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Gabby | Emily
| Thomas
Medicines: Sara K. |
Gabby | Sara K.
| Emily | Thomas
| Gabby | Emily
| Sara K. | Emily
| Sara K. | Gabby
| Emily | Maggie
| Gabby | Sara K.
| Sara K. | Maggie
| Thomas | Sara K.
| Maggie | Gabby
| Sara K.
Treatments: Gabby |
Maggie | Gabby
| Maggie | Sara K.
| Gabby | Sara K.
| Sara K.
Dr. Bee Lo is a naturopathic doctor.
He went to medical school for six years.
–Gabby
He has a degree in medicine, but he
is mostly a natural healer. He uses everyday veggies to heal
you.
–Emily
 He
can tell you what herbs to use. He can also perform iridologies
on you (looking at irises to see personalities). He’s
also a good chiropractor. All of his medicines are naturopathic.
Another thing about Dr. Bee Lo is that is that he is married
to a white woman and that is odd in Hmong culture.
–Thomas
Medicines
Next Doctor Lo told us a little about all
the medicines.
–Sara K.
One of the medicines that
he showed us was ginger root. He said that if you ate it [raw],
it would help motion sickness and also helps if a pregnant
women is feeling nauseous.
–Gabby
(He said that) …ginger is a strong
medicine that Asian cultures use a lot. It helps with allergies
and motion sickness.
–Sara K.
Or you can put it on your throat for
a sore throat remedy.
–Emily
Ginger is a plant that is formed under
the ground and it takes a very long time to form. When it
forms it is usually shaped like a human body. It is very spicy
and is good for many sicknesses and is very healthy.
–Thomas
Another one is garlic. Garlic is a very
strong medicine. It is supposed to help prevent cancer.
–Gabby
Garlic is very good for people to take
for high cholesteral. It is also a good mosquito repellant.
–Emily
He also had pills made of garlic that
kills germs.
–Sara K.
Shitaki mushrooms really help people
who are fighting cancer.
–Emily
He has a pill made of mushroom that helps
fight cancer. The pill is used by the Hmong, the Japanese,
and the Americans.
–Sara K.
 Another
herb is green onion. It helps with low cholesterol. Also onions
can help with sore throats. You can squeeze it and get the
juice and drink it if you want.
–Gabby
Green onions work almost as well as the
garlic, but not as strong.
–Emily
Onions and green onions, eaten raw...these
don’t taste very good either, but they are vegetables
and help sore throats, help you stay healthy, and make you
strong.
–Maggie
Tomato is another one that can take away
cancer and is good for the digestive system.
–Gabby
 One
thing he said was that the smell makes the medicine work,
so if you cook the medicine, some of the smell comes out and
the medicine isn’t as good.
–Sara K.
Bee said that if you put the aloe vera
on a sunburn, the sunburn would go away in five minutes.
–Sara K.
Aloe vera comes in a leaf and is a gooey,
clear-ish green color. You can eat it, but it is too toxic
to eat raw. But it helps heal sunburns, burns, and chapped
lips.
–Maggie
He also uses processed natural medicines
like gingko and some herbs.
–Thomas
The last medicine he showed us was juice
from a gingko tree. It didn’t look that natural because
it was in a bottle, but it was. Bee said gingko juice helps
with circulation and memory.
–Sara K.
Gingko fruit shouldn’t be eaten
raw, as it has a very bitter taste. It relaxes your blood
vessels.
–Maggie
 These
medicines are natural, but you have to know how to use them.
The medicines in the hospital are different. People who come
to Dr. Lo sometimes don’t get better and then have to
go to the hospital and get stronger medicines.
–Gabby
Another thing Bee said was that if you
go to the doctor and the doctor tells you to take a certain
amount of pills and you take more than that, you could die.
But if you get some natural medicine from a naturopathic doctor
and you take tons of what they give you, you will not die.
–Sara K.
Treatments
 There
are some small things that he does to patients. One is called
cupping. You take a glass jar and put some fire in it for
about 3 seconds and then take it out and immediately put it
on some part of the body. It sucks on and doesn’t come
off unless you pull. This is supposed to suck the evils spirits
out of your body. If you leave it on too long, you skin will
turn dark purple.
–Gabby
This [cupping] requires a cup, cotton
balls, alcohol, a candle, and some scissors or something.
You put a little alcohol on a cotton ball to help it set alight,
light it with the candle, all the while holding it with the
scissors and put the cotton momentarily in the cup to warm
up the inside. Then you quickly put the cup on a hurting spot.
It will suck up the skin part way into the cup. It is supposed
to take away pain.
–Maggie
 Another
treatment is called spooning. That is when you take a spoon
and put something called monkey balm on it. Monkey balm is
a kind of cream. Then you start rubbing the spoon on your
skin until your skin gets all red. Other people use coins,
but that hurts more.
–Gabby
This (spooning) requires a spoon, something
like monkey balm medicine paste, and a sore place. You rub
the monkey balm on the sore place with the spoon. After a
couple minutes, it starts to get red, but it is supposed to
take the pain away.
–Maggie
The monkey balm feels cold, but hot at
the same time.
–Sara K.
Dr. Lo could look into somebody’s
eyes and tell what kind of person you are. Like if you were
shy, or if you talked a lot or talked little, even if you
would be a leader when you grow up.
–Gabby
Martha and I put on a two-person stethoscope
and heard each others’ heartbeats. Bee had made the
stethoscope because he thought kids would want to hear their
heart beat.
–Sara K.
…I went on a tour to see what Bee’s
office looked like. Bee’s wife (who is not Hmong) was
leading it. First she took us to the room where Bee massages
people. In the middle of it there was a massage table and
off to the side there were cupboards with pill medicine in
them. Next Bee’s wife showed us Bee’s office.
Bee talks to his patients there to see exactly what is wrong
with them. In the office there was a desk and a cupboard.
On the cupboard were some trophies and on the desk there were
some business cards and flowers. He told us the Hmong used
everything he showed us. It was so fun watching Bee show and
talk about naturopathic medicines. I hope if I get sick I
can use them some time.
–Sara K.
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