Chinese Bedroom Arts Pt. 1

Chinese Bedroom Arts

By Qiu Xue Lan Ph.D   (Lan Miles)

Don't you fall asleep, I'm not done scolding you!

In Traditional Chinese texts the chamber arts have more to do with getting along with your mother in law than they do kinky sexual positions.  What use are sexual techniques if you hate your spouse and your kids are having problems?  The foundation of bedroom arts is family harmony.

Most hormonal problems have emotional roots.  Finding harmony within the family is everything.

1. Be completely present.  Your family are the most important to you, treat them accordingly.

2. Hang out with family more, especially your in laws.  Most fights come from fear.  The key to understanding your spouse is through their family.

3. Avoid fights:  None of use are perfect, we all get unbalanced and screw up.  Drawing attention to the tantrum won't solve anything.  Rational thought is impossible for the person who is affected by emotion.  Drunk on hormones they should be compassionately regarded as someone who is intoxicated.  If they succeed in spreading the negative emotions, then everyone becomes intoxicated.  Then reason, stability and peace are far away.

What we perceive

What is really going on.

4.  Prepare cooling foods:  If tempers are flaring, prepare more bitter or cooling foods such as cucumber, kale or broccoli.  Avoid spicy foods and meat to help cool flaring tempers before they erupt. When I first got married my mother would prepare the herb xi ku cao to help cool down passion.  Too much fire is dangerous.  Couples who are too passionate have passionate fights.  Harmony is the highest good.

Bitter melon is one of the most cooling foods

Fruits and vegetables are largely yin and cooling

Know Thyself: 5 Pillars of Self Diagnosis.

 Know Thyself: 
5 Pillars of Self Diagnosis

Lan Miles Ph.D

Daoist internal viewing meditation is simply a systems check of the five movements.  This is the ultimate do it yourself guide to health.  The body is filled with nerves and channels, these allow you the best diagnostic system available.  Even an MRI isn't as useful to doctors as a patient who can carefully observe the changes within their own body.  Every day ask yourself about the following five systems.  Feel how they become a part of you and leave you.  Feel yourself connected through air into the sky and through water to the deepest parts of the ocean.  By studying the five movements in the body, you can understand how you connect to other people, the environment and how you interconnect through your major organ systems. 

Air 

 How are you breathing?  How deeply are you breathing?  Is the breath making sound?  Is it easier to inhale or exhale?  How does the way you are breathing make you feel?  What parts of your body could use more ventilation?  How do you breathe in?  Which nostril do you primarily breathe through?  Do your cells want more or less oxygen?

Water

Water:  How thirsty are you?  How much water do you need?  Where is your body's water?  How do your kidneys feel?  Is your water in the cells or outside of them?  Try to feel  water going through your system and even evaporating off of your skin.  What color is your urine?  What temperature of liquid feels best for you?

Blood

Feel your blood flowing throughout your body.  Feel how your pulse is flowing.  If you feel an obstruction, relax and imagine the blood flowing through to the tips of your toes and fingers.

Emotions

 Emotions: Consider which emotions you are holding onto and where they originated.  Just as yawns spread unconsciously, so too do emotions.  Emotions cause chemical changes in the body and playing certain emotions in a continual loop may be poisoning the body.  Emotions serve to us to get the body's needs met.  Imagine emotions coming in like email and being deleted when the message has been dealt with.  We often wrap memories in stress to remember them.  Write it down, make a time to deal with it and move on.  The heart should be clear and open like the sky.  Serenity isn't an accident, it comes down to choices.

 Food

Where in your body is the food you last ate?  As you eat feel the food traveling all the way through.  Feel which parts of your body are most in need of this food.  Let those areas of the body signal the foods that you need to eat.  You should pay more attention to the messages your body tells you than what advertisements say.  Feel how certain food affect your body.  Which ones make you feel stronger or more relaxed.




These five methods of self diagnosis are a way to bridge meditation with daily life and ultimately lead to a healthier and happier lifestyle.

