By Yi Xiaoping

First Draft on March 23, 2003. Updated July 2, 2005

After 6 months of busy work at Autodesk Inc. of California, USA, I was illegally fired because of discriminations of all kinds on August 15, 2000. In the past two years, I worked as an independent software developer, a home maker, child carer, and a community activist. I cared for a 2 year-old baby and a 9 year-old son. I had a lot of independent time and the luxury to fight sickness without taking medicine. I have seen and heard of too many cases that persons feared illness, spend all material wealth on it and even die of it unnecessarily. I am documenting my own fight against illness in the hope that we can become our own doctors and fight illness by mobilizing our own immune system. The the words for "Curing Sickness" and "Causing Sickness" sound the same in the Chinese language. This can not be mere coincidence. It likely reflected the wisdom of the Chinese people.

Before I was 16 years old, I lived and went to school in the countryside of DongAn county of Hunan Province, China. I followed my parents who were school teachers to many villages as a school boy or pre-school kid. I did not see doctors for seasonal colds and headaches all the time. I participated in sports, drama and singing. I also did all kinds of farming work at weekends and in vacations. I was one of the boys with the highest-pitch singing voice. In the schools, we sang a song at the beginning of each 45 minutes class. My father taught me to fight and endure through sickness. Due to his guidance and the lack of money, I did not pick up smoking and occasional excessive drinking which were very popular at that time. My father often smoked and drank wine in moderation. He let me sip a little wine. He got drunk when he had the chance.

My grandmother Xia was widowed at the age of 23 with two young children. She was one of the last Chinese women with bound feet. She could not read or walk far. She often complained about pain in the feet. But she worked as a diligent home maker. She excelled in cooking, washing clothes, looking after children, spinning cotton wheels, making clothes shoes, making rice wine, grinding rice into powder, raising domestic animals, etc.. Based on what she was doing, she was actually a combination of home maker, farmer and industrial worker. Unfortunately, she was classified as a landlord because of her ownership of 20 Chinese acres of land. The households of her parents, herself and her children remained one-man households in three generations. If it were 3 men in each generation, it would have been 18 persons including wives. The average land ownership would have been reduced to 1.1 Chinese acres or 15 m x 49 m in area (a basketball court is 15 m x 30 m in size). In fact, in certain production teams of nearby townships, the average land share was less than one Chinese acre during the 1970¡¯s.

She sometimes took the blame for other person¡¯s problems, so did her children and grand children. Fortunately, she and two related neighbors respected and looked after each other. I grew up in a mixed social environment of love, fear and hate. I also grew up in a mixed natural environment of hills, trees, orchards, rivers, rice fields, pebble roads, mud and dirt. I studied at Lulea University of Technology in Northern Sweden between 1984 -1987, there was a sharp contrast between Hunan and Northern Sweden in both natural and social environments. The former is in the warm climate near the hot Equator of the earth. Due to universal use of fire wood as energy source, forests were uncommon. The latter is in the cold and dry climate near the North Pole. Cleanness and Green were the most lasting memory I had of Northern Sweden. The social environment could be called one of neutrality.

I worked in the South-Central University of Technology between 1987-1989. This university was derived from the South-Central Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. In October of 1989, I went for the second time abroad. This time I went for PhD studies at Queen¡¯s University in Ontario of Canada. It was like going to Sweden again. One thing that I did not explore last time when I was in Sweden was the people's spiritual life. I felt that the industrialized western life had to do with something that China did not have. Right at that time, an elderly lady from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah¡¯s Witnesses knocked on doors and I did not hesitate to explore the Christian religion with her. She came to the house where we rented our apartment once every week to share her bible with us. I started to go to their Sunday meetings. On thing that was familiar was that they stand up and sing a song at the beginning of a meeting that lasts for an hour, and a different song at the end of the meeting.

After two semesters of course work at Queen's University, I went to Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario to continue my PhD research. There was a Chinese Missionary church there. Due to the Chinese connection, I went to Sunday meetings in the Chinese church. Standard Chinese and the Canton dialect were spoken. The pastor by the name of Tang was from HongKong and Singapore. His wife was born in SiChuan. What was different was that we have a lunch together in the church. What was the same was that singing practice was performed at the beginning and end of every meeting. But the songs-book was very different from that of the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah¡¯s witnesses. For busy people, the church was a place to talk to others. It was there that I found that I could no longer sing certain high pitches. Coughing took place if I tried it. I realized today that it had been the medicine that cured my coughing sickness in a fast manner that my vocal cord had not developed fully.

I started to care for my second child full time since she was 4 months old and did home making. At the same time, I did computer software developement and website authoring; read English books on Chinese history and China-US relations; wrote research articles; and participated in community activities. I learned patience, multi-tasking and listening with both ears open.

My physical health has remained at military service level. In the year 2001, I looked into joining Canadian defense forces. I met the requirement for boot camp training. If I remember correctly, it was 20 push-ups, 20 sit-ups, and 2.4 km of running in 12 minutes.

