The Anti-Cancer Walk: An Introduction to Guo Lin New Qigong Therapy
by John Voigt
From a Chinese clinical treatment standpoint, Guo Lin Walking Qigong became the most popular and effective form of Qigong for cancer. qigonginstitute.org
Guo Lin’s New Qigong Therapy is composed of many different gestures, breathing patterns, meditations, mantra-like sound utterances, all used by varying social groups within various physical settings. Space limitations, as well as the limited abilities of its author, force this article to focus on the main part of its practice known as Natural Walking Wind-Breathing Anti-Cancer Qigong.
Guo Lin Biography.
The Walking Qi Gong to cure cancer was created by a Chinese woman named Guo Lin. In 1949 when she was forty years old she was diagnosed with uterine cancer and a hysterectomy was performed. In ten years the cancer returned, and had metastasized to her bladder. After six more unsuccessful operations, she refused a seventh and was told that she would die within six months. She began to practice several Shaolin qigong forms that her grandfather had taught her when she was a child, but they didn’t seem to help.
Always known for her strong will, she now increased her studies, reading traditional Chinese and western medicine text books; as well as experimenting with various historical qigong exercises, and Daoist breathing and relaxation meditations. She practiced for many hours a day, seven days a week. The result was that she created her own qigong and within six months, even to her own surprise, the cancer went into remission and her health returned.
Guo Lin publicly unveiled what she called her “New Qigong” therapy on September 4, 1971 in Dongdan Park in Beijing. This was the time of the Cultural Revolution when anyone doing anything related to China’s pre-communist past such as qigong, or traditional Chinese medicine put themselves in danger, for at that time such practices were called “anti-revolutionary fake and fraudulent," and were politically and culturally unacceptable. Guo Lin, along with those who helped her, could be incarcerated for political indoctrination and re-education. Additionally, she and anyone practicing qigong with her were in constant danger of being physically attacked by the teen-aged thugs collectively known as the Red Guards and being beaten, or even murdered, by them.
Red Guards in Beijing, June 1966, at the beginning of China's Cultural Revolution. More than one million people
are believed to have died during its ten years of social chaos.
Source: Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images.
In 1976 the Cultural Revolution ended with Chairman Mao Zedong’s death. “By 1977 [Guo Lin] had achieved such tremendous results that she publicly announced that qigong could heal cancer, and thus her classes grew to 300-400 students a day.” http://www.orientalhealing.net/qigong/
“Since then, thousands of cancer patients have taken part in her Qigong therapy classes at various coaching centers, located over twenty cities and provinces in China, and have attained remissions from this life-threatening disease.” http://guolinqigongpuchong.blogspot.com/2007/
Caring more for others than herself, and by being over-committed to her work—(her husband said that “she had her patients in her heart and mind and not herself.)—at the age of seventy-five she suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage, and died on December 14, 1984.
By the mid-1980s it was estimated that there were more than one million people practicing her Walking Qigong in China. There also were many Walking Qigong institutions, associations, health resorts and hospitals established. http://www.qigongchinesehealth.com/walking_qigong
In 1998 after extensive examinations by the Chinese government, Guo Lin Qigong was approved of as being effective for the health of the masses. [David A. Palmer. Qigong Fever. p. 181-2 https://books.google.com/books?id=RXeuibmD2dsC&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=there+were+no+officially+sanctioned+qigong+activities+in+China&source=bl&ots=aNIlwjgoL2&sig=zUv9AUh_SUsoK4_vQagmuXSr5dQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2osrW3bnfAhUI01kKHV__CSsQ6AEwCXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=there%20were%20no%20officially%20sanctioned%20qigong%20activities%20in%20China&f=false
More than two million copies of books by Guo Lin and her “New Qigong” have been published in China, making her the author of the largest number of books about qigong ever to appear in that country. [http://www.ed2kers.net/资料/体育健身/130644.html.] Presently [May, 2019] there is no available translation in English or in another western language, of any book ever written by or about Guo Lin.
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Disclaimer: Before commencing this or any other exercise program consult your physician, or appropriate medical professional. This entry is not offered as a cure for cancer or for any other disease. It is not intended to replace any cancer therapy prescribed by a physician.
