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6 Ways To Strengthen Your Immune System

by Andy Wong | Apr 19, 2023 | Health

Fresh food and drink to uplift Alkaline level in the body

Having a robust immune system will help you stay healthy and energetic enough to meet your responsibilities and smash your goals. However, as the weather gets colder, it can be harder to battle the different illnesses flying around.

Here are six ways you can strengthen your immune system and combat the germs that will bring you down.

Get Your Vitamins

Believe it or not, vitamin deficiencies are quite common. This challenge is primarily because the modern diet doesn’t have the variability and nutrient-rich components our ancestors enjoyed. While the best way to get enough vitamins to prevent illness and boost your immune system is through your diet, supplementing can help fill the gaps.

Look for a multivitamin that fits your specific needs. For example, a women’s multivitamin will often have more calcium to offset the risk of osteoporosis. Vegetarian vitamins will often have more vitamin B12 to replace what’s usually found in meat sources. Taking a vitamin can help bolster your immune system and keep you healthy.

Practice Stress Reduction

When you get stressed out, your body gets depleted. By having strong coping mechanisms to reduce stress, you’ll be protecting your immune system.

There are many ways to practice stress reduction. Meditation is a powerful mindfulness practice that can help let go of negative thoughts. Journaling can help you reframe negative experiences into positive learnings. Prioritize self-care practices that help you de-stress and unwind.

Wash Your Hands Regularly

In many ways, the world is over-sterilized. Overuse of antibiotics and sanitizers have created resistance in common cold and flu strains. So, while you should avoid over sanitization, regularly washing your hands is an effective way to boost your immunity and limit the spread of germs.

Follow smart handwashing protocols, using hot water and soap, and scrubbing in between your fingers and under your nails.

Drink Lots of Water

Not only does drinking water help flush your system of germs and toxins, but it also promotes gut health. Proper gut health plays a crucial role in your overall immune system. Drink a minimum of the recommended eight glasses a day, making adjustments based on your body size and activity levels.

Focus on Gut Health

Speaking of gut health, in addition to drinking water, you should reintroduce healthy bacteria to the gut. Eating fermented foods and food rich in probiotics and prebiotics can have a positive impact on your immune system.

Additionally, eating food that’s rich in fiber to help regulate digestion can have lasting positive impacts on your overall health and wellness.

Exercise

Regular exercise can help reduce stress, assist with weight management, flush toxins from your body, and improve your cardiovascular health. All of these play a key role in boosting your immune system.

The one caveat is for those who frequently engage in high-intensity training. Allow yourself ample time for recovery and regeneration, as over-training can have the opposite effect on your immune system. Listen to your body and lower the intensity when you’re feeling unwell.

By following these six practices, you’ll enhance your immune system and be ready to duke it out during cold and flu season. Take a habit-building approach and focus on improving one area at a time until it becomes routine.

Contentment is wealth enough

by Andy Wong | Oct 29, 2021 | Health, Life

fried-bread-stick street stall

I took this photo a few years ago on a beautiful morning in Nanjing, China. It captures a family-run street stall selling mouth-watering fried breadsticks. The family members worked together in perfect harmony, radiating joy and contentment despite their modest setup and affordable prices. Taking this photo was a reminder to me that happiness and contentment are essential for good health and a fulfilling life.

Chinese Medicine Treatment of prostatitis

by Andy Wong | Nov 8, 2019 | Chinese Medicine, Health

Man in water — Image by Mubariz Mehdizadeh

Prostatitis is a common condition in male adults. To understand the disease, first understand the location of the prostate. The prostate is an accessory gland of the male reproductive organs. Its shape is like a chestnut, which surrounds the upper end of the urethra and can be touched by fingers in the anal canal. The cause of prostatitis is mostly caused by prostatic hyperemia. A small number of patients may be caused by bacterial infection.

The main symptoms after prostatitis are frequent urination, urgency, dysuria, and white discharge from the urethra. Some patients experience pain in the perineum, lumbosacral region, rectum, spermatic cord, testis, or groin; they can even cause sexual dysfunction. A small number of patients have neurasthenia symptoms.

