Multiple sclerosis (MS) was rare in ancient China, since it is mainly a disease found in countries of northern latitudes such as northern Europe and North America. Symptoms of MS include weakness, numbness or tingling of the arms/legs, difficulty with walking or balance. Other MS symptoms are double vision, slurred speech, heat intolerance, muscle spasms, and bowel and bladder difficulties.

Multiple sclerosis from different perspectives
From the Western medicine perspective, multiple sclerosis is a disease where the nerves of the brain and spinal cord lose their protective coating. This loss leads to scarring (or sclerosis) which disrupts messages sent from the nerves to various areas of the body and thus causes the symptoms described above. In the most common type of MS – the relapsing/remitting type – flare-ups may be followed by partial or complete recovery and the severity of the symptoms fluctuates. The usual treatment for multiple sclerosis in the United States is oral or intravenous medication.

Oriental medicine has a different theory on the causes of diseases like MS than our conventional Western medicine. Illness or diseases indicate problems with the body’s energy or qi. These problems can be caused by factors in the environment such as Dampness, Heat, Cold or Wind. Many of the symptoms of MS are caused by Dampness. Dampness is like over-cooked pasta – heavy, soggy, and sticky. This Dampness in the body causes heaviness of the legs that makes walking difficult. It slows speech and causes foggy thinking and poor memory. Because it is heavy and sticky, Dampness makes it hard for the qi to circulate or move around the body. Qi that can’t make it to the extremities causes numbness or tingling of the arms or legs.

Dampness also slows or blocks qi and blood from reaching the different organs of the body preventing them from functioning properly. The (Chinese) organs that become especially weakened or deficient from the effects of Dampness are the Spleen, Liver and Kidney. When these organs become deficient, more symptoms associated with those particular organs begin to appear such as double vision, spasms, and bowel or bladder problems. Fatigue, weakness and disability also become more severe.

Dampness and organ deficiency may be slow to change with acupuncture needling alone, so herbal therapy or other Oriental medicine techniques may also be used. These include: cupping, electroacupuncture, moxibustion (a smoldering Chinese herb used on needles or on the skin), acupressure, and Tui na (Chinese bodywork). It may take several sessions with an acupuncturist to determine if treatment will be effective.

In an acupuncture treatment session, your acupuncturist will ask you questions about your specific problems and other aspects of your health such as your breathing, energy, sleep, digestion, or pain. He or she will check your pulses, look at your tongue, and feel your abdomen or other areas of pain. All of this information shows patterns of disharmoney that are used to make an Oriental medicine diagnosis. The beauty of this method of diagnosis by patterns is that it allows for an individualized treatment. This is true for treatment of MS and even for conditions that were rare (or even unknown) to the authors of the classic Chinese medical texts.

What can you do?
Chinese medicine recognizes lifestyle factors in contributing to or maintaining disease. Dampness may occur from living in a damp environment. Foods that are greasy/fatty, dairy products, or white/starchy foods also cause Dampness. (Remember that over-cooked pasta?)

Spleen 9, a point located below the medial (inner) side of the knee, is a major point for treating Dampness anywhere in the body. You can find this point by feeling for the front of the large bone of the lower leg (the tibia). Roll off the bone towards the inside of the leg. At the lowest edge of the bone (closest to the calf) move your finger up the lower edge until it falls into a large depression below the knee. Gently massage this point usually is tender to the touch if you are dealing with issues of Dampness.

Exercise promotes the movement of qi and blood, which helps to move the Dampness. Oriental medicine includes exercise therapies such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong. Both of these exercise therapies can help increase muscle tone, balance, coordination, and are excellent at reducing stress. Qi Gong in particular provides more meditative experience. Both of these practices can give persons with MS a sense of control and participation in treating with their disease.

You can find more information on MS and Oriental medicine at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website. The website reports that some 75% of people with MS use some form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to their standard medical therapy.

Be sure your doctor is aware of your use of Oriental medicine therapies so that he/she can note if changes in your symptoms might reflect the use of these therapies. And when looking for a practitioner to treat you with acupuncture be sure to find one who has actually studied Chinese medicine and is a qualified, Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac).

.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!”, but “That’s funny…”
~Isaac Asimov

We like to think that the practice of medicine rides the rails of reason and logic. That there are codified answers to our inquiries. That an expert has an answer.
Often enough this is indeed the case.

But, there are those moments, and they are not infrequent, when we as practitioners think “huh, that’s weird.” Sometimes we toss it aside as useless and inconvenient. As it is outside our expected norm, we can discard it as inconsequential.  These moments, if taken as a gift of curiousity, can break our frame and give us the opportunity to learn something new.

What makes a good doctor? That is a difficult to answer question, but I suspect that one trait is their ability to notice and act upon that which elicts a “huh, that’s strange.”