Guo Lin wrote, To achieve a reasonable treatment, organically combine Chinese and Western medicine, qigong, diet, and psychology. Adopt their respective strengths and avoid their shortcomings. This will make us more likely to recover, live longer, and live a better quantity of life. Guolin New Qigong: An Introduction, p. 20.
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Natural Walking Wind-Breathing Anti-Cancer Qigong: The Preparatory Exercises.
1. Stand in a Relaxed Fashion.
The eyes are closed. The shoulders are loose. The knees are slightly bent. The tongue is on the upper palate. If necessary, silently count to sixty to still the mind. Cancer patients generally stand this way for two to three minutes. Those with chronic diseases generally stand from three to five minutes. The direction you face in depends on the location of the disease. 1. East: liver, gallbladder. 2. South: heart, small intestine, brain, tongue. 3. West: lung, large intestine, nose, skin. 4. North: kidney, bladder, ear, bone, reproductive organs, endocrine. 5. Southwest: spleen, sarcoma. 6. Northeast: stomach, esophagus. 7. If not sure of the location of the disease face North. From: “Guolin Qigong: Preparatory Exercise” beginning at 1:40.
2. Three Special Breaths.
Place the hands on the lower abdomen just below the navel. Men place the right hand above the left; woman place the left hand above the right. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Then one normal breath in and out through the nose. Do this same pattern for a total of three times. See: “Cancer – We Can Beat It” - from 23:56 to 27:35.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRAuzeVEwns
3. Opening and Closing Hand Movements
(Also called “Opening and Closing the Dantian”). The body, shoulders, arms, and hands are relaxed. The eyes are closed, and the tongue is on the pallet. The palms face each at the level of the waist. Gather in (close) the hands as you inhale through the nose. Open the hands with the palms facing downward as you exhale through the nose. Do this three times. See the video “Cancer – We Can Beat It.” (posted above) from 27:40 to 29:20.
Note: the Dantian is the major location for the storage and cultivation of vital life energy [Qi] located slightly beneath and under the navel, in the center of the lower torso.
Natural Walking Wind-Breathing Anti-Cancer Qigong: The Main Exercise.
Women take two quick inhalations and swing both hands to the left and step forward with the right foot by first lifting the toes up from the ground and then having their right heel step down on the ground. As the heel touches the ground, exhale through the nose and swing both hands to the right, and step forward with the left foot.
Take two more inhalations, and again swing both hands to the left, and step forward with the right foot. As the right heel touches the ground exhale and swing the hands to the right and step out with the left foot; but now (with loose shoulders and waist) turn the head to look to the right.
If the woman’s health and level of comfort allow for it, continue this pattern for fifteen to twenty minutes, then reverse sides (right becomes left and left becomes right) and continue for another fifteen to twenty minutes.
Men do the opposite. Take two quick inhalations and swing both hands to the right and step forward with the left foot by first lifting the toes up from the ground and then having the left heel step down on the ground. As the heel touches the ground, exhale through the nose and swing both hands to the left, and step forward with the right foot.
Take two more inhalations, and again swing both hands to the right, and step forward with the left foot. As the left heel touches the ground exhale and swing the hands to the left and step out with the right foot; but now (with loose shoulders and waist) turn the head to the left.
If the man’s health and level of comfort allow for it, continue this pattern for fifteen to twenty minutes, then reverse sides (left becomes right and right becomes left) and continue for an additional fifteen to twenty minutes.
After completing one of these 30-to-40 minute sessions, and before commencing another such session, both men and women should do the Opening and Closing Hand Movement for three times. This helps settle the newly activated qi-life energy into the lower dantian.
The question of how many and for how long such a 30-to-40 minute session should be repeated will be addressed directly below.
The Concluding Exercise in Three Parts.
When coming to the end of a completed Walking Qigong practice, perform the Preparatory Exercises again, but now in an inverted order. First do the Opening and Closing Hand Movements: Inhale and close the palms hands towards the belly, and exhale and open the hands with the palms facing downward; do this three times. Next do the Three Special Breaths: Place the hands on the lower abdomen. Women left hand on top of right. Men right hand on top of left. Inhale through nose, exhale through mouth. Then take one breath in and out through nose. Do this for a total of three times. Next Stand Relaxed For two or three minutes. This brings the practice to a close. Return to your normal day’s activities.
