Thin layer connections, the ones so remote and seemingly insubstantial, are often the ones that tilt the axis of our lives. They don’t so much rattle our paradigm as they do clear our perception in such a way that the opportunities waiting for us shimmer into view. These are the connections that can not be conjured or cajoled, they arrive like the spring breeze, or the wafting honey scent of a promiscuous flower. They catch our attention, but we could just as easily have brushed them off with a nod to the daily grind of business as usual, or ignored their seemingly inconsequential invitation.

The Chinese have a term that comes close to this— 緣分 Yuan Fen. Some translate it as “fate” but it is not quite the same way we think of fate in the West. Here we usually equal “fate” with “doomed.” Something is going to happen and there is nothing to be done about it, the end is already known. Yuan Fen is different. It is the intersection of fate and opportunity. Something could happen. The conditions are ripe with potential. But, there is a choice. You can open up and make contact, and the world will quietly, but unmistakably refold itself into a new shape. Or, you can pass by the opportunity, like shielding your eyes from a momentary glint of light, instead of noticing the world just winked an opportunity at you.

Thin layer connections, the connections we almost did not make. They often have a paradoxical lightness and depth. Grasp hard at them and they fall apart like a spider web. Hold them like claiming the fragment of a dream and they will nourish you for a lifetime.

All medicine is legacy medicine. We can not float ourselves free from the stream of the past that winds down to our particular day. Nineteenth century France has had a huge impact on the way we think about medicine. It was then that Louis Pasteur came up with his “germ theory” and thus began the microbial wars. From his view there is something, something small and pernicious and it is out to get us. The solution? Murder.

Back in that day Louis had a colleague— perhaps nemesis would be a better description— Antoine Bechamp. His background was similar to Pasteur’s and they both delved into the micro-biologic world. But, where Pasteur saw invasion, Bechamp saw imbalance. Where Pasteur thought it best to take medical military action, Bechamp sought to harmonize the environment so all could live in a dynamic balance. Granted, in a surgical situation you want a sterile environment, however in the everyday world sterility is not an option. And in everyday life it is not possible to kill off invaders without a trainwreak of collateral damage, be it microbes or those with whom we disagree.

So, when it comes to our sensitivities that express as allergies we have a number of options. One is to shut ourselves away into a protected environment. Close the windows to spring’s fragrant song and ritually change the filters on our HEPA devices. Another is to suppress the symptoms with pharmaceutical interventions. This however does not solve the problem of why we have these sensitives, it simply shuts down their expression. Another option, granted you will not find it advertised on daytime TV or in full glossy color magazine ads, is to gently and over time shift the balance of your own immune system. Like Bechamp would suggest, you change your own internal environment and in this way lose your sensitivity to spring’s perfumed exhale of pollen and fertile dust.

Andy Ellis, the fellow that recommended I spend a bit of time in Taiwan if I wanted to learn Chinese had an “old school” doctor as his teacher when he lived on the mainland. Dr. Shi was a master of acupuncture, and he understood that the most robust health comes not from suppression, but from expression. Expression of our vitality. And in a delightful little book he details some of the ways we can gently stimulate certain acupuncture points to “harmonize our internal environment.” Below you will find a number of simple self massage exercises you can do that will over time help you to lose your oversensitivity to spring’s scented song. These are certainly cheaper than allergy shots (how did those for you anyway?) and unlike pharmaceutical medication they don’t suppress your system, they strengthen it. Take five minutes today, and tomorrow too, and the days after that, and watch how your own marvelous being can shape shift itself into one that can enjoy the scents of spring!

These points all help to strengthen your system against allergens. Do each one 36 times, once or twice a day. Don’t be surprised if this causes your sinuses drain, this is part of the clearing process.

Eyes-
Place the base joint of each thumb at the inner end of the eye brow, and massage in one smooth circular motion moving up and outward following the upper edge of the bone under the eyebrow, and then inward along the top bone of the cheek, and then upward along the bridge of the nose. One revolution should take about two seconds.

Nose-
Interlock the fingers of both hands with the thumbs touching at the tips and separated at the base. Clasp the hands in this position so that the base of each thumb touches the inner end of the eyebrow. Move the hands downward so that the nose gradually causes the thumb tips to separate and move apart. Continue the downward movement until the tips of the thumbs reach the bottom corner of the nose, then move upward without pressure to the original starting position. Each up and down movement should take about one second.

Ears-
Place the hands so that they straddle the ears with the index finger behind the ear and the middle finger along the front edge of the ear (lots of acupuncture points here) . Move downward toward the earlobe to the point where the index and middle finger will almost touch before moving upward (without pressure) to the starting position. Each up and down motion should take about one second.