Asking an acupuncturist about acupuncture can give you plenty of information about the use and curative effects of acupuncture, but to get at the experience of acupuncture, ask a patient.

Recently, I had a patient tell me this about the experience of acupuncture:

The sensation is like that of food prepared with just the right amount of spice.

Makes sense to me, acupuncture is about waking up our body and being to the vitality and enjoyment of life!

It is usually a simple 2+2 equation–

Antibiotics are amazing medicines when used properly, and for the scope in which they are most effective. However, overuse of these magic bullets over the past 50+ years has brought with it the co-evolution of the very bacteria we are trying to control. Our magic bullet has had the unfortunate side effect of encouraging the growth of more virulent strains of pathogens. And like any war of force, escalation brings with it more escalation. And the “collateral damage” likewise becomes increasingly severe.

Chinese herbs offer a different approach. And there is a reason why in the past 2000 years the doctors of Asia have not developed formulations that “kill” the invader. Unlike our western medical model of kill, cut and control, the medicine of Asia seeks to promote balance, harmony and communication between the various body systems. Systems in balance, those that are strong and resilient, inherently have the capability to control pathogenic influences. Chinese medicine’s strength lays not so much in fighting pathogens, but in promoting a systemic homeostasis that just does not give pathogens an environment to collect and breed.

Does this mean that Chinese herbs can only be used to treat long-term chronic and unresolved urinary tract infections? In a word, no. There are a number of formulas that both “attack the pathogen, while re-balancing the system.” These prescriptions are good for acute UTI’s. And for those recurrent issues that multiple courses of antibiotics just don’t seem to touch, the more harmonizing and strengthening formulas are more appropriate.

Acupuncture too is helpful, especially with the symptomatic issues of burning and urinary frequency. Together acupuncture and herbs can bring relief to the sufferer of chronic urinary tract infections that have been failed by multiple courses of antibiotics.

And of course, there are things you can do for yourself that help to regain bladder health and balance. Unsweetened cranberry juice is a commonly used home cure that many people find to be helpful. Also, anything you can do to reduce inflammation in your system will have a positive effect on the urinary system. So when dealing with a lingering UTI, cut out the sugar, eat well, balance work and play, and make sure you are getting enough of the good essential fatty acids– fish oil is a great source of these. In essence to have balance within, it is important to have balance in various aspects of life. As is often the case, an illness or symptom just might be a call to see how we are unfolding our life and if a change is being asked for.

It is easy to focus on what is missing in our lives. All the more so when advertisement driven media relentlessly suggests and cajoles that what you have, and more importantly who you are, is not enough. That the accumulation of years is to be medicated or surgically enhanced. That the toys in our garage need an update. That our relationships would go better should we possess the product prayerfully flashing out from our flatscreen window of wonder.

There indeed are reasons in life for discontent, but few have to do with the urgent messages extolling us to open our wallets. There are moments in life when we come face to face with the harvest of an ill sown crop. Realize we are following a path not of our own choosing, or lost sight of a guiding star. It might be that life takes away its generous gifts and we feel stranded and alone. Especially in these times when we feel the world shift and our hope ebb away, the practice of gratitude reminds us of the deep resources that only may be claimed– they are not available for purchase.

Gratitude is not a pollyanna practice of propped up smiles, but a deep soulful appreciation for the vast wonder, forgiveness and support that is available even in the dark times. Indeed it can banish the shadow with a just glimmer of its light.

The synchronic adjustment between time zones

Jetlag involves more than the disruption of internal timekeeping. Toss in the smells and sounds, floral humidity or bone-dry pollution, traffic flows and assumptions about courtesy. It is more than time; there are elements in life of timing to which our internal sense of motion and flow must readjust. The different taste of seasons, how the wind feels, and the softness or acridity of the air all ask for a recalibration our internal compass to this new here and now.

It’s a short window into the differences between places. All too soon, that which is odd and off center will again spin as our new axis of normal.

Almost anyone over the age of 35 has this experience. A kind of slowing or decline. We don’t recover quite as fast from certain illnesses, our digestion slips a notch or two, we have less emotional tolerance toward certain situations, or we are plagued by odd symptoms or feelings that fail to make their mark on a western biomedical exam. There are countless ways in which we used to have a bit more “space,” more “flexibility” or a greater capacity to navigate stresses and strains that naturally arise in the  process of living. Mister Wu has learned a great deal about people by working on their feet for the past 30+ years. He has this idea that as we age, our body accumulates small compromises that by themselves quickly become unnoticeable, but at a certain point will begin to interfere and reduce our body’s ability to deal with assaults from the outside, or can coalesce together into a chronic or serious illness.

As he says it, “the space within the body gets filled up with the waste products of not quite resolved illnesses, unreleased emotion experiences, environmental toxins or the residue of physical injuries.”