3. Case Histories

I learned in the past that certain doctors did medical experiments on themselves in order study the effects of new medicine. I also learned that certain viruses die out on their own after certain period of time, and that the human immune system can be mobilized to combat disease. Under the influence of my social and natural environment, both positive and negative, I believe in the most inexpensive way of medical care, that is, to prevent disease with a healthy way of life and to win over disease by mobilizing our own immune system. In this section, my own experiences are presented.

Case No. 1 - Emergency Medical Kit

In the year 1979, I was admitted to the South-Central Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. On my way to Changsha, I stayed overnight in LengShuiTang and went to a QiJu theater. In the night I took the train to Changsha, I tripped on a steel wire at an electrical post and had a scratch on the knee of my left leg, but did not pay attention to it. I stood on the crowded train for the entire 6 hours of ride to Changsha. This scratch developed into an infection when I arrived in the South-Central Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. I was hospitalized for a month and accepted antibiotic injections.

In March of year 2003, my 9 year old son got injured after falling on a large plastic flower pot for a palm tree inside the apartment. He had a scratch on the front knee of his left leg. The scratch looked similar to the one that I had in 1979. I was to apply medical alcohol to the periphery of the scratch and then put on band-aid. However, he called his Mommy. My wife told him not to use alcohol and go to see the doctor immediately. Since my son knew Mommy is a medical doctor, he refused to let me apply alcohol. I had only small strips of band-aid. Fortunately, I obtained a large one from a neighbor and put it over the scratch. We drove a car to see Dr. Goldberg at the clinic and waited for quite a while to be seen. The doctor himself put on a large band-aid with antibiotic jell. The scratch did not develop into infection and it healed fully in one month.

Not many people have an emergency medical kit containing items such as band-aids and antibiotic jell. I have learned most recently that a water bottle and an emergency medical kit should be kept at hand at all times.

At that time, going to college meant full medical insurance and an iron rice bowl. I continued to maintain physical exercises, such as jogging, basketball, and track and field sports. I tried the best to take cold water showers in summer and winter. I also fought and endured through headaches without medicine. Due to busy study and work, I had to take medicine for lasting coughs. I used to drink 0.5 % beer a little prior to the year 2000, but I no longer take in any alcohol. I try not to take in any carbonated drinks such as Coca Cola to protect my teeth. I enjoyed card games at times but never got addicted to them as some of my contemporaries did.

Case No. 2. Problem with Digesting System (January 14 to 19, 2003)

Due to persecution by the Canadian system of government and the fear of gradual personal disintegration under the US system of government, I went to seek political and economic asylum in the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China located at 1450 Laguna Street in San Francisco on Monday, January 13, 2003 at about 3:30-4:00 PM. By the invitation of the deputy Consul General, the San Francisco police went inside the Chinese consulate and took me to jail. I was charged with tress passing (occupation of premise without owner's consent), but released in innocence the next day afternoon by the pre-trial judge. In order to prevent me from going back to the Chinese Consulate, the jail sheriff delayed my going home by holding back all my money until 4:00 PM, Tuesday, January 14.

One day later, in the morning of January 16, I became ill and felt discomfort in the stomach. It developed into fever and headache, and running stool in the afternoon. My entire body became slack and lost strength. I had a lot of hot water, ate rice soup, and applied the MaiYuan method of pinching the neck with cold water to relieve fever. I had hot rice soup at 12:00 PM and again at 4:00 AM during the night. The fever went away the next day. I took mostly water and rice soup for the next two days. By January 19, I started eating solid food again.

The cause for the above sickness could be a combination of one nervous day in the Chinese Consulate and a cold and sleep-deprived night in the San Francisco county jail. In the small room waiting for pre-trial, a medium aged man vomited, the smell of it might spead disease. My 15 months old daughter sweated a lot in the Chinese consulate and was under stress. She sat and crawled on the marble floor which appear to be clean but may be in fact be dirty. She started having diarrhea earlier on January 14, 2003. Our sickness was likely related to each other.

Case No. 3 Throat Infection (February 23 to March 30, 2003)

Marin county of California where I lived is a nature reservation area where there is a lot of trees. The county is famous for pollen allergies. Every year at that time, many children and adults got sick with flu symptoms. The US invasion of the Republic of Iraq occurred at that time. The SAS disease wind was created sometime after the US invasion.

During this period, I walked to my son's school, the Coleman Elementary School everyday during week days to bring my son home between 2:30-3:30 PM. I usually push my 15 months old daughter in a stroller and walked on a scenic road from home to school. The total two-way walking time is about 40 minutes. We also spent 15-40 minutes at the playground in school. Exception will be noted below. I sometimes went out late afternoon to do physical exercises such as jogging and playing basketball. During the time of doing such the exercises, I felt fine. But non-stopping coughs showed up at sleep time. This physical exercise was consciously stopped as of March 17 due to continuing symptoms. Symptoms for my sickness are described below on a daily basis. Concluding remarks are presented at the end.

Day 1 - February 23, 2003, Sunday. I became sick in the evening. It started with sneezing. I coughed out a little stain of blood which indicated injury of the vocal cord. I had shivering, headache and fever for a short span of time. I got up and took rice soup three times during the difficult night. If not prepared in mind, I might think I was going to die. If I did not have full medical insurance, I would have to carry a heavy burden in the mind.

