Brain and movement
Prof. Carlo Ventura, full professor at the Department of Specialist, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine — DIMES, says: “There is no important biological phenomenon that is not caused by movement. … It emerged that there is no change in gene activity that does not occur without DNA movements, deformations and vibrations of the nucleus and of that complex of microfilaments and microtubules that we call cytoskeleton. The movements precede the same changes in function at the various cellular levels… Applying a sound vibration to a cell or signal molecules within a cell can vibrate these structures, generating changes in morphology and function. Sounds and movements can therefore be seen as a ‘molecular dialogue’ within cells and tissues.” “It is increasingly clear – says Prof. Ventura – that the development of the nervous and cardiovascular systems occurs through a coordinated action of common factors that guide the differentiation and migration of future neuronal and cardiovascular cells. Very recent research shows a strong parallelism in the development of both systems …..” Movement catalyst of emotions, which stimulate a different interaction of the three brains. And here the power of the Tai Chi Chi Kung movement comes into play, as a balanced body is only the logical consequence of a harmonious energetic circulation. Just today, an article of the study of the Interdepartmental Center for Mind / Brain of the University of Trento, of which we report an extract, has managed to highlight the analogy between physical and abstract movement. A discovery that also explains the effectiveness of mnemonic techniques, such as loci and concept maps, used to learn and consolidate names, dates, events in memory. The parallelism between what happens in the physical world and in that of ideas, opens, among other things, a further key to interpret the physical decay (with the difficulty in orienting oneself even at home) and cognitive (with memory problems) that characterize people with Alzheimer’s, who present an atrophy of the neuronal areas responsible for both functions. “For the first time we have empirically verified this hypothesis,” underline Manuela Piazza and Simone Viganò, respectively professor and post-Doc researcher at the Interdepartmental Center for Mind/Brain of the University of Trento, who wrote the article published in recent days in the journal “Journal of Neuroscience”. The experiment was carried out in the functional neuroimaging laboratories of the Interdepartmental Mind/Brain Center of the University of Trento. The research team asked a group of participants to learn to recognize and name categories of new objects, never seen before, different from each other for the combination of two characteristics, size and frequency of sound produced, thus building a new conceptual space in two dimensions. By presenting in sequence the different words and different objects learned and measuring neural activity through functional magnetic resonance imaging, it was discovered that the same brain areas involved in space navigation are also activated during the elaboration of new concepts. In particular, these areas identify the necessary characteristics (direction and distance) to faithfully reconstruct the “path” taken by thought in passing from one concept to another. “These results demonstrate that the human brain recycles the same neural codes optimized during its long evolutionary history to navigate physical space, to organize, in the form of spatial concept maps, its memories, and to navigate, literally, in the space of ideas. They can also explain the effectiveness, known since ancient times, of using spatial supports (such as the loci technique or modern concept maps) to learn and remember with ease. “To orient ourselves effectively in space – they clarify – we must remember where objects and landmarks are, how far they are from each other, and in which direction we must move to reach them. This ability is based on the functioning of certain brain cells (neurons, located in the hippocampal region and in the medial prefrontal cortex), which are activated when we are in specific positions or we move in certain directions as a sort of “GPS of the brain”. This same GPS also helps us organize complex memories and concepts.” Source: L’Adige of 27.2.2020
Cure yourself with Yin and Yang, the WHO clears Chinese medicine
The World Health Organization “clears” terms such as Yin and Yang or vital energy. Traditional Chinese medicine will in fact be included in the next global medical compendium. An opening that follows that towards acupuncture and that has not failed to attract the attention of the journal Nature. The official recognition will be introduced in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases and Health Problems (ICD). But the novelty puzzles many experts. The compendium, which will be adopted by the World Health Assembly, is a periodically updated document that addresses the way in which diagnoses are made. In chapter 26 of the new edition, which will become operational for the acceding states in 2022, it will present a classification system to identify concepts such as “balance between Yin and Yang”, “Qi deficiency”. