Stay safe and healthyStay safe and healthy

Stay Safe and Healthy Naturally

 March 10, 2020

By  Juli Kramer

Home remedies from China are a great way to resist any bug that may come your way! Learn how food, massage, fresh air, and music can keep you healthy!

First, let’s quickly look at what Chinese medicine has to say about why some people get ill from a virus and others do not.

Why we get sick

Each organ system in the body has an important role to play. If the organs are healthy, the body can prevent pathogens from penetrating external defenses.

Even if some external pathogens do slip past, the body continues to fight through the healthy flow of blood and qi, and their ability to remove toxins.

Harmful lifestyle choices affect the ability of the internal organs to do their job. As a result, we become vulnerable to external and internal pathogens.

For example, if someone eats a diet without a wide variety of vegetables, they put their health at risk. Another example is sitting too long throughout the day without short breaks to move.

Just as unhealthy lifestyle choices put people at risk for illness, healthy choices build up the body’s strength and let it fight disease and illness.

The internal organs stay strong, blood and qi flow and nourish the body, and the mind does not feel frantic.

One of the most important ways to keep the organs functioning well, and therefore the external defenses strong, is to have a calm mind.

Sometimes calming your mind feels easier said than done, especially when you are fearful.

Therefore, for the remainder of the article, we are going to teach you great home remedies used for millennia in China!

Home remedies keep you healthy

I have several friends and family members who are experiencing intense fear about contracting the Covid-19.

Their fear makes sense because thousands of people have died from this disease.

You might feel the same kind of fear or have someone close to you who does.

Fight fear with action to resist the Coronavirus! Don't panic because you will know what to do to stay healthy.

When you keep calm, your body can do the work it needs to do to stay healthy

How fear affects your health

Unfortunately, fear creates Kidney qi stagnation. What this means is that your Kidney system can’t work correctly, which makes it more likely that you might get sick.

Therefore, it is super important reduce your fear with home remedies that will reduce your fear and boost your immunity.

To find out the best home remedies, I consulted with colleagues in China, Dr. Zhang Yifang and Dr. Yun Shi who have weathered the worst of the storm and finally see the number of Covid-19 cases dwindling.

I wanted to know what steps they recommend people take to stay healthy, in addition to the standard advice of washing your hands, staying away from large crowds, etc.

The standard advice is super important, and it is even more effective when you have a strong immune system!

Dr. Yun worked closely with the CDC equivalent in Shanghai. He told me that the numbers of people infected in China continue to decline each day because government and healthcare officials have drawn upon “the wisdom of 1.4 billion people and 27 provinces.”

In addition to helping cure people, this wisdom helped over 1 billion people stay healthy, or recover their health as quickly as possible.

Dr. Zhang and Dr. Yun shared their top insights so I can help you feel empowered to stay healthy.

This advice will help you boost your immune system and gives you a plan so you can fight fear with action!

What home remedies will keep me healthy?

Dr. Zhang recommends a five-pronged approach:

  • Develop a positive mindset
  • Massage key acupressure points
  • Get lots of fresh air
  • Eat recommended foods
  • Drink specific tea remedies

Develop a positive mindset

To fight fear with action, you must first have the right mindset. Dr. Zhang advises everyone to maintain a good attitude.

Having a good attitude, or mindset, strengthens your Kidney and Heart systems. These two systems lead the way to good health.  A calm mind will keep your internal organs strong!

Here are some suggestions for how to have a good mental attitude:

Read beautiful sentences or poems

Every day, read beautiful sentences, even read them aloud if possible. Focus intently on the words. Feel the sound they make as you read them aloud. Visualize what they say.

Breathe deeply

Focus on making your exhales longer than your inhales. Even if you can only breathe in for two seconds, breathe out for three seconds. The longer you can make both your inhales and exhales, the better. Feel the cold air entering your body, and the warm air leaving.

Doctors in Taiwan recommend that people breathe in and hold their breath for 10 seconds. If you can hold your breath without coughing, your lungs are in good shape. If you cannot, you should see your healthcare practitioner, just to make sure you’re okay. Not being able to hold your breath 10 seconds is an early warning sign of the Covid-19.

Listen to beautiful music

Dr. James Saper has amazing music for meditation. Link here to some of his beautiful music that can help you fight fear as it strengthens your Kidney and Heart.Listening to calming music boosts your immune system and calms the mind and allows you to fight fear with action to resist the CoronavirusPay attention to your senses.

