Traditional Chinese Medicine

At last I can now really talk about Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM. With the current global economic crisis and the discovery of more bad effects of prescription drugs everyday, I feel that it is about time we people in the East go back to the traditional ways of our ancestors to treat diseases which is really mostly TCM but fully understanding its principles, while the rest of the world should try to be enlightened with the principles of TCM, which was a product of 5,000 years of study by the Chinese.

Or maybe I am late to say that because TCM is already practiced in every part of the world. Of course there are still a lot of people who are not aware of TCM and these are the people I’d like to reach this time. Don’t worry because I am just a layman like you and I became interested in TCM because I’ve seen that there is so much logic in its principles. Information Technology deals with logic so it will be easy even for IT professionals like me to understand and appreciate TCM.

TCM views the body as a unified organic whole. It

• believes in balancing the body as a whole rather than treating separate parts
• focuses on prevention rather than crisis management of a disease

TCM is all about balancing and harmony, and balancing refers to YIN and YANG. Disturbing the balance between the YIN and YANG will cause illnesses.

YIN and YANG represents all of opposite principles found in the universe and cannot exist without the other.


Examples of YIN-YANG:

NIGHT - DAY
DARK - LIGHT
COLD - WARM
NEGATIVE - POSITIVE
PASSIVE - ACTIVE
FEMALE - MALE
SOLID - HOLLOW

(The hollow organs are the gall bladder, small intestine, stomach, large intestine and urinary bladder. Solid organs are the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidney.

“YIN and YANG” is a very basic logical concept. My next topic about TCM will be the 5 Elements, which deals with more interesting logic and in relation again to YIN and YANG.

Reinvent yourself!

The lecture of Pete Avila on reinventing oneself was very inspiring. He is the Marketing Manager of the Philippine branch of Tiens Biotech Group, or Tianshi Phils. We can reinvent ourselves by learning new things which is not hard because learning is an everyday activity.

A number of reasons why we should start reinventing ourselves:

1. The world's economy is changing
2. Demographics keep changing
3. Competitive players are changing
4. Playing fields and market scenarios are not constant.

Reinventing should start within ourselves. How?

1. Always maintain a positive attitude and avoid negative people.
2. Maintain good integrity and character.
3. Work on your strengths, not on your weaknesses.
4. Be passionate, persistent, ethical, and a hard and smart worker.
5. Give up something.
6. Sharpen your skills.
7. Invest in your knowledge, health, relationship, comforts, etc.

That lecture inspired me to seriously study Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM which includes Acupuncture. I can be passionate about it but I have to give up something. That can be my desire to completely learn about web design programming though just the design of the background can be easy. Maybe when I start the formal TCM training next month, whatever won't fit my time, should be given up, of course with the exception of caring for Lyca, our special needs child. I can be sure it won't be blogging because I can share whatever I learn through my blogs. That can even help me retain everything I learn and at the same time help people.

TCM definitely has a place in a world undergoing economic crisis since to be admitted in a hospital can be very costly. The world has changed so that TCM is now well accepted everywhere. My challenge is to introduce the modern acupuncture without the needles, either the electronic acupuncture or the green acupuncture with the magnetic tip. I'll share all these in my next posts.

Learning TCM

As far as education is concerned, the best thing that ever happened to me was to learn about TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine). This study focuses more on the causes and prevention of diseases than the cures. Although it of course includes the supplements that were studied and proven thousands of years ago, it also includes very natural remedies that has nothing to do with the supplements.

TCM is holistic, so it covers the relationship of each organ to the rest, also the effect of the emotions to each organ. Prevention of an illness involving one organ will usually involve another organ or several organs. A cyst on any part of the body for example, is usually caused by an imbalance of energy in the liver, so if you want to prevent its growth or make it disappear eventually, take care of your liver by avoiding anything that will make the liver work hard. For example, softdrinks will make the stomach acidic, so the liver will work hard to make it alkaline. Anger will affect the liver, so avoid it!

I will surely share more about TCM in my blogs, but it will take time for people not used to its principles to absorb everything. To learn about TCM faster, keep an open mind because your health is at stake! TCM is in because of the economic crisis. Yesterday in Dr. Dela Cruz' training about thyroid in TCM, it was a good thing it was the end of his lecture when there was an emergency because a patient was rushed to a very popular hospital nearby, while the closest relative rushed to him to consult him about the TCM side.

Cordyceps, a wonder supplement

I was wondering what I am scheduled to blog about, until I checked the time and it was time for me to take my supplement, which was 2 capsules of Tianshi Cordyceps Mycellium. As I took them, I was telling my daughter how effective this supplement really is. I had colds and cough two weeks ago, and now they’re gone. A week ago, I was even able to sing with the choir during the mass. This never happened in the past, and I hope it will remain this way whenever I catch a cold, that it will always be short even when accompanied with cough later.

I don’t take antibiotics anymore, and I hope that will be forever. Whenever I believe I already need antibiotics, I just double the dosage of Cordyceps so I take 4 capsules each time. The regular frequency of intake is twice a day, but it shortened my cough when I took the same doubled dosage thrice a day (4 capsules three times a day), but I did that only for 3 days, so when I noticed that I improved, I went back to just twice a day intake, still four capsules each time but only for a few days again. Now I’m back to the normal intake of 2 capsules twice a day.

As instructed, I take Cordyceps with an empty stomach or two hours after eating, and with warm water, never cold water. Cordyceps is indeed a wonder supplement (discovered and studied thousand years ago) but probably it should really be sourced from a manufacturer using biotechnology like Tiens. The article "On the Trail of the Yak - Ancient Cordyceps in the Modern World" is really a good resource material that is why I’m mentioning it for the second time in this blog.

Fearing cancer

When my children were still little, I’ve always feared for their health. But when they became grownups, I feared for my own health because my grandmother died of cancer at the age of 56. Some of my relatives who passed away, like Rio Diaz who was popular in the Philippines, died of the same cause at an earlier age.

To have cancer was a great fear so when a cyst was detected in my uterus because of occasional pain, I only waited to turn 45, which was 5 years after my cyst was detected, to undergo total hysterectomy. I was given HRT or Hormone Replacement Therapy right after the operation, but after a year, when I heard that the therapy will expose me to the risk of acquiring cancer of the breast, I stopped.

The turn of events after I was retired early from work, I realize now, quite fits me because I am now exposed to total awareness on how to prevent cancer. That is the main reason why this blog, “I Don’t Want To Retire!” has started to include health and wellness. I am beginning to learn a lot about the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM, which I find amazing. I want to share everything I learned in whatever subject, but TCM is not an easy subject. Rest assured that I will surely share what I will learn about TCM, once I figure out a style that can be easily understood by the readers.

For now, what I can share is a brief TCM learning that cancer of the breast can start with an imbalance in the liver. In TCM, imbalance refers to the qi (pronounced “chi”) or the flow of energy in the body. This coming December 15, I will undergo a sonogram of my breasts so I hope to share more about this topic after that.

Today, December 11, is my mother’s birthday. My only wish is for her to remain healthy. I hope to give her something for her health, and the most appropriate for her is Cordyceps supplement that was used by the ancient Chinese emperors and dignitaries to heal them from any illness. I prefer the Cordyceps manufactured by Tiens because I’m sure of its quality and I already have benefited from its effectiveness many times. I need to research though how I can purchase this from a Tiens branch in North America, Tiens Canada, and have it delivered to Las Vegas where my mother resides, since my mother has to take this supplement on a regular basis. What helped me confirm this choice of supplement was an article titled On the Trail of the Yak - Ancient Cordyceps in the Modern World.