The Living Qi company began sourcing organic matcha green tea from small organic farms in 2008. Since that time we have developed a very large and loyal customer base due to our commitment to finding the best USDA organic matcha Japan has to offer. Based in Asheville, North Carolina, we call our matcha, Radiant Matcha™, because it is a vibrant green and superior in taste and quality to all other matcha products we have tried.

You can now purchase our Radiant Matcha™ at Earth Fare in West Asheville, at the French Broad Coop in downtown and at Black Mountain Natural Foods in Black Mountain. Additionally, many fine food establishments and cafes in Asheville are now carrying our Radiant Matcha™ products. If you have a suggestion for a location that would be a good fit for our exquisite matcha, please let us know.

Thanks so much for your continued support, Asheville!

This matcha cocnut milk smoothie is a delicious and healthy way to start a morning. If you like, you can add whey protein powder:

1. One half can organic coconut milk (Whole Foods brand is good)
2. 16 ounces of organic coconut water
3. 2 grams Living Qi organic Radiant Matcha
4. One or two medjool dates, without pits
5. Blend all ingredients together, pour into a tall glass and enjoy!

Matcha, the ceremonial green tea of Japan only used by about 1.5% of the Japanese people, is powdered Camellia sinensis, often of exquisite quality. As a ceremonial item, Matcha is considered a luxury tea in Japan, though it is booming in popularity in North America and in parts of Europe. Good taste in Matcha is a skill developed over time, but it is not a universal given. Taste is subject to culture, zeitgeists and belief, more than it is a talent of the senses. To acquire good taste in Matcha green tea is to attain an attitude towards it informed by the history of its use. In understanding current Matcha use and trends, the more threads of Far Eastern medical history and the ideas that informed and wove it into creation we apprehend, the more integral and profound our understanding and taste becomes. The same holds true for culture, politics and religion in Far East Asia as they all entwine fusing an ideological milieu that has supported Matcha use and the elaborations of the tea ceremony over millennia. The wide range of Matcha usage in North America today, from gourmet cuisine ingredient and Starbuck’s latte to green tea ice cream and meditation aid, reflects our American tendency to reinvent tradition and experiment.

To buy the highest quality organic matcha in the world, click here.

One cup of green tea a day and the owners of the apothecary will surely starve~ Chinese Proverb

The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA, reported a study in 2006 on green tea and longevity completed in Japan. It is important to remember that the green tea used in the study was not matcha green tea. Matcha is powdered green tea and the nutritional benefits of matcha are known to be at least ten times higher than a typical cup of green tea. Future studies may reveal that only one cup of matcha a day will achieve the same results as the study based on the nutrient density and health benefits of matcha.

In 1994, the Ohsaki National Health Insurance Cohort initiated a study of over 40,000 Japanese adults.  Researchers discovered that people who drank five or more cups of green tea a day had a death rate that was 26% lower than non tea drinkers at seven years into the study, and 16% at eleven years. Green tea was particularly effective in reducing the risk of heart disease.

Multiple studies have proven that consumption of green tea helps prevent cardiovascular disease and one of the possible mechanisms of this effect is mediated through the preservation of Nitric Oxide in the body. Nitric Oxide, or NO, assists with vaso-dilation. The polyphenols in green tea, particularly EGCg, slow Nitric Oxide degradation. For more on NO and matcha see my other blog article: “Matcha and Nitric Oxide.”

The JAMA study concluded: Green tea consumption is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes and due to cardiovascular disease.

To buy the highest quality organic matcha in the world, click here.

Reference: JAMA. 2006 SEP; 296(10):1255-65.