Scan the world 360 degrees around you. When you use your senses, your mind uses a different section of the brain than when you are thinking or feeling fear. The brain can calm down as a result!

  • Notice 5 different colors you can see.
  • Think about how your clothes feel on your skin.
  • Take a breath through your nose and try to describe what you smell.
  • Touch 3 different objects around you, paying close attention to the shape and texture of the object.

Feel gratitude!

Every day take time to feel grateful for the sun, the food you eat, the people you love and who love you, etc. We know that you might be at a time in your life where you can’t see much for which to be thankful. That’s okay. Everyone has these times. In this situation, visualize what you would love to bring into your life, something for which you would feel grateful. Over time, you may be able to manifest your dream!

Having a sense of gratitude, being thankful, helps you calm and focus your mind, which boosts your immune system and helps you fight fear with action to resist the Coronavirus

Find a reason to laugh!

Laughter lifts the spirits and strengthens your Kidney and Heart systems as well.

Take time out from social media and the news

Media outlets are in the business of making money. They care for themselves, and often don’t have the best interests of their viewers in mind. Not all media is harmful, but too much can create a negative mindset, which can in turn create fear and other harmful emotions. Reducing your exposure to fear-based social media can truly keep you healthier!

Massage key acupressure points – A great natural remedy

Pressing or tapping acupressure points for the Lung, Heart, and Triple Burner (the area of your body from just below your navel to your sternum) will keep your organs as healthy as possible.

How does massaging acupressure points keep you healthy? All illness in Chinese medicine results from stagnant or blocked, excessive, or deficient qi and blood.

When you massage acupressure points, you stimulate the related organs which allows qi and blood to flow smoothly, keeping the body healthy.

Recommended acupressure points

When you massage the recommended acupressure points, you help the internal organs do their jobs well. In other words, you boost your immune system by using these points as home remedies!

KEY:

  • LU = Lung
  • HE = Heart
  • P = Pericardium
  • ST = Stomach
  • SP = Spleen
  • KI = Kidney
  • LV = Liver

You will see the acupressure points used to fight the Covid-19 separated into sections of the body.

Select two sections to focus on each day and massage the points in those sections, 2-3 times per day.

Massage in a clockwise circular motion. Rub each point for 50 seconds. You should be able to feel a little tenderness that lets you know that you’ve found the acupressure point.

Upper chest: LU-1, 2
Massaging your lung acupressure points on the chest is a great natural remedy to boost your immune system
Wrist joints: LU-7, 8, 9, 10
Massaging acupressure points on your wrists keeps you healthy.
Massaging specific acupressure points will strengthen the internal organ systems, one of many great home remedies
Elbow joints: LU-5, HE-3, P-6
A natural remedy you can use to keep you healthy is massaging key acupressure points.
Close to the knees: ST-34 and 36, SP-9
Home remedies should include massaging acupressure points
Close to the ankles KI-3, 6, 7, and LV-4
Massaging specific acupressure points will strengthen the internal organ systems and is a great natural remedy
Massaging specific acupressure points is a great natural remedy to keep you healthy

If you have a Chinese medicine practitioner you see regularly, you can talk with about Dr. Zhang’s recommendation to use a mugwort (wormwood leaf) moxibustion stick at REN-4, REN-6, and ST-36 to boost your immune system.

Now is a great time to find a Chinese medicine practitioner, especially if you are in an at-risk group. Visit our resources page for a list of resources to find a Chinese medicine doctor near you.

Get lots of fresh air

In addition to massaging these acupressure points, you can do something even more simple – BREATHE!!!

Why breathing fresh air is important for your health

First of all, air seems so simple. It’s all around us and more often than not we take air for granted. We close our windows and rarely take a walk outside.

What we fail to realize is that fresh air is critical for our good health and immune system strength. It’s one of the simplest and best home remedies you can use!

In Chinese medicine, qi, our life-giving energy comes from the combination of three sources:

  • Congenital qi (stored in our Kidneys since conception)
  • Grain qi (from the food we eat)
  • Air qi (from the air we breathe)

Without air qi, our bodies do not function properly. As a result, we should make breathing in lots of fresh air a priority!

Opening your windows and letting in fresh air is one of many powerful home remedies to keep you healthy.

Open your windows at home and work.

Even if it’s cold, open your windows just a crack for a little while.

So many people in the west are afraid to open their windows because of air conditioning or heat being lost.

It’s important to commit to adding fresh air to your home for at least 30 minutes each day. We hope you can keep your windows open even longer.

