Wind Heat Woes & Ear Ache!

Two days ago, I started having this annoying pain in my right ear. It was a sharp pain that didn't seem to get any better with massaging around the area. It was inside my ear and behind my ear. And I didn't know what it was. Did I have an ear infection? I haven't been going to the public swimming pool since the pandemic some 2.5 years ago.

Then the right side of my body, right behind my armpit, had this weird sensation. It was not painful but it felt like I pulled a nerve. This morning, I woke up with my tongue in pain. The right side of my tongue!

In short, I felt really uncomfortable. I wasn't ill but it's this pain here and there that got me irritated.

Since I do know a bit of TCM, I wanted to find out if I was heaty again. I am more prone to heat issues than cold. I get "hot" if I sleep too late (past one a.m), eat too much spicy food or fried foods, work too much or think too much.

It wasn't heat but Wind-Heat. Wind Heat affects two major meridians - Gallbladder and Liver - as they both are related. The sides of your tongue from the TCM view represents your Liver and Gallbladder. No wonder I felt this dull pain in my tongue.

The Gallbladder meridian runs along the side of the body, behind the armpit. This explained why I had this weird sensation behind my armpit.

It also runs up the neck, behind the ears and ends at the crown of the head.

Wind Heat if I recall correctly often makes itself felt around this time - July. Many years ago, I suffered Wind Heat - the works, cough, headache, and sore throat - while taking my parents on a trip to Hong Kong. I suffered like crazy because it was summer in Hong Kong and we were walking all over the city.

I don't know how I managed to play tour guide and didn't collapse. I had coughing fits that weren't the phlegm sort - this was a dry hacking cough that made my eyes water! Since I was in Hong Kong, I bought herbal tea to soothe my throat and cough but what finally healed me was this one single capsule of cough medicine that I had brought along from Malaysia. The Hurix brand of cough capsule did heal me when all the chrysanthemum teas of Hong Kong couldn't! I was pleasantly surprised but thankful that it did the trick. I am not endorsing Hurix but it did work on me.

But this round, I have even better healing methodology. I used my PVH healing wand to heal my Crown chakra, Throat chakra, Liver chakra and Gallbladder chakra. I even healed my Tongue chakra. For serious pain like this, healing is done every 2 hours until the pain subsides.

I also added slices of dried Licorice (Gan Cao) into my Chinese tea as Gan Cao is helpful for the Liver and Kidney though beware, Gan Cao can speed your digestion and make you hungry after a while!

Another thing I did was to massage the acupressure point Gallbladder 43 which is between the fourth and fifth toes on both feet. If you press a point and feel pain, keep massaging the point. I found it helpful as an additional way to speed up the elimination of Wind Heat.

I also decided to sweat it out by walking in the park for 30 minutes this evening. Sweating amidst the greenery made me feel better.

I was wondering how the Wind-Heat invaded my body. I suspect it is all the work that I've been doing and not giving my body the rest it needs. Sometimes I need this kind of wake-up call to realize I need to take better care of myself.

Have you encountered Wind Heat before?

Tong Sum and Red Date Tea

I caught an interesting cooking show on TV last night. On Astro's Asian Food Channel (Channel 703), I watched a show on TCM. It was a Taiwanese programme where the host and hostess spoke in Mandarin and sometimes a smattering of Taiwan Hokkien. The show featured 3 recipes each segment, using TCM herbs with the herbalist host explaining about the uses of the specific herbs. Then the lady hostess would cook up a dish, usually a main course, using the herbs. While I am not very interested in making dishes like prawn balls with Chinese herbs (it seemed just too much work!), I liked the 2 other recipes they showed. One was a milk beverage with herbs (I can't recall what now). But the other one was easy. A tong sum and red date tea. Tong sum or dang shen is a mild herb which resembles a dry, gnarled twig the size of a finger. It is called the poor man's ginseng in some instances because it shares similar properties with the more expensive ginseng. Dang shen is actually a root wh...

24 Herb Tea - Bitter, Foul-Tasting But Oh So Good For You!

Was out running a couple of errands this entire afternoon and ended up buying groceries at the nearby supermarket. If I had a choice I wouldn't go into this decade-old supermarket because it's small, cramped and you tend to knock into other shoppers with your trolley (yes, the aisles are that narrow). Nic and I figured that we might as well buy our groceries since we were in this vicinity and he did need some coffee. Finally we ended up with a trolley full of cheese, butter, coffee and noodles. Anyway, I was getting thirsty after all the errands and shopping. We decided to stop and have a drink at this stall which sells Chinese herbal tea. This uncle who mans it is actually a Hong Kong native who has been living in Malaysia for a long time. He drives a little white van which he parks at the corner of a junction and opens up for business. You see, he sells hot and cold Chinese herbal teas of all types - the kind that is slowly boiled and brewed. It's common to see Mal...

Snow Fungus, Longan, Goji Berry & Red Date Dessert For Lungs & Liver

Just last week I made this dessert because I was rummaging in my kitchen and found some snow fungus. This is a classic dessert that any Cantonese would know. I was just surprised at myself that I haven't made this dessert in a long time. Maybe because I didn't have the key ingredient - snow fungus - at hand! What is Snow Fungus? It is technically a fungus that grows on dead bark or tree stumps just like wood ear fungus. Snow fungus or silver ear, snow ear or white wood ear is known as Tremella fuciformis and yes, it is an edible fungus. The pleasanter term is mushroom if that makes you feel better. As most mushrooms go, they contain vitamin D, zinc, calcium, and folate. Benefits of Snow Fungus Snow fungus is said to have anti-ageing effects due to the presence of superoxide dismutase , an enzyme that acts as a potent antioxidant throughout the body, particularly in the skin. It is best known in TCM for nourishing the lungs and we know how important this fact is right n...

The Soup Queen

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