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Saturday, September 23, 2006

A China-Only Experience: Spa day with your Professor

This post, I have a lot I need to catch up on....what I've been doing for the last month, and what I did today, which includes my first brush with Chinese traditional medicine, in the form of GuaSha. I'm going to talk about that first because...because it's freaking cool.

OK, so I passed on the group hiking trip today in order to attend a Chinese wedding with one of my one-on-one teachers. I figured, hey, I can hike in the US, but a Chinese wedding? Not such a common opportunity. When we got to the restaurant (because a Chinese wedding is mostly centered around a banquet, no particular ceremony apart from that) we were a bit early. I'd mentioned to my teacher earlier, when we were learning beauty vocabulary (remember how I couldn't say "purple" before? I've been on a mission to pick up the trivialities of the language this semester and, well, now I can say eyeshadow, facewash, and mascara, all that good stuff!!! grin) that I wanted to find a spa like the one I went to in Xian, so when she noticed the one across the street, she was like, hey, wanna go check it out? So we did, and it was only 40RMB to try it the first time. We became instantly giddy, and made an appointment to come back together after the wedding.

Among the various things we could choose to do in our two hours of pampering was Guasha. I had no clue what it was, and didn't really get what they were saying to me as an explanation, so I went ahead and said yes. No big deal, right? Until I started analyzing the morpheme gua, which also appears in the word "shave." I held perfectly still for a full four minutes as I felt my back being scraped top to bottom, envisioning sliced tissues and spurting arteries. My fears were calmed when they paused and showed me an innocent-looking, safely dull horn blade, but I soon began to worry again. As they were doing it they explained what they were doing, and that my back was acquiring gruesome a reddish purple hue in the areas where I had "problems". Do WHAT?! The horror. I decided not to judge right away, my teacher didn't seem worried and said her friends swear by it. And after all it's supposed to go away in a few days.

So I got home and immediately got on the internet to see what had been done to me (you can see the fruits of my search in my last post) and apparently it's nothing more frightening than an ancient practice akin to acupuncture, intended to improve circulation and qi (or the electric field that scientists now know our body creates) flow throughout the body. This strengthens the immune system and helps with existing problems, ie back pain, headache, colds, fever, etc. The best part from my standpoint is this: Last October, I had to quit my rowing team at school because I injured my back, and it's been a very stubborn injury born of a facet disjunction on my left side that has caused the muscles around it to freeze up and make it painful to breath. Lately, although it had gotten a lot better after physical therapy in March and April, it's been acting up for some reason. Well-it was hurting this morning, but now, no matter how deeply I breath, or how much I twist, I can't feel a thing at all. I'm stunned. And completely sold on guasha. My back may look a little startling, but it honestly hasn't felt this good for months. I'm not saying I'm cured, but I bet if I keep doing this along with my regular stretching and exercise routine, I might be able to row again next summer in Seattle. Hallelujah! I can barely contain my joy at this particular discovery.

On top of the guasha, my teacher and I got rubbed down, facial-ed, massaged in accordance to related acupuncture meridians, etc, etc. As girly and decadent as it is, I now have a membership so I can go back every week if I want. Hey, I'd never be able to afford it at home-better take advantage of it while I can! Furthermore, I can share the joy, because I have enough punches to bring friends with me periodically. It's no fun to be beautiful all by yourself....

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The wedding I went to wasn't a particularly large formal one as Chinese weddings go. From what I gathered this was really more of an event for friends and coworkers. The couple will have a more traditional wedding with family members later on, at which point they'll probably have the groom go through the ritual of gaining entrance to the room where his bride is waiting, find the red shoes for her to wear, and then go in a multi-car wedding procession to another restaurant, where there will be toasts and feasting all day long. The bride will have three or more dresses that she'll wear at different points throughout the event, starting with a Western wedding dress in the morning and switching to Chinese traditional qipao' s later on. This time, however, we just ate and toasted a few times, heard a speech or two...and left a little early, because, well, there was the pressing matter of the spa appointment across the road, and the wedding started later than we thought it was supposed to. It was interesting, though, and while the spa day kind of upstaged the wedding in my mind, it was still worth going to see.

