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Author: Daniel Maxwell

Everyone knows acupuncture works for pain … Don’t they? It probably seems obvious to us as practitioners - at least from the evidence in our clinics, which echo daily with sighs of relief as our needles, cups, lancets and hands help move painful stasis from patients’ channels. On a personal note, I recently ‘did my back in’ royally after (unwisely) swimming in a freezing cold North Sea before sitting in motorway traffic for three hours and then unloading a car full of luggage and a windsurfer. Boy, was I glad of Yaotongxue, Linggu, Dabai, a liberal dousing of Evil Bone Water and a moxa heat pad on that day.

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Author: Merlin Young

This article reports on the methodology and results of a small research project that aimed to investigate whether 100 days of self-administered direct moxibustion had meaningful outcomes for patients suffering from Long COVID. Although firm conclusions cannot be made due to the limitations of the evidence, the early results were encouraging, and concur with research previously conducted by Moxafrica on moxibustion for drug resistant tuberculosis. Based on these positive results, Moxafrica has started a remote treatment programme to provide free equipment and instruction on treatment to people suffering from Long Covid anywhere in the world - especially those living in countries where there is no other medical treatment available.

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Author: Jonathan Masi, Abel Gläser & Frédéric Breton

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Author: John Wo

Lichen planus (LP) is a chronic, inflammatory, immune-mediated skin condition with an unknown aetiology and pathogenesis. Its treatment remains controversial, with no evidence-based best practice. This case report explores the use of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in a 58-year-old male patient with LP presenting with purple, pruritic, lichenoid plaques on his hands, arms, torso, legs and feet. Over forty weeks, the patient received 23 acupuncture treatments and utilised internal herbal therapy. He experienced complete resolution of itching, lichenification and hyperpigmentation of his skin. This case illustrates the possibility of using acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine as a viable treatment for LP.

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Author: Peilin Sun

This article discusses the pathogenesis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) supported by information from modern biomedicine. The article is divided into three interrelated parts. Part One focuses on the aetiology of IBD from a TCM perspective, while Part Two discusses the characteristics of the disease according to its primary pathogenesis, Liver qi stagnation. Relevant scientific literature is presented, which reveals that although TCM and biomedicine look at IBD from different angles, their perspectives are related and mutually corroborative. It is gratifying to note that clinical manifestations that are difficult to explain from a biomedical perspective, such as skin, eye and joint problems, can be understood and treated using TCM theory. Part three provides a clinical guide to the primary TCM diagnostic patterns, herbal formulas, acupuncture points and lifestyle advice that practitioners can use to bring the disease into remission.

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Author: Marc Daniel Velez

In December 2021, the wife of California Congressman Tom McClintock died unexpectedly. The Sacramento coroner’s findings eventually attributed Lori McClintock’s cause of death to the consumption of white mulberry leaf (Sang Ye, Morus alba L.), a botanical with a long history of human consumption and few adverse effects. The case circulated through news media and continues to spark intrigue in the natural medicines industry and healing arts. The present paper examines the unusual findings of the coroner’s office and offers an indepth analysis of the botanical substance in question from both traditional and modern perspectives, ultimately highlighting white mulberry leaf’s usefulness and tolerability as a medicinal.

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Author: Robert Hayden

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Author: Peter Eckman

The eight extraordinary vessels have been one of the more controversial issues in the long history of Chinese medicine. Using pulse diagnosis, this mysterious subject can be clarified and shown to be a mechanism for guiding the energetic development of each individual from conception until the end of life. These vessels integrate the theories of yīnyáng and the five elements (especially focused on the water and fire elements), and the pulse-guided approach described makes both diagnosis and acupuncture treatment easier and more accurate to successfully apply. A case history illustrates this remarkably powerful methodology, curing a debilitating case of ‘Long Covid’ with just one treatment.

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