Case Study: My Shoulder

This isn't actually a full-length case study, considering that I didn't really have to do much to fix the problem. Basically, I went to Kenpo study on Monday night and somehow threw out my shoulder. By the time I got home, it was really painful and nearly impossible for me to move my arm behind me and away from my body. I was too lazy to needle myself, so I opted to use an herbal medicated plaster instead.

That first night I used 701 Plaster, which I found in the past to be very useful for pains related to bone structure and joints. I woke up the next morning with it still kind of sore, and proceeded to go about my day at the office. By the end of the day my shoulder hadn't improved much in terms of range of motion or pain sensitivity, so I tried Wu Yang Plaster instead.

I placed a piece of that sticky herbalicious magic on my shoulder directly over the site of pain, and when I woke up this morning it was so much better. I put on a fresh patch after my shower and have continued to wear it all day. Right now I don't feel any shoulder pain at all with normal movement, and only minimally when I try to throw a forceful lock-out punch in the air. Even stretching my arm out and clasping my hands behind my back doesn't produce any pain. Yay!

The interesting thing is that I currently have 5 - count 'em 5! - patients who all have this same type of shoulder pain. They all developed the pain from doing different things, with two of them from doing nothing at all and suspecting it's from sleeping funny. I wonder if shoulder pain can be contagious? All I know is, everyone is going to be prescribed Wu Yang Plaster this week.

Treating Winter Diseases in Summer

Children getting herbal plasters

Here's an interesting story about the use of herbal plasters in the summertime to prevent illness in the winter. It might strike you as an odd idea, but here's the theory...

With the cold weather in winter, the human body tends to contain excessive yin energy due to insufficient yang energy, which makes people liable to attract diseases such as bronchitis, rheumatism, bronchial asthma and cold in the spleen and stomach.

Treating winter ailments in summer means that summer, a season when yang energy peaks, is the time to nourish yang energy for winter, thus relieving and preventing those chronic cold-related ailments that plague people during the chillier months.

You can read the whole story here...

Time Magazine on Placenta Consumption

Here's a humorous article about eating your own placenta from Time Magazine.

For more information on placenta, take a look at our previous post, Human Placenta Consumption, from April 16th.

Summer Drinking

Nothing says booze and summer like the Fourth of July. Why not make yourself a nice, refreshing alcoholic infusion with herbs? It could prove to be delicious and nutritious!

The infusion above was made with 薄荷 Bo He, 生姜 Sheng Jiang and 枸杞子 Gou Qi Zi, popularly known as mint, ginger, and goji berries.

Yumbo!!

Be merry, be safe, and enjoy the holiday.

Case Study: More of My Foot

Remember my foot injury about six months ago? It's mostly healed now; I would say about 90% healed, but every now and then it gets kind of funky. So I decided to find a good die da doctor to help me out.

A search on the Chinese yellow pages under 跌打 led me to 許俊明，醫師 Xu Jun Ming, PhD, LAc. Yesterday, he took a look at my foot and said, "needles are not going to help this." He proceeded to tui na the heck out of my ankle in a two-inch square space, producing a pain which I wasn't even aware could possibly exist before. He then moved on to a one-inch square space on the inside arch of my foot, complete with this popping thing he did similar to snapping his fingers, except that my foot was wedged in-between.

After about 30 minutes of solid tendon work, he grabbed my foot with two hands and manipulated the joint back into place, sending a shock of blinding pain followed by a sensation that can only be described as the best my foot has felt in months. I asked him what he thought was causing the problem, and he said that my joint was slightly dislocated. Had I gone to get imaging, he suspects that they would not be able to find anything wrong with it because nothing is fractured or severed and the joint is not grievously dislocated. According to him, it was ever so slightly off, and when he popped it back into proper alignment, I believed every word he said.

He finished with a hand-made herbal plaster that he mixed up in the treatment room next door as I waited, and came back with two patches that he placed over the spots he had done tui na to. He expertly bandaged my foot into middle position with some gauze, and I was told to stay off of it for the next two days.