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It's been about three weeks now since I got back from Xian and started classes. I have to say, things are really going much better for me now than they used to. That two weeks with the Guos was great for my Chinese, I think I crossed some sort of invisible bridge while I was on vacation. Or maybe my tired and stressed out mind just needed to regroup and absorb what had been thrust into it over the summer. Whatever the case may be, classes are, if not quite a breeze, certainly no longer a black and murky quagmire of incomprehension. I also have some classes I'm really excited about. One of my one-on-one classes is on translation, so I'm actually learning a trade skill while I'm here along with Chinese. I've come to the conclusion that before I try again to join the State Department (for those of you who might not have heard, I didn't pass the written examination I took in April) I want to make absolutely sure that I'm not destined to be an interpreter/translator. I'm going to put one or two years into that-get a job, go to classes on it, take the certification tests, the whole nine yards. Then I should probably know whether that's my calling, or if I still want to go into diplomacy.

I'm also taking literature, composition, and of course my class on Chinese culture/food, which brought me to the wedding and the spa today. Overall, I'm immensely pleased; and I feel like I'm learning a ton.

I've started my Pilates class in Chinese as well-I feel like a complete comic sometimes, but the point is always made and people keep coming back, so I can't be doing anything too wrong! It's mainly an exercise in Chinese skills for me, and a chance to do Pilates again, since I can't seem to make myself do it on my own. Not too much to say about that-it's just something fun to do to keep things interesting!

On that note, I'll go ahead and sign out....lots of love to all, and make sure and read my post on Guasha!

Gua Sha!!!!

OK, so I'm putting up some information on this gua sha thing in case people are interested. I'd never heard of it...and I thought it was sketch when I was doing it, especially when I saw my back afterward! But I have a pleasant feeling of wellbeing now, which was enhanced by my quickie research on the topic. Here's what I found...




Gua Sha--Scraping for a Cure
July 07,2005
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The release of the movie, "Gua Sha/The Treatment" unveiled a Chinese medical practice that astounded many westerners. The little boy in the movie was left with severe bruises on his back after a "Gua Sha" session. Those who are ignorant of the traditional Chinese medicine practice would be excused for dismissing the cure as "abuse" or "witch craft." However in Chinese medicine, Gua Sha is an effective method of curing a number of diseases. So the big question is—does the Gua Sha Treatment really work?
Is Gua Sha Scientific?
Gua Sha therapy is closely related to the theory of meridians, one of the most important Chinese medical theories. The theory of meridians provides not only the theoretical foundation for diagnosis, but also guides treatments such as acupuncture, massage, Qigong and Gua Sha.
The meridians (经 jing) and collaterals (络 luo) are pathways in which Qi and blood circulate. They form a specific network that communicates with the internal organs and limbs and connects the upper to the lower and the exterior to the interior portions of the body. In the ancient Chinese medical book The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine it recorded the six meridians (六经 liu jing), namely, the Taiyang, Yangming, Shaoyang, Taiyin, Shaoyin, and Jueyin meridians. Zhang Zhongjing (150—219 A.D.), famous physician of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25—220A.D.) wrote the book Treatise on Cold Diseases and Miscellaneous Disorders which also gave brief and accurate descriptions of symptoms for diseases of each meridian. Furthermore, it was his rich clinical experience that helped bring about this medical theory. The principle of Gua sha is similar to that of acupuncture in which different points in the patient's body are stimulated.
According to Chinese medicine, when external coldness or negative energy invades the body a disease develops. Thus people will have some physical discomfort such as dizziness, vomiting and pain. Gua sha can stimulate blood flow and remove coldness, negative energy, toxic-heat and lymphatic fluid from the body through the skin. Through the process, more blood serum is produced, thus improving the body's immune system.
However, western medicine and Chinese medicine have contrasting views on the origin of diseases, hence leading to different treatments. Western medicine emphasizes exterior factors like viruses and microbes that lead to disease where as Chinese medicine places more emphasis on the internal human body. In other words, if the body is strong and healthy the organs will naturally protect themselves from diseases. Chinese physicians have tried to find treatments to improve the function of the six meridians. Western physicians, quite differently, tried to make effective for eliminating bacteria in the body. Chinese medicine physiology is based on the activity of Qi throughout the body, while Western medicine physiology is based on anatomy. Both medical practices can exist side by side.
What is Gua Sha?
"Sha" refers to the sudden attack of illness such as sunstroke and dry cholera during the summer and autumn seasons. It also refers to rashes. The term "Gua" means, "to scrape." Before the actual Gua Sha treatment begins, liquid medicine is rubbed on the painful area or acupoints to stimulate blood circulation in the body. The therapist then scrapes the skin with a jade or horn blade from top to bottom according to the direction of blood flow. Some blood capillaries break and release the red blood cell, hemoglobin. Such stimulation can promote blood circulation and remove obstruction in the collateral and toxins from the body, which then relieves pain. Though red, purple or black bruises appear after the scraping, during the treatment, the patient rarely feels any pain.
What does Gua Sha Treat?
Gua Sha can provide drug-free relief from back, neck, leg and shoulder pain. It is widely used to cure measles, a disease most commonly contracted in the summer and autumn seasons. It can also relieve some women's problems such as period pain, lack of periods, insufficient lactation, and climacteric syndrome. Gua Sha, like acupuncture, massage and Qi Gong is also a magical method of improving health.

