Ours is a portable medicine. In the 1960’s the barefoot doctors in China took Chinese medicine into the countryside. Over the years acupuncturists’ response to natural disasters has show us that acupuncture can be practiced in makeshift shelters or tents. It also has a place in refugee camps, churches of impoverished communities and rural villages. In this conversation acupuncturist and activist Ryan Bemis talks about how acupuncture and liberation theology go together and can help to relieve a ...
Mar 17, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 132
We often think of the bioelectricity of the nervous system as a signaling system for the body to communicate with itself, but it might serve an even greater function of allowing us to interact with our larger environment. This conversation with John Hubacher started off as an inquiry into electro-acupuncture, but it quickly took a hard left turn into neuro-psychiatry, parapsychology as well as the importance of using standardized measures in research so we can build a common language around trea...
Mar 10, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 131
The coronavirus has not only found its way into our bloodstream and mucus membranes, it’s worked its way into our social fabric, economic relations and political disagreements. In this age of global electronic connection news of this new virus creates perhaps more noise than signal. In this conversation with Craig Mitchell we discuss how the effectivness of Chinese medicine is based not on someone else’s successful prescription, but on our ability to skillfully apply our diagnostic methods. We a...
Mar 08, 2020•35 min•Ep. 130
The 子午 zi wu, “Chinese Clock” that helps us to learn the flow of qi through the channels can give us a glimpse into many underlying dynamics of organ relation, influences of the six qi and the five phases. In this conversation we take a deep gaze into what Brenda Hood likes to call the Tidal Flow Clock. There is a lot here when you start look below the surface.
Mar 07, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Many of us like to think we are connected with doctors throughout time, that we practice the same medicine in a continuous flow from the days of Huang Di down to this modern moment. It’s a lovely narrative. One that our patients often think about as well when they say “It’s been around 2000 years, there must be something to it.” But as Volker Scheid, the guest of today’s conversation, points out “The way patients were even 40 years ago, the way they spoke and thought of their issues is already d...
Mar 03, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 129
The Saam tradition traces its roots back four hundred years to a monk who as part of his meditative practice received some insight into medicine that allowed him see and work simultaneously with the five phases and six conformations. But monks are not doctors, even if they can relief a lot of suffering with a few needles. And so the methods of Saam have over the years found their way into scholarly and educational traditions of Korea. To the degree that a Pubmed search will find you all kinds of...
Feb 25, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 128
Humans have an innate drive to make sense of the world. To understand how things work and see if we can reliability influence the outcome on something. To find a way to get more of what we want, or less of what we dislike. When you think about it, life is one big research experiment as we are constantly testing out ideas of how things work. But often when we think about research we are thinking about laboratory controlled environments or double blind studies. And there is a place for those, but ...
Feb 18, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 127
The corona virus that emerged in Wu Han earlier in this year has disrupted travel and business and has been a deep cause of concern as doctors throughout the world, and especially in China, strive to understand the nature of this pathogen. Conventional medicine brings it’s modern research techniques to this inquiry. While those of us in the Chinese medicine world seek to understand this modern epidemic disease through the lens and prisms of Chinese medicine. In this conversation with Cheng Du do...
Feb 17, 2020•46 min•Ep. 126
It’s easy to think of our skin as the outside wrapper, but really its a mirror of the internal environment. And while topical treatment of skin has it use, it’s learning to adjust that inner milieu that over time makes for the biggest changes with the skin. It’s quite in line with Chinese medicine that we work on the inside to change the outside. Olivia Hsu Friedman is well studied and practiced with treating skin conditions with Chinese medicine. And beyond that she also works with conventional...
Feb 11, 2020•1 hr 13 min
There is something about connection that goes beyond words. There is a way of engaging with those who seek our help that goes beyond the ten questions. Connection is not something we do, it’s a way we are. In this conversation with long time practitioner Esther Platner we explore the spaces that don’t quite fit into words. Tread into territories without maps. And sit for a bit with the curiosities and surprise that arise in clinic when we attend with an open awareness. Beyond our theory, and bey...
