Visit a herbal medicine doctor VII

As practitioners of life cultivation, when we are sick, we may visit a herbal medicine doctor to seek professional help. Learning some basic theories of herbal medicine and some technical terms of herbal medicine will help us to choose a herbal medicine doctor, understand what the herbal doctor said, understand the disease, and cooperate with the doctor to find faster and better recovery under the guidance of the herbal doctor.

Herbal medicine and Western medicine are two different systems of medicine. In layman’s terms, herbal and Western doctors use their own set of skills, and the methods are different, but the purpose and effect are the same. Western doctors use a method of meticulously analyzing the human body layer by layer to check for lesions, so various checkups are performed, and the more inspections become more detailed.

The method of herbal medicine practitioners is just the opposite. It cannot analyze layer by layer, but uses the method of observing the external manifestations of the patient’s whole body (such as changes in expression, tongue, pulse, etc.) to infer the patient’s internal lesions.

Therefore, herbal medicine practitioners need to look at the patient’s external systemic comprehensive reaction. This is called a syndrome in herbal medicine, and it will be treated. This is what traditional herbal medicine doctors often say about syndrome differentiation and treatment. Facts have proved that as long as the symptoms of the systemic reaction are cured, those local diseases will also be cured to varying degrees.

04 Techniques used

Traditional herbal medicine doctors generally use traditional medicinal herbs as their main technique to treat patients. In addition, they also use (1) acupuncture, (2) moxibustion, (3) tuina, (4) cupping, (5) qigong, (6) dietary and other treatment methods to make the human body recover by harmonizing yin and yang.

01 Acupuncture technique

Acupuncture technique belongs to the category of needle technique. It uses various needles to stimulate acupoints to treat illnesses. Commonly used techniques include body acupuncture, scalp acupuncture, ear acupuncture, foot acupuncture, wrist-ankle acupuncture, plum blossom acupuncture, fire acupuncture, and electroacupuncture. Less commonly used techniques include acupoint injection, acupotomy technique, small needle knife technique, bloodletting, etc.

In the treatment of difficult illnesses, traditional herbal medicine doctors often use both acupuncture and cupping, or combined acupuncture and herbal medicine, for both internal and external treatment to obtain the best curative effect.

Acupuncture technique focuses on manipulating the vital energy (qi). The method of manipulating the vital energy is by lifting, inserting and twisting the needles, distinguishing deficiency from excess, for tonifying or reducing the vital-energy.

As practitioners of life cultivation, we usually do not perform acupuncture therapy on ourselves. Most of us will rely on other life cultivation techniques to achieve our objective of holistic wellness. If we think acupuncture will help, we will visit a professional practitioner.

02 Moxibustion technique

Moxibustion technique refers to the use of combustion of moxa on our body to treat illnesses. It ignites moxa or other herbs and directly or indirectly fumigate and warm the acupoints on the body surface.

With the heat of moxibustion fire and the effect of the herbs, it will warm up blood and vital-energy through the conduction of meridians, dredge meridians, and reconcile yin and yang. It will further strengthen the body and expel evil, promoting vital-energy and blood circulation. It will expel cold and dampness, reducing swelling and dissipating stagnation, etc. resulting in illness prevention and treatment.

Moxibustion can not only prevent illness, but also prolong life.

People, even if they are not ill, may often apply moxibustion at the zusanli, sanyinjiao, guanyuan, qihai, mingmen, zhongwan, shenque and other acupoints to prolong their lives to age one hundred.

As practitioners of life cultivation, do we perform moxibustion on ourselves? Some do, but not everyone. Usually we just go and visit a professional practitioner to do it on us. There are clinics around just for this purpose in mainland China. It is convenient and inexpensive.

Also, we do not do it very often. We use it mainly to remove moisture and cold from our body if our dietary technique does not help. Remember, we should not perform moxibustion repeatedly in a short period of time. It may also expel vital-energy from our body if done too often.

03 Tuina technique

Tuina technique belongs to the manipulative category, including whole body massage, head massage, and foot massage.

It also includes stilt-stepping therapy, whole vertebra therapy, knead vertebra therapy, back vertebra therapy, tendon pulling therapy, kidney preservation therapy, pressing and kneading yongquan acupoint therapy, pediatric massage therapy, acupoint therapy, etc.

