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Hi, welcome to the class. My name is Julie Zhu. I’m a faculty member of Five Branches University. I am very honored to be invited to give you guys a brief talk about traditional Chinese medicine for Diabetes.

00:00 Speaker 1: Okay, everyone, we’re going to get started. Thank you for joining us. In case you don’t know what webinar you’re at, you’re at the webinar TCM for Diabetes here at Five Branches University with Professor Julie Zhu. Really quick, just a reminder, this Saturday, March 19th, we’re going to be having an event at our San Jose campus called Experience Studying Traditional Chinese Medicine. So, basically, what you do is you come and you join us this Saturday, and you get to learn what it’s like to be a student here at Five Branches University.

01:27 S1: She’s a graduate of Shanghai University of traditional Chinese medicine and pharmacology. So she has nearly 30 years of experience treating a variety of diseases with acupunctures and Chinese herbs, and she specializes in women’s health and pain management.

[background conversation]

01:54 S1: So, just for everyone’s knowledge, this is the sixth webinar of our TCM webinar series. In this series, we look into how TCM can help many of the diseases that Americans face today. So please join us to learn more. Our next webinar will be in April, and that is TCM for Dermatology. And after that, in May, we will have a very interesting webinar, TCM for Cancer Therapy. So just a little information about our webinar, our webinars go from 5:00 to 6:00 PM, and the agenda is basically me introducing the webinar and the professor, and then the professor giving her lecture. And after the lecture, we’ll have a short poll, and then you can ask the professor any questions you may have. And really quick, just to remind you, any questions you have for the professor in the lecture, please ask them in the “Go to webinar” pop-up in the questions portion, and we’ll get them to the professor for you. Alright, thank you so much for joining. Here’s Professor Julie Zhu, and we hope you enjoy it.

[background conversation]

03:10 Julie Zhu: Hello. Good evening, everybody. I’m Dr. Zhu. Actually we’re discussing today, we have the discussion, the topic is diabetes. What’s the diabetes? I think everybody knows what diabetes is. The diabetes is known as the very common disease in this world. Actually, diabetes, we can just divide it; type-1 and type-2.

[background conversation]

04:01 JZ: As everybody knows, the diabetes, type-1 diabetes, is the almost, I think young kids’ diabetes. It is usually diagnosed in the children and the young adult. Only have the 5% of the people with diabetes have this form of this disease. In type-1 diabetes, this is because the body does not produce the insulin, and then the body breakdown the sugar and the starch, you eat into a simple sugar called glucose, which it is used for energy. Insulin is a hormone that the body needs to get glucose from the blood stream into the cells of the body. With the help of the insulin therapy and other treatments, even young children can learn to manage their condition and live longer, and healthy livers. This is what we discuss in the diabetes type-1.

05:33 JZ: But most time with treatment, used the TCM, the type-2 diabetes is more successful. Okay, type-2 diabetes, this is because the problem with your body that cause blood glucose level to this high. Okay, they’re normal. This is also we called hyperglycemia. Type-2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. If you have the type-2 diabetes, as your body does not use insulin properly, this is called insulin resistance. As the first, your pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for it, but over time, isn’t able to keep it up and can’t… But it can’t forever, to make the enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels. So this is the diabetes the, for example, generally introducing.

07:30 JZ: Okay, from the TCM, so as you read from the TCM, we treated diabetes long time already, almost 1,000 of year. From TCM, we’re always discussing the diabetes that has the principle pathogenesis of the yin deficiency. What’s the yin deficiency? The yin deficiency, that means the body have the internal heat; the more heat inside that damage the yin deficiency. Actually, diabetes is attributed to the yin deficiency and proper diet. Proper diet, that means eat something, too much sugar, too much protein, too much fat, and sometimes the patients have very emotional disorder. The emotional disorder will relate to the liver. So liver for the body is very important. It involves the digestion. If some people live very stressful, the emotional and the anxiety, they affected spleen, makes spleen weaker.

08:51 JZ: So make digesting just like lower. It’s just another, I think the causes. And the other is over-strain. That means overstressed people work so hard, even the physical and psychological. So they work so hard, they always damage some related to the liver and the spleen and the kidney. So this is the another reason. Other reason is excessive activity. This also damages the kidney. Damaging kidney, this means most, with the kidney your whole life, the immune system is for the body. So if a kidney deficiency, we also consider the yin deficiency and the excess deficiency and the Qi deficiency, even the yang deficiency. So this come from the body. So from the TCM, we consider the diabetes always damaged. They’re related to the lung and the stomach and the kidney.

[pause]

10:33 JZ: Yeah, they’re related to the lung. Actually, the lung is the major organ in Upper Jiao. In the TCM, we call it Upper Jiao, that manifests as the patient’s always very thirsty, very dry mouth, and they want to drink lots of water, and if they drink lots of water, they still feel very thirsty. So that means, we call the “lung yin deficiency”, lots of internal heat in the lung, so the people always feel thirsty and dry mouth. Okay, that’s… We can discuss in the lung. Okay, lung is the very important organ involved in diabetes. Other is the stomach, stomach, as everybody know, so we consider stomach is Middle Jiao. Middle Jiao, that means they involve lots of the digestion, with the liver and the spleen and the gallbladder.

11:50 JZ: So if you eat something like too much sugars or too much of the fats, too much protein, they’re always, they make internal heat in the stomach, so this means what the patients always want to eat, always wants to eat. They’re always hungry, they always just like to eat, some like a fruit. So that means the patients, they’re not using the insulin properly, because too over. So we also consider this, that was… There’s heat in the stomach. When the food is not distributed lung, the stomach and the kidney were suffering from the secondary yin deficiency. As the secondary yin deficiency, we used to consider from the lung and from the stomach, we also talked about very lots of heat in the stomach, so make the people wants to eat all the time.

13:22 JZ: Then they affect the kidney. The kidney is the root of diabetes. The kidney, we know is the root of the diabetes. And the kidney, the same like the… The balance give enough energy inside, and essence inside, and the blood inside, and the Qi inside. So the basic, they’re very normal to digest the… The TCM weaken so that they involve to the urination. So the people, if they have diabetes, they always frequently went to the urine, and with the urine, have to tube it inside. That is weakened because the kidney have something, deficiency inside. And also kidney yin is the foundation, that has supply the food for the internal body. Once the kidney yin deficient, is yin deficiency, lung and the stomach yin will not have their source, and eventually become deficiency too.

15:02 JZ: So diabetes, we always consider the three organs is very important for this disease, lung, stomach and the kidney. The main pathogenesis lie in yin. We always consume. Consumption of the yin food leads to the dryness and the dryness heat in the body. The dryness of heat in the body, that means the body have no enough water. So with yin deficiency as the principle aspect, and the dryness heat as the secondary aspect. And often with the presence of the blood stasis from retention, that means with the patients if they have diabetes, their blood sugar very high, and make the blood very thick and thinner. So this means make the blood circulation more slowly, slowly.

