To Vinod and Amy ...weak stomach in TCM ??

[Guest guest]

Chinese Traditional Medicine , " Mrs. Barley "

<chosenbarley wrote:

>

> I predict that in due course the prescribing of strange, highly

> restrictive diets (low glycemic foods only/no grain at all is one

> example of such a diet) will be laughed at. It is a crude " cure " that

> requires endless self-denial.

 

It has been stressed over and over on here by Dr. Vinod, by myself,

and by others that there are no one-size-fits-all diets in TCM. There

are general TCM guidelines, but ultimately the diet has to fit the

individual.

 

Sometimes a person will have to eliminate certain foods. Sometimes

this is temporary - though " temporarily " may mean for a few years. In

other cases, the person will never be able to eat the foods without

problems.

 

I once had to eliminate all dairy from my diet. It wasn't a fad. I

was ending up in the emergency room in severe pain each time I

consumed milk in any form - lactose (milk sugar), milk protein, milk

fat, whey, etc. Even very minute amounts. It even impacted my ability

to take prescription medicine as the majority of pills and capsules

manufactured in the US use lactose as a filler and binder. Eventually

I also had to eliminate wheat. In the longrun, it paid off. Thanks to

the elimination and the help of alternative medicine, including TCM, I

got to the point where today I can consume some dairy without problem.

I can eat wheat. But if I overdo, I have problems.

 

Sometimes the elimination has to be permanent. Like when there's a

genetic problem. BTW, there have been times when even though Western

allopathic medicine had not yet identified or named a particular

genetic disorder, TCM was able to help because of the TCM

understanding of the body.

 

Sometimes people don't stick to certain diets because they are self-

medicating. This fits in with what you said about figuring out why a

person continues to consume certain things even though they create

problems for the person. Sometimes it is going to be because it's the

only way the person knows to get something s/he desperately needs. For

example, back when I had to eliminate all dairy from my diet, I

started craving all kinds of leafy greens - collards, turnip greens,

mustard greens, Swiss chard, and spinach. I literally could not get

enough. I also started to develop the signs and symptoms of adult

rickets. As soon as I started on calcium-magnesium pills, the extreme

cravings stopped - though I still am very fond of these foods. BTW,

when I was on B12 shots, the doctors were somewhat surprised because

folic acid levels remained high in spite of the B12 shots. (There's

often a problem with B12 supplementation driving down levels of the B

vitamin folic acid.) The way I was downing green leafy veggies, that's

one problem I never developed.

 

Sometimes something is not just self-medicating but diagnostic as

well. The classic example of this is a diabetic craving sweets.

Because of the insulin problem, the diabetic is not able to use the

sweets s/he ingests. As the body is starved, the person starts to

crave sweets more and more. This is one time when self-medication not

only won't work, it will make a bad problem worse.

 

When I was young, anemia was a very common problem in the US. One of

the possible symptoms of anemia is a person craving ice. I have no

idea why or even if this was a symptom or a cause of the anemia or

both. But back then, doctors and nurses were very alert to suspecting

anemia if a person ate a lot of ice. I doubt if many healthcare

professionals in the US today know about this correlation.

 

A very healthful exercise for healers is to think about the possible

reasons why a person may be engaging in a particular self-medication

even though there's a definite downside to it. For example, let's look

at fatty foods.

 

Let's get the possible psychological overlay out of the way upfront.

Fats can be a comfort food - especially when combined with sweets.

(TCM doesn't really differenciate between " psychological " and

physical, but because most of the list members are Westerners, I do

when writing about these things.)

 

Sometimes it's a regional, dietary thing. Like the traditional diet

of the southeast US tends to be rather fatty. The southeast area of

the US used to have a lot of poverty. A lot of people went hungry a

lot. A craving for fats is an evolutionary thing for the entire human

race. In lean times, the people with some extra padding tended to

survive and reproduce. In environments and times where there

frequently is scarcity, a craving for fats is an evolutionary plus. In

more modern societies where plenty of food usually is always

available, it's a minus.

 

But please keep in mind that even in the US today there exists some

poverty and hunger. One sometimes sees the same tendency to chose

calorie-concentrated food even when a more varied diet is available if

the person has gone through a period of hunger. Not only will one see

this in cases of poverty but one also will see this in cases where a

person has engaged in unwise dieting to lose weight. The unwise

dieting has triggered a tendency for the body to crave fats.

 

Sometimes people don't want to be different and will go along with the

predominate diet in an area where they live or even a fad diet if

others do it. Even if the diet is very bad for the individual. The

treatment principle in these cases is the person needs help becoming

comfortable with being an individual and with being different.

 

If a person's stomach empties rapidly, the person may tend to load up

on fats in order to postpone gnawing hunger pangs. Fats take longer to

digest than carbs. From a TCM standpoint, rapid hungering usually is

due to Heat in the Stomach. There also are cases where the services of

a chiropractor or DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) are called for. The

stomach is emptying too rapidly due to spinal misalignment in certain

vertibrae. BTW, sometimes a person's stomach is emptying too rapidly

but the person's intestines are too sluggish. That is a very feel

rotten situation.

 

Sometimes what the person is really craving are not fats in general

but particular kinds of fats: Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs). They're

essential because the body can't manufacture them. People sicken and

die if they don't get enough of them. Some people can't make the

distinction that it's a particular kind of fat they're craving. They

experience it as a craving for ALL fats when it's not.

 

In the West, we hear a lot about cholesterol being bad. Some people -

because of diet or genetics or a combination of the two have

cholesterol levels that are too high and cause a lot of health

problems and even death if left untreated. But the flipside of this

is that the body needs choleterol, and too little also will create

health problems and can be a factor in death. Cholesterol is the

primary building block of some very critical hormones.

 

Some people have a genetic tendency toward low cholesterol.

Cholesterol is found in animal food products: Meat, dairy, and eggs.

if for some reason these people need or choose to go on a vegetarian

diet, their chances of sticking with the diet will be greater if it's

a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet (allows dairy and eggs) than a vegetarian

diet that does not.

 

These are just some examples to get people started. I'm sure other

list members can think of other examples.

[Guest guest]

Victoria_Dragon and Dr. Vinod,

 

Thank you....I very much appreciate this.

 

Two of the people I will share your posts with are a very sensitive

psychotherapist....and a psychiatrist, Dr. Jim Phelps, who has a website

at the following URL....

 

http://www.psycheducation.org

 

The therapist will be open to your comments and, I'm hoping, will want to

learn more about Traditional . I'm in something of a

health crisis at this time....your observations are very helpful to me.

 

I'm not sure how Dr. Phelps will react....he seems to be more open-minded

than many westermn medical practitioners....but, also, very

conservative in many ways. I feel that your messages carry insights that

are important and have helped me understand some of the feelings I

have been experiencing since a near-death episode that occurred two months

ago. Dr. Phelps is out of town at this time, but I hope to discuss your

posts with him when he returns.

 

I value this list and the messages posted here....these recent messages

from each of you have been a great help to me.

 

Dr. Vinod....I'll be careful to remove your email address before sharing

the posts.

 

My warmest regards,

Nancy

 

> You have my permission as list moderator and for my posts, but you'll

> also need to check with other individuals if you wish to share the

> posts they wrote.