Widely Used Agricultural Pesticide Causes Sex Change

There is something strange in the water indeed!!

In my previous life as a scientific researcher, I spent hours and hours conducting studies on atrazine and it's effects on the endocrine system. Last year the EPA approved of its continued use despite results from various laboratories throughout the country arguing that more stringent regulation may be necessary. This past Monday, the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America published an article from my former laboratory called: "Atrazine induces complete feminization and chemical castration in male African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis)"

From the title of the paper you can probably guess what they were able to find.

Male frogs not only showed signs of demasculinization, but actually became fully female and had the ability to lay viable eggs. Essentially, they had a chemical sex change through environmental exposure! If that isn't crazy enough, the levels at which these frogs were exposed to atrazine are thousands of times below the level currently allowable in drinking water.

Read the abstract from PNAS.

Here are some quotable quotes from around the news world:

About 75% of stream water samples and 40% of groundwater samples contain atrazine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, detected atrazine in 90% of tap water samples from 139 water systems. Inexpensive faucet-top water filters can remove the chemical" - USA Today, March 1, 2010

Atrazine can be transported more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the point of application via rainfall and, as a result, contaminates otherwise pristine habitats - AFP, March 1, 2010

Approximately 80 million pounds (36,287 tonnes) are applied annually in the United States alone, and atrazine is the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water.

The negative impacts on wild amphibians is especially concerning given that the dose examined here (2.5 ppb) is in the range that animals experience year-round in areas where atrazine is used as well within levels found in rainfall, in which levels can exceed 100 ppb in the Midwestern United States - Reuters, March 2, 2010

Atrazine was banned in the European Union (EU) in 2004 because of its persistent groundwater contamination. In the United States, however, atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides, with 76 million pounds of it applied each year, in spite of the restriction that used to be imposed. It is probably the most commonly used herbicide in the world, and is used in about 80 countries worldwide. Its endocrine disruptor effects, possible carcinogenic effect, and epidemiological connection to low sperm levels in men has led several researchers to call for banning it in the US. - Wikipedia

Men with higher levels of three commonly used farming pesticides—alachlor, atrazine, and diazinon—in their bodies were much more likely to have a low sperm count than men who showed low levels of the pesticides. - National Geographic, April 2005

Eating GMO Corn Proven To Be Hazardous To Your Health

A new study published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences showed that three different varieties of genetically modified corn from Monsanto are toxic to the liver and kidneys.

The difference between their study and the ones conducted by Monsanto? Monsanto manipulated the results of their experiment by using statistical analyses that would favor the safety of their product, as opposed to utilizing all tools available to them to fully analyze the data to determine whether or not there were signs of toxicity.

Another difference? Any sign of toxicity should have elicited a need to continue collecting data past the 90 days Monsanto had designated for the length of their study, since 90 days is no where near long enough to determine long-term effects and chronic illness. The authors of this recently published paper, on the other hand, are extending their experiment for up to two years in light of their results.

Makes me wanna smash things.

The thing that gets me is that these products have been deemed safe for human consumption based on the powerful truth that is science. However, the research itself is up for sale, whereby some laboratories have been paid to produce specific data and, conversely, paid to stop experiments when the data conflicts with what the agropharma companies want to see. It makes me angry.

Anyway, I'm done with my ranting. Just don't eat any GMO foods if you can help it, ok?

How Does Acupuncture Work? New Study May Point The Way

This looks very promising!

New groundbreaking research shows that the insertion of an acupuncture needle into the skin disrupts the branching point of nerves called C fibres. These C fibres transmit low-grade sensory information over very long distances by using Merkel cells as intermediaries. Dr. Morry Silberstein of the Curtin University of Technology will publish his research in the Journal of Theoretical Biology later this year.

Take a look!

Study Finds Chinese Herbal Formula Effective for Endometriosis

Picture: Amber, one of the main ingredients of Nei Yi Wan No picture? Click here.

Nei Yi Wan has just three ingredients, according to ITM: turtle shell (鳖甲 Bie Jia or 龟板 Gui Ban), vinegar-treated rhubarb (醋炒大黄 Cu Chao Da Huang), and succinum (琥珀 Hu Po). From Reuters:

"I think the positive message is that Chinese herbal medicine may offer equivalent benefits to conventional medicine but with fewer side effects," lead researcher Andrew Flower, of the University of Southampton in the UK, told Reuters Health.

