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Tui Na Therapy, The Best Way To Break Down Muscular Tension And Knots
Anmo or Tui Na is a traditional type of Chinese Massage that is one of the primary branches of Chinese medicine: nutritional therapy, qigong, tai chi, herbal medicine, and acupuncture in Winter Park. While still not popular in the West, Tuina can be found in most Chinese hospitals and is an important form of treatment in China. It is more than 3000 years old, and most modern massage forms such as Shiatsu and Swedish massage came from it.
In both theory and practice, tui na is not like any other kind of massage. Therapists have to deal with both the energetic body and the physical body. They practice what one would consider as massage procedures designed to relieve tension and ease the knots in the muscles, while simultaneously working with the energy channels (meridians) and acupoints to balance and regulate the circulation of Chi, much the same way as acupuncture. This would mean that in Tui Na, there is a variety of ‘acupressure’ procedures, and sometimes it is called ‘acupressure massage.’ Despite the fact that the term is also used for less complicated sophisticated acupressure therapies that lack the understanding and the underlying concepts of Tui Na.
There are two styles of Tui Na: the Yin and Yang styles. An extremely mild healing practice utilizing touch, Yin style of tui na balances and regulates Chi or energy. Tui na can strengthen the organ function (Chi), eliminate stagnation from the energy channels, can be a relaxing treatment and a deeply calming therapy for everyone.
The Yang style, on the other hand, is a more physically strenuous type of therapy that makes use of deep penetrating methods to break down muscular tension and knots. It works very well on stiff and tight muscles, but without becoming painful as some deep massages can be.
A skilled practitioner will make use of both Yin and Yang procedures. The skilled practitioner will use both techniques of Yin and Yang as needed, and most therapies are like between the two extremes. There are no treatments and set routines that are often tailored to each person based on the needs of the individual.
Tui Na includes the same complex understanding of the mind and body and specific diagnostic techniques for the client. This is what makes it distinct from most other physiotherapies.
Tui na has benefits that go beyond the relief and treatment of people dealing with stress, hormonal disorders, phycho-emotional problems, digestive problems, respiratory problems, and circulatory problems to name a few. It is especially helpful in dealing with stress and in maintaining health.
A Tui Na Treament
Before the start of tuina therapy, the practitioner will give you a complete Chinese Diagnosis, which is the same as receiving acupuncture. The practitioner will question about your overall health and complaint, and will take your pulse and observe your tongue.
The treatment itself is normally performed over clothing and will be customized based on your specific needs. From time to time, if oil is to be used, you may be asked to remove some of your clothing.
The practitioner uses signs from your body to ascertain the proper strength of the techniques even when strong methods are used. The treatment should not be painful. In certain instances, only very gentle and light methods will be used, although they can be just as effective.
The Goal Of Chinese Medicine: The Harmony Of Yin And Yang
There is no such thing as an incurable disease in Chinese medicinal theory. While this theory believes that every sickness can be cured, it may probably be that any illness that has caused damage beyond a certain threshold may not be.
Our Amazing Body
When one considers the tens of millions of deadly microbes inside and around us, coupled with the constant stresses on your mind and wear and tear in your body, it is amazing that we’re not often adversely affected by these interminable “infiltrations”, a fact which if you ponder, will validate that it is nature’s way to be healthy indeed. Without requiring our conscious awareness, the various systems of our body will naturally encounter all these factors that can lead to disease, and do so surprisingly well.
Harmony of Yin and Yang
The natural workings of our mental and bodily functions, is as nature intended, which, in Chinese medicine, is metaphorically described as having “harmonious Flow of Chi “. The healthy and natural interaction between us and all the possible disease-generating factors is described by the Chinese as the “Harmony of Yin and Yang”.
When we enjoy the “Harmony of Yin and Yang,” it implies that our bodies are able to properly adjust and do just as nature intended – to stay healthy no matter what kind of conditions surround us. This implies that our bodily systems will generate the appropriate quantity of chemicals required at the right time and in the right amounts. It also implies that our bodies will eliminate all negative emotions and toxic waste that may harm us, repair worn out or damaged “parts,” provide the immunity we need, etc.
