If you would like to get rid of dampness in your body using TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) food therapy, then this post might be useful for your reference.
First, what is dampness and how is it formed in our body? In a perfect body, there will be no dampness because every food and fluid we consume will be either 100% absorbed through our spleens or pass out through the intestines and bladder.
However, no one has a perfect body, and especially with the weakening of our spleen (when we eat foods that are too oily, sweet, and cold), there will be parts of the fluid and foods that we eat are not 100% absorbed or pass out from our body. These things stay in our body and are known as phlegm or ‘dampness’ generally.
While it is fine to have a small bit of dampness in our body, it can cause other health issues after a prolonged period of time. For example, if dampness occurs in the lower part of the body, the result will be water retention (水肿) in the legs.
If the dampness were to stay in the middle part of our bodies for some time, it will cause our spleens to further weaken and causes loss of appetite and stomach bloatedness even if you were just drinking water.
If dampness were to stay in the upper part of our body, it can affect our lungs and causes issues in respiratory system such as long-term coughing.
Thus, it is essential to reduce dampness in our bodies for the sake of long-term health and not neglect it even when it does not bother you so much now.
In order to get rid of dampness effectively, you need to first determine if your dampness is due to heat-type (湿热) or cold-type(寒湿). You can use the following as a general guide to find out:
You have heat-type dampness if:
The tongue coating shows yellowish and thick.
Urine is yellowish or feels warm and/or painful when urinating.
Sticky stools.
Have oily face and acne-prone skin.
Your body constitution test is Tropical or Phlegm and Dampness Body Constitution type.
You have cold-type dampness if:
The tongue coating shows white and thick.
Frequent urination (clear color).
Have diarrhea easily when eating cold or oily foods.
Face skin looks darker and area around the eyes are more swollen.
Your body constitution test result is Phlegm and Dampness Body Constitution type.
TCM Food Therapy Advice For Heat-Type Dampness
For people with heat-type dampness, you need to quit smoking and avoid eating spicy foods. Also, avoid eating mutton meat as it is very heaty in thermal nature.
You are highly encouraged to eat bitter gourd, luffa, and winter melon.
You should also drink more Chinese barley water as it is an effective drink for getting rid of dampness.
TCM Food Therapy Advice For Cold-Type Dampness
You should avoid eating cold and raw foods and drinks.
You can also drink Chinese barley water but for the barley, you would need to pan-fry (without oil) it until it shows a bit brownish before making it into a drink.
I hope that this post is useful in helping you get rid of the dampness in your body!
Unfortunately, my wife also came down with dengue recently and it was during this period that I realized how serious is dengue fever!
My wife first started with fever and muscle aches on the first day. We didn’t suspect it was dengue because there were no rashes (in fact, the rashes only start to appear after the fever subsides on the 5th day).
We also noticed that dengue fever is very persistent in the first 5 days. The fever will keep coming back after the paracetamol (fever medicine, commonly known as Panadol to most people) effect wears off. So this is a sign to look out for.
During the first 5 days, my wife experienced poor appetite and abdominal pain (she can’t sleep on her side because of the abdominal pain).
Her eye area was painful, and the joint and body aches badly affected her sleep quality.
From the 6th day, her fever has subsided but rashes start to form on the body. It gets itchier from day 6 but it is more bearable (according to her) compared to the feverish symptoms in the earlier days.
However, according to the polyclinic doctors, it is after the 5th day that things can get more serious! This is something we were caught off guard for!
Apparently, the dengue virus will decrease the platelet count in the blood and if the platelet falls too low, internal bleeding may occur and it will require emergency medical attention if it happens!
Dengue patients (with low platelet count in the blood) may experience bleeding in some areas such as during brushing teeth, passing motion, and even washing face. You should seek medical attention when this happens!
Personally, I would suggest anyone to visit your nearby clinic if you suspect you have dengue fever based on the above symptoms. It is important to take a blood test to make sure your platelet count and other blood measurement are not too low.
