Ok the time has come to slowly reopen. I am starting with only a few appointments a day. Before making an appointment, please read my COVID-19 rules and procedures page, to make sure you understand everything involved. Text me (at 206 area code, 437 dash 2968) that you read, understand, and agree to follow the rules before coming in for your session. I look forward to seeing you!

I’m excited to say that my book is now available in print! You can order it here:

Manu’s Book

I hope it helps you understand Chinese medicine and your body a little better – all while enjoying some delicious recipes!

Disclaimer: nothing anywhere on this blog, or that I’ve written here, is intended as medical advice, or to substitute for medical advice, or intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. It’s intended for educational, informational, entertainment, spiritual, or comedic purposes only. Some may use it as a form of self-flagellation. Before making any changes to your health care regimen always consult your physician and appropriate qualified licensed health care professional. Do this everyday before getting out of bed in the morning, or you may very well suffer a horrible, slow, and painful death and dismemberment, not necessarily in that order. Proceed to read at your own risk. In fact, what’s written here is so dangerous, disturbing, and/or just plain weird that it should not be read or viewed by anyone. Hide all small children’s eyes when they pass by, whether they can read or not. You have been warned.

I’ve compiled my current online services into the form below. Contact me if you have any questions.

If for some reason that form doesn’t work for you, try this link: Order Form

Or this one: Order Form

Here are a couple of brief comments on these services.

Herbal medicine you probably already know about, so I won’t go into any great depth here. Chinese herbs can be used for both internal and external conditions of all kinds.

Qi Gong means Qi exercise, or exercise to develop your Qi. I’m currently teaching a series of Qi Gong exercises, a version of what’s known as Ba Tuan Chin, or the Eight Brocades. Each exercise focuses on one organ or one organ system; overall the series is a great way to build Qi, including your defensive Qi, to help enhance and prolong your life. I’m currently offering individual half-hour sessions at a reduced rate. One session is enough to learn one of the eight exercises. The exercises involve standing, breathing, and light stretching, so should be suitable for most people. For more detail, see the Qi Gong page I just added to the site (see the list of pages above).

If you’d like to know more about Reiki, see: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-science-of-distant-he_b_177986/amp And yes I do have Reiki Master status. For a Reiki session, I’ll first ask you (usually over text) what you want to focus on, and then you simply lie down and relax in a quiet place for the duration of the session. You don’t have to do anything active, so this can be quite relaxing.

For an AcuTherapy session, we might use acupressure, or the hot air therapy, or magnet tapping, or a combination of all three, depending on what it is you’d like work on. The hot air method has an effect similar to moxa, and while not quite as strong it can have wonderfully beneficial results. Acupressure utilizes the same points and medical theory used in acupuncture; you use your hands and fingers to press specific points on the body in certain ways, instead of using an acupuncture needle. The pressure stimulates the flow of Qi and blood, which in turn helps the body’s biomechanics to function properly, and allows the body to heal itself. Along with your symptoms subsiding, you will feel a peaceful, nourishing relaxation similar to when you receive acupuncture. Once you learn point locations appropriate for your symptoms, you can then use them yourself throughout the day. An AcuTherapy session does require active participation from you, unlike Reiki.

For the science-minded, here’s a great study that affirms the benefit of acupressure in a variety of medical cases: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3154967/?fbclid=IwAR2bRa5UlnK0N4agfP1K0nD0eQHVl9i2Ri0Ml6brFpCEgbNGOAAPzhuM8ag

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to being of service to you soon!

Because the latest scientific papers I’ve read show that the chance of presymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus is much higher than I’d previously thought, I’ve decided to close my doors to seeing patients in-person, so as to keep everyone as safe as I can.

This will be for this week at a minimum, possibly for some weeks longer, depending on how things go.

Instead, I can offer online herbal consultations: contact me via text with the condition you’d like treated, and send me a picture of your tongue. After a consult, I’ll mix up and send you an individualized herbal formula.

This is for those in Seattle or nearby only (I’m eating the cost of shipping). The best number to contact me is at 437 dash 2968, in the 206 area code.

When you take a picture of your tongue, be sure to include your whole tongue in the image including the tip, and that it’s well-lit with as much natural light as possible.

I can also offer an online version of the kind of emotional clearing work I do, for those interested. You just need a magnet, and then we can connect over FaceTime or Skype and so on. I can also include distance Reiki in this. Text me if you’d like this service, and we can arrange a time.

How to pay? I’ve set up a form for online payment here:

https://form.jotform.com/200766652998168

It’s fine to wait to pay until after you receive your herbal formula or after your online session with me.

