Statue of Hua Tuo (華佗) in front of the Anhui College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My Chinese medicine education was split between two schools: Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City, and Yosan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles. I met some wonderful people at both places, people I will cherish for the rest of my life as friends and colleagues. One very cool dude I know from my time in New York is Ira Wahrman, a classmate from Pacific. Ira is now a Chinese medicine practitioner* in Westchester and Manhattan, and has taken numerous trips to China to study various aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine, qigong, energy medicine and Buddhist medicine.
On his blog he dispenses various common-sense health tips. The latest is about keeping your feet warm:
Cold mostly enters your body through your environment or through the food and drinks you consume on a daily basis. In this post I would like to mention one thing you can do to protect your yang qi or life force and will also prevent cold from entering your body through your environment. NEVER WALK BAREFOOT ON A COLD FLOOR! Cold easily enters through your feet through the channels of your legs. These channels include spleen, stomach, liver, gallbladder, kidney and bladder. All of these channels and organ systems can be injured by cold.
I encourage you to read the rest of his blog for more good Chinese medicine health tips.
*Ever wonder why naturopaths and chiropractors (and in some states physical therapists) can use the doctor title, but acupuncturists cannot? We put in just as many hours but don’t get to use the doctor title without an additional two years of training. Instead we have four-year master’s degrees. I’m not sure exactly why this is – the only thing I can deduce is that our lobby is not strong enough.
