Points Newsletter - June 2012

The Power of Crane Chi Gong

By Dr. Daoshing Ni, D.O.M., L.Ac., Ph.D, Dipl.C.H.

The room was small but the energy in the room was overflowing. This eager old man along with his entourage of family was very excited to show me something he had been working on for the past three months. Life has not been the same since the stroke - he has lost most of the mobility in his left arm and leg. You can always blame this on several years of cooking with lard and consuming too many sweets and pork. Then again, that is the national diet of Chinese people; he did not know any better. In this small cramped clinic of the hospital, I was busy caring for mostly stroke patients, (my first assignment as a visiting resident in this understaffed hospital). More...  

The American Syndrome

By E. Douglas Kihn, OMD, L.Ac.

For a nation of immigrants, the culture of the United States is remarkably uniform in its habits and attitudes. American pathology reflects this uniformity, which eases the job of diagnosis. In the average American clinic, a handful of major excess-caused patterns with minor variations repeat themselves over and over again.

Below are listed the six most frequently occurring primary Chinese medical syndromes in America, those that cause most health problems in the U.S. Together, these six generate probably 95% of the cases who walk into the average holistic clinic. The first three conditions are so widespread in the U.S. and occur so commonly in conjunction with one another that they can be termed a separate syndrome altogether. More...

How Stress Causes Aging

By Edsel Tan, L.Ac., Dipl.O.M.

We intuitively know that stress is harmful. Recently, however, science has proven this to be a hard fact. An overdose of stress can harm us down to our genetic makeup.

It seems to me there are many people, mostly men who are annoyed by the suffering and have lost their lust for living. But this man was different, you can tell by his eyes. He had patience and he took up my advice—of asking him to learn and practice Crane Chi Gong in a regular class provided by the hospital. He practiced it as much as he could with his limited body but unlimited enthusiasm. More...

Q: I suffer from major stomach and digestive problems; my symptoms include bloating, gas, nausea, as well as pain in the intestinal area. I have been to several doctors and they have reached different conclusions, from irritable bowel (IB) syndrome to diverticulitis. What is the best thing for me, and what type of diet should I follow?

A: The symptoms you have described are inclusive of both IB and diverticulitis. I would recommend you schedule a colonoscopy to identify the correct problem. From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, digestive disorders such as these are a combination of “damp heat in the intestines” and qi stagnation. The advice below will help reduce the dampness and heat in the intestines, and eliminate qi stagnation.  More...