My wife diligently went for blood test for four times before the doctor cleared her after the platelet count increased to the normal level. That was on the 10th day after she experienced the fever.
As you may already know, there is no medicine for dengue fever, even the doctors in polyclinic can only prescribe you paracetamol and anti-itch medicine and the rest depends on your body to fight the virus.
Based on our experience, there are some things that will help during this period:
Water – lots of it to keep your body hydrated. If you can’t drink a lot at a time, then make sure you take small sips throughout the day. It is very important to keep your body hydrated during the dengue fever period!
Dried orange peel – It helps to calm the stomach and improve the appetite.
Vitamin C – We believe it helps to increase platelet count. It can also help to relieve some stress during this period.
Milo – This is a comfort drink and also provides some basic nutrients for the body.
My wife and I hope that this blog post will help someone out there who is experiencing dengue fever or don’t know if they are infected with dengue or not.
Recently, I see more people are troubled by acne and face inflammation issues during this covid period so I decided to share my personal experiences in this blog post hoping it will also benefit you if you are troubled by acne.
I used to have acne problem even when I was in my 20+ when I was working after my graduation.
My acne that time got so bad that I decided to seek for medical attention.
The medical doctor prescribes anti-biotics for my condition and I was amazed by the results that the anti-biotics really works for me at that time.
After consuming anti-biotics for a while, I found that actually anti-biotics is not good for our health in long term because it will affect our immune system..
Furthermore, whenever I stopped the anti-biotics, it seems that my acne problem got worsen.. so I have no choice at that time but to keep taking anti-biotics.
I reached a point where I am sick of taking anti-biotics because I can’t imagine taking it for life and end up with a worsen acne situation if I were to stop someday!
Thus, I went onto a journey to learn what can I do to cure my acne. I read lots of books about skin and diet.
Eventually I got to find out about this term ‘integrative medicine’ and Dr Andrew Weil. From there, I learn a lot about holistic healing and started to look at what are the areas in my lifestyle that causes my acne back then.
It was enlightening that I found out that it was the dairy products (milk and cheese) and the spicy stuff that I was eating that is causing my acne!
If there is one thing that you can take away from this post, I hope let this be the point – to cure any acne problem, there must be a source causing it, and most of the time, it is the food that you are eating!
Avoid Eating These Foods:
I highly suggest to avoid eating the following foods if you are having acne or face redness inflammation all the time:
Dairy products like milk, cheese (this is the cause for me!)
Beverage that contains milk (you will be surprised that there are lots of them!).
Biscuits that contains milk (check the biscuits ingredients too, there are lots of them around).
Oil fried foods.
Spicy foods (If you can’t avoid them, then reduce the times you are eat them).
Just by reducing the above food products, you will sure notice improvements to your skin and acne starts to fade away after a few weeks.
Now, You May Have These Main Concerns:
Now, you may think that if you stop drinking milk and taking dairy products, then where does your source of protein and calcium comes from, right?
The answer is start to take soya bean drink (also known as soy milk), nowadays, there are a lot of choices of soya bean drink in the market. You can even buy those powdered types which are organic too!
Soya bean is a good source of protein and also helps to improve immune system, so it is a good replacement for milk.
As for calcium, some soya bean drink comes with enriched calcium too.
Besides soya bean drink, you can eat black sesame seeds spread with bread. In traditional chinese medicine, black sesame seeds contains good source of calcium.
Special note: Yoghurt is also high in protein and calcium but some people will still develop acne after eating yoghurt. But I think it is the type of yoghurt you choose. Once your acne has became better with the above tips, you can try taking yoghurt and see if it will cause acne again on you.
Some Tips For Face Washing
When it comes to face washing, pay no or little attention to TV commercials because most commercial face washing products are too harsh for acne prone face. You will realise that the more you use it, the more irritated your face will be..
For acne prone face, you should use gentle cleaning agents. One of the best face cleaning product that is both gentle and affordable is the African black soap, it is recommended to me and I have been using it for many years already! It contains shea butter and aloe vera. You can check out the details here.
