"You have too much humidity inside"
"Inside where?" I asked through my interpreter.
"Inside your body."
"Oh. Is that bad?"
It was not my first visit to a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor. I've been to them before, a few times in fact. Years ago, after I got whacked, I had seen some TCM professors and doctors, who had done quite a few things with me, some good, some I don't know. The one guy in the past who taught me acupuncture for my headaches really did me quite well. The professor who prescribed some sort of foul smelling herbs to cook in this clay tea pot he bought for me, well, I don't know what good that would have done, for I never tried it. But, I will admit, acupuncture does help me with these damn migraines. It was the TCM herbal medicine that I was curious about.
I got my chance to experiment with it this year, when I came down with a damn resistant spastic bronchitis, which developed shortly after I overcame a particularly nasty and virulent community acquired pneumonia. The spastic bronchitis was something that I had never experienced before, quite a frightening experience, especially since at first, we really didn't know what was causing the problem. But, after I figured out that my allergies to the February March blossoming trees in the desert had increased to the point of giving me some nasty lung problems, I had decided to take a plane to Beijing, to get away from it all. And, hopefully, give my lungs a rest. Taking an eleven hour plane flight over the pacific ocean while you're in the throes of a spastic bronchitis attack doesn't do much for one's nerves. I still develop anxiety problems now, when I get on a plane, all because of that one horrendous trip.
My first experience with a TCM doctor with respect to actually eventually using the damn stuff, was this past March, when I saw a clinic doctor at the famous TongRenTang pharmacy. He prescribed some very potent and powerful herbs that had been pressure cooked into a liquid; small packs of incredibly foul smelling liquid that you heated up, and drank. It was foul. I'm really not sure if it helped treat my spastic bronchitis, though, for the following ten days in Beijing, I did find that my lungs were improving, all had gone to hell that eleventh day, when I came down with a rapid and serious viral pneumonia. Two weeks of dealing with the resolution of that, and I found that my lungs had returned to normal. Whether it be the healing of time, or, the well reknowned effect of the TCM medications that I took for ten days, I don't know.
But, my return to the US eventually triggered more spastic bronchitis, which triggered more visits to different US doctors. If there's one thing I don't like, it's taking medications. But, I had to, just to be able to breathe. Exercise outside was severely limited, even walking the dog was out. There had been no gong fu training for seven months. Any exercise like that was out of the question. Finally, circumstances triggered my eventual return to Beijing, where I again found myself in the hands of a TCM doctor, this time, at the famed University of Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine College.
All TCM exams are the same. You go into this little room, sit on this small stool, and look at this relatively old Chinese man or woman who claims to be a doctor. I always speak to these people via a translator. You tell them your story, (I basically just tell them my diagnosis; I can't imagine what would happen if I had them try to figure it out), they feel your pulse for about five minutes (with three fingers, so they can "feel all the various pressure waves", whatever they are), and they look at your tongue.
"Stick out your tongue. Ah, yes, you have too much humidity inside."
That kind of threw me. I was supposed to have "humidity" inside. Can't imagine how well a human body would function with a dry interior. I guess my TCM doc saw my puzzled look. She had known I was a physician.
"Look here. Normal humidity", as she was pointing to the inside of my translator's mouth, an older Chinese gentleman with a nice healthy pink tongue, and typical rotten teeth. Yes, I thought, my mouth should look like that.
"Now look at your tongue." How the hell I was supposed to do that was beyond me. But, if I could look at my tongue, man, would I be popular with the women. I was going to have to ask her about any tongue lengthening medications on my next visit.
She made the diagnosis of asthma based upon my tongue, that is, after I told her I had a form of asthma. Too much humidity inside, was disturbing the qi flow from my liver to my lungs, or from something to something, I really can't remember which. In any case, I had to take some Chinese medicine to reroute the qi flow, so that the excess humidity would go away, and my lungs would heal. I told her fine.
I was willing to try anything.
Between the damn debilitating headaches that I get, and the near-constant difficulty breathing, I was miserable. I was willing to try anything; western medicine would help, but it "was treating the symptoms, not the disease", as my TCM doctor mentioned. And that seems to be the major difference between TCM and western medicine. Western medicine alleviates symptoms, and usually does it quickly. It rarely cures the disease, it only treats it. TCM does just the opposite; it doesn't treat the symptoms quickly, but, over time, it alleviates the reason for the disease, so that the disease goes away. People in this country swear by it. Everyone here says that I have to take Chinese medicine. Even Shi Xing Hong, in Hungary, told me. "It's good for you", says my good friend Yong.
It tastes like shit.
Though, this new stuff isn't that bad. The stuff I took in March was ****ing putrid. Just putrid. This stuff, comes in a foil bag, in powder form. You mix it with hot water, and drink it.
I'm not sure if it works. But, I'm starting to feel better.
Time cures everything, in one way or another. As for TCM, I'm keeping my interpretations open.