Day 2 - Monday. The second day went fine. I had coughing during the night.

Day 3. The day went fine. I worked as usual on computer programming. Due to coughing at night, I got up two times to have hot water.

Day 4. The day went fine. Coughing worsened during the night.

Day 5 - Thursday. The day went fine. Continuous coughing with blood stains during the night.

Day 6. Thick seclusion in coughing in the morning. I ate one third of an orange in the afternoon in above days. I suspected it helped worsen my coughs. So I stopped eating the orange. I had meat soup in the evening. Coughing during the night.

Day 7 - Saturday. Vegetable and chicken for dinner. Continuous dry coughs sometimes during the night.

Day 8 - Sunday. In the morning, I spit out thick seclusion (with photo). I had running nose a few times. I had fried hot green pepper for dinner. I felt the air with pepper was harder to breathe in. It caused continuous coughing.

Day 9. Day went fine. Green vegetable, rice and noodle for dinner. Continuous dry coughing during night.

Day 10. Day went fine. Normally I have a small lunch of noodle but a big dinner. Today, I tried the reverse, that is, a big lunch with salmon fish but just soup for dinner. I wanted to see if a big dinner was the cause for the night coughs. However, I had continuous coughing during the night.

Day 11. Wednesday. Day went fine. Did not walk outside for one hour as usual. Rice and tofu for dinner. No coughing during night.

Day 12. Day went fine. One hour of walking outside. Occasional dry-coughing during the night.

Day 13 - Friday. The day went fine. I thought the sickness was gone.

Day 14 - Saturday, March 8. I walked for a total of one hour to San Rafael city library to attend one-hour seminar on gardening at 10:30 AM. The master gardener gave a slide show in a small closed room. I had my jacket on and gradually felt hot. Heat induced coughing followed. I immediately drank cool water from the plastic water bottle that I always carry with me and took off my jacket. Coughing stopped. At the end of the day, it appeared that the sickness was gone.

The walk to the library in this time of the year was very exciting. Beautiful red, pink and yellow flowers bloomed from roses, camellia trees, and others on the sides of the streets. Peach and wild plum trees also bloomed in the city. On my way back, I snapped two off-shoots from the trunk of maple trees. I pushed one into the ground soil and one into a medium sized pot. I also snapped a branch from the base shoots of an unknown tree.

Days 15-19. March 9-13. The days went fine.

Day 20 - March 14, Friday. Throat began to itch. It could be due to sports activity in windy weather. At that time, my 15 months old daughter had running nose. In the following days, the two of us suffered from the same illness.

Day 21 - March 15, Saturday. For the second time, I walked for a total of one hour to the San Rafael city library to attend one-hour seminar on gardening at 10:30 AM. In the same small closed room. The master gardener brought in a few flower pots and some books. He gave a talk on how to take care of flowers. Other attendants also brought in flowers to ask for advice. The heat induced brief coughing. It stopped when I drank a little cool water and took off my jacket.

Day 22 - March 16, Sunday. Normal

Day 23 - March 17, Monday. Coughing and running nose occurred in the night. I normally use a thin pillow that is about 2 inches (50 mm) in thickness. This time, I tried a thick pillow that is about 6 inches (150 mm) thick, to see if it would help. However, I continued to cough.

The week between March 17 and 23 is teacher-parent conference week for Coleman school. There was no school, so I did not do the 40 minutes of walking to his school every day. I also stopped any physical exercises in late afternoon.

Day 24 - March 18, Tuesday. I had coughing and running nose all day. Normally, the day went fine. This change of pattern was apparently due to the thick pillow. The saying that "No worries with a high pillow" does not apply in this case.

Day 25 - March 19, Wednesday. Due to discomfort, I had taken a couple of more showers. In the morning, I clearly felt dry itching on the skin below waist. I felt mild headache from morning to afternoon. But late in the afternoon, I felt normal. I found out that there was a shower rain earlier. I have found that my coughing condition has been sensitive to the atmosphere. I have never noticed this before. I switched back to low pillow and had a good sleep during the night.

Day 26. Little cough during the day.

Days 27-29. March 21-23. Essentially no cough. Thick seclusion in throat occasionally. Good sleep. Feel comfortable. My daughter¡®s running nose became less and less.

Days 30-37. March 23-30. Instead of walking, I used the car to go to school to pick up Jimmy. Coughing was the last symptom to disappear. Complete recovery. I should mention that I was not able to eat peanuts with the coughing symptom.

Concluding remarks: I think that climate change and pollen are the main causes of my throat infection. Just as a paper can cut into the skin in dry air, prolonged inhalation of dry air with pollen (or other find dust and particles) must have caused cuts in the sensitive vocal cord. Cuts in the throat may easily lead to infection because food and water must pass through it. An additional cause may be that aging or intensive talking demand the enlargement of the vocal cord. This is like the change of teeth for kids of 6-8 years in age. This growth process may lead to infection in adverse environment.