One last thing that I would like you to know is about sleeping habits.
Turn In Earlier
If you are a teenager or young adult, you will not be happy to hear this – yes, sleeping earlier can help to improve your acne condition.
Ideally, you want to sleep before 11pm because that is when your body starts to detox and help to make your skin looks good.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, sleeping late will cause your body inner heat to rise and hurt your liver too.
So if you really care about your body and skin, start to think about sleeping earlier.
Ending Note
Acne is triggered because we have done something wrong in our lifestyle and mostly it is due to the food we eat.
You do not need to spend a lot of money seeking treatment. Just look very closely at your lifestyle (starting from eating, sleeping habits) and slowly making adjustments.
I am sure you will be able to cure your acne problem after adjusting your eating and sleeping habits.
It will definitely take some time, but never give up because our body has also been damaged for quite some time due to wrong diet and habits – thus, it will take some time too to help your body recovers.
Best wishes to your health and may you have the wisdom to identify the cause of acne.
*First things first, at the time of writing this post, this diploma course is conducted in Chinese only. If you have great difficulty understanding Chinese and prefer English language, you can contact Singapore TCM college to check whether they offer this course in English.
Time files and we just graduated from the class of 2016 =) One of the highlights in this course is that we went to China Yangzhou University for 10 days to learn TCM dishes from the masters there!
Class photo in China Yangzhou University for 10 days hands-on experience Mar 2018
Below is the curriculum for your reference if you are considering to enroll in this two year course. I will also share what each module covers and what are my key takeaways in the rest of this article.
This first module is exciting as it opens up the TCM concept to everyone. This module consists of 68 hours of classroom learning (which is one of the biggest module out of the whole course). The coverage includes TCM history, Yin Yang concept, Five elements (五行) concept, TCM human organs (五脏) concept.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me in this first module is understanding each and every of our five organs and how they associate with our human functions. For example, if our eyes have issues, it is commonly linked to our liver. If we have hearing issues, it could be due to kidney. We also learn what are the relationship between each organ such as Liver-Kidney, Heart-Lung etc.
2. 中医诊断学 – TCM Diagnostics (48 hours)
This second module is one of those that I look forward to because is covers how to diagnose a person’s illness based on the person’s face, eye, body, skin, tongue, pulse. Also, we learn what to ask a person’s to find the root cause of the illness.
The most valuable lesson for me in this module is when we were taught how to check each other’s pulses and determine what kind of pulse we have. It is a fun session as we check the pulse of the classmates sitting beside us and the teacher also go around sharing and highlighting some mistakes made by us.
Another lesson I remembered strongly is the observing of one’s tongue. We all have different body types and our tongue will reflect what is our main body type. That lesson is priceless as I learn how to tell one’s body type after looking at the person’s tongue.
3. 中药学 – Chinese Medicine Study (64 hours)
This module is one of my favorite because it teaches us the properties of Chinese medicine and I am amazed that the teacher actually go through one by one! We spent the whole 64 hours learning each Chinese medicine. Honestly, it is very overwhelming because of all the information but I tell myself at least I just need to remember a few and make a practice to use them in my daily life then it will well worth the time!
My favorite class and drink!
The greatest takeaway from this lesson is learning what kind of Chinese Medicine suits different people. It is because of these valuable knowledge, now I frequently cook Chinese Barley for my family and Chinese yam (山药) porridge for myself.
4. 方剂学 – Chinese Medicine Formula Study (60 hours)
After learning each type of Chinese medicine, this next module covers how different medicine comes together to formulate a solution (方剂). For example, a very popular formula for curing flu (cold-wind type) is 麻黄汤 which consists of 麻黄，桂枝，杏仁， 甘草。This formula targets to expel the coldness in one’s body as sweat to cure the flu. We learn how different medicine come together to create a much bigger synergy and stronger effect as compared to just using one medicine.
