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.

Herbal Remedies for your Gym Bag

Our poor neglected blog is coming back! Take a look at this article featuring Tom Bisio and Frank Butler's Zheng Gu Tui Na physical medicine: Herbal Remedies for your Gym Bag.

Fat Turtle Herb Company carries most of the products mentioned in the article, so give us a buzz at orders@fatturtleherbs.com or 310-691-5226 if you want to try these in the clinic or for yourself.

Nini and I will be attending the Zheng Gu Tui Na seminar in San Diego in a few weeks. This is excellent stuff to know and will be immediately useful in practice. I actually met Tom Bisio when I was working at Kamwo - he seems like a nice guy.

Treatment of Sprains and Strains with TCM

Here's an interesting article from Alon Marcus on the treatment of strains and sprains with Chinese medicine. It goes into great detail on the different types of sprains and strains but is oddly lacking when it comes to acupuncture treatment strategies. Perhaps these will be covered in part two?

Curiously, the only herbal formula he mentions includes a highly toxic substance, 蟾酥 Chan Su, or toad venom. He neglects to mention the two most famous formulas for the treatment of external injury, 跌打丸 Die Da Wan and 三黃散 San Huang San. Die Da Wan, or "hit-fall pill", can be taken orally directly after injury for 2-3 days. San Huang San, or the "three yellows powder" consists of Huang Qin, Huang Lian and Da Huang powdered and mixed together in equal amounts (one popular modification adds Pu Gong Ying, Shan Zhi Zi and Hong Hua). This powder can then be mixed with green tea, water or egg white and spread in a plaster on the affected area. For details on these formulas, take a look at Tom Bisio's A Tooth From the Tiger's Mouth.

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

Free Tote Bag from Golden Path Alchemy

Friends and classmates Minka Robinson and Ashley Beckman hand-make incredible all-natural cosmetics infused with Chinese herbs. This month they're giving away a free canvas tote bag with all purchases over $100. Go get yours!

Samples are on display at the Yosan bookstore and I sometimes pop in to spritz myself with something that smells nice. I haven't tried all their products but they get great reviews.

Meet The Herbs: Bi Zi

Chinese: 田鸡
Pin Yin: Tian Ji (translation - "field chicken")
Pharmaceutical: Rana limnocharis
English: Rice Frog
Vietnamese: Nhái

In Yang Shou-zhong's translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing, this herb is listed as Bi Zi. It is sweet and warm, and mainly treats evil qi in the abdomen. It also removes the Three Worms, snakebite, gu toxins, demonic influx, and hidden corpse.

Volume II of the Vietnamese Materia Medica, Cây Thuốc Và Động Vật Làm Thuốc Ở Việt Nam, lists the herb as having different functions depending on its preparation:

• To treat jaundice: pound 1 frog with 12g unbleached black rock sugar and put inside a rooster's gizzard. Cook. When it's done, let cool and remove the frog and sugar. Eat the gizzard.

• To treat mental illness characterized by crazy talk: cook one frog until charred, powder it, and drink it with liquor.

Some remedies for external use also included in the book:

• To treat pustulent open sores: remove the entrails of one frog, fry it til it's black, powder it, mix it with sesame oil, and place on skin

• To treat purple bruises: mix the frog with lá mau (sorry, don't know the translation of this herb) and the leaves of a garden egg, or Thai eggplant, plant. Chop everything finely and cook with water and rice. Wrap everything in cheesecloth or fabric, making a little bundle the size of your fist. Roast the bundle and place on bruises.

• To treat phagedena (rapidly spreading destructive ulceration of soft tissue): crush one frog with Vietnamese coriander and wild betel leaf, then press onto skin.

• To treat pink-eye: squash a live frog and place on affected eye.

I don't know about you, but I can't find enough live ones of these around to use them in my practice on a regular basis. I can, however, occasionally find the hind quarters of these little creatures at the supermarket.

It's what's for dinner!


Black bean and garlic frog legs, sauteed in a shallot and ginger sauce. Served with brown rice, steamed collard greens, and peppered acorn squash soup. Yum!

If you're interested in learning how to prepare this delectable dish, hit me up and I'll let you in on the joys of where to find, and how to cook, rare medicinal meats.

Meet The Herbs: Da Suan

Chinese: 大蒜
Pin Yin: Da Suan
Pharmaceutical: Allii sativi Bulbus
English: Garlic Bulb
Vietnamese: Củ Tỏi

In yesterday's post we learned that garlic can lower blood glucose levels. In Chinese medicine, garlic has been used for thousands of years to treat colds, skin rashes, fungal infections, and parasites. It warms the body and moves the qi, unblocking stagnations and accumulations. Garlic is especially effective in the treatment of intestinal parasites, killing hookworms and pinworms, and can be combined with other herbs to treat other kinds of parasites.

From the Commentary on the Divine Husbandman's Classic of Materia Medica:

Acrid and warm, it travels and pierces, reaching everywhere, including the five yin organs... In summary, its actions are best at unblocking and thrusting out the orifices, expelling cold-dampness, clearing away noxious pathogens, dispersing swollen sores, transforming gathered accumulations, warming the Spleen and Stomach, and promoting the flow of all qi.

Here's a little something from the great Li Shi-Zhen on the use of garlic with moxabustion:

To treat emerging large and deep sores, applying moxa is superior to using herbs, as the heat and toxicity are separated and the upper and lower [layers of the sore] are blocked [from communicating]. The toxic qi must be drained before it can be released and dispersed. Within the first day of its emergence, use a large clove sliced as thin as a coin, place it on the sore and moxa it, changing the garlic every three cones. Generally, one-hundred cones is the number needed. First, this will make the sore remain small; second, it will prevent putrefaction; and third, the perforation of the sore will readily close. In one application, three benefits. However, this definitely must not be used on the head or neck, for fear that it will lead the qi upward, causing even more problems.