Here's a link to the original study, from the Cochrane Library: Chinese herbal medicine for endometriosis

Finally and most interesting to people in the TCM world, an exhaustive article by Subhuti Dharmananda of the Institute of Traditional Medicine, detailing the many different Chinese herbal approaches to endometriosis: Chinese Herbal Therapy for Endometriosis.

Disease Smells

This short National Geographic video here shows how dogs can smell certain diseases and can be trained to help those in need. One researcher in the video talks about how one day we humans might even be able to use the dogs' sniffing skills to diagnose disease.

Chapter Four of the Huang Di Nei Jing had stated thousands of years ago that a medical diagnosis could be made or confirmed by the presence of certain smells, ones that humans can detect. According to the five phases theory:

In the five odours, the odour of liver is stink. (urine)

In the five odours, the odour of heart is scorching.

In the five odours, the odour of spleen is fragrance.

In the five odours, the odour of lung is stinking. (fishy)

In the five odours, the odour of kidney is rancid. (rotten)

The above was quoted from: Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine by Wang Bing (Tang Dynasty), translated by Wu Liansheng and Wu Qi.

I've found that after I leave a patient in the room with the door closed, their distinctive smell is always much more noticeable when I come back. I've definitely smelled the scent of burnt or scorched, but I haven't yet encountered a person smelling like stink and urine during treatment. That's probably a good thing.

Women's Voices Makes Plants Grow Faster

Photo of Havy Hoag from Berkeley, CA with her home gardened tomato plant.

A fun little study they did in the UK showed that tomato plants listening to a woman's voice grew at least an inch taller than one's listening to a man's. As a matter of fact, some men's voices caused the plants to stunt in growth compared to ones left to grow in silence. Ha!

Thanks to Yo Sanner Jessica Smith for the article!

Tai Chi Improves Balance in Stroke Victims

According to this study in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, tai ji quan improves balance and strength in people who have suffered a stroke.

When compared with the controls, the Tai Chi group showed greater COG excursion amplitude in leaning forward, backward, and toward the affected and nonaffected sides (P < .05), as well as faster reaction time in moving the COG toward the nonaffected side (P = .014) in the end-program and follow-up assessments. The Tai Chi group also demonstrated better reliance on vestibular integration for balance control at end-program (P = .038).

Here's a short summary from the New York Times in plain English.

Traditional Chinese Medicine gets good results treating stroke victims. One particularly successful form of therapy is scalp acupuncture.

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).

Green tea catechins linked to weight loss

More news about green tea! It's good for weight loss too.

See the full study here.

Green Tea vs. Breast Cancer

Regular consumption of green tea may reduce a woman’s risk of breast cancer by about 12 per cent, according to a new study from the US and China.

See the full study here.

Sexual Desire - From a Patch?

Here's how it often goes down in the field of medical research: Pfizer, Merck or GlaxoSmithKline funds a study which confirms that the public is in dire need of another pharmaceutical drug to fix some new problem with an odd name. This month it's HSDD, which stands for hypoactive sexual desire disorder (remember attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? Those terms didn't exist 30 years ago, either).

The study was published in Value of Health - here's a link to an abstract. If you read it, you'll see that the study consisted of a telephone survey which asked post-menopausal women about their sex lives. Here's a shocker: "Given a prevalence of 6.6% to 12.5% among US women, HSDD represents an important burden on quality of life." You know what that means...

...a testosterone patch! Just slap this on your skin and chemicals will seep into your pores and your bloodstream, which will magically increase your quality of life.

At least there's a little bit of transparency on this study. This story tells us that one of the members of the research team "works for Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which also funded the research and provided consultation for the survey. Procter & Gamble makes a testosterone patch, Intrinsa, which is approved for treating HSDD in Europe. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted against approving Intrinsa in December 2004, citing lack of evidence for its long-term safety."

To reiterate: Proctor & Gamble, the company which makes a product to treat "HSDD", not only funded the study but also provided "consultation." Intrinsa has not been approved by the FDA for use in America. I would not be surprised if this official scientific study, paid for by PG and carried out by people with lots of initials after their names and who are affiliated with universities, will now become part of the evidence they will present to the FDA as a reason why their product should be approved.