Feb 04, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 124
The practice of medicine is not completely about what we do, it’s also informed by how we are. How our presence, perception and allowing ourselves to abide in that space between knowing, sensing and being can invite a quiet, non-rational part of ourselves into the clinical encounter. Michael McMahon, like many of us, did not initially set out to become a Chinese medicine practitioner. It was more a process of discovery— of a kind of feeling your way in the dark. It was a following something that...
Jan 28, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 123
This is the audio of a webinar conversation on the use of Saam acupuncture in the community clinic setting. We get into particular benefits of the Saam system and why it’s well suited to using in the community clinic setting. And detail some challenges and considerations in terms of training that need to be addressed. Finally, we talk about a few commonly seen issues in the community clinic and how to treat them.
Jan 27, 2020•47 min
The changes that come from an unexpected direction tend to be the ones that transform our lives the most. Chloe Weber did not plan on becoming an expert in neurology. She was on the path of providing herbs and acupuncture to low income populations. But when her son’s rare neurological condition invited her to move in a different direction, she took that invitation. Listen in to this conversation on neurology, CBD, Chinese herbs and how a business can be built because it turns out that in solving...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 122
Just how do you locate an acupuncture point? Are you looking for bony protrusions, a palpable change on the skin, or a rule based measurement from a book? Locating acupuncture points is something every practitioner needs to do, and do well. And there are plenty of different criteria that can be used. This question about point location caught the attention of our guest in this episode. He started to seriously look into this issue, serious as in with a scalpel and cadaver. And what he’s found has ...
Jan 14, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 121
Archetypes are deep influences that all humans share. They give us a glimpse into the complicated landscape of our psyche. They can live in the light or influence from the dark. Carl Jung had a lot to say about our intrapsychic world, how these influences are shared across culture and time, and how they manifest in personal and societal behavior. And while they are separated by the distance of culture and thousands of years Confucius had a lot to say that rhymes with the Jungian ideas on Being, ...
Jan 07, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 120
An often overlooked aspect of running our own business is that it gives us a potent way of connecting with others and serving a community. Sure there are additional responsibilities that come with this kind of an opportunity. But the freedom it can give us, and the ways it will challenge us with personal growth, opens up experiences and opportunities we’d otherwise not have. Listen into this conversation on how doing business asks each of us to develop untapped potential in ourselves, connect us...
Dec 31, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 119
In the study of acupuncture we learn about the Five Phases, the Six Conformations, all kinds of relationships involving three, and the pattern differentiation of illness. You could say we learn about the “user interface” of Chinese medicine, but we don’t much study the underlying mechanics. Much in the same way we use powerful computers without knowing a line of code. In this conversation we touch a bit on the underlying code we are tinkering with when we work in clinic. It’s not often that a ma...
Dec 25, 2019•1 hr 4 min
Daoism and Daoist thought is something that many acupuncturists have been exposed to. It might have been part of what launched our interest in studying medicine. And perhaps you’ve had the experience of reading books like the Dao De Jing and come away more with a sense of confusion than clarity. It’s challenging for us as modern westerners to grasp the meaning of writings that have come to us from across the expanse of time, culture and language. Daoist traditions are alive, but they are passed ...
Dec 24, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 118
Money, for many, is the pebble in our shoe that irrates enough to annoy, but not enough for us to make a fundemental change. And if our accounting systems mirror our confusion or conflict around finances, then that adds more one more thing that we’d prefer not to think too much that will undoubtly circle back and be a source of suffering. A good accounting system, and the basic understanding of the principles involved can save us a lot of trouble. And it’s not that difficult. If you can learn Ch...
Dec 17, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 117
The way we make sense of structure helps us to understand function. Drawing lines and divisions helps us to understand parts. But a keen understanding of the parts does not always help us to see the whole of the functioning of those parts. The anatomy of qi gives us a kind of bi-ocular view of function and form. It helps us to understand a system, even as we are part of that system. And it invites our western minds, which have been cultivated on carving the world into pieces, to glimpse the unit...
