Chinese Secrets to a Long Life

  

 Evolution of Chinese Medical Wisdom  

     Chinese medical thinking evolved into safer theories of herbalism and blended with the more pragmatic Taoist concepts of achieving optimal health through the balancing of yin and yang.  (See my October newsletter  for a more detailed description of the concepts of yin and yang.)  The quote in the sidebar is the first passage of what every acupuncturist has come to know as a primary work of the "Chinese medical classics."  In this foundational volume, the so-called Yellow Emperor gets the record set straight on the nature of life and longevity.  In a nutshell, the message is basically this:  Humans are not immortal, nor can we become so through any magical means.  We have a natural life cycle that can approach a hundred years if we don't live like idiots.  (Obviously, I'm paraphrasing!)   

  Preserving Your "Essence" - the Ultimate Longevity Practice

     So what, according to the Chinese medical classics, is living wisely?  I won't burden this article with more obscure quotes from the lengthy works on this topic.  It comes down to a few simple notions.  The first is that our life cycle is controlled by what we call "essence."  Essence is a precious substance that we get in a finite amount from our parents.  Like the seed of a plant, it is used to fuel our growth and maturation.  When we run out of it, the physical body withers and we die.  The end.

     The harsh reality about essence is that we can never add to what we get at birth.  No amount of alchemy, herbs, or acupuncture can give us any more of the stuff.  The best we can hope for is to conserve what we have, using no more than what is necessary to fuel the natural course of the life cycle itself.  The brighter side of of the essence equation is that, as it is used to fuel the life cycle, it gets transformed into wisdom.  I once heard "mid-life crisis" described as that point at which we finally gain enough wisdom to realize that we don't have an endless supply of life essence.  Armed with that wisdom, maybe we start thinking twice about squandering it.  Ponder that.   

 Eat Right and Go to Bed on Time    

Living the Goldilocks Life  

     No matter the health issue, Chinese medicine will always call for balance - that sweet spot where both yin and yang influences thrive, while simultaneously keeping each other from inappropriate dominance.  As it comes to eating, the American tendency is over abundance of poor quality foods, which leads to excess accumulations (too much yin).  These pathological yin accumulations can show themselves as:  phlegmy conditions in the lungs, nasal passages or sinuses; any excess or abnormal tissue - cysts, nodules, or tumorous growths; mental fogginess; or extra fat tissue.  To adopt better eating patterns, follow these general principles:

• Eat cooked and warm food  
• Eat high quality natural whole foods
• Avoid congesting foods, like sugars, wheat flour, and other refined and artificial foods 
• Don't eat too much at once  
• Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at regularly scheduled times  
• Don't skip meals 

 Ben Franklin Got It Right

     "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."  Indeed.  Regular, sufficient sleep influences longevity in a very direct way.  Sleep allows our bodies to recoup, as our yin influences are regenerated on a nightly basis.  This is the healthy manifestation of yin.  It can be replenished, through proper sleep and nourishment, and it fuels our body's needs for day to day living.  It also protects our life essence, sort of like a layer of bubble wrap.   

    Remember that the life essence, which cannot be regenerated, is supposed to be reserved for the big stuff like bone growth, puberty and procreation.  If we routinely don't sleep enough, there isn't much of a protective layer, and our bodies will be forced to dip into life essence just to get through the day.  It's precisely the type of "withdrawal" that not only shortens the life span, but makes us more vulnerable to debilitation and illness.   

 Is That All There Is To It?

     Can it really be this simple?  That longevity is based on good eating and sleeping habits?  Pretty mundane and maybe not what we expect from "ancient Chinese wisdom."  Clearly we should be talking more about meditation, spiritual practices, martial arts, and herbal tonics like ginseng.  Certainly, all of those things promote balance as well.  These are, however, more esoteric longevity practices.  Placing them on a base of crappy eating and sleeping patterns with anticipation of a longer life is no less magical thinking than expecting cinnabar to turn to gold.  It as much as says so right in the medical classics.