Finally, I’m offering an online Qi Gong session through the folks at Studio Evolve. I’ll post details on how to sign up for that soon.

Disclaimer: nothing anywhere on this blog, or that I’ve written here, is intended as medical advice, or to substitute for medical advice, or intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. It’s intended for educational, informational, or entertainment purposes only. Before making any changes to your health care regimen always consult your physician and appropriate qualified licensed health care professional. Do this everyday before getting out of bed in the morning, or you may very well suffer a horrible and painful death. Proceed to read at your own risk. You have been warned.

It turns out washing your hands properly is not quite as simple as some might think, so I thought I’d review some tips. First, as soon as you get home or into your workplace, wash your hands. I suppose everyone knows about vigorously rubbing your hands with soap, under running water, for a minimum of 20 seconds. Be sure to get in between your fingers (the webbing) and your nails. See here: https://youtu.be/IisgnbMfKvI

Now here’s a mistake people often make: they routinely touch a contaminated handle after washing their hands, which partly defeats the purpose. In other words, someone approaches a faucet with dirty hands, they touch the handle to turn it on, wash their hands, then touch the contaminated handle again to turn off the water, which means whatever crap was on the handle is now on their hands again. The correct thing to do is use a paper towel or disinfectant wipe to turn off the faucet.

Then drying your hands is another issue. With hand sanitizer, let the sanitizer dry before touching anything. With hand washing, if you dry your hands on a towel, you’re going to get whatever was on the towel on your hands. The blow dryers in public places are worse than useless – I read a study that showed they basically blow fecal matter all over your hands. Unfortunately, the best thing to do seems to be to use paper towels.

Oh, and those paper towels? If you keep them in your bathroom they’re probably contaminated with microscopic fecal material – it turns out when you flush the toilet, it sprays out an amount of fine droplets all over the place. Nice, eh? So keep them in a closed cabinet – something you don’t need your hands to open (like you can push or pull it open with your elbow or knee or something), or in a mostly-covered box like you see in public restrooms.

But how do you get out of the bathroom? Turn the doorknob, right? But did you disinfect the doorknob? Probably not; so once again, use a paper towel or disinfectant wipe to turn the knob or otherwise open the door.

Speaking of doorknobs, it’s a good idea to regularly disinfect commonly touched surfaces – tables, kitchen counters, doorknobs, car door handles, steering wheels, refrigerator handles, and especially your phone, tablet, computer, and so on.

Now, note that disinfecting is not the same as cleaning. Clean first, then disinfect. What disinfectants can actually kill a flu virus or coronavirus? Bleach, 70% alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide (see https://www.consumerreports.org/cleaning/common-household-products-that-can-destroy-novel-coronavirus/).

Bleach is the harshest one and is quite toxic, but if you want to use it use 4 teaspoons per quart of water, and make a new solution every couple of days (it breaks down); also be aware bleach in the original bottle degrades over time (20% or so after six months), so be sure to use a bottle that’s not too old. Also bleach can corrode metal, including steel sinks and faucets, so be aware of that.

For myself, I stay away from bleach. Instead, I wipe the area down with 70% alcohol, let it dry, and then spray it with hydrogen peroxide. I leave the hydrogen peroxide for 8 minutes before drying it with a clean paper towel. See https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/disinfection-methods/chemical.html#Hydrogen for more.

I hope these tips have been helpful! Best of luck to us all in this trying time.

OK, so based on some of the responses I’ve gotten to my Coronavirus Concerns post, people are confused about the different strategies I outlined and when to use them. So I’ll try to make a simpler version here.

As always, remember this Disclaimer: nothing anywhere on this blog, or that I’ve written here in this post, is intended as medical advice, or to substitute for medical advice, or intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. It’s intended for educational, informational, or entertainment purposes only. Before making any changes to your health care regimen always consult your physician, the CDC, the World Health Organization, and any other qualified licensed health care professionals you come across. Continuing to read this blog post may result in your slow, exquisitely painful death or dismemberment. Proceed with the utmost caution and at your own risk. The word “you”, when used in this post, is a placeholder and does not actually refer to anyone or anything, and the same is true of all verbs. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, is purely coincidental.

If you have no signs or symptoms of a cold or flu:

Continue to use the preventative measures outlined by the CDC, such as hand-washing, using hand sanitizer liberally, avoiding close contact with others, and so on, as noted in previous posts. And wear a mask whenever going out.

In addition, get a good amount of exercise, especially Qi Gong. Eat a nutritious diet.

