

Sometimes tears with running nose.

How do we explain physiologically the happening, tears and running nose?

Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (YEIC) says : “Heart manifests in Happiness”, likewise, heart also manifests sadness.

Hence in extreme happiness and sadness, the heart is “moved”, causing imbalance. And extra energy is necessary to restore balance. Such energy, the old sages called “Qi-Blood”.

YEIC also says “Liver is responsible for distribution of Qi and Blood”. Then, in the above case, the Qi-Blood must be directed to the heart.

As the Liver is doing extra work to deliver the Qi-blood, energy, Liver also needs extra energy (qi-blood), which is drawn from the Kidneys, the reservoirs of energy, This reservoir is like Retirement Fund, meant to be used at old age. YEIC says, “Kidneys stores Essence”.

Kidneys are represented by Water as per 5-element theory. And indeed Kidneys are in charge of body fluids, including urine.

YEIC says, the fluid part of the Liver is tears. And Kidneys direct the fluids to the Liver.

YEIC also says “Liver manifests in Eyes”. Then on one hand, Liver delivers Qi-Blood to the heart, Kidneys supply fluid (a form of energy or fuel) to the Liver too. The by-product of the above Liver operation is Tears.

To supply Qi-blood, obviously we need Qi to move the blood. This requires the working function of Lungs, taking in air through breathing. YEIC says : Lungs manifests in running nose fluid. And Lungs manifest at nose. Then we have running nose.

With excessive discharge of tears and running nose fluids, the digestion is affected. No appetite for foods, then lack of foods as nutrients to make fresh Qi-Blood.

Hence excessive emotional upheavals harm Heart, Lungs, Liver, Kidneys and Spleen.

That is why ancients sages consider the importance of emotions affecting health.

In fact, any time, whatever activities, emotional, mental, or manual work, energy or Qi-blood is consumed. If excessive, health imbalance is caused, as all 5 key organs are affected.

In the extreme case of sadness with non stop crying, the kidney-essence maybe excessively consumed. And the person may go blind, or all sorts of illnesses.

If you ask Western doctors about sadness, tears and running nose, how would they explain?

Likely they say : “No big deal, it is natural.” or “there are tears glands, tears are secretion, ..” and they do not have other theories to explain further.

Isn’t it typical that Western Medicine cannot explain fully many illnesses, but vaguely say nervous system in the case of Parkinson or dementia. But they offer you medicines and surgical procedures. Funny, ya?

Does it mean that one should not have emotions, no crying is better?

Not so.

If a child never has any emotions, no sadness, no anger, no fear …etc

Then it reflects the organs functionalities are out of balance. All are needed in moderation, the key philosophy of YEIC.

Actually children crying does not necessarily indicate sadness, but activating the functions of the lungs and hearts etc. They cry at one moment, and laugh and play when you shift their attention.

Not long ago, I had a coaching . counselling case. She has a lot of sad stories, and she said she had run out of tears. During coaching, she only used her mind to communicate with me, no emotions.

One day, something big and negative triggers her emotions deeply. She seems like totally collapsed and called me urgently. When I met up with her, in her emotional stage, she was able to release her emotions and her breathing became calmer and we had a more effective coaching session.

Sadness is energy. Emotion is energy. Energy can be transformed.

Now do you appreciate more and more the ancients wisdom, 3000 years ago they gave us principles and theories to explain and understand many phenomena and how to strengthen the organs functionalities, which is like the immune system.

This discussion involves a few key concepts which are elaborated in the On-Line training .


“Organs Functions 五脏六腑功能”，”Hearts manifests in Joy and Sadness 心主喜”， “Liver function in distribution 肝主疏泄”，”Kidneys store Essence 肾藏精”，”Kidneys represented by Water 肾主水”，”Liver manifests in tears 肝其液在泪”，”Liver opening in eyes 肝开窍于目”，”Lungs has function in fluid like running nose 肺其液在涕”，”Lungs opening at nose 肺开窍于鼻”.
“Words in Chinese are texts from the book YEIC, 3000 years ago”

Welcome to enroll

Video Training on the Ancient Wisdom

黄帝内经视频课程

 Andrew Wong
EP Coach / Trainer / Facilitator.
心理辅导师 / 培训老师 / 带动集团学习师
Hp +6012 606 1525

Click
学习 “黄帝内经“博客