The herb "Tin Mah"

"Tin Mah" is originally the stem of some plant in certain provinces of China. It is processed into pieces, steamed, and dried.

In Hong Kong, they are usually sold in small packets, as shown in the 1st photo. The 3 packets here costed me around HK$200, which is about US$26. To make a dish, I use about 15 grams, which is the amount shown in the 3rd photo. But it would also depend on the thickness of the particular Tin Mah pieces.

The 2nd photo shows the Chinese medicine store from which I bought my packets. (Photography inside the store is not allowed, so I could not take photos from a closer distance.) If you look closely, you can actually see the packets of Tin Mah on display at the bottom row, on the left-hand side.

The last photo is the original form of "Tin Mah" before processing for sale. That photo has been downloaded from the Chinese version of Wikipedia.(address:http://baike.baidu.com/view/11275.htm

The address may seem a bit blurred on the screen; and I retype it here: http://baike.baidu.com/view/11275.htm)

The Wikipedia also says that the Latin name of the original plant is "Gastrodia Elata BL"; the Latin name of the herb is "Rhizom Gastrodie"
and the English name of the herb is "Tall Gastrodia Tuber".

As far as I can gather from books on Chinese medicine (simple reference books for household use, not really professional medicine literature), some people need to be cautious not to take large amounts of Tin Mah: people who are "weak in blood". I don't know what it means. The books say that if one feels dizzy, discomfort in the chest , fast heart beat, or feel like vomitting after taking "Tin Mah", they should stop taking it any further.

(You see my fingers in some of the photos because I'd like to show the scale.)

The fish

The fish head in the recipe is a rather common food item for Cantonese people in Hong Kong. In other words, it may be eaten simply as an usual dish, not necessarily for its therapeutic purpose.

The English term for the fish is "Big Head Carp".

In Hong Kong's markets, a fish head currently costs around HK$32-40, depending on size. That's around US$4-5.

Below is information obtained from Wikipedia about this fish.

The bighead carp is a freshwater fish, one of several Asian carps. It has a large, scaleless head, a large mouth, and eyes located very low on the head. Adults usually have a mottled silver-gray coloration. Adults can be quite large. Record sizes occasionally approach 100 lb (45 kg), but most places in the Mississippi River basin, a fish over 40 lb (18 kg) is considered very large. Bighead carp are popular quarry for bowfishers; the bowfishing record, captured in the Mississippi River near Alton, Illinois in May 2008, is 92.5 lb (42 kg).
Bighead carp are native to the large rivers and associated floodplain lakes of Eastern Asia. Their range extends from southern China to the Amur River system, which forms the northern border of China and the southern border of Russia[1].
The bighead carp has a tremendous growth rate, making it a lucrative aquaculture fish. Bighead carp, (unlike the common carp, with which Europeans and most North Americans are more familiar), are primarily filter feeders. They are preferentially consumers of zooplankton but also consume phytoplankton and detritus.

Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Cypriniformes
Family:
Cyprinidae
Genus:
Hypophthalmichthys
Species:
H. nobilis
Binomial name
Hypophthalmichthys nobilis

Medication

This is the medication I've been taking.

Summary of past and recent experience

I'm a retired civil servant living in HK, age 57, Chinese female.

I have Trigeminal Neurolgia for about 4 years, and have been seeing a neurologist. Tumour as cause of the illness was ruled out by taking MRI.

My case is rather special in that the pain occurs on different sides of my head/face in different years. At first it was on the right side. Later it was on the left side. Recently it changed back to the right side.

The situation was not too bad and could be kept under control by taking carbamazepine (at most 300 mg a day). Sometimes it was not even necessary to take the medicine; that's usually in summer.

Since middle of December 2008, the pain resumed and the medication seemed to have lost effect. I thought it was because of the cold weather in Hong Kong. I even took an "escape trip" to warm Bangkok but it didn't help.

I resisted taking more medicine because I know it's no good for the liver.

Since returning from Bangkok, the situation turned from bad to worse. I wonder if flying on planes was to be blamed, as there were strong air-conditioning in flights.

For a couple of weeks in January, severe pain occured even in the morning just after I woke up. That never happened before. A whole nerve from one side of the brain to the face ached. It was especially painful in a certain spot in the head, like someone drilling in the head. There was nothing I could do but to lie stiff in bed and waited for the pain to subside.

Throughout the rest of the day, the pain would occur again about ten times or so. Any slight motion might trigger it off, such as standing up, eating, brushing teeth or touching the nose accidentally. Speaking was a problem too.

