2012 a Taoist year in review
2012, the year of the Dragon was an interesting year indeed. We witnessed many examples of transformation and change, good and bad, as well as apocalyptic failures of apocalyptic predictions, and a continuing slide (or fall) down an ever…(read more)
(Article) Tai Chi offers hope to breast cancer survivors with NJ college research program
“Often, breast cancer survivors must take medication known as aromatase inhibitors, which are designed to prevent the cancer from returning, but may also cause severe joint pain, similar to osteoarthritis, according to Gregg J. Cardena, a student researcher in the doctor of physical therapy program at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. (Qi Journal volume 22, no. 1 & Patch Newsletter)”
Many women stop taking this medication as a result of the severe joint pain, which according to Cardena increases the risk of the cancer returning. The college is offering Tai Chi classes through the Physical Therapy department’s research program, and is hopeful that Tai Chi will deliver the same extraordinary results it has for many people suffering from similar conditions. Specifically, the college wants to see if taking Tai Chi classes twice per week for eight weeks will reduce or eliminate the participant’s joint pain allowing them to complete the five year aromatase inhibitor medication schedule.
Tai Chi, or Taiji Quan & Qigong, have already been proven by many medical studies to greatly help or improve the following conditions: Alzheimer’s disease, depression, Parkinson’s disease, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis, recovering from stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure, heart attacks, as well as other forms of cancer, to name just a few. “A 2004 study at the Wilmot Cancer Center in Rochester, NY, assigned 21 women who had been treated for breast cancer to either 12 weeks of tai chi or 12 weeks of participation in a psychosocial support group, both for 1 hour, 3 times a week. The women who practiced tai chi showed significant improvements in self-esteem and quality of life when compared with the women in the psychosocial support group. (Breast Cancer.org)”
In Asia, especially China & Japan, thousands of research studies, over several millennia, have concluded the effectiveness of Tai Chi, Qigong and Taoist self healing exercises. In Beijing, China the Xi Yuan Hospital, offers Qigong as a primary treatment for many health ailments. A large percentage of the patients choose Qigong as their therapy of choice.
This is no surprise to Taoists as the Tao of Revitalization exercises & meditations have been regarded as the foremost-superior therapy for over 5,000 years as recorded in the Taoist Classic Huangdi Neijing (world’s oldest medical book). Some readers, as well as some practitioners, might not be aware that the Taoists created both Tai Chi and Qigong as exercises and cultivation for the body, mind and spirit.
The study is coordinated under the guidance of Mary Lou Galantino, professor of physical therapy at Stockton, along with two second year physical therapy students, Nicole Piela and Mary Callens. Classes will be conducted at Gilda’s Club of South Jersey in Linwood and Kennedy Health Systems in Cherry Hill. “Women interested in participating in the study should have had a diagnosis of stage I, II or III breast cancer; have been free of disease for at least three months; be postmenopausal; taking aromatase inhibitors; and have had joint pain related to those drugs for at least three months. (Press of Atlantic City, Diane D’amico)”
If you are interested in participating in this or future studies, contact Richard Stockton College professor Mary Lou Galantino at (609) 652-4408 or by email at galantinoml@stockton.edu.
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(Article) Improve your health with one of the worlds oldest healing formulas
In the article “White rice is the great equalizer”, rice soup was mentioned as the first healing formula listed in the Huangdi Neijing, (over 5,000 years ago). Rice plays an integral role in Taoism as well as Chinese food therapy and Classical Chinese Medicine. Not only will rice bring any meal to a natural acid/alkaline balance, it also serves as the base/foundation for healing recipes. This article includes two basic formulas to help your body heal using rice. Congee has a similar consistency to porridge, if you prefer you can add more water for a consistency similar to soup.
Basic rice congee:
Thoroughly wash/rinse 1 cup of white rice, add 5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 1 hour. Serve with any dish and enjoy.
Benefits: Rice soup soothes the internal organs. It is very good for people with weak stomachs, indigestion, fermentation, extreme fatigue and aids in food absorption.
