OT: Another website

[Guest guest]

http://www.floydvirginia.com/features/health/tcm.html

 

Links to acupuncture.com and healingpeople.com and an article written by

myself are now on the Floyd County, Virginia (USA) website.

 

This shows just how much alternative medicine and TCM are starting to catch

on in parts of the U.S. Floyd County is a rural county in the mountains of

southwest Virginia. (Gorgeous scenary! The scenic Blue Ridge Parkway runs

through the eastern part of the county.)

 

To get to the Health Links section and articles by Dr. JJ and others, click

on Features at the top of the page, and then click on Health articles. While

you're on the site, you may want to check out some of the beautiful pictures

of the county. Very relaxing.

 

Why would a rural county in the mountains of southwest Virginia be so

interested in alternative medicine? I suspect it has something to do with

the area's own traditional medicine. Years ago there were a lot of healing

women in those mountains. I know because my great-grandmother in a

neighboring county was one of them. According to stories passed down, she

did most of the family's doctoring, setting bones, mixing up herbal

formulas, etc. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, this was a very isolated

region. As late as the 1950s, it still was fairly isolated. Having a

healer in the family or at least as a neighbor was a big pulse.

 

One story handed down concerned the birth of her last child. The family had

gone visiting that day while she stayed home. She went into labor during an

unexpected snow storm. Knowing that she couldn't summon help - no one to

send - she gathered quilts out of the main house and took them to the

kitchen house. (Kitchens frequently were built in a separate structure in

those days to cut down on the risk of fire.) She built up the fire in the

kitchen house, and alone, she delievered her son. I'm also told that she

informed my great-grandfather afterwards that this would be the last child

she would bear, and he was.

 

I never met my great-mother because she died a year before I was born. I do

remember some of her brothers and sisters, in particular her youngest

sister. I've talked on here before about bits of TCM and TCM-like concepts

being scattered throughout the world in various traditional medicines.

They're found throughout the world because these are things that work and

were discovered independently by many peoples. Anyway, I can remember my

great great great aunt telling me that one shouldn't drink a lot of cold

water at once on a hot day as it could weaken the body and pave the way for

infection. Cool water should be sipped gradually with pauses no matter how

hot the day or how thirsty the person. Especially if it was a very hot day.

She cited people she had known who went against this wisdom and as a

result came down with Scarlett Fever and other infectious illnesses and

died. She and her healing brothers and sisters must have known what they

were talking about because not too many members of the family died of

infectious diseases, and the majority lived to very old age, remaining

fairly active until close to the end.

 

Victoria

 

 

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