Consotherapy: The Dao of the Health

The main idea of the Dao, or the Healthy Way, of the Consotherapy, in other words, is the four principles of health care, which can be elaborated in the following aspects: emotion, diet, life-style, and the environment.

1. The Dao of Healthy Emotion

The first principle of health care is to have emotional health. Regardless of nationalities, races, and regions, human health will be affected by seven emotions: joy, anger, worry, over thinking, sadness, fear, and shock. Each emotion affects different human internal organs. Joy goes into the heart. The emotion of joy affects the function of the heart. Anger goes into the liver. The emotion of anger affects the function of the liver. Worry and over thinking go into the spleen. The emotions of worry and over thinking affect the function of spleen. Sadness does into the lung. The emotion of sadness affects the function of lung. Shock and fear go into the kidney. The emotions of shock and fear affect the function of the kidney. Certain emotional changes will cause certain effects on human body, and excessive emotional changes will cause negative influence on human health. Based on this theory, we can also prevent diseases to occur by controlling the emotions. For example, we should avoid getting angry to protect our liver. We have known that anger goes into our liver. When we are angry, we should try to calm down as fast as we can so that we will not cause the negative effect to the function of the liver.

2. The Dao of Healthy Dietary

The second principle of health care is to eat healthfully. There are two categories of Conso Dietary Health Method. First is the use of food. From the appearance of food, we can classify food to five colors: green, red, yellow, white, and black/dark purple. Each color causes individual influence on human health. Green food benefits the liver, red food improves the heart function, yellow food nourishes the spleen, white food is good for the lung, and black/dark purple food makes the kidney work better. According to this theory, we must take these five colors of food in all to have balanced influence of our inner organs. Conso Dietary Health Method proposes the “Natural Five Color Detox Drink.” According to individual’s need, we match five colors of vegetable and fruit, regardless cooked or raw. Please refer to the recipe written in the chapter of Conso Living Habits Health Method. In addition, Conso Dietary Health Method also claims “five more and three less” on eating quantity. Second is the use of Chinese medicine supplement for health care. What is Chinese medicine supplement? Gouqizi can be one of the examples. Chinese doctors use Gouqizi as medicine in their prescriptions, and people also use Gouqizi as an ingredient when making soup. Things like Gouqizi that can be used for both purposes is what we called Chinese medicine supplement. It’s also called for short as Medical Food(藥食). On June 6th, 2006, the American Academy of World Traditional Medical Science and American Institute of Chinese Medicine against Cancer announced "Index of American Medical food" 《美國藥食通用目錄》to clarify the criteria of Chinese medicine supplement according to the needs of Americans. There are three subtitles under the index: the theory of Consotherapy, the prescriptions of the permutation and combination of medical food, and the combination and the application of medical and regular food.

3. The Dao of Healthy Life-style

The third principle of health care is to have healthy living habit. The healthy living habit refers to our daily routine. We suggest that people should establish good living habit. There are four things you need to do to maintain health.

First, set up a regular schedule. An ancient Chinese slang said:” get up when the sun rises, and go to bed when the sun sets.” In other words, lives are active when the sun rises. If people get up when the sun rises, the positive energy in our body can also be active. When the sun sets, lives go slow and hide. If people rest at this time, we can save and restore the positive energy. Of course, the rest doesn’t mean that we have to go to bed and sleep right after the sky is dark. What I mean is that we can do something different from the daytime activities such as walking in the country side, looking at the sunset, singing, dancing, or having a cup of tea and relax. You might want to ask “when will be the proper time to go to bed?” The time to go to bed is called “zishi and wushi” Zishi means the midnight. We must finish shower and lay on the bed around eleven o’clock and fall in sleep around twelve o’clock because the midnight is the coldest time in the nature. The positive energy in human body also goes down to the lowest point. So we must rest and stop consuming the positive energy. Wushi means the noon. Taking a fifteen to thirty minutes nap in the noon is good for us because we have consumed the positive energy for the whole morning. Therefore, taking a break in the noon will give our body a chance to restore some energy back for the work in the afternoon.

Second, eat appropriately. This refers to that we should dine at the regular time and in a proper amount. In the morning when the sun rises, human body needs quality food to promote the positive energy. This is called”zaochihao.” In the noon, the digest function of human body is the strongest. So we need to eat a bigger portion of food to produce a lot of energy for the afternoon. This is called”zhuengchibao.” In the afternoon when the sun sets, the positive energy of the nature declines. The digest function of human body is turning slow. Therefore, it is better that we eat some light food, and don’t get over stuffed. Being 80% full is the best. This is called”uanchishao.”