Traditional Chinese Medicine has a lot to say about sexual desire and its relation to overall health. Sexual function is controlled by the Kidney. As you get older, Kidney function generally declines, and sexual function declines as well. In men, this can lead to impotence, premature ejaculation and lack of desire. In women there can be lack of desire, infertility and menstrual problems. Low levels of Kidney energy usually co-present with other symptoms, such as cold limbs, low back pain, knee pain, low energy, poor digestion and more.

This is the strength of TCM: integrating the patient's main complaint into a complete clinical picture. We then treat the complete picture rather than just one symptom. We call this "root and branch" treatment. If the branch is low sexual desire, the root could be in the Kidney, in which case we would focus on the Kidney. However, the root could also be due to constrained Liver energy, or low levels of qi and blood, or an accumulation of Damp Heat, all of which have different treatment strategies.

If you have low sexual energy, try these three things before you go shooting up testosterone or anything crazy like that:

1. Get up at 6 every morning and do some gentle stretching for about thirty minutes. Then go for a brisk walk outside (no treadmills).
2. Stop drinking soda, coffee and energy drinks. If you can't do without coffee, cut it down to one cup a day, or try substituting green tea.
3. Eat at regular intervals throughout the day, and keep that routine up day after day. Your body appreciates regularity - if you keep to a regular schedule of food intake, levels of blood sugar won't spike and fall as much throughout the day, giving you more energy and better, more even moods.

Some of you might be looking at those three changes and thinking it's impossible. If so, I ask you to try and shift your perspective on what's unreasonable. These three things are all completely natural ways to regulate your endocrine and nervous system, without popping pills or getting injections or surgery. Do your best to avoid taking drugs. Give yourself the best chance at a healthy life.

Efficacy of Scalp E-Stim Acupuncture

A study published last week in PNAS described the use of non-invasive electrical stimulation to improve motor skills. The research was conducted in hopes of finding a treatment that would help stroke victims during rehabilitation. The experiment involved placing electrodes over the primary motor cortex that stimulated the volunteer test subjects for 5 days. Those that were electrically stimulated were able to perform a set of tasks better than those who were given the sham treatment, and follow-up three months later showed that they also retained the ability to perform those skills better than their untreated counterparts.

The primary motor cortex is indicated by the green area below:




Now, take a look at this drawing that represents the lines used for scalp acupuncture:



Notice how the green highlighting on the map of the brain corresponds to the motor area used in scalp acupuncture? That, of course, is not a coincidence as this particular mapping used in scalp acupuncture was developed in modern times. The Chinese have used scalp acupuncture since 1971 to successfully treat diseases such as stroke rehabilitation, severe head injuries, intracranial inflammation, extra-pyramidal diseases, Meniere's and others.

The needling technique utilized in scalp acupuncture is to rotate the needle at a rate of 200 times a minute, for five minutes, and it is generally believed that the stronger the stimulation the better. The manipulation should be repeated 2-3 times during the course of a 20 minute treatment. Using electrical stimulation on the acupuncture needles allows for continuous stimulation administered at any desired frequency, with the potential for multiple needles being stimulated simultaneously.

Scalp e-stim acupuncture is a safe and effective way to treat a multitude of syndromes that involve damage to the brain. The new research conducted at Johns Hopkins supports the efficacy of electrical stimulation as a treatment modality in stroke rehabilitation.

Better Than Chemotherapy

Qing Hao 青蒿 has been shown to be much more effective at killing human cancer cells than chemotherapy drugs.

According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, this medicinal herb is more specific in killing cancer cells than current pharmaceutical therapies. Current chemotherapy drugs destroy one normal cell for every five to ten cancer cells, whereas Qing Hao was shown to kill 12,000 cancer cells for every one normal cell. Development of a treatment utilizing qing hao could potentially lower the risk of undesirable side effects, allowing more of the compound to be taken safely, as well as being lower in cost to produce. A mature artemesia takes only about five months to mature from seed to harvest.

Garlic Lowers Blood Glucose

Garlic is one of those super foods that you know intuitively must be potent due to its distinguishable pungency and pentrating taste. Turns out scientific studies have proven that it has strong antibacterial properties, making it an effective treatment for colds and skin infections. It is also an anti-oxidant that has been used for managing high cholesterol levels.