Case No. 4 - Headache

Headaches in cold weather have happened to me many times. My treatment method is to run outside with a lot of clothes so that I would sweat. Taking a shower and have a good sleep afterwards lead to recovery. A severe cold or flu would last for a week with the symptom of running nose. In the summer of 2003 in Hunan of China, I found that hot and stuffy weather can also cause "cold" or flu. Between July 4 - 10, 2003, I was living on the third floor of the reception building of the Changsha Mining and Metallurgy Research Institute. Because it was very hot for a few days and I sang a few songs, I began to have sour throat and running nose. It cooled off on July 7 and 8. On July 9, when I stayed in the air conditioned corridor on the first floor, the symptom disappeared for the duration. When I played basketball outside in the evening, the symptom also disappeared for the duration. On July 11, I moved to a small ground floor apartment of Victory village that was cool under big trees, the symptom disappeared quickly. I was living the the Deer Horse Bridge township of East Peace county in the summer of 2003. After a few stuffy hot days, I began to have clear running nose on September 18. In the evening, I went to the track and field ground of the middle school to run until I sweated. The symptom disappeared. I gave a talk with the teachers on Global Tourism Potential for East Peace County during the night. I still had the running nose the next morning and wondered if I should go for the appointment with president Guan TianQiu of LingLing college. Since he was departing for Beijing, I went as planned. It rained and cooled off in the evening of September 19. I recovered completely from the running nose in two days.

I have experienced sudden but acute pain a few times due to unexpected constipation. This happened when I felt like discharging but the stool would not come down as I wished. More effort at discharging led to more pain. I later learned to stop discharging and force back-up the stool with an effort to close the rectum. The pain disappeared moments later, and everything went back to normal soon. Contrary to the unpleasant feeling at the moment of doing so, this method has always worked for me. Trying to move up and down a few time at discharge can prevent pain.

I was born and raised in the countryside of Southern Hunan of China where the air is mostly damp. I was in northern Sweden 1984-87 and in Canada 1989-2000. I have continuously experienced itchy skin below the waist in the northern dry climate. The chlorine water may be an additional factor. It took me years to discover a simple cure, that is, less soap and infrequent shower. Vaseline served to prevent the worsening of symptoms if itching has occurred. But, I would advice not to use any medicine.

I suffered from frequent toothache when I was a boy possibly due to sugar products and inadequate teeth care. I was told that toothache was due to tooth warms, and that attracting the worms out was a way of curing toothache. This is clearly wrong. I have had a couple of teeth-pull outs and many fillings at the dentists in my adulthood in Sweden and Canada. In the year 2001, I received an estimate of $5000 for teeth bridges and crowns. But, I did not go through the treatment because of insufficient fund. I discovered that frequent tooth brushing and daily tooth picking with wooden toothpicks are adequate.

I had a low degree of near sightedness and wore eyeglasses since my last year in University. I have seen colleagues undergo precision eye surgery to recover the normal eyesight and eliminate the use of eyeglasses. When I was in Sweden, I mentioned this to Professor Ove Stephansson in a party at his house. He said he'd rather wear glasses than undergoing eye surgery. It had an influence on me. In the last twenty years, I have changed many eyeglasses. The frames for eyeglasses are so light and strong today that I can wear them in all kinds of sports like basketball, track and field, and gymnastics without a tie. I am glad I did not go for an eye surgery.

I have played basketball since I was 7 years old. Contrary to popular belief, I found that playing alone is most safe and beneficial if it is on a concrete floor basketball court. I fell on my lower back on the concrete floor when playing half-court team competition at the age of about 26 years in South-Central University of Technology. I had severe pain in sleeping at that time and took prescribed Chinese medicine. I believe that the Chinese medicine helped relieve pain and have a good sleep. Occasional pain occurred quite often afterwards in damp air or if driving a car for too long. I have never taken any drugs for such pains. I have been in California for three years now and have not experienced any back pain because the air is dry.

My advice is that playing sports by oneself is most safe and beneficial. Competitive sports should be played in a safe environment. For example, competitions should be performed in wooden floor basketball and volleyball courts, not on concrete floor.

I am fortunate to live in a peaceful world since childhood. I have always had regular three meals a day, and have never starved or over-eaten. Missing one meal had been a big event for me. This may be the reason why I had grown to be thin. In the year 2001, I tried two meals a day with one over-eating. I also tried day-long starvation. It was a good feeling. I now consider missing a lunch a trivial thing. This made my life more flexible. I heard doctors in the west suggest intestine cleaning to prevent disease. This requires that the person does not eat high-protein food but drink water and eat high water-content fruits for a week. In fact, this is what most patients do when sick in bed. But preconditioning is better and reaction.

I am now 40 years old. My health has maintained at the highest level since I was 20 years old. My physical and mental skills have steadily improved. In the year 2001, I learned the back-hand spring of gymnastics. I continued to practice it in a swimming pool. This may be contrary to the saying that "old dogs cannot learn new tricks".