Illness only arises when the body longer functions in the manner it is designed to. All illness will vanish as a matter of course if we’re able to restore our bodies back to its natural state.
In all of Chinese medicine, this is the onus: To restore the body to its state of natural balance.
Ling’s Acupuncture, Inc.
120 Gatlin Ave
Orlando, FL 32806-6908
(407) 851-2533
http://www.lingsacupuncture.com
Chinese Medicine Cupping Therapy
Cupping therapy is one of the oldest and most used globally natural medical treatment in history. It has been used for thousands of years in China, but in ancient Greece, Egypt, the Middle East and Europe, as well. In ancient times, bamboo, clay cups or even animal horns were initially used. Nowadays, the most common types used in clinical practice are glass cups, which requires a flame to create a vacuum effect before the cup is placed on the skin.
Plastic cups require a gun to draw the skin into it, and silicon cups are easy to use by just squeezing them with the fingers. The functions and benefits of cupping therapy in Bellmore include moving blood and improving circulation, for muscle tension and stiffness, arthritis, sports injury, fibromyalgia and more. Cupping is also used for women’s issues, especially for menstruation pain.
It also helps expel external pathogens to relieve colds and flus. It also can help patients with asthma, bronchitis and allergies. Cupping is a great detoxifier and is used often for hangovers. It is also used for lymphatic drainage and for those have a lot of water retention, edema and toxicity. Finally, it is fantastic for releasing fascia for those with a lot of pain and stiffness.
The most common applications of cupping therapy are fixed cupping, whereby a single or multiple cups are placed on the painful area or on an acupuncture point, and are retained for 5 to 15 minutes. Quick cupping is a technique in which cups are placed on an acupuncture point and removed immediately, then repeated many times over.
This is often used on very weak and severely deficient people. Oiling a large area and moving the cup back and forth while the suction is in effect is often used for fascia release and lymphatic drainage. With little cupping, is placed over a needle, which has been inserted in an acupuncture point. That is used to enhance the action of the point.
Finally, wet cupping, where a cup is placed over an acupuncture point that has been pricked by a Lancet needle prior to cupping it, and then drawing blood from the body with a cup. This is used mostly to detoxify. Cupping therapy should be performed by a qualified practitioner and it is not recommended on sensitive or broken skin or also for people with excess hair, especially, moving cupping or firing cupping, as well as on the number or abdominal region of pregnant women.
And yes, cupping therapy may result in bruises, which generally dissipates within 3 to 10 days.
Chinese Herbs That Expel Cold And Warm The Interior
Theprimary function of these herbs is to deal with cold inside the body. Cold has a tendency to contract, congeal, slow things down and cause stagnation. We can even have certain pain conditions due to cold stagnation. The kind of signs and symptoms we’re going to see with coldness depends on where it is in the body.
When cold is in the lung, that cold is going to congeal the fluids and create phlegm. That phlegm is going to be copious, thin, clear white and even be foamy, bubbly or stringy. When cold enters the spleen, we’re going to see digestion problems, things like abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and that diarrhea is going to be thin, watery and without the foul smell.
Cold in the kidney is going to cause urination problems. When kidney yang fails in its function of transforming the fluids, we’re going to get frequent, profuse, clear urination. On the other hand, we can also have urine retention. What’s happening here is a cold pathogen is obstructing lower jiao and blocking the smooth flow of urine out of the body, so we end up with urinary retention.
Like we said, cold can also cause stagnation and pain. Cold in the liver is going to cause blood stagnation leading to things like painful menstruation, a fixed sharp stabbing pain that’s characteristic of blood stagnation. The liver channel runs up the leg and wraps around the external genitalia. So cold in the liver channel can also cause hernia pain or pain and contraction of the testicles, known as shan disorder (mounting disorder or bulging disorder).
A more serious condition of coldness is something Chinese medicine in Tarzana we call Tuo syndrome, Yang collapse or yang desertion. This is a condition of extreme coldness – cold limbs, fatigue, curling up into the fetal position or even certain Shen problems. Some of the herbs in this category are good for treating these conditions (i.e.,tuo syndrome). They warm the original yang or “rescue” devastated yang.
