Blood stagnation can mean sharpn stabbing pains; clots and dark blood in menstruation; irregular menstruation; and hard spots in abdomen. If you have this, try celery, rose, yellow soybean, seaweed, mung bean, corn, eggplant, cucumber, and hemlock parsley (chuan xiong).

For allergies, get both IgG and IgE done for both external (skin test) and food allergies (blood test). If you find something substantial, avoid it! For food and herbs, try garlic, fresh ginger, royal jelly, chicken, beef, chestnut, astragalus (huang qi), kudzu vine (ge gen), and welsh onion (cong bai).

Natural Beauty Tip #3 – Acne This is literally too much heat - your face has become a volcano just to let it out! Try mung bea, seagrass, seaweed, Chinese hawthorn (shan zha), Job’s tears (yi yi ren), and purple sage (dan shen). Avoid spicy foods, greasy foods, and fried foods. Try some raw vegetables, too.

Natural Beauty Tip #4 – Dry Skin Moistening herbs and foods are soy, spinach, asparagus, millet, barley, salt, seaweed, apple, tangerine, pinenut, persimmon, peanut, pear, honey, oysters, and clams. A seaweed facial wrap would be nice, too!

Natural Beauty Tip #5 – Eczema Try guava, clam, irish potato, he shou wu, wild chrysanthemum, mugwort, Job’s tears (yi yi ren), and asian dandelion (pu gong ying). Avoid spicy foods, greasy foods, and fried foods.

Natural Beauty Tip #6 - Psoriasis Try turnip root leaf, vinegar, grapefruit, black plum (wu mei), cloves (ding xian), and dang gui (aka dong quai).

Natural Beauty Tip #7 – Prematurely Graying Hair This can happen for two reasons- either you have a root energy (Kidney system) deficiency (for more information and solutions, see Kidney deficiency information up under natural beauty tip #2), or you have what is called ‘hot blood.’ The second one happens with bleeding, nosebleed, skin ulcers, and urinary difficulties. For hot blood, take black soybean, processed dried persimmons, processed rehmannia (shu di huang), and dried rehmannia (shu di huang).

Natural Beauty Tip #8 – Premature Aging This is another Kidney-system deficiency.

Try walnut, chicken, duck, he shou wu, Chinese ginseng, deer antler velvet (the deers aren’t harmed! Lu rong), astragalus (huang qi), lycium fruit (gou qi zi), horny goat weed (yin yang huo), caterpillar larva fungus (dong chong xia cao), and red date (da zao).

References: Sionneau & Gang. The Treatment of Disease in TCM: Volume 2. Lu. Chinese Herbs with Common Foods: Recipes for Health and Healing. Pitchford. Healing With Whole Foods. Maciocia. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine.

I took sewing in school, had made men's suits at one time and had an old sewing machine. A friend of mine had given me ten bolts of material they had stashed away when cleaning out their garage. I would make my daughter some clothes for Christmas.

My daughter, at 11 years old, was so brave. After I explained our situation to her, she set about asking one of our neighbors to teach her how to do macrame. If you aren't familiar with this craft, it was used to make plant holders they had then out of yarn.

I didn't know she was doing this and I set about sewing her Christmas gifts while she spent time at neighbors house. I thought she was playing and having a good time.

I still had one problem. What would I do about a tree? I told my daughter that we wouldn't be able to have a tree this Christmas. She said to me, "Mom, why not use a tumbleweed?". I thought about it and said why not? They were plentiful in dessert and free.

We went out and chose a tumbleweed just as if we were picking out perfect Christmas tree. When we found right one, we came home, put lights on it and popped pop corn and strung them for tree.

Christmas morning we arose full of anticipation and excitement. I was surprised to find two gifts under tree with my name on them. How did my daughter get me two gifts? She had no money.

When I questioned her about it, she said, "Just open them mom!". I opened them and was pleasantly surprised! They were simply beautiful. They even matched my decor! She explained how all time she had spent at neighbors house, she had been learning to make these for me. This touched my heart to core.

I have never forgot it to this day. Neither has my daughter. When she talks about Christmas now, she always mentions our tumbleweed Christmas and how she remembers that Christmas over all rest. She always refers to it as best Christmas we ever had.