To maintain health, men (starting at age forty) and women (starting at age thirty five) need to have a complete plan to maintain health. People who have not reached their age of maintenance but have weak body type will need to start early. The principle of maintaining health is that taking supplement in the morning, and detoxifying in the evening.” Let’s talk about taking supplement in the morning first. When reaching the stage of maintenance, simply having quality breakfast in the morning is not enough anymore. It is necessary to take extra nutritional supplement. As for the detoxifying in the evening, what we need is Natural Five Color Detoxifying Drink. After the whole day activity, we have eaten much food, breathed in much air, and probably had been through several emotional changes. All of these factors above will affect human body in certain degrees and cause the production of toxins. In addition, the metabolism of human body is slowing down in the evening. If we want to detoxify our body, we need a little help from Natural Five Color Detoxifying Drink. What is Natural Five Color Detoxifying Drink? We mentioned the theory of five food colors earlier in “Conso dietary health method.” And the following is an example for how to make Natural Five Color Detoxifying Drink at home:

Third, no smoking and drinking. Both cigarettes and alcohol can excite human body. However, it’s been proved from the long turn research that cigarettes and alcohol will cause serious damages to human body. Cigarettes, including the second hand smoke, cause bad influence to the lung. 80% of lung cancer, heart disease, cerebral paralysis, digestive ulcer, progeria, amenorrhea, premature birth, miscarriage, fragile bones, mental handicap and low weight of fetus, children bronchitis, wheezing, and tympanitis are resulted from smoking cigarettes. Drinking too much will cause damages to liver, stomach and intestine and lung. It also results in obesity. Therefore, quitting smoking and drinking is very important to maintain health.
Fourth, exercise regularly. The emphasis of Conso living habits health method is to combine exercise and quietness. There is a proverb says that “exercise produces positive energy, quietness produces negative energy.” The positive energy helps human body to heat up and promotes the metabolism, and the negative energy can nourish human body and deliver the nutrition. However, excessive quietness will lead to “Jiu Zuo Shang Rou” (long-time sitting damages the muscles) causing sore and tired muscle, fat or emaciated; and “Jiu Yi Shang Mai”(over relax damages the vessels) causing heart and brain problems. Excessive exercise will lead to “Jiu Xing Shang Jin”( long-time walking damages the tendons)and “Jiu Li Shang Gu”( long-time standing damages the bones). In addition, one unexpected and interesting circumstance is that excessive oral exercise damages the middle-warmer energy! (It’s called “Jiu Yan Shang Qi”).

4. The Dao of Healthy Environment

The Fourth principle is healthy environment. Conso Environment Health Method classifies the environment into inner environment and external environment. The inner environment means the inside of human body. The authentic methods of maintaining human body are what we have mentioned above: Conso Emotional Health method, Conso Dietary Health method, Conso Living Habits Health method. Therefore, we will mainly discuss the external environment.

External environment means the nature environment outside human body and artificial living and working environment. There are five factors of the external environment that can affect human body: climate, sun light, water quality, location, and equipment. The factor that relates to our daily life the most is the climate, so we will mainly discuss how we can maintain health based on different seasons.

In the spring, the weather turns warm. Lives start to wake up, and the positive energy of the nature restores. We should follow the flow of the spring and be optimistic and active. Do not be depressed because being depressed will eliminate the positive energy in your body. We must be generous. Give more and fight less; reward more and punish less. By doing this, we can get along with our family and friends well. To make our will accommodate with the development of the nature, we can sleep late and get up early, fall the hair down loosely, stretch the body more, and walk in the garden and appreciate the plants. Spring is the season of maintaining the liver, so we can eat some spicy food and sweets in the spring to facilitate the positive energy of the liver. Please avoid the sour food. Sour food will restrain the development the positive energy of the liver.

In the summer, the sunlight is strong, and temperature is high. Everything on the earth is flourishing. We need to be peaceful in the summer, and avoid being angry. The combination of the hot weather and over heat of the body will damage our health. Summer is a good time for enthusiastically working or studying. As for the aspect of sleep, we can also sleep late and get up early. Please do not let the fans blow directly to you while sleeping, be under the air condition, or stay in the cold water for too long because of the hot weather of summer. Summer is the season of maintaining the heart, so we should eat more spicy and warm food instead of cold and bitter food.

In the fall, everything on the earth turns mature. It’s the season of harvest. At this time, the positive energy of the nature starts to decline, and the negative energy starts to increase. The temperature difference is big. Human emotion is also affected by the climate. People feel depressed and sad easily when they feel weather is turning cold and see the plants withering. So, it’s important to stay calm to keep the clearness of the lung. As for the aspect of sleep, it’s better to sleep early and get up early. Fall is the season of maintaining the lung. Human body turns hot easily because the weather tends to be dry in fall. We need to eat some more sour food, drink more water, and decrease spicy food.

In the winter, the water is frozen, and everything on the earth enters the stage of hiding and sleeping. Human in the winter should also follow the nature and rest more. Avoid the excitement of emotions, especially the emotions of afraid, scared, and upset. Only the inner peace can grow the positive energy in our body, so we will be ready for the challenges next year. What we should do to maintain the health in the winter is that we should sleep early and don’t have to wake up until the sun is up, so we have enough time to grow the positive energy. In addition, the winter is the season of maintaining kidney, and the salty taste goes into the kidney. So, we should eat more bitter food and avoid the salty food.

American Academy of Chinese Medicine against Cancer

The Introduction of Consotherapy

Part One

Consotherapy: The Dao of the Health

1. The Dao of Healthy Emotion

3. The Dao of Healthy Life-style

4. The Dao of Healthy Environment