Nan's Herbal Tea for Good Health

Ingredients: Dried Chinese hawthorn berry, small Chinese dates, roasted barley (Korean barley tea), dried chrysanthemum (Chinese herbal tea)--ingredients available in Chinese grocery stores.

- Dried Chinese hawthorn berry (a handful)
- Small Chinese dates (10pcs, cut half)
- Roasted barley tea (a handful)
- Dried chrysanthemum (a handful)

Put above ingredients in a ceramic pot, add water, bring to a boil, simmer in low fire for 40-60 minutes. Serve after each meal.

To your good health, enjoy!

Who's Responsibility--Doctor or Self

When you feel something's not right, you go to the doctor. The doctor does all the necessary tests and says, don't worry, come back in three months. Is there anything the doctor is not telling you? Or he simply can't tell you anything at this moment. To get it clear, you first need to know who is responsible for your own health.

The doctor takes care of you when you are up to the criteria of certain illness. However, the doctor cannot put you under medication when you are not yet reaching that criteria. You may say, but I feel something's going on with my health. You are right. Chronic health problems develop in your body over time. The current "something" you feel may have developed inside your body over 10-20 years even longer. And it's still developing. If you wait, one day the doctor will definitely put you under medication. Are you going to wait for that day?

Don't wait. Do something! It is your own responsibility to keep yourself healthy. That is to say, you have many options not to reach the doctor's criteria, or at least delay the onset of a chronic illness.

It is often being ignored during the period when chronic health problems are forming/developing over the years. You may have thousands of reasons not to face the facts, or not to understand the signals your body is sending you, or often times simply do not link the dots together.

Human body is a unique system that all parts are linked one way or another. Even your nails and hair can show what is going on inside you. If you treat your body as a whole, always try to understand the little signals your body sending you, listen to your body and do the right thing your body needs, many chronic health problems can be prevented.

Do not get scared. Take positive actions to change the course, whatever it takes. It is your own responsibility to keep up with your health.

Nan's Herbal Tea Recipe

Here is an original recipe by Nan. This herbal tea is good to promote digestion, balance your blood pressure and cholesterol, and many more benefits.

It is easy to prepare at home. It makes a wonderful drink hot or cold. All natural ingredients are available in your nearby Chinese grocery store.

Recipe:
- 1 Cinnamon Stick (5g) (卷玉桂)
- 2 handful of Dried Hawthorn Fruit (20g) (山楂干)
- 2 pieces of Dried Chinese Prune (话梅)

Put ingredients in a coffee-maker cup (4-cup size), add 4 cups of water in coffee maker. Turn power on and leave it on for 45 minutes.

If you use a larger size coffee-maker, add more ingredients with more water, and leave the power on for longer time. Adjust the amount of water for the best taste to yourself.

To serve:

Hot drink:
- Serve with honey

Cold drink:
- Keep cool
- Serve with honey and ice

To your health!

Tai Chi--First 20 Movements

Tai Chi--First 7 Movements

Gandhi on Exercise

The ideal kind of exercise is that which gives vigor to the body as well as to the mind; only such exercise can keep a man truly healthy.

- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi "The Wisdom of Gandhi"

Do you have to break a sweat before it counts as "exercise?"

You've heard it before: regular exercise is good for your health. It can raise HDL cholesterol, control your weight, improve the work capacity of your heart, reduce your blood pressure and blood glucose, and relieve stress.

However, do you have to break a sweat before it counts as "exercise?" So why is it so difficult to get up off the couch and get moving?

Tai Chi and QiGong are something worth trying. No sweat but raise your energy level. It improves your blood circulation, your immune system, your balance and your range of motion.

This exercise is good for people from middle age and above. No matter how busy you are, as long as you have time for a cup of coffee, you can spare a few minutes for Tai Chi and QiGong. It fits your busy life schedule.

If you are retired, you have more time to practice Tai Chi and QiGong. Join my classes at Long Branch Community Center, Silver Spring, MD and at Langley Park Community Center, Hyattsville, MD. For registration please call (301)445-4508.

Energy Refill

Life energy "Qi" maintains organ functions, repairs damages at cellular level, and keeps life going.

As we age, "Qi" energy weakens. As a result, we fell less energetic, easily get tired, and are prone to illness.

Can we refill the life energy? Yes. Tai Chi, QiGong, and JingLuo Exercise are effective ways to refill the life energy while minimizing the energy loss and maximizing the life functions.

Energy refill work needs daily efforts. We eat food and drink water every day. We breath 24 hours a day. And we do all kinds of exercises. However, all these are not enough. We need to do more. We need to be conscious that we are in a race against aging. If we want to slow down the aging process, we need to do more!

When I say "more", I mean more efforts with less cost for more gain.

Those energy consuming exercises are no longer suitable for the seniors. What we need at this stage of life is the type of exercise that consumes less energy, no stress, while serves to gain more energy reserve. The ideal exercises for this age group are Tai Chi, QiGong and JingLuo Exercise.