To add a little content to this topic, I 'd like to go back to relations between boys and girls. I could remember in my middle school years, girls and boys avoided one another unless guided by teachers in specific activities. Certain classmates would pair up certain boys and girls in talking to cause some laughs. One such pair ended up in marriage immediately after high school graduation. I was not particularly liked by any girl due to a disvantageous family class (land lord class), and did not chase after any girl. But, in my heart and dreams, I wanted to see and talk to certain girls. However, there were not many such opportunities. When I was fifteen, I transferred to the East Peace Second Middle School at about 10 km from home. Since I did not know any girl there, the boy-girl relation did not trouble me. I think it helped me catch up with classmates in studies and suceeded in college admission in a year. I went to the mining specialty of the Department of Mines, South Central Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in Changsha. There were no girls among the 60 or so students. There were a few classmates who kept on corresponding with high school sweethearts. Although I admired the girls in other classes but also saw sadness in some of the said classmates at times. From 16 to 20 years of age in college, I was able to focus on studies, sports and other activities. In the graduate examinations at graduation time, I was awarded the Overseas Graduate Fellowship to go to Sweden to study. It was like a dream come true at that young age.

At the age of 20, in the middle of youthhood, and looking to a bright future, I began to find a girl friend. There was an overwhelming problem of married couples living separate at that time. Those in that situation resented it. We thought it was a difficult situation and set it a condition to avoid it. The first girl I chased after was probably a high school classmate who went to the same college but in a different department. She was quite tall and big. I was aggressive but she was passive and cool towards me. I did not realize that she had another boyfriend at that time. I went once to see her in her parents home, and another time at her work place. After the summer of 1983 I went to Beijing to study English. We wrote letters to each other for a short while. Although, we did not continue, that type of communication enhance our life experience.

I met another girl on the train to Beijing. I think she was in her third year in a university in TianJin. Somehow we started to write to each other when I was studying English in Beijing. She wrote very good Chinese characters in a certian standard style. I wrote free style at that time. Writing letters to her helped me practice imitating a certain standard style. She was quite short and small, but attractive. I met her parents in a summer in Changsha. We kept on writing to each other while I was in Sweden. She obtained double Bachelor's degrees in Chinese literature and law. I met her once more after I returned from Sweden to Changsha. Somehow, this relation did not continue. The communications with her helped me study more literary works.

At the age of 24 after I returned back to Changsha, it was a serious business to look for a girl friend. I met a few nice girls in the vicinity of the university where I worked, but I was not happy to get into marriage. To find girlfriends through a network of friends seemed slow and not so free. I then put an advertisement to look for a girl friend on the Changsha Evening News. This was a method few would resort to at that time. But, it was very effective. I received tens of letters and went to meet a few of them. It did not take long to find a nice girl that was also eager to look for a boyfriend. We got married in 1988. It should be pointed out that, prior to finding my wife, my contact with girls has reached as far as taking hands except that I kissed one girl once on the face. Prior to obtaining the marriage certificate, I had sex with my wife, but there was no pregnancy.

I went to Canada for PhD studies in 1989 at Queen's University, but did the thesis work in Sudbury between 1990 and 1993. My wife went to Canada two years later in 1991. She obtained the opportunity for graduate studies in Montreal at about 800 km distance in 1992. I obtained my PhD degree in 1993 and continued postdoctoral research in Sudbury between 1993 and 1995. I went to see my wife once per month on the Greyhound bus. She obtained the PhD degree in medical science in 1997. Therefore, we lively separately 1989-1992 in China and Canada. We again lively separately 1992-1995 in two cities of Canada: Sudbury and Montreal. We had our first baby in 1994. My wife came to Sudbury to give birth but returned to Montreal soon after. In 1995, I went to Montreal to look for employment. After a few months of unemployment, I found a software development job and worked there between 1995 and 1996. From 1996 to 1998, I went to work in the gold mines in the remote town of Marathon that is about 1300 km from Montreal, leaving my wife behind. From 1999 to 2000, we lived separately in Marathon and New York. We finally reunited in the middle of year 2000 in California. We had our second child in July of 2001.

Over the years, we tried a few methods of contraception: abstaining, condom and the menstrual cycles. We have been successful in contraception. In the Condom Method, the husband has principal responsibility, but in the Menstrual Method, the wife has principal responsibility. Both methods would fail if one party lies. After the second baby, we mostly used the good old method of sleeping on separate beds. Some people may think of trying sex once and then stop. The reality is that sex is like many other things, the more one does it, the more one wants it. Doing other leisure activities such as trvaveling and sports would help achieve a new level of thinking.

Case No. 13 - Experience with Child Care

My first child, a boy, was born in 1994. I worked at different cities until 1999. He spent most of his time in day cares, and turned out to be quite independent. He could always play by himeself without the parents attention. My second child, a girl, was born in 2001. During certain periods of time, I had the opportunity to take care of her full time as well as caring for the son after school. Mean while I worked on computer software programming, wrote articles such as this one, attended community meetings and did the cooking and other house chores. I must say that doing all these things at the same time is like being the president of a country or a fighting soldier in a battlefield. Things like feeding, diaper changing, playing, cooking, dish washing, laundering, going out had to be done in a timely manner. The only time that I could do my own work was when the child was asleep at mid day and when my wife took over after she came back from work. This time was usually only two to four hours a day. Since a house wife or husband is usually not paid, some working people may think that such work is easy and trivial and it does not need education. My experience is that child care, house chores and authoring work combined is as hard as or harder than any job that I ever had. Days go by very quickly with a positive attitude and the goal to achieve smiling.