Take supplements such as Host Defense’s MyCommunity, Cordyceps, and Turkey Tail extracts.

Drink the Good Qi Tea:

Ingredients

1 tbsp fresh ginger

1 tbsp goji berries (if you have a problem digesting nightshades, use jujube – Chinese red dates – instead)

1 tbsp dried astragalus

Boil 2 cups of water, steep the herbs for 10 minutes, then strain out the herbs. You can boil another 2 cups of water, and steep the same herbs again, for another 9-10 minutes. Drink throughout the day.

If you start noticing a sign of a cold or flu, such as a scratchy throat or sore throat, fever, fatigue, sinus pressure, etc., as soon as you sense any of that, do all of the following:

Take some liquid elderberry extract. 1 tsp every 3 hours, and 1/2 tsp Chinese skullcap.

Take licorice root extract, 1/2 tsp, 3-6 times per day, but avoid if you have hypertension or are pregnant. Take 2 hours away from any medications. Do not take for more than two weeks at a time.

Drink some ginger tea. Grate or finely chop some fresh ginger, an amount about four times the size of your thumb – it must be fresh to be effective for this purpose. Boil 6 cups of water, take it off the heat, and steep the chopped or grated ginger for 2-3 hours in a covered container (it must be covered to keep the essential oils of the ginger in the tea). If you like, at the end of the 2-3 hours you can add one tablespoon honey, the juice of one-quarter of a lime, and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Drink at least 6 cups a day. Warning: do not drink ginger tea if you are pregnant, as it can cause a miscarriage.

Try the shotgun flu formula, 6 times a day (do not take if you’re pregnant, and take 2 hours away from any medications). Continue taking your elderberry tea as well.

Ingredients

This recipe expels wind, heat, and cold from the surface of the body. Many of my patients report that when they take it at the first sign of a cold or flu, they avoid getting sick.

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

1 tablespoon fresh basil

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped

2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed (not chopped)

2 teaspoons fresh peppermint

Juice of 1/2 lemon, or 1 lime

1/2 teaspoon of lemon or lime zest

Half of a small cayenne pepper, seeds removed, chopped (or 1/4 teaspoon dry powder)

1/2 to 1 cup water

Put everything in the blender and mix well. Drink carefully, as it’s quite strong. Best results are obtained taking several doses, 2-4 hours apart, preferably after a meal or snack.

I hope that makes things simpler for everyone. Please ask if you have questions.

Best of luck to us all this year! Let’s take care of each other.

If you’re looking for my personal regimen of how to stay healthy in this challenging time, please see my post below entitled Coronavirus Concerns.

Disclaimer: nothing anywhere on this blog, or that I’ve written here, is intended as medical advice, or to substitute for medical advice, or intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease. It’s intended for educational, informational, or entertainment purposes only. Before making any changes to your health care regimen always consult your physician and appropriate qualified licensed health care professional. Do this everyday before getting out of bed in the morning, or you may very well suffer a horrible and painful death. Proceed to read at your own risk. You have been warned.

Because so many stores are out of hand sanitizer right now, a lot of people have been asking me how I make my own at home. It’s not difficult, the key is the sanitizer must have an alcohol content of 66% or more. Here’s what I do.

For a one fluid ounce bottle of hand sanitizer – I get one of the brown glass bottles with a spray top – I use:

5 tsp 95%+ Everclear (or any alcohol of similar strength)

1 tsp aloe vera juice

4 drops clove essential oil

3 drops lemon essential oil

2 drops cinnamon bark (or leaf) essential oil

2 drops eucalyptus essential oil

1 drop rosemary essential oil

I combine everything and shake well. If using a larger bottle, such as a two-ounce or four-ounce bottle, I double or quadruple the recipe.

Note: if you have some pre-made Thieves’ Oil, like Dandelion Botanicals’ formulation, you can simply add 12 drops of that instead of getting all the oils above separately.

In order to use hand sanitizer effectively, it is not enough to simply rub a bit of it in your palms. You’ve got to rub it all over your hands, front and back, including in between your fingers and over your nails, and let it dry. Because the essential oil combination in this recipe is quite strong, anyone using this recipe must be very cautious about touching their eyes or face afterwards, as it may cause irritation or even a chemical burn.

Remember that handwashing (for more than 20 seconds), is in general considered preferable, but sanitizer is good when it’s difficult or impractical to get to a sink.

Best of luck to you in this challenging time!

I added a new page called Insights, where I’ll add useful or interesting tips from and about Chinese Medicine. Today’s insight is about how an expert herbologist helped fight an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis.