Accupressure Refresher
March 18, 2009
Chinese medicine. I used Chinese medicine on myself in the middle of the night last night when I couldn’t sleep and it worked like a charm. A Chinese medicine specialist at Canyon Ranch showed me a nifty cure for insomnia that sounds really kooky and is really kooky but it gets me back to sleep every time I remember to do it. You roll over on your right side, propping your right arm under you and hold your right nostril closed while taking deep breaths though the left nostril. They theory is that the right nostril oxygenates the left side of the brain, the side of the brain that is analytical, in charge of planning, regretting, worrying and bill paying. So if you close off that nostril, the left nostril will feed the right side of the brain, the part of the brain that’s not concerned with paying the mortgage or fixing the AIG mess.
More and more doctors in this country are being forced by their patients to acknowledge the power of Chinese herbs and medicines to heal the body. My doctor would roll his eyes at me if I explained this cure for insomnia and he’d probably offer a prescription for Ambien (which is tempting if you don’t consider the side effect of sleep eating and sleep driving).
In the eastern world, doctors do not wait until you get a positive result ( meaning a high cholesterol reading or a bad pap result or a tumor) from a test to treat the patient. They treat the wellness, not the sickness.
For centuries, the Chinese have been successfully treating asthma, high cholesterol, arthritis, PMS and menopause with herbs. You’ve heard me talk about resveratrol which has been found in an herb called Japanese Knotweed for thousands of years.
They also use pressure points, otherwise known as acupressure to relieve things like nausea.
Here are a few self treatments you can try at home. Try this next time you feel sick to your stomach. Press firmly on the inner forearm between your two big tendons an inch and a half above the crease of your wrist and watch your pain vanish.
Or try the headache cure.
Use your thumb and index finger to squeeze the soft muscle between thumb an index finger of your other hand. If your headache is on the right side squeeze the left hand and vice versa. This area may feel tender but maintain pressure for a few minutes and watch your head pain ease.
That’s all for today. I’m getting a headache from sitting at my desk.Time for Ellen.
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