Then I looked to traditional Chinese method for help. Although I grew up in a Chinese community, all my life I have trusted only western medicine because of my upbringing and education (I grew up in British colonial Hong Kong and graduated from the English-speaking University of Hong Kong). I never paid much attention to Chinese traditions of health care.

This time, under despair, I tried a traditional Chinese dietary method which is relatively well-known especially amongst aged Chinese women. The general Chinese belief is that one cause of headache is so-called "wind in the head". (I can't think of a better translation for it.) One way to remove the "wind" is to eat a dish: double-boil the head of “Big Head Carp fish” (commonly sold in Hong Kong markets) with a Chinese herb (called "Tin Mah" in Cantonese which is the dialect commonly used in Hong Kong, or “Tien Mah” in Mandarin/Putonghua which is the official language of mainland China) for about two hours. I took it and it worked miracle within a couple of days! My pain has been substantially reduced and I can resume normal daily activities happily. I still continue to eat that dish every other day. I think I can reduce it to once a week later on. At the same time, I continue to take 300 mg. of carbamezepine a day. (Before I tried the above-mentioned dietary method, I felt severe pain even though I had taken the same medication.) When I am sure that my condition has stablizied, I may experiment reducing the medication when the weather in Hong Kong gets even warmer.

I know the above may sound unbelievable to people in the west. But I wish to share it anyway because I know how dreadful TN is. I also understand that there may be different causes of TN, that the method I described above is probably only good for a special case: when the TN is caused by "wind in the head".

Looking back on the causes of my TN problem, I now have the following theory.
My pain started before my retirement. In my workplace, my seat was directly below an air-duct and I always felt a strong current (from air-conditioning) on my head. I often joked that I should wear a hat in the office but I never did. I had that seat in my office for about 8 years before the TN pain began. I now think that the strong air-conditioning current in the office was the underlying cause of my TN problem.

More recently, I took a sightseeing trip to Dubai in December 2008. One day I took an open-deck sightseeing bus and exposed myself to strong wind for hours. I think that was the recent cause for my severe pain after I returned to the cold weather in Hong Kong.
Now, I always wear a hat whenever I leave my house. This is to protect myself from the air-coniditoning which is everywhere (on subways, in shopping malls etc.) Also, I've given up my habit of washing my hair immediately before going to bed. According to traditional Chinese belief, washing your hair before bed can easily cause headache when one grows older; but I never bothered to follow that advice in the past. Also, remember to dry your hair as much as possible immediately after washing. (If blow dry, use hot air not cold air.) Don't leave your hair damp for lengthy periods of time.

I think the above recipe of "Head of Bighead Carp and Tin Mah" is not very helpful to people in the west unless I can also give the scientific names (or common names as used in the west) of the ingredients. I've searched the internet and found these names for Tin Mah, but I’m not sure of their correctness: “Tall Gastrodia Tuber”, “Rhizom Gastrodiae”. As for “Big Head Carp”, my impression is that western people do not eat that fish and it may not be available in western country. (Perhaps in Chinatown, I don't know.) The ingredients “hea of Big Head Carp” and “Tin Mah” are very easily available in Hong Kong and they are not expensive. To make a dish, the ingredients cost around US$8.

In subsequent posts on this blog, I'll give more information on how to cook this dish.

Introduction

I've created this blog for the purpose of sharing information on how I tackle Trigeminal Neuralgia (TN). In particular, I will share my recipe of a traditional Chinese dish which is good for removing headache.

Initially I posted some information on the site http://www.endthepain.,com/ set up by the Facial Pain Association or Trigeminal Neuralgia Association. Afterwards I thought it might be a good idea to have my own blog too.

If you have TN or wish to have more information about the illness, you may wish to visit the site of TNA (see address above) because it contains a lot of useful information and also provides a forum for patients to exchange experiences and render support to one another.

Important caution

The remedial recipe(s) and methods described in this blog are merely traditional Chinese methods which have been handed down from generation to generation. They are not backed up by rigorous scientific research.

There may be many causes of TN; and the methods described here merely happened to work on me (probably with a particular case of TN). I am also uncertain if there would be side-effects on other people. It would be advisable to consult your physician before applying any of the methods on this blog.

Also, please be cautious when purchasing Chinese herbs as quality control in their production process is sometimes questionable. Buy only from reputable outlets.

My best wishes to all TN patients.