Let’s not call it anti-aging for a moment. Let’s follow the example of longevity teacher and daoist energy master, Peter Ragnar, and call it pro-youthing. Ivy Greenwell wrote an article in 1999 about the health benefits of green tea for Life Extension Magazine. Greenwell observed the profound effects of matcha green tea on longevity by watching the amazing vitality of her neighbor, a practitioner of chanoyu, or, the tea ceremony. She concluded her thorough analysis of green tea with the following:

“I have a Japanese neighbor, one of whose friends happens to be a teacher of the tea ceremony, even though she is over one hundred years old. She amazes her younger friends by how fast she can walk up the stairs and how sharp her mind is. (How many Western female centenarians are still active in their profession, and still able to climb stairs?) Now, the teachers of the Japanese tea ceremony drink a very potent brew of green tea (called matcha). Basically, they sip it all day long. My neighbor reports that one time her centenarian friend gave her this piece of advice: ‘You want to live a long time? Drink a lot of tea.’

The super high anti-oxidant content of matcha is one of the reasons that it helps people live longer lives, but there are many other health benefits. Research on more than 40,000 Japanese people demonstrated that regular consumption of green tea reduced mortality by 27% from ANY cause. Green tea also prevented cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the USA. So, for a serious pro-youthing strategy and if you want to live past 100 with vigor and strength, consider making matcha green tea a stable part of your diet.

To learn more about our matcha products, click here.

I would like to thank Dr. Sara Solomon P.T., DMD for using www.living-qi.com as a resource for her excellent article: The 8 Wonders of Matcha Green Tea, which was featured on the www.bodybuilding.com website. Body builders everywhere will be thrilled with the amazing health benefits of matcha green tea. Body building and matcha go hand in hand as matcha helps burn fat and rev your energy levels without the harsh side effects of common energy drinks.  With 137 times the anti-oxidants of regular green tea, matcha is the healthiest green tea in the world. Still, all matcha is not created equally. I highly recommend organic matcha, as does Dr. Solomon, certified by the USDA because there are many cheap green tea powders out there, some of questionable quality. In general the bright green organic matchas are good, while non-organic yellowish to brown matchas are suspect. There is no high quality matcha sold in a tea bag! To buy the highest quality organic matcha in the world, click here.

Inflammation is the evil twin of oxidation. The aging process is characterized by oxidation. In other words, in a forest fire or a bonfire, the wood is being oxidized or burned up. When a person ages and gets wrinkles, their tissues and skin are getting oxidized.

A Time magazine cover a few years back heralded the bad news: “Inflammation: the silent killer.”

Inflammation can be like a forest fire in the body, as in some severe inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or inflammatory bowel disease, or it can be like a fire in which there are only a few embers glowing here and there: unexplained pain in the joints, for example.

How do you put out a fire in the body? You put out the fire of inflammation by understanding the power of anti-oxidants.

Anti-oxidants are found in most plants, vegetables, and herbs. They protect the brain from shrinking and the brain and body from low level inflammation that damages neurons and nervous system tissue, thus affecting memory and cognitive function.

Why do humans achieve longevity when they consume copious amounts of anti-oxidants? Because their bodies are protected from the fires of oxidation…they don’t wrinkle as fast, shrink as fast or lose their minds…at all.

Now you know one of the reasons I keep hammering home the importance of our organic Matcha green tea and why I drink matcha green tea everyday. While gojiberry, dark chocolate, wild blueberries and spinach are great anti-oxidant foods,

Our organic Living Qi Matcha green tea has:

6.2 times the anti-oxidants of goji
7 times the anti-oxidants of dark chocolate
17 times the anti-oxidants of wild blueberries
and 60.5 times the anti-oxidants of spinach

Right now our organic Matcha green tea is on sale at only 29.99 for a month’s supply…and by month’s supply I mean that one can will last a month if you drink it EVERYDAY. Some people drink it every other day or 2-3 times a week and one can lasts them 2-3 months.

Drinking one cup of our organic matcha gives 137 times the anti-oxidant power of a regular cup of green tea.

So, organic matcha is one way to put out the fires of inflammation, oxidation and aging.

