I don't know about you, but my family and I have been in coronavirus lockdown for 25 days (first in self-isolation, then in semi-lockdown along with the rest of the UK) and I am starting to feel a niggly ache in the back. And I am hearing this a lot when I talk to friends and colleagues, who say they have stiffness or pain in joints as a result of sitting a lot.

If we were already, as a society, sitting too much before, then this is certainly the case now as movements are restricted to however many rooms you have in your living space. In the UK, we're allowed to go out once a day for exercise, shopping for essentials, medical appointments, and essential work. Assuming we sleep eight hours a day, that leaves us 14-15 hours a day potentially sitting down a lot!

One solution is to invest in a standing desk. But if you look at amazon, for example, stands desks are neither cheap nor always in stock. Yesterday a friend of mine suggested using your bog standard ironing board as an adjustable desk for a laptop.  

I like to set an alarm so that every hour, I am reminded to get up, stretch and move. Make a cup of tea! Or better yet, offer to make others cups of tea. Everyone knows that a good cuppa is all you need to make it all okay.

In terms of supported exercise, of course you have a plethora of Youtube exercise channels and yoga webinars to choose from.

However, if you fancy doing a more gentle exercise that is good for circulating and generating energy and requires no specialist equipment, do give qi gong a try. Qi gong is a system of energetic and healing exercises from ancient China that integrates principles of relaxation, movement and breathing, especially helpful during these days of self-isolation. My colleagues and I at the School of Tai Chi Chuan London are running free weekly webinars at 6pm (London time) on Tuesdays. No previous experience necessary. 

If you'd like to give qi gong a try, please email me and I will send you a link to these online gatherings.

Day 2 in Locked-down London. I hope you're keeping safe and remembering your epidemiologically approved 2m distance. (Try saying that word three times in a row!)

Our professional body, the British Acupuncture Council, has advised members to stop practising acupuncture. How frustrating because in China, Chinese medicine doctors are very much in the frontline of the war against this novel coronavirus. But if we can't give acupuncture treatments, there are other ways to help.

We all know the importance of eating well and in moderation, doing enough exercise (Boris Johnson has given us all a pass to go out once a day!), and getting enough physical and mental rest. Those are all key to keeping your immune system strong. But because the coronavirus attacks the lungs, we can all do with specific exercises to strengthen the lungs.

Qi gong and tai chi are so-called internal exercises that were developed by the ancient Chinese and are very much part of the Chinese medicine universe, along with acupuncture, herbs, massage (tui na) and diet. Tai chi is a system of movement, meditation, and self-defence; the tai chi form consists of a sequence of postures, strung together in smooth, slow, continuous movement. In contrast, qi gong is co-ordinated body-posture and movement, breathing and meditation, and done standing or sitting.

You don't need to know the tai chi form to do qi gong. Both exercises are fabulous ways of circulating qi (translated as vital energy) around the body, which is essential to health. If you are interested in doing some qi gong exercises for strengthening the lungs, watch this lovely video of Peter Deadman, one of the pioneers of Chinese medicine in the UK. We all seem to have a lot of time nowadays!

Photo credit: Edward Johnson

Everyday we hear about how sugar is bad for us, but for me that message didn't really hit home until January this year when I found out that my blood glucose (or sugar) level is in the pre-diabetic range. You see, type 2 diabetes runs in my family so although I am not overweight, I am genetically predisposed to insulin resistance. This is when the body's tissues become less sensitive to insulin, which is what enables the body to take up glucose from the bloodstream. This leads to uncontrolled high levels of blood glucose, which we know results in serious problems with the kidneys, eyes, skin and the nervous system. Diabetes is a huge problem: the National Health Service spends £2.3bn-2.5bn a year on inpatient care for people with diabetes. That is equivalent to 11% of its budget!

I remember what my favourite biomedicine teacher, Awais Mian, always used to say about diabetes - the lifestyle advice you're given is not just for those with diabetes, it's for everyone who wants good health. This includes a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, with lots of complex carbs and food with a low glycemic index (delivering sugar to the bloodstream slowly). It means saying no to cakes and biscuits. Vigorous exercise is key, and in my case it's fast walking - not the gentle walks that I used to do, but walking fast enough to really raise my heart beat - and swimming. It helps to have a husband who loves swimming and thinks nothing is more fun than an excursion to London Fields Lido on a Sunday morning.

And of course, I also went down the route of  acupuncture and Chinese herbs. This combination of Chinese medicine and lifestyle changes works - I just has a blood test a few weeks ago and my blood sugar level is back to normal. This is probably going to be a lifelong war with sugar, but at the moment the score is Sugar 0 - Tess 1.

