By Eric Baker, full time faculty member, Master degree department, Chicago When I was in my early twenties, after I finished my Psych undergrad, I planned on trying my hand at becoming a monk. I had already become enthralled with Asian Culture, a love that continues to this day. So, my plan was to first move to …
Continue reading “The Dilemma of Right Livelihood: Buddhism and the TCM Career Path”
By Jill Blakeway, MS, LAc “I have more perimenopausal patients with estrogen dominance than I used to and they worry me. How can Chinese medicine help with that?” This question came from a colleague of mine who is a gynecologist, oncologist and a surgeon. Her focus is preventing and treating cancers of the female reproductive organs …
Continue reading “Addressing Estrogen Dominance in Perimenopausal Women Using TCM”
When allergies strike, they can affect almost every activity you do—from your voice and breathing to headaches and even how you approach your workflow, allergy symptoms can make it difficult to get through the day. One of the most common forms of seasonal allergies is allergic rhinitis, which affects the sinuses. Symptoms include sneezing, congestion, runny nose, …
Continue reading “Hold that Sneeze: Chinese Medicine for Fall Allergies”
Tu Youyou, an 84-year-old Chinese scientist, was recently awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Medicine for her discovery and development of artemisinin, a malaria treatment that has saved millions of lives over the past few decades. Tu’s team of researchers rediscovered the drug, which has been known to Chinese medicine for at least 2000 years, in …
Continue reading “Tu Youyou Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine for TCM-Based Malaria Treatment”
By Suzanne Robidoux, PhD, CM, DOM, LAc As practitioners, we always want to bring the quickest, most effective treatment at the lowest price possible. In TCM, sexual disorders are mainly due to either liver qi stagnation, liver and kidney depletion, or the kidney and heart not communicating. What can we offer our patients, however, once we …
Continue reading “Classical Medicine for Treating Male Sexual Disorders”
By Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée THE CHARACTER On the left hand side of the character for essence, jing, 精, we find the grain of rice or husked seed, 米, ready to be ground, kneaded and cooked. On the right, a green color is added, 青, qing. This is the green of young growing plants, …
By Andrew Gaeddert What are medicinal mushrooms? Medicinal mushrooms are fungal organisms that are used in traditional Chinese Medicine, nutritional supplements and drugs. It is estimated that China is responsible for 70 percent of the world’s mushroom production. Shiitake cultivation is reported to have begun in China in the 12th century. It is estimated that …
Traditional Chinese Medicine can provide an alternative treatment for seasonal allergies and sinus problems. Most medical practitioners will recommend using decongestants, non-steroidal nasal sprays, allergy shots, antihistamines, or nasal corticosteroids to combat these sinus problems. While these options have been successful for many patients afflicted with burning throats, itchy eyes, inflamed eyes, and stuffy nose, there are many individuals that do not respond well to these treatment plans, or who would like to go a more natural route.
Katy visited our center with a seemingly disparate collection of symptoms that were causing her distress. She described a pattern that was episodic in nature and involved abdominal bloating, belching, acid reflux, loose stools, shallow breathing, and palpitations. A cardiologist had ruled out serious heart disease and she’d been offered beta-blockers for what had been diagnosed as pre-ventricular contractions (PVCs) and occasional tachycardia.
The classical Chinese medical system views health and disease through the “eight-principle and six-syndrome” differentiation methods. In ancient times, Chinese medical experts identified groups of symptoms as patterns, and associated them with specific formulas. Eventually, with repeated clinical success they recorded these patterns as “formula patterns”. Later, during the Eastern Han Dynasty between 40 to 200 AD, Zhang Zhongjing recorded all of this clinical experience handed down from generations in theShang Han Za Bing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases), which was later edited and separated into the Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage) and the Jin Gui Yao Lüe (Essentials from the Golden Cabinet).