Click the map image above to enlarge it and to see measurable levels of radiation in certain parts of Japan…And know that most of the matcha you buy is grown near Kyoto….read on…

Many customers have asked me about radiation in matcha green tea since the nuclear power plant disasters in Japan. The Japanese government monitors the situation very carefully and reports on radiation levels after extensive air, soil, plant and food testing. The Living Qi company has also monitored this situation carefully, consulting with our experts in Japan. Since the nuclear disaster in Japan, we have only purchased our USDA organic matcha from the Aichi prefecture, near Nagoya city in Japan. There has been no measurable radiation at all in the entire Aichi prefecture. If you click on the image of the map, you will see the results of measured radiation levels for parts of Japan where matcha is grown. The numbers at the very bottom of the map were for Kyoto city, indicating the amount of radiation found in Kyoto city. As most matcha comes from or near Kyoto, this is very alarming.

Most companies sell matcha that is not USDA organic and is also from or grown near Kyoto prefecture and Kyoto city. As you will see in the attached map, low levels of radiation have been measured in Kyoto prefecture and in Kyoto city. Therefore at this time, Living Qi does not buy matcha from Kyoto or anywhere that has measurable levels of radiation as we do not want to sell matcha that has been contaminated.

Our Living Qi Radiant Matcha is 100% free of radiation and certified by the USDA as 100% organic. As a health care professional this is the only brand I can recommend at this time.

To see the full map reporting on radiation levels in Japan you can click here.

To buy 100% USDA organic and radiation free Living Qi matcha, click here:

Matcha Maca Energy Shot

This is a simple way to make an all-natural Matcha-Maca energy drink at home. Matcha is powdered green tea and Maca is a root indigenous to South America and used as an herb to stimulate energy, endurance and libido. The flavors of Matcha and Maca combine very well to make a delicious and nutritious coffee substitute and healthy energy drink.

1. Add one gram Living Qi’s organic Radiant Matcha into your favorite bowl

2. Add one gram organic Maca powder to the bowl

3. Add one cup of hot water (176 degrees or so). Adjust water to taste

4. Whisk with a bamboo whisk until all clumps have dissolved

5. If you want it sweeter: Add one teaspoon organic honey, brown sugar or stevia to taste

To see more delicious Living Qi Matcha recipes click here.

To enjoy our weekly newsletter “The healing Qi” simply enter your email on the right hand side of this page. You will be immediately sent our recipe ebook with over 67 whole food recipes inside! The Healing Qi newsletter comes to you via email on a weekly basis and provides some of the best health information on the web. Some of our most popular articles include:
1. The truth about soy
2. 7 tips for overcoming anxiety
3. The power of greens
4. 4 simple healing practices
5. How to dissolve fear in an instant
6. Living past 100

The Living Qi company is proud to introduce our new line of matcha products with our new name: Radiant Matcha. All of our matcha products are certified by the USDA as organic and are grown on small farms in Japan. Our new name, Radiant Matcha, reflects the bright green color, high life force and superior taste characteristics of our unique matcha blends. We feel certain you will not find a better matcha anywhere else on the planet…or your money back.

© James Whittle, All rights reserved

In modern times, Matcha is often made of blends of Tencha tea-leaves grown on different farms. Manufacturers buy these leaves from multiple farms and grade them according to quality. The highest quality leaves are used in the premium and most expensive Matchas. There are multiple companies in Japan that manufacture Matcha and some have done so for more than 120 years. Living Qi Matcha is produced on farms that have been growing and making Matcha for over 400 years.

Manufacturers of Matcha hire a person very experienced with tea quality for a position called the “tea sommelier.” One of the roles of the sommelier is to combine the Tencha leaves in particular ratios to create complex and subtle flavors. The finest Tencha leaves will make the finest grade Matchas, and though each year’s harvest might vary slightly due to weather conditions or changes in the soil, the company will utilize very specific parameters to assure that the different grades of Matcha they provide remain consistent in color and quality.

High quality Matcha is bright green with a fresh scent. Poor quality Matcha is often yellowish with the poorest qualities turning a dull brown-green.