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the theory that vital energy (Qi) flows along channels called meridians and helps the body maintain health. The disease is the disruption of this energy balance and treatments, acupuncture or herbal remedies, serve to restore it. The Western approach looks for well-defined causes to explain the disease and calls for controlled clinical trials that provide evidence that a drug works. This generally does not happen for the traditional Chinese one, for which there are also quite a few adverse effects. For this reason, many doctors say they are deeply concerned. But the WHO, answering Nature’s questions, points out that its strategy is to “provide guidance for Member States for the regulation and integration of safe and quality-assured products”, to “integrate it into health systems, where appropriate”. “The impact is likely to be profound,” reads Nature and could accelerate its entry into global health care. SOURCE: Agopunturafano.it
The hereditary constitution is not entirely fixed and immutable
Everyone is born with a given constitution, which is determined by various factors.The general health conditions of the parents are important and their energy state – fullness or deficit – exerts a special influence at the moment of conception.The constitution of a being also depends on the state of psychophysical health of the mother during pregnancy, a period in which the fetus receives nourishment only from maternal blood.However, the constitution of a person is not always fixed and immutable, within certain limits it can be modified and improved.A healthy and balanced lifestyle, together with Tai Chi Kung exercises of meditation and breathing, to develop individual Qi, can lead to an improvement in the constitution.As we know, the Front Sky Jing, which is the basis of our strength and health, is not immutable and is constantly “replenished” by the Back Sky Jing (food, emotions and feelings, breathing, lifestyle)Several practices of Traditional Chinese Medicine are intended to preserve Jing to allow for the longest and healthiest life possible.Longevity can also be increased thanks to proper nutrition.The more you eat regularly and correctly, the less easily you get sick.The good quality of food nourishes body and mind helping us to spare the Jing of the Front Sky, that is, the energy endowment with which we come into the world.We can therefore say that by learning to become responsible for our good being, through the “practices of long life”, we increase LIFE … Bibliography:The basics of Chinese medicine by Massimo MuccioliThe fundamentals of Chinese medicine by G. Maciocia,Chinese dietetics of Muccioli, Sotte, Piastrelloni, Matrà, Bernini, Naticchi
Between nutraceuticals and Chinese dietetics 2
Nutrition and food supplements together with a correct lifestyle are the first therapeutic tools to prevent the triggering of pathological conditions (primary prevention), support the physiological balance (wellness), counteract aging processes (anti-ageing), intervene on pathological conditions (adjuvant treatment tool). On the basis of what has been illustrated so far, an approach, however basic, to Chinese dietetics seems essential to us, as the knowledge of its principles, combined with foods of “short supply chain” and linked to seasonal rhythms are an important combination for the maintenance and / or recovery of health.“Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food” said Hippocrates, (Island of Cos 460 BC – Larissa 377 BC) the great Greek physician who first, in the West, introduced the innovative concept according to which the disease and health of a person depend on human choices, more than by superior divine responses.And it is in the “Classic Book of Medicine of the Yellow Emperor – Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen” (II century BC), that in Chinese culture we find the first citations and references on the need to seek, for the maintenance of psycho-physical health, a diet adequate to the needs of the moment.In Taoist philosophy the world is a continuous becoming, whose driving force derives from the dynamics of Yin / Yang, For the Chinese tradition the Yin includes what is on the “shady side of the hill”, while the Yang what is on its “sunny side”. Everything and every natural phenomenon are composed, universally and without exception, of Yin/Yang, two inseparable and opposite aspects.Of course our body does not escape this possibility, for this reason a classification in Yin / Yang terms has also been applied to medicine in its various aspects: physiology, pathology, energetic interpretation of body balances and imbalances, treatment.In Chinese energy philosophy the body is always too Yang (Fire), except in cases where a fast or illness does not make it too Yin.Another very important aspect in Traditional Chinese Medicine is Qi. All Chinese medicine is based on the concept of energy. In Chinese thought, the whole universe is nothing but Qi. There is nothing that is not or manifests Qi. It is at the origin of the visible world and at the basis of all natural phenomena: reality, with its variety of forms and manifestations, is an expression of the many different ways in which Qi is condensed into visible matter. Zhang Jingyue expresses this concept in a very concise way: “If Qi is concentrated, form appears.”Man himself is, in his essence, Qi and for this reason Nanjing declares: “Qi is the root of human beings”. Chinese DieteticsTraditional Chinese Medicine has always held dietetics in very high regard: indeed it can rightly be said