From my clinical work, I think this is true. Problems that we used to be able to shake off, now seem to stick to us. It is like a car with worn out shock absorbers. We feel every little bump in the road, and our ability to maneuver seems more mushy.

While I use needles and herbs to treat these kinds of situations Mr. Wu uses his hands, which he focuses on the feet. His methods include those which more deeply direct the body to heal illness, and those which gently can be applied in a daily way to strengthen our systems so that they can properly metabolize and expel the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life.

There is a little foot massage protocol that he uses to get a person warmed up to receive a treatment. It stimulates the spine and all the spinal nerves, the immune system, the lymph system, along with the ren and du channels (these are major acupuncture channels that are considered quite fundamental). Along with these are five points on the big toe, these stimulate and balance deeper structures in the brain and thus rebalance the hormonal and endocrine system.

You can do this little massage for yourself or loved ones on a daily basis, like you take a vitamin or exercise to maintain your wellbeing. It is simply done in five minutes, feels great, and not only will boost your body’s ability to metabolize and expel what which does not serve you, but creates a quiet sense of wellbeing as well.

The clerk did not actually give me a ticket, but a handful of receipts, one of which had bar codes and time stamps. It was not till the next morning when I went to double check on the departure time that I noticed there wasn’t one. And the big letters at the top that said “not a ticket” lead me down the garden path of thinking that I’d be able to scan this bar coded receipt and grab my ticket at the station.

When listening to a foreign language where you don’t quite understand everything, the mind will attempt fill in the voids of unclarity with guesses gleaned from the context of the situation. This is not limited to the study of language. We all are constantly filling in the spaces of “don’t know” with “it must be like this.” The English word is “assumptions,” and they often land us hot water when the true reality of a situation revels itself.

I can read the characters at the train station 換票區. I thought it was referring to the electronic ticket receipt in my wallet. Wrong again! It is where you go to get a refund for a ticket you don’t want to use. I unfortunately do not have a ticket. I have a receipt for one. And this is a problem. I was supposed to have been given a ticket at the 7/11. I suspect the girl working there was too new to know that. And me? How would I know, it’s the first time for me too.

Being fresh from a week on the mainland I expected the worst. But, Taipei is not Beijing. I get an apology for the confusion, apology for that it is going to take some time to get this sorted out, and an apology that there are some details I will have to provide. It would appear this will be a recoverable mistake. And somehow that it unfolds in Chinese makes it easier to let go of the self-talk that usually accompanies the missteps of life in English. In our own language and staunch belief that we understand our world it is easy to acquire the habit of anger and frustration when the world reveals itself to be different from our cozy construct.

There is a phrase I hear lot here in Taiwan. It is a very Taiwanese way of speaking– 這樣子啊 zhe yang zi ah, “oh, so it is like this.” It is not a judgement, it assigns no blame. It is a simple recognition of the world as it is. Like a mini-enlightenment, “oh, so it is like this.”

It is not a bad habit to acquire– “oh, so it’s like this.” It leaves us open to recognizing the how our minds at times lead us down a dreamed up path, and when the lightning flash of reality illuminates our error we can let ourselves off the hook. Allow it to simply be. Be as it is. Zhe yang zi ah. And then keep moving forward with just a touch more clarity and calm.

But, then ten years ago it was also not possible for me to read Chinese, or negotiate an overcharge at a restaurant, or figure out how to slide through a traffic intersection of apparent chaos. Ten years ago Americans did not walk barefoot through airport scanners, or bank from a cell phone.

Rarely do most of us see the changes coming that in retrospect were obvious choices, or make complete sense from the perspective of today. It’s not to say that planning and thoughtful consideration are not of value, but that perhaps at times the habit of the moment prevents us from seeing that new possibilities are unfolding right in front of us.

What about you? What do you do now that was unthinkable ten years ago? What previously curious changes make complete sense from the perspective of today?
Leave a comment and share something of the mystery that unexpected transformation has brought to your life.

Today’s lesson was more gentle. Mr Liu has an agreement with the hotel. He takes guests out there off the meter for 100 RMB, it then sets him up with a nice fat metered fare back to the city. As usual I’m complimented on my rotten Mandarin and told “you speak a more proper Mandarin than I do.” In a way he is right, I have not acquired the buzz-saw “errrr” of Beijing’s unique accent. He graciously gives me a lesson in the application of the buzz-saw.

“You can’t add it to all words, and for certain words it will actually change the meaning.” For example, men (gateway) in the name of one of the intersections on the second ring road, An Ding Men, which used to be a major gateway into what was the wall that ringed Beijing before the second ring road. That men is pronounced “men”– no “errr.” But, the men that is the door of a house– that one you say “merrr.” Calling a big gate a merrr, it just disrespects.

As ever the intricacies of language at times make we wonder how we communicate at all. For now, I’ll stick with my Taiwanese southern “errr”-less drawl and leave the Beijing language to the gemerr (brothers) of the northern capitol.