16:31 JZ: Okay, this is another, is the worst thing of the diabetes, have the pathogenesis like in the yin deficiency and the blood stasis from the retention. So from retention, that’s in the blood very just sticky and hard to make the circulation, so slower. So lots of something happened. For example, lots of people if they have diabetes, they have the easy heart attack and stroke, because the blood is thinner or very sticky. If the patients have diabetes, they long, prolong the yin deficiency, impair the yang. That mean yang. Yang is in the body we consider because the energy. This will result in the deficiency of both yin and the yang, as well as the deficiency of both Qi and the yin.

17:37 JZ: So from the TCM, we always consider blood, have the Qi and the blood, they are both very important materials in your body. Another is the yin and the yang. From the TCM also, we always consider, discuss the yin and the yang. Yin is your body food. Yang is your body energy. If they lost the balance, that’s something happened for like diabetes, for the peoples can’t digest very well, that will happen. Okay. We’ll continue discussing the diabetes. The symptoms, what’s the symptoms for diabetes? This we know. Often, that has no symptoms in the beginning, early stage. They just like a patient say, “I have very good appetite. I eat very well. I like to eat.” But sometimes, maybe you can just like, if you eat too much, you always hungry, you always just wanna eat. Okay, this you can…

19:04 JZ: I think let’s think about this. Maybe you have the pre-diabetes, or maybe just the borderline diabetes. Yes, often. But sometimes no symptoms at early stage, just, yeah, normal. If the patient has symptoms of always being thirsty, the thirsty means that, if we drink lots of cold water, hot water, you’re still thirsty, and that means the signs you have the diabetes. Another is hungry. The people always hungry, always want to eat, always maybe eat lunch at 12:00, but after 1:00, I find I’m hungry again. That means, yeah, you think this you will have the diabetes, something wrong inside. Other is the patient’s frequent urination. The frequent urination just like we always relate to the kidney. We say kidney Qi. You suck your urination, they hold urination.

20:16 JZ: If the kidney Qi deficiency, so the peoples going to the urines very often, and very, just like long and very clear, that means the patient have the diabetes. Some peoples go to urination one day, most five times, especially night time, they have often, three times, four times at night. This is abnormal. The patient, they will consider you have something wrong inside. The most we consider, diabetes. Even the patients they eat lot, they drink lot, they still feel very tired, very tiredness. This is another symptoms. If young people, they will always feel very tired. When you wake up, still feels tired. Okay. Actually, young people they have lots of energy. If people have very tiredness, that means you have to think this is diabetes.

21:24 JZ: Other symptoms, just in the patients even eat lot, even drink lot, they still lost lots of weight. In other words, some people is, yeah, diabetes, they lost lots of weight. It’s not very good. And at the late stage, the people also feels something like very itchy in the body, the skin very itchy. And some people is numbness or some people the blur vision, they see no very clear. And the skin numbness and especially in the toes numbness. So we also consider some people have the diabetes. This diabetes can be find any age. But young age, some start very carefully because of type-1. But it most, more come in mid-age and older people. It’s the middle age and the older people. From the TCM, the diabetes we consider just… We discussing already, huh?

22:51 JZ: And the diabetes, we always consider yin deficiency. Yin deficiency include the lung, stomach, and kidney. Another is because the lung-related, or the spleen-related, stomach-related, kidney, so this means lung also involved in metabolism and the urination. The lung is very important for… In the TCM, they will send the Qi going to the downwards. So some people urination too much because we consider the lung is weak. Weak, that means they have the yin deficiency or Qi deficiency. They’re related. This is the lung. And improper diet, what’s it mean, improper diet? People eat too much sugar, too much sweet food, and they were related to diabetes, too much the sugar retention in the body, so the diabetes will happen. That’s one is…

24:08 JZ: Another is the people get older, the endocrine and the insulin is not enough to start digesting the sugar, so also then get diabetes. Other was the emotional disorder, emotional disorder, that means the patient, for example, has too much worry, too much stress, too much anxiety, too much… They work so hard from the work or some… That will also affect the digestion. If the patient this time eat too much of the sugar like chocolate, like some candy or some candy and desserts, they make the stress lay down but eat too much sugars also. Then from the TCM, we consider they relate to the diabetes. And over-strain, we discussed already, over-strain just means…

25:21 JZ: Some people are very just like labor, they work so hard, they use the body so long work, so they will make the diabetes, it’s too much of the work. And the excess sexual activity, this is the most that we consider men, the mid age in the men, they always work so hard and they would support family. So, if this time too much the sexual activity, they always make kidney deficiency. Kidney deficiency, as we said, kidney deficiency most time, if they have the deficiency they have to make urination frequently. So, people always go to bathroom often, so they lost lots of water in their body and it make the kidney yin deficiency.

[background conversation]

27:19 JZ: Okay, diabetes in the TCM classification… Okay. And I think there’s lots of people in the beginning, they find, maybe they find they didn’t… Because in the beginning they have no symptoms. When they find, maybe the patient get long time already. So, this insufficient yin fails to the support function of yang, that means they lost the balance, yin and the yang balance. So, this result the yang become deficiency, and the deficiency of both yin and yang. So, most of we consider if the patient, if the imbalance of the yin and the yang, there are lots of issues happened and more complicated, very complicated, and it involved multiple organ symptoms. So, diabetes with multiple organ symptoms like lung, stomach, and the liver, and the spleen, and the kidney.

28:38 JZ: These organ, most, there’s zang organs we call zang organ involved. The TCM we have the zang and the fu. Zang includes the lung, liver, spleen, and heart, and the kidney. Fu organ will involve like large intestine, small intestine, and bladder, and the gallbladder, and also we call involved the San Jiao that means, we discussed before and Upper Jiao and Middle Jiao and the Low Jiao. The three Jiao, this is like a river ,they’re involved in digestion and they are involved in urination. So, that make peoples, I think this therefore, very simple, we discussed in the diabetes, and then the treatment, the treatment for diabetes from the TCM, we use the needle and we use the herbs, the needling…

29:56 JZ: Actually we do the acupoint, acupuncture point. We put this channel, for the lung channel, and spleen channel, and stomach channel, and the kidney channel. This put in this channel, we adjusted the yin and yang, we can reduce heat from the lung. And a stronger stomach and help you digestion. And nourish the kidney, yin and yang, we’ll make balance. So this we have lots points. For example, we have the lung 7 and the lung 5, and the last point, maybe after you learn, you know this. And the formula, we have lots of formula, actually for diabetes. For the formula, we have Xiao Ke Wan and some, you know, lots there. Actually, most the herbs we used very well. For example, like Huang Qi, Tian Hua Fen, some last herbs, it’s very good for diabetes.

