Category: General TCM

Acupuncture, Diet, General TCM, Wellness

Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Seasonal Allergies

by kaiwang492Leave a Comment on Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Seasonal Allergies

Ancient Chinese doctors knew about allergies, and passed this knowledge to future acupuncturists.

They noticed that when spring came, some people would have problems like skin rashes, sneezing, itching, runny nose, watery eyes, etc. In general, these complaints would come and go very fast just like the wind. During that time, scientists considered spring to be the wind season. Therefore, combining the factor of the time (season) and characteristics of the complaint – coming and going as fast as the wind – they named this kind of problem: wind type or wind like problems.

Although the liver is usually associated with wind problems, in this case the lungs are actually the organ related to the wind, because the material we are allergic to bothers us mainly through either the skin, nose, and sometimes the eyes. In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) acupuncture system, the lungs are a combination of nose, bronchial, skin, hair, partially circulatory system, partially the immune system, partially the metabolic system and the lungs themselves.

This TCM and acupuncture system was formed about 2,000 years ago and has been a key player in Modern Chinese disease prevention medicine. Nowadays, it is spreading worldwide more and more because of its effectiveness and good results through a natural way. In recent years, much more scientific research has proven that TCM and acupuncture can regulate and improve immuno function in both cellular immunity and humoral immunity. Most importantly, scientists also found they have what is called “both direction regulation,” which means if anything in the body is “higher than normal” then TCM and acupuncture can lower it until it is back to normal, vise versa.

Clinically, for patients with allergies, the common pattern could be “wind cold” sometimes combined with Qi deficiency. For “wind cold,” the complaints will be: feeling cold easily, allergies accompanied with chills, clear watery mucous from nose, sneezing, watery eyes without swelling, becoming worse in the morning or when the environment is colder. For “wind cold and Qi deficiency,” patients usually complain about tiredness and catching a cold easily and the allergy will get worse or onset more often when getting too tired, these happen simultaneously with the symptoms mentioned earlier. Of course, there are some other uncommon types too, such as “wind with poor circulation,” “wind heat,” etc. which we will not go into detail in this article.

Treatment

The treatment involves a diet change, acupuncture, and herbs if you want a quick relief. For the diet change everyone is different, it would be a good idea to talk about this face to face with the acupuncturist, but one thing is for sure: adding more fresh ginger root juice and mung bean in your diet, avoid the cold stuff are always a good idea. For TCM and acupuncture treatment, it completely depends on the patterns that you have. The acupuncture needle could go on the face, extremities, back, stomach, depending on the situation. At times, TDP and cups need to be involved as well. However, for a few people electrical acupuncture may be better. In terms of herbs, it is more complicated, you would need to speak face to face with an acupuncturist. We started to see seasonal allergy patients in the U.S. in 1995. So far, we have helped many sufferers. For most people, after treatment they will not need to come back. We followed up with patients for five years and there was still no need for them to come back.

General TCM, Wellness

Different Uses of Herbal Tea and Pills in TCM

by kaiwang492

In the medical field, it looks like all the procedures make us uncomfortable. Medicine-wise, if we don’t swallow quickly enough, it also makes us uneasy.  Chinese medicine in particular can make us feel even more uncomfortable than that. Chinese herbal tea generally helps people, so people tolerate the temporary discomfort and bad taste. That’s why the Chinese have a common saying “liang yao ku kou li yu bing” meaning generally “good medicine tastes bitter but it helps with your illness.” What if good medicine helps our problem but doesn’t taste bad? Wouldn’t that be great?

In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), there are many ways to deal with diseases like using Chinese herbs, acupuncture, massage, qi gong, diet, etc. Acupuncture with needles may be uncomfortable for most people at the beginning, a healing massage for medical purposes often hurts, with qi gong you feel very awkward at the beginning,  and sometimes we need to sacrifice our favorite foods for medical reasons. People try to avoid having these treatment if they don’t need them. That is why there are many ways to administer herbal medicine that can best fit the patient’s needs and preferences. For acute diseases or situations, herbal tea or acupuncture are the best choices. For chronic diseases or situations, herbal pills or powder are the better choices because patients need to take the herbs for long term on a consistent basis. It is convenient and they don’t need to boil the herbs everyday. The taste of the pills is much better than the tea. This means that the medicine that is supposed to help us does not have to taste bitter like the saying says. For kids or people who just don’t like the taste of herbs, honey is added to the herbal base for a better flavor and texture of a syrup.