For further information please visit www.nanxwang.com

Hand-in-Hand Tai Chi for Alzheimer's and Dementia Patients

I have been teaching Hand-in-Hand Tai Chi for two groups of Alzheimer's and Dementia patients since May 2009. One group is more advanced than the other. The age range is from 50 to 102 years old. I have been giving them lessons once a week. I am very honored to mention my 102-year-old student Helen Rohde. She is so pleasant and sweet. She feels good during the exercise and says "thank you" each time we finish our work-out. Here is a photo when she was doing Wheelchair-Push-Hands with me.

Hand-in-Hand Tai Chi helps Alzheimer's and Dementia patients with their range of motion, their emotions and tranquility. It also helps them with their overall physical conditions.

During my first class with them, their faces were cold and they were stiff at the beginning. But as I started holding their hands and doing the Tai Chi movements, they relaxed and followed me like a dancing partner. I feel their trust in me, and I can tell their internal good feeling from their smiles. What can be more rewarding than that!

Take Health in Your Own Hands

Healthy pH level of human blood is in a narrow range of 7.35-7.45. Alkaline food such as vegetables and fruits satisfy the healthy body pH, while meat, dairy, sugar, soda drinks, most refined processed food and cooked food are acidic. The polluted environment and stress in life and work also add acidic elements to our body. In today's world, many things are beyond our control. If you are not aware of this fact and taking actions accordingly, it is very difficult to avoid being sick.

However, you don't have to surrender to today's polluted world. You don't have to wait till you get sick. You can take your health in your own hands, and prevent illness to form. Even if you already have some illness, you can prevent the illness from getting worse.

Since I can't eat nine servings of fruits and veggies a day as needed by the body, I use two products--barley grass juice (BarleyLife) and alkaline water (Abova ORP Water). These convenient products satisfy my nutrition needs and give me good energy of the day. They are the best alkaline products available in the market today. They help me to off set the acidic elements in food and environment. I used to have liver and kidney problems, now I'm in the best status of my health.

If you have not yet taken any medication, try not to start one. If you are already under medication, try not to add one more pill. I strongly suggest you take your health in your own hands. You are responsible for your own health. Besides all the right things you are doing, I suggest you start taking barley grass juice and Abova alkaline water every day. They provide true healing naturally.

Alkaline Body Environment Prevents Cancer/Lymphoma

China Central Television leading news anchorman LUO Jing passed away on June 5, 2009 at age 48. A popular and likeable broadcaster, he was diagnosed as lymphoma 9 months ago and was under hospital medical treatment. The doctors could not save his life.

No doubt the doctors did their best. But the current medical treatment for cancer is harmful to the patient’s immune system which is actually the only hope for recovery, especially for lymphoma. Somehow I believe Luo Jing may not even have a chance to try the alternative method to boost up the immune system.

However, cancer/lymphoma are preventable. Lymphoma can be easily overlooked among people 45-60 years old. Some of the early symptoms are simply feeling tired, low energy or having flue-like symptoms. Actually these are also the symptoms of acidic body environment which is the basic condition to form many illness. By changing this condition, making the body environment alkaline we will be able to prevent cancer/lymphoma or all kind of illness to form.

How can we make our body environment alkaline? Human body has a narrow range pH level of 7.35-7.45 which is slightly alkaline. As we are facing fast pace and stressful work place, polluted environment, over chemical-used agriculture, overwhelmed electronic device, refined processed food, etc., they all make our body acidic. To restore the pH level to our natural balance, I suggested the following five steps in my 9/19/2008 blog:

1. Be happy (Sad tears are acidic and toxic)
2. Eat alkaline food as much as possible (vegetables and fruit are alkaline)
3. Drink alkaline juice: BarleyLife® and LeafGreens®
4. Drink alkaline water: ABOVA® ORP Water
5. Do Tai Chi and QiGong every day

If you have followed these steps, you probably already experienced being less stressful, more productive, happier, and have more energy.

We don’t have to be sick. We can prevent it. Even if the doctor told you that you have 6 months to live, or you have 50/50 chance, you can take control of your own health by changing your body environment alkaline.

Healthy Lifestyle

A study on longevity shows that family factor affects longevity by 15%, medical factor makes 8%, while lifestyle factor makes 60%. In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives. That is to say, the way we live affects us directly on how healthy we can be and how long we can live.

We can't choose our family genes. But we can choose how to live. I believe the best examples to follow are those who already successfully lived 100 years and over. I found interesting stories of Centenarians on the internet. Many of them have something in common. They live simple and active life, they are happy people, they don't worry about things, and they eat light meals.

These sound simple. But in today's world, it's not easy to live a simple life. Things are complicated. And there are always things to worry about. I have been trying to keep myself positive, happy and active. But one thing I could not control. I always have late dinner after a full day of work. This is not healthy at all. Now that I'm retired, I don't have to eat late dinner any more. From today on, I will have light dinner not later than 7:00 pm. In a year, I will find out what impact it has on my overall health. At least, I don't have to go to bed with a full stomach of undigested food.