A recent study published in Metallomics shows that garlic has the potential to be used in the treatment of diabetes. Researchers found that ingesting substituents found in garlic lowers blood sugar for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. If proven to be effective, this would be a breakthrough for Type 1 diabetic patients, reliant on injectable insulin, who can potentially take a garlic pill instead of a shot.

Read the article here.

Lowering Blood Sugar, Increasing Risk of Death?

Below is an article published in the New York Times earlier this year about a study conducted on diabetes and cardiovascular health. The results raised a lot of questions about how the current medical understanding of the disease views blood glucose levels as a primary factor when determining the patient's prognosis. Clearly, meeting some numerical requirement alone isn't the answer when it comes to health care. I've highlighted some of the interesting parts for your reading pleasure.

Diabetes Study Partially Halted After Deaths
By: Gina Kolata
Published: February 7, 2008

For decades, researchers believed that if people with diabetes lowered their blood sugar to normal levels, they would no longer be at high risk of dying from heart disease. But a major federal study of more than 10,000 middle-aged and older people with Type 2 diabetes has found that lowering blood sugar actually increased their risk of death, researchers reported Wednesday.

The researchers announced that they were abruptly halting that part of the study, whose surprising results call into question how the disease, which affects 21 million Americans, should be managed.

The study’s investigators emphasized that patients should still consult with their doctors before considering changing their medications.

Among the study participants who were randomly assigned to get their blood sugar levels to nearly normal, there were 54 more deaths than in the group whose levels were less rigidly controlled. The patients were in the study for an average of four years when investigators called a halt to the intensive blood sugar lowering and put all of them on the less intense regimen.

The results do not mean blood sugar is meaningless. Lowered blood sugar can protect against kidney disease, blindness and amputations, but the findings inject an element of uncertainty into what has been dogma — that the lower the blood sugar the better and that lowering blood sugar levels to normal saves lives.

Medical experts were stunned.

“It’s confusing and disturbing that this happened,” said Dr. James Dove, president of the American College of Cardiology. “For 50 years, we’ve talked about getting blood sugar very low. Everything in the literature would suggest this is the right thing to do,” he added.

Dr. Irl Hirsch, a diabetes researcher at the University of Washington , said the study’s results would be hard to explain to some patients who have spent years and made an enormous effort, through medication and diet, getting and keeping their blood sugar down. They will not want to relax their vigilance, he said.

“It will be similar to what many women felt when they heard the news about estrogen,” Dr. Hirsch said. “Telling these patients to get their blood sugar up will be very difficult.”

Dr. Hirsch added that organizations like the American Diabetes Association would be in a quandary. Its guidelines call for blood sugar targets as close to normal as possible.

And some insurance companies pay doctors extra if their diabetic patients get their levels very low.

The low-blood-sugar hypothesis was so entrenched that when the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases proposed the study in the 1990s, they explained that it would be ethical. Even though most people assumed that lower blood sugar was better, no one had rigorously tested the idea. So the study would ask if very low blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes — the form that affects 95 percent of people with the disease — would protect against heart disease and save lives.

Some said that the study, even if ethical, would be impossible. They doubted that participants — whose average age was 62, who had had diabetes for about 10 years, who had higher than average blood sugar levels, and who also had heart disease or had other conditions, like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that placed them at additional risk of heart disease — would ever achieve such low blood sugar levels.

Study patients were randomly assigned to one of three types of treatments: one comparing intensity of blood sugar control; another comparing intensity of cholesterol control; and the third comparing intensity of blood pressure control. The cholesterol and blood pressure parts of the study are continuing.

Dr. John Buse, the vice-chairman of the study’s steering committee and the president of medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association, described what was required to get blood sugar levels low, as measured by a protein, hemoglobin A1C, which was supposed to be at 6 percent or less.

“Many were taking four or five shots of insulin a day,” he said. “Some were using insulin pumps. Some were monitoring their blood sugar seven or eight times a day.”

They also took pills to lower their blood sugar, in addition to the pills they took for other medical conditions and to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol. They also came to a medical clinic every two months and had frequent telephone conversations with clinic staff.

Those assigned to the less stringent blood sugar control, an A1C level of 7.0 to 7.9 percent, had an easier time of it. They measured their blood sugar once or twice a day, went to the clinic every four months and took fewer drugs or lower doses.

So it was quite a surprise when the patients who had worked so hard to get their blood sugar low had a significantly higher death rate, the study investigators said.

