Atsuko's Blog

A Happy New Year 2012!

It’s the year of the Dragon in the Chinese lunar calendar, which names each of the twelve years after an animal. This year is considered the year of luck, because the Chinese Dragon is believed to bring good fortune in the areas of health, wealth and longevity.

Best wishes for you to ride the waves of the luck that the Chinese Dragon will bring you in 2012!

挨拶

The Power of Ginger

This humble looking aromatic vegetable, Ginger, is one of the staples in Asian/Oriental cooking and has been used also as a therapeutic home remedy across the world.  In fact, Ginger’s potent medicinal benefits have long been recognized, and it has been used as a herb in Japanese herbal medicine - Kampo 漢方 as well as other herbal medicines.  
I am currently studying Kampo, and here are three ways that you can use Ginger.

1.  For a cold, a flu, chills, aversion to cold, joint pain due to cold weather...
Ginger is considered warm in nature (dried ginger is even warmer); has an ability to warm the body from the inside; stimulate blood circulation; and promote sweating.

Quick Tip:  Simmer sliced thumb-sized ginger (leave the skin on) and a few stalks of roughly chopped green onions in 2 cups of water for 10 minutes.  Drink this tea hot at the first sign of a cold and have a good rest, keeping warm.

2.  For stomach upsets, nausea, vomiting, morning sickness, travel sickness
Ginger warms the stomach and aids in digestion.  It offsets the toxicity of some food products, particularly fish.  Also, it makes sense to eat pickled ginger, which always is provided when you eat Sushi.

Quick Tip:  Grate 1 tsp of ginger with the skin on in a mug.  Add 1/2 Tbsp honey and 150cc hot water.  Drink this hot.  You can also eat fresh, candied, or pickled ginger for morning sickness or travel sickness.  

3.  For coughs, hoarse voice, clear white colour mucus
Ginger has an ability to help dislodge mucus and strengthen the lungs.

Quick Tip:  Cook about 50g of fresh ginger together with 30g malt sugar (or cane sugar or molasses) in a pot of 2 ~ 3 cups of water for a few minutes and drink it hot.  You can also place 10g of grated fresh ginger, 30g of grated mooli (Daikon radish), 1 Tbsp honey and 50cc water in a cup, heat this up in a microwave for 2 minutes and drink it hot.  

Even if you don’t have specific symptoms as above, adding ginger to your diet (e.g. in stir fry, as a tea, baked into cookies) will improve your health by warming the body, stimulating blood circulation, promoting good bowel movements and urination.

Cautions:
• Don’t overdose if there are any signs of heat, e.g. red face, red eyes, red tongue, etc.
• Prolonged consumption of large amounts of ginger should be avoided.

Reference:
Joerg Kasnter, Chinese Nutrition Therapy 2nd Edition, 2009
Binki Sha, Kantan! Mainichi no Yakuzen, 2004 (謝　敏キ、簡単！毎日の薬膳、2004)

薬膳

As an acupuncturist, and when I ask women questions about a menstrual period; I often hear... “I have a terribly painful period but think it is normal...everyone seems to have...  I just take a couple of pain killer tablets and deal with it.”  

This lower abdominal period pain can often be accompanied by a lower back pain, tender breasts, moodiness, tearfulness, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation, and also headaches.   Do these sound familiar to you?   If yes, good news is that acupuncture can help clear or alleviate these symptoms.   

Let’s look at how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) views a menstrual period, and a painful period.  First of all, menstruation blood is called Tian Gui (

• Gently massage the lower abdomen with warm castor oil.

• Apply pressure for 3 ~ 5 minutes a few times a day to the acu-point called San Yin Jiao (三陰交), which is located on the inside the lower leg, about four finger widths above the knobly ankle bone, close to the bone.  This point encourages the flow of Spleen, Liver, and Kidney Qi benefitting Heavenly Water.  

• Learn some gentle yoga poses to encourage a Qi flow to the abdominal and lower back areas.

• Avoid consuming excessive amounts of coffee, alcohol, red meats, spicy foods, sweets, greasy foods, and dairy foods.   Avoid cold foods, drinks, raw and frozen foods.

• Eat green leafy vegetables, fish, eggs, poultry, and raisins.

• Avoid swimming.

• Do not walk around on cold floors in bare feet.

• Talk to someone you can trust about your feelings.

Homemade Summer Dessert

It’s July, it’s summer and it’s hot outside (well...sometimes...!), and it may not be as consistently hot in England as it is in Tokyo.  However, we still like to have refreshing and cooling food & drinks in the summer, don’t we?  

