Modern Human is really troubled by chronical diseases, such as rhinitis.
Once I was one of them. You only can imagine how miserable my experience is only if you have a similar experience. It may help others who are troubled by this by sharing my experience and treatment methods.
Although this article is about rhinitis，but the way of healing is suitable to many chronical diseases, including many kinds of allergies.
1. I have tried all kind of treatments for rhinitis.
In an autumn day when I was a teenager in middle school, all of sudden I felt my nose was very uncomfortable. I had a stuffy and running nose, sneezed, felt itchy and unwell.
I did not realize then that a disease which would torture me for 20 years had come silently.
Ever since then, I had a miserable period of time every autumn. Later on, this symptom shew effect in winter and spring as well. Summer was the only good season for me.
Actually, my health had been generally good and had no problems in other respects. When I was in school, my immunity always could overcome the problem If I was sick. I almost never needed to see a doctor. But rhinitis is an exception and my natural enemy. In a regular day when everything is normal, it suddenly shew effect just like a switch somewhere in my body was turned on – the nose felt itchy first. Then I had a running nose, running eyes and sneezed. The experience was just too painful.
What annoyed me the most is the stuffy nose day after day. Sometimes both nostrils were congested when sleeping and I had to mouth breath. This caused insomnia. When I was in university, once I felt I had neurasthenia. Now I believe the rhinitis.was the cause of it.
After graduating from the university and starting to work, I tried the nose drop. I remember I used it the first time when I had a very bad stuffy nose. I served myself several drops and I felt the whole world was unobstructed！That is unmatched feel!
But it only worked for 5 minutes. Seeing the nose drop bottle which became empty shortly, I realized that it is not a good way.
Several years later, I heard of a surgeon which can improve breathe by correcting the deviation of the nasal septum. i had an ecstasy about this and thought that it would save me!
I collected information and researched first. It turns out I had several co-workers were complaining about the symptom returning after the surgeries.
I was talking about this with my friends. One of the friends said that he knew a way to heal my problem. But it is a little cruel and he was not sure I could take it. I said while I was sneezing: “what can be more painful than having rhinitis?”. Then he told me his way: taking a cold bath in autumn and winter.
I had already self-studied Chinese medicine at that time. I could recite more than half of the 12 meridians and eight extra channels. I was thinking that the lungs are in charge of skin and hair. So I thought my friend’s advice is a good one.
So, I did try it!
As I am writing this article, right now it is the time when autumn turns into winter. You can imagine that If you live in a city which has a similar climate as Beijing’s, whether or not you will have the courage to get up from the warm quilt and take a cold bath in next morning?
But I made it for a month!
Indeed, it worked a little in the very beginning. At least it worked for the morning until mid-day. I was thinking that if I insist for a while it will be better and better. Regrettably, it did not get better significantly after one more of self-infliction like this. I realized that this is not a cure.
I told that friend about this and he was convulsed with laughter: how low a person’s IQ could be if he thinks this way will work!
Yes, IQ is lowered by the pain…
For the same reason, we always complain about our parents trusting commercial promotion. Actually, this is not totally their fault. Possibly this is because we care for them too little. We don’t really understand their desire for health and their pursuit for the slim hope.
2. Eventually, it is Chinese medicine healed me.
After learning Chinese medician, I started to have a holistic view of my body. The exterior-interior relationship of meridians especially has a key impact on the healing of my rhinitis. Maybe everyone has heard of “to treat the symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem”？ Actually this is a description of the ancient quack doctors. For many diseases, their symptoms show outside but their root is inside. If so, whatever we do outside, it is no use. Take rhinitis.as an example, the root of it is not the nose. The nose just suffers for the faults of another. Even though you work on the nose every day, it will not fix the problem completely.
So, where is the root of rhinitis?
Most types of rhinitis, especially allergic rhinitis, are caused by interior deficiency. And among the types of rhinitis caused by interior deficiency, most of them are deficiency-cold.
There is a saying in Chinese medicine: seek the causes of disease from internal, not external. The name of the book “The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine” (Huangdi Neijing) represents the internal medicine is given a high priority in Chinese medicine. Either you have a headache, or you have foot pain, they are the external reflection of the internal problems.
There is another saying: wind chill only attack the people with lower deficiency. It actually explains the exterior-interior relationship. When cold air comes, why some people catch a cold, but some others are OK? If a guy catches a cold, is the reason the cold air or himself? Thus, Huangdi Neijing says: “When there is sufficient healthy Qi inside, pathogenic factors have no way to invade the body“. It is also about the exterior-interior relationship.