And other notable topical uses of garlic from the Grand Materia Medica:

Ground into paste and applied to the umbilicus, it reaches the lower burner to eliminate edema and facilitate the movement of stool and urine. Bandaged to the middle of the sole, it guides heat downward to treat diarrhea, sudden dysenteric disorder, and both dry and damp-type sudden turmoil disorders; it also stops nosebleeds. Held in the rectum, it unblocks the pylorus and treats plugged and rejecting disorder.

TCM Remedy for Athlete's Foot

If you've ever gotten a Chinese-style foot massage, you probably soaked your feet in a warm herbal tea for awhile before the foot massage started. It's very relaxing and improves circulation. It also ensures that the massage technician doesn't have to massage dirty, smelly feet.

Here's a foot soak you can make at home specifically for athlete's foot (tinea pedis). Athlete's foot comes in three different varieties, according to TCM - blistering, erosive, and keratinized, all of which have the tell-tale itching and smell.

Blistering obviously means there are blisters. The erosive type is whitish with exudate, generally between the toes, and turns red after scratching. Keratinized is generally dry and characterized by peeling skin. These types may be present all at the same time or occur one after another. This particular recipe is for the the erosive type and consists of two parts: a soak followed by a dry powder dusted onto the affected areas.

Soak:

• Yi Yi Ren - pearl barley 30g
  
• Gan Cao - licorice root 30g

Soak the two herbs in water for one hour, bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer for another 15 minutes. When the herbal tea has cooled but is still warm, soak your foot or apply the liquid with a wet compress for about 20 minutes. Let the foot dry and dust it with a powder made of the following:

• Liu Yi San* - Six to One powder 15g
  
• Ku Fan - alum 10g
  
• Huang Bai - phellodendron bark 10g
  
• Bing Pian - synthetic borneol 1g
  
• Bai Zhi - dahurian angelica 10g

*Note: Liu Yi San is a powder consisting of six parts Shi Gao (talcum) and one part Gan Cao (licorice).

Repeat 2-3 times a day until symptoms subside. In the meantime, do not drink alcohol, and stay away from shellfish and greasy, fatty foods. This will help prevent the internal accumulation of dampness and help the athlete's foot subside quickly. And remember to change your socks frequently.

p.s. If you can't get your hands on Chinese herbs, try wiping your feet down with vinegar. Vinegar can also help kill the fungus.

TCM Remedy for Conjunctivitis

Many of us have experienced pink-eye - you wake up in the morning, and all of a sudden one eye opens. What about the other one? It's glued shut with dried, crusty mucus which has been exudating and drying all night long.

You go to the bathroom, wash your face carefully, and take a look. The white of your affected eye looks bloodshot. It may be itchy. You try and resist, but eventually you forget, touch your bad eye, then touch the other one. Congratulations! Now you have bacterial conjunctivitis in both eyes. (If there is no mucus, you probably have viral conjunctivitis.)

If you wash carefully, rinse with saline solution and avoid touching your eyes, pink-eye usually goes away within two weeks, without lasting damage. But suppose it doesn't go away. Or suppose you want it to go away faster. Today I'd like to share with you a Chinese herbal remedy for conjunctivitis, from Complete External Therapies of Chinese Drugs, by Xu Xiangcai.

• Jin Yin Hua - honeysuckle flower - 12 grams
  
• Da Qing Ye - isatis leaf - 10 grams
  
• Ban Lan Gen - isatis root - 6 grams
  
• Ye Ju Hua - wild chrysanthemum flower - 6 grams
  
• Pu Gong Ying - dandelion - 10 grams
  
• Bo He - field mint - 6 grams
  
• Qian Li Guang - ragwort - 6 grams

The ingredients above are soaked in half a liter of water in an earthenware pot for about 20 minutes. Then turn the fire on high until it comes to a high boil. Then turn down to a simmer and cook for another 15 minutes. Then filter the dregs using a fine strainer or cheesecloth. Wait until the liquid has cooled slightly but is still warm. Soak a clean cloth or piece of absorbent cotton and wash the outside of the eye slowly and carefully. Don't worry if some of the herbal tea gets in your eye, it's not dangerous. But don't try and pour the liquid directly into the eye - the main therapeutic benefit is from washing the external surface.

Too close for comfort? Here's another recipe that is even more indirect. It's prepared the same way, but all you do is steam the eye over the hot herbal tea for about 20 minutes each time - no dipping, no washing.

• Long Dan Cao - gentian root - 10 grams
  
• Ju Hua - chrysanthemum flower - 10 grams
  
• Xia Ku Cao - prunella or self-heal spike - 10 grams
  
• Chan Tui - cicada husk - 10 grams
  
• Di Gu Pi - lycium root bark - 10 grams
  
• Shi Jue Ming - abalone shell - 10 grams
  
• Mi Meng Hua - buddlejae flower - 10 grams
  
• Xuan Shen - scrophularia root - 15 grams
  
• Bai Ji Li - tribulus fruit - 10 grams
  
• Sang Ye - mulberry leaf - 10 grams

Whether steaming or washing, use the herbal tea warm for best effect. You can reuse the same herbs 3-4 times a day. The next day make a fresh batch.

You can ask your acupuncturist or Chinese herbalist to order this formula for you.