that the two disciplines were practically born together and evolved together over the millennia. In observing foods and their action, the ancient Chinese paused to analyze their impact on the balance of Yin and Yang and on the movements of Qi.They noticed that some foods had warming properties, that is, capable of generating, once ingested, a sensation characterized by the development of heat. In the same way they found that others had an opposite, refreshing effect. In this way, four fundamental natures of foods were distinguished, capable of interfering and interacting with the balance of Yin and Yang of the organism: the warm, warm, cool, cold nature. In this distinction a subdivision by gradients is recognizable, with the division of warming and refreshing foods into two different intensities of action. Some foods, however, considered incapable of determining a warming or cooling reaction, were therefore defined as neutral. The methods of cooking and preserving food greatly influence the original nature of the food by partly changing its properties: cooking with exposure to open fire or preservation by drying subtract Yin from the food and enhance its Yang, providing it with a greater heating power; foods stored in the refrigerator or frozen instead increase their refreshing power, while boiling a food in water humidifies it enriching it with Yin. Steaming does not alter the nature of the food. Observing the reaction that foods elicited in the movements of Qi, five flavors were also identified, in accordance with the doctrine of the five elements.Each of them has a specific effect on Qi and a particular relationship with one of the five classical organs: in moderate quality it nourishes it, in excessive quantities it harms it.The combined action of nature and flavor conditions the energetic impact of various foods on the body.To these three criteria if they can not add two more: the color and tropism of the meridian.Depending on the color, red foods that revitalize, yellow foods that stabilize and balance, green foods that detoxify and purify, black foods that tighten and tone Jing (essence) and finally white foods that purify. According to the tropism of the meridian, each food has a meridian of main impact.It is therefore unthinkable for an operator who uses Chinese medicine not to take advantage of the possibility of positively conditioning the individual’s energy picture by providing specific and personalized food advice: the right food corresponds to a beneficial, constant and continuous stimulus over time, capable of revolutionizing the state of health.If what we eat (including drugs) becomes part of us, it is logical to think that, in the medium to long term by implementing precise food choices, we can profoundly modify our body. From this intuition comes the awareness of the therapeutic power of the diet, understood as a programmed diet regimen.Even in the practical use of dietetics, Chinese Medicine follows the principle of harmony between man and the cosmos.The choice of foods to be of benefit must follow the seasons, also because, studying the nature and flavors of food, we discover that each season offers us the right combinations of qualities necessary to face its climate and to prepare the energies of our body for the season to come. In the same way that a harmonious diet keeps us
Between nutraceuticals and Chinese dietetics
The concept of health has constantly changed over time, to get to assume, today, a much broader meaning that closely associates a condition of absence of pathologies to a state of “global” well-being of the person.Today we are all more aware of how health does not consist in the simple absence of disease but depends on a number of factors inherent in the totality of our lives.In recent years it has been increasingly highlighted how the external environment and, above all, nutrition are able to influence our health and consequently our well-being. Health is built first of all at the table, based on the food we eat.Food is not just a means of livelihood. Food is increasingly healthy and a powerful means at our disposal, to safeguard the body to maintain a state of well-being.The importance and close link of the binomial “nutrition and good health” is also underlined by the World Health Organization (WHO) which considers adequate nutrition and health fundamental human rights. Eating therefore not only serves to replenish energy and structural reserves but also serves to influence the general regulatory systems of the organism (nervous, immune, endocrine system), including DNA, as epigenetics has shown.According to epigenetics it is not true that we are predestined, monolithic in our being, victims of chance. We are the co-creators of what we are, definitely active protagonists; the destiny written in the DNA of each individual is no longer inevitable, but can be influenced by more or less correct lifestyles. And the changes can be passed on to subsequent generations. In the wake of these studies, in recent years, new disciplines have been born that combine science and nutrition and use the most modern methodologies and instruments to identify food molecules that can reduce the risk of the onset of diseases and to characterize their mechanisms of action: nutraceuticals is one of these.Nutrition therefore plays a decisive role in our well-being.Let’s try to deepen this topic starting from the concept of health