The researchers asked whether there were any drugs or drug combinations that might have been to blame. They found none, said Dr. Denise G. Simons-Morton, a project officer for the study at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Even the drug Avandia, suspected of increasing the risk of heart attacks in diabetes, did not appear to contribute to the increased death rate.

Nor was there an unusual cause of death in the intensively treated group, Dr. Simons-Morton said. Most of the deaths in both groups were from heart attacks, she added.

For now, the reasons for the higher death rate are up for speculation. Clearly, people without diabetes are different from people who have diabetes and get their blood sugar low.

It might be that patients suffered unintended consequences from taking so many drugs, which might interact in unexpected ways, said Dr. Steven E. Nissen, chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.

Or it may be that participants reduced their blood sugar too fast, Dr. Hirsch said. Years ago, researchers discovered that lowering blood sugar very quickly in diabetes could actually worsen blood vessel disease in the eyes, he said. But reducing levels more slowly protected those blood vessels.

And there are troubling questions about what the study means for people who are younger and who do not have cardiovascular disease. Should they forgo the low blood sugar targets?

No one knows.

Other medical experts say that they will be discussing and debating the results for some time.

“It is a great study and very well run,” Dr. Dove said. “And it certainly had the right principles behind it.”

But maybe, he said, “there may be some scientific principles that don’t hold water in a diabetic population.”

Meet The Herbs: Xi Yang Shen

Chinese: 西洋參
Pin Yin: Xi Yang Shen
Pharmaceutical: Panacis quinquefolii Radix
English: American ginseng root
Vietnamese: Hoa Kỳ Sâm

Categorized by Bensky et al as a yin tonifying herb, Xi Yang Shen is like Ren Shen's heat clearing cousin. It's cold and bitter, slightly sweet, and enters the Heart, Kidney, and Lung channels. Some modern studies conducted in China comparing the constituents of Xi Yang Shen and Ren Shen have concluded that they are equivalent in effectiveness. This makes the herb useful when you want to tonify qi without the warmth of Ren Shen.

Because of this, Xi Yang Shen is an excellent herb to use in the treatment of diabetes. The symptoms of excessive thirst and hunger are indicative of heat in the Lungs and Stomach. The cold nature of the herb can cool the fire, while it generates fluids to replenish the yin burned up by heat and lost through excessive urination. Individuals with diabetes require tonification, due to the nature of chronic illness burning up qi and yin.

There have been several studies conducted to test the efficacy of Xi Yang Shen in the treatment of diabetes. One recent study showed that this herb increases production of insulin and reduces the death of pancreatic beta cells (which make and release insulin). It was also shown to benefit immunity, mitochondrial function (cellular energy production), and improve blood sugar levels taken after eating.

The best way to cook this herb is by double boiling it for several hours - here's a good explanation of the process on this retail website (just to let you know, you can buy a ginseng cooker for less at your local Asian market). The longer it cooks, the more potent the tea will be.

Another way to extract the goodness of the herb is by making a tincture. Simply put the herb in a glass container and cover it with vodka. Keep the container out of direct light, and shake it up once a day. If the herbs expand above the level of the alcohol, just add more to keep the herbs covered. The longer the herb is extracted, the more potent the tincture will be, but definitely do it for at least two weeks.

Pre-Historic Health Spa

Stonehenge has long been thought of as a burial site, where cremated remains and bodies have been found that date as far back as 3000 BCE. But the history of the land on which it rests dates back even farther: there were post holes for large wooden poles found in that location dated back to 8000 BCE. It seems as though this point on Earth has always held a certain significance, drawing different people and cultures to it throughout time. It should be no wonder then that as time passed, the purpose of the place could have changed in significance to those who visited it.

In the most recent excavation of the site - the first one in 44 years - two archaeologists have theorized that Stonehenge could have actually been used as a place of pilgrimage for those who were sick and dying, a veritable health spa of sorts.

There are bluestones placed in the inner ring of Stonehenge that were determined to have come from Preseli Mountains in Southwest Wales, 140 miles from Stonehenge. To give you an idea of how significant that is, the larger rocks of the more recognizably Stonehenge structure came from only 20 miles north of the site. Whoever was building Stonehenge at the time made it a point to bring those big bluestones in there.

Bluestones, named for the bluish color that appears when the stones get wet or cut, are recorded as having healing properties:

The stones are great;
And magic power they have;
Men that are sick;
Fare to that stone;
And they wash that stone;
And with that water bathe away their sickness.