A baby grows and learns bit by bit. The adult-baby or child relation is a trainer-trainee relation. The adult's action should be accompanied with verbal explanation. The most important thing to know is that the trainee' s crying is just like the talking or gesturing of the adult. It is also necessary for the physical development of the vocal cord. To train a child properly, the trainer must not solely aim at preventing or stopping crying. When my child cried, I tried to ask why. At times, it was necessary to let the trainee cry to the end in order to correct a behavior or habit. For example, my wife tend to give whatever the children want, an act of spoiling. In the stores, she would buy whatever toys or candies the children want; and at home; she would make children happy no matter what the children want to have or want to do. I once told her that if a child doesn't even know how to go to the toilet, we should not give him/her whatever is wanted. I train the children the habit that it is fine to have or not to have certain things, and it is fine to have it sooner or later. I consider it important to bring children to play in parks and track-field ground. Playing outside is what children enjoyed most.

I started to develop a new computer software when my daughter was born in 2001. The prototype came from a free Java test program posted on the internet. The software could be used by myself after one year of development. I have used it as contacts book, photo album, trees album and calendar book, etc.. I obtained design ideas from my social and natural environment. For three years, the computer program has been steadily tested, corrected and improved. Three years later today, it is good enough for other people to use. It would not be completely appropiate to compare software development and childcare, but there are many similarities. I wrote the computer program line by line from about 1000 (one thousand) to the present 31784 (about thirty two thousand) lines. It behaves in certain routines and performs certain functions according to user input. A baby at birth is like a blank paper mentally. The baby gradually develops certain routines and functions by training in the specific social and natural environment. For example, the baby has been trained to eat, sleep and play at certain times of the day. The baby would cry if no food is fed at the specific time. When my two and half year child wants to drink water, a specific cup must be provided and she must put the plastic cap on it herself. Otherwise, she would not drink. Both my wife and I take care of the baby, but, I was away for 10 months. When my wife is present, she would not take instructions from me if my wife opposes. But, when my wife is away, she would follow me as if I was the mother. It is certainly misleading to judge the child-carer relation by the behavior when the mother is present. I often brought the two children out to play in the sports field of the nearby San Rafael High School, in the Civic Center Park and the China Camp State Park. The children often interacted with friendly neighbors.

I noticed that my three year old daughter is more sensative to seeing than to hearing. The combination of vision and sound has the most influence on her. For example, when she was on the phone with her mommy, she would put down the phone after one or two sentences. But, when she is with her mommy, she hardly get away from her. Once when mommy used a vacuum machine to clean the carpet, it generated loud noises because the dust bag was full. My daughter hid away and cried loudly. After a month, I took out the same vaccum cleaner and opened it to see the dust bag. I did not intend to use it. When she saw it, she hid away and cried loudly and continuously until I put the vaccum machine back.

I myself never expressed my anger in shouting or physical action. I oftened did sports such as running or singing to release my anger and cure sickness. This was due to instruction from my father and the social environment in which I grew up. My father told me that he was easy to get angry before but he changed in his career. My experience with child care has demonstrated the same. Children do what the adults and other children do. My wife sometimes shouts and have our boy kneel down for long periods of time as punishment. She sometimes lowered my authority to elevate her own. As a result, the boy sometimes become angry. When he was nine years old, I asked him to stop his INTENDO game, but, he pulled down the 36" TV to break the tea table and the signal socket. When he was ten years old, he kicked the new screen door and damaged it somewhat. He sometimes would fight with me. On a summer day in 2004, I wanted to make a telephone call and asked my son to stop playing internet computer game in the bedroom. He would not stop. I counted up to ten and then switched off the power on the computer. After I left the bedroom, I heard a bang and found that he made a 3" diameter home on the closet door. He said he threw his chair towards the closet door when he thought the door was solid and could not be easily damaged. It turned out that the door was empty inside. I saw that my father was ineffective in teaching his other four children. The main reason was that my mother always took the side of the children and blamed father regardless right or wrong. Mother would always be the louder voice and never admit wrong, while father avoided quarrels. This gives the children the impression that she was always right. He lost influence on the children after he handed the control of his income to mother. The secondary reason was that his life experience had not verified that the right was better than the wrong. I am surprised to find that my own wife is like my mother in this aspect. Since I do not have monetary income, my ten year old son would not listen to me.

It is a brand new experience for a man to take care of children, do the cooking and other house chores without income. The author believes that this is a way to equality between men and women. I not only experienced the hardship and unfair treatment of the traditional women's work, but also got trained in such a life. The result is increased resistence to noises and unfairness.