Back of neck-
Acupuncture point DU16 (Wind Mansion) is in the depression under the occiput in the middle of the back of the neck. Use either hand and place three fingers, with the middle finger in the center, in the depression. Massage in a clockwise circular pattern.
Acupuncture point GB20 (Wind Pool). Repeat as for Wind Mansion above, but this time use the right hand on the right GB20, and the left hand on the left GB20. The right hand circles clockwise and the left goes counterclockwise.

If you mean petri dish, negative-pressure laboratory scientific, then no. It is not. But, life does not unfold within the controlled environment of a laboratory. Life unfolds in forests, work-time commutes, seasons of flowers and birds, grocery store aisles, moments of bliss, birth, death and the 10,000 other moments that we hardly notice.

Chinese medicine did not develop by peering into a microscope, or tinkertoying with molecules; it has evolved over centuries of observation of how nature and life unfolds into being. It is not the science of double blind studies; it did not come from a system that imagines you can stand outside of it. It is the science of understanding from the inside, the art of reading connections as they unfold.

More like music than prose, in the same way Art invites us into an experience beyond the doorway of the work itself, the diagnostic process involved in Chinese medicine is the opposite of a reductionist narrowing to one guilty influence. Instead, it is based on process of piecing together seemingly unrelated connections, thus seeking to holistically glimpse a person’s situation. And unlike Western bio-medicine where there is a focus on one-size-fits-all treatment, Oriental medicine looks to see how each person’s condition is a unique expression of who they are, the environment, how it effects their life, and finally the illness process itself. We don’t focus solely on illness. We are not machines running down like a wind up toy. We are the stuff of starbursts, rainstorms and a curious divine spark.

Chinese medicine is neither heroic nor salvational. It does not assume we fell from a pristine state and we must work our way back to that one moment of lost perfection. It more sees life as a process of becoming. And while there are ups and downs, there is no going backward to some imaged moment when we were whole and somehow untouched by the world.
We are ever in a state of becoming–  and this particular science is marvelously adept at tracking and facilitating that process!

When I left the USA early in 2001 to see if I could learn to wrap my brain around the Chinese language there were precious few advertisements on TV for drugs. When I returned again five years later it was as if suddenly the United States population had fallen in a chronic state of dis-ease, as every hour of every day blast forth a televised plea to treat conditions that could be controlled (not cured, but controlled) by some chemical cocktail of molecular magic.

Be it shyness, or reflux, furballs or a general sense of unwellbeing. There is a drug for you. Just ask your doctor.

Time and again we are reminded that health and wellbeing come not from how we live our lives, but from a designer pharmaceutical. That we can medicate away the effects of our choices in life. That there is something wrong in our lives in all their quirky glory, and thus the need for treatment—the need for a drug.

The other day I had a patient who came in and told me she had had a bone scan and the doctor wanted to put her on Fosamax. She was having none of it. “Low bone density does not mean I have a Fosamax deficiency!” she extolled.
Do you see it too? How a test result equals the need for a life-long drug prescription?
What if we made a different kind of sense from those test results?

The information we obtain from lab work, various scans, and biomedical imaging are all useful and relevant. But, what about taking those results and using it as motivation to improve your diet? Commit and follow through on exercise? Use acupuncture, or Tai Chi, or massage, or herbs that can shift your physiology without a lifetime commitment?

Actually, there are options, and plenty of them.

It is common knowledge these days that moderate weight bearing exercise will build your bones. Eating well, increasing the high calcium food, ramping up the green leafy vegetables, and making sure you are getting enough Vitamin D are all things you can naturally do for yourself everyday to support strong bones.

Yes, low bone density is a problem. And there are plenty of side-effect free ways of turning that problem around.

Bone density is but one example; there are plenty of other situations that would also benefit from your attentive intervention. And do consider that health does not come from a pill. It comes from the choices and actions you take on a daily basis.

Are there times when pharmaceutical medications are essential? Absolutely! But, before you fill that prescription from your doctor, ask if there are other ways to achieve the results you are looking for. Or spend some time doing your own research on the Internet. Or ask us if there is something we can do with acupuncture and herbs that will help you gain the balance and robust health and wellbeing you seek.

Remember, test results are information—they are not a prescription!

Yet another study confirmed recently that placebos are as effective as antibiotics when it comes to curing sinus infections. In other words—antibiotics are useless when up against the common cold.