[background conversation]

31:26 S1: Alright, everyone. Really quick, we’re just gonna have you guys participate in a poll. Once again, if you have any questions for the professor, please feel free to ask in the questions portion of the “Go to meeting” pop-up, “Go to webinar” pop-up on the side of your screen.

31:44 JZ: It’s question.

31:44 S1: Alright. The first question, Professor, comes from Judy, and, “Can TCM help heal diabetes if the patient has been using insulin for many years?”

31:57 JZ: Actually, the TCM, the herbs, and the acupuncture, we can reduce the problem from diabetes. Some people, for example, they eat too much, we can use the needle, less eat. And some people have the neuropathy or some pain, we can reduce the stimulation of the point, we can less pain. And…

32:33 S1: And so her question is, can TCM help heal diabetes if the patient has been on insulin for many years?

32:43 JZ: Many years? How many years?

32:47 S1: Julie… Judy, if you’re listening, how many years has the patient been on insulin?

[pause]

[background conversation]

33:09 Speaker 3: About six to seven years.

33:10 S1: Okay. About six to seven years.

33:11 JZ: Oh, six and seven years?

33:14 S1: Yeah.

33:14 JZ: But you’re diagnosed by doctors type-1 and type-2?

33:21 S1: Judy, if you’re listening, is it type-1 or type-2 diabetes?

33:27 S3: Type-2.

33:28 S1: Type-2.

33:28 JZ: Oh, type-2?

33:30 S1: She’s been on insulin for six or seven years of type-2 diabetes.

33:34 JZ: But most time with the type-2, we don’t use the insulin. What’s going on? I need detail, some information.

33:45 S3: What’s your suggestion?

33:46 S1: Yeah, just what your suggestion is.

33:47 JZ: I suggest maybe… Yeah, this, I think is why use the type, the insulin. Sometimes type-2, we don’t use the insulin, but you also, the diabetes only six or seven years, it’s no longer, right?

34:04 S1: No, I don’t think so.

34:06 JZ: Yeah, it’s not there longer, but how it is? I can ask you a question? How old is you?

34:12 S1: Oh, yes. So Judy, how old are you? If you don’t mind us asking.

[pause]

34:22 S1: While she’s answering, there was another question. What are the actual meds/herbs for diabetes? Peter is asking.

34:36 JZ: Oh, just herbs?

34:37 S1: Yeah, okay.

34:38 JZ: We have lots the herbs, but what’s kind of? Most time we just support the Qi, so we use Huang Qi. Another we use is the Tian Hua Fen, Huang Qi and some herbs we just like Shou Wu. Actually, we have lots of herbs, depend on what’s the symptoms. So basic, the formula, we use the Liu Wei Di Huang Wan, but we take off the Shu Di, I think it’s the sweet.

35:13 S1: Oh, okay. So, Peter says he has type-2 diabetes for 25 years, and he’s taking Metformin and Januvia.

35:30 JZ: Uh-huh. It’s good.

35:32 S1: So I guess he’s asking what kind of herbs would help for that.

35:36 JZ: Yeah, the herbs support you. I think you have the symptoms; very dry mouth, right? They support you, make you more moist and more saliva in the mouth.

35:47 S1: Yes. He says he has dry mouth.

35:48 JZ: Yeah, very dry mouth. Some herbs, like we have the Mi Men Dong So most make you more saliva inside.

36:03 S1: Okay. So, he says he drinks, on average, a gallon of water a day.

36:08 JZ: Water, yeah. So urination a lot, always go to the bathroom, right?

36:14 S1: Probably.

36:14 JZ: Yeah.

36:15 S1: Do you recommend that he come here to get treatment and herbs? [chuckle]

36:18 JZ: It’s very far, but you can try. I think we have the Xiao Ke Wan. That actually is very good for diabetes, so supplement.

36:31 S1: Okay.

36:31 JZ: Yeah, we have Xiao Ke Wan. It’s very good. I use a lot for the diabetes patient. It’s very good result.

36:40 S1: So, Peter, if you’re listening, you should come get a treatment here.

[laughter]

36:45 JZ: Where he live? It’s very far. I don’t know.

[chuckle]

36:49 S1: Okay. So Yoshi asks, “Hi, Professor. Would you please explain more about zang and fu, and how do they influence diabetes?”

37:00 JZ: Yeah. Well, with TCM, we’re very, very concerned about zang and fu, right? Zang is we have the lung, heart, and spleen, liver, and the kidney. Fu, we… That means zang, we use the more stronger. Stronger is better. The fu, this means like large intestine, small intestine, the gallbladder and the bladder, some… We need to reduce lot, so this is two different. Zang is yin, fu is yang. Yang more work, zang is more like serves energy. Yang will reduce, reduce something. Fu, more in the digestion, we use a lot. Fu, you can’t too much. Zang, we need much. It’s different.

37:56 S1: Okay. So, A. Chung asked, “Is there a cure for pre-diabetes through diet, good sleep, and minimized stress?”

38:12 JZ: That’s pre-diabetes. I think it’s the most time…

38:16 S1: This is the new question. Sorry.

38:17 JZ: New question?

38:18 S1: Yeah.

38:18 JZ: Oh okay. Yeah. Pre-diabetes. Some people, diabetes is not yet. I think it’s… You have proper digestion, it’s very good, and the less stress. Stress level less means happier lot, okay? No necessary, take the pills, right?

38:37 S1: Okay.

38:37 JZ: And then some Chinese, the medical… There’s herbs, so I think make your stress level less like Xiao Yao San some appetite. And also help with digestion, we use lots of the Bao He Wan

39:04 S1: He’s also asking if the first two slides are available for review. I’ll go and put those up. Hope that helps. Okay. So, Madeline asked, “Is it okay to eat simple sugar, like sweet potatoes?”

39:21 JZ: Oh, sweet potato. [chuckle] Yeah, simple sugar, sweet potato. But I think the less, the better. It’s not too much. Everything you want, eat, just not too much. Okay.

39:36 S1: Alright. So, back to Judy’s first question. So she’s asking… This was the one asking if the patient who’s been using insulin for a few years, she has type-2 diabetes, she’s an older woman in her 60s who eventually used insulin. She has frequent urination and body pain. And so, I guess her question would be, how can TCM help that?

40:06 JZ: Yeah, TCM, just like body pain, I think the acupuncture much better.

40:10 S1: Acupuncture?

40:10 JZ: Yeah, acupuncture’s much better for stop the… Less pain, less.

