Top 10 Ways Chinese Medicine Can Help You, Part 1 by Brian Benjamin Carter, MS, LAc

* Decreased the severity of PMS symptoms

* Alleviated lupus symptoms (quenched a "flare up")

* Restored sleep to insomniacs

* Chased away all kinds of musculoskeletal aches and pains

* Eliminated severe medication-dependent acid reflux vomiting; the man no longer needs medication or herbs and is fine

Since then, in practice:

A jet-skier had a severe case of hives for 6 months, had been to many MD's, had spent about $11,000, and had gotten no relief. He couldn't sleep comfortably, work, or be out in the sun. Doctors were ready to admit him to UCSD. He came to see me, and after 2 acupuncture treatments and 2 days of a 7-day herb formula, his skin was completely clear. When I lasted talked to him, he was getting ready to race in the world jet-ski finals at Lake Havasu. Oh, and his entire treatment cost less than $200.

A 9-month pregnant woman came to me because her baby was facing the wrong direction. Her MD wanted to physically turn the baby from the outside, or put her through the surgery, cost, and scar of a C-section. I heated an acupuncture point on each of her little toes 10 times for 3 days, and the baby flipped. She was ecstatic and thanked me profusely.

Several of my patients have had weakness and nerve tingling in their fingers that starts deep inside the shoulder (supraspinatus nerve impingement). The only alternative is surgery. This usually takes about 8 acupuncture treatments to cure.

Healed Healers Healing You

Many Chinese Medicine students decide to become an CM physicians after being significantly healed (and impressed) by it. About one-third of them come to the profession for this reason.

A friend of mine had lupus and was treated by MD's with steroids- she gained 40 pounds. She was told to expect to live only another 10 years or so. She tried chinese herbal medicine, and it put her lupus into remission. She was so impressed that she decided to make chinese medicine her profession.

# 4 It's Simple AND Complex

At first you are captivated by the simple poetry of CM - but in time you are nearly overwhelmed by its depth and complexity.

The Advantages of the Simplicity Option

You can diagnose and treat disease at varying levels of complexity. You can always go back to the simpler perspective if you get lost in the complexity- this is the advantage of CM- at times, MD diagnoses are complex and elaborate, but they lack a treatment to address them. Western Medicine is great at describing in minute detail what is wrong with you, but it can't always fix the problem.

Nearly Limitless Complexity and Variation

CM also can be complex- there are 29 or so symptom-patterns which manifest in one or more of the 12 organ-systems, and there are dozens of pathomechanisms involved by which pathogens and organ dysfunctions affect one another. External influences can manifest in different ways in different people. We trace this by taking into account the individual's constitutional excesses and deficiencies. There are thousands of herbs; about 400 are used commonly, and each has 3-4 functions. There are hundreds of acupuncture points, each with functions and empirical indications. These are only the basics- there is a vast amount of variation within Chinese Medicine... but just these basics map out a matrix of thousands of relationships and insights.

#5 - it's Intuitive AND Intellectual

Knowing Hands

The 360 or so basic acupuncture points (and there are 100's more extra points) each have a specific anatomical location. Clinically, however, we often treat the "ah-shi" point (literally "that's it" - the most sensitive area nearby). Ah-shi points are found with help from the patient, but acupunturists often find that they "knew" where the point was (by feel) even before the patient said, "yeah, that's it." Massage therapists experience this too. Patients often say, "How did you know it hurt there?" or "I didn't even know that was sore!"

What are these "knowing" hands? Intuition? A learned kinesthetic wisdom? Both? This goes back to #2, "It's Mysterious."

Both Sides of Your Brain

Most students of western medicine choose their profession for three reasons:

* They want to help people

* They're good at science (left-brained)

* They want to make good money

* The typical CM student, on the other hand, is more right-brained, and less money-oriented. In fact, practice management seminars for acupuncturists often focus on the idea that "it's ok to charge your patients money!"

This distinction may change as the mainstream conception of CM changes; left brain facts and theories are indispensable to the practice of CM. As was said in #4, "It's simple AND complex," there is quite are quite a bit of facts and theories to learn, and integrating them in practice takes good analytical skills. And it's becoming clear that CM practitioners can make a great living (see #10 below).

In a way, the practice of CM is more balanced than western medical practice or massage because it requires the usage of both left and right brains. Biomedicine can be too intellectual (left-brained). Massage can be too simple. In Chinese Medicine, there is an art to:

* Pulse-taking

* Communicating with patients about issues that include the mental, emotional and physical (in biomedicine, patients are often sent to specialists who can deal with only one part of them. CM in the U.S. attracts complex patients.)

* Integrating all the data into a comprehensive diagnosis (CM diagnosis is more syndrome-oriented and includes complex, often non-linear phenomena), and

* Choosing an applying a number of different treatment modalities.

Continued in Part 2!

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BIO:

Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.

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