From seven to fifteen, I lived with my father. We had a lot of time to talk, and never quarrelled loudly. For a certain period of time, we had a neighbor who had a few children. The mother often shouted at one or two of her children. I thought it was very strange. I was also puzzled at the disharmony between my own parents. Later on, when I was looking for a wife, I paid special attention to temper. When I got married at the age of twenty five, I was proud to have found a good wife. In the fifteen years of marriage, we both pursued our own careers, moved and lived separately a few times. Today, my wife does not worry about her job, but, I do not have income. My wife often shouted at myself or the children. Our small family appears to be similar to the above neighbor and my parents family.

I have observed on myself that different food and drinks have different effects on human control and functional systems. Meat produces prolonged heat energy that is beneficial in cold weather but not in hot weather; vegetables provide sustaining water and other vitamin nutrients; oils lubricate, protect and nourish the digestive system; Liquefied food provide necessary nutrients if the teeth or the throat are in trouble. Different types of vegetables also have distinctive effects on human systems. For example, ginger soup is refreshing in cold weather. A lot of it would cause seminal emission for men. I would like to collect a database of food items and their medicinal effects.

Till college graduation, I spitted mouth water occasionally on the roadside. I can still remember why I spitted. At certain times, I felt an accumulation of mouth water that tasted bad. I felt I had to spit it out. Later, I tried to keep mouth water until I went to a toilett to spit it out. Afterwards, I tried hard to swallow the mouth water a few times. That worked. I kept this method till today, and no longer have any accumulation of mouth water. This has helped improve the efficiency of living.

I think the mid-day sleep has the following advantages (I) it helps avoid the mid-day sunshine and heat in hot days, (II) it helps the digestion of lunch. It is a good practice for non-working people like the young and the old. I personally think it has the following disadvantages (I) it causes the loss of quality work and leisure time for people who commute long distance to the work place; (II) it causes double personal make-up and commuting time in a day for people living close by; (III) it is unsuitable for certain production place where continuous operation is critical for productivity; and (IV) it facilitates intellectual work during the night when extra energy is consumed.

I can remember in my elementary school and middle school years in the countryside of southern Hunan, I went home to have lunch but did not take the mid-day nap. In the hot summer vacations, I participated in farming. I did the same as others to have a big and nutritious lunch and take a long mid-day nap. When I was 16 years old, I went to college in Changsha. The mid-day nap was rigidly implemented. I took up the habit of the mid-day nap. For three years in northern Sweden between 1984-1987, this habit was contrary to the local custom. I had a sleepy time after lunch. During the two years 1987-1889 when I went back to Changsha to teach, this habit was strengthened. During 1989-1993 in Canada, I tried to overcome this habit to conform to the local custom. Again, I felt sleepy after lunch time. During the two years of working in Hemlo mines in Canada, I had to try hard to overcome the after-lunch sleepyness. I finally learned the full secret of overcoming the after-lunch sleepyness in the year 2002 through fasting. The secret has two components (I) to have big and nutritious breakfast and dinner but little lunch and (II) to have a 9 hour sleep at night.

For the purpose of this case, Hot and Cold Energies are defined as energy sources with temperatures higher and lower than the body temperature of 37 Celcius (98 Fahrenheit) respectively. I have heard of mixed sayings about this subject in China. Some people use the idiom of "using poison to overcome poison" to suggest that Hot Energy can be used to fight high body temperature condition and Cold Energy can be used to fight cold temperature condition. For example, when a person has a fever, he or she should take a hot bath, and when a person has as a cold, he or she should take a cold bath. Other people use the rationale of the complementary Yin and Yang to suggest that Hot Energy can be used to complement low body temperature condition and Cold Energy can be used to complement high temperature condition. For example, when a person has a fever, he or she should take a cold bath, and when a person has as a cold, he or she should take a hot bath..

My family instructions were inclined towards the rationale of complementation of Yin and Yan, although not as clear as stated above. For example, if I have a headache in cold weather, I would have a lot of clothes and run outside until I sweated. With a good sleep, the headache usually goes away. In college, we roomates tried as much as possible to have a hot water feet bath. In hot weather, I would avoid heat and use cold water to wash face and body as much as possible. However, at times when I was in good health I tried to fight against this natural inclination in a certain degree. For example, I would often not use water of a comfortable temperature for bath but cooler temperature to cause a shiver. I sometimes used water of a comfortable temperature for washing but end with a cold shower. I think that this helped my body to retain elastic response to weather changes. With the study of my latest sickness between February 23 and March 30, 2003, I believe that the rationale of Yin and Yang complementation is the normal way to follow, particularly in times of sickness. For examples, having cold food, drinks, shower as well as cold feet bath in hot weather is beneficial. Fighting against such natural inclination shoud be practised occasionally in good health to train the body to react to unusual change.