In a very general way, it is accurate to say that the more bitter a tea is, the more catechin content that tea possesses. Catechins play a huge role in the health benefits of Matcha and green tea. Catechins are antioxidants. On the other hand, the more sweet a Matcha tea is, the more theanine it contains. Umami is a Japanese word that means savory or delicious and is applied to good tasting teas. The word was also borrowed from the Japanese language to indicate and differentiate a distinct taste from other flavors: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. Umami is the 5th flavor, synonymous with savory in the culinary arts. Monosodium Glutamate, or MSG, is a synthesized version of the umami taste used in Chinese cuisine to enhance flavor artificially.  Theanine however, has an all-natural umami flavor.

It is glutamic acid that gives the umami flavor its character. Theanine is present in all green tea in varying degrees and is an ethylamide of glutamic acid. Therefore it is theanine that gives Matcha its umami-sweet taste delightfully. So when a Matcha is said to have umami, it means specifically that is has this 5th distinctive flavor, and generally that it is delicious and savory. The delicate balance between bitter and umami is found in the Living Qi Matcha blend.

Some Matcha companies that overly focus on making a very sweet Matcha use synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to artificially drive up the theanine in their tea plants, but we at Living Qi don’t believe that synthetic fertilizers make the best tasting or healthiest Matchas.

When someone has a flair for style and fashion we often say they have good taste. Taste means a discriminative sense. In the culinary arts, taste might mean a perceptive tongue and perhaps a good nose. In fact for wine connoisseurs, a good nose and tongue are a necessity. Yet in modern times taste is often subjected to fads: whimsical diets, fast food trends, and ads focusing on tasting good. In some ways, as westerners, our taste buds are severely limited by our over-focus on sweet and salty foods. The essence of umami as a flavor is balance.

In fashion, we sometimes counter and say someone has a timeless sense of taste. Being timeless often reveals a life in accord with enduring values, someone not swayed by the superficialities of fluctuating movements of what is in vogue at a particular time. Being timeless in the usage of tea might mean being neither overly concerned with the good taste of tea, as in wanting things to taste like a sugary Matcha Lattte, while also not reacting to the evolving modern usages of Matcha from a place of superiority, spiritual arrogance or being overly self important about the formalities of traditional tea culture.

Just as modern American and Japanese people can judge the old values of the tea ceremony as antiquated and carelessly ignore them, or perhaps even be blind to them altogether, so too can the elite of the tea ceremony not practice their own wisdom tradition as they turn up their noses to forms of Matcha consumption not fitting the mold of tradition.

Most authentic tea masters are not snobs or connoisseurs so much as people of wisdom who realize the forms and customs of the tea ceremony are ephemeralities to be transcended in the beautiful qualities of the moment: friendship, beauty, kindness, simplicity, purity.

The English tradition of tea time typically includes black tea (which as we know is only green tea that has been fermented) that often includes a cube of sugar and some cream. It is rich, and sweet, a complex flavor and texture with good cream and sugar balancing any bitterness in the tea. Most people find it delicious. This custom of taking tea arrived from Britain in America in the seventeen hundreds. In fact the Boston tea party was a reaction to the British crown levying more expensive taxes on tea imported by America from Britain.

We have a custom of taking tea sweetly here in the US, especially in the south, which which either invented sweet tea, or excels at its constant consumption. And certain saccharin social qualities of etiquette in the south often annoy people of other parts of the country or cultures as insincere. The incessant sweetness and manners of people of the south, what a bother!

It is the bitter taste that people in the west most often try to avoid. The ability of a person to handle the bitter taste of food or even life, was in ancient days, a sign of depth and awareness in the Far East.

Bitter, in East Asian medicine, is the taste associated with the heart, which is the house of the shen or the spirit of a person. Why is this so? Why is sweetness not the taste of the heart? To understand this paradox is to unravel some insight into the entire wisdom tradition of East Asian medical thought. Since eastern medicine was influenced by the trinity of Taosim, Confucianism and Buddhism, many Buddhist thoughts show up in the medical tradition.

To keep things simple let’s entertain the notion that there is a relationship between the word bitter and the emotional state it is often is used to describe. We use the word bitter to mean resentful or morose. To taste bitterness and still be able to genuinely and authentically remain in happiness is a sign of emotional maturity and wisdom. Perhaps we grow by learning to stomach a little bitterness and adversity.