The diagnosis of prostatitis can be divided into acute and chronic. Acute cases often have high fever, chills, frequent urination, urgency, and urinary tract infections are very similar, patients have no low back pain and tenderness at this time; such as rectal examination can be found in the prostate enlargement and tenderness, and urine routine examination there is only a small amount of white blood cells; in this case, a prostatic fluid test will reveal a large number of pus cells. Chronic prostatitis is more common in m men in their 30s and 40s. The lesions can change from acute to chronic, and most patients have no acute phase.

Rhizoma Dioscoreae Hypoglaucae — Dioscoreae Hypoglaucae

Traditional Chinese medicine scholars from the Tang Dynasty to the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties generally believe that the main symptoms of prostatitis belong to the category of gonococcal disease, which is caused by kidney deficiency 腎虛, bladder heat dampness 膀胱濕熱, gasification and loss of water 氣化失司, and unfavorable Urethra passage 水道不利. And put forward the principle of treatment: promote urination, clearing evil heat, and boost circulation. According to the above principles, Luciferous Traditional Medicine Clinic practitioner has treated the disease for many years based on the [Medical Mindfulness 醫學心悟] by Ching Chung Ling 程鐘齡, the “Rhizoma Dioscoreae Hypoglaucae Decoction for Clearing Turbid Urine 萆薢分清飲”:

Rhizoma Dioscoreae Hypoglaucae 萆薢 12 grams
Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae白朮 12 grams
Semen Plantaginis 車前子 12 grams
Poria 茯苓 12 grams
Rhizoma Acori Graminei 石菖蒲 5 grams
Cortex Phellodendri 黃柏 10 grams
Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae 丹蔘 10 grams
Plumula Nelumbinis 蓮子心15 grams

Place all the above ingredients into a clay pot then add 750ml of water, boil to reduce to approximate 250ml of decoction, one 250ml dose daily, 16 days as per one treatment course. Generally, two courses of treatment are needed.

The advantage of this herbal medicine combination is that it clears the turbidity and Qi stagnation; it has no negative adverse effects. Acute and chronic prostatitis can be taken. During the treatment, the patient should not consume spicy fried foods; coffee and alcohol should also be avoided.

The Herb in Chinese Medicine for older adults

by Andy Wong | Oct 25, 2019 | Chinese Medicine, Health

Huang Jing and meat broth

Herbal medicine - Rhizoma Polygonatum (黃精 Huang Jing) — Rhizoma Polygonati (黃精 Huang Jing), the Qi tonifying herb

The older adults should consider use in the winter tonic [Huang Jing and meat broth] “延年祛病, 莫若黃精 (longevity and immunity, must use Huang Jing)” This is the health adage in the era of 唐朝Tang Dynasty (618 – 907A.D.). In the winter, [Huang Jing Tang] Soup of Huang Jing is tonic, and there is the merit of longevity and immunity. The prescription is as follows:

The original plant of Rhizoma Polygonati 黃精 (Huang Jing)
image source: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E9%BB%84%E7%B2%BE#/media/File:Polygonatum_lasianthum.JPG — The original plant of Rhizoma Polygonati 黃精 (Huang Jing)

黃精 (Huang Jing) Rhizoma Polygonati 15 grams
黃蓍 (Huang Qi) Radix Astragali 10 grams
枸杞子 (Gou Qi Zi) Fructus Lycii 5 grams
山萸肉 (Shan Zhu Yu) Fructus Corni 5 grams
Lean pork meat (or Chicken meat) 50 – 100 grams
Use reasonable amount of water (approximate 1 Litre), boiled soup, seasoning with little amount of salt only.

The Huang Jing (or yellow essence by direct translation) in Chinese medicine point of views it is sweet and neutral but not dry. It functions to tonifies the Spleen Qi and nourishes the Spleen Yin; and Nourish Yin in general and moistens the Lungs. In recent years, the medical literature reported its pharmacological effects as:
Firstly, it is nourishing and strong
Secondly, it has an inhibitory effect on hyperglycaemia
Thirdly, it helps improvement of atherosclerosis and fatty liver
Fourthly, improve high blood pressure
Fifthly, inhibit Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Salmonella typhi, and skin fungus

It has been used for the treatment of atherosclerosis, hypertension and premature aging in the older adults for many years in Luciferous Traditional Medicine Acupuncture Clinic.