I'll be going back to see him on Tuesday, and will let you know how it goes! In the meantime, if you need a recommendation for a good TCM traumatologist and physical medicine specialist, try this guy:

John Jun Ming Xu, PhD, LAc
617 S. Atlantic Blvd. #C
Monterey Park, CA 91754

Call for an appointment: 626-300-8986

Human Placenta Consumption

Mmm...

Here's a link to an article about eating one's own placenta after birth. Warning: plenty of ads on this site, including some that dance across the screen, as well as some pop-ups. If you don't want to deal with all that, here's a quote:

Basically, it is fine to consume the placenta -- and many traditional cultures advocate the use of the placenta for obvious reasons. The placenta is chock full of iron (lots of blood in there) and hormones, too. During pregnancy, many women develop anemia, a low iron and blood cell state, from a combination of the fetus preferentially getting iron and from dilution of red blood cells by increased fluid volume in Mom. Additionally, women experience a fairly sizable blood loss at delivery and this contributes to their need to increase iron in the post-partum period.

In Chinese medicine, dried placenta is used as a medicinal material, called 紫河车 Zi He Che. The traditional functions are to replenish Essence, nourish Blood, and benefit Lung Qi.

Kidney jing is derived from one's parents. When this is deficient, patients present with symptoms associated with Kidney yang, jing and blood deficiencies. Typical symptoms include immature development of the sexual organs, infertility in men and women, low sex drive, impotence, spermatorrhea, irregular menstruation, back and knees soreness and weakness, tinnitus, and dizziness. Zi He Che is the best choice to tonify jing, as it is the part of the body most directly involved with the development of a human being. -Chinese Medicinal Herbology and Pharmacology, p. 916

The picture at the top is of a placenta being cooked in preparation for drying, powdering and encapsulation. Here's the complete article, a really great step-by-step guide for those of you too squeamish to eat your own placenta over pasta.

Chinese Herbal Therapy for Childhood Eczema is Safe and Effective

Dr. Ming Jin of Ming Qi Natural Healthcare Center

Julia Wisniewski, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York studied 14 children who were treated for eczema at the Ming Qi Natural Healthcare Center in New York City between 2006 and 2008.

All of them drank Erka Shizheng Herbal Tea twice a day and soaked in an herbal bath for 20 minutes daily. They also applied an herbal cream to their skin two or three times a day and had acupuncture treatment.

At the start of the study, more than half of the participants had severe symptoms on a standard scale that doctors use to gauge eczema severity. After eight months of treatment, most had mild symptoms.

“Improvement in symptoms and quality of life was seen as early as three months,” Wisniewski says. She showed before-and-after photos of several children to document their progress: Red, scaly feet and hands appeared normal six months into therapy.

Participants also reported a reduction in the use of steroids, antibiotics, and antihistamines within three months of being treated with traditional Chinese medicine.

The herbal treatments proved safe, with no abnormalities in liver and kidney function observed, Wisniewski adds.

“Chinese medicine is a very good alternative to conventional therapy for children with eczema,” she says.

More good news about Chinese medicine! Take note that the TCM therapy was multi-pronged - the patients drank herbs, applied an herbal cream externally, soaked in herbal baths, and had acupuncture.

I met Dr. Ming Jin about five years ago when I went for acupuncture at her clinic. At that time she was on 6th Avenue just on the edge of Herald Square in a mostly residential building. Later on she moved to much fancier renovated digs in a medical building on 5th Avenue and 30th or 29th St. She's a very nice lady! If you explore her website you'll find that she treated Bill Cosby, among others.

Consumers Turn to Herbs over Prescription Medications

Kristen Kemp, right, gives her 1-year-old son Soren some black elderberry extract at their home in Montclair, N.J. Kemp uses home remedies and herbal medicine for her kids’ sore throats and colds instead of prescription medications to cut costs.

According to this story from the Associated Press, more and more consumers are turning to herbal remedies over prescription medications, in part to save money in this down economy.

“The doctors are so much higher (in cost), the insurance isn’t paying as much,” said the 61-year-old self-employed bookkeeper and notary. Her husband, a retired dispatcher, has high blood pressure and seizures. Recent changes in their health insurance coverage resulted in $1,300 in monthly premiums, double what they used to be.