40:20 S1: And she can hear you, too. So if you have any advice for her…

40:24 JZ: Yeah, I think acupuncture is very good for less pain. Some people is the… Because the blood circulation’s very slow, so make pain everywhere. So we can put a needle on the, just like a few point, very important point. The pain, make the blood circulation very stronger to push the blood circulation. The pain will be less. Yeah, so, actually in here we treat a lot of patients that have diabetes for the pain manage and for like neuropathy or something.

41:11 S1: Okay. So Judy, I hope that helped you for your mother. Are there any other questions from you guys? Now’s the time to ask the professor.

[pause]

41:27 S1: Judy says, “Thank you”.

41:29 JZ: You’re welcome.

[chuckle]

[pause]

41:41 S1: Alright, you guys. If there’s any more questions, we have a few more minutes before the webinar is over, so please ask them.

[pause]

42:13 S1: Okay. Peter asks, “Would Huang Qi and Tian Hua Fen be used in conjunction with Western meds, Januvia and metformin?”

42:24 JZ: No. I think the way you use the western medication, I think this Huang Qi and Tian Hua Fen you can use at the same time.

42:33 S1: You can use it at the same time?

42:34 JZ: Yeah, you can use it. It’s okay.

42:37 S1: And, how do you treat thirst when the client doesn’t want to drink water, too much phlegm?

42:48 JZ: Lots of phlegm, huh? Actually we have lots of point that we can choose to reduce the phlegm. In lung 7 and the stomach 40, for this phlegm and the spleen 9. And also we have lots of, the herbs like a Chen Pi, Ban Xia this all relieve the phlegm, even We have lots of the formula, like Fu Ling all the phlegm Er Chen Tang but this will also relieve the phlegm a lot. It’s good. It’s very good.

43:42 S1: What age range do we consider as middle age in TCM, Professor? [chuckle] I don’t…

43:48 JZ: Middle age? What’s that?

43:50 S1: Age range, like how old you are?

43:52 JZ: Me? I’m old…

43:55 S1: No, no, no, okay, that’s a weird question. What points reduce pain?

44:01 JZ: The point, we always use the He Sea point like, okay, GB34, stomach 36 and UB40, and some Luo connecting points, because there’s a lot of dampness or heat inside that we use the Luo connecting point or we use the spleen point, that will reduce. It’s very good. For heat, internal heat, we always use the spleen point like, I think it’s lung 10, heart 8, and the spleen 2, and the liver 2, and the kidney 2 also, as the spleen point is very good to reduce the heat and tonify internal deficiency, yin deficiency.

45:08 S1: Okay. So, A. Chung asks, “What’s the definition of diabetes? And is a blood test really needed to diagnose diabetes?”

45:21 JZ: Yeah. From the this TCM, I think we just have to know lab test. We just depend on patient’s symptoms. If the patient is like extra thirsty, always drinks water, and then you’ll look at the tongue and the pulse. The tongue of the patient who drinks a lot of water, the tongue is still very red, and it’s more, and this means you can consider the patient have diabetes. A long time ago, with diabetes, we always think it is a Xiao Ke shock. This Chinese TCM Xias means always, the patients even drink a lot and eat a lot, they still have, very skinny, no gain weight, this is Ke means they’re always thirsty, always thirsty.

46:19 S1: Oh, okay. She says, “Thanks.” Alright. Okay. Alright. Thanks, you guys, so much for all your questions. I hope we’ve answered everyone’s questions, and we will see you guys back here for the next webinar, TCM for Dermatology. So thank you so much, Professor, for answering everyone’s questions, and we’ll see you guys later.

46:50 JZ: You’re welcome. Thank you everybody. [chuckle] You’re welcome.

00:34 S1: We’re going to hold an acupuncture treatment and diagnosis. You get to see a student panel, which means you get to hear what our students have to say about us. And you get to learn about our new program, which is a first professional Doctorate program, which means at the end, you get both a Doctor and Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine degree. And I just wanna thank you all for joining us so much, and we’ll go ahead and get started. So, good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining in. Welcome to the webinar TCM for Diabetes with Professor Julie Zhu. Today, we’ll have a little introduction by myself and the webinar series, and then we’ll have an introduction also about the professor, and then we’ll begin the lecture, TCM for Diabetes. So a little bit about Julie Zhu, she’s a graduate of…

Hi, welcome to the class. My name is Ching Ching Chi. I’m a faculty member of Five Branches University. I am very honored to be invited to give you guys a brief talk about traditional Chinese medicine for Weight Control.

00:00 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and I’m very glad that today I have a chance to talk about this topic question that exist in the… Actually global, with the obesity, and what TCM can actually offer a solution, that for people who are having these problems. And I know some of you who joined the webinar, maybe you are also concerned about yourself. So if you have any questions, then afterwards, after I finish the lecture, then feel free and welcome to ask any questions and concerns.

00:40 S1: So let’s start today’s class about obesity. Obesity, actually, I’m going to briefly talk about how serious it is in the United States. In the United States, actually 65% of the adults and 15% of the children actually are overweight, and obese. And diabetes, this disease actually already increased 70% in 30 years old in the past 10 years. And this may be the first generation in which our children, they die 10 years younger than their parents. So, this, you can see that it’s actually a very serious problem that exists globally, not only in United States, the United States actually influences the whole world.

01:30 S1: Nowadays, even though in Asia, usually we have a different diet, and we live a different lifestyle, but today, nowadays it’s also been influenced by American style. So the whole world actually are beginning to eat like us, live like us, and die like us. So we have to really take into consideration what kind of food that we’re eating, and what kind of lifestyle that we’re living today, and how can we improve our lifestyle and diet in order to help people, or improve the weight control?

02:16 S1: Actually, the number one death in the United States is cardiovascular disease. Actually, it’s completely preventable, and the data shows that at least 90% of the people, just by changing your diet and the lifestyle, even the cardiovascular disease can be even reversed. So let’s take a look at this chart of the cause of death in United States. You may see the number one is the heart disease and the second is cancer and the third is stroke. And then, you can see all the red colors that have been highlighted, actually, all these are related to our diet and our lifestyle. If we can take serious consideration about our lifestyle and diet, all those things can be reduced, and then it is preventable.

03:12 S1: And then, if you take a look at the… We’re paying attention, for example, like some of the diseases that actually is not as important as the cardiovascular disease, it’s actually killed more people than everything else combined and it is the most preventable. So we have to look into what kind of food should we eat and what kind of lifestyle should we have. Let’s take a look at what kind of food is considered as healthy.

03:49 S1: So I have been seeing a lot of patients always asking this question, “What kind of food should we eat and what should we do?” And I know that among all the medias that we have, and we always have all kinds of diets, and all kinds of recommendations, “Oh, you should be exercising more than how much you eat, and you should eat a lot of vegetables.” And then etcetera, etcetera. So whatever the conventional wisdom are recommended, but there’s something missing, so I wanted to improve the point that we’re missing in the conventional wisdom today, and then what has been taught for centuries in China, and as a Chinese people, we always grow up with all this knowledge.

