Apathy

In a state of apathy you lose your reason for being here, you lose your ‘fire for life’. I saw this in my father (who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s) but people misunderstood his apathy back then, they didn’t realise that it is an organ malfunction not a behavior. It is not deliberate and not something […]

Anxiety

I suffered badly from anxiety for years and I know that lifestyle is the best way to treat it. I describe anxiety as the feeling you get if your mind is not anchored. The things make you feel solid and safe make chi descend. The things that make you feel anxious are things that make […]

Arthritis

I hammered my body in the past, especially during skiing training sessions by jogging in ski boots, doing over 100 km per hour and jumping over moguls using my knees as shock absorbers, and breaking my leg a couple of times. When I was young I didn’t feel the impact of any of that but […]

Constipation

In the old days of TCM, stool analysis was a major diagnostic tool. The emperor’s stool physician would examine the stool and then give recommendations to the herbalist and the cook. We don’t examine stool any more but we still always ask clients about their stool because shape, consistency and frequency are indicators of the […]

Dementia

A healthy mind is the outcome of a healthy heart in TCM, and a healthy heart is the outcome of healthy kidneys, and this is down to lifestyle. A weakening of heart and / or kidneys will weaken the mind and manifest as dementia symptoms. Dementia is on the rise because so many contemporary lifestyle factors […]

Depression

I’ve treated countless numbers of people with depression and it is never ‘just in your mind’. If anyone says that to you, don’t listen. Depression involves your body, your lifestyle and even your purpose and this is how you treat it. Depression can be a physical response to excessive pressure and stress (doing too many […]

Headache

There are multiple lifestyle triggers for headaches. It could be a big night out, over-exercising, lack of exercise, emotional stress, lack of sleep, overwork, constant anger or frustration, or your diet that triggers a headache, but the root cause comes down to your liver, yin and yang, and chi. If yin and yang are out […]

Frequent Urination

How often is too often? In TCM there are no hard and fast rules. We treat the person not the symptom. So it depends on your fluid intake, but also on whether you are a more yang type (who burn more fluids) or a yin type (burn less fluids and need to urinate more often). […]