How the Acupuncture Channels Govern Fetal Development

How Acupuncture Channels Govern Fetal Development

By Lan Miles邱雪兰 Ph.D

The energy of the body focuses on different channels and organs throughout the day similar to circadian rhythms, the Ancient Chinese found that the same flow happen during the months of pregnancy.  By understanding this flow you can work with natures rhythms to better strengthen your child and make pregnancy as easy as possible.

Month 1: The first month is ruled by the liver channels and embryonic growth begins.  Avoid exertion, standing on your head, asprin or circulating blood too quickly.  You want clotting to happen so the egg will remain in place.  Blood moving substances prevent the egg from sticking and cause abortion.  Avoid heat, eat more cooked greens, and avoid raw food.

Month 2. The second month is ruled by the gallbladder channels.  Avoid hot pungent foods and sexual intercourse, stay happy and hydrated.

Month 3. The third month is ruled by the Pericardium and heart channel.  At this stage sex of the fetus can be influenced and determined.  The heartbeat can be detected.  This is a very important month hormonally.  Much of the child's personality and hormonal tendencies can be determined in this month.  Milk, hormone stimulating herbs and emotional states should be regulated and administered wisely.  If you have  a sore back, take the herbal formula liu wei di huang wan.  For a boy, take yang boosting herbs, for a girl, take yin boosting herbs. 

Month 4. The fourth month is ruled by the san jiao or interstitium and the small intestine channel takes charge.  Eat fish, wild geese and moderate the timing of eating so that the intestines stay clear.  Keep the kidneys warm by using a heating pad on the lower back.  Eat less sugar, but if you must use brown sugar because it has more iron.  Take some calcium and avoid raw foods and foods cold in nature and temperature such as tofu and sushi.  If you get constipated do not use strong purgatives.  These are also used for abortion, instead use honey in water or take aloe to moisten the intestines. 

Month 5.  The fifth month is ruled by the spleen.  The child's ability to focus and remain calm is based on the mothers emotions durring this month. The potential for theirm limbs and musculature can also be effected durring this month. Don't overthink, stay calm with a relaxed focused.  Sleep more, stay warm and get plenty of sunlight.  Eat warming foods such as beef, wheat and lamb.

Month 6.  The sixth month is controleld by the stomach and influended by the lungs.  Women sometimes get edema durring this month.  Its good to eat winter melon to avoid this.  Sinews and connective tissue are nourished.  Durring this month the child's capacity for emotional attatchment is affected.  Many cases of autism and personality disorders come from trauma or upset durring this month.  The eyelids seperate and eyelashes form.

Month 7.  The seventh month is controlled by the lung.  Moderate exercise is good, its now safe to extend and flex the joints to stimulate circulation.  Stay warm, take calcium to promote bone development, avoid heavy lifting, sudden movement, lifting the arms over head or bouncing.  Durring this month the fetus's emotional spiritual potential is developed.  Any problems in this month can result in psychological problems.

Month 8.  During the 8th month the large intestine channels complete the skin, regulate the heart and determine the child's emotional bonding and boundaries.  Problems can lead to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder later in life.  During this month the child turns upside down.  Quiet meditative breathing is best and will produce a baby with radiant skin.  Avoid anger, the whole family must set this as a priority and put up with any mood swing from the mother and not take them seriously for the sake of the developing child.

Month 9. The 9th month is controlled by the kidney channels.  Eat naturally sweet foods and avoid damp environments, wear loose clothing and speak softly to the baby.  Tell the baby to speak with you rather than to cry.  Instruct the baby on certain commands.  When the baby is born they will cry less and make sounds according to the agreed upon language.  I have personally seen this work in China.  Having some basic communication leads to a less frustrated child.

Month 10.  Now turn your attention to the dan tian an area 3 fingers below the navel.  They have done studies by having people focus on certain acupuncture points and they light up different regions of the brain.  Focusing on the dan tian will light up the whole brain and can help to move the baby out into the world.

After birth take 100 days to recover completely.  Society is wrong in rushing a woman back to work.  It takes more time than you know to recover.  The same rule applies for abortion and miscarriage.