How fast and for how long should a person or a group of people spend in practicing Natural Walking Wind-Breathing Anti-Cancer Qigong? Properly speaking, the length, speed, and nature of the exercise should be determined by a skilled and experienced instructor based on observations of the health and stamina of the practitioner.
Qigong Master John Dolic writes, [Gou Lin] Walking Qigong should be practiced for two to five hours a day. The practice is done in 15-minute intervals with plenty of breaks in between. In other words, it is not a solid two to five hours’ worth of practice. Those who cannot walk for even 5 minutes can take a few steps, then stop and rest, then another few steps and so on (to start with). Gradually, as their stamina improves and they become able to walk for two hours, they should keep that as their daily minimum. Qigong Chinese Health
http://www.qigongchinesehealth.com/walking_qigong
Guo Lin said it depends on the person and the state of their health, and if the person feels exhausted the next day, they should reduce the extent of their practice. She also said the entire practice with its repeating sessions can take up to four to five hours a day. Guo Lin would often advise that, “Patients suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease, and other chronic diseases should use a weak wind-breathing [two inhalations, one exhalation] or perhaps just normal breathing, and their rate of walking should be slower. Those with poor physical weakness can walk in less than twenty minutes intervals.” Source: Guolin (Guo Lin) Qigong .pdf in English [sic] & Other Language.
http://cancer-qigong.blogspot.com/2012/04/guolin-guo-lin-qigong-pdf-in-enhlish.html
Very Important Note About Heart Disease
Throughout information on the internet, it often is advised not to practice Guo Lin’s Natural Walking Wind-Breathing Qigong if the person suffers from heart disease, or hypertension (high blood pressure). Here again it is absolutely necessary to consult with your physician or professional medical consultant.
Additional Comments.
For cancer of the liver, gallbladder, both male or female patients begin by first stepping forward with their right foot.
The practice is called “Wind-Breathing” because the air coming into the nose should feel like wind blowing through a small passage, and sound as if you are sniffing a flower. To accomplish this, you should quickly inhale twice and exhale once through the nose. To keep track of this breathing and its required movements, think—or have someone say—in-in out; in-in turn. On some Chinese videos you might hear something like, she-she, ho; she-she, dwahn. Which means, inhale-inhale, exhale; inhale-inhale, turn [the head].
Any saliva generated in the mouth is to be thought of as healing Qi. Swallow it in three mouthfuls down into the (lower) Dantian.
Conclusion.
This entry is no more than a short introduction to Guo Lin’s anti-cancer walking qigong meant only to introduce it to an English-speaking audience. As already mentioned, her complete “New Qigong” Therapy is composed of much more than what is presented in this article. A future article in Chinese Medicine Living will briefly explore her theories on how and why her qigong works through the use of breathing, psychology, meditation, bioelectricity and social gatherings—and even by the use of singing and dancing as successful healing modalities. There will also be more about the powerful creative personality of Guo Lin. Also additional videos and internet resources will be listed—(mainly in Chinese because there is so little available in English). And we will finish by listing various worldwide Guo Lin Associations.
And as always, consult your physician—trained in western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, or preferably both—before commencing this or any other exercise program.
Sources Consulted for this Entry - Books:
郭林氣功 - 簡介.(Guolin New Qigong: An Introduction); [in Traditional Chinese script]. http://www.cllam.com/contents/contenthtml/SSW-Doc/0804kuolin.pdf.
郭林新气功为什么能治病抗癌. (Why Can Guo Lin New Qigong Cure Diseases and Fight Cancer?). ISBN-13: 978-7-5009-3889-7. People's Sports Publishing House, 2016. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SRJE4A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
郭林新氣功治癌功法.(Guo Lin New Qigong Cancer Treatment); [in Traditional Chinese script]. ISBN 9579263140. Taipei City: Lin Yu Culture, 1995.
Websites:
John Dolic. Qigong Chinese Health: “Walking Qigong: The Anti-Cancer Qigong.”
“Guolin (Guo Lin) Qigong .pdf in English [sic] & Other Language.” http://cancer-qigong.blogspot.com/2012/04/guolin-guo-lin-qigong-pdf-in-enhlish.html
Videos:
Jack Lim. “Cancer – We Can Beat It.” © Jack Lim. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRAuzeVEwns.
