Optimal Wellbeing Blog

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is more than just acupuncture and the odd herbal formula. Nutritional advice plays a key role in our holistic treatment plans, with colds being no exception. The common cold is most often classified by TCM principles as Wind-Cold attack, although some presentations are known as Wind-Heat or Summer Heat Dampness. In […]

There is a time to sow and a time to reap. There is also a time to let the soil rest, it’s called cover cropping. It’s when a Winter crop is planted with the intention to till back into the soil to increase the nutrients available to the seeds sown in Spring.   When we […]

Nutrition in TCM has the main goal of restoring the body to balance, in order to correct states of deficiency or excess. For example, heating foods such as chilli, ginger, deep fried or alcohol should be avoided in “hot” conditions like those involving acute inflammation. Cooling foods, such as watermelon and cucumber, are advised against […]

Clinical research and practice are constantly evolving in the world of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), but its origins can be traced back to thousands of years ago. Long before detailed acupuncture point charts and herbal medicine texts were written, the basic principles of TCM theory were born in the I Ching. The I Ching, or […]

Traditional Chinese understandings of our world’s natural cycles categorise the five seasons according to specific climates. Summer is related to Heat, late summer to Humidity, autumn to Drought, and winter and spring to Cold Wind. All climates are seen during all seasons, but their manifestations are stronger in the matching ones. Just as in nature, […]

Tea, which has been enjoyed in China for well over 2,000 years, is available in many different forms depending on the level of fermentation. Green tea is unfermented, while yellow, white, oolong and black tea are slightly, mildly, semi- and completely fermented respectively. Dark teas, such as Pu’erh, are post-fermented.  This fermentation not only affects […]

In ancient China, it was believed that babies should be exposed to music while still in the womb to boost their intellect. Though this might sound strange at first glance, there could be modern scientific evidence to back it up!  Musical development has demonstrated several positive effects on brain development, such as improved sensory and […]

Tea is one of the most popular drinks in the world, consumed by more than two-thirds of people globally. While it most likely originated much earlier, the earliest clear written evidence of tea drinking dates back to 59 BC, from China’s Western Han dynasty. It turns out that tea’s journey to world domination also started […]

Welcome to winter 2020, the world’s a little topsy turvy at the moment and hopefully you’ve taken advantage of the self isolation and interruption to life as we knew it, to clean out any piles of paperwork, corners of junk, cupboards of bric-a-brac and sheds of rubbish you might have had.  In order to welcome […]

We are heading into winter now and the big questions people are asking themselves. How will COVID-19 impact me as we come out of isolation?  Is there going to be a second round?  Why do some people have COVID-19 and not get any symptoms?  Could I have had it and not have known?   These are very […]

We now know acupuncture needles as thin, disposable metal items, but they weren’t always around in this form. While metalwork dates back to 4500 BC in some areas of China, medical tools weren’t the top priority of ancient artisans. Small tools and decorative items such as earrings make up the vast majority of metalwork from […]

Could acupuncture have existed in ancient Europe? Mapping and analysis of the tattoos on Europe’s most well-known mummy, “Otzi” the Iceman, suggests that a primitive version of the therapy may have been known over 5,200 years ago. While they’re a lot harder to see now, medical imaging found a total of 61 tattoos that can […]