I often tell the story of the encounter between the diamond merchant and the Buddha to patients who are having a hard time not getting entangled in the immaturity and anger of those they are in relationship with.

It basically goes like this: A very wealthy diamond merchant was about to retire. He had groomed his son since a young age to take over the family business in time. Just as the son turned 18 and was ready to take the helm, the Buddha came to town with a large retinue of followers. The diamond merchant’s son went to hear him speak and that was it, he was converted. He returned home and told his dad he was going to follow the Buddha and left town with the other disciples to learn true and lasting wisdom. To say the father was bitter would be an understatement; he was enraged. He had worked his entire life for the day he could comfortably retire with his son in charge.

So the father waited, month after month, rehearsing what he would say to the Buddha when he finally got his chance.

A year passed and the father got word that the Buddha and his retinue were coming through town the following day. All night the father worked up his rage and revenge plotting how to give the Buddha a piece of his mind.

The next morning as the Buddha walked through the town with his followers, the father rushed up to him and unleashed his anger in torrents. While this verbal thrashing was taking place, the Buddha’s followers, shocked at this outrage and disrespect, were curiously observing that the Buddha did not move, but stood silent, listening to the man with a slight smile on his lips. In fact, the strange thing was that the Buddha even looked a little happy.

As the man realized that the Buddha was so calmly and patiently listening without an ounce of defensiveness or anger and when it dawned on him that the Buddha’s eyes were radiating peace and joy while he was burning in anger, the man had an epiphany.

That day the Buddha won another follower as the man realized all his seeking for wealth through the diamond business was nothing without his peace of mind. He went to give the Buddha a piece of his mind, but he got the peace of the Buddha-mind instead.

Now, the Buddha was a master, and it is not easy to stay non-attached and peaceful when someone is raging at us, so this takes lots of practice and meditation. But this ideal of peace in the face of bitterness is a reason why the masters of the tea tradition are not attached to the taste of bitter tea. They know that the effect of healing will still be available to them as a quality of consciousness rather than as a matter of taste.

In regards to the taste of Matcha, for most tea masters, it is not the greatest concern. Making a good tasting blend is more a matter of being a professional and being good at what you do than a matter of extreme importance. While certainly they are conscious of the taste, over-concern with taste belies a mind overly concerned with the superficial, with appearances. This does not mean they might not feel embarrassed if a bad tasting Matcha was served in ceremony, but that emotion would be as a result of not wanting to displease the guest, as the foundation of the tea ceremony is based on serving others in a unique moment in time: “one meeting, one moment.” The time that a guest comes to tea will be the only time, never again to arrive in that particular moment.

The shakuhachi is a Japanese bamboo flute that was often played by Buddhist monks as early as the 8th century. It has a guttural beauty that a musician can play as though it is mimicking rain, wind and thunder. In the diary of a certain Buddhist monk, a shakuhachi composition called “Mujô Shinkyoku” was found. The name means “that single tune which brings the changing heart of things to mind”, a demonstration of the Buddhist value of transience. A good Matcha and the ceremony brings this same understanding to mind: all things change and eventually disappear, why not enjoy them?

The October 2011 issue of Bonappetit magazine has a smart, tight article written by Meryl Rothstein called “Meet Your Matcha” in which she outlines some of the culinary uses of matcha, including a suggestion by chef David Patterson of San Fran’s  4 star Coi restaurant recommending that Matcha be used like a spice. Patterson likes to use Matcha’s delicious flavor notes in acidic and sweet dishes, including his Matcha and Pistachio Crusted Halibut recipe. Living Qi’s organic matcha is perfect for cooking because unlike other culinary grades, which are often highly tannic and thus overly bitter, The Living Qi blend is perfectly suitable for daily drinking and it achieves a very fine balance for cooking. Living Qi organic Matcha is blended to balance slightly bitter and tart notes of citrus and mint with a rich delicately sweet umami essence. The bright green color of Living Qi matcha, and the fact that it is USDA certified will help you feel confident using it in your favotite recipes and foods, whether for family of friends.

