Hello everyone , how are you? Happy New Year! It’s been sometime since I last updated my blog. 2024 was a year of growth, adventures and new beginnings for me. 2025 will be a year of healing ; physically, mentally and spiritually.  If you’ve been reading my blog, I’ve written about Wifey’s hives / urticaria in 2017. Her hives / urticaria was under control but recently it came back and flared up quite badly. Hives / urticaria is common and affects about 20% of people at some point in their lives.  Wifey’s hives flare up badly especially at night.  When the hives came back, Wifey has been taking antihistamine (Cetirizine, Zyrtec, Benadryl) which provides temporary relief but the hives continuously flare up every other day. It causes a lot of discomfort and emotional stress.  The turning point was when the antihistamine no longer works as the hives don’t subside after the pill.  Korean Ginseng (高麗參) with rice water  A friend recommended to try drinking Korean Ginseng (高麗參) with rice water. The friend has hives too and her hives was cured with this formula. Wifey tried a few times but unfortunately her hives still flared up.  Finally, we decided to try out TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) acupuncture treatments combined with herbal medicine.  To TCM, emotions and organs are connected  In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), emotions are a major cause of all illnesses.  TCM associates each of seven emotions with a specific organ in the body.  Anger : Liver  Joy and Shock : Heart Sadness and Grief : Lungs Worry : Spleen  Fear : Kidneys  Oppression : Spleen, lungs and heart  TCM Acupuncture Treatment with Heat  During the treatment, the TCM physician will  examine her pulse to diagnose and determine the appropriate course of treatment. She first started her acupuncture treatments twice a week. After a few treatments of acupuncture and taking herbal medicine, her hives got better.  TCM Herbal Medicine  Now, her hives are in control. Wifey is still undergoing TCM treatments and looking forward to full recovery from hives / urticaria. According to Dr Joey, the TCM physician that we are seeing, Wifey’s hives’ due to blood deficiency which leads to Qi deficiency; which is the body’s vital energy. If I’m not mistaken, in western medicine; it’s referred to the immune system. When your immune system is weak,...