Hi: If you're new to this blog, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. It's easy and fast. Thanks for visiting and happy reading!

The ginger plant has a long history of domestic cultivation and is thought to have originated in China and then to India, Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean.

Ginger is commonly used as a cooking spice in Chinese and South-East Asian culinary. Ginger is a pungent food that promotes energy circulation and increases the metabolic rate.

However, in the medical world, Ginger has been an important component used in Chinese and Asian medicine for both external and external use for many centuries. Ginger is most commonly known for its effectiveness as a digestive aid. It helps to relieve indigestion, diarrhea and stomach cramping. It is known to increase vital energy and balance our internal ‘chi’.

In the wellness realm, Ginger has been used widely to effectively stimulate circulation of the blood, remove toxins from the body, cleanse the bowels and kidneys and nourish the skin.

You can always find treatments like the Ginger Scrub and Ginger Wrap in a spa menu especially in a spa that specialises in Javanese or Balinese massage. In Indonesia, it is believed that ginger can also help to relieve aching muscle and detox your body. In fact, a ginger scrub and wrap is also a popular Indonesian post-natal treatment for women who had just given birth as it helps to reduce the body from being bloated and clear toxins from the body system.

The sweet aroma from a ginger scrub will also help your mind de-stress and in turn relax and rejuvenate your body. No wonder Ginger Scrub and Ginger Wrap have been very popular with spa goers in the past few years.

So after hearing so much wonders about ginger, I finally decided to try out the Ginger Scrub and Ginger Wrap. When I walked into the treatment room, the fragrance of ginger was already in the air. A bowl of crushed ginger was being heated over a burning candle. The masseur started by gently rubbing the heated fresh ginger on my back. As she moved along to the other part of the body, she kept asking if the ginger scrub was too hot for my body. When she finished, she gently wrapped my entire body with clear sheets and led me to a steam room. I was asked to stay in the steam room for half an hour. She explained that with the aid of the heat in the steam room, the purifying, detoxifying and hydrating process of the body under the effect of the ginger wrap will be enhanced!

The stimulating effects of the ginger scrub was an awakening experience to the skin. The Ginger Wrap is supposed to help reduce “wind” from my body and burn fats. No wonder I was perspiring like crazy. I should remember to weigh myself before and after a ginger scrub and wrap the next time!

After a warm shower and a 60 mins massage, I really felt so much lighter and refreshed. I highly recommend that you should add a Ginger scrub and wrap to your next spa visit especially if you are into detoxification or weight loss!

Man is forever chasing his own tail. Spa and massage services came about because the busy working man or woman needed a way to relax and release tension. They desperately desire a good massage but yet have so little time to visit a spa that they invented gadget after gadget so that they can get a massage right at home.

Now, we have the ‘mother of all spa and massage gadgets’; a spa capsule that is so portable that you can place one in the home, office or even in the shopping mall. Imagine a full spa and massage service that you can enjoy right at the office without getting wet or even having to remove a single piece of clothing.

Check out the video which shows the spa capsule in action. Launched just 5 months ago, it was said to have swept through USA with many companies buying it for their busy employees in the office.

Would you have gotten one for the home or office? Or would you have preferred a gentle, delicate and well-trained masseur’s hand anytime?

You are probably used to a spa and massage by a human therapist. Have you ever had a spa and massage rendered by a fish…or to be exact, hundreds of fishes??

There is a very new kind of spa, which originated from Turkey, where a kind of fresh water fish, commonly known as a doctor fish, will feed on the affected and dead areas of the human skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow.

The doctor fish is also known as nibble fish, kangal fish or doctorfishen. There are actually two species of the doctor fish and they are known scientifically as Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus.

This is a popular skin disease treatment method that is said to originate from Turkey and has now become popular in Asia and where many fish spas has sprung up in the last 2-3 years including Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

You basically sit around a small pond and dip your legs into the pond with several other people. In a matter of seconds, these fishes would visit your legs and start chewing at your dead skin. Most initial reactions ranged from ticklish to some who complain of some pain especially when the fish ‘bites’.

Many people, especially ladies, who do not have skin disease, are visiting these fish spa too as they claim that their skin become smoother and cleaner after each fish spa session.

In Singapore, you’ll pay an average of US$22 for a half-hour ‘chewing session’ by these fishes. Will you pay this kind of money to have your feet chewed by fishes? Have you ever wonder what ‘diseased skin’ these fishes has been chewing on before they visit your legs?

Check out the ‘fishy video’ below!

Pix credit: http://www.nibbles.com.sg

I don’t exactly know when it happened but I realized that my left shoulder was painful whenever I worked out at the gym. It wasn’t a obvious pain that I am physically aware of all the time but a sublime sort of pain which was only obvious when I worked out on certain gym equipments or when I stretched my shoulder a certain way.

I can only guess that I must have hurt one of the inner shoulder muscle during an earlier work-out. It wasn’t painful all the time but it was painful and awkward whenever I wanted to exercise and it wasn’t really recovering despite the pain being two weeks old or more.

After two weeks, I reached out for my mother’s traditional pain relief patches and applied one to my shoulder. Around the shoulder, I applied the Yoko Yoko Analgesic ointment, both of which my mother swore were traditional Chinese cures that will always work when nothing else will.

This is my second day with the pain relief patches. The shoulder seems to be feeling better and less painful when I stretch it but I’ll need another day or two before I see obvious result. I certainly hope it works well because I have already skipped a number of gym sessions.

You can purchase similar traditional Chinese pain relief patches and ointment at: www.quick-pain-relief.com

One of the oldest massage technique still in popular practice today is the Chinese Tui Na method. Some say that the art of Tui Na or Acupressure gave forth to the modern Japanese Shiatsu massage which most spa and massage goers are familiar with today.

Tui Na is a hands-on-body treatment using acupressure whose purpose is to bring the body into balance based on the Chinese Ying Yang principles. Tui Na has no side effects compared to modern drug-based and/or chemical-based massage treatment methods.

The words ‘Tui Na” literally means ‘Push Pull’ - a realistic description of what’s involved in a Acupressure massage. Tui Na is not just pushing and pulling your muscles and flesh but a holistic body treatment method of the acupoints or meridian points of your body based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Meridian principles.

Tui Na is actively practised as part of traditional Chinese medicine for thousand of years for a wide repertoire of medical treatments. It has been used to treat or complement the treatment of many conditions; musculo-skeletal disorders and chronic stress-related disorders of the digestive, respiratory and reproductive systems.

Tui Na is also popular in martial arts and athletic schools where there is a greater chance of muscular or skeletal injuries. Many teachers of such training schools are skilled in Tui Na massage which they used regularly to treat injured students or participants.

Because of the holistic therapeutic power of Tui Na, a new branch of massage known as ‘Bao Jian An Mo” or Healthy Tui Na massage had came about so that even normal people like you and me can undergo a dose of Tui Na massage for it’s therapeutic effects. Many elderly people in China get a regular treatment of therapeutic Tui Na massage just so to remain healthy; very much as in an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

However, if you do suffer from modern society sick syndrome such as strained neck, back pain, carpal tunnel pain, painful heels and ankles from too much sitting down in the office or too much computer work, then, a dose of therapeutic Tui Na massage targeted for your specific pain area is just the right recommendation!