Snakes and ginseng

I appreciate living in a cosmopolitan area of a cosmopolitan city. I had just been thinking that some kind of blip-series on shops would maybe work well. Then I had an e-mail from a good friend - retired from the law, and an authority on forensic matters. Enjoying my blips (thank you A) and had I seen "Harmonious and Healthy". I hadn't but it sounded tempting. After all a bit of harmony and health would do for us all.

So round I went, and there indeed it was. One of quite a number of Traditional Chinese Medicine shops here in the capital.

What to make of it? I wonder - do many Western people go here, or is it mainly Chinese? Is all this too "alternative" for most people. Might you go there if you were in a bad way and desperate?

Our Western view of specialised medicine is a bit knocked about by the idea that at this one-stop shop you can be cured from everything from acne to drug dependence - with a bit of treatment for impotence, or sore back - and a quick detox thrown in. Ah well!

And yet, it is to be discovered in the mainstream of medical care in East Asia - and the first book on the subject written around 2,500 BC. It's a massively interesting subject I discover. "Yin" and "yang" lie at the heart - because health is to be acheived when balance is found between all the complicated systems in the small universe of our bodies.

So, fellow blippers - have an harmonious and healthy day. And if you don't like your tablets, try some snake and ginseng!