Dec 10, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 116
Chinese medicine reminds us that we are one part of a complex, interdependent and ever evolving ecosystem. That we both influence and are influenced by the world. Our toolmaking ability has wrought remarkable changes on the world, and on ourselves. In this conversation we look into the prevelence of manmade electromagnetic radiation, how it has dramatically proliferated in the past 40 years, and how some common health complaints could be a sign how the increase in electromagnetic fields in our l...
Dec 03, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 115
What gets us started is not what sustains us over the long haul. The energy of beginning is essential at the start of any new endeavor. But what got us to here, will not get us to there. It’s easy to think that we are broken because what brought us success does not help us in managing success. Nor does it help us to move through the stages of development as we age and face the challenges slowing our practice down, passing it along or letting go of it altogether. In this conversation we explore o...
Nov 26, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 114
The classics are helpful not just because they contain pointers to how medicine works. They are helpful because of the discussions they have generated amongst practitioners over the twin distances of time and space. They are a kind of thread that connects us with the doctors of the past who have gone to this well for the wisdom within. Listen in to this conversation on the pulse as seen through the perspective of the Classic of Difficulties, how the principle of 理 (coherence) shows up in the wor...
Nov 19, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 113
Most of us spend our days treating illness and working to bring out patients into a great state of health and wellbeing. But there are moments toward the end of life when the greatest state of health and wellbeing means helping someone to more gently leave this world. Listen into this conversation on the place of acupuncture in hospice care, a glimpse into the complexities of working in this kind of integrated environment and how about we can broaden our view of helping people at the end of life...
Nov 12, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 112
This is a series of short conversations with some of the attendees of the Pacific Symposium. Listen in to the wide variety of perspective and practice as it relates to Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.
Nov 10, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 111
Access to acupuncture point location and function has not always been a matter of a few clicks on your mobile phone. This kind of information has not always been at our fingertips. And there is a great wealth of material has not made its way into your digitial library, let alone into English. In this conversation we talk about knowing what’s true in Chinese medicine, the problem of cherry picking resources, and the work of translating a Qing dynasty text on acupuncture. Head on over to the show ...
Nov 05, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 110
Stems and Branches are old Chinese science. Our medicine touches on it, but most of us rely on the more modern perspectives for our clincal work. The Stems and Branches speak to a perspective of the universe and our place in it that is foreign to our minds not because of language and culture, but because we live a world that focus more on humanity than cosmos. In this conversation we touch on the influence of numbers, the spiral nature of unfoldment and change, a few things about the Hun and Po ...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 109
The medicine we practice doesn’t just help us to help others. It can help us to live more deeply into our own lives. The challenges, adversity and difficulties we encounter show us what we are made of and build resiliency. The practices we create are a living expression of who we see ourselves to be. Furthermore, the process of creating a successful practice that we want to work in, it’s an on-going process. Listen into this conversation on the power of mentorship, the transformational influence...
Oct 22, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 108
With Chinese medicine we know that issues of the skin are more than skin deep. That imbalances in the internal environment can manifest on the exterior. And that if we focus solely on what is seen on the surface, we’ll miss the larger picture that is unfolding below. In this conversation we explore dermatological conditions with an eye toward internal organ function, the emotions and how diagnosis can be easy but the treatment more difficult. Listen in to the conversation on healthy skin from th...
Oct 15, 2019•59 min•Ep. 107
The characters for acupuncture in Chinese, 針灸zhen jiu, literally translate as needle and moxa. You surely were introduced to the cigar-like pole moxa and large cones of smoldering mugwort on slices of ginger or aconite in acupuncture school. Perhaps you also were exposed to the Japanese rice grain moxa techniques or burning balls of moxa on the head of needle. Not surprising there are a variety of forms of using Ai Ye to bring a kind of simulative heat into the body. In this conversation we expl...
Oct 08, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 106
