Heat and Healing

After a little hiccup in Japan, Jeff arrived home last night, 24 hours later than scheduled. The airline totally destroyed his largest suitcase. Amazingly, nothing was broken or lost. Packed within his clothes were small pots, a bottle of Omija berry wine, a bottle of sake, a variety of Korean gardening tools, and some herbal medicines.

While Jeff was in Korea he experienced an herbal therapy that uses the same pressure points as acupuncture. Instead of needles, it is a cylindrical stick packed with herbs and applied with a stick on base to a pressure point. It is then lit like incense. He brought a box home and we gave it a try on my left wrist, which has been bothering me.

The herb used is ssuk tteum, aka mugwart.

 It felt very warm, at first and then got quite hot feeling. Not hot enough to be uncomfortable.

You can have these treatments in what I would call a spa, but not sure if that's what it would be called in Asian countries. In those situations the mugwart is place in little clay pots and burned on pressure points. It can also involve acupuncture.

There is a card inside the box that maps out pressure points... of course it's all in Korean and we will have translate it!

photo credit: Sukyoung Kim

Here are Jeff, Ron Philbeck, and Jeon Changhyun experiencing some "heating and healing" time in Korea.
Time will tell how effective these treatments can be. It sure feels good and relaxing... and afterwards the house smells like we've been smoking pot. Surely, that's not a bad thing!