After reading the above paragraph, you may think I was an expert back then. Actually, I did not understand it too much at that time. What I generally knew is that if I have vital energy, then many problems could be resolved. At that time I had not learned the Chinese medicinal formulae stuff. What I could do were two things: 1. going to bed on time. 2. practicing meditation and Zhan Zhuang.
The weather was getting cold gradually. It is about the time when rhinitis shew effect each year before.
In the 2 months after this, I kept regular hours and practice meditation and Zhan Zhuang almost every day. The time of practice is not very long, say about 30 minutes. One day after 2 months, I suddenly realized that rhinitis had not shown the effect this year. I thought: maybe it has been healed?
Time flies. I finally found that rhinitis which had haunted me for 20 years was gone. Basically, I was not troubled by this disease.
It has been almost 7 years now. In these years, I have felt well. rhinitis only occasionally shew effect when I was very busy with work and the not in a perfect state. Occasionally, when rhinitis occurred, it can be easily fixed by self-massaging Tong Tian Point or Chi Ze Point.
Although rhinitis is not a problem and more, I have kept thinking about allergies during learning Chines medicine.
The literal meaning of “allergy” is oversensitiveness. This is what we observed in life. When there are some light weather changes, the body reacts severely. But, why?
Now, I can talk about this with a light heart.
Healthy Qi and pathogenic factor are against each other. The result of the fight between healthy Qi and pathogenic factor is either Qi defeat the pathogenic factor or pathogenic factor invades. Allergy is a middle stage of this fight when neither healthy Qi nor pathogenic factor can win.
To describe it with a war term, it is a seesaw battle.
Many people have pollen allergy in the spring. The reason behind it is rather simple. From a Chinese medicine view, pollen can attack the Upper-jiao. Once the Upper-jiao is attacked, the body’s positive reaction occurs and the body is ready to fight. Things like sneezing, nose running, Itchy skin are the external signs of this battle. Since the healthy Qi cannot overwhelm the pathogenic factor so a seesaw battle happens.
Many people suffering from skin allergy have traces on their body. This is nothing but the mess on the battlefield.
If we only pay attention to the symptoms and try to end the external war without really understanding what happens behind it internally, we are just smoothing things over for the time being. When the medicine effect fades, the problem will come back.
There is a kind of continuous low fever which happens by irregular steps. You can understand it in the same way. Once the healthy Qi becomes strong, it will try to expel the pathogenic factor. But when healthy Qi is not strong enough, it cannot drive the pathogenic factor out.
So, no chronical disease is a pure external disease.
In other words, all chronical diseases are the external reflections of some internal body problems.
So, it doesn’t make sense at all if we try to fix the external problems. And this is why western medicine cannot really heal rhinitis and skin allergy.
Of course, it is not really easy if you really practice meditation and Zhan Zhuang on time.
More than 2000 years ago, Huangdi Neijing told us that people at that time “live a life without temperance”. Today, modern people’s nightlife is much more colorful than 2000 years ago. It is even more difficult for a person to go to bed on time.
It is even more so for practicing meditation and Zhan Zhuang. There is nothing in the world is easier in terms of substantial conditions required. The people who like sports knows, the cost of doing sports is higher and higher nowadays. But the cost of meditation and Zhan Zhuang is zero. You can do it in the corner of a room. This dull practice let you know:
The most difficult thing in the world is doing the simplest thing every single day.
This sentence is suitable to describe the first one or two years of practice. When you reach a certain level, you can feel more relaxed and joyful.
Actually, there are very good ways by using non-medicine treatment in Chinese medicine, e.g., moxibustion and massage. For a person with the deficiency-cold syndrome, moxibustion is the best way. For a person whose body is stiff, massage can ease a lot.
What I need to point out here is that you need to be quiet and relaxed when receiving non-medicine treatment in Chinese medicine. It will not work if you receiving moxibustion treatment while watching TV, or receiving massage treatment while making phone calls.
We are already used to a life like sitting in a roller coaster. Even though a person without too much work pressure has too much waste in his mind which makes him tired. Did you ever think about letting your heart have a rest by getting out of the roller coaster and practicing meditation or Zhan Zhuang each day before going to bed, or giving yourself or your family members a moxibustion and massage treatment?
Most chronical diseases are caused by improper lifestyles. If we can recover the proper lifestyle, our life will be back to a virtuous circle and everything will be improved gradually.
This is called ”rely on yourself, rather than the doctors“.
