Story-to-science and Eastern medicine ponderings (this post will be a thread for pasting research and considering science across cultural traditions):

In Ojibwe, the word for medicine--mashkiki--apparently translates to "strength of the earth." [I'll post a video later on that]

Chinese and Vietnamese traditional medicine share a lot of similarities--often, changes take an environmental approach over a longer periods of time rather than targeted at one particular ailment, and the effects are often gradual too.

i.e. eating bitter squash/melon a few times a month winds up preventing or flushing out parasitic infections. It's also used in the Philippines as a way to regulate insulin.

Or when ill, cạo gió--roughly translates to “catch wind/spirit[?]”-- agitating the skin with a coin (sometimes called "coining" = think of a massage, dragging/scraping the edge of a coin with the force of an itch across your back+front etc. for boosting circulation--most medical pictures on the internet are horror stories of it done wrong) to promote circulation and menthol/peppermint oil + absorption (and maybe also circulation if the oils actually do that) is a traditional practice that I also grew up with and found useful especially whenever I had respiratory ailments, especially with the flu and fevers.

In the past decade, there's a growing body of Western research showing properties in menthol and peppermint oil that support the practice [will post NIH/other peer reviewed links below].

1) you're increasing circulation, and often decreasing inflammation

2) they have antiviral+antibacterial properties

As I think about the Chinese COVID-19 AliBaba MediXchange cases, several hospitals including Wuhan's noted that they also issued Traditional Chinese Medicine along side with conventional medical treatments that the U.S. is trying to test to confirm now. Vietnam is it's own country with some of its own practices but I wouldn't be surprised if coining with a menthol is part of the mix too. In retrospect, the fact that the most popular ointment I grew up with has Chinese characters all over it probably means that it's a Chinese practice too...

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And yeah, some folks would consider Asians Eastern, and Native Americans in the "West" (excluding the folks who consider land-bridge migration and pre-colonial African migration part of the history).

But the Ojibwe creation story begins in the East, plus their maps would start with East on top too. So I'm drafting the Aanishinabek brothers and sisters back into the Eastern delegation as this season's top pick along with the Wu Tang Clan.

 

 

 

 

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Menthol essential oil vapor as:

1) anti-inflammatory

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2016.00170/full

2) antiviral

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ffj.3252

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6064118/

 

 

See treatments (U.S., Chinese, etc.) and updates in this thread for Health Care Workers:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10112982683270473&id=2256689

Or straight to China's COVID-19 handbook: https://covid-19.alibabacloud.com/

Trad Chinese Medicine for COVID-19

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7128263/