as it has changed over the years to get to understand why nutrition is so important thanks to the contributions of epigenetics and nutraceuticals, to get to confirm what, which for millennia, now, affirms Chinese dietetics.Concept of “health” in history For millennia the disease has been considered a magical-religious phenomenon.In ancient Greece, with Hippocrates, medicine was based on observation. Subsequently, conceptions of health and disease remained “unscientific” until the last few centuries.In its early days, scientific medicine (late eighteenth century), reflected a bio-medical model.Coinciding with the birth of industrial society, the bio-medical model dealt more with disease than with the health and working and living conditions of the population.In the twentieth century an exasperated specialism developed, whereby the individual even identified himself with only one “part”, “an organ”, thus denying the individual as a person.A historic turning point came in 1948 with the definition, by the WHO, of health as “a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not only as the absence of disease or infirmity”.This concept has allowed the abandonment of the “medicalist” interpretation of well-being.The concept of global health that is gradually taking shape, therefore brings with it a conception of the person as a psychophysical unit, interacting with the surrounding environment, which is the prerequisite for “a promotion and education to health” and to a “medicine of the person” in its totality. Epigenetics It was once believed that our genetic heritage was rigidly established from the moment of conception and that nothing could change it over the years. Recently, research has shown that gene expression can be influenced by environmental stimuli such as nutrition, stress and emotions.The DNA we have inherited maintains its sequence, but factors such as nutrition and the substances we produce as a result of emotions and stress, determine the expression of the gene we have inherited and the consequent possible manifestation of pathologies.The factors that influence gene expression change every day based on what we eat, the supplements we take, smoking habits, exposure to toxins, exercise or stress. These epigenetic signals largely belong to us in terms of choices. Nutrition is probably the most impactful signal. If we think about a life of about 80 years, a person ends up eating 30-40 tons of food.We imagine that that food is not just calories but signs of genetic transformation, which, if they are wrong, guide the body-mind towards disease.We are “badly” designed to understand the long-term consequences of our short-term choices. This is one of the limitations of the human being who, calibrated to seek survival, does not now think about the damage it will do to himself and the environment in the long term. In this perspective, food also has the ability to regulate or dysregulate epigenetic signals depending on the choices that each one makes.Food represents not only a supply of energy and macronutrients, but also a phenomenal supply of biochemical signals, which can be devastating if these signals are contrary to the needs of the cells, or, conversely, can be protective if the biochemical signals are the correct ones.If “we are what we eat”, as Feuerbach said, nutrition plays a decisive role in our well-being. Often, however, we do not “know what we eat” and the quality of our life is affected, with serious consequences for the body.This is where Nutraceutical comes in. What is Nutraceuticals? Nutraceuticals is the branch of medicine, which studies the beneficial and curative action of food on human health.Nutraceuticals, etymologically derives from the fusion of the terms “nutrition” and “pharmaceutical”, to indicate the discipline that investigates all the components or active ingredients of foods, with positive effects on health and for the prevention and treatment of diseases.Instead of “s-eating” and then curing yourself, here’s how to cure yourself by eating!The role of Nutraceuticals therefore becomes decisive for those who want to know in detail what happens in the body when you eat, what principles are activated and with what real consequences on health. “Let food be your medicine and let your
Health and lifestyles
We talked about health through the learning of correct “lifestyles”, at the Euregio conference held at the Hotel Terme in Merano on 25 c.m..More physical movement and proper nutrition were the common themes, suggested by the speakers, for the maintenance and / or recovery of health.In the context of the interventions, the Health Observatory of the Autonomous Province of Trento, in the person of Dr. Pirous, presented the results of several studies that, even at local level, show that the most socially impactful diseases (also for public finances), such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, have four risk factors in common: 1. Sedentary lifestyle; 2. Poor nutrition; 3. Alcohol consumption; 4. Tobacco smoke. Since many diseases and premature deaths could be prevented through healthier lifestyles – it has been said – a comprehensive strategy must be promoted, in all areas, both political and social, involving schools and the younger generations in the change of course.In a complex period like the current one, “health promotion” becomes, therefore, one of the major challenges for institutional leaders.
