HARRY BARRON
BSc Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture
Location: Wales, United Kingdom
BIO
Harry Barron is a fully qualified practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture.
He is also a qualified Reiki Practitioner and teaches Qi Gong & Nutritional Health. Harry is a qualified linguist and foreign language teacher who has contributed articles and essays to numerous magazines and book anthologies and has been commissioned to write a few books including those relating to aspects of vegetarian and religious/spiritual ethics.
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURED ARTICLE
EATING YOURSELF BEAUTIFUL
ARTICLE ARCHIVE
You know, everyone thinks that women have a harder time as they approach their Golden Age but I have to say that men's problems sometimes get forgotten or worse,
It is a good job I have good friends as Mothers' Day, or Mothering Sunday as it is known in the UK was in March. I had the
The Earth sustains and nourishes all life but for far too many years, we forgot this,
Many moons ago, I used to be a frequent visitor to the deserts of New Mexico and one year, I happened to be visiting during a July
It is pointless pointing out to most of my readers, that Western...
I should imagine that few people would never have seen a picture of a reclining woman wrapped in clean white towels with cucumber slices over her eyes at some kind of beauty spa. And I am sure that almost as many people have at least heard of this very same woman wrapping herself in swathes of seaweed on a hard therapy bed, as part of her beauty régime. You have probably also heard mention of avocado face masks, banana shampoos and so forth. And let's not forget those delicious sounding chocolate body butters... OK, that last one may be a bit of a red herring, but it does appear to inject a couple's flagging love-life with a new-found sensuality using food! And of course, my main point here is to highlight that we don't just use foods to nourish our inner bodies, but also to feed our outer beauty and the above examples are just a few uses of foods used in the Western World for making oneself a beauty to behold. Chinese Medicine, on the other hand, advocates eating the food in order to feed that outer beauty from within, meaning that if you choose your foods wisely and carefully, the food you eat can help you achieve that radiant glow that people spend thousands on at beauty salons the World over. Naturally, Chinese Medicine is also abound with recipes and remedies to smear upon your skin and with which to adorn your hair, just like in Western practices. But let's just stick to eating the food for now...
In the Raw Food Community, we are usually guilty of waxing lyrical about how our diet can help us detox, giving us a sense of vitality and a renewal of health that was usually lacking when we were eating our diets of processed stodge and this sense of vitality often translates into a luminous glow on the skin that refreshes and heals our dermatological complaints, such as dull, waxen complexion, bags under our eyes and tired, sad-looking eyes. Hence the reason why we reach for those slices of cucumber to refresh those sagging bags. Despite the benefits of a Raw Diet on our general appearance, if the problem is deep-seated and has gone on for a while, then it is possible that our problem will not respond to diet alone and we would need to adopt a more vigorous approach in dealing with those baggy, wrinkled and blemished issues.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), many of these dermatological complaints are really external manifestations of our inner balance being out of harmony and those blemishes and bags are usually signs that the body needs a change of pace of life, usually of the more sedentary variety, which doesn't often sit well with highly driven people. Indeed, these are often Type A personalities and are often over-workers or over-achievers. Although, you don't necessarily have to be a rich high-flier to be at the end of the line! Such people, both rich and poor, often thrive on stress and fuel themselves with stimulants such as coffee or other caffeinated foods and drinks or illicit recreational drugs, which in themselves further deplete the body of nutrients and vitality, despite the boosts of energy that they give. The energy shots mask the damage being caused by these substances, until you hit a crash! But, these people, are always on the go and they can live off their adrenaline/epinephrine, which is produced by the adrenal glands located over the kidneys. So it should not be a surprise to know that puffy black bags under the eyes are indications that your Kindey Energy is getting weaker and this should be a wake up call for you to do something about it, today! Cosmetic Surgery may remove the outer signs of the imbalance and deficiency, but unless you address the inner imbalance for the condition manifesting in the first place, those bags will return and you may experience further life-halting, health-sapping problems in the future.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has a lot to say about Beauty Therapy, but I cannot hope to cover everything in this short article, so I will just give one or two tips to get you going and if this piques your interest, then you can go on to explore the subject in depth and find a practitioner who is willing to work with you. There are many ways in TCM to fight the signs of ageing, ranging from acupressure, to Gua Sha and Tui Na massage, from acupuncture, to Qi Gong, from internal use herbs and foods as potions, to external use of herbs and foods as lotions. I am going to concentrate on foods in this article, as that is my area of expertise, but there is nothing to stop you from making enquiries about the array of herbs that you could use.