On July 18, I took a train to YongZhou from Changsha at 19:30. It was in the middle of the hottest season, but the train ride was comfortable because it was from evening to midnight. My mother told me earlier that my 77 year old father was ill again and he was likely to die. When I arrived home, my father was lying on the bamboo chair most of the time, and was accepting the glucose injection at home. He felt weak and had a numb head. My mother did the house chores like cooking and washing clothes. I knew immediately that the hot weather was to blame. I asked the the injection be stopped, and that he stop drinking and smoking. Later, I saw that the refrigerator inside the room was a heat source and moved it to another room. I gave a couple of books for him to read. He was eating well and slept well. He recovered in a couple weeks. Later, he was doing the house chores when my mother was ill. Some people have a bad eating habit, that is, to eat a big lunch with rice wine, chicken and other meat during the hottest days of the year. Wine and chicken or other meat produce heat during digestion. The heat can not be easily emitted into the hot and humid air. Physically weak people may get sick and even die as a result.

In October of 2003, there appeared a 2 cm diameter lump at 3 cm distance to the left of my belly button. It looked brown and felt stiff and painful. I thought it was caused by the new medium sized under-wear bought in Changsha because it was too tight. From previous experience, I changed to loose pants and ignored it. It disappeared about two weeks later. There is a 5 mm diameter black mole on my back. It bleeded and swelled a few times due to taking frequent showers or friction. In Canada, I went to see a Korea-born doctor to ask if it could be cut out. He said if it were to be cut out, it would leave a shinny spot behind that would be larger than what it is now. I immediately agreed with him on this point. It has not caused trouble for me because I ignored it. Small lumps formed a few times behind my ears, and it woud become larger if I touched it more. During college years, I went to see a doctor to see if it was cancer. She told me not to worry about it. Such lumps appeared a few times later and they came and went if I ignored them.

In China, many people use big-bottle veinous injection, especially with brine and glucose. Healthy people also have glucose injection for nourishment. However, in Canada and the United States veinous injections are seldom used for fear of propagation of disease. According to medical experts, brine and glucose can be taken orally. My own experience has demonstrated that drinking salty hot water or soup can heal minor sickness while reducing salt in the meal. This is because liquid can be quickly absorbed by the body, but, nutrients in the solid food are slowly absorbed, and some of them are discharged out of the body with the excrement. For the first six years after the birth of our first child, he lived in cold climate and suffered from high temperature and coughing in the winter. My wife was afraid that such sickness would develop into long term sickness. He insisted that he took antibiotics. As a result, he would become well only after taken antibiotics every time he suffered such sickness. Today, his health is not very good. Just like his mother, he suffers from car sickness. My wife insisted that he use skin protection cream on the face. As a result, I observed six black spots on his face at the age of ten. After the birth of our second child in the year 2001, I seriously pointed out this problem with my wife. She would not admit that there was a problem with antibiotics and facial cream. However, she no longer insisted on the use of them. With the additional factor that there is no cold weather in California, our second child seldom, if any, took antibiotics.

Case No. 21 - The Effect of the Posture of Sleep on Health and Spirit

As I grew up, I have been fortunate to sleep on bed except riding on trains occasionally during the night. Despite the discomfort, I managed to sleep sitting on the train bench with head up to lean back or head down to rest on the table. Between October of 2004 and July of 2005, I slept in the compact Ford Escort car. I had the opportunity to listen to the rain, hear birds singing, watch the moon, and study the traffic, the weather and the human society at night. Besides, it was an excellent opportunity to the effects of sleep gesture. The back seat of the car can be flipped down to provide a inclined surface for sleep. The inclination is about 15 degrees if the car is parked on a flat surface. The car can be parked on a up or down slope, such that the sleep surface can vary from 30 degrees to -5 degrees. For example, if the car is parked on a -15 degree downward slope, then the sleep surface is 0 degree which is the normal sleep posture. I have found that sleeping all night when the car is parked on a flat surface (15 degree sleep posture) caused tiredness of the brain and it became hard to do creative work such as computer programming during the day. On the other hand, after a day of strained hard mental work, sleeping in a slightly negative posture can lead to refreshed mind because there was added blood flow in the brain. However, a whole night sleep on a negative slope surface may cause a heavy head in normal and ordinary situations. I could imagine that a sick or old person is more sensitive to sleep posture and it could be a choice of survival and death.

1. My unusually long one-month of sickness occurred during the spring season of drastic climate change. Flowers bloom and new leaves began to come out. The maple offshoot that I planted on March 8 developed leaves in two weeks. Many other residents of San Rafael developed similar symptoms. Some of them blame it on flu, others blame it on pollen allergies. I think it is a combination of climate change and prolonged inhalation of dry air with pollen. An additional cause may be that aging or intensive talking demand the enlargement of the vocal cord. This is like the change of teeth for 6-8 year old kids. This growth process may lead to infection in adverse environment.
2. As one's health weakens, one becomes more sensitive to air, wind, heat, cold and food as well as posture. For example, cool air and lying down flat helped ease coughing.
3. Medicine suppresses the symptoms to achieve a quick cure. But, it also leaves unhealthy residual effects. Such illness can heal naturally provided there is sufficient food, clothes, shelter, leisure and a healthy environment. The solution to health care lies not in drugs but in healthy living and working conditions.
4. Prevention measures taken when one is in good health is essential to prepare for illness. Measures such as physical, vocal and mental exercises, good sleep, nutrition and occasional starving will strengthen the body¡¯s immune system not only to prevent illness, but also to assure recovery if illness strikes.