Herbs with the function of warming original yang and treating tuo syndrome will enter the heart channel. We can also have cold in the channels, with symptoms like cold extremities, cold hands and feet, pain or bi syndrome due to cold stagnation. The pulse, of course, is going to be slow or tight and the tongue is going to be pale or even blue.
Common features of the herbs in this category; The temperature is going to be warm or hot and taste is going to be acrid. remember the function of the acrid flavor is to disperse and so here we’re making use of the acrid flavor’s ability to disperse cold. The common function here is of course to warm the interior, but we want to pay attention here is, which herbs warm which systems as that’s going to determine what the entering channels are.
If an herb warms the spleen, it’s going to enter the spleen channel. If an herb warms the kidney, it’s going to enter the kidney channel. If an herb rescues devastated yang, then it’s going to enter the heart channel.
Cautions and Contraindications
Because these herbs are very warm or even hot, they may cause heat signs, and because the taste is acrid, they may also cause dryness, so use caution in cases of yin deficiency or blood deficiency.
Now onto the actual herbs themselves.
The three herbs are what we call the three hot herbs in Chinese medicine. These are some of the warmest herbs in our materiamedica. With each herb, what you want to pay attention to is:
- Within its category function, what this this herb’s specialty? All of these herbs warm the interior but what makes each one special? Is it particularly good at treating vomiting, does it rescue collapsed yang, etc.?
- Besides warming the interior, what else does it do? What other special functions make this herb useful?
ZhiFu Zi
The first of our three hot herbs is zhifuzi. The first thing to know about this herb is that it’s hot, acrid and toxic. This is aconite, which is toxic in its raw form. This herb is prepared by cooking it with ginger juice. But even in its prepared form, we still have to follow the special instruction of cooking it longer than the rest of the decoction in order to eliminate the rest of its toxicity.
The entering channels here pretty much line up with its functions. It enters the kidney channel because it warms the kidney, it enters the spleen channel because it warms the middle jiao and it enters the heart channel because it warms the original yang to treat that tuo syndrome. It also warms the channels for pain due to coldness and for bi syndrome due to coldness.
Gan Jiang
Gan Jiang is more commonly known as dried ginger. This is one of our best herbs for warming the middle jiao. In fact, our main formula for treating cold in the middle is cold li zhong wan (regulate the middle pill). Gan Jiang is the chief herb in this formula and it is very important for warming the spleen and stomach.
Combined with zhifuzi, this herb also warms the original yang to treat yang collapse. In fact, our formula for treating devastated yang is called sini tang (frigid extremities decoction). It only has three ingredients: zhifuzi, ganjiang and zhigancao. Both zhifuzi andganjiang appear here because they have this ability to rescue collapsed yang.
What sticks out here was ganjiang because this herb also warms the lung. We don’t have a lot of four herbs that have this function. They can help treat the profuse, copious, thin, white phlegm that’s bubbly, foamy or stringy. So again, not many herbs have this function so that makes ganjiang very special in this regard.
Rou Gui
The third of our hot herbs is rougui or cinnamon bark. Similar tozhifuzi, this herb warms the kidney, the middle jiao and the channels. Notice that this one does not have that function of rescuing collapsed yang but what is special about rougui is that it has this ability to guide heat to descend or “to anchor floating yang.
The idea here is when kidney yang is deficient, yang floats up and harasses the heart causing certain Shen problems like anxiety, restlessness and insomnia. Our diagnosis here is kidney and heart not communicating. In this situation, we can use rougui internally or apply it externally to the bottom of the foot at kidney 1 point.
Finally, rougui, by virtue of its yang properties, has something to do with aiding in the generation of qi and blood. So we can see that in addition to being acrid, this herb is also sweet and flavor, but we don’t really say that it has a direct action of tonification. Instead, we can combine it with tonifying herbs, and rougui’s warming yang nature will assist those herbs in tonifying qi and blood.