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Fifty Years Young and Healthy
For all of you who want to do the same.
Who is Yueling Ma?
As a child, Yueling Ma suffered from congenital malnutrition, mumps, and glomerulonephritis; colds, flu, and bloody noses were always with her. At the age of 19, she was hit by a car while she was riding her bike and was unconscious for four hours. The accident damaged her memory and left her with insomnia and constant headaches that worsened every day. In addition, she suffered knee effusions, and the pain sometimes was so bad that she couldn’t walk. To make matter worse, her body reacted negatively to pain medicines, so, for more than 20 years, she suffered.
Yueling was a nurse by training, and she worked in a major hospital where she had access to both modern medical practices and traditional Chinese medical practices. She had seen many of the doctors there, and took a lot of medicine for her headaches, but none improved her condition. Well, the good news was that “nothing was really wrong”, according to numerous blood and urine tests. However, she knew that something was not right; she should not suffer all that pain and feel tired all of the time at such a young age, and she should weigh more than 100 lbs at her height of 5’7”. The bad news was that “she was too weak to handle any treatments”, concluded by many traditional Chinese doctors. But what was really wrong with her? She visited everyone near and far who might have the slightest chance to help her. She tried all kinds of nutritional supplements; she prayed for a miracle… but she was left disappointed.
Finally, she realized that no one could really help her, and no miracle would happen to her either, so she decided to take the matter into her own hands and became a doctor for herself. Since medications did not help her much, she turned to ancient Chinese physical treatments. Among them, she found that foot reflexology significantly improved her headaches. Out of curiosity, she bought all 12 books that she could find on the subject, immersed in the books, and learned everything she could about foot reflexology. Then she wondered if the improvement could be accelerated by injecting some mild medicine and decided to give it a try. This was easier said than done, since no one had ever tried this before and no one knew what would happen. Knowing her reactions to medicine, she carefully searched and picked liquid-form angelica (a Chinese herb).
By 1997, Yueling not only got her health back, but also developed her own theory about the causes of disease and the way tore claims one’s health. Today, she is helping thousands of people to reclaim their health and enjoy their lives through her four best-seller books, “The Wisdom of Being Healthy,” “Temperature—The Key to Health and Life,” “Parents are Children’s Best Doctors,” and “Yueling Ma’s Health Questionnaire,” and her web site (www.mayueling.com). As an author, she shares her experience, insights and potent recipes with her readers freely. Many of her fans follow her advice and achieve amazing results, problems such as high blood pressure, constipation, being overweight, hair-loss, ADHD, and lumbar disc herniation, to name a few examples.
Yueling Ma’s Approach toward Healthy Challenges
Being healthy is one of the fundamentals for us to live fulfilling and meaningful lives in this world. However, the statistics are not on our side. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that one in three adults ages 20 and over in the U.S. has hypertension, and one in eight is diabetic. High blood pressure increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney failure, and death, while diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower limb amputation and vision problems, and a major cause of heart disease and stroke.
In general, there are two approaches toward health: "reactive" and "preventive". For those who take the reactive approach, they typically rely on doctors, drugs, and new technology in the medical world to help them, to cure them, and to fix them quickly. They want a magic pill or the most advanced technologies that can kill their pain, fix their problems, or extend their life immediately. For those who take the preventive approach, they believe that they are in charge of their health and they take full responsibility for their health. They take the time to learn the knowledge and skills they need to continue improving their health. Their goal is to reach their longevity full of energy and vitality.
Yueling used to be sick a lot and used to take the reactive approach. After much failure and disappointment, she realized that no one could really help her, and then she started to take the matter into her own hands. Since then, she developed a deep interest in different ways of treating health-related problems. Because her body was very sensitive – she is allergic to western medicine, and has strong reactions to the Chinese herbs – she was forced to search for the safest way without side effects to regain her health. She tested many different methods on her own body and slowly developed the safest, most economical, and most effective way to prevent health issues. In the process of reclaiming her health, she went from the "reactive" approach to the "preventive" approach, and all the pain and issues that used to bother her constantly disappeared, and she feel better year after year.
Yueling Ma’s Theory of Health
The core of Yueling Ma’s theory of health is to provide the body with sufficient blood and vital energy through the right food, keep proper internal body temperature through the right food, and maintain clear energy channels through simple physical therapies. Yueling Ma and her family, friends, and fans, old and the young, female and male, have tested her theory, and benefited from the system over the years in treating problems from common cold to chronic diseases.