I also learn that there are different forms of Chinese Medicine formula like pills, herbs (raw and dried form) as well as powdered so what are the differences? Allow me to share with you below:
In accordance of speed of medicine effectiveness, herbs (raw and dried form) has the fastest effect. If you need to cure an illness fast, always choose the herbs form (but you must boil and cook them) to achieve a faster effect. I recalled there was once my mother feeling unwell and vomiting and we gotten a few herbs from a TCM doctor and immediately after taking the drink (after the herbs were cooked), my mom stopped vomiting. That was the fist time I witness the power of Chinese medicine in herbs form. However, not many TCM doctor prescribe dried herbs nowadays.
The next one is powdered form, which is most common form of Chinese Medicine you will get nowadays in most TCM clinics. The greatest advantage of powdered form is that it is very convenient to consume as you just need to add warm water because you don’t need to cook it. But the speed of seeing results is slower than the above method.
The last type is pills form. Comparing to the above two methods, pills often require much longer time to see results. It is recommended for long term illness and not short term discomfort like vomiting, stomachache etc. However, one greatest advantage of using pills is that you will not taste the Chinese medicine (comparing to the above two methods) especially some people don’t like the taste of Chinese Medicine.
5. 中医养生学 – TCM for Health and Longevity (32 hours)
I can’t find a direct translation for the Chinese characters ‘养生’ so I came up with my own interpretation which is Health and Longevity. This module talks about how one can stay have a long and healthy life based on TCM wisdom. A significant part of this module covers diet as well, especially what kind of people should adapt what kind of diet.
My greatest takeaway from this module (actually, this is the most valuable takeaway for this entire two years) is how to determine what body type a person is and recommend what diet for that person. There are nine body types overall:
This is the first practical module that relates to food. We learn different kinds of decoration and ways to cut fruits and food to present to improve food appetite. I learnt a lot from this module and it is the first time I cut fruits to present them beautifully. There are some hard work but once you get used to it, you will like it when your family members or friends see the outcome of your work =)
My work for the test for this module.
My work for the test for this module.
7. 食品卫生学 – Food Hygiene Study (32 hours)
Food hygiene module really give a lot of useful information on how to handle raw food (food storage, etc.) especially if you want to open a restaurant or food stall in future. In this module, we learnt what factors will affect the growth of bacteria in food ingredients.
One of the greatest takeaway from this module is that I learnt that when we buy fresh meat or fish from the market, and if we want to cook the meat / fish within the next three days, we can store them in the fridge (chiller compartment) but if we want to cook it beyond the third day, then we need to keep them in the freezer immediately once we reached home. And the best defrost method is to take the meat / fish out from the freezer and put it in the chiller two days before you want to cook it. These knowledge maybe fundamentals for most people who cook but for me, this is really useful!
8. 中医营养食疗学 – TCM Food Nutrition Study (48 hours)
I am quite surprised that in this module, we learnt a lot on vitamins and minerals that are needed by our human body. We talked about different type of minerals and vitamins and they are beneficial to us as well as different type of meat, fruits and vegetables. This information in this module is overwhelming too! At the end of this module, we were introduced some dishes that help to strengthen our organs too.
Perhaps the most valuable takeaway for me from this module is learn that the importance of including mushrooms in our daily diet. Especially for vegetarians, mushrooms is a good source of protein. On top of this, mushroom also has anti-cancer properties. Almost all mushrooms have good benefits on us except the button mushrooms (those common ones available in canned form). So if you can, eat less of those mushrooms if possible!
9. 食品卫生法规 – Food Hygiene Law (12 hours)
This is the shortest module where we learn the laws applicable in Singapore if you want to apply for license to sell food (either in Hawker centre or restaurant). Personally I take up this course is for self interest and not so much for business interest, so I didn’t really focus a lot on this module. But if you are someone who is keen to start a F&B business in Singapore, you will find this module useful and good to connect with the Lecturer who is also an experienced F&B consultant in Singapore.
10. 中华药膳学 – Chinese Medicated Diet (72 hours)
This is the main focus for this whole course and we are so delighted that the Principle of the school (项平院长) personally teach and share with us his wisdom from start to end! This module is what most of us have been waiting to learn from the beginning! It covers hundreds of dishes for different type of illness and this module also teaches us the different way of cooking like steam, water boil, fry and many others.