My friend Lina and I (I'm on the left) spent a couple of hours this morning with a group of carers in north London to give a talk on complementary therapies. The event was organised by the Brent Carers Centre, which offers support and activities to carers in the local area. This is a very large group of people whose work often goes unrecognised in society. One in eight adults in the UK are carers, according to Carers UK. This really hit home a few years ago when my mother-in-law started caring for my father-in-law at home, which is effectively a 24-hour job.

I spoke about the benefits of acupuncture and Chinese medicine to address physical, psychological and mental conditions. This seems to have resonated deeply with the attendees and it was great to see such  level of interest, presumably because of the very high mental and physical toll on carers. Seventy-two percent of respondents to Carers UK's State of Caring survey said they suffered mental ill health as a result of caring, while 61% said they suffered physical ill health. Many of the attendees wanted to know what they can do to help themselves, whether that is getting treatment or learning tai chi or qi gong (Chinese exercises that are based on principles of relaxation, balance and breathing, among others). They had conditions such as migraines, sciatica and tinnitus that respond well to acupuncture.

Apart from anything else, it was great to team up with my friend Lina Ramchand, whom I first met in Hong Kong about 20 years ago when we were both copy editors at the South China Morning Post. She is now practising reflexology, Indian head massage and sekhem energy work, and I am now an acupuncturist so we can help patients and carers in so many ways.

After the excesses of the festive season, it’s natural to turn your focus on your state of health at this time of the year. Are you the type of person who resolves to go to the gym to lose weight, perhaps go alcohol-free for the month of January, or maybe eat more sensibly? All good things, of course. But for me, I realised a couple of things over the Christmas break.
 
My husband and I both stopped working between Christmas and New Year, so had nearly 10 days of rest and relaxation. After the Christmas celebration, there weren’t many demands on our time, so it was wonderful to wake up in the morning and think about what we felt like doing that day instead of being ruled by the diary’s schedule. In hindsight, what I enjoyed the most was the ability to go slow. And that feeling is what I want to take into the new year with me.
 
I realise that life is very different when things are back to “normal” and you have to go back to work. But there are lots of things we can do to slow things down. I don’t have to look at the phone all the time: I can put it aside when I’m eating, or can check emails at certain times of the day. When I’m eating, I can try to do just that - just eat and enjoy my meal without looking at TV or reading the news.
 
Slowness also resonates with winter, the season that represents the most Yin aspect in Chinese medicine. Yin is the dark, cold, slow, inward energy, which is the opposite of the Yang of summer (think warmth, long days full of light, activity). Chinese medicine encourages us to be in harmony with the seasons - this is believed to contribute to good health and longevity.
 
So this January, try to rest more by sleeping early and getting up later. Turn your attention inward by reading, writing, meditating or learning internal exercises like t’ai chi or qi gong. Fill your reserves of energy so that you are ready for the outburst of activity when spring comes.

When I was a kid growing up in the Philippines, I adored my Lola Sion, my dad’s mum. She was a respected figure in the community, was a teacher in the local school, and brought up seven children single-handedly after the Second World War (my grandfather, Lolo Juan, died of tuberculosis in 1950). She also slipped coins under her grandchildren’s pillows at night while they slept, and when we showed her the coins in the morning, claimed there is a magic bullfrog that did the rounds at night (perhaps her version of the tooth fairy), but that is for another blog.
 
I’ve been thinking of Lola Sion recently as I read an article* about how tai chi may help prevent osteoporosis in post-menopausal women. Lola Sion was an active woman in her early 70s, but an accident caused her to fall and break her hip bone. I don’t know if she had osteoporosis (post-war diet in rural Philippines may not have been very rich in calcium), but she never recovered from her broken hip and was bed-ridden for two years before passing.
 
Nowadays of course we know that a balanced diet and regular exercise help slow the loss of bone density and delay or prevent osteoporosis (a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, makes too little bone, or both). Studies suggest that about one in two women and up to one in four men age 50 and older will break a bone due to osteoporosis.
 
Medications and hormone replacement may also be used to fight osteoporosis. But all medications have side effects. Why not try a form of exercise that is fun, relaxing and has many health benefits?
 
I am talking about tai chi, which according to the US National Institutes of Health*, may help maintain bone mineral density. T’ai chi places great emphasis on standing single-weighted (all the weight in one leg), which stimulates bone growth. One of the senior teachers in my school of tai chi, Margaret Matsumoto, had a bone density scan at age 60 and her hips showed the same bone density as a healthy 30-year-old!
 
The London School of T’ai Chi Chuan is offering free introductory sessions on September 19th and 20th in central London. Come along and see what tai chi and studying with us is like. We will tell you about the background of our school, some of the benefits of doing tai chi (not just for osteoporosis!), introduce you to its basic principles and have a taster class. Click here for details. All welcome!

I wonder what Lola Sion would have made of this ancient Chinese exercise? Now there’s a thought.
 
* Wayne, P.M., Kiel, D.P. and Krebs, D.E. (2007) ‘The effects of tai chi on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: A systematic review’, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.