Let's talk about your skin. We all want a healthy glow to our skin, with few blemishes and even fewer wrinkles to mar our appeal. The skin in Traditional Chinese Medicine is ruled by the Lungs and belongs to the Metal Element. It is often said, that the skin is our third lung, and we frequently comment on clothes and shoes allowing the skin and feet to breathe. So the Chinese were aware of this connection between the skin and the lungs thousands of years ago. Raw Food, as already hinted, can contribute to a vibrant skin tone. But it is equally important to learn how to breathe properly in order to ensure that the quantity of air is sufficient to oxygenate your body's cellular structure; for without oxygen, our bodies will starve, wither and die. The quality of the air that you breathe is of equal importance as well and it should be as pure as you can possibly get it, short of turning on the faucet of an oxygen cylinder. This is sometimes hard to do when not all of us are lucky to be living in ionised mountainous regions. Most of the World's population live in over-crowded and heavily polluted townships and cityscapes. But there are little devices called Ionisers that you can buy, which can help purify the air in our private spaces, and are effective even when you are living next door to a smog-belching oil refinery. It is equally important to perform regular exercise and to learn to breathe correctly when doing those exercises. Qi Gong, in case you are not familiar with it, is an amazing system developed to exercise your Inner Organs and can assist in your detox process (Tai Qi, which is often confused with Qi Gong, is a Martial Art, that exercises the exterior body, i.e. muscles and sinews). Although it usually involves movement and meditation, by definition (Qi Gong literally means “Breath Power”) it incorporates correct breathing techniques as part of its fundamental structure. You cannot do Qi Gong properly if you are not breathing correctly! And if you are one of those people who enjoys smoking cigarettes, then maybe today would be a good day to think about quitting. And not because of the frightening diseases that can develop from the habit! Maybe you have friends who smoke and perhaps you have noticed that their skin sometimes has a yellow, waxy hue to it, which just looks two steps away from a complete zombie make-over or a Charlotte potato-head portrait. Nicotine doesn't just stain your fingertips, but also stains your complexion from the inside and anyone, who is interested in looking good and having fresh looking, vibrant skin, should stop smoking now.
Let’s talk about bags! They usually indicate stagnant energy, a build up of fluid due to weakening Stomach/Spleen energy, which is compounded by Kidney energy deficiency, the Kidneys being the main power houses for supplying energy to the entire body after the food has been processed by the digestive system – the other organs involved in the production of energy being the Stomach, Spleen and Liver. But when your Kidney Essence dries up (known as Jing in Chinese), those bags can go black and can indicate that you are really heading into serious health-related trouble. Those bags should be a wake up call to you. You could always go down the road of surgical intervention, but unless you deal with the root of the problem, surgery is always just going to be a cosmetic cover-up. You should be aiming for a complete inner cosmetic shake up, from the insides outwards! Of course, following your Raw Diet will provide some support for healing Kidney Energy to a limited degree and will certainly help with toxic drainage, but you should consult with a Traditional Chinese Medical Specialist or a qualified Nutritionist first, to make sure that the diet you are on is healing rather than hindering, as Raw Foods can sometimes cool the body too much than is good for it, and this can damage Kidney energy rather than energise it. One simple method for determining whether you need more warming or cooling foods, is to be aware of whether you are craving hot or cold drinks. If you are going for cold drinks, then you need to cool down and you have heat to spare so Raw Energy will help cool you down. But if you are grasping at hot drinks, even in the height of summer, then you should be eating more warming and gently cooked foods and Raw Foods should be limited, as you need warmth from your food, not frost. This doesn't work for everyone, so the best advice is to consult with your practitioner.