04:47 S1: First of all, the Chinese believe that every food is actually good for our health, if we eat them according to their season. We know that in the old time, we can buy seasonal food, but now it’s actually very difficult, it’s difficult to eat food that is in their season. So we sometimes see people still eating watermelons in the winter time, and we’re still eating things like, for example, banana actually is not a fruit that ever exists in United States, it’s actually from a tropical area. So because of this globalization, food becomes very accessible, it doesn’t matter what kind of season we’re in now or what we are right now, and we can even eat any food, even from a tropical area, even though you’re in Northern California, right? So it becomes complicated.

05:45 S1: So, this is the number one problem that we’re facing, we’re not eating seasonal, and then we have been eating a lot of processed food, which is not easy to be processed. How to prepare them, actually, we know that Chinese medicine, there’s two parts, one is acupuncture and the other part is herbal medicine. In the traditional Chinese medicine, we try to combine different herbs into a formula to treat a certain disease. Actually this kind of culture also exists in our diet. Every time when we cook something, we’re trying to make it very balanced; it’s not only pleasant in your eyes, but it’s it’s very delicious and very balanced.

06:33 S1: So this balance in the cold with the warm is actually very important in the Chinese diet, and I’m going to explain a little bit more later on. And then something about warm and cold food. I know a lot of people think salad is actually a very good choice of a diet, but in traditional Chinese medicine, a point of view would believe that things that is cold and raw actually consume more energy to digest them. So you may end up with indigestion, taking too much of this kind of a food. So, instead of drinking cold ice water, maybe you should think about drinking hot tea, or warm if you’re already exhausted and tired to save energy. So, these are all the little details that I usually share with my patients, and then we need some education to put this knowledge into them, because it does not exist in the culture other than Chinese.

07:46 S1: Lets take a look at what we taught our students in the classroom, and then by looking at this chart. It looks very fancy and looks a lot of colors, but actually, every color means something. First of all, this particular… It’s a biological clock, it also talks about our four meridians that exist in our body. First of all, if you take a look at start with 3:00 AM to 5:00 AM it is lungs, and 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM is large intestine, and then so on, and then you can see all the organs, we actually allot a time zone time for them to be actually actively participating in our bodies and metabolism.

08:36 S1: So, color is another element that’s in this chart, these long and large intestine belongs to white color, and stomach and spleen belongs to yellow color, heart and small intestine, pericardium and triple burner belongs to red color, and bladder and kidneys belongs to black color, and liver and gall bladder belongs to green color. So what does this color do to our diet? Chinese observed for 5,000 years, they found out that the color of the food is actually very much related to which organ they go to. So for example, if you have some food that have some colors of white, then again we definitely know that you actually benefit your long or large intestines.

09:32 S1: And if this color belongs to yellow, then you know that it actually goes to the stomach and spleen channel. So some food, if it’s particularly with some black color, then it actually goes to your kidney channel. So then you all can see, then you can kind of consider what kind of color your food, whatever the food you’re eating, and then you might know now what this food benefits. And this is only one part of the element that we’re trying to differentiate and trying to categorize all the food that we eat, including all the herbs that were given to our patients to treat them. And also there’s another element, on top of that is the taste. So for example, if the taste is having the spiciness, usually it goes to long or large intestine. If the taste is kind of sweet, it always tonify your stomach and spleen. And if the taste is kind of bitter, it usually goes to the heart, and it actually balances the fire in the heart.

10:41 S1: So if you have these elements into your consideration, let’s take a look at a couple of foods that in general Americans like to eat in the breakfast and then I always recommend that if you want to lose weight, please don’t eat them in the breakfast and why? Let’s take a look at banana. Banana, in this chart we can see that bananas, the nature is cold. It doesn’t matter if you deep fry a banana, banana is still cold. Notice that if you eat a banana, it cools you down. And the flavor is sweet, that’s why, which channel it enters? It enters into your long, your large intestine channel.

11:30 S1: So in this sense, look at banana, why banana is cold, and what banana goes to long and large intestine channel. Of course banana, we know that banana is actually grown in a tropical area, and it’s actually to balance the heat that generates when you’re in that area. So, if you are living in the northern part or in the cold weather type of a country, or if now, it’s winter, or early in the morning when you just woke up, your body’s just trying to warm up and you give yourself a piece of banana, what happens? It actually cools you down and slows you down, and it actually costs more energy to digest it.

12:21 S1: A lot of people maybe already experienced that when you are eating a banana with an empty stomach, you’ll feel like you have indigestion. It feels like you’re bloated, and you feel like it’s not digesting well. But of course, a lot of people don’t have this feeling. Well at this stage, maybe your stomach and spleen is strong, that’s why you still can handle with banana in the morning. But thinking about when you are getting older, we are all aging, and we are getting cooler, so that’s why when we become older, we tend to put more clothes on, and we tend to keep ourselves warm, when we were young, we tend to be feeling hot easily. But we want you to live longer and healthier, so preserving energy is very important.

13:20 S1: Looking at the banana, the banana, the meat of the banana is white, and the skin is yellow. So that’s why the skin, the yellow, goes to the intestine digestion system, and the white color, it goes to your lungs. So what we do with banana, we can clear heat and moisten the intestine, and also treat heat disease. But if you’re already cold, don’t eat banana, because it will cool you down. So that’s the idea of balancing.

13:53 S1: Another case, watermelon, let’s take a look at the watermelon. Watermelon, actually the color is red, and the nature of the watermelon is also cold. The flavor is sweet, sweet goes to stomach and spleen, that’s why the channel that watermelon goes to is the stomach channel. And white goes to the heart, remember the red color belongs to heart. So that’s why because it’s cooling, it is sweet, then it goes to the heart, the stomach, the bladder channel, and it actually clears heat and resolves summer heat. That’s why watermelon is ready to serve during the summertime. So what happens if you eat watermelon in the winter time? Especially a lot of patients they don’t even know that watermelon is cooling, so when they catch cold, they think eating fruit is good for vitamin C and end up eating watermelon. And then, guess what? It gets serious, the problems get more serious.

15:04 S1: In a sense, how can prepare our food? I think in my PDF file I mentioned about Chinese is very much putting ginger into the food, especially when they’re cooking vegetable. Why? Most of the vegetables we consider as cold, or cooling, not cold, but if you put ginger cooking with your vegetables, it actually balance out the coldness. So we see ginger, nature is warm, the flavor is actually spicy, right? And then because it’s spicy so it can warm, and it goes to what? The lung channel. And because it is warm, that’s why it can warm the stomach and spleen. If you’re eating something cold, if you’re currently including ginger into your diet, definitely, it will balance the coolness.

