Most definitely. I'm so glad you started this thread, because I love Eastern medicine. The battle between Eastern and Western medicine is always a force to be reckoned with in my household. Our philosophy is "Do as much as you can with Eastern medicine and if it that doesn't work then go to Western methods EXCEPT in cases of surgery."

And yes the "varieties" of Asian oils abound in our house. My own medicine cabinet in my bathroom back home is stocked with at least 5 different oils. In my opinion I think all the oils do pretty much the same thing. . .as you mentioned the soothing icy/hot feeling and then magical healing occurs. I am also familiar with the boiled egg trick. However we just boil the egg, crack the shell open, and stick it in a hankerchief. We generally use this for serious bruises; as a result the bruise heals more quickly than just leaving it alone to its own devices.

Also for whatever reason my dad has a really bizarre attachment to Tiger Balm. He uses it for EVERYTHING. . .cuts, bruises, bug bites, stomach aches, etc.

I had one particular experience which greatly affirmed my faith in the effectiveness of East asian methods. Right below your ankle is a small roundish bone that sticks out slightly less than your ankle. Well for whatever reason I popped a fluid sac and that part of my foot swelled and it looked like I had 2 ankles; it was freakish. My dad brought me to this sketchy medical office in the heart of Oakland Chinatown where the "doctor" (I don't even know what kind of training he had) gave me some ointment that is commonly used in Hong Kong hospitals. I rubbed some of that stuff on my foot and literally two days later or less my foot was back to normal. When I had gone to my Western pediatrician previously, they couldn't do anything for me.

well I played a lot of sports and when I injure my ankle or legs instead of just taking pain killers, I also would have acupuncture therapy. I have no idea what the theory behind this is but I personally really think it works. The doctor would simply poke a needle in my body and instead of feeling pain, I would feel sore and a tingling sensation, and after that, the stress on the wound really gets alleviated. I also took chinese herbal medicine sometimes when I got sick. My mom would put the medicine in a pot, cook it for a couple of hours, and the end result is a big cup of black bitter water. After drinking the medicine, I would feel much better though so I do believe that there are remedies and some things modern science can't explain.

My grandma used to always rub this Dragon type oil on my stomache when I had a stomachache or on my joints when they hurt and she called it "mama yao" or "grandma oil." I think it was mostly psychological but even just the smell made me feel better. Other than that, I don't think I encountered much of the superstitious Asian medicines. However, my mom does tell me that when she was trying to conceive me, she and my dad were in Japan and the Japanese women that were the wives of the people that my dad was doing business with gave her some turtle soup and told her that it would help her have a baby. Soon after, she was pregnant with me.

Asian oils, yes that was all my parents used and forced me to used. Whenever i was sick, my mom would perform "coining" on me, where she would use the asian oil (the one that feels all cool when you put on) and use a quarter to start rubbing the oil against my back. It hurt!!! but after, i did feel kind of better. My mom said the redder it got, the more it worked, so i everytime it looked like i got wiped really bad on my back, it meant i got a good coining session. :~ haha

I just remembered something, have any of you seen the movie called "Gua sha"? It's about this Chinese family (mom, dad, son, and grandpa) living in US, and their kid was taken away by Social Services because they thought the parents were abusing the kid because there were red steaks on the kid's back. But it was actually one of those Eastern remedy where you use some kind of device and repeatedly scrape the back that will improve your health because it induces the blood flow (or something like that). By the way, the movie was good too, it's mainly about this Chinese family living amongst mainly caucasian community and their legal battle to get back the son taken away by the Social Services.

ooh i just thought of another asian remedy cus i just remembered how Clay was talking about the movie "shower" in class on monday... but yah, in the movie, the father owns this public bathhouse that, well of course offers baths, but also massages and a place for interacting between the townspeople. one of the remedies that they would give is for pain relief where i think they put jars over lighted candles and when the fire dies, they put it on the back of the person wherever he has muscle pains cus i guess when they do the jar sucks really hard on the spot and relieves pain... i dunno but i thought it was kinda funny cus the patient would always end up with these circular red marks all over their back... but yah "shower" is a really good movie though, really different from "quitting" even though they're from the same directors... it's funny but touching...

Ctran, you're not weird, trust me, my family does the same thing. The remedy where we use a spoon or quarter with green oil to scratch ourselves until we turn red is actually a very effective technique, i'd say. There's also this remedy i know of...it involves a large pot of hot water with steam coming out of it, and herbs. Well basically, if you have a cold or a fever or whatnot, you just stick your head into the pot (but NOT into the water) filled with hot water and herbs so that the steam coming out of the pot does wonders to your body. lol. sounds weird, right? But it WORKS!