Understand the Natural Characteristics of Foods
The Traditional Chinese Medical theory classifies foods into 5 groups, hot, warm, neutral, cool, and cold. The hot and warm foods are considered as Yang foods and are believed to increase body’s heat. The cool and cold foods are considered as Yin foods and decrease body's heat. The neutral foods don’t increase or decrease body heat. Typically, cold foods are helpful for detoxification, while warm foods are good for your spleen, stomach, and kidney.
The ancient Chinese looked at the growing location and the season of maturity to decide the characteristics of foods. For example, watermelon is classified as a cold food since it is scorched by summer heat. Watermelon leaves are small, the size of the large watermelon exposes it to the sun, but it can still nourish growth and maturation because of its in vivo property of cold, and it uses its internal cold to counter balance the external heat. People eat watermelons in hot summer days to fight the heat and achieve a cold-heat balance.
Yueling Ma emphasizes the importance of understanding the foods’ characteristics and applying them to each individual based on the region in which he/she lives and the season to achieve an overall balance and health. Two great fruits for blood and vital energy are jujube and longan. The jujube plant originated in China and has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years. It is also known as the Chinese date. When fully mature, the jujube fruit is entirely red with very high vitamin C content. According to the National Center for Biotechnology, juice from the jujube fruit has been shown to have cytotoxic activity on different tumor lines. A study showed that the number of viable cells had been decreased after treatment. These benefits have been attributed to, among other things, the jujube's high content of bioactive compounds. Studies conducted over a 20 year period have shown bioactive compounds to play an important role in the prevention of chronic diseases. Jujube fruit is also an antioxidant with rejuvenating properties. It has the ability to help clear up the skin. The dried fruits of the jujube contain saponin, alkaloids and triterpenoids. These three compounds are all beneficial in purifying the blood, and as an aid to digestion. The jujube fruit also has stress alleviating properties. Used in a powdered form, the jujube fruit helps calm nerves and reduce anxiety.Longan is native to Southern China and now it can be found in Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, even Malaysia, and the Philippines. In 1903, Longan trees from southern China were introduced to Florida by the United States of Agriculture. Longan contains several vitamins and minerals, including iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, and large amounts of vitamins A and C. Cooking jujube and longan fruit together has been used as a Chinese herbal soup for long term benefits. To fully take advantages of these two fruits and achieve results quickl,yueling suggests cooking de-cored jujube and longan fruit together and then grinding them into a paste in a blender.
For those whose body is cold, they need to have hot and warm foods, and vice versa. We also need to balance the foods with seasons. In winter, we should eat more warm foods and in the summer, we can eat more cool foods. Years ago, some foods were available only in certain seasons and in certain regions. Watermelons, for instance, were only available in the summer, and bananas were only available in tropical region. Due to the advances in technology, the foods available for us now have little to do with seasons and regions. We can have any food we want any time of the year. This, compounds with the use of air conditioning and refrigerator, resulted in more people having a cold body. It is critical to understand the warm and cold nature of foods and eat the proper foods based on individual condition, season, and region to achieve the balance we need and stay healthy. Below is a reference table for the nature of common foods.
| | | | | Sticky rice, black rice, sago, and sorghum | | Rice, corn, bran (rice bran), sesame, soybean, white beans, peas, lentils, red bean, black soybean, and oat | | Millet, wheat, barley, buckwheat, and mung bean | | | Beef, tripe, beef marrow, mutton, sheep bones, chicken (slightly warm), wild chicken, venison, pupa, goat's milk, sea weed, shrimp, carp, bream, catfish, saury, minnow, trout, and eel | | Pork, pig heart, pig kidney, pig liver, goose, quail, egg, yogurt, human milk, turtle, loach, eel, carp, squid, bass, whitebait, shad, carp, salmon, shark, and sea cucumber | | Buffalo, duck, rabbit, mare's milk, frog, and abalone | | Duck eggs, horse, beaver meat, crab, oysters, snails, mullet, and octopus | | | Peach, apricot, jujube, litchi, longan, bergamot, lemon, kumquat, bayberry, pomegranate, papaya, betel nuts, pine nuts, walnut, and cherry | | Plum, pineapple, grapes, olives, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, lotus seeds, coconut, peanut, gingko nuts, hazelnut, hawthorn, and chestnut | | Apple, pear, citrus, oranges, strawberries, mango, loquat, water chestnut, lotus, and lily | | Persimmon, grapefruit, banana, mulberry, star fruit, figs, kiwi, sugar cane, watermelon, melon, and cantaloupe | | | | | Onions, garlic, chives, parsley, potherb mustard, and pumpkin | | sweet potato, Yam, turnip, carrots, cabbage, garland chrysanthemum, kohlrabi, black beans, cowpea, potato, taro, ginger, ocean jellyfish, black fungus, mushrooms, and gourd | | Tomatoes, celery, eggplant, amaranth, spinach, day lily, lettuce, cauliflower, tofu, gluten, lotus root, melon, sweet potato, and cucumber | | Arrowhead, kelp, bamboo shoots, algae, straw mushroom, and bitter gourd | | | | | Ginger, Chinese pepper, basil, cumin, cloves, star anise, fennel, wine, vinegar, red tea, coffee, brown sugar, laurel, placenta, ginseng, and angelica | | Sugar, crystal sugar, soy milk, gouQi, bird's nest, corn silk, hay, vegetable oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, and malt sugar | | Green tea, honey, jelly, chrysanthemum, mint, and peony root | | Soy sauce, salt, honeysuckle, bitter melon tea, reed rhizome, and alum |
*As a general rule, hot and warm foods are a good choice in winter, and cool and cold foods are for summer, and neutral foods are good year round.