Guolin Qigong, Natural Walk, Walking Qigong, Anti-Cancer Qigong. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12RSk3BkCFw
Guolin Qigong: Concluding Exercise. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-QSno0-dI.
Guo Lin Book (in Chinese)
Guo Lin New Qigong: Therapeutic Exercises.
(The book is in Chinese. Its title is 郭林新气功：治疗功法挖掘功法中高级功法.)
See Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Guo-Lin-Qigong-treatment-Paperback/dp/7500917813
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Featured image
Guo Lin Teaching New Qigong Walking
from http://ftpguolinxqg.cl543.4everdns.com/index.php?r=pages/category/index&cid=55 51La
Cancer & Chinese Medicine - Part 3
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
The Treatment of Cancer with Chinese Medicine
Because of the way that Chinese medicine looks at health and the human body, the treatments for any disease in Chinese medicine are varied and complex. In Chinese medicine, a practitioner is not treating cancer, they are treating YOUR cancer. And they are not in effect treating the cancer, they are treating you. In essence, Chinese medicine works to treat the person, not the disease. And although this might sound like a nice tagline, it is the way Chinese medicine works, and why it is so effective.
When a patient comes in with a diagnosis from a Western doctor of cancer, the first thing we do, is to look at what is happening in the body and what is causing the cancer. We do not just treat the cancer, because if you treat the cancer without fully understanding why it has occurred in the first place, then even if you do manage to get rid of the cancer, the factors that created it are still present and the cancer will return. This is the reason why looking at absolutely everything about a persons health, be it physical, emotional and especially their lifestyle is integral to successfully treating any disease in Chinese medicine. The cancer is the symptom, so we must, as practitioners, find the root.
There are literally an infinite amount of factors that contribute to diseases, especially one as complex as cancer, so the search for the cause or, more likely, causes is not an easy task. Many factors are things I wrote about previously in this article - nutrition, toxins, unresolved or unexpressed emotions, the quality of our water, stress, the list goes on. This vast ocean of potential causes is the reason why the practitioner of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) does such a thorough intake and asks many questions at each session, trying to collect as much information as possible. Something I always tell my patients when we are talking is that they should tell me everything, no matter how silly or seemingly irrelevant it may seem, because in my experience, everything is significant and is another piece of the puzzle that I am trying to create for each patient to get to the bottom of their present condition.
As a side note, this is why many times patients will ask why, if they have come in for sleep problems, would I be asking about their digestion or emotional state? I tell them it is all connected and we do not draw distinctions in a holistic model of medicine. It is not the reductionist model of allopathic or Western medicine that likes to reduce the body into parts, focussing on each if it breaks down. In a holistic system, every part functions synergistically with all the others, they cannot function in isolation. Every part affects every other part. This is the reason that we need a picture of the whole to determine what is going on, and why it works so well, because treatments are tailored to the individual. Cancer can arise from a myriad of reasons, so we need to understand why the cancer has manifested, correct those imbalances and the body will readjust to a healthy balance and the cancer should disappear. Chinese medicine believes in the body's powerful and innate healing abilities, so when we are diagnosing we must ask ourselves: "what it is that is blocking the healing process? Why is the healing not being allowed to occur?" Chinese medicine also believes that if the body has everything it needs, then health and certainly healing will be the result. Disease is just the body's way of telling us that something is missing, and needs attention. This is why listening to your body is also so important for your health. Your body will always tell you when things are not right. At the beginning when the imbalance is only minor, it may only be a whisper, which gradually moves to a full blown yell by the time we get to a very severe imbalance which is what we see in cases like cancer. Learning to listen to the subtle communications of your body is such a good way to be able to correct things before they become more serious and practice what Chinese medicine is all about - preventative medicine.