Chinese Yam congee (modified from “Chinese Herb Cooking for Health” by Dr. Wang-Chuan Chen:
- Wash ¼ cup of red jujubes and discard the pits. Wash a little less than ¼ cup of Chinese yams and divide into small pieces
- Add to basic rice congee recipe and bring to boil
- Reduce to low heat and cook for 1 hour
- Sweeten with raw sugar and serve
Benefits: “Extremely nutritious, good for those recovering from long illnesses, easy to digest and improves strength.”
You can find Chinese yams in most Chinese grocery stores and some organic markets, Whole Foods or Trader Joes etc… White rice is one of the most beneficial food staples and ingredients God has blessed humanity with. You can adapt the basic rice congee recipe as needed and adjust to your preferences. For instance, you can add: chicken, green onions, salt and pepper for a delicious meal, or drop in one egg per person, along with green onion, salt and pepper for a delicious twist to your breakfast routine.
Take the time, at least once per week, to enjoy these simple and delicious rice congee/porridge recipes. Be creative and let the Taoism Examiner know how you like them and if you come up with any of your own variations.
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(Article) Review of Critical Condition: how healthcare in America became big business…
In Critical Condition, Pulitzer Prize winners Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele attempt to delve into a topic that many Americans say is one of the top three issues in the country today. The subtitle of the book acts as a good summary on its own: “How health care in America became big business and bad medicine”.
The inside cover states that: “More than 100 million people with inadequate or no medical coverage…Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctor’s offices and hospitals…Health care executives pulling in millions in bonuses for denying treatment to the sick…This may sound like the predicament of a third world nation, but this is America’s health care reality today.”
The authors did a thorough job researching many different aspects of what is wrong or ailing in the American health care industry. The term health care industry is one aspect they spend quite some time on, with the opinion that health care should not be viewed as an industry.
The basic view of Barlett and Steele is that the “free market” has destroyed or ruined America’s health care and the attempt to run health care as an industry, similar to the auto or manufacturing industries, is one of the leading causes for the problems in America’s healthcare. They advocate for the Federal Government to provide a single payer health care system similar to Canada and other, as the authors state many times, civilized nations.
Placing this premise aside the authors do reveal many problems with the American approach to healthcare including: hospitals overcharging the uninsured and patients paying cash, insurance companies receiving discounted rates from hospitals, pharmaceutical companies advertising directly to the general public rather than to Dr.’s in private journals, rampant fraud, pharmaceutical and insurance company lobbyists influence in Washington politics, Doctors being disempowered by insurance companies, Big Pharm. Industry being too powerful for the FDA to effectively regulate etc…
Each issue or fault is given its own chapter with the following titles:
- A Second-Rate System
- Wall Street Medicine
- Anatomy of a Systems Failure
- The Labyrinth of Care
- Madison Avenue Medicine
- The Remedy
- Epilogue: Medicine in the Media
In general the book serves as a good primer on the very important issue of Healthcare in America. However, the authors in their zeal to prove that “free market” economics has ruined health care failed to share what, if anything, is working well in the American approach to health care. They list some solutions or remedies as they call them; however, they only devote 12 pages to the remedies after using 227 pages to list the problems.
The main remedy the authors propose is, as previously mentioned, that the government should provide a single payer system, and this singular unbalanced focus, is one of the drawbacks of an otherwise good book. No mention is made of other possible solutions without completely socializing health care as so many other countries have. From the authors’ perspective, the single payer solution is the only solution, and that lack of openness to other sides of this issue is why the review is three stars out of five.
As an example of another solution, we could look at the Taoist approach to health, and how healthcare was delivered in two “golden age” dynasties in ancient China: the Han (206 BCE-220CE) & Tang (618 CE-907 CE) dynasties. The Taoist practitioner’s role, especially during these two dynasties, was/is to first and foremost prevent ailments of body, mind and spirit. The practitioner would charge a fee, or accept a donation for the classes/lessons and consultations on prevention; however, if the student became ill anytime during the lessons, the Taoist was obligated to treat the student for free.
This philosophical mandate, and others, served as a natural way to prevent many of the problems Barlett and Steele discuss in Critical Condition. There is an old Taoist proverb that would serve modern day physicians well: “the highest healer teaches people how not to get sick, the lowest level healer focuses on those who are already sick”.
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