EPICURE Early Spring 2020

ANCIENT WELLNESS
WE CATCH UP WITH WELLNESS EXPERT
AND CHINESE MEDICINE PRACTITIONER
KATIE BRINDLE ON THE GAPS IN WESTERN
MEDICINE AND INCORPORATING
WELLBEING TECHNIQUES INTO EVERY DAY
EPICURE style, health & wellbeing
learning from C hinese medicine
What brought you to the discovery of Chinese medicinal
techniques?
I have been working in Chinese medicine since 2002. I
had a car accident that ended my dreams of becoming an
opera singer, followed by years of health issues. After trying
every form of medicine and alternative therapy going, I was
eventually healed by Chinese medicine – and was so inspired
that I decided to train as a practitioner.
You are a firm believer in preventative medicine and self-care
– where does that fit within Chinese traditional methods and
what does it entail in practical terms?
My mission in life is to help others using the remarkable
healing system of yang sheng, the self-care part of Chinese
medicine. Prevention alongside cure is a cornerstone of
Chinese medicine. Rather than suppressing the symptoms, it
focuses on finding the root cause of illness.
In our fast-paced modern society, there is a lack of
understanding into preventative treatment. From 20 years of
studying Chinese medicine, I could see that it had an answer
to the Western illness epidemic.
Whilst Western medicine has transformed health care as
we know it, there’s a gap that it doesn’t address and that’s
the ‘almost-well’, the ‘not feeling so good’, the tired out and
over-stressed. This is a gap I have seen Chinese medicine –
specifically yang sheng – fill beautifully.
In Western medicine we are so focused on reactive treatment
of symptoms, rather than preventative care – we can be
healthy outwardly with active lifestyles, but not in good
health – how can these methods help that?
Any symptoms of ill health will always relate to one of the 5 key
organs we consider when we are treating in Chinese medicine.
These are Heart, Lung, Liver, Stomach/Spleen and Kidney.
Depending on what your symptoms are, it will usually
indicate to us an imbalance in a specific organ. For example,
palpitations are concerned with the heart.
An energetic imbalance does not mean you have a dramatic
health issue. In this aspect of Chinese medicine, we are about
prevention not cure. And that means reading the subtle
signs and symptoms of the body daily. Imbalance starts at an
energetic level and you rectify it at an energetic level.
"USE LOW LEVEL SYMPTOMS
AS A BAROMETER OF YOUR
WELLNESS. ADDRESS THEM TO
KEEP THE BODY HEALTHY AND
THEY ARE MUCH LESS LIKELY
TO BECOME A DEEPER ISSUE."
The more serious the symptoms, the deeper the imbalance. If
the symptom is mild – e.g. low-level anxiety before a meeting
or mild rosacea after a glass of red wine, the imbalance will be
easier to rectify.
Heart imbalance does not mean heart disease, it is a subtle
signal that your body is not in balance and the strain of that
is impacting your heart energy, which may eventually lead
to an issue over time. In the first instance, it could be felt as
low level anxiety, occasional palpitations or a lack of desire to
socialise. We look for the low level signs to stop things getting
a foothold in the body and causing a greater problem further
down the line.
Use low level symptoms as a barometer of your wellness.
Address them to keep the body healthy and they are much less
likely to become a deeper issue. This is the principle behind
yang sheng and self-care.
Can you tell us about your Hayo’u Method?
I founded the Hayo’u Method to translate the remarkable but
complex wisdom of Chinese medicine into simple self-care
techniques for a modern Western world.
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