Natural Way of Healing

We don’t have to get sick. Our body is designed to heal itself. If you feel tired, or have pain here and there, don’t wait. It’s time to help yourself. All you need to do is to follow the natural way of healing.

Why Natural Way of Healing? I have my doctor to take care of me.

True. When you are sick, you have doctors to take care of you. However, why wait till you get sick when your internal organs get damaged? The body’s natural defense gives small signals when the health status is weakened. Feeling tired and having pain are the common signals. If you go to see a doctor at this time, most likely the tests will show normal, but you don’t feel well.

If we are not taking actions to improve the condition and allow the health to decline further, serious symptoms will occur. The damage will get into the internal organs. At this time, the test result will tell the doctor that you are sick of a named illness. The doctor will prescribe certain drugs to help you recover.

Do you have to wait till you are really sick? You don’t have to. You can take your health in your own hand, and enjoy a healthy and quality life up to 120 years old. Here is a simple solution through Natural Way of Healing.

- Breath deep 3 times a day 20 minutes each time (QiGong)
- Tai Chi at least 2 times a week, best do it every day
- Green barley juice (BarleyLife®) every morning to start your day

Seek for Overall Wellbeing

Many chronic health problems develop over time. During the course of this development we have chance of getting sicker or getting better, depending on what we do.

Main elements that affect our health can be summarized as following:

- Immune system
- Mental strength
- Physical strength
- Nutrition
- Environment
- Lifestyle

Taking control of above elements with good understanding, and trying to improve in a steady and balanced way will lead us to a better health status.

When we go through physical checkup or screening exams, and experience doubtful or questionable reports, don’t panic, because panic will only serve to decrease your immune system defense, and bring down your mental and physical strength.

The best option is to go through above elements and check one by one. Find out the possible causing reasons, and make positive changes accordingly. Take physical checkup again after three months. If problem reports persist, seek for medical help. The chances are, in many cases, you are already on the way to improve. In that case, keep up the good work.

I found a simple solution to prevent and improve many health issues. Use BarleyLife, powder of young barley leaves, as the basic food supplement. It quenches the thirst of our cells, and satisfies our basic nutrition needs. It helped myself since 1994. I truly believe this is a simple solution for an overall wellbeing.

World Tai Chi & QiGong Day

On April 25, 2009, the 11th World Tai Chi & QiGong Day will take place in over 60 countries around the world. You can be part of this global event by joining me this Saturday afternoon at 1:30 in the open area outside the Long Branch Community Center, Silver Spring, Maryland.

This annual event was created in 1999 to promote Tai Chi and Qigong and has been held on the last Saturday of April each year. The annual event is open to the general public, and begins in the earliest time zones of New Zealand at 10 am, and then participants across Oceania, Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and South America take part, with celebrations in sixty nations and several hundred cities, ending with the final events in the last time zones of Hawaii almost an entire day later. Celebrations include mass Tai Chi Chuan and qigong exhibitions in many cities, and free classes in most participating cities.  If you are interested, please join me at this event, or join the following Tai Chi classes:

- Long Branch Community Center, Thursdays, 7:30pm (ongoing free class)
- Langley Park Comminity Center, Saturdays (registration needed)

Go Nuts

Nuts contain important nutrients that are good for our heart. Some studies show that people who eat nuts regularly are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease. According to recent clinical trials, consuming various nuts such as almond, pecan and walnut can lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). Scientists believe that nuts contain various substances that possess cardio-protective effects such as omega 3 fatty acids. Eat a handful of mixed nuts a day, either added to meals or for snack, can reduce the risk of heart disease.

Almond is a rich natural source of vitamin E. Almonds are known to help lower LDL cholesterol when consumed in a healthy way. They are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as found in olive oil. Almond is a good ingredient for low-carbohydate or carbohydrate-restricted diet. Almond flour is gluten-free which is good for gluten-sentitive people or those who suffer from wheat allergies.

Pecan is a good source of protein and a good low unsaturated fat source of vitamin E. The antioxidants and plant sterols found in pecans can reduce LDL cholesterol levels. A clinical research found that eating a handful of pecans each day may help lower cholesterol levels similar to what is often seen with cholesterol-lowering medications. Consuming nuts regularly can also help lower the risk of gallstones in women.

Walnut is a great source of omega-3 essential fatty acids. Its health benefits range from cardiovascular protection, to the promotion of better brain function, to anti-inflammatory benefits for asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. An antioxidant "ellagic acid" found in walnuts supports the immune system. In one study, the participants followed walnut-rich diet were found to have lowered LDL cholesterol and Lp(a) ("lipoprotein a" is a lipid compound that increases blood clotting).

Start your handful of nuts this weekend, and let me know if you feel better.