Do the Chinese use alcoholic drinks for health purpose?
One DOM told me to drink wine with some pills he gave me.
Years later another DOM told me never to do that. He also said the Chinese are some of the heaviest drinkers in the world. By the time they are 50, they have developed joint problems as a result.
moderation is the key…
[QUOTE=uki;988312]moderation is the key…[/QUOTE]
Do the Chinese see any benefit drinking alcohol besides the Western take?
In moderation it is a good stimulant. In excess it will destroy your mind and body over time. Not to mention it will also destroy all who are close to you. It is the enathema of all races.
[QUOTE=Lee Chiang Po;990782]In moderation it is a good stimulant. In excess it will destroy your mind and body over time. Not to mention it will also destroy all who are close to you. It is the enathema of all races.[/QUOTE]
while being drunk might be stimulating, alcohol is technically a depressant.
Anyone who gets carried away with over consumption of anything will pay the price for that.
the more trips you take around the sun, the more likely you are to see the fallout of injuries you caused yourself but were unable to feel in your youth due to youthful vigour.
alcohol is also so closely related to social and public goings on in many cultures, which imo scews that line of drinking for health and then drinking a more than can be considered healthy. most cultures also have some sort of ‘healthy habit’ regarding drinking, but the people that drink for those reasons are few and far between i would imagine. its one of those substances that has an addictive quality all on its own, pretty easy for people to get out of moderation.
myself, i have an addictive personality so i tend to stay far away from the evil fire water, many in my family are alcoholics.
most of us have read how a glass of wine is good for you on a regular basis.
Ahhh Lucas
[QUOTE=Lucas;990797]alcohol is also so closely related to social and public goings on in many cultures, which imo scews that line of drinking for health and then drinking a more than can be considered healthy. most cultures also have some sort of ‘healthy habit’ regarding drinking, but the people that drink for those reasons are few and far between i would imagine. its one of those substances that has an addictive quality all on its own, pretty easy for people to get out of moderation.
myself, i have an addictive personality so i tend to stay far away from the evil fire water, many in my family are alcoholics.
most of us have read how a glass of wine is good for you on a regular basis.[/QUOTE]
That would be me… I take one or maybe two drinks a week now, but not two together at the same time… And some weeks none at all.
In my younger days I did overstress my liver a bit … can’t turn back the clock tho… It took me a long time for the need to go away… say decades…
I knew a taijiquan instructor and practitioner of TCM who had a bottle of some kind of wine with a number of herbs and (?)berries of some kind. He would take a shot every night. He seems to think it was healthy.
skip:
that doesnt suprise me, you strike me as a very sensible person.
dirtyrat:
my old sifu always had a bottle of some wine in his office, that stuff full of herbs and with a cobra in it. not sure if thats a viet thing or more of a widespread kind of wine. supposedly this particular wine helped recoup after work out, and re energize you.
[QUOTE=Lucas;990840]
dirtyrat:
my old sifu always had a bottle of some wine in his office, that stuff full of herbs and with a cobra in it. not sure if thats a viet thing or more of a widespread kind of wine. supposedly this particular wine helped recoup after work out, and re energize you.[/QUOTE]
I must admit, I did enjoy our post workout chats… 
haha i bet!
Oh my…
[QUOTE=Lucas;990840]skip:
that doesnt suprise me, you strike me as a very sensible person.
[/QUOTE]
Well, I’ll try to live up to that…
At last! A great use for TCM!!!
He needs to add cordyceps.
Though not strictly a spring seasonal, a new beer by Marin Brewing in Larkspur bears mentioning, especially if you’re a fan of herbal medicine. Brewmaster Arne Johnson worked with herbalist Dr. Yen-Wei Choong, who runs the Yellow Emperor Natural Healing Center and Zen Garden in San Anselmo, to create a new beer using his ESB as the base beer.
For 20 years, Dr., Choong has been working on perfecting a combination of Chinese herbs to improve beer and make it more balanced, at least from the perspective of Chinese medicine. So Johnson added 38 pounds of Dr. Choong’s proprietary blend of herbs to the beer, creating E.S.Chi. Given all the herbs, the nose is surprisingly subtle with herbal aromas, almost gruit-like. (Gruit, as you may recall, is an old-school herb blend whose use pre-dates hops in beer, but is still made today by a very few brewers, including Moonlight Brewing in Santa Rosa.) The Chinese herbs are there but never overpowering the beer, and in fact the two integrate together quite well. It made for smooth and easy drinking, almost like a session beer, though the beer is 5.5 percent a.b.v.
There are three more reasons a trip to Marin Brewing might be a good idea this month, as their recent Spring releases include three Belgian-style beers: Witty Monk, witbier made with Trappist yeast and grains of paradise, Dirty Blonde, a Belgian-style pale ale and Tripel Dipsea.
I’ll have a witty monk and a dirty blonde please.
The best herbs to add to a good rice vodka are:
Ren Shen
Hai ma
Da Tzao
Er Jiao
Huang Qi
Nu Zhen Zi
Fu Pen Zi
Ge Jie
Gou Zi
Great tonic herbs.
Only to be taken in winter and cold weather as its too warming.
[QUOTE=Dale Dugas;996314]The best herbs to add to a good rice vodka are:
Ren Shen
Hai ma
Da Tzao
Er Jiao
Huang Qi
Nu Zhen Zi
Fu Pen Zi
Ge Jie
Gou Zi
Great tonic herbs.
Only to be taken in winter and cold weather as its too warming.[/QUOTE]
Why is this so?
Most of the herbs that I listed are very warming.
Most people think you can take anything anytime and its okay.
That is not true at all.
Herbs have temperatures.
Hence you use cooling herbs when you are wanting to cool the internal heat that someone has or you want to warm them them if they are cold from lack of yang Qi. Or as usual, a very complex mixture of signs and symptoms
You can hurt people or yourself by self medicating the wrong way.
Ginseng as taught to us in graduate school is never used by anyone under 30. And most teachers said that another herb was used in place of ginseng. Dang Shen is used much more to supplement people than ginseng itself in China.
If you are under 30 and are wanting to supplement your energy you would use Huang Qi.
Too many people in the USA, think that if one pill is good then three is better. That ignorance can hurt you. and it has hurt people in this nation when it comes to using certain OTC products.
You would not want to be ingesting this form of tonic formula in the summer as it would increase the internal energy and make you not feel very good. too much internal heat would occur, you would get dry mouth, and feel too hot from the inside out. In summer you want to release internal heat, hence most cultures would eat spicy food to open the pores and sweat out the heat.
While we’re on the subject…
…why don’t you tell us about how you violate single malts? 
gene is not as open minded as one would imagine…
So I brought this nice single malt with a very nice piece of Chang Bai Ginseng that a friend of mine sent me. So I added it and let it sit for a while and brought it to the Zhang San Feng Festival.
I like ginseng in my scotch. At least Gene tried it, and reported that it was the foulest swill he had ever tasted. I think there were some swear words attached as well, but you can just imagine how our fearless leader responded…
My teacher likes to put coke in single malt.
To each his own.
Can you infer from this and all the mention on the forum here and there that Gene does not like adulterated single malts?
not the foulest
I’ve drank plenty of swill more foul. Remember, I’ve drank more than my share of Chinese liquors.
Messing with a nice single malt so.
It was an abomination against your kilt wearing roots.
I will never let you live that down, bro. Never.
Brother,
Being that Im French Canadian/Canadian Indian on my Dads side and English, Irish, Scottish and Dutch on my mothers side; mixing it up is not all that bad…