For most Chinese herbs, they are not harmful to our bodies when taken for a long time. However, some of them are important to pay attention to the effects on our bodies. For example, ephedra is not supposed to be taken for a long time. If it is, the user will end up sweating profusely. Even though some other herbs can make us stronger, that doesn’t mean we should take them for longer or even at all.  Another example is licorice.  It is not a good idea to have it consistently for a long time, especially if you don’t have any medical issues. Otherwise, it could cause palpitation, sweating, anxiety, etc.

It is always a good idea to consult a Chinese herbologist about herbs you’re considering taking, either for medical purposes, beverages, or other purposes. This is because even a small dosage of some herbs can be very harmful. Herbal or so-called natural healing products do not mean they are without side effects.

Acupuncture, General TCM, Medical

How Does Western Medicine Explain Acupuncture?

by kaiwang492

Even though acupuncture has been practice in China for about at least 2-3,000 years  and spreading in the adjacent countries such as Japan, Korea, etc. as the time goes on. For the rest  of the world it is maybe only acknowledge less this 400 years and the spreading of it is much slower than the origin  area. It is being said that Japanese, in the early 1950s declared that even though acupuncture was orientated in China, the explanation with modern medicine theory would be done in Japan and there ambitious is to develop acupuncture furthermore then that of Chinese. This stimulated Chinese government to organize a big acupuncture program from 1950s and on until in the end or 1980s for about thirty years. Chinese government wanted to do the research with the modern medical theory, bigger, stronger, wider and faster than that of Japanese.

What they have  achieved so far:

1. Develop a new method of anesthesia  with acupuncture for operations in the head, neck, etc. even though it isn’t perfect yet.

2. We found about 10% of Chinese are general sensitive people which means if  you put needle on one point on one channel then the sensation are for the chi movement or sensation can go through the whole channel which approved the existing channel. Even though we do not know the nature of it.

3. They have found the traditional acupuncture points area/spot are higher electrical resistance than the none acupuncture areas/spot. Which proved the existing of acupuncture points.

4. They also found 90% of the acupuncture points are more or less are associated with the nerve system.

5. This speed of chi traveling in the channel slower than nerve but quicker than the endocrine system. They assumed that channel system is another balancing system in our human body other then nerve and endocrine system – the third balancing system.

6.  In session of acupuncture needle and manipulation can affect our body in every level meaning from organ to tissue to cell to molecule.

7. One of the most important finding about acupuncture is  what is called both direction regulations which means  making the high abnormal level lower until normal level or vice versa. This explains why the same acupuncture points on one person it can make the high blood pressure lower until to the normal level, and on the other low blood pressure person it can increase the blood pressure higher to the normal.

8. About 450 conditions under diseases can be helped by acupuncture. Overall during that 30 years period of time almost all the medical schools and the other related scientist were involved in this program which is one of the biggest in scientific work research because of this the first world wide scientific organization were headquarters in China in November of 1987 in Beijing.

Ever since the spreading of acupuncture is getting quicker. Many scientist including doctors all over the world started to do more research about acupuncture because of its treatment results. Acupuncture is based upon channel theory according to traditional Chinese medicine. Even though we can see the channel existing with instrument, but we still don’t know what is the nature of it because of the restriction of science and technology. Acupuncture is not perfect explained by modern medicine yet. However, it has many advantages over the modern medicine theories such as it always promotes our bodies ability for fighting diseases with no side effects if you perform it right it stresses the connections and affects each other of the body It also stresses individual differences so in turn it is always tailored treatment procedure. We hope modern medicine can borrow some ideas from acupuncture to make modern medicine perfect.