The East through Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine is an ancient discipline of research of health and harmony through the energy rebalancing of the body-mind. It is a medicine of the Puffs, the art of restoring the functional harmony of the exchanges between the different Puffs (energy, IQ). The object of this energetic medicine is the regulation of the constitutive and animating Breaths of man within the constitutive and animating Breaths of the Universe. What has come down to us is the result of the integration and arrangement, in the course of its evolution, of the different philosophies with which it has come into contact and in particular with Taoist thought, the Confucian School and the Theory of the five elements. This tradition regards the universe as an energy field, the result of the perfect interaction of the two basic cosmic principles: Yin/Yang. There is a holistic, analogical vision of the human being, according to which health and well-being are the consequence of the psychological, energetic, physiological and spiritual balance of man. The observation and cataloguing of correspondences has led man over the millennia to hypothesize an exhaustive knowledge of reality where what happens in the Macrocosm (Cosmos) happens in small – by analogy – in the Microcosm (Man). Through the understanding of the cosmos, the universe and nature one arrives, for Taoism, at the understanding of oneself, at one’s own individual growth. There is no dichotomy between good / evil, right / wrong, etc.., opposites become equivalent aspects of the same reality / phenomenon, which includes them within it. The change in the observer’s point of view changes the ethical-moral value of the interpretation of each event. There are no absolute values, but only values related to the system/model taken as a reference measure. The concentration of attention must instead be directed towards the observation of nature and its manifestations, which alone allows us to recognize the characteristics of the Tao. And it is nature that suggests the idea of Yin/Yang, the constituent polarities of the Tao symbol, which represents the most important and characteristic concept of Taoism. The observation of the cyclic alternation of day and night is symbolically related to the shadowy and sunny sides of a hill, a single reality that carries both shadow and light, the universally conjoined opposites that eternally chase and alternate each other. Any physical or psychic symptom, therefore, is not a sign of a localized condition, but is a telltale sign of an imbalance in the organism as a whole. It does not follow, therefore, the tendency to dismember the individual components, in search of the ever smaller, losing sight of the purpose, the unity: Man and his psychophysical balance, immersed in the surrounding environment. Inserted in the Macrocosm, Man is also powered by the same flow of vital energy, the Qi (Breaths), which flows inside the body along the meridian network, the invisible channels that constitute the system of connection between the organs and vital functions. Qi is the product of Yin/Yang interaction and forms the basis of the world of phenomena. In the human body, Qi is the agent of movement and transformation, the principle that moves, warms and protects against external influences. On a psychological level, its free flow allows us to change state, to alternate different emotions passing from work to pleasure, from activity to rest. Health and physical well-being are therefore only the natural consequence of the harmonious circulation of Qi, while its imbalances favor the onset of diseases. Here the originality of Taoist thought is manifested: there is opposition, as nature teaches, but it is relative: darkness exists only when compared with light, and every reality is never absolute. Form is generated from formlessness, just as then form will lead to formlessness. This existence before existence, this “formless”, this unexpressed potentiality is indicated by the term Tao, literally “the Way”, the matrix of the Universe. From the dark mystery emerges something that is called “WuJi”, the “non-pole”, the embryo of an existence with still polarized and therefore not yet differentiated. That is why the symbol is an empty circle. This empty circle is filled into the TaiJi symbol, “The Great Pole.” Taiji is the differentiation present in potency, but not yet in place. It is still unity, but it contains within itself the seed of division and therefore of birth. The symbol gives the idea of a rising and falling tide, the fusion of white into black and black into white, of union in opposition and, of course, of movement. At the center of the black zone (Yin) there is a white dot, as well as in the center of the white zone (Yang) there is a black dot, to highlight how in each of the two components the germ of the other is contained, just as in the winter solstice, under the snow, the seed of the luxuriance of summer is already alive. The inscription of the two halves in a circle communicates the idea of the intimate fusion of the two aspects, which together constitute the totality of life. The Tao rotates and, by rotating, is configured in perpetual and inevitable transformation. Bibliography:Il libro della Medicina Tradizionale Cinese – Carlo Moiraghi – Fabbri EditoreElementi di Medicina Tradizionale Cinese – J. Schatz C. Larre E. Rochat De La Vallèe Edizioni Jaca BookElementi di Medicina Tradizionale Cinese – F.Bottalo Rosa Brotzu – Edizioni XeniaMedicina Cinese – Ted J. Kaptchuk – Red EdizioniMedicina Tradizionale Cinese – M. Corradin C. Di Stanislao M. Parini Casa Editrice AmbrosianaTeoria e pratica Shiatsu – Carola Beresford Cooke – ed. UTET