Miscarriage

Miscarriage

By Lan Miles 邱雪兰Ph.D

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Studies reveal that anywhere from 10-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage. 


There are two main reasons why this tragic even occurs.


The first is that there is that something is lacking.  Chromosomal defects, endocrine and immune disorders and uterine defects may fall into this category.

The second is that there is too much of something.  This occurs from inflammation, poisoning or having extra hormones which stay in the blood or from ABO antibodies.

It is also possible that there is a combination of events from the first and second group that occur simultaneously.

For the first type, many tonic formula are used with success.  For miscarriage due to the second type with involvement of ABO antibodies, the following formula was used with an 80% success rate.  This formula has the following actions.

• relaxes the uterus
• increases the endocrine output of the corpus luteum
• promotes growth of uterine muscle and fetal development

Yin chen hao-15g
Zhi Zi- 12g
zhi da huang-9g
huang qin-12g
bai shao-9g
huang qin-12g
bai shao-9g
gan cao 6g
zhi ke-6g
zhu ma gen-15g

This formula comes from "Handbook of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine an Integrated Approach." by Yu Jin, M.D.




Chinese Women are given the following advice for enhancing likelihood of carrying a fetus to term.

• Do not lift anything heavier than 10lbs. 
• Avoid heavy exercise, running or anything that promotes blood movement (see the article on blood stasis to see what not to do during pregnancy)
• No smoking, alcohol or drugs
• avoid cold things like ice cream or iced drinks
• No sex during pregnancy for the entire 10 months.
•   Do not sit on cold surfaces
• Avoid raw food
• Be careful with yoga.  Most people teaching it, have little or nothing to do with the Indian tradition.  Go to India and see how many women are doing yoga.  Some yoga postures are ideal for blood moving.  Blood moving causes miscarriage.
• Massage on upper limbs only.
• Practice light qi gong or taiji.
• avoid hot springs
• avoid lifting the arms above the head

The end result is super baby.

Blood stasis

Blood Stasis

By Lan Miles 

     邱雪兰 

    Qiu Xuelan Ph.D

Blood stasis is the underlying syndrome which leads to a host of diseases ranging from chronic pain, to endometriosis, firbroids and uterine cancer.  For women blood stasis can cause hormonal fluctuations, painful periods and systemic pain in the body of unknown origin that feels like a poking or stabbing pain.

Herbs which affect "blood stasis" do more that simply increase circulation.  They affect prostaglandins and cellular receptors.  Depending on how the receptors are arranged these can affect:

• Uterine contraction
• Cell growth
• Inflammatory mediation
• Hormone regulation
• Sensitize spinal neurons to pain
• blood clotting and thinning
• blood vessel dilation and constriction
• Reduce pressure in the eye socket
• Affect the hypothalamus to produce or decrease inflammation and fever
• Increase kidney filtration rate

 How did the Chinese know that all of these complex problems were related to blood stasis?  The answer is actually quite simple.  It comes down to blood clots and bruises.  Both are associated with pain and inflammation and both are purple and involve sticky blood.  The following photo is of endometriosis, a condition that Chinese Medicine treats quite well.  It is a simple problem that becomes complex.

1. Dead tissue doesn't communicate and gets blocked off.  This can happen from cold, trauma or disease. 
2. Blocked off areas die.  Dead tissue should get cycled out, but doesn't always.
3. Repeat steps one and two until you develop a systemic disease.  

                                 Eventually you get a small problem that becomes systemic.

Notice those dark purple spots?  Kind of looks like stuck blood right?

 

 
 Blood stasis will generally occur with dark menstrual clots, stabbing pain, poor circulation marked by slightly blue or purple nails, floaters in the visual field and darker veins under the tongue.  The tongue and lips may also be slightly purple.  If you have some of these symptoms you should see a Chinese Medicine Doctor and look into getting a formula based on "Blood Mover"


This is the base formula.