Stay tuned for 2 new Matcha recipes: Greek Yogurt, White Choclate-Matcha Swirl and Patterson’s Matcha and Pistachio Crusted Halibut!

Shocking perhaps but “Alkalize or Die” is the title of an immensely popular book that explains the importance of creating alkaline (as opposed to acidic) tissues and blood. In 15 years of working with patients I agree with many of the principles of an alkaline diet while remembering that in Chinese medicine the most important principle is dynamic balance. Your stomach needs to be highly acidic to kill parasites and digest and absorb nutrients. Your small intestine needs to be highly alkaline to neutralize stomach acid.

Often people who get too alkaline in the wrong places harbor parasites and worms. By eating an easy to digest alkaline diet, your body is able to detoxify tissues, your liver works more efficiently and your pH balances itself naturally.

Our organic Matcha, Living Qi, is recommended and featured in Toni Toney’s new book: “Get Green, Get Clean EcoDiet: The Secrets of An Alkaline Environment.” Toni’s book is available on Amazon and at other select booksellers.

In her book, Toni conveys with amazing insight and charm, the incredible benefits of creating an alkaline environment in the body. Americans consuming the typical standard American diet (SAD diet) create bodily conditions that are highly acidic and make them prone to all sorts of health problems including pain and inflammation and increased risk of heart problems.

In “EcoDiet”, Toni outlines the simple equation that creates a radically healthy and energetic you: Green foods are high in chlorophyll and provide more oxygen to the tissues. Oxygen helps create a healthy alkaline pH in the body. Because Matcha is so incredibly high in cholorphyll, it is an alkaline superfood. By drinking one cup of Matcha per day you can immediately begin detoxifying the body and changing the body’s pH from acid to alkaline.

Research on herbicides like the very popular Roundup have correlated use of the chemical with birth defects in animals. As more and more research demonstrates the dangers of using herbicides and pesticides, the organic market is bound to grow.

Green tea is grown in a variety of climates around the world, and many farmers spray their crops with herbicides and pesticides. China for instance has very poor regulation of its chemical industry. I will never forget taking a bus through the pristine Huangshan mountains and seeing a rice farmer, knee deep in water, spraying herbicides into his crop.

Organic green tea and specifically organic matcha green tea is becoming more popular as people around the world realize the dangers of herbicides and pesticides.

With Living Qi organic matcha you can be sure that your green tea matcha is not adulterated with toxic chemicals that could be harmful to you and your family. Choosing Living Qi organic matcha also supports farmers who must go through a rigorous certification process to insure that their green tea fields are safe and free of chemicals.

Please support us in our mission to educate the public about the importance of organic matcha and please choose Living Qi organic matcha for you and your family.

Ecologists are working with medical doctors at Duke University, mapping the microbial flora of the gut and the findings are astonishing. These researchers are among a growing body of scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health and mapping the bugs of the gut as part of an ambitious Human Microbiome Project.

Folks nowadays are learning about the benefits of cultured foods like kefir and yogurt, and how probiotics can help re-colonize the gut after a round of antibiotics, but consider the incredible insights these scientists are now discovering:

One Duke ecologist recently quoted in Nature stated that even using antibiotics once decimates the flora in the gut so extensively that it will NEVER return to the same diversity and complexity again. He went on to compare the effects of antibiotic use on the gut to clear-cutting and then slash/burning a pristine Amazonian rain forest valley. Once destroyed, the web of interconnected life will never regain its former density or complexity.

Additionally, some physicians are performing fecal transplants on patients who have severe digestive disorders caused by a lack of beneficial micro-flora in their GI tract. One woman, who had lost more than 60lbs and was suffering from a vicious c. difficile infection, received an enema consisting of a small amount of her healthy husband’s stool. Within 2 days the symptoms she suffered for more than 6 months were completely relieved.