Medicine, psychology and quantum physics: a new approach to treatment
Medicine, Psychology and Quantum Physics: the crisis of certainties and the humanization of care”. This is the title of the Congress promoted by AIREMP, Italian Association of Research on Entanglement in Medicine and Psychology, held in Bologna on 19 and 20 November, which saw 370 participants including doctors, psychologists, biologists and physicists. The meeting highlighted the new perspectives of care and health promotion that open up with the paradigm shift that is taking place in Biology, Medicine and Psychology. In fact, if physics with the discovery of quantum entanglement for decades has shown that at the subatomic level there is an interconnection and interdependence of energy fields, only recently Biology, Medicine and Psychology have begun to integrate this scientific paradigm into a new vision of health and care, creating a new field of research and clinical application called Quantum Psychoneuroendocrine Immunology (PNEI Q), which also integrates broad research areas of Neuroscience. The event, with a multidisciplinary approach, was attended by personalities from the scientific world including Emilio del Giudice, Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Physics, Luigi Giuliani of the Ministry of Health, S. Khandro, nun of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Carlo Ventura of the University of Bologna, the President of AIREMP Prof. G. Genovesi of the Sapienza University of Rome, the Vice President Gioacchino Pagliaro Director of Hospital Psychology of the AUSL of Bologna. “Mind, meditation and energy exchange in care”, “Stress and the onset of diseases”, “Neurophysiology of meditative states” and “Possible new interpretations of cell transport mechanisms” are some of the topics at the center of the two days in Bologna that focused on quantum processes that can have important repercussions on the immune, nervous and endocrine systems, influencing the state of health and disease. Source: Sanità news 21.11.2011
Medical gymnastics and Chinese dietetics by Liliana Atz
In Taoist philosophy the world is a continuous becoming, whose driving force derives from the dynamics of Yin / Yang, For the Chinese tradition the Yin includes what is on the “shady side of the hill”, while the Yang what is on its “sunny side”.In Chinese energy philosophy the body is always too Yang (Fire), except in cases where a fast or illness does not make it too Yin.Another very important aspect in Traditional Chinese Medicine is Qi. Ted Kaptchuk (1) attempting a description of this term defines it as “matter on the verge of becoming energy and energy on the verge of materializing”. The Qi, the bioelectric circulation within the human body is generated by several possible causes, internal and external, including, for the purpose of understanding this article:1. The movement of the planets and atmospheric agents: sun, moon, stars, movement of clouds, the Earth’s magnetic field and other energies that surround us.Here arises spontaneously a reflection on how much technology regulates the life of Western man …2. Food and air, which must be “fair and clean”.3. From thought, as a source of bioelectric electromotive force. We think, therefore, about the importance of the quality of our thoughts in generating well-being or disease.4. From a correct physical movement that, using the mind to control the body, causes an increase in production and hormonal circulation in the body and a consequent greater psycho-physical vitality.A Fire Qi (Yang) is an impure Qi, which causes a heating of the organism and a psycho/spiritual imbalance of the body.Different is the situation of Water Qi (Yin), which is able to cool the excess fire of the body.And it is precisely the study of Yin / Yang rebalancing that is sought through the use of the different modalities in which Traditional Chinese Medicine is articulated.Medical gymnastics, breathing exercises, meditation, relaxation techniques, phytotherapy, massage, acupuncture and dietetics are used to bring the body back to a neutral state. Food and HealthIf what we eat becomes part of us, it is logical to think that, in the medium to long term, implementing precise food choices can profoundly change the body. From this intuition comes the awareness of the therapeutic power of the diet, understood as a programmed diet regimen.In the Chinese dietary vision, great importance is given to the understanding of the individual Yin/Yang characteristics of food, appearance, provenance, temperature, season, nature and taste. Later, also to the type of cooking used.As far as appearance is concerned, dark food is called Yin, while colored food is Yang. The food that grows underground is Yin, while the one that ripens in the sun is Yang. A food containing a high percentage of water is Yin, while a dry food is Yang.A food served cold is Yin, while a food served hot is Yang, etc.The same importance is attributed to the flavors of food, which are five and, precisely:1. acidic;2. bitter;3. sweet;4. spicy;5. Salty.According to the law of the Five Movements, each of them corresponds:1. an energetic