Self Love and Loving Kindness
One of the biggest things that practicing Chinese medicine has taught me has not been about medicine at all. It has been about the pain and the immense struggles that human beings go through in life, and often, on a daily basis. The things that I have heard from my patients over the years about what they have been through have been humbling to say the least. As I am a highly sensitive person who can strongly feel what others are feeling simply by being in the room with them, this information, at least at first, was very difficult to process. Hearing stories of such pain and suffering took a toll emotionally and I quickly had to learn to manage those feelings so that I would not be consumed by them (because they could also make me sick!). This also taught me something very valuable. That I could never, ever judge someone from what they were projecting on the outside, because I realized that I had no idea what was going on in their life and what struggles they were facing. It gave me enormous empathy for people, especially ones who were rude or otherwise unpleasant to be around. It also made me realize why people get sick as I began to see a correlation with these struggles and pain, and the kinds of illnesses that people develop. Many people are suffering alone because they feel they have to. Many people have no outlet for such problems or simply do not want to burden others. I think this is what we desperately need from each other. We need each others kindness, love and understanding. We need to really listen to each other and not just wait for our turn to speak.
The other part of this is that I think we need to be kinder to ourselves. To look at any TV reality show or movie you would think this was insane. From what we see in the media, it seems that we are a hedonistic bunch, very capable of looking after ourselves, and only ourselves, and that is certainly the culture we are living in these days. It feeds this kind of narcissism. But, in my experience, overwhelmingly, people are working hard, sleeping less, and struggling more. It seems to be getting harder, certainly in the last generation or two, to get ahead and be able to live a simple life and provide for our families. Gone are the days when someone could have the same job working at the same company for their entire lives or that a married couple could survive, and even thrive on the salary of one working person. Children now leave school saddled with so much debt that they cannot afford to leave home, and things like social security are something my generation and the ones after will never see. It is these things, these stresses in our lives that contribute to disease. We must all have hope. We must all believe that we can achieve our dreams and make a life for ourselves if we are smart and work towards that goal.
Self love is a hard thing for a lot of people, and it is something I talk to a lot of my patients about. We are all energetic beings, and when we are so stressed and exhausted by modern life, it is difficult to find the time to take proper care of ourselves. And this is so important for our health. Having the intention of being kind to ourselves, eating well, spending time with our friends and people we love, doing things that feed us energetically and make us happy are just as important to health as herbs and acupuncture. And this goes back to listening. If you have had a particularly stressful day at work, or have had a particularly negative interaction with a stranger on the way home, recognize how it is making you feel and take the time to cleanse that energy and feed yourself to build yourself up again. Take a walk in the park and breathe deeply the cool, clean air. Have a hot bath and read that book that you have been meaning to start for weeks. Make yourself something delicious and eat it mindfully, really savouring it. These are the things that recharge batteries and let your body and psyche know that you love it and are taking care of it. In the cases of cancer that I have treated and indeed in so many of the illnesses that I treat, there is a definite connection to this loss of self love and care. Think of these personal acts of kindness as medicine of prevention. It is your health insurance policy, a way to make sure you never get sick.
In conclusion, when it comes to a disease as complex as cancer, there are many factors at play both in its development and treatment. In a holistic system like Chinese medicine, it is not the cancer that is important, it is determining why the cancer has manifested and making corrections necessary so that the cancer is both able to resolve itself, as well as not be recreated in the future. In contrast, in a Western model of medicine, giving chemotherapy or radiation without any investigation to the causes, the factors at play in the persons life, no nutritional counseling, no inquiry to the persons emotional life might lead to a temporary remission of the present cancer, but it will no doubt return as the circumstances that created it are still present. This is not to say that Western medicine does not have its benefits, not at all. I only say that the approach to healing is different, and in my opinion, by not looking at the system as a whole, there is so much that is missing. Treating cancer, like any other disease is a delicate balance of searching for the reasons that it has manifested, dealing with them thoroughly especially any emotional ones, rebalancing the system and giving the body, mind and spirit everything it needs to thrive allowing us to regain our health so we can be healthy, happy human beings.
Cancer and Chinese Medicine - Part 1
By Emma Suttie, D.Ac, AP
Cancer and Chinese Medicine
I get a lot of people writing to me, telling me that someone they love has been diagnosed with cancer and asking if there is anything Chinese medicine can do. This is a good question, but it has a complex answer. It means looking at a disease like cancer in a completely different way than we have all been taught to look at it through the eyes of science, which is difficult especially if the world science is all you have ever known.
To begin a discussion about cancer and Chinese medicine, we must first gain an understanding of where Chinese medicine came from, the philosophy behind it, and a little bit about how it works. Let us begin.