How screens could be stopping you from getting a good nights sleep

by Andy Wong | Apr 12, 2019 | Health

For many of us, screens have become an important part of our everyday lives – but mounting evidence suggests that utilising them to close to bedtime could be wreaking havoc on our sleep patterns.

According to sleep experts, watching television, looking at our phones or using a computer before bed can affect our sleep in the following ways.

Disrupts sleep cycle

One of the most important things to be aware of when looking at screens before bed is their ability to disrupt the bodies sleep cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm. Essentially, the blue light emitted from screens can restrict the bodies ability to produce melatonin, which is the hormone responsible for regulating the circadian rhythm, thereby making it harder to fall into a deep, restful sleep.

Encourages alertness

Rather than preparing you to drift off to sleep, using screens before bed typically encourages alertness and trick your brain into thinking you need to stay awake. While it may seem harmless, an exciting movie or an interesting article can stimulate your brain more than you might realise, and ultimately cause you to stay awake longer than you need to.

Unexpected wake up calls

In fact, mobile phones in particular have become such a key component in our everyday routines that many people rely on them as their morning alarm, meaning they tend to keep them on the nightstand or beside the bed. However, forgetting to switch your phone to silent can be seriously problematic to your sleep, as unexpected calls, messages and notifications can wake you during the night.

While there’s no need to give up screens altogether, we’re sure that we could all benefit from cutting down our screen time – and making a conscious effort to put away the gadgets at least 30 minutes before going to bed. For further support on living a healthy and balanced lifestyle, contact us on (03) 9576 8538 or book a consultation online.

What is Most Important?

by Andy Wong | Mar 15, 2019 | Health

Money? Sex? Fame? Sleep? Food? All of those things are important, and one or two are probably particularly important for you, but what is most important?

Recovering from a major stroke gives you a lot of options to choose from to answer that question. Let’s see.., my scalp acupuncture sessions, those are pretty important. Ok, uhh, my Chinese medicine herbalist, I have to include her, she prescribed me two kinds Aconite. Wait a minute, what about Flint Rehab, I’m learning so much from them right now.., I don’t know, which one is it?

Typing up this article on my iPhone with my right hand (that was affected by the stroke) is one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do, but if I want to recover full function, I don’t have a choice. Each tap with my finger sends a signal to my brain that helps initiate neurogenesis (growth of new neurons in the brain), and it’s not just a few taps that I’m talking about, it’s probably something on the order of hundreds of thousands, even millions of taps over the next few years that will lead to restoring my finger’s full function (more specifically my brains full function). Tapping away with my right finger is something I’ve been putting off for the last two years. Granted, first I had to lift my hand to my face (that took about 6 months). Then, I had to have my finger steady enough to tap each key on the iPhone (another 6 months, and another year, well, for good luck). At that point it was just a matter of trying, having a mind that is willing to try a million times or more; a “try mind” as my teacher used to say.

My finger’s not that steady, believe me, spastic is a better word to describe it, but I figured at some point I’ve just got to jump in. Tapping each key on the phone is more of an understatement, really it’s more a matter of tapping a hundred times to select fifty of the right keys; thank God for auto-correct. It also helps to tap slowly, allowing my mind to concentrate on what I’m actually trying to say.

My friend Amanda is a great source of inspiration for me, she has encouraged my recovery since day one. Even with us not talking and being out of sorts lately, it has forced me to begin writing letters to her by hand, my right hand. That was two weeks ago and look at me tapping away now!

A good friend and partner is perhaps the next most important thing you can have. If that person is helping you to connect with your own heart through loving them, they are bringing you closer to God and feeling love in your heart sure helps with all this damn tapping! So, if you asked me what is the most important thing, I wanted to say a try mind at first, but I’m leaning towards a mind (mind and heart are the same character in Chinese — 心) that’s full of love — which is really the source of a try mind when you think about it.

Post with permission by Morgan James