loggia: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water;2. one season: spring, summer, late summer (the fifth season of the Chinese), autumn and winter;3. a climatic condition: wind, heat, humidity, dryness and cold;4. an organ: liver, heart, spleen/pancreas, lung and kidney. Each taste naturally has specific properties, which lead it to refer to the categories of Yin/Yang. In Yang, in particular, sweet, spicy and tasteless flavors (tastes that lead to sweating and / or urinating), in Yin all those flavors that instead determine a retention of liquids (ie acid, sour, salty and bitter).Contrary to Western dietetics, which does not consider the constitutional characteristics of the individual, Chinese food science adapts the choice of foods to the constitution and psycho-physical type of the person. Foods are prepared by harmonizing the five flavors to allow the body to benefit from their balanced interrelationship.Water and Fire (Yin / Yang) determine, in fact, the acid-base balance of the Blood, whose alteration leads to pathological situations and degenerative diseases related to cellular aging.Since it is only from the return to harmony of Man with his environment, from a prudent and conscious use of resources and food that derives true health:“If you’re traveling, don’t worry about the distance, but about the destination… If you sit at a banquet, don’t watchto the quantity, but to the quality of the dishes that are served to you”. (Chinese proverb) Already published on:http://www.scienzaeconoscenza.it/articolo/dietetica-cinese.php
Dietetics and health. Introduction by Liliana Atz
The human body is a temple and as such it must be cared for and respected.All the time (Hippocrates) With the introduction given by this article, we approach a path of awareness of the importance of proper nutrition. An approach, although basic to Chinese dietetics, while not disdaining other approaches, seems essential to us, as the knowledge of its principles, combined with foods of “short supply chain” and linked to seasonal rhythms are an important combination for the maintenance and / or recovery of health. “Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food” said Hippocrates, (Island of Cos 460 BC – Larissa 377 BC) the great Greek physician who first, in the West, introduced the innovative concept according to which the disease and health of a person depend on human choices, more than by superior divine responses. And it is in the “Classic Book of Medicine of the Yellow Emperor – Huang Di Nei Jing Su Wen” (II century BC), that in Chinese culture we find the first citations and references on the need to seek, for the maintenance of psycho-physical health, a diet adequate to the needs of the moment. Chinese dietetics, together with medical gymnastics (Tai Chi, Chi Kung), herbal medicine, manipulations (massages) and acupuncture, form the therapeutic pillars of ancient Chinese medical culture. With medical gymnastics, manipulations and acupuncture the body’s energy is rebalanced, while with dietetics and phytotherapy it preserves and nourishes its essence. If the diet is correct, energy will be abundant, the organs will be well nourished, and the mind and emotions will be in balance. In today’s China, the importance given to proper nutrition has seen the emergence of restaurants specialized in the preparation of “healing dishes”, made on medical prescription, in consideration of the general condition of the patient. Great importance is given to the genuineness of the foods used, in connection with seasonal rhythms and climate change. This nutritional vision approaches food, in fact, according to the qualitative canons that regulate the activity of the organs and viscera of the human body, using food in pharmacological terms, with the relative indications, contraindications and precautions, for the purpose of achieving and / or maintaining health. Dietetics is based on the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which considers the human being holistically, in its entirety. It is not a predefined diet, as it adapts to the particular conditions of each person, based on physical constitution, age, time of year, the country in which he lives, the type of work he does, the type of pathology he presents, etc … For this purpose, foods are classified according to different criteria: 1. based on the intrinsic energy of the food, a distinction is made:– warm and temperate foods: tone, warm, ascend, move.– neutral foods: stabilize, harmonize, center.– fresh and cold foods: they refresh, sedate, astringent, hydrate. 2. Based on flavour, as each flavour has a specific energy characteristic:– Acidic foods: astringent, they contract energy inwards.– bitter foods: draining, evacuating, firming and desiccant– salty foods: soften, purge and calm the Shen.– sweet foods: invigorating, harmonising and anti-spastic. 3. According to colour:– Red foods: revitalize.– yellow foods: stabilize, balance.– Green foods: detoxify, purify.– black foods: they tighten, tone the “Jing” (essence).– white foods: they purify. 4. Based on meridian tropism, as each food has a main meridian of impact. 5. According to the movement of the energy they activate: Yin or Yang, etc… By continuing, or learning to eat well, you can, therefore, heal both the body and the psyche, keeping the body healthy. Bibliography: Herry C. Lu-Curarsi con i cibi secondo la dietetica cinese – Red EdizioniHerry C.Lu – Chinese Foods or Longevity – Sterling