The Proliferation of Cancer in Modern Society
For at least the last fifty years there seems to have been an explosion in cancers, especially in industrialized nations. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be 1,688,780 new cancer cases diagnosed and 600,920 cancer deaths in the US in 2017. According to a WHO report, there has been an alarming increase in cancer rates all over the world. The report also states that:
"Globally, life expectancy has increased from 45 years in 1950 to 66 years in 2000, but the population of the world is aging rapidly—the median age will have risen from 23.5 years in 1950 to 36.5 years in 2050. By 2050, more than 20 percent of the population will be 60 years and over, versus 10 percent in 2000. By comparison, the number of cancer deaths increased by 35 percent during the period 1985-1997. The report states that “[w]hile extending life expectancy is desirable in itself, it is equally important that increased expectancy is accompanied by freedom from any prospect of years of suffering as a consequence of chronic diseases, pain or disability.”
Why is There So Much Cancer?
Why is this? Why has there been such an apparent increase in the numbers of people getting cancer in the world? Perhaps our diagnostic methods have gotten better, and there is certainly truth in that. Perhaps people are taking better care of their health and going for regular checkups more than they have in past years and that is also probably true. But would these factors account for the explosive numbers of cancer diagnoses in the past half a century?
Living in an Unhealthy Way
In my experience and opinion, these are not the main factors contributing to the huge numbers of cancer being diagnosed every year, it is the way we are LIVING. And what you may ask, do I mean by that? Well, that is what I am going to try to tell you. Most human beings on this planet, save a few communities scattered around the world, are living in a way that is not conducive to health. This lifestyle becomes more toxic every year resulting in more disease, mental health problems, addictions, violent crimes, and suicides. We are an unhealthy and deeply unhappy culture.
Chinese Medicine and the Importance of Lifestyle
Our culture, with its ambitions, innovation, and reliance on technology as well as its obsession with bigger, faster and MORE has largely become disconnected from the way we were designed to live on this planet. We have, as a people, become disconnected from our true nature. This idea goes far beyond the reaches of Chinese medicine, this is a human being issue that touches each and every one of us regardless of religion, race, gender or nationality. But for the purposes of this discussion, let us talk about Chinese medicine, and how it views the human being and how it is designed to live in a harmonious and healthy way. I feel like the name Chinese medicine really limits the seemingly endless wisdom that encompasses what it represents. People think, oh yes, Chinese medicine means things like acupuncture and smelly herbs, but in fact, Chinese medicine grew out of Eastern philosophy that had been explored and understood for thousands of years, a wisdom that many people seldom encounter in their day to day lives. Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher credited with developing Taoism (or Daoism) is where much of Chinese medicine wisdom springs from. In Taoist philosophy, the person is connected to every other living creature, the planet and the universe itself. They are all one energy and indivisible. You cannot separate them into parts, or you would be hurting the sum total. Whatever happens to one part, also happens to the whole.
this incredible illustration from theawesomedaily.com
Our Relationship with Nature
What people have been doing (and only really for about the last 10,000 years, starting after the beginning of agriculture by then hunter gatherers), is that we decided in our wisdom that we did not belong in the throng with the rest of the plants and animals, living harmoniously within the perfectly balanced web of life. We began to have delusions of grandeur and wanted more for ourselves. It was at this point in history that people removed themselves from the food chain and started to grow crops, and begin to have more than they needed. This move also began a long descent into a relationship with nature that was no longer symbiotic and mutually beneficial, human beings began to try to dominate and control nature for their own personal gain.
A Medicine of Prevention
According to the philosophy behind Chinese medicine, a person doesn’t wait until they get sick in order to correct the illness. This philosophy teaches a way of life. The philosophy is intensely pragmatic, understanding (in a way that many modern people have forgotten) that living in a healthy way, or preventatively, is a much better approach to health that waiting until things become catastrophic (i.e., a disease) to correct the problem. So how did Chinese people live preventatively? Well, for the sake of explanation I love to use the analogy from the wonderful book Between Heaven and Earth - that the body is like a garden. You must tend your garden for it to flourish and grow. You must go out into your garden every day, pull weeds, water and inspect your plants to see what the garden needs. Small changes every day are much easier than large changes every few years, often when it is too late. This, in a nutshell, is the philosophy of Chinese medicine and part of what makes it so effective. That said, because of the ways that Chinese medicine describe the body, the organs, qi and their relationships, it is also excellent for correcting diseases when they do arise, and this is why it is so effective, even after 5000 years, at treating modern diseases in the Western world.
