How do dosage ratios and cooking methods help avoid adverse reactions to many herbs and formulas? How many grams can or should you use of Chai Hu in XCHT? What about 125g? Simon Feeney takes us on a journey from 20yrs ago, when he met a monk who became his friend and teacher. This monk introduced Simon to herbal medicine, inspiring his studies in Chinese medicine and the Shang Han Za Bing Lun. Simon’s investigations into classical Chinese herbal dosages, with the help of ancient texts, has led t...
Jan 16, 2018•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 50
What’s your libido like on a scale of “can’t get enough” to “can I please have a cup of tea?”. Male fertility is up for discussion this week and Peter Kington is just the man for the job. When girls hit puberty, she is afforded many subsequent years to observe her menstrual cycle and to get a sense of any problems that might be present. However, when a boy hits puberty and starts to ejaculate with masturbation, there’s no feedback to let him know that his sperm is fine or that there’s any sperm ...
Dec 18, 2017•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 49
Have you heard the Chinese saying that a pregnant woman should read beautiful poetry, and no one should deliver bad news to her? In this episode we discussed all things pregnancy related with Debra Betts – including the merits of this old superstitious advice. We covered everything from the basics of pregnancy, and forbidden points, through to some more complicated scenarios around inducing labour, and the rise of gall bladder attacks during pregnancy in modern times. For further information – a...
Dec 11, 2017•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 48
Who better to have a chat with about Han Dynasty medicine than the King of Shang Han Lun himself – Arnaud Versluys. We talk about how he went from a standard TCM education to being a practitioner who exclusively practices classical herbal medicine. Phiona and Clare asked Arnaud about many aspects of Han Dynasty medicine, including the use of acupuncture alongside Han dynasty herb formulas, the best translation of the Jing Gui Yao Lue, and whether he thinks it’s worth it to learn to read Chinese ...
Nov 04, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 47
In this brilliant episode we managed to cover a lot of ground with Ann Cecil Sterman – where we talked about dynamic pulse diagnosis, and how actively taking the pulse allows a practitioner to derive conclusions about how the organs are interacting with each other. We covered so much more than just dynamic pulse diagnosis. We got to hear about Ann’s life mission, her passion and even how she plays in a professional orchestra from time to time. We also got into the nitty gritty on the “other chan...
Oct 18, 2017•48 min•Ep. 46
In your life, what or who is a pain in the neck? Do you suffer from the burden of trying to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders? Neck and shoulder pain is a common complaint amongst patients – whether or not you specialise in musculoskeletal cases, pain in the neck and/or shoulders will be experienced by many of your patients. Treating and resolving neck and shoulder pain is often fairly straight forward – but what about those cases where it just doesn’t seem to respond to treatment ...
Sep 01, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 45
If you treat fertility patients in your practice – this is a must-listen episode! If you are looking for ways to really make your clinical approach holistic – this is a must-listen episode. We recorded a live episode with Yaron Seidman a few months back, and now here it is for all of you who didn’t get to join us live to enjoy listening. We had a great discussion with Yaron about his Hun Yuan approach to treating fertility, and what it means to take a truly holistic approach to treatment. We tal...
Aug 14, 2017•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 43
Are you walking the walk when it comes to getting your work-life balance right? Are you taking enough time off? For many practitioners it’s tricky to get the right balance between work and leisure. What’s the best way to take time off without having a negative affect on your business? It’s a common occurrence for practitioners – you take some much needed time off from clinic – only to return to find that your patient numbers have dropped. Women in particular can have a stressful time in planning...
Jul 20, 2017•52 min•Ep. 42
We as humans are manifestations of the universal spark, and when the universal spark fragments, it radiates energy from Heaven outward towards us, and it is up to us as human beings to answer back to Heaven with our thoughts, our actions, our feelings and emotions. The more we are focused on our desires, frustrations, anger – the more we are not connected to that connection. The more we are connected to the Heavenly energy the more we are connected to our true nature. In this episode we go into ...
Jun 28, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 41
What to do with your gynae patients who seem to have every single pattern of disharmony happening in their body all the same time? It’s like they’ve asked for a burger with the lot – and it has every. possible. ingredient. all piled in between the two halves of the bun. This week we discussed some of the intricacies of treating gynae patients – women’s health and fertility. Some clinical gems including some mini herb combos – triplets that are good for treating menopausal symptoms, depression, s...