"Inside where?" I asked through my interpreter.
"Inside your body."
"Oh. Is that bad?"
It was not my first visit to a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor. I've been to them before, a few times in fact. Years ago, after I got whacked, I had seen some TCM professors and doctors, who had done quite a few things with me, some good, some I don't know. The one guy in the past who taught me acupuncture for my headaches really did me quite well. The professor who prescribed some sort of foul smelling herbs to cook in this clay tea pot he bought for me, well, I don't know what good that would have done, for I never tried it. But, I will admit, acupuncture does help me with these damn migraines. It was the TCM herbal medicine that I was curious about.
I got my chance to experiment with it this year, when I came down with a damn resistant spastic bronchitis, which developed shortly after I overcame a particularly nasty and virulent community acquired pneumonia. The spastic bronchitis was something that I had never experienced before, quite a frightening experience, especially since at first, we really didn't know what was causing the problem. But, after I figured out that my allergies to the February March blossoming trees in the desert had increased to the point of giving me some nasty lung problems, I had decided to take a plane to Beijing, to get away from it all. And, hopefully, give my lungs a rest. Taking an eleven hour plane flight over the pacific ocean while you're in the throes of a spastic bronchitis attack doesn't do much for one's nerves. I still develop anxiety problems now, when I get on a plane, all because of that one horrendous trip.
My first experience with a TCM doctor with respect to actually eventually using the damn stuff, was this past March, when I saw a clinic doctor at the famous TongRenTang pharmacy. He prescribed some very potent and powerful herbs that had been pressure cooked into a liquid; small packs of incredibly foul smelling liquid that you heated up, and drank. It was foul. I'm really not sure if it helped treat my spastic bronchitis, though, for the following ten days in Beijing, I did find that my lungs were improving, all had gone to hell that eleventh day, when I came down with a rapid and serious viral pneumonia. Two weeks of dealing with the resolution of that, and I found that my lungs had returned to normal. Whether it be the healing of time, or, the well reknowned effect of the TCM medications that I took for ten days, I don't know.
But, my return to the US eventually triggered more spastic bronchitis, which triggered more visits to different US doctors. If there's one thing I don't like, it's taking medications. But, I had to, just to be able to breathe. Exercise outside was severely limited, even walking the dog was out. There had been no gong fu training for seven months. Any exercise like that was out of the question. Finally, circumstances triggered my eventual return to Beijing, where I again found myself in the hands of a TCM doctor, this time, at the famed University of Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine College.
All TCM exams are the same. You go into this little room, sit on this small stool, and look at this relatively old Chinese man or woman who claims to be a doctor. I always speak to these people via a translator. You tell them your story, (I basically just tell them my diagnosis; I can't imagine what would happen if I had them try to figure it out), they feel your pulse for about five minutes (with three fingers, so they can "feel all the various pressure waves", whatever they are), and they look at your tongue.
"Stick out your tongue. Ah, yes, you have too much humidity inside."
That kind of threw me. I was supposed to have "humidity" inside. Can't imagine how well a human body would function with a dry interior. I guess my TCM doc saw my puzzled look. She had known I was a physician.
"Look here. Normal humidity", as she was pointing to the inside of my translator's mouth, an older Chinese gentleman with a nice healthy pink tongue, and typical rotten teeth. Yes, I thought, my mouth should look like that.
"Now look at your tongue." How the hell I was supposed to do that was beyond me. But, if I could look at my tongue, man, would I be popular with the women. I was going to have to ask her about any tongue lengthening medications on my next visit.
She made the diagnosis of asthma based upon my tongue, that is, after I told her I had a form of asthma. Too much humidity inside, was disturbing the qi flow from my liver to my lungs, or from something to something, I really can't remember which. In any case, I had to take some Chinese medicine to reroute the qi flow, so that the excess humidity would go away, and my lungs would heal. I told her fine.
I was willing to try anything.
Between the damn debilitating headaches that I get, and the near-constant difficulty breathing, I was miserable. I was willing to try anything; western medicine would help, but it "was treating the symptoms, not the disease", as my TCM doctor mentioned. And that seems to be the major difference between TCM and western medicine. Western medicine alleviates symptoms, and usually does it quickly. It rarely cures the disease, it only treats it. TCM does just the opposite; it doesn't treat the symptoms quickly, but, over time, it alleviates the reason for the disease, so that the disease goes away. People in this country swear by it. Everyone here says that I have to take Chinese medicine. Even Shi Xing Hong, in Hungary, told me. "It's good for you", says my good friend Yong.
It tastes like shit.
Though, this new stuff isn't that bad. The stuff I took in March was ****ing putrid. Just putrid. This stuff, comes in a foil bag, in powder form. You mix it with hot water, and drink it.
I'm not sure if it works. But, I'm starting to feel better.
Time cures everything, in one way or another. As for TCM, I'm keeping my interpretations open.
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