The key for good health is to have these cold foods & drinks in moderation, and we can do a quick check to see if we have got it right or not.  If our tongue is covered with a thick white coating, we might be over doing it with the cold foods & drinks.

In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), dietetics or Chinese nutrition therapy is a key part of the medicine and has been used primarily for the prevention of disease, along with its therapeutic use for acute and chronic diseases.  The famous physician Sun Si Miao of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 - 907) states:

“Without the knowledge of proper diet, it is hardly possible to enjoy good health.”  

For a diet to enjoy good health, we need to focus on both energetic thermal nature and flavour of the foods & drinks we have.  Energetic thermal nature is categorized as: Hot (Yang), Warm (Yang), Neutral, Cold (Yin) and Cool (Yin).  The five flavours are Sweet (Yang), Acrid (Yang), Salty (Yin), Sour (Yin) and Bitter (Yin).  

That means when it is hot, we want to cool the heat by introducing cooling (Yin) foods into our diet, and, here’s something great to prepare for ourselves in hot weather:

Lemon, Pineapple and Honey Jelly
It clears heat and quenches our thirst and dispels summer heat, and it is not too cold like icecream, which may make you still thirsty afterwards.  Honey is known to moisten dryness and to combat fatigue.  

Ingredients:
· Freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons (or to your liking)
· Freshly juiced pineapple
· 1 ~ 1.5 cups of water
· 1 ~ 1.5 Tbsps of *Agar flakes (available in health food stores) or gelatin
· Pineapple pieces - optional
· Honey 2 ~ 3 Tbsps.  (or to your liking)

Methods:
1. Put water in a saucepan and sprinkle Agar flakes.
2. Heat without stirring and then simmer for 3 ~ 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Cool a bit.
3. Mix the Agar water with lemon juice, pineapple juice and finally honey
4. Pour into a mold or cups, and cool to set.
*This jelly can be made with pineapple juice alone or without it.  If you use it though, Agar must be used.  A certain enzyme of pineapple breaks animal protein and the jelly does not set with gelatin.  

Enjoy!

Reference:
Joerg Kasnter, Chinese Nutrition Therapy 2nd Edition, 2009

薬膳

Protect your back

One of the many health benefits of practicing yoga is for maintaining a healthy back.  However, it depends on how you practice particular yoga postures in order to gain those benefits.

Let’s use a classic seated forward bending posture with straight legs, called Pachimottanasana, as an example.  In a yoga class, you may have noticed that some people are very flexible and get into this position like a pretzel, while you see your forehead so far away from your legs, and your legs aren’t even straight. This posture requires very flexible muscles on the back of the thighs (the hamstrings) and hips that can easily rotate forward (the hip rotators).  To perform this posture well and safely, your pelvis needs to tilt past 90 degrees in relation to the legs, which allows you to start bending the spine forward. What’s important is that you should never bend forward from the lower back nor force your back into bending forward by pulling with the arms or boundcing, particularly a seated one like Pachimottanasana.   

Maintaing a regular yoga practice is a great way to free the pelvis and to do forward bending safely. Yoga improves your flexibility and that’s good for your back.  However, practicing this posture in wrong ways, and not tilting your pelvis, is potentially the most dangerous for your back, causing excess pressure on the spinal disks.

What can you do to protect your back while getting similar benefits that forward bending pastures offer?  Focus on your preparatory practices, which lengthen and stretch the hamstrings and hip rotators.  Here are just a few practices you can do at home.

Hamstring Stretch

1. Lie on your back with both knees bent and feet on the floor.  Place a folded small towel to support the lower back arch.
2. Place a towel or a belt around the ball of the right foot and straighten the right knee.  Continue to breathe and feel the leg.
3. Slowly straighten the left knee towards the floor.  
4. If the right leg is too painful, bend the left again.  Make sure your chin stays parallel to the floor. 
   
5. Hold the position continuing breathing for 1 ~ 1.5 minutes.  Do the other side.

Hip Rotator Stretch

1. Lie on your back with both knees bent and feet on the floor.  Bring the side of the right foot on your left thigh near the knee.  
2. Lift the left foot off the floor and clasp hold of the left knee (or the back of the knee) with both hands. (The right arm reaches through the window formed by your right leg and left thigh.)
3. If your chin goes up at this stage, use a towel behind the left knee and hold each end with each hand.  
4. Hold the position continuing breathing for 1 ~ 1.5 minutes.  Do the other side.  
   

It’s a good idea to do private lessons and learn how to modify your posture for safety until your hamstrings and hip rotators are properly stretched.  This will get you the maximum benefits to your back from your yoga practice.  Consult with your doctor or other healthcare professionals before you start yoga practice if you have any concerns.

Asana