Simple Therapies for your Health
Yueling’s favorite therapy is foot soaking, that is to soak the feet in a deep bucket with warm water (above the ankle) for 30 min. Yueling discovered that a 30 min daily foot soaking improved her overall health.
Foot reflexology (aka foot massage) is a natural healing art based on the principle that there are reflexes in the feet that correspond to every part, gland and organ of the body. Through application of pressure on these reflexes, reflexology relieves tension, improves circulation and helps promote the natural function of the related areas of the body.
GuaSha is another healing technique used by practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine. “Gua means to rub or friction. Sha is the term used to describe congestion of blood at the surface of the body. When friction is applied in repeated, even strokes, the sha surfaces as small red petechial.” Over time, the petechial areas fade. It is said that raising Sha removes blood stagnation, considered pathogenic, promoting normal circulation and metabolic processes. The patient experiences immediate relief from pain, stiffness, fever, chill, cough, nausea, and so on.
Over the years, Yueling has found that the quickest way to expel internal coldness and dampness is Aijiu (akaMoxibustion), which is the application of heat from ArternisiaVularis (a Chinese herb commonly called mugwort), which sticks to a specific area or point on the body. This again is one of the ancient practices in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
A.Back aijiu
B.Belly aijiuc. C.Leg aijiu
Yueling Ma’s Philosophy on Health
Here are the four principles of Yueling’s philosophy regarding health.
1.Understand the basic needs of our body:
Our body’s basic needs are adequate Qi (vital energy) and blood, clear energy channels, and proper temperature. These needs don’t change with time, material richness, or a person’s status in society. Take a tree as an example: the basic needs for the tree to grow are the air, the sun, and water, no matter where the tree grows. The trees that grew for a thousand years used need those basics, and so do the trees that grow in modern society. The trees that grow indoors in a pot need this as well, and so do the trees that grow in nature. Just like trees, human beings’ basic needs remain the same regardless of the environment, the era, or the development of science and technologies.
For thousands of years, the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine treatments is to maintain blood and Qi in our body through a variety of different ways. Massage and foot reflexology are two examples invented by our ancestors based on the meridian (energy channel) theory, while the food theory is based on the ancient knowledge of the properties of various types of food, their efficacy and their limitation. It does not matter whether you live in the ancient past or live in modern society, whether you are rich or poor, male or female, young or old, the needs for staying healthy are the same, which is to get enough Qi and blood, clear energy channels, and proper temperature through blood therapy, exercise, or massage to clear the energy channels.
2.Keep the basics in the changing world
Maintaining adequate vital energy and blood, and a clear energy channel, are the fundamentals for good health. However, the living environment and conditions are completely different today compared to living conditions of our ancestors. Generations before us enjoyed a slow paced life style with plenty of hard labor and less pollution in the air, water, and food. Of course, our lives are simplified by modern inventions, and our ancestors would never have imagined the amount or variety of foods readily available to us, from different regions and all seasons.