Article #2


Gua Sha - Chinese Health Care
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When I go to China, one of the first things I do is get a gua sha treatment from my friend, Dr. Charles Li. It relieves all the aches from the 22 hours of traveling, and stress related to it, and helps me get over my jet lag as well as get a good sleep. Gua sha is an extremely effective and relatively simple traditional Chinese treatment, but almost impossible to find information about it in China.
When I went to the jade market in Xiuyan, I couldn't find gua sha tools. But as soon as I asked a seller if she had gua sha tools, every seller who had gua sha tools started bringing them to me, smiling, and surprise a "foreigner" knew about this.
When I went to the traditional Chinese pharmacies, many of them had gua sha oil. But I could not find any books about gua sha in the book stores in Beijing, even in the foreign language book store. Dr. Li explained to me that gua sha is more of a home remedy, and such a small part of traditional Chinese medicine that it is rarely given any consideration in the literature. He uses it frequently and finds it very useful. He provides traditional Chinese medical treatment to "foreigners" who sometimes are afraid to have acupuncture, or don't like the taste of Chinese herbal medicine. Gua sha used with stimulating acupressure points has been very effective and helpful in his practice.
Gua Sha is an ancient therapeutic practice that began in China centuries ago. It remains a popular practice in China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Gua means to scrape or rub. Sha is a reddish, elevated "millet like" skin rash. Sha is the term used to describe blood stasis in the subcutaneous tissue before and after it is raised at petechiae. IGua sha is used for pain associated with an acute or chronic disorder. The affected person may feel aching, tenderness and/or a knotted feeling in the muscles. When normal finger pressure on the person's skin causes blanching that is slow to fade, sha may be suspected. Gua sha is used to treat and prevent acute conditions such as common cold or flu, asthma, bronchitis as well as chronic problems involving pain and congestion of the qi and blood.
Gua sha is applied primarily on the back, neck, shoulders, buttock and limbs of the body. Advanced practitioners may also raise sha on the chest and abdomen.To apply gua sha, first lubricate the area with oil. If you do not have gua sha oil, you can use White Flower or any other oil. If there are any moles, cuts or unhealed areas, cover them with your fingers. Do not apply the gua sha tool to these kinds of areas. Hold the gua sha tool at a thirty degree angle to the skin, the smooth edge will touch the skin.
Gua sha stroke areas
Rub the skin in downward strokes using moderate pressure. The person should not feel pain although it might feel uncomfortable. Stroke one area at a time, until the petechia of that surface is completely raised and all the sha is up, which is when stroking no longer increases the number of dots or changes the color. Then move to the next area.The sha petechiae should fade in about 2-4 days. If it is very slow to fade, it indicates poor blood circulation and there may be more serious deficiency that will require additional treatments with combination of acupuncture or acupressure in specific areas.
Since gua sha moves stuck qi and blood, the person receiving gua sha will probably feel immediate changes in their condition. It is a very useful treatment for external and internal conditions and treats both acute and chronic disorders.
Gua sha treatment can be used up to three times weekly, and is most effective when used as a weekly treatment on chronic conditions.
NOTE: "Blood" refers to the traditional Chinese medicine definition, and is not the western body blood.