How can acupuncturists successfully bring the practice of herbal medicine and the use of botanicals into the growing field of integrative medicine?

In order to successfully make the practice of herbal medicine and the use of botanicals an essential part of integrative medicine, we as acupuncturists and practitioners of Oriental medicine must be willing to act as advocates for and educators of the history, effectiveness, and safety of these medicinals. The impetus for this integration must come from our field, as we are the practitioners who best understand the innumerable benefits of this medicine. We must reach out to other health care professionals and to our patients with confidence and passion for this time-tested and highly effective medicine. 

Finding your medicine in your own backyard is easy and FUN, whether you’re a city dweller, a suburbanite, or plain country folk. Nearly anywhere I’ve been in the past 11 years, I could look down and around from practically the same spot (including right at this moment- from precisely where I am now standing), and see a fantastic handful of herbs!

For example, from my present position, I see dandelion, sweet violet, clover, plantain, a magnolia tree, a ginkgo tree, and I know right over there sits a burdock patch with plenty of yellow dock.  A little further some golden rod and a garden with a big patch of yarrow grow.  And it’s only April -in New York City!

What is Digital Meridian Imaging?

Like most acupuncturists, I gained the foundation of my education in acupuncture school, and learned what I needed to pass the boards and become licensed. But my real learning began when I opened my mind and my practice to some of the recent scientific advances in acupuncture.

Introduction

There is a growing trend among Chinese herbalists to prescribe medicinals based on their Western function. For example, modern research demonstrates that da qing ye (Isatidis Folium) and ban lan gen (Isatidis/Baphicacanthis Radix) have antiviral properties. Consequently, there are those in both Asia and the West that recommend their use for the treatment and prevention of gan mao (common cold and flu), regardless of the pattern. For example, ban lan gen chong ji (Isatis soluble granulars 板蓝根冲剂),[i] a popular antiviral prepared medicine advertises, “Drinking [sic] a cup of this tea when exposed to others that are sick with a cold or when you think you are coming down with a cold to avoid getting sick yourself.”[ii]

My first encounter with alternative medicine was during my freshman year in college.

I had just arrived in France to study “Foreign Applied Languages” and the pressure of being in a foreign country, being away from my family and trying to prepare for exams was starting to affect my concentration and peace of mind.  

My oldest memory of touch goes back to when I was four years old taking a warm bath in a clean, white tub, my grandmother is sitting on a chair bathing me and caring for me during my long warm bath.  She took care of me while my mother was at work and my brother and sisters were at school.  She cared for us even when my mother was home sometimes. When I started going to school, I spent weekends with her and grandpa as well as any school breaks I had, it was my choice to go.  She was everything for me at that age.  The sound of her voice singing to me made me feel something special as if I were the only one she trusted to sing to.  Grandpa had a softer voice when he sang a lullaby to his grandkids and I now sing that song to my kids at bedtime or nap time.  I slept between the two when I would go and visit at their ranch.  Grandpa used to pull my ear softly trying to play with me; I used to think he was bothering me I was already too tired to play.  Grandma slept on the right side of the bed grandpa on the left, some never got to see this since their love grew apart over the years so did their bedrooms.

They lived in a house they built with their own hands as well as the help of their children.  I see the thick, high walls of their home and am attracted to walk over and feel them, perceive the memories that are present in all their children, grand children and great grand children (my kids pertain to these walls now on our weekends).  Watching so many visitors talking for hours with grandma and grandpa, I would hear grandpa’s stories over and over and always paid the same amount of attention, eventually the visitor would stand, walk over to a wall and caress its vanity or sometimes they’d just lean on them.   I would fall asleep on the couch while grandma and grandpa would watch boxing matches and sometimes I would pretend I was still sleeping when it was time to walk to bed so that grandma would carry me to bed.  I could still remember her embracing me as I embrace that very moment. 

You have probably heard about the use of Oriental medicine, such as acupuncture, gaining popularity in the U.S. Millions of Americans are using acupuncture to improve their health, treating ailments ranging from the common cold to autoimmune disorders to orthopedic issues. Acupuncture is also gaining momentum as an effective and safe way to treat childhood issues too.

Acupuncture helps childhood development through all phases of infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, and puberty by helping their immature systems function at the highest possible level and strengthening them in various ways.

Settling throughout the lands of northern China in what is often referred to as the birthplace or cradle of Chinese civilization, the Shang peoples built and organized their cities and towns around the flooding stages of the eastern Yellow River.  From around 1800 B.C.E. on, this ‘Yellow River Civilization’ was organized enough to be referred to as a culture.

The Shang were a people whose shamanic religion was characterized by ancestor worship, sacrifice, and divination.  They worshipped a deity called Shang-Ti, the ‘Supreme God,’ ‘Lord on High,’ or ‘God of Heaven,’ who ruled over the world as well as over the lesser gods of nature (such as the gods of wind, rain, etc.).  This shamanic culture formed the very basis of Chinese Medicine. 

When I would get sick each year at the start of January, I thought it was due to stress. However, after my first semester at PCOM, I now understand there were many more causes or etiologies that led to my sickness each year. Before I made the decision to change careers into Eastern medicine (EM), I was a CPA in the area of Tax Real Estate. I hoped that this career would bring me the satisfaction and fulfillment I sought in my professional and personal life, but it didn’t. I knew that tax was not what I was meant to do, and as a result, I had a hard time feeling a sense of purpose and accomplishment from my career. Additionally, since I had to spend so much of my time at work, I continually felt like I was not living my life to its fullest—especially during the annual “busy season” of tax, when I worked in excess of 80 hours a week for more than 4 ½  months. The utter absence of work/life balance prevented me from making my own health and well being a priority. The competitive work environment and the values of those around me also took a toll on my emotional and physical health.  Now that I have spent a semester studying EM, I understand that the sickness I felt each January resulted from etiologies stemming from my environment and life choices. Below, I explain these etiologies and how they impacted my health history, emotional life, and my decision to change career paths.

Throughout my life, I have always had an aversion to wind and cold. I generally have cold hands and feet, leave the heat on in my apartment, and sleep with a heating blanket. Therefore, it was not surprising that wind and cold played a role in me coming down with the flu each winter in January. EM considers wind and cold two of the six major external etiologies or “excesses/evils” that lead to yin yang imbalance in the body, thus causing disease. According to the five-phase theory (FPT) of EM, wind and cold invasion likely caused the rapid onset and swift change in my health condition each January. They also likely caused the simultaneous fever and chills, floating body aches and congestion in the upper parts of my body, including my head, neck and most significantly my lungs. Since EM considers the lungs the most fragile zang organ in the body, and the organ that regulates defensive “Wei” qi, it makes sense that wind and cold evil impacted my lungs the most. Furthermore, FPT associates wind with the liver which regulates the free coursing of qi, and associates cold with the kidneys which underscores each zang-fu’s yin and yang balance in the body.  Thus, when wind and cold invade the body, the liver and kidney can become imbalanced leading to some of the various signs and symptoms I experienced during this time.

By George Chachis

    Volunteer Oriental medicine practitioners and students are increasingly joining traditional health delivery assistance programs, reaching out to people around the world who have little or no available health care. Like the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that have gone before them, the ultimate goal of these new outreach health volunteers is to engage local groups as proactive health care participants, not as mere passive patients. However, such commendable goals don’t always work as expected. A recent startup NGO, Healer2Healer, is developing a different approach, working with local groups in Guatemala and elsewhere to foster self-reliance from the very beginning of each project, rather than hoping to transition at some later date.