Blog & Columns
Useful information about health and Korean medicine.
Total 10 posts
They Say Rest Heals — But What If Resting Doesn't Heal You
Resting and recovering are not the same thing. Recovery is active work the body does, and for that work to run, the conditions must be right. Saying rest doesn't heal you is not a confession of laziness but important diagnostic information.
If the Painful Spot Is Actually Cold and Dull
Even the same pain feels different to the touch — some spots hot, some cold. Long-standing pain is often not an excess of inflammation but a case where even the repair response cannot rise. Rather than making a painful spot quiet, I look toward making it respond again.
When the Bone Has Healed but It Still Hurts
There is a reason swelling and pain remain after the bone has healed. Lymph is not pushed by the heart, so if you don't move, the fluid doesn't drain. I first make a state in which it can be used, and then bring movement back.
When It Gets Especially Worse in Winter and at Dawn
If your pain worsens at three or four in the morning and in winter, it's no coincidence. At the time when the body's temperature and circulation are at their lowest, the weakest spot gives way first. I read the timetable of pain as a clue for treatment.
When your hands and feet tingle and you cramp often, but the tests are normal
Your hands and feet tingle and you cramp often at night, yet the tests usually come back normal. In these cases, before the nerve or muscle itself, I first look at the chemical environment of the body in which that nerve and muscle are immersed.
When Your Neck and Shoulders Tighten Up Again No Matter How You Loosen Them
Even with massage, even with stretching, the neck and shoulders tighten up again within days. In these cases, before loosening the knotted muscle, I first look at why that muscle keeps working.
How Does the Medicine You Take Find Its Way to the Painful Spot?
A medicine that circulates through the whole body — why does it act precisely at the painful spot? I see it not as the medicine finding the spot, but as the spot catching hold of the medicine.
The Same Back Pain, With a Different Cause, Calls for Different Treatment — The Three Branches of Pain
Back and neck pain fall into three branches: muscle and fascia / joint and ligament / nerve pathway. I separate the cause and vary the location and method of treatment accordingly.
If treating the painful spot doesn't cure it
Your calf hurts, so you treat the calf — and it doesn't get better. The body uses other places to endure a problem. I trace that chain back to its source.
How Long It Takes for Pain to Become Chronic
Why do doctors speak of three months, six months? Because during that time it is not the body but the nerves that change. And what has changed can be reversed.