15:58 S1: So these ideas are all included in traditional Chinese medicine, not only the food that we eat every day, but also all the herbs you’re going to learn, and then you will start to know why you can eat this, and why you cannot eat that, and what food goes to what channel, and if you have certain problems that you have, what kind of color you should choose instead of what color. And so this is some of the pictures that I show the difference between the Chinese food and the Western, or American food.

16:33 S1: Especially salad, a lot of people love to eat salad, but have you ever tried to cook vegetables? You think that a big bowl of salad is a lot, but once you cook them, actually it shrinks and then you end up you don’t eat enough vegetables. But as far as the Chinese way of cooking, we cook the vegetables, and then we try to blend different colors and you see this piece of ginger here, and piece of garlic here. And then garlic and ginger actually balance the coldness of the vegetables, and also it can help to improve the taste. And then detoxification is one of the why we use ginger and garlic a lot in our diet.

17:19 S1: And you see that when you cook vegetables, and the vegetables shrink, and then even though you think that big plate like this is actually a lot of vegetables. We know eating fiber is actually helping a lot of the chronic illness we have today. And then we’ll talk about a little bit more later. And also, we’re talking about if you’re eating too much of calories, of course you will have problems that having too much of calories, and you will gain weight. And then this is American diet that we have, people say it’s huge, and then with a little bit of vegetables on the corner, and then French fries, of course. And you know how much calories that you’re eating to your body, but of course the way how Chinese people cook is actually, if you look at this, always some little grounded pork on top of tofu. A combination of protein with vegetable, right. And also, the shredded pork with stir fry with vegetables. So this is actually a different way of a lifestyle, and different way of cooking.

18:39 S1: So why I’m showing this picture is that I don’t want everybody to eat like Chinese, but I always try to ask a lot of my students who are American, “Come up with some creative ideas, encrypt these ideas into your American diet.” So with meat, maybe blend with some vegetables together, and that will actually take away some of the appetite so you don’t end up where you’re eating a lot of calories and then gaining a lot of weight. So, this is about diet, okay, how to eat and what to eat, and then how to eat to be proper, and what time is the most crucial.

19:25 S1: And then another problem that I think a lot of my patients in America are facing is that we don’t rest enough, and then this definitely will reduce our energy, and we cannot focus. And in traditional Chinese Medicine, we say Chi deficiency, it means basically energy low. Just looking at this chart, we know that in the 1950s, average American people sleep about eight hours, and a teenager actually needs nine hours. But no, today, the majority of our teenagers don’t even sleep five hours. And average of 2013 becomes like 6.5 hours, and then five hours is actually the average of today’s many people in United States. If we start sleeping five hours, definitely we’ll feel tired and exhausted.

20:31 S1: Insufficient rest is also a main cause of weight gain. People who are lacking of rest actually are easy to gain massive stress, and then when they don’t have enough sleep, people are irritated, they feel tired, lose focus, and a lot of chronic illness actually just start from not sleeping enough. Why I put sleep as a very important element here is because a majority of the Americans are focusing on exercise, but thinking about if you’re already not sleeping enough and you push yourself to exercise even more, what will end up? You will end up even more tired and exhausted, and you cannot keep up with your exercise, and what will be the result after that? You will give up, you will give up exercising and then you’ll give up to your diet.

21:31 S1: And sleep is actually very important in traditional Chinese medicine. Let’s go back to look at the biological clock. When is the best time to sleep actually is more crucial than how many hours you sleep in traditional Chinese medicine. A lot of my patients, actually some of my patients, they think, “I sleep fine.” Whenever I ask them, “Do you sleep well?” “Oh, I sleep fine.” And then when I take their pulse and I found out, “No, you don’t sleep well.” So I start asking questions, “What time you go to sleep?” And then they will answer, “Oh, I usually sleep about 1:00, and then I wake up around 10:00, so I have enough sleep.” But 1:00 is called AM, it means that you don’t sleep at night, you sleep in the morning. Morning and the evening, the energy flow is probably different.

22:31 S1: Let’s take a look at this chart again. Start from 11:00 to 1:00 gall bladder time, and start from 1:00 to 3:00 is our liver time. In the traditional Chinese medicine, we believe that liver is the major organ to detoxify. So detoxification is being done during 1:00 to 3:00. If you want your liver to work for you, what time you should go to sleep? You have to sleep before that. Blood has to travel from your head all the way over your body into your liver in order to be filtered and to detoxify. If you are not asleep during 1:00 to 3:00, definitely you don’t have time for the liver to work for you.

23:20 S1: Thinking about, “Oh, I sleep around 12:00.” Do you have enough time? Of course you don’t have enough time, because when you sleep around 12:00, your blood cannot travel all the way to liver yet. So at least you have to sleep around 11:00 to make your liver work for you. So, sleeping at 11:00 is the minimum that keeps a healthy body. If you sleep later than 11:00, unfortunately, your liver is running dry and burning, so what happens after that, people will have liver problems, usually they get irritated, they get stressed, they have anxiety, they have depression, all kinds of emotional ups and downs, hormone imbalance. We see this patient all the time in the clinic.

24:12 S1: So we’re going to talk about stress, and we’re gonna talk about all this later on, but do you know that it’s a very simple secret is to sleep on time, which means 11:00 and earlier than that. And if people who have stress, for example, people who are lacking of sleep, they’re easy to have stress, and then it can cause cravings, but why? When your mind, when your brain are lacking of energy, so people start craving for food, because they want some quick and fast form of calories in order to fulfill the work. And then what would be the fast energy format? It will be carbohydrates. So people will start craving for sweets, craving for carbohydrates, and then they all come to gain weight. Then these people who are not resting enough, usually they are in a starving mode, which means that starving for what? They are actually in the flight and fight mode, they are looking for something to store. Thinking about if you are in the same way, there’s not enough food for you, and what people tend to do, they try to store.

25:38 S1: So that’s why one very modern disease is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is the problem that people started to resist of taking insulin. Insulin is actually one of the markers that help the body to determine how you should store your energy, how you should spend your energy. If you are in a lacking of energy state and it seems you are in a famine stage, your body will decide to store them. That’s why whatever you eat instead of spending, it becomes storing of fat. So this is actually one of the biggest problems today, we have too much food entered into our body that doesn’t give you energy, instead it becomes fat and stored as fat.

26:35 S1: So if we are eating a lot, not getting enough energy, still have cravings, and then when we are lacking of energy, our energy or memory is reduced, our immunity is down, how can we fight with all the diseases around us? So people tend to be sick very easily. And it’s very easy for them to get all kinds of inflammatory diseases, like arthritis etcetera. So, we need to exercise, but as important as exercise, we also need to rest. But exercise is actually not as important as rest in today’s United States, but exercising is also very important. In traditional Chinese medicine, we don’t believe that it can be too excessive, or some kind of cardiovascular… Like lifting weight, those kinds of exercises are actually are good for longevity.

