Practical Bloodletting for Everyday Clinical Use
Author: Dean Mouscher
Bloodletting is an often-overlooked but highly effective practice in Chinese medicine. Contrary to what many practitioners believe, bloodletting can be incorporated into everyday clinical use with excellent patient acceptance, practitioner confidence and safety. In this article the author describes his personal experiences with bloodletting, including techniques, best points and areas to bleed, and conditions most likely to respond.
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Dr. Shentian Sun’s Clinical Experience Treating Pain Syndromes: Four Acupuncture Case Studies
Author: Shentian Sun, Aizhong Li & Philip Garrison
Dr. Shentian Sun is a well-known expert in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in China, with over 50 years of rich clinical experience, who is well respected in his home country and throughout the world. This paper reflects only a small part of Dr. Sun’s valuable clinic experience, and introduces four representative case studies on pain related conditions that were treated with acupuncture points selected on the basis of Chinese medical theory. The effectiveness of the treatment described is not only limited to point selection, but is also determined by Dr. Sun’s needling technique and application of classical theory. Therefore, these needling techniques are also addressed in detail.
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The Comprehensive Treatment of Provoked, Localised Vulvodynia with Acupuncture and Associated Modalities
Author: Lee Hullender Rubin
A prevalent female sexual pain disorder, vulvodynia causes significant distress due to vulvar pain, decreased intimacy and diminished quality of life. Provoked, localised vulvodynia (PLV) is the most common form of vulvodynia and severely impacts the lives of up to 16 per cent of women. Conventional medical treatment is often multi-modal, but has modest results. Vestibulectomy - surgical excision of the affected tissue - is currently the most effective therapy to address PLV pain. However, surgery may not be an option due to the associated risks or patient preference, therefore non-pharmacological treatments like acupuncture and its associated modalities may be pursued by patients. Acupuncturists should be educated on the features of PLV, its clinical manifestation and how they might support women suffering with PLV. The objective of this paper is to describe PLV in both conventional and Chinese medicine terms and provide an overview of acupuncture and adjuvant treatments. A short case study is included to illustrate how the theory works in clinical practice.
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An Interview with Adam Mizner
Author: Peter Deadman
Sifu Adam Mizner, though relatively young, is increasingly recognised as one of the most accomplished masters of (yang style) taiji in the world, as well as a dedicated practitioner and teacher of neigong and meditation. As anyone can see from his many YouTube videos his skills are quite extraordinary. On a personal note, I can say that having been around the internal arts (mainly qigong) world for nearly 40 years, I’ve seen a lot of fakery where students throw themselves around when subjected to the ‘qi powers’ of so-called masters. I had more or less given up hope of witnessing what Adam demonstrates. I hope this discussion will be of interest to anyone who is fascinated by the many dimensions of qi, health and emotional and spiritual development.
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Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine for Frozen Shoulder: A Case Report
Author: Michelle Kim
Frozen shoulder (FS) is a commonly seen condition in clinical practice. This case report shows evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine for FS where physical therapy (PT) exercises were not utilised as they aggravated the patient’s pain. Indicators measured in the study included involved joint pain, range of motion and quality of life. Results at baseline and six week follow-up were reported in a MYMOP form. In this case, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine were successful in maintaining positive results and improving movement and function of the shoulder joint in a patient with FS.
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A Selection of Points from Yue Hanzhen’s Explanations of Channels and Points (Jingxue Jie) (Part 1)
Author: Michael Brown
The Explanations of Channels and Points by Yue Hanzhen of the Qing Dynasty is the first work to systematically analyse point names, categories and indications. In this rare work, the author shares insights into how to apply the points according to the five phases, as well as insights into pathomechanisms of diseases and interpretations of the underlying reasons why a certain point treats a certain disease. This is a selection of five points from the upcoming publication of Volume 1 to be released in the second half of 2019.
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Ten Years After: A Case for Using Xing Nao Kai Qiao Acupuncture to Treat Post-Stroke Aphasia
Author: Dixie Small
Aphasia is a communication disorder experienced by many patients following a stroke. In this case, the Xing Nao Kai Qiao (XNKQ) method of acupuncture was effective in treating a 96-year old female with aphasia 10 years following the ischaemic stroke that caused the speech impairment. This patient had completed traditional speech therapy in the year following her stroke, with little improvement. However, a three-month course of acupuncture 10 years after the stroke yielded dramatic improvement in her communication. She showed improved ability to choose appropriate nouns and verbs, including using her son’s name correctly for the first time in nearly a decade. Weekly scores in the online assistive therapy application, Conversation Therapy Lite, increased from an average of 20 per cent correct to 30 to 50 per cent correct. She experienced greater fluidity of speech, improved ability to craft sentences, greater overall alertness, as well as improvements in sleep and energy level. She also had a significant decrease in symptoms of senility which had developed a few years prior to treatment, as reported by the son with whom she lives.
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The Diagnostic Correlation Between a Visible Nodule at Shenmen HE-7 and Anxiety
Author: Philip Suger
Channel palpation is a classical diagnostic technique that is described in the Huang Di Nei Jing (The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic). This diagnostic method, however, was slowly discarded over time due to a growing sense of conservatism in the upper echelons of society. Today channel palpation has been enjoying a revival due to the work of the late Wang Ju-Yi and his students. In channel palpation one skims along the 14 major channels with the inner aspect of the thumb to identify a wide array of possible channel changes (abnormalities) such as: changes in muscle texture, differences in temperature and moisture, and nodules. Based on their nature, these channel changes have been correlated with symptoms and Chinese medicine patterns. Although these findings have been substantiated by clinical experience and results, little formal research has been done to confirm these findings.
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The Concept of the Centre in Chinese Medicine: Theoretical and Practical Considerations
Author: Heiner Fruehauf
It is an essential aspect of Chinese medicine that every one of its technical terms is imbued with multiple layers of meaning. Every acupuncture point name, for instance, represents a mnemonic bridge to the anatomical location of the point in space as well as its action in time. The same applies to the designation of the organ networks, the substances of the materia medica and other aspects of Chinese medicine nomenclature. The following is a multidimensional analysis of the term zhong 中 (centre), proffering the thesis that all aspects of traditional Chinese culture, especially the domain of Chinese medicine, revolve around the essential concept of a central unifying force.
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The Second Aristolochic Acid Case in Belgium - Why Were Chinese Herbs Blamed?
Author: Willow Liu and Pei-lin Sun
This article describes a recent case in Belgium where a Chinese medicine practitioner was found guilty of causing irreversible kidney disease after prescribing herbal medicine allegedly containing aristolochic acid (AA), and sentenced to jail. However, with support from Chinese medicine practitioners across the world, a legal challenge showed that the herbs prescribed did not actually contain any AA and the practitioner was exonerated. The article discusses why this and other cases of Chinese herbal medicine have been widely reported in the media, whereas the huge benefits of Chinese medicine treatment are rarely mentioned.
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