More than useless actually, when you consider the damage done to the beneficial bacteria of your digestive system, not to mention the added strain on your liver and kidneys, as these organs are involved in the processing and metabolization of most pharmaceuticals.

Any fairly astute middle school science student would have predicted similar results. Why? Because any middle school science student paying attention would know that viruses cause colds, and that antibiotics don’t treat viruses — they kill bacteria. It’s rather like mixing up the ingredients for cornbread and then wondering why it does not cook into an apple pie. You must use the right tool for the job.

So, what is the best way to treat the common cold?

Lots of people ask this question, and billions of dollars of OTC medications sold every year claim to have the answer. I think that Grandma had the right approach: Rest, fluids, and chicken soup (and not that useless watery low-fat variety). But, mostly rest. Time allows your body to do what it naturally has the ability to do— heal.

Do we have some magic Chinese cold cures in our books that span the dynasties? Of course not. Medicine and magic are two very different pursuits. Every culture has looked for the cure to the common cold, and you will find plenty of methods in the Chinese medicinal literature. In fact, the Chinese have elevated this aspect of medicine to an art form. From the perspective of Chinese medicine practitioners, there is not just one kind of “cold,” but a whole range. You need different medicines to treat the different kinds, and you need to give the right herbs at the right time.

Colds progress and change, and they do so quickly. If you give herbs that are effective for a cold at the beginning stage in the middle stage, they will be useless. Give the herbs that should be used in the middle of a cold at the beginning, and you could make it worse. Chinese docs say that one of the hardest things to treat is the common cold, as it can manifest in so many different ways and the progression is so fast.

An old family doctor friend used to say, “If you stay home and rest, you should be over that cold in about a week. If you take drugs, it will clear it up in about seven days.” That’s my kind of doctor, one that recognizes there is a time to prescribe a drug and a time not to do so.

All those over-the-counter medications treat the symptoms, but that does not help you get over the cold. In fact, some medications will make it worse. That runny nose of yours? That’s your body’s attempt to get the waste metabolites of the virus out of your system. You don’t want to stop that process. You want that stuff out of your body! That fever you are spiking? That is your body’s brilliant ability to raise its temperature, which in turn will kill off the virus. You need that fever, you want that fever. That fever is going to help you heal, and in time, once the pathogen has been dealt with, your body will naturally return to normal.

Best cure for the common cold? Don’t get one! Washing your hands often, with plenty of soap and warm water, is one way to help you avoid catching someone else’s cold. Also, get out of the habit of touching your face, where cold germs on your hands might settle in your nose or mouth.

If you do get a cold, there are a number of steps to take at the beginning to help ward it off. If you miss that narrow window of opportunity, then follow Grandma’s advice— rest, fluids, repeat. By all means stay away from any “natural” medication that has a list of ingredients that includes chemical names you cannot pronounce. The snake oil salesmen are as clever now as they ever were.

If you have issues later with the lingering effects of a cold that come and go, but don’t resolve, what should you do? For that we have herbs and acupuncture that can seem like magic.

Excess stomach acid is not the problem. You need your stomach acid. It digests your food, helps you assimilate your nutrition, breaks down the building blocks of life into a form accessible to you.

Yes, you need your stomach acid, and you need it in your stomach!

GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), reflux, heartburn  – call it what you will, it does not equal a Prilosec deficiency, or an excess of stomach acid. These symptoms, as annoying and potentially dangerous over the long term as they are, are signs that there is a problem with the distribution of gastric juices in your digestive system.

It could be with a leaky valve, or another structural abnormally. Or, as I often see in clinic, it could be simply the result of a functional imbalance of some kind. It’s like a car where all the parts are in fine working order, but the timing between them is off or a loose connection in one place is causing some kind of cattywhompus confusion in another part of the system.

You could take a drug that will reduce the acid in your stomach, but that is treating the symptom and does not get close to the true cause of the source of the complaint. Instead of paying attention to the message behind the symptom, you are shooting the messenger with a medication. Quieting the body’s plea for help does not solve the problem. It simply allows the dysfunction to continue to operate in silence.

Ignore the rattle long enough, and the wheels just might fall off the bus — especially for those patients who have been scoped and tested by bio-medicine’s fantastic array of imaging and diagnostics and still come away with the shrugged shoulders and puzzled looks that say, “We can’t find anything wrong you.” The usual bio-medicine approach is to offer an anti-depressant or proton pump inhibitor, hoping for a roll of the pharmaceutical dice that might produce a beneficial effect.

For many people the problem usually is not structural; it’s functional. And for this kind of problem, Chinese herbs and acupuncture can be startlingly effective.