As practitioners of life cultivation, most of us perform massages on ourselves. First of all, it is easily learned and practiced. You can learn all the massage techniques on our website and apply them on your body for health preservation, especially for those of you who dislike physical work and physical exercises.

Most of us practice the whole or part body massage and foot massage on a daily basis. A body massage in the morning and a foot massage in the evening will preserve our body health in such a way like we are living in heaven.

Massaging the yongquan point on the sole of the foot can play a great role in health care and prolong life.

Read more: Mustang Tuina Technique.

Read more: Mustang Foot Massage Technique.

04 Cupping technique & External therapy

External therapy refers to techniques applied to the external of a human body as compared with treating the internal of the body.

External therapy used by herbal doctor includes scraping therapy, enema therapy, cupping therapy, bamboo irrigation therapy, medicine massage therapy, hot summer moxibustion therapy, salt ironing therapy, fumigation and washing therapy, medicated bath therapy, fire ironing therapy, and aromatherapy.

External therapy also includes external application therapy, plaster therapy, traditional herbal medicine wax therapy, navel application therapy, bee acupuncture therapy, etc.

As practitioners of life cultivation, we rarely apply these therapies to ourselves. They have limited use in rare cases.

However, most of us use the cupping technique to remove moisture from inside of our body. It is very commonly used in mainland China. There are private clinics almost everywhere. It is convenient and inexpensive. This technique was used by the American swimmer during the Olympics to expel wetness from the body.

05 Qigong technique & Internal therapy

As practitioners of life cultivation, we usually practice qigong to move our vital-energy around our body so as to achieve a balanced body. We also use the technique to treat any abnormalities such as pain.

A traditional herbal doctor usually does not use the technique to treat his patient. Only specialists such as Wang Jingding have learned to use this technique on his patients.

However, many of us learn the technique ourselves and practice it in the morning everyday for health preservation. It includes the Stance, the 8-brocade, the Taiji, and so on. You may learn this technique on our website under the category of Mustang Shenzhan Technique. However, before you learn them, you should learn and practice the tuna technique to adjust your breathing.

The traditional herbal medicine doctors may recommend their patients to learn and practice some of the traditional exercises in their treatment of illnesses.

It usually includes Tuna (deep breathing) , Jingzuo (meditation), Shenzhan (Stance, 8-brocade, 5-fowl, Taiji), and Belly Massage.

As practitioners of life cultivation, we will learn one or more of these traditional exercises, and practice them on a daily basis for health preservation. You can learn these traditional exercises on our website for free. If you need a personal trainer to work with you, contact us by email.

The Mustang Tuna Technique is our special form of deep breathing. You may read about them on our website. It is fundamental to the Jingzuo Technique and Shenzhan Technique, so you must learn this technique before you venture into other health preservation techniques.

Read more: Mustang Shenzhan Technique.

Read more: Mustang Tuna Technique.

Read more: Mustang Jingzuo Technique.

06 Dietary technique & Oral administration of herbal medicine

It includes the application of prescriptions (cases of experienced herbal medicine practitioners, single-herb prescriptions, proven prescriptions, ancient prescriptions used today, over-the-counter medicines, clinical self-prepared prescriptions, etc. )

It also includes atomization inhalation therapy, traditional herbal medicine tea drinking therapy, traditional herbal medicine wine therapy, traditional back therapy, dietary therapy, health preservation therapy, herbal medicine nursing care, ointment therapy, winter illnesses and summer treatment therapy, etc.

As practitioners of life cultivation, most of us will use dietary techniques, that is, the use of foods for health preservation. Special tea is included in our dietary technique.

07 Special processing technology

Processing of medicine according to established standards, use of compatible herbs in compound prescription.

This is the motto followed in the field of traditional herbal medicine, including herbal medicine, herbal drinks, and herbal over-the-counter medicine.

Processing is a technical pharmaceutical term of traditional herbal medicine, which has a long history. The processed herbal medicine reduces or eliminates the toxic and side effects of traditional herbal medicine, ensures the safety of medication, and improves the efficacy of herbal medicine.

End of part seven of a multipart series of posts on herbal doctor. We will temporarily stop here on this series and start a new series on gut health, the maintenance and repair thereof.

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