Waiting Until It's Too Late
In the West, we tend to wait until something is quite wrong before we seek medical attention. We wait until something hurts, there is a pain we can no longer ignore, a lump or some other symptom before we go to the doctor to get it checked out. We are not taught the value of living in a healthy, balanced way and instead, we rely on doctors, surgeons, and pharmaceuticals to cure our ills when they come up. It is a different approach, and we are not entirely to blame because it is the way we were taught by our parents before us and that thinking is galvanized by advertising as well as the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. This reliance on medications and complex surgeries seems to have increased also in the past fifty years (and is increasing all the time) as we become more and more disconnected from nature, each other and ourselves. In a country like the United States where people spend more than any other country on health care, they are some of the sickest people on the planet. Do you see something wrong there? In a PBS newshour report published in July of 2016, the United States saw a rise in healthcare spending that reached a mind boggling $3.35 trillion dollars which works out to $10,345 for every man woman and child. The report also stated that US healthcare spending is wildly unbalanced reporting that about 5% of the population, which encompasses the most frail and ill, accounts for nearly half of all healthcare spending in any given year.
this amazing illustration from theawesomedaily.com
A Healthy Way of Life
To give a brief overview of the “way of life” that the Taoists were talking about and Chinese peoples subscribe to, as I said above, Chinese medicine is a medicine of prevention. This means that there is a constant awareness of what is happening in (and out of) the body and that you learn to really LISTEN to what your body is trying to tell you. Does this sound strange? It may, but your body talks to you all the time. Consider your last headache after a long stressful day, pains in your stomach when you knew you had a presentation at work, the hair that stood up on the back of your neck when that person got on the bus behind you, the sense you got that maybe you shouldn’t eat that piece of sushi… there are all ways that your body speaks to you. And it is speaking to you all the time. Are you listening?
Living in Harmony with Nature
Because the Chinese were living in a way that was much more in tune with their natural environment, the way they lived changed in subtle ways according to the seasons. The foods they ate, their daily activities including how much and when they slept and how much physical activity was appropriate were ways in which they were able to stay healthy. Foods were eaten that were available at that particular time of year and grown locally, as these were the healthiest according to Mother Nature and her wisdom, and the people recognized this. The amount of sleep a person would strive for depended on how much energy would be exerted during the day. If a persons energy was to be conserved (as in winter) or expressed freely (as in summer). Internal practices were also important as things like Qi Gong and Tai Chi were a way to keep the body and mind supple and agile well into old age. 5000 years ago there was no retirement, a person had to work until they were no longer able, so keeping your body and mind in the best shape possible was the main motivation.
The Importance of Emotions
Another thing and this is unique to Chinese medicine and very different from how we view health in the West, was and is the importance of the emotions. A healthy emotional life was just as important as a strong, flexible body. The emotional life of a human being is complex, just as complex, it seems, as the workings of the human body. And being emotionally healthy has a great deal to do with a person's overall health. The fascinating part is that in Chinese medicine each emotion is associated with a specific organ so that an imbalance in that emotion can point to a problem in its respective organ and vice versa, an imbalance in an organ can point to problems with a particular emotion. It is all interrelated. So, being able to understand, and freely express emotions was and are an important part of overall health.
this image from huffingtonpost.com
Chinese Medicine and the Organs
Without getting too deep (because we could get so SO deep into this), let me explain a little bit about how the organs work in Chinese medicine and how important they are in the process of diagnosis. One thing that is important to note, is that the organs in Chinese medicine have very little similarity with the organs and their functions in Western medicine. This causes a lot of confusion when explaining things to patients so it is good to clear that up right away. There are certainly some similarities, but there are far more things that are completely different and unique to the organs in Chinese medicine. The organs in Chinese medicine each have a list of responsibilities. Processes in the body that they are responsible for. The organs are also, all connected. So, if there is a problem with one, then you must look at them all to discover where the root of the problem lies. This is another unique feature of Chinese medicine, is that everything is connected and nothing, be it physical, emotional or spiritual, exists in isolation. This is why as a practitioner, you have to have a very solid understanding of, well everything before you can begin to understand anything that might be happening to your patient. Our intake procedure and questioning are thorough and complex, and this is why.