Jun 15, 2017•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 40
In this week’s episode, Phiona and Clare go through the foundations of how to treat thyroid disorders from an integrative TCM perspective. From start to finish – from the basics of what the thyroid is doing, what the thyroid blood tests mean, what the optimal reference ranges are and how to use that information in your clinic. They discuss the importance of formulating a proper TCM diagnosis to ensure your acupuncture treatment and herbal formulas are targeting your patient’s pathology in just t...
May 02, 2017•55 min•Ep. 39
What does your patient’s heart rate tell you about their history of trauma? The types of qualities present in those with PTSD? Can you tell from the pulse what an aneurysm, prolapse or valve problems feel like on the pulse? What is the significance of an increase in the leathery pulse quality in today’s society? In this episode we had an in depth discussion with Ross Rosen about so many aspects of pulse diagnosis of the Shen Hammer Pulse System. Ross early interest in Chinese philosophy, culture...
Apr 03, 2017•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 38
“We get sick when we’re not paying attention” From Picasso, to Dostoyevsky, to Zhang Zhong Jing – we discussed many great ideas from great minds in this episode with Z’ev Rosenberg. This is a long episode – where we really dive deep in exploring the ways in which we can best equip ourselves to be the best diagnostic clinicians we can be. In this long discussion we had a great discussion with Z’ev who shared his 30+ years of experience as we covered many ideas ranging from the intricacies of puls...
Feb 27, 2017•1 hr 43 min•Ep. 37
“All musculoskeletal problems will have an internal component – you just have to look for it.” Matt Callison is the King of Musculoskeletal acupuncture, and if he could meet any of the ancient acupuncture masters, he’d choose Hua Tou for his interesting take on the points. We had a very informative discussion with Matt about his own interesting work combining acupuncture and sports medicine. Matt shares some less well known methods with Hua Tou Jia Ji points, and effective ways to treat pain hol...
Feb 02, 2017•53 min•Ep. 36
If you want to be a world class acupuncturist, you need to know what is contained in these texts. If you want to be a world class diagnostician, you need to know what is written in the pages of these books. David is a master of this domain and he shares his in depth knowledge of Han medicine with us in this episode. The Nei Jing and the Nan Jing contain enough clinically relevant information that you could literally spend your entire career refining the details contained within their pages and s...
Dec 14, 2016•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 35
We don’t talk about the tough times. New practitioners feel overwhelmed and their education can feel inadequate when they find themselves at the coalface of clinical practice. Practitioners get burnt out. Practitioners get depressed. Some quit the profession. Some contemplate suicide. Let’s talk about this. In today’s episode, we have a real conversation with Greg Bantick about the realities of being a practitioner, and the different cycles we can experience throughout our careers. Greg Bantick ...
Nov 28, 2016•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 34
What is it like to practice in a small town? Where everyone knows everyone else, word travels fast, and your reputation can build quickly. But there are also challenges, like how do you tell a dairy farmer that they need to stop consuming dairy products in order to improve their health? How can you encourage your patients to eat organic, when there are no stores that sell organic produce in your town? We spoke with the winner of our listener competition: Laura Parkinson and we discussed the intr...
Nov 20, 2016•45 min•Ep. 33
What would you do for a patient with an 11cm fibroid? Clare and Phi discuss the “rule of thumb” that fibroids larger than 5cm can’t be effectively treated with Chinese medicine. Uterine fibroids are a common problem to see in our female patients as they head towards menopause. Presenting to us with severe period pain, heavy bleeding and associated symptoms, these women are coming to us for help with Chinese medicine to assist them to shrink their fibroids or to help their body resolve them entir...
Oct 25, 2016•1 hr•Ep. 32
Master Tung acupuncture points are named like GPS coordinates, point name 88.25 tells us information about which limb we are looking at and how far up the limb to go to find the point. Channel theory names points with a “stress address”, point name GB31 tells us which location along the gall bladder channel. Master Tung acupuncture is such a perfect fit for a modern day acupuncture clinic, and this week Brad Whisnant shares his passion for this style of acupuncture that was passed down in one of...
Oct 19, 2016•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 31
Limbic system development in infants can be positively influenced by our medicine and in particular the use of shiatsu or tui na. Chinese medicine pediatric specialist Peter Gigante joins us in this week’s episode to discuss one of the main treatment interventions he uses with his patients. Peter reminds us that the importance of therapeutic touch and direct human contact in general for infants, and children of all ages, should not be underestimated by practitioners or parents. Touch assists inf...
