February 14th is the first day of the lunar year in the Chinese Calendar. We move from celebrating the year of the Earth Ox to celebrating the year of the Metal Tiger.

Metal Tiger for Chinese New Year

The Metal element gives the Tiger its sharpness in action and speed of thought. Tigers born in the Metal year like to stand out in a crowd. With an inspiring assertiveness and competitive demeanor, they determine their goals and then do anything necessary to achieve them. This good-looking character sometimes suffers from mood swings and temper tantrums. The Tiger can be known to jump to conclusions or to act too quickly without weighing the options or understanding the consequences. This is a flaw Tigers must learn to curb.

They can be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid and demanding.

People born in this sign will show these traits, but they also describe the influences we will live under for the next year.

Tradition

It is traditional that the New Year be celebrated with a lot of the color red. Lamps, costumes and other items will be flashed red today. The deities of the Heaven and the Earth will be welcomed, after cleaning the house and it is traditional to exchange gifts in the form of a red envelope containing money, generally in amounts of even numbers and giving the amount of 8 is considered particularly auspicious because the word for eight is a homophone for “wealth”.

Red Lanterns to celebrate Chinese New Year

Fireworks and flowers are also tradition at the celebrations which involve dancing, singing and parades.

The first fourteen days of the New Year are celebrated with various festivities and duties, and many households observe these.

For many of you, Traditional Chinese Medicine is mainly a way to stay healthy by using natural means. It does however, have a deep history of numerology, astrology and philosophy behind it. I’m hoping that you will join me in honoring the tradition I’ve chosen to study and enjoy seeing those around you celebrate the beginning of what I hope will be a highly productive and prosperous year for all of us!

Being a Chinese Medical Student is a process that requires serious diligence and work.  Students studying to become acupuncturists are expected to spend 8 hours per day in class and many hours each night memorizing lists of points, their actions, diseases and TCM philosophy.

There is an incredible difference in culture between the east and west and while studying we often find random bits of information that don’t appear to fit into our cultural norm.  Plum pit sensation is one of these things.  The first time I heard my teacher, Li Li Zheng, talk about plum pit qi, I laughed and thought it was yet another one of those “weird” symptoms in TCM that didn’t really apply “round these parts”, somewhat like the symptom of “Screaming like a pig or sheep” or “Standing on top of your house and taking off your clothes”.  Admittedly, some of the symptoms are odd, but usually have a modern day equivalent to them.

After learning the pathology and disease manifestations behind plum pit sensation, and being in practice for a while, I am convinced that it is a fairly common problem in the west, many folks just don’t have the words to describe it.  ”My throat feels stuck”.  ”I have a hard time swallowing, its worse when I am stressed”. “My boss was yelling at me yesterday and I felt like I couldn’t breathe or swallow, like a huge marshmallow was stuck in my throat”.

Less anxiety, better function

Plum pit qi sensation is diagnosed in our Western medicine as globus hystericus.  This diagnosis refers to a sensation as if there is something stuck in the back of the throat, and can cause some very uncomfortable sensations as it can neither be swallowed down nor coughed up.  Typically, the problem is worse with anxiety and stress and may go away in between episodes.  This diagnosis in Western Medicine is a psychiatric diagnosis, and associated the feelings with anxiety, depression and stress.  Generally chronic laryngitis, postnasal drip and polyps on the vocal cords are ruled out and the patient is told that there isn’t much to be done about it, that its a mental issue.  In other words, “Its all in your head”.

Chinese medicine however, has a specific diagnosis for this sensation and offers a full range of treatments for it.   An acupuncturist can take your history, look at your tongue and pulse and use this information to determine the right way to treat this problem for you.  Typically, with Chinese Herbs and acupuncture, along with nutritional suggestions and lifestyle changes, the problem can be relieved and you returned to a healthy state of mind, calm and without the stress and anxiety.

Yin, loving and heavy at its height now begins to slowly give way to the return of the Yang. May your Yin foundation be strong that it may secure the return of the Brightest Yang!

Roots and Branches - Yin and Yang

Best and Brightest wishes to you and your family this Holiday Season

In the best of health,

Kim Knight, MAcOM, LAc