I am happy that we have some hands-on lessons to practice cooking and making bao with Chinese medicine before we went to China. My greatest takeaway is the hands-on where everyone comes together and work as a team to prepare the dishes that we learn. We had a lot of fun =)
My first attempt on bao making!
11. 烹饪器具使用和维护 – Cooking Utensils Usage and Maintenance (24 hours)
This is one of the few last modules and we were taught the different cooking or rather kitchen equipment and maintenance. This module is very short and the content is not as rich as I thought. Most of the things taught are mostly applicable to commercial stall so if you are looking to start a F&B business, then this is a good module for you.
12. 烹饪经营与管理学 – F&B Operations and Management Study (16 hours)
This module is more for people who want to start a F&B business, so again, most of the things taught is just for my knowledge. My greatest takeaway here is learning from the life & business experience from our class monitor, who is 沈希, the founder of 沈希老火汤 in Singapore. I am really fortunate to be in the same class as him for these two years =)
13. 扬州大学实习 – Hands-On Experience At Yangzhou University (48 hours)
I was pretty anxious about this trip because I don’t know what to expect but I heard that it was packed with activities (classes, cooking). Indeed, we hardly have time personally other than after the class ends around 6pm.
Everyday our class starts at 8am and we have to catch the bus from school outside our hotel at 7.30am. But I really enjoy that period of time where we wake up, have breakfast in hotel, say good morning to classmates then wait for the bus, I cherish every moment from climbing the staircase (to the classrooms / kitchen) to changing to our chef uniform because I know that very likely in short term there won’t be much chance in future I will be back to Yangzhou University to learn again.
We had a very fulfilling experience over in China learning theory and practical from the Masters. I am also happy that we had some time in the second last day to tour around the city as a class before we head back to Singapore. I am not a photo-taking person so the following are almost all the photos I have.. =p
Me and my buddy, Xiao Luo
Our Master preparing bird nest and filling them in exotic bowls for presentation.
Not done by me! But we were taught how to do this porcupine bao!
Me and one of my teammates (center) and our Teacher (on the second right).
I am happy whenever I can put what I have learnt into practice. After I returned from China, I make it a habit to cook some of our meals with my wife using what I have learnt. I particularly like to cook porridge because it is much easier to add Chinese medicine to help us harmonize the Yin Yang energy in our body from time to time. The following are some of the simple dishes my wife and I prepared at home (I’d never imagine I could do this before this course)!
Mixed grains porridge with Chinese yam.
WenSi toufu (two bowls on the extreme left) is one of the dishes we learnt in the course.
Mixed grains with sweet potato and cordyceps flower.
Stir fried lady finger
Black Pomfret with tomato
Vegetables with sliver fish.
I have personally benefited from this course greatly. From the skills I learnt, I can now able to plan, prepare and cook meals for my family members considering their different body types. You can check out for more details regarding this course here.
I hope that this post help to clarify some questions in your mind if you are considering to take this Diploma course or not. Good luck!
Ending note: I will be sharing some of the important things I have learnt from this course in this blog because I hope more people can benefit from the TCM wisdom. If you have any questions for me, you can post your comments below.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
The medical doctor prescribes anti-biotics for my condition and I was amazed by the results that the anti-biotics really works for me at that time.
It was enlightening that I found out that it was the dairy products (milk and cheese) and the spicy stuff that I was eating that is causing my acne!
The answer is start to take soya bean drink (also known as soy milk), nowadays, there are a lot of choices of soya bean drink in the market. You can even buy those powdered types which are organic too!
Special note: Yoghurt is also high in protein and calcium but some people will still develop acne after eating yoghurt. But I think it is the type of yoghurt you choose. Once your acne has became better with the above tips, you can try taking yoghurt and see if it will cause acne again on you.
If you are a teenager or young adult, you will not be happy to hear this – yes, sleeping earlier can help to improve your acne condition.