The following common symptoms all are associated with functional issues of the upper digestive tract:

• feeling full after just a few bites of a meal
• feeling that something is stuck in the throat
• bloating
• bowel irregularity
• a stuffy hard-to-describe feeling under the ribs or in the solar plexus

These messages from the body are often just the thing your acupuncturist needs to hear about, because these very issues have been discussed in the medical and clinical literature of China for the past 1800 years — and effectively treated as well!

 So talk – tell your acupuncturist about your heartburn.

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).

There is extensive medical literature, both theoretical and clinical, going back over 2000 years. Some of this literature is focused on wellness and prevention of illness, a topic that is talked about and increasingly practiced in our modern world. Other classical Chinese medical literature focuses on the treatment of illness. Much of what was useful then is still useful today.
In fact, some of the ideas and treatments from the classical literature give us new ways of approaching modern diseases.

Why acupuncture is a useful medicine today
Chinese medicine addresses not just the symptoms of an illness, but the underlying cause as well. It calls on the body’s own healing mechanisms and is generally free of side effects. While Westerners often consider acupuncture only useful for pain relief, Chinese medicine is actually a complete system of medicine. It successfully treats numerous kinds of internal medical problems, emotional issues, gynecological disorders and many of the types of problems for which people seek out a Western physician. Additionally, acupuncture can be used in conjunction with other types of therapies, and is useful in counteracting the side effects of aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation.

Finally, while it is effective for both chronic and acute conditions, Chinese medicine not only treats illness, but prevents it as well. Most of us agree that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and one of Chinese medicine’s great strengths is its focus on enhancing wellness and preventing illness!

Acupuncture
Over many centuries practitioners of Chinese medicine have not only traced out the pathways or meridians in which the qi flows, but learned how to effect it to bring the body into balance. Thin needles are inserted into the body along various acupuncture meridians to improve the flow qi through the meridian system. Where qi is blocked, there are problems. Where qi flows smoothly, there is wellness.

Herbal Medicine
Chinese herbal medicine is a sophisticated system of healing that not only effects the flow of qi from the interior of the body, but also can address problems with the Blood, Body Fluids, Jing, (Essence), Spirit, Yin and Yang. Herbal prescriptions are based on careful diagnosis, and are administered on an individual basis. There is no such thing as “one size fits all” in Chinese medicine, nor is it common to suggest that one herb or herbal formula is good for everyone.

Chinese herbal formulations are a very individualized matter. Herbs are classified into various categories. There are those that tonify and increase certain metabolic processes. There are those that are warming which help to invigorate a person’s physical energy; others are cooling and effective in reducing inflammation. Some herbs are settling to the spirit, while others nourish the heart and the emotions. Each herb enters a particular meridian or meridians, has a specific temperature, and a certain action.

A skilled herbalist combines herbs together to bring out certain synergistic reactions between herbs. A good herbal prescription is not unlike a fine piece of poetry, or a well played passage of music.

Moxibustion
The use of heat to stimulate the points and meridians to effect the flow of qi. Most commonly, the herb Ai Ye (mugwort) is used as it provides a particularly deep and penetrating heat.

Massage
Also known as Tunia, is similar to acupressure. The hands are used instead of needles to regulate the flow of qi in the body.

Dietary Practice
Like herbal substances, foods have various properties that translate into specific effects on the body. Certain foods can be helpful for a condition, others can cause the condition to be worse. For example, it is common knowledge that dairy products can cause excess mucus production in the body. They should be avoided for people who have problems with dampness, and instead foods that reduce damp should be eaten.

It is common for practitioners of Chinese medicine to make dietary recommendations, as this is a powerful area where a patient can be involved in their own process of getting and staying healthy.

Some people turn to Chinese medicine for renewal after harsh cancer treatments or surgery. Some resent the row of pill bottles that face them every morning. Some come because they don’t care to wait weeks to see a doctor who spends less time with them than it takes to pump and pay for a tank of gas. Some want a second opinion. Many people come because whatever else they have tried simply has not helped.

Our bodies — and spirits — have tremendous ability to heal. If the knots that hold together an illness are loosened, life may change for the better. That said, Chinese medicine is not “one size fits all.” Regardless of how simple a health problem appears or how difficultly knotted and complex it has proven, Chinese medicine requires regarding every person as unique. While there are patterns and proclivities in health care, all of us promote our wellbeing or struggle with disease in different ways. Chinese medicine addresses that.

Why will you use Chinese medicine in your journey to better health?
That depends on your needs and unique constellation of vulnerabilities and strengths.