In today’s society, we have more material wealth and do much less laborious work. We seem over-nourished, but the fact is that we are under-nourished with proper nutrients and over dosed with toxic food, which leads to a decline in overall health and various incurable diseases. It is even worse that now the air, water, and food are polluted and contaminated severely, which negatively affects our body's internal environment and results in blockages in our meridian and high levels of impurities in our blood stream. Additionally, we consume a lot of off-season foods and use air conditioning frequently in summer when the pores of our skin are wide open. The consequence is that our internal environment tends to be cold and damp in general in comparison to generations before us. As a result, our blood flow is so poor that our organs do not have the sufficient blood supply, which causes malnutrition and dysfunction of the organs, accumulation of metabolites in the blood vessels, and thickening of blood vessel walls that accelerates atherosclerosis. This is the main reason for frequent increases in skin problems such as dark spots and acne, vascular related diseases such as hypertension, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease, including diabetes and even tumors.
Most patients who come to Yueling suffer from diseases that are associated with the cold and damp internal environment directly. They undergo different modern treatments with little satisfaction since the treatments are focused on symptoms and not the root causes. Modern medical practices have few drugs that can get rid of the coldness and dampness of our body. The Traditional Chinese Medical practices recommend people eat warm or hot food and clear the meridians to expel the internal coldness and dampness and improve the blood flow.
We have no controls over the external environment and changes, but we can control ourselves. The only way for us to stay healthy in this ever-changing society and environment is to choose the proper food and lifestyle based on our own physical conditions and health goals.
3. Identifying the true cause of illnesses is the key to stay healthy
Modern medical practice is similar to bringing a tree with a disease to botanists who then separate leaves, fruits, branches, tree trunks, and roots into different areas of study. In each area, specialists focus on figuring out the problems and potential treatments with a variety of modern medical equipment. The heart of modern medical practice is to treat the symptoms, not the root causes. Therefore, so many people suffer from heath problems with no way out, despite seeking help from famous hospitals with well-equipped wards, and authoritative experts.
The truth is that our body consistently signals us and warns us regarding our health long before any instrument can detect such problems. In this book, I will teach you how to evaluate your physical health, your blood sufficiency, your nutrition situation, and understand the warning signs from your body by observing your hand pattern and by observing the nails, hair, eyes, skin, tongue, and gums.
When you don’t feel well, the first thing you should do is not to take medicine immediately, but to figure out why you have become sick. Follow the methods discussed in this book to check and see if you have sufficient Qi and blood, if you have any coldness in your body, if there are any blockages, and if it is painful when you press in the meridian that connects to the problematic areas. Once you have some ideas about your problems, you need to think of ways to provide Qi and blood, dispel coldness and dampness, and clear the meridians. Then keep an eye on your symptoms and pay attention to how your body reacts. If you start to feel better, then it means that your approach works and there is no need to take medicine. You need to continue to do what works and your health will gradually improve.
In summary, the root causes for all diseases, either a minor or a serious one as long as it is not an accident, are insufficient Qi and blood, meridian blockage, and coldness in your body. Once your body is replenished with adequate Qi and blood, get meridians cleared, and coldness and dampness dispelled, your disease will disappear naturally. If you keep providing the right environment in your body, you will not get sick again.
4. Don’t run through the red light of life
As with traffic lights, red means stop and green means go. In our life, red lights are everywhere and they are the harmful bad habits we have such as smoking, drinking, romantic indulgence, lack of sleep, irregular meal, overeating, and so on. If you run through every red light, do you really think you can go very far?
To maintain good health, we must not run the red light of life. Meanwhile, we must also pay attention to protect and care for our body. Use a candle as a metaphor to illustrate and let’s say it can burn for over two hours in a room. If you take the candle and burn it outside when it is windy, it may be blown out, or only last one hour or so at the most, because of the wind. In this case, if you put a cover over the candle, it will burn slowly and last longer without the risk of being blown out.
According to the World Health Organization, genes account for 15%, social conditions account for 10%, climate and geographical conditions account for 7%, medical conditions account for 8% and self-care accounts for 60% of overall human health. Therefore, even with excellent medical conditions and healthcare, this only accounts for 8% regarding to our health. On the other hand, proper diet, the clear meridian system, the peaceful mind and the elimination of all bad habits in life can make up 60% of our health. Meanwhile, we can grasp another 8% by taking advantage of the modern medical advancements. There are three advantages of modern medical practices. They are the prevention and immunization of a variety of infectious diseases, the rescue of a variety of injuries and emergency situations, and the advanced equipment and instruments. Combing this prevention with three meals a day, the meridian system, healthy habits, and modern medical advantages, we can achieve true health. When used properly, the prevention methods I discuss can result in amazing outcomes rapidly. When the prevention methods are used daily and when they become the way of your life, you will achieve optimum health and longevity. |
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发表于 2013-11-15 10:46
