Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress. It helps one deal with a tense situation in the office, study harder for an exam, focus on an important speech. In general, it helps one cope. But when anxiety becomes an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations, it has become a disabling disorder. 1. ANXIETY IN WESTERN … Read More
“Men” is a common symptom in Chinese medicine. The Chinese character shows a door and a heart inside it. Thus, it would seem to indicate a heart constricted by a door closing on it. I translate this symptom as “a feeling of oppression of the chest”. Men is very difficult to translate and my translation … Read More
When we study the pathology of the Internal Organs, for the Spleen, we generally emphasize Spleen-Qi deficiency and Spleen-Yang deficiency. This is understandable as these two patterns are indeed extremely common. By contrast, when it comes to the Stomach, we do mention Stomach-Yin deficiency. In fact, some people say that this is a well-known contradiction: … Read More
Heat and the 4 Levels Heat is an extremely common pattern in practice and it is therefore very important that we understand its aetiology, pathology, diagnosis, patterns and treatment. To give an idea of the frequency of Heat in practice, in my clinic in England in a database of over 2500 patients, 46% had a … Read More
The main clinical manifestations of allergic rhinitis (“hay fever”) are nasal congestion, a watery nasal discharge and sneezing. In a few cases it affects the eyes and the conjunctiva may become red and itchy. In 20% of cases there is also asthma in conjunction with the rhinitis. Allergic rhinitis is due to an antigen-antibody reaction … Read More
A previous Clinical Tip discussed acupuncture to address Dampness and Phlegm and it started with a reference to ST-40 Fenglong. It seems therefore appropriate to discuss the clinical use of the point ST-40 Fenglong. As I said in the previous Clinical Tip, whenever I mention ST-40 in the course of my lectures, everybody associates it … Read More
When I give lectures I often hear that “ST-40 resolves Phlegm”: I wish! Resolving Phlegm involves much more than simply using ST-40. In order to resolve Dampness or Phlegm, it is necessary to activate the Three Burners. The Triple Burner is described in the Nei Jing as the official in charge of irrigation: this means … Read More
AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES: A CHINESE MEDICINE VIEW Autoimmune diseases comprise a large number of diseases that are very different from one another. The most common ones seen in the clinic are: Multiple sclerosis Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) Rheumatoid arthritis Sjogren’s Syndrome Hashimoto Thyroiditis Graves’ Disease Crohn’s Disease Chinese medicine does not have a single explanation of … Read More
This article, first published in The European Journal of Oriental Medicine, Volume 7, No 1, 2012 discusses the origin of Blood Deficiency and its relationship with qi and jing, it works out the signs and symptoms of Blood deficiency and outlines the three main syndromes, Liver Blood, Heart Blood and Spleen Blood deficiency. “ When … Read More
Chapter 6 of the Su Wen introduces the concept of channels “opening onto the exterior” (or being the “opening”), closing onto the interior (or “being the door leaf”) and being the pivot (or hinge). In this chapter the order for the Yang channels is as follows: Tai Yang opens Yang Ming closes Shao Yang is … Read More