The story also points out an important safety factor: most people who use herbs are self-medicating. While herbs themselves are quite safe, people may end up hurting themselves if they use them without guidance. Most of the time this comes from taking something long-term that is only meant to be taken for a short period of time.

For instance, many people know Yin Chiao as the product to take when they feel the first symptoms of a cold (银翘解毒丸 Yin Qiao Jie Du Wan). This herbal remedy works so well that some of my friends started to take it all the time, thinking that it would work as a sort of herbal prevention. A daily dose of Yin Chiao is actually indicated for people with herpes, to prevent outbreaks. Taking Yin Chiao when you're not sick at all can lead to a chronic stuffy nose.

The best way to take Chinese herbs safely? Consult a licensed acupuncturist (L.Ac) - nearly all of us have extensive herbal training. Hate needles? Ask them for an herbal consultation, sans acupuncture. Most will be happy to oblige.

Chuan Xin Lian, Kold Kare, Kan Jang

Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon write a syndicated column called "The People's Pharmacy." Recently they ran an item from someone who asked about a product called Kan Jang, produced by the Swedish Herbal Institute. Kan Jang not being available on the U.S. market, they recommended something called Kold Kare. The main ingredient in both products is andrographis, known to the Chinese medicine community as 穿心蓮 Chuan Xin Lian.

Chuan Xin Lian is extremely cold and bitter, and goes to the Lung, Stomach, Large Intestine, and Small Intestine meridians. It's often used for its anti-inflammatory and antibiotic effects. One study shows that a decoction of Chuan Xin Lian enhances the immune system and increases the phagocytic activity of white blood cells (Zhong Yao Yao Li Yu Ying Yong Pharmacology and Applications of Chinese Herbs, 1983:824).

Although the People's Pharmacy column discusses the use of andrographis for colds, I recently used a Chuan Xin Lian product to help control an infection that developed after a puncture wound in the palm of my hand. A friend tossed me a key, and as I caught it between my hands, the point dug into the center of my palm, almost exactly where the acumoxa point Laogong PC-8 is located. I ignored for a day or two, but it wound started to throb and get redder. I even started to feel some pain up my forearm. Then I squeezed some yellow pus out of the wound. That worried me, to say the least.

Along with an external application of 三黃散 San Huang San, I took 穿心蓮抗炎片 Chuan Xin Lian Kang Yan Pian. San Huang San, the "three yellows powder," consists of Huang Qin, Huang Lian, Da Huang, Hong Hua, Pu Gong Ying, and Zhi Zi. I mixed a small amount of the powder with green tea, put it directly on the wound and covered it with a band-aid. The pills I took at a high dose for three days, and continued to change the San Huang San each day. After three days my hand and forearm no longer hurt and the wound had almost completely healed over with no redness or swelling.

Chinese herbs have incredible antibacterial and antiviral effects. People sometimes tell me that they canceled an acupuncture appointment because they "felt sick." That makes no sense! Go to the acupuncturist when you get sick! A lot of people only see the acupuncturist for physical pain, but acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are excellent for treating the common cold, flu, infections and so on.

Chuan Xin Lian Kang Yan Pian and San Huang San are both available from Fat Turtle Herb Company (online shopping coming soon).

Alcohol Extracts of Chinese Herbs

Chinese medicine has a long history of using medicinal wines and liquors. For some herbs, alcohol is a better choice to extract active ingredients than water. If you go to some herbalist's shops, you may see a big jar of dark liquid with some herbs floating in it. Alexa Hulsey, formerly of Yosan University, saw some in China, as you can see here.

Chinese Medicinal Wines and Elixirs, by Bob Flaws, details some traditional recipes and methods. Chinese Medicated Liquor Therapy, by Song Nong, also has hundreds of recipes for everything from indigestion to impotence.

Jake Fratkin, an American practitioner, has combined traditional Western methods with Chinese herbs and uses them in his practice. In this article, he details his method, which uses ground raw herbs and a shorter soaking cycle than the traditional Chinese practice (1-2 days rather than 5-10 days). He considers it an important way for people to take herbs long-term and says he has success with conditions as varied as chronic cough to ovarian cysts.

If you'd like to make herbal alcohol extracts, Fat Turtle Herb Company can help you with all stages of the process, from getting high-quality raw herbs to grinding.