How Symptoms Point to Specific Organs
Knowing each organ, its associated emotion and its list of responsibilities help one to understand what might be going wrong when problems arise. If someone is struggling with the loss of a spouse and having lung symptoms, in Chinese medicine, this would make perfect sense, as grief is the emotion of the lung. If a particularly angry person comes in with symptoms of red eyes, headache and bitter taste in their mouth, this would point to excess heat in the liver as anger is this organs corresponding emotion. Understanding the connection that the organs have to each other is also important as an excess or deficiency in one can spill over to the next in the cycle, affecting it adversely. Time also is very relevant, as the longer an imbalance has been active, the worse the imbalance will become, creating more severe symptoms and being more difficult to correct.
Location is Important
In a disease like cancer, we are always looking at where the cancer has been found which can tell us a lot about why it has come about in the first place. It is because of the way Chinese medicine sees the organs, their responsibilities, and their interrelationships that the location is so important. In treating my own patients with cancer, it became obvious after the initial consultations why the cancer had presented itself. Often, in listening to a patient's history it is clear that there have been particularly severe stresses on either the body, the psyche or both that have pushed the body to its breaking point, and cancer is the result. There is also often a long history of signs and symptoms that the patient has had but has either not been aware of or unable (or unwilling) to deal with for various reasons.
Having an understanding of the philosophy of Chinese medicine and the organs and their functions can do a lot to help you to stay healthy, and be able to recognize warning signs; ways that your body is telling you that something is not right. Cancer in many cases is the result of many years of imbalance that started small, building into something larger and more complex and thus, is more difficult to treat.
Resources
WHO report - increase in cancer rates: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/04/canc-a26.html
Killing Cancer Documentary
YEAR : 2015 / 1 part (39 minutes)
Cancer has been such a scourge of humanity for so long that the very word inspires a deep dread in anyone who hears it—it’s a two-syllable gut punch, a hole that suddenly opens up beneath you. Similarly, a “cure for cancer” has been a holy grail of modern medical research the way getting to the moon used to inspire space programs. All told, the world has spent decades and billions of dollars trying to cure cancer, or cure some kinds of it, or simply make some of them less awful and deadly—and VICE is going to give viewers an inside look at the most cutting-edge cancer treatments in the world.
It’s an hour-long in-depth documentary that focuses on therapies that go far, far beyond chemo. We’ll be taking a look at how doctors use HIV, measles, and genetically-engineered cold viruses to strengthen patients’ immune systems and wipe out cancer cells without damaging their bodies the way chemo normally does. While experimental, these techniques are already saving lives, like that of Emily Whitehead, who was dying of aggressive leukemia before doctors used re-engineered HIV cells to seemingly destroy the cancer eating her body. “My life, like most people’s, has been negatively affected by cancer, and the thought of my young children living in an age where this is no longer humanity’s number-one health fear was simply overpowering,” said Shane Smith in a statement. “My first thought was, ‘How soon? How soon can we get these types of therapies to market and helping people?'”
http://videoneat.com/documentaries/3912/killing-cancer
Documentary - Cancer Is Curable Now
This is a very interesting documentary about curing cancer with non-conventional (non Western) treatments. Is this even possible? YES, and it has been going on all over the world for years. There are many, many alternatives to the standard Western treatments of radiation and chemotherapy. Cancer is big business, especially in the United States, so many of the other treatments available for cancer are suppressed so people don't find out about them. Most of these treatments are safer, less expensive and way less destructive than conventional treatments. If you know anyone with cancer, this is definitely something they should see. Everyone of course has the right to choose what treatment they would like, but it is important to make an informed decision and get all the information about what it out there.
Many of these treatments use the philosophy that if you rebalance the body and give it what it needs then it will heal itself. (This is also the Chinese medicine philosophy). This is so often why conventional treatments may work temporarily but the cancer inevitable returns. It is because it is dealing with the symptoms (the cancer), and not the reason the cancer developed in the first place.
There is a lot of excellent information in here, and hopefully this will introduce some of you to some treatments that you did not know about. It all seems like common sense to me, but I will let you be the judge. Knowledge is power. :)
Documentary - Cancer is Curable Now
