Thank you for making your way to my website and blog. If you’re reading this you probably have an interest in Chinese medicine and what it can do for you. Practicing Chinese medicine in a clinical setting is my area of expertise and this blog is meant to supplement that work in the spirit of patient education. However, even if you have no interest in receiving acupuncture or herbal formulas, or if you live far away from the areas in which I work, this space can still provide interesting and useful information. It has been said that Chinese medicine is really applied Chinese philosophy. Many cultures throughout history have had their own beliefs around how the universe works and the role that humans play within it. What set the Chinese apart was their focus on systematizing these beliefs in a way that makes the theoretical practical.
Human life and health are influenced by energetic factors that pervade the outer world. The foundational text of Chinese medicine is titled Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic (Huang Di Nei Jing), because it describes how the outer affects the inner, meaning the interior of the human body. Just as in nature where we observe changes with each new season, our bodies are meant to reflect these changes as well. Your body has a set of functions that correspond to the movements of spring, another set of functions that correspond to the movements of summer, and so on. This is all metaphorical until a set of needles are inserted into the body, or an herbal formula is prescribed, that is meant to correct an imbalance in these functions. If the treatment has been applied properly, and the patient begins to see an improvement in symptoms, we‘re no longer talking about philosophy but about medicine.
In this blog I will be exploring these ideas in a practical and relatable way. My work in this field has changed my view of life and health, my habits and my attitudes, all for the positive. I hope to bring some of this to my readers, even if they never become my patients. At times I will go into detail about a concept from Chinese philosophy but it will always be with the intention of helping the reader to better understand something that relates to their everyday life. I’m not here to bore you with details or make myself seem smart. I am here to help people understand the context of my clinical work and to show how that context is relevant to life in our modern times.