Bags are also a sign of damp and phlegm congestion and accumulation, two other Pathogens in TCM that can cause body-wide health problems. But there are two super-foods that help reduce and drain Damp and Phlegm: Adzuki (sometimes spelled as Azuki) Beans and Kelp, or indeed, any other sea vegetable. Aduki beans are normally cooked but these beans can also be sprouted and eaten almost raw. I advocate that all edible bean-sprouts should be steamed gently for up to 10 minutes in order to eliminate any residual toxins that are found in pulses and their sprouts. You can eat Kelp raw, provided that it has been soaking in water long enough, but in its raw state, it has quite a powerful flavour, so you might prefer to use less of it and include it with other foods. Dates are also said to be good for helping boost sagging Qi and are said to be especially beneficial for the eyes, as are Sweet Potatoes, or Yams, Carrots, Walnuts, Millet (cooked or sprouted), almonds, apricots, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, which can all be incorporated into your Raw diet. Some of these foods work by clearing the stagnation of the Liver, whose role is to ensure the smooth flowing of Qi Energy in the body, but its channel opens onto the eyes. So by clearing Liver Stagnation, the eyes will look brighter and will positively sparkle. Some of the foods work directly on the Kidney, strengthening their energy; and some of them work to eliminate damp and excess fluid from the body, thereby reducing the swelling under the eyes and also the face! So it is important to have a variety of foods in order to achieve a broad beautifying effect.
There is a form of massage, called Gua Sha, which involves scraping the skin with a special stone made of bone, although the edge of a credit card can also be used successfully as can some semi-precious stones with smooth rounded edges. Gua Sha can be very effective in reducing the puffiness under the eyes, as well as dealing with crows' feet (or claws' feet, as they are sometimes known); but some people are not big fans of the technique as it can cause quite significant bruising to the “massaged” area, which may initially seem to exacerbate the problem rather than address it. However, as with surgical cosmetics, once the bruising has subsided, noticeable improvements can be admired. Other issues that might cause problems with Gua Sha are due to broken skin at the site which you wish to scrape. People who have scars or blemishes or prominent veins over the treatment area, or are prone to bleeding, such as haemophiliacs or people with diabetes should also be wary of Gua Sha. And because this is your face that we are talking about, its tissues are quite delicate, especially under your eyes, so you need to be gentle anyway. But here is a technique that you can try on yourself to great effect:
Massage the area where you are going to scrape with some eye ointment/cream gently, making sure to massage the skin under your lower eyelid and your upper eyelid. Then, from the area halfway down the bridge of your nose (Bi Tong acupuncture point) towards the outer part of your face up to the corner of the outer canthus of your eye (Tai Yang acupuncture point), using the stone or card, scrape the skin gently. Then close your eyes, and gently massage the upper eyelid. You can massage over the crows'/claws' feet wrinkles too, holding the skin taught, so you can get into those wrinkles properly and flatten them and reduce their appearance. If you don't want to risk the bruising, then just use your hands and fingers to massage your eyelids, or better yet, find a brave and sympathetic friend and you can massage each other's bags and crows' feet alternately (but don't sue her or him if you get bruised, as you have been warned). Or if Gua Sha really doesn't rock your boat, you can always return to that time-tested remedy: two cucumber slices placed over your eyes. They are a good idea after Gua Sha anyway, to help reduce bruising and any inflammation incurred.
If you can find a practitioner, who knows how to administer acupuncture for beauty therapy, then I would advise you to get his or her assistance, as inserting fine acupuncture needles around the eyes and along your crows' feet can help stimulate Qi and Blood (the nutritive fluid in TCM, similar to Blood in Western Medicine, but has so much more qualities to it) and help regenerate and rejuvenate your eyes and reduce the signs of ageing
So when you have got the hang of reducing your bags and wrinkles around your eyes, you can now go on to concentrate on rejuvenating other areas of your face and neck, such as your turkey neck or double chin. But I think bags and crows' feet are a good place to start for now. And remember, keeping your diet Eighty Percent Raw can help facilitate the transformation into a younger looking you!
Yours In Health (and Beauty!)
Harry
I think that every Nation with an active Military will have a Veteran's Day of some description. In the UK, we usually commemorate our Nation's Fallen in Action
Autumn can be a beautiful time of year as the greenery in the world around us starts to change its colours: green to red, gold and auburn. The season is preparing us for colder times ahead, as winter draws closer.
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