27:44 S1: The best exercise that we recommend is all very slow, slow down and make energy flow to the place that you wanted to use. So one of the easiest exercises that I usually recommend our patients is actually walking. Walk, and enjoy the scenery, enjoy the air, and don’t even worry about, “Oh, I need to go to the gym.” And then waiting for a certain time. Anytime you can go out and have a walk. There is a Chinese saying, “A hundred steps after every meal makes you live to 100 years old.” You may think, “Is 100 steps enough?” For some people it is enough, but for some people maybe it’s not enough. So what makes you feel it’s enough or not enough?

28:43 S1: I will give you some advice I give my patients, a very simple suggestion. If when you exercise, after you exercise you feel relaxed, you feel energized, you feel your energy and you feel like you are new again. This kind of exercise is about the exercise you need. But as far as if you, after exercising, feel tired and exhausted, and you cannot wake up in the second day, that means that you exercised more than your body needs, it actually consumes your energy. And then whatever the energy that it consumes then will be compensated by digesting your food well. So you must exercise, the proper way of exercise is very important. Some people will choose tai chi, some people will choose yoga. And remember, whatever exercise that makes you feel relaxed, feel more energized, go ahead and do it. You don’t need to work too hard in order to lose weight, you need energy to lose weight.

30:00 S1: So we talk about so many of these things that traditional Chinese medicine point of view, I would like to share with you some of the questions that a majority of the patients may have. “So I know exercise is good, but I don’t have energy to do it.” Or people would say, “I know sleep is good, but I can’t fall to sleep, I keep on waking up at night.” Or they say, “I know I am eating proper and good, but I always have cravings and cannot keep up with my diet.” So how can we continue and, “How can I lose weight?” Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine do offer a way to resolve this problem, and it helps people to relax, it also helps the energy flow, it also helps to stop cravings. If your body needs food, you have to eat. But why your body is not choosing to break down the fat to become energy instead the craving for external food is because your channel is not open.

31:18 S1: So we can use acupuncture to help patients to get the channel to open again, so then they don’t need to crave for food, and then they don’t need to exercise tiredly. A lot of people actually being treated by acupuncture or herbal medicines, they start to feel they’re more energized, even though the weight haven’t changed anything, the first thing they experience is that they feel energy. Once they start to feel they’re energized, this is a good start, and they will start to lose weight soon if they keep their good habits, and keeping their good diet.
31:56 S1: So it is a very huge topic that we’ve been talking about today, and then we only have 30 minutes. I wish I have a class which is about 45 minutes, and maybe a semester of class to talk about it in detail. But, thank you for coming to this webinar, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. And I’m going to use the phone question and answer time to answer any of your questions. Thank you again.

32:32 Speaker 2: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for joining. If you have any questions, please go ahead and ask in the questions box in the GoToMeeting control panel. Again, if you have any questions for the professor, now is a great time to ask.

[pause]

33:03 S2: Again, thank you so much for joining us. Okay, professor, we have one question. “When a patient is 60 years old, what method would you recommend? Does it make any difference on the method?”

33:20 S1: Okay, this is actually also another question that’s been asked so many times. Years matter, and I always tell my patients that I’m already living like I’m 17 years old, even though I’m not 17 years old. [chuckle] All these lifestyle suggestions are actually good for every age. Now of course, I know that it’s a little bit difficult for younger people to keep this kind of lifestyle, but if you can start to have this kind of lifestyle earlier, you will be better off, and you can live longer and you can be much healthier. And then whatever traditional Chinese medicine, or what Chinese you’re looking for, longevity. But we don’t like the longevity that you’re very sick and you’re in a hospital with all the tubes in you. We want to still function and do things that we like, and then pass away while we’re sleeping. That’s basically what we’re looking for. So if you’re 60 years old, if right now you’re only 30 years old, whatever the recommendation that I gave you just earlier is applied to all ages. So if you can start eating cooked food, and keep yourself warm, and start exercising, walking probably 30 minutes a day, and then you can start to pay attention on the time when you go to sleep and make sure you don’t sleep already in the morning, then the body will work for you.

34:53 S2: Alright, thank you so much, professor. And if anyone has anymore questions, like I said, please feel free to just type them away in our chat box, and the professor will answer them for you. Alright, here’s one more question. “How do we balance the ratio of vegetable, food or meat?”

35:24 S1: This question depends on the age group you are in. If you are 20 years old and younger, of course you can consume more protein. But if you are older than 30 years old, or maybe you’re already approaching to 40 years old, my recommendation is that you should eat about 20% of the carbohydrates, and about 40% to 50% of the vegetables, and about 20% to 30% of the meat. So, this is the proportion that you pay attention if you’re approaching middle age. And of course, if you are already half of middle age, for example, you are in your 60s and 70s, if you really want to lose weight, I often ask the patient to eat vegetarian in a dinner time, why dinner time? Dinner actually, we are tired and exhausted after a whole day’s activities. So, if your body is tired, your digestion system is tired too. So what happens? People tend to eat a big meal at dinner time, and then they will end up with indigestion.

36:48 S1: So people will start waking up with stomach pain, or some people will start having burps, which means there’s acid reflux. So eating a huge meal at dinner time is really hurting our health. So, if you want to lose weight, eating vegetarian in the dinner time will be a very good method that I recommend all my patients to do. And if you are younger, or you don’t feel a specific craving… By the way, craving actually can stop by start eating 70% full. You have to train your mind to stop eating while you already feel the hunger. So, most of the people will eat because of our eyes, right? You see all the food, it’s so delicious and you just keep on eating and then end up every time when you finish, you already feel you’re bloated. But traditional Chinese medicine believes 70% full is enough for the body because it takes time to communicate between the stomach to the brain. So, once you start feeling 70% full, you’re actually already full. So this is also another good recommendation I usually give to the patient. So, eating vegetarian in dinner time, that will take away the load of the digestion system when you’re tired and exhausted, and also eating 70% full.

38:23 S2: Alright. Thank you so much, Professor. We have a question from Adrianna Ramirez, and she asks, “Is drinking hot water in the morning a healthy habit to have? Can it help you lose weight?”

38:35 S1: Losing weight is actually very complicated. Of course, drinking hot water, you’re on the way, but by only drinking hot water won’t cause you to lose weight. But there is something that you can do to reduce your appetite, is to begin drinking, for example, drinking soup ahead before you start your meal. So, for example, when you’re waking up… Oh, by the way, morning drinking hot water without eating a good meal is actually not recommended. You have to eat. In traditional Chinese medicine, we believe that you have to eat like a king in the breakfast. You have to eat like a normal person during a lunch time, and you have to eat like a beggar in evening time. That’s why we’re talking about why you should start eating vegetarian in the evening time, but don’t sacrifice your breakfast, because after you’ve been eating dinner, finish before 8:00 is recommended. And after that, from 8:00 until second day, actually some people may have 12 hours of empty stomach. So, you have to eat a good breakfast with protein in the morning, then you will have enough energy to start your day, and you won’t get all cranky or foggy.