川芎	Chuan Xiong	Sichuan lovage root, cnidium, chuanxiong root	3	grams
桃仁	Tao Ren	peach kernel, persica	6	grams
紅花	Hong Hua	safflower flower, carthamus	3	grams
熟地黄	Shu Di Huang	cooked rehmannia root, prepared Chinese foxglove root	6	grams
當歸	Dang Gui	tangkuei, Chinese angelica root	6	grams
白芍	Bai Shao	white peony root, peony	6	grams

Blood Mover by HerbmedRx

This formula increases macrophage activity to allow your body to clean dead tissue out and then signals bone marrow to create fresh red blood cells.  It not only improves circulation within the blood vessels, but also maintains healthy circulation of healthy, oxygen carrying red blood cells.

What do you think caused this?

Well..looks kind of like a bruise...I wonder if...

Henoch-Schönlein purpura:  Associated with chronic pain and vascular problems.  How might you treat it?  You guessed it...move blood.  A modified for of blood mover is used to treat this disease.

How about now?

Yes its brown and looks like a dead tree, but look at the other nails.  They are not very dark or purple  This is skin cancer. Only specialists can safely use blood moving herbs with cancer patients.  Most people will only help the cancer spread using this formula.

What about these?

Yes, most pain and bruise formulas use blood mover as a base formula.

Yes she's purple, but thats probably photoshop.  In any case, you never use blood movers when you have a runny nose, or even a tickle in the back of your throat.  It allows diseases deeper entry into your body.  This formula it not effective at all for the common cold.

Never move blood while pregnant.

What else can you do to move blood?

 This method is effective for moving blood as it crosses the blood ocean acupuncture point

Often this moves blood to the muscles, more than evenly through the system.  It really depends on intensity.  Easy jogging is good, strenuous bad.

This will help especially when you make a soak out of blood moving herbs

So will this

The best results include taking herbs internally and then doing some form of external therapy a half hour afterwards so that the herbs are affecting your blood while you mechanistically aid the herbs to get deeper into the body to help cycle out old tissue and replace it with with vibrant life carrying red blood cells.

Blood vessels evidently look like Ikea furniture.

The Month After Delivery

                                     The Month After Delivery                           

By Lan Miles 邱雪兰Ph.D

月子  or "yue zi" is the month after delivery and it is a very important time for a woman to recover.  Most problems facing women in the US come from a  lack of care during this month.  Pain, depression, and hormonal problems typically come after childbirth, not because of the baby, but because of ignorance on how to care for women during this time of vulnerability.  This lack of regard for women's health leads to rapid aging and irritability.  These kind of diseases are difficult to treat and are called "Yue Zi Bing"  They are easiest to treat if the woman gives birth again and is carefully looked after.  Common health trends involving jogging and weight lifting for pregnant women are harmful and lead to long term problems.  I hope that you share this to spare women you care about the needless pain and discomfort of gynecological diseases which stem from improper care during this sacred month.

1. Stay warm.
Stay away from cold drafts, cold weather and avoid cold or raw food and drinks.  Keep your head and neck covered as well.  Avoid being by the air conditioner and getting your hair wet.

Foolish

Wise

2. Nourish blood
Blood nourishing foods such as buffalo, beef, ox tail, spinach, dang gui, dates, eggs, liver, and black chicken.

Its is particularly good to add yi mu cao60g and dang gui 40g to chicken soup.  A traditional American method to boost blood is to use buffalo wasna made of ground buffalo and cherries.

3.  Avoid heavy exercise, exuberant running, jumping or sweating.  Light Taiji or yoga is acceptable.

4.  Wash the body with alcohol or ginger water.  This has a warming property and will guard the body from infection.

5. At the end of the 30 days herbal steams are used to bring on a purifying sweat.  The herbal steam should be applied for an hour.  It should be hot,  but one should bear it.  Then use the water from this steam to wash the body and hair. Wait until the 32nd day to take a shower, being careful to dry quickly and stay warm.  This herbal formula should be adjusted by a Chinese Medicine doctor, but a base formula often used is:
Ginger 30g
Hua jiao 30g
Dang gui 30g
Ai ye  30g