 |
|
|
MORE STORIES The Science of Asian Medicine: In from the Cold For centuries, Western science has dismissed Asia's traditional herbal remedies as quackery. But now the hunt is on to find cures that truly heal--and to figure out how they do it Using the Force Get in touch with your qi Killer Cure A herbal liver remedy proves deadly Acupuncture It's hard to pinpoint what makes needles work Strange Brew Are herbal soups really good for you? Genki Fever TIME puts Japan's energy drinks to the test |
Feeling Crummy? Get in Touch with Your Inner Force
Hippocrates' greatest contribution to Western medicine was to convince Greeks that it wasn't the gods that brought on illness, it was an imbalance of the body's four "humors"—black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. It took some 2,400 years and the Enlightenment to consign that philosophy to the dustbin. But China's intellectual constructs regarding health, solidified around the time of Hippocrates, were strikingly similar—and proved far more enduring. Health depends on a ubiquitous vapor known as qi (pronounced chee), or vital energy. Nature dictates well-being, but those with their qi in equilibrium can stave off illness.
The Chinese medical profession is as rigid about qi as the Papacy once was about the Sun revolving around the Earth. Tai Chi master Chan Wing, who teaches in Hong Kong, swears that people would be dead without it. "Qi makes the blood flow. It is as necessary to the blood as oxygen." Methods have been developed to massage and regulate a body's qi in various ways, including the use of medicines and acupuncture. The most common treatments are basic physical and mental disciplines practiced by hundreds of millions of people each day. Tai Chi, for instance, uses a series of slow-paced movements. Dr. Herbert Benson, the founding president of Harvard's Mind/Body Medical Institute, explains how it works: "Qi Gong, Tai Chi and other yogic-type exercises all evoke a common state of the body, called the relaxation response. It raises metabolism, lowers the heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, and slows brain waves. The belief is that when you're in this state the body manifests an inborn, quiet energy that's called qi."
Benson and others have shown that any discipline involving repeated words, sounds or movements that allow practitioners to disregard everyday thoughts will bring about this same physiological state of relaxation. What he cannot explain is the remarkable display that I observed in master Chan's classroom: by directing his qi through his outstretched hand and toward the shoulder of a longtime assistant, Chan sent the man careening backward without touching him. That's the power of qi, Chan says: "It runs like gangsters through your body. We train your qi to be an army."
promotion
|
| QUICK LINKS: Cover Story | Using the Force | Killer Cure | Acupuncture | Strange Brew | Genki Fever |