Chinese medicine is inherently an ecological medicine in that it starts from a place of recognizing the inherent complexities and interconnections between human beings and the broader environment.
As more research is done, physicians will continue to be more cautious about antibiotic use and may eventually utilize powerful cultured cocktails of beneficial bacteria to combat infections rather than a broad slash and burn technique used today.

No doubt, antibiotics are one of the great discoveries of modern medicine, and yet, if the hallmark of good medicine is evolution and innovation, then beneficial bacteria may be at the forefront of a new ecologically minded medicine.

Research of matcha has shown that it has a beneficial effect on the beneficial colonies of bacteria in the gut. Additionally green matcha tea is highly antibiotic and is used as a detoxifying agent.

“Hope, purpose and determination are not merely mental states. They have electrochemical connections that affect the immune system.” Norman Cousins

I often tell the story of how Norman Cousins discovered that 5 minutes of gratitude radically increased his immunity.  In 1964, Cousins was diagnosed with an incurable auto-immune disease and was told he had 6 months to live. He accepted his obscure medical diagnosis, but instead of giving in to his tragic prognosis, he decided to defy it.

Cousins engaged in a holistic protocol that involved laughter therapy, high doses of vitamins and other natural protocols.

“I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep,” he reported. “When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

After one year he was deemed completely cured. Encouraged by his success, he decided to write a book about how human will, positive emotion and other factors can create health. Meanwhile, UCLA school of medicine invited Cousins to be a professor of medicine. Once at UCLA, Cousins was distraught on an initial visit to the medical library to find that there was virtually zero information on how positive emotion can affect human health. He found scores of research on how stress and negative emotions will negatively impact health, but nothing documenting what he had become convinced of in his own ordeal with illness: that health can be positively affected by joy and positive emotions.

Cousins decided to do an experiment with some MD friends of his to see if joy could immediately affect his immune system. Doctors drew his blood and measured immune system components. They decided to see if 5 minutes of elation and joy could change the status of immunity. They chose 5 minutes so they could make sure that other factors, like lunch, would not influence the results.

Cousins decided to visualize something very dear to his heart at the time and something he had worked very hard for in his own life: world peace. After 5 minutes of visualizing all of humanity working together for international harmony, Cousins felt elated and told the doctors to draw blood again.

Imagine their surprise to find that after only 5 minutes of visualization, certain components of Cousin’s immune system had increased 500%! After this initial trial they discovered some important things. First, they found that in order for the immune system to really show change, a person had to GENUINELY feel joy and elation. IF a person could not truly feel joy, the results would not be conclusive.

What can we learn from Cousins experience? For thousands of years the Chinese have told us that the mind and the mental are the most important aspects of human health. Classical acupuncture theory tells us the the heart is the master of consciousness and that when a person is balanced they will naturally feel joy. Joy is our inherent birth right. It is the natural state of humanity. To return to this state we often need to practice returning there. Your mind just may have more effect on your immune system than all the supplements money can buy. So use this knowledge well, spend 5 minutes right now and see if you can create and feel joy inside your heart. The benefits to your immune system will be huge, but more importantly, you will feel the inherent joy you were meant to feel…at least most of the time.

We might not often consider the impact that smiling has on our well-being, but consider this British research: investigators studying the brains of people smiling have discovered that smiling stimulates pleasure centers in the brain in such an intense way that one would have to consume 2000 pounds of chocolate to stimulate the pleasure centers in a similar way.

I’ve been smiling all morning just thinking about it. But even more important perhaps, is that by looking at the smiles of high school students in their high school yearbooks, researchers could even predict the length of their lives.

At the core of Chinese medicine, is the goal of a human being living in a state of joy. Of course this does not mean that emotions don’t come and go, they do, just like the weather. It’s not sunny everyday, but I know that if I had the master sun switch, I might set the dial to “San Diego.” And that is what is looks like smiling frequently does…it sets your inner emotional thermostat from Seattle to San Diego.