40:08 S1: And drinking hot water in the morning may reduce your appetite, and some people say it will dilute your acid in your stomach and will cause indigestion, but I don’t think that drinking a glass of water will cause that problem. But I will highly recommend you to eat a good breakfast in the morning in order to have your sufficient nutrition during the day.

40:33 S2: Thank you, Professor. And we have a question from Katie, she asks, “If you’re a patient that travels across the country regularly, what would be a good way to help them with their food pattern?”

40:47 S1: This is actually one of the global problems that we have, because nowadays a lot of people travel, and a lot of people can jet lag. So, for this kind of problem, I usually recommend people to rest as much as you can when you are on the airplane, and don’t try to finish up something, or try to catch up something when you are on airplane if you’re traveling to different countries. And the same thing, if you’re already lacking of sleep because you travel frequently, how much energy do you have if you eat a high calorie food? So if you travel frequently, I would recommend you to rest whenever you have time, and eat a very light meal every day, so then your body won’t cost too much energy to digest then, so then you won’t end up with some kind of a metabolic problem because you’re always in a sedentary state, and you’re always lacking of energy, and the body will start craving for food.

42:00 S2: Thank you Professor, and thank you to Katie and Adrianna for your questions, and all the other questions. We have one more question from Adrianna, she asks, “Is it better to have five small meals versus three meals following your guidelines on breakfast,

42:27 S1: This depends on different things. If you’re already an obese person, of course small amounts at multiple times will also work well. Or if you have digestion issues already, whenever you eat food you feel bloated, then of course that you can eat multiple times in order to help your digestion to get better. But this question, actually I need to get more information of what this type of person, because you know what? In the traditional Chinese medicine, we are also talking about constitution. So it depends on what type of a body type you are, then we adjust accordingly. So if you don’t mind, you can give me a little bit more, please? So what kind of body type you are, and are you already obese, or are you tired? And these kind of… That way I can answer better. [chuckle]

43:30 S2: Adrianna, did you hear the Professor? She would like to know what body type you are.

43:38 S1: And how old is she?

43:45 S2: Adrianna says she’s skinny, 100LBs, 41 years old.

43:50 S1: Okay, so she’s thinking about eating five meals?

43:55 S2: Five meals versus three meals.

43:57 S1: Because she’s craving for food all the time? Or because she has digestion issues? 100LBs, it sounds like some digestion issues for 41 years old.

44:08 S2: Adrianna, did you hear that? Do you have any digestion issues? She says no.

44:20 S1: Then I’ll give a very simple principle. If you feel hungry, then you eat, okay? Don’t starve yourself, starving actually will give you an emotional craving, where you’ll end up eating and consuming carbohydrates. So people are looking for comforting when they are having emotional problems, and if you always feel hungry, then you better eat. Don’t starve yourself. That’s my principle.

44:54 S2: Thank you, Professor. We also have one more question, “When a patient is already overweight, is there any acupuncture treatment that can help the patient overcome the issue?”

45:04 S1: On their own?

45:09 S2: On their own, yes.

[background conversation]

45:13 S2: Oh, by the acupuncture treatment, I’m sorry.

45:15 S1: Okay, by the acupuncture treatment. This is actually the very last time we’ll mention that. If you are obese, there’s a couple of things that we can do. First of all, if you are a stress eater, you’re already stressed out, and because of the stress that you have to look for food for comfort, we can help to relieve the stress. Acupuncture is good to improve stress, and also can cure stress in some cases.

45:45 S1: Second, if you are already obese and then you have these cravings that’s not triggered by stress, but you’re just craving for food. In traditional Chinese medicine, we believe that if you’re craving for something, it’s actually that particular organ is weak. For example, if you are craving for sweets, your stomach and spleen system is weak, so we can use acupuncture to strengthen your stomach and spleen system, and then the cravings will be stopped.

46:16 S1: Third, if you’re already working hard, and then trying to control your diet and you do everything, and you just wanted to lose some couple of pounds in your tummy, traditional Chinese medicine, we do help patients to lose weight. Though sometimes, we say sculpturing. For example, even though you’re not obese and you want to lose couple of pounds in your thighs, in your other places, [laughter] and then we do sculpturing, means that we can use acupuncture and to help to lose your weight, or to lose couple of pounds in the place that you don’t like to lose, but try this work, because acupuncture actually helps to improve circulation, and to improve metabolism that your body will start to become rejuvenized, it means when we’re getting older, we tend to gain weight, but when we’re younger, we tend to become lean. Why when we are older we become fat, is because our metabolism’s dropped, and our circulation also has issues. So acupuncture do help to improve circulation, to improve metabolism, it’s also helping to spruce up the metabolism, and also helping digestion system.

47:43 S2: Thank you so much, Professor. We just have one more quick question, “How can vegetarians keep their diet balanced, especially with the protein aspects of their diet?”

47:56 S1: This is a very difficult question to answer for some of my vegetarian patients, because being a vegetarian is not easy, why? I say this way, it becomes the way how we live our lifestyle makes this difficult. Thinking about today, how many hours do we work? How many hours we sleep? We actually overwork a majority of the people, and they’re sleepy and lacking rest. If you lead such a lifestyle, it’s very difficult to only eating vegetables traditional chinese medicine believe that a balanced diet is the secret. Thinking about one bite a minute, actually are 10 years of vegetables. The only way you can live a vegetarian life is to have less anxiety, rest more, have a peaceful heart, peaceful mind and this is actually we’re looking towards the goal, right? We all want to have a balanced lifestyle. And if you can sleep early, you can rest more, definitely vegetarian is possible.

49:13 S1: But if your lifestyle forces you to work harder, to consume more energy, it will be a little bit difficult to be a vegetarian and be healthy. So most of my vegetarian patients, they try to keep vegetarian, so they end up craving for carbohydrates as a fast energy format, and then that’s very easy to become obese. And eating a lot of vegetables, we’re talking about you have to balance the vegetable which you consider as cold and cooling with ginger or garlic, those things that warm up.

49:56 S1: So with eating vegetables, people usually have a lower metabolism, and then tend to feel cold. So, for these kinds of problems, maybe you should choose to become eating some healthy fish, or maybe eat some eggs instead of just eating pure vegetarian. The lifestyle is very important. If you can figure out a lifestyle and be in a very peaceful life, having a very peaceful mind and good lifestyle, then it is also possible.