If you keep your windows closed because of allergies, now might be a great time to consult with a Chinese medicine doctor to help treat the underlying immune system imbalances that cause allergies. Chinese medicine can successfully reduce or completely stop allergy symptoms. Find a doctor using our resources page.

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Take a walk outside after each meal, but at least after lunch and dinner.

When you walk outside, you can fill your lungs with fresh air that hasn’t been heated or cooled through machinery.

You can also add the healing elements of the natural surroundings to your body. Research has shown that time outside heals the mind and body by creating a more positive mood.

Walking after a meal has the added benefit of following the Chinese maxim that a person who walks at least 100 steps after each meal will never need to see the doctor!

Eat the right foods

Dr. Zhang says that patients in China have kept healthy bey eating the right combination of foods each day. Having a varied diet is critical to nourish your organs and boost your immune system!

So, we have created a list of home remedies based on foods proven to help you stay healthy.

All of the recommended foods are neutral in nature, which means that people with different body constitutions can eat them. Please make sure to not eat foods to which you are allergic. If you are cooking for children under 5 years of age, please read this article first.

Eating a wide variety of foods, especially vegetables is one of the best home remedies you can follow to stay healthy.
Eating a wide variety of foods will boost your immune system
  • 1 cup (before cooking) of whole grains for complex proteins and Vitamin B unique to grain structures
    • Millet
    • Oats
    • Barley
    • Rice

 

  • 1 cup of foods rich in Vitamin B (in addition to grains)
    • Dark leafy greens
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Meat
    • Legumes (lentils, mung beans, adzuki beans, black beans)
    • Poultry

 

  • 2 cups of vegetables (must be cooked for children under 5 and adults over 55)
    • Western vegetable examples
      • Butternut squash
      • Cabbage
      • Carrots
      • Corn
      • Green beans
      • Napa cabbage
      • Peas
      • Potato
      • Pumpkin
      • Spinach
    • Chinese vegetable examples
      • Black fungus
      • Bok choy
      • Chinese yam
      • Lotus seed

 

  • 1 cup of fruit (must be cooked for children under 5 and adults over 55)
    • Western fruit examples
      • Grapes
      • Papaya
      • Pineapple
      • Raspberries
    • Asian fruit examples
      • Jujube (Chinese dates)

 

  • ¼ cup of nuts and seeds
    • Black sesame
    • Peanuts
    • Pumpkin seeds

Drink specific tea home remedies

Drinking the right tea remedies can also help you fight fear with action to stay strong against the Covid-19! The process of making tea itself can calm the mind.

Another benefit is to sip your tea in a calm environment, listening to beautiful music or looking outside a window.

Dr. Zhang recommends that you alternate each day between the herbal tea recipe below and black or Pu’er tea.

Drinking specific herbal teas, as well as pu'er and black tea are great home remedies to keep you healthy

Here is the recipe for the herbal tea.

Ingredients

  • 2 tsp Astragalus or 1 ¼ tsp American ginseng
  • 5 each Jujube (Chinese dates)
  • 10 each Wolfberries (Goji berries)
  • 2 cups water

Method

  • Add all ingredients to a small saucepan
  • Bring to a boil
  • Reduce heat and simmer for at least 20 minutes
  • Drink 1 cup every other day
  • Ideally, make a fresh batch each time

Dr. Yu has shared an herbal medicinal formula used by Chinese medicine doctors and it has shown amazing results to prevent people from getting ill from Covid-19. Please have your Chinese medicine doctor email us for the formula.

Summary of home remedies

Using home remedies will keep you healthy! Follow the five-pronged approach we’ve detailed in this article to care for your body and stay healthy.

  • Develop a positive mindset
  • Massage key acupressure points
  • Get lots of fresh air
  • Eat recommended foods
  • Drink specific tea remedies

If you do so, you will increase the strength of your immune system and decrease the likelihood of infection should you be exposed to the Covid-19. You might still get sick, even if you follow this advice, but hopefully if you do, the illness will be of a shorter duration and less harmful.

As always, consult with your medical provider to make sure the recommendations are a fit for you and your current state of health!

Juli Kramer


Dr. Juli Kramer is a Holden Qigong Tier 2 certified qigong instructor. She also holds a diploma in Chinese Medicine Nutritional Therapy and multiple certificates in Chinese medicine. As a qigong and meditation teacher, Dr. Kramer understands the important role movement and meditation have on developing a healthy body and mind. Juli also has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Counseling Psychology.

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