Effective Gua sha Techniques for Managing Hot Flashes | Clive Witham

Hot flashes are one of the symptoms connected with menopausal syndrome and can cause considerable discomfort as heat rises up the body. Gua sha can be really helpful for hot flashes and especially with regular treatment of the scalp, ear, back, arms, legs and feet to reduce the heat and support the abdomen.

Video Transcript

Introduction

So today's video is having a look at a subject which is so, so important for many of the people that come to my clinic. Now it wasn't by design but the people that come to my clinic seem to be - or they don't seem to be it's actually we analyzed it - and it was women - mainly women between 40 and 60 - and so what we're going to have a look today is one of the problems that is experienced by lots of people in that age group and that is: Hot flashes. So me being, of course, a man, I don't have any personal experience of what women go through with hot flashes. It is something that men do go through but it's a lot less common. But, of course, I can apply the principles that I know and with those principles we can apply it to all kinds of things

Understanding Hot Flashes

So let's just have a look at what happens when you have hot flashes. So when you reach a certain age, the blood in the uterus area becomes less active and this isn't of course a problem - it only becomes a problem when during your life you may have created one of two things. There might be a weakness in the uterus area and there are many, many reasons why this might be. It could be what happened in your life and it could be all kinds of things.

The Role of Coldness in Hot Flashes

Now the other reason is there could be some form of cold in there and this is what happens over time. Coldness kind of comes into the uterus. I mean, you might notice in a very physical level if you were to actually sit outside, for example, on a cold step and that can be enough to introduce coldness into the lower abdomen. Which, if there's a reason that it might stay there - if there's a particular weakness in that area - then you're going to get all kinds of pain and symptoms in that area. Now if this has been a problem up to this point - so if there's been a weakness or if there's been some kind of obstruction in that area - then this is where the problem of hot flashes comes from. Now the reason that there's heat going up is because there's a general downwards movement in the body and that downwards movement is going to come down to hit the uterus area but because there's the weakness or the obstruction in that area, instead of just flowing through that area, it bounces up in the opposite direction a bit like a trampoline. And so the motion goes up to, of course, the furthest place that you can get to which will be your head and so you're going to have lots of symptoms in the upper part of your body connected with heat. So the idea with hot flashes is to reduce this movement going up and try and support what's happening in the lower abdomen.

Applying Gua sha to Manage Hot Flashes

So how might you help the lower abdomen to stop the heat coming up? Well, the first thing you want to do is - let's deal with that heat - and we're coming to the scalp. And I don't know if you've watched - there's a video about cooling down with Gua sha and if I point up this direction here somewhere along there, you're going to see the link for it and this is showing you how to bring heat down from your head in the summertime and it's basically the same principle with the heat coming up in hot flashes but it's in a slightly different place.

Gua sha Techniques for Hot Flashes

Scraping Zone 4

So you scrape from the what I call zone 4 and if you have a look at the picture over here - it's got where zone four is - and you're going to scrape down to about the level of the top of your ear and you're going to come in different directions. Coming forwards and then coming to the sides and then going... It doesn't really matter in exactly which direction but cover many, many different directions. So do it at least 8 to 10 times in different angles and all the time coming from that one spot on the top of your head. This will really help in bringing the heat down if it's coming towards your head.

Scraping the Back of Your Ear

So the next part we want is the back of your ear. Now the back of your ear is a bit different from the the front of your ear and the back of your ear has a very, very long history in Chinese medicine of being treated and we're having a look at zone 1. If you have a look at that picture. Now zone 1 is the top part of the ear. So we just want to scrape down the top of the ear. You're going to use one hand to pull the ear and then you're going to scrape down the back coming from the top of the ear downwards.

Scraping the Front of Your Ear

Also on the front of your ear, there's the head area which is just there. Now you can push in the head area and circle and push and circle. Also look for any sore areas, particularly in the head area, but also check out area 51 which is the uterus which will be the top part of your ear there but just push and I suggest in other videos that you use a matchstick, or something like a matchstick, and you can just push around and look for the sore parts and when you find a sore part, you can use the tool and you can put pressure on, and circle and scrape.

Focusing on the Mid to Lower Back

And another area you should do is the mid to lower back. Now why? Because that is the area behind the abdominal area and any treatment there will have an effect in the whole abdomen. So you can do this yourself as I'm doing my lower back. So your mid to lower back. The mid back is the area kind of below your rib cage and then the lower back is just above your hips. And so you can cover that whole area. Now if you're doing it on someone else, it's a lot easier and you can cover that whole mid to lower back area and there's probably going to be 'sha' coming out and it should give you some relief in the abdominal area. It's a really great treatment and you must do the mid to lower back in anything going on in the abdominal area.

Working on Your Feet

And another area is your feet. Now with your feet, it's the area of your toes which are going to represent the head area. So treat the toes both on the the side, the front and the back and, in particular, you're looking for sore areas.

Covering the Yin Channels

Now, as far as channels go, you need to cover the yin channels which are on the inside of your legs. So that's going to cover the liver, the kidney and the pancreas. Now, these are pretty important for this problem. So you're going to scrape going up these channels. So up the inside of the lower leg and up the inside of the upper leg. It's also useful to do your arms and the best channels - usually to do - are the heart and the heart ruler which is on the inside of your arms and you're scraping towards the fingers from the chest on the inside of the arms.

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