Focal distention, golmus, pi, call it what you will, the name is not nearly as important as the illness process that it describes. This is one of those concepts upon which there is a wealth of thought and disagreement. Some say it is a sensation the patient has, others say it is the doctor that…
Category Archives: Formulas
Reading between the lines
There is a section in Comparing Formula Presentations: Five Steps to Differential Diagnosis in the Treatment of Cold Damage on formulas, presentation, and illness. Unlike the way Huang writes, the author of this book writes in a condensed, specific fashion and is very clear about where within the six warp the illness is located. The…
Dr Jiang’s thoughts on treating the exterior
Like so many foreigners, soon after I first got to Taiwan I experienced the joy of illness in a strange land. The lungs are my weak organ system, and given the Brillo pad atmosphere of Taipei, intensely cold AC mixed with murky heat and subtropic humidity, and stress of calling a very foreign country “home”…
Extraordinary Views of the Abdomen-
Major Bupleurum Decoction (da chai hu tang)
. That little side trip to Taiwan ate up all my attention there for a while. As promised, here are a few pages from the Extraordinary Views of the Abdomen. Not only that, but there is a bit of discussion from a doctor friend in Beijing that I hope you will find interesting. As ever,…
Dr. Chang’s Formula Families
One of the great things about hanging out with experienced doctors, especially guys like Chang Bu-Tao, is that you get to see how a tuned and savvy doc works. Doc Chang’s ample waiting room empties and refills like a Zen bamboo water pipe; seeing 200 patients in a day is not uncommon. He is one…
Opposites inform
We know from the texture of our lives that the Chinese yin/yang theory of opposites attracting and mutually transforming into one another is one of the ways that life grows, unfolds, and transforms. It is somehow comforting to know that moments of despair will in time transform, and that present frustrations can be the inspiration…
Plum Pit Qi
. . We learn about in our Chinese medicine textbooks, a certain kind of insubstantial mix of phlegm and qi that collects in the throat… 咽喉異物感Plum Pit Qi. It is a pretty little diagnosis. Sounds very….Asian…Sounds very beautiful, and somehow exotic, but I have yet to have have a patient Western, or Asian, walk into…
Jade Windscreen
We learned this in our first quarter of Chinese medicine school, and if you read through the advertisements and support materials for any of the multitude of herbal products you will see this…… Jade Windscreen is for building the immune systems in those who easily get colds. I’m one of those people.I’ve easily gotten colds…