The archaeologists also found that natural springheads, where water comes up from the ground, had been enhanced by the erection of small walls to dam the water that came up, creating little pools they proposed the sick would be able to sit in. Some of the springheads were "adorned with pre-historic art."

Bodies buried nearby that are contemporary to the time the bluestones were in place also support their theory. The remains of the buried show injuries that were possible causes of death, suggesting that these people had come to the site in hopes of being healed.

The full article about their new findings is printed in the October issue of the Smithsonian magazine.

So Cold... So Cold...

A new study has shown that the so-called "cold shoulder" can actually feel quite chilly.

In Chinese medicine, it's understood that emotions can have a very clear physical effect. In fact, emotions are one of the three classical causes of disease (the other two being weather and external trauma - newer Chinese medical concepts include "miscellaneous qi" or "pestilential qi" which roughly correspond to bacteria and viruses).

For instance, grief is said to "consume the qi." If you've ever known someone who was in a major depression, you know this to be true (remember, qi is roughly equivalent to breath or energy). Anger makes the qi rise quickly - if you know someone with an anger problem, you know this is true. What happens? Their face gets red, they start yelling and screaming - all indications that the qi has risen quickly to the upper part of the body and needs to come out.

It should therefore come as no surprise that even other people's emotions can affect you. A particularly devastating type of ostracism put to use during China's ruinous Cultural Revolution was to be "struggled" by your comrades - you would be put in the middle of a circle and made to confess to your various sins against the revolution. To be repeatedly publicly shamed (as well as physically beaten) drove many to suicide or insanity.

The next time you feel like shooting someone an evil look, or yelling obscenities at the guy in the parking lot who just took "your" spot, take a moment to reconsider. Beware of the casual use of insults or bad manners, even if you're "just joking" or "my friends know I'm only kidding". You could really hurt someone, emotionally and physically. The traditional Chinese belief is that the universe has a circular energy - what you put out there eventually comes back to you. So be nice.

Large Hadron Collider Now Online

What is the Large Hadron Collider? The video above explains it better than I ever could.

As I understand it, part of what they're doing there is searching for the smallest particle in the universe. My guess is, they'll never find it. According to the laws of yin and yang, they certainly never will, because yin and yang are infinitely divisible. This might seem like an easy, almost flippant thing to say, but it's actually based on thousands of years of observation and fine-tuning.

Modern physics is a fascinating area for anyone interested in the natural world. Chinese medicine, with its roots in Daoism, is a natural area of research for physicists. As the tools and equipment get more sophisticated, we are able to detect different frequencies of energy waves we weren't able to see before. Experiments have been conducted which measure brain waves of experienced meditators, heat or cold in patients and practitioners as a result of qigong therapy, and other "insubstantial" or non-physical therapies which have a physical effect.

This is a complex subject which branches out in many directions. For now, enjoy the video!

Let It Flow!

D'oh! In yet another example of the unintended consequences of modern medicine, new research has found that birth control pills may interfere with a woman's selection of a mate.

We all know the scent is a powerful factor in sexual attraction and breeding throughout the animal kingdom. Normally, women prefer the smell of men who have immune systems that differ substantially from theirs, thus giving their potential children the best mix of genes. When they start taking the pill, they prefer the smell of men who have immune systems that are similar to theirs. When they go off the pill, their preference returns to normal.

Here is a good article from the Times of London, and here's a much snarkier version from the L.A. Times. (This woman may or may not be on the pill - she seems somewhat indiscriminate when it comes to scent.)

Seriously though, the birth control pill is powerful medicine. Sometimes it is the best option, but keep in mind that if you're taking "the pill", you are voluntarily medicating yourself every day. That goes for both men and women - yes, there are male birth control pills in the works. (Beware of articles like this, which uncritically parrot the pharmaceutical industry's line that birth control pills are "safe, effective and reversible.")

Classical Daoist energy practices enable men and women to control their sexual energy in such a way that pregnancy can be avoided if desired. But this takes a lot of dedicated practice and study with an accomplished master. Please don't assume you can just read a book by Mantak Chia and use that as your contraception! Condoms are still an essential ingredient in safer sex - even if you're in a monogamous relationship, they may be the healthiest option.

(Thanks to DJ Lady Sha for the tip on this one)