Oct 10, 2016•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 30
Do you have SJ4 on speed dial? Are you best friends with Hrt3? Do you have a good enough relationship with Kid16 that you could invite her over for dinner? An evolving conversation that started one afternoon in the dispensary at clinic, Phi and Clare discuss the intricacies of each practitioner’s own unique relationship with various acupuncture points. They discuss their favourites from the point of view of the “not so famous” acupuncture points. And their ideas about how 2 different practitione...
Oct 04, 2016•43 min•Ep. 29
Kidney Yang deficiency, Liver Blood deficiency and many many other patterns can be staring right at you from within your patients “normal blood results”. Serum sodium levels below 140mmol/L can be an indicator of Kidney Yang deficiency. GGT levels below 15U/L can be a marker of Liver Blood or Liver Yin deficiency. Listen to the episode to find out more about ideal levels of TSH, eGFR, white blood cell count including monocytes, eosinophils and basophils and how these non-ideal levels can be unde...
Sep 27, 2016•52 min•Ep. 28
How best to support your patients in their 40s – whether they are doing IVF with their own eggs, or donor egg IVF or trying naturally? Biological age is the main factor that determines fertility in women of any age, but particularly in those above the age of 40. Lorne discusses the integrative approach used in his clinic, and goes into detail about how he runs his fertility clinic – from talking with his patients about their expectations, their treatment timeframes and how best to discuss the ty...
Sep 20, 2016•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 27
The biggest mistake you can make with patients who have MTHFR mutations is to think that giving 5-MTHF supplement is all you need to do for them. As well as maybe (or maybe not) taking 5-MTHF supplements, Phi covers the 9 other steps around harmonising methylation that are so important not to overlook. And how we can use the wisdom from within our medicine to help these patients to recover from health problems. Join Phi and Clare in this discussion where Phi reveals how she has learned from her ...
Sep 12, 2016•45 min•Ep. 26
Herbal exorcisms. Helping our sickest patients to recover from mysterious and difficult to treat diseases. With seemingly inelegant formulas that at first glance look like a mix-mash of random herbs, Gu expelling formulas have their own unique dynamics that are worth learning how to use. These formulas help to extinguish the black magic from your patients who are cursed with otherwise incurable diseases. There is little doubt that Heiner Fruehauf is a genius when it comes to treating Gu Syndrome...
Aug 02, 2016•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 25
Black Magic. What to do if your patient seems cursed? They’ve been sick for a long time and don’t necessarily have positive tests for parasites or bacterial infection to justify their illness. Perhaps they’re not responding to your herbal formulas the way you think they should? Maybe they feel better for a few days and then relapse. It’s like an evil spell has been cast upon them and we need to effect change on more than just the physical layer. Chinese medicine classifies this knotted, deep sea...
Jul 26, 2016•51 min•Ep. 24
This week we were blessed to have a great conversation with Roisin Golding about Chinese cosmology. As fans of the tv show Dr Who – Phi and Clare were both very excited to be discussing the idea that the Yellow Emperor could in fact be a Time Lord. Time Lord or not – we discuss how Huang Di ascended to heaven, as described in the Su Wen: In former times there was Huang Di. When he came to life, he had magic power like a spirit. While he was [still] weak, he could speak. While he was [still] youn...
Jul 19, 2016•57 min•Ep. 23
Do you know which nutritional approach provides the quickest way to reset the immune system? We covered it in this episode! The gems of dietary wisdom continue to flow in part 3 of different diets to help your patients. In this episode Phi and Clare cover ketogenic diets, fruit cleanses, fasting. We touch on the age-old question of “Should I be vegetarian or vegan?” and we talk about organic and biodynamic foods and how they are vital for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young babies. We wra...
Jul 12, 2016•45 min•Ep. 22
The 4 directions are governed by animal symbols: The Red Vermillon Bird of the South, The Azure Dragon of the East, The White Tiger of the West, The Black Turtle of the North. The Yellow Dragon of the Centre oversees it all. Sit back and enjoy the ride as Jimi Wollumbin takes us on a journey to explore these majestic symbols that explain the processes of life. These mythopoetic underpinnings emerged from the hunter gatherer cultures of ancient China and over time evolved into the Wu Xing that we...
Jul 04, 2016•49 min•Ep. 21
Phi and Clare really love talking about food. So much that we recorded this second episode and still didn’t get through all the info we wanted to cover! Stay tuned for a third episode coming soon….. This week Phi and Clare discuss the intricacies of more nutritional approaches and the types of patients they are appropriate for: Paleo, Autoimmune Paleo, what to do with legumes, avoiding allergenic food groups such as salicylates and foods high in histamine and tyramine foods. We also discuss whic...
Jun 27, 2016•42 min•Ep. 20