Now, I am a firm believer in using foods, superfoods and herbs to alter my state and enhance my mood. As you know, my matcha green tea company, Living Qi, was created because matcha is so powerful at helping someone create their mood, and shift from negativity and stress to positivity and relaxation. Matcha has tremendous health benefits, especially organic matcha, that include inducing relaxation and lowering blood pressure.

Nevertheless, knowing that smiling can induce such tremendous physiological changes is heartening. Hopefully, research will soon investigate what tai chi masters and qigong practitioners have said for centuries…that the inner smile is just as powerful as the outer one.

To see the video of Ron Gutman presenting the research on “The Power of Smiling” at the TED conferences, go here.

Greens formulas are powerful antioxidants. They tonify your blood, detoxify your system, help prevent cancer and supercharge your energy level. Organic matcha is a potent green superfood.

According to Chinese medical theory, greens tonify the blood. When the greens are full of qi, which means grown organically and harvested and packaged in a way that preserves nutrient density and energy, they feed your bodies electro-magnetic field and help you produce red blood cells.

Red blood cells are like small toroidal magnets made from bone marrow. The quality of blood is synonymous with health in Chinese medicine. Blood is the mind, it is xin (Chinese for alert consciousness), the state of awareness.

Just like planets exert influence on other planets by their magnetic fields ensuring gravity, so too do the organs of the body influence one another through their electromagnetic fields.

The heart is the organ with the strongest electromagnetic field in the body. The hearts’ EM field is 1000 times stronger than the brains. The ancient Chinese called the heart the master of the organs. A master has influence, has gravity, has self awareness and self control.

When your blood is strong, and your bones, via the kidneys, are vigorously producing red blood cells, you will feel energized and alert.

One of the best ways to tonify your blood is with organic matcha. Matcha helps your body detoxify and purify and the health benefits of matcha are truly amazing.

To learn more about the health benefits of matcha click here

A recent study published in the journal “Nuerology” indicates that a shrinking brain during aging may be a causative factor in the development of the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. While the causes of a shrinking brain may elude western scientists now, Chinese medicine describes such processes in terms of a decrease of yin, or vital fluids. The brain is conceived like a storehouse of a vital hydro-electric liquid, which indeed it is. The brain needs proper nourishment as we age. The entire physiological complex of the creation of fluids for intracellular fluids, synovial fluids, cerebrospinal fluids etc. is one integrated system. Digestion must be strong to transform food into utilizable energy and the large intestine must be able to reabsorb water and nutrients into the blood.

So all the processes of making thought from food, or making bone from nutrition, or making water for the brain are connected. The brain in Chinese medicine is associated with the energetic field of the kidneys. The kidneys and will, the mentation of the kidneys, drive the creation of bones, and the process of hearing in Chinese medical thought. The continuum of brain, kidney, thyroid, bone and hearing responds to the ability to generate fluids, what the Chinese call yin. To produce yin, we must be able to transform food and thought. When thought gets backed up or a person has too many “thoughtforms” running through the stage of their mind, then they have not “transformed” that thought. Trans means to go beyond, and form means something substantial. To transform is to go beyond the form.

When a person’s brain is shrinking, they are not transforming their food appropriately and they are not making the yin their body needs to keep their brain well hydrated. There have been some interesting speculations recently about the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients being acidic. Acidic fluids certainly could cause a shrinking brain. Acidity means that the body is not receiving the right nutrition and that acid wastes are then circulating throughtout the blood. Too much acid wreaks havoc on, guess what? The kidneys. For instance, an excess of uric acid not processed by the kidneys can become gout.

Acid, inflammation and a shrinking brain

So understanding Chinese medicine can help understand this process of a shrinking brain. When the body fluids become acidic, and the body becomes inflamed and inflexible, stiff and with poor circulation, the bones become weak, the muscles atrophy and a brain will shrink.

Using Chinese herbal formulas like Dia-Slim will help your body absorb food better, reduce inflammation and protect the heart, body and brain from inflammation. To learn more about herbal weight loss you can check out this letter I wrote to my friends and patients.