Deepak Chopra

Today's post is from Deepak Chopra, a stirring defense of "alternative" medicine and Oprah Winfrey's embrace of same.

The medical profession is burdened with a host of problems that Oprah addresses with more candor and force than the AMA. She promotes wellness and prevention, two areas that drastically need improvement. She brings up creative solutions to problems that medical science is baffled by, such as the healing response itself and the role of subjectivity in patient response. These are issues that few M.D.s are willing to explore, yet she has done so for decades.

Full article here...

"I Don't Believe In Acupuncture"

Beach Community Acupuncture has a good piece today on people who think you have to "believe in acupuncture" for it to work. In my opinion, you do have to believe in acupuncture for it to work, just as you have to believe in any other medical treatment for it to work. In the dominant scientific-technological paradigm of the 21st century, most of us are brought up with a specific set of unquestionable beliefs. In fact, to question some of these beliefs is considered completely unexplainable and therefore "crazy."

For instance, everyone "knows" that when taking antibiotics, you have to take the full course, or utter mayhem will ensue.

Everyone "knows" that slipped disks, pinched nerves, muscle strains and other physical abnormalities are the cause of back pain, not an associated symptom (except this guy, I guess).

Everyone "knows" that HIV causes AIDS, and everyone "knows" that AIDS came to the U.S. accidentally from a guy who was bitten by a monkey in Africa.

For treatment to be successful, patients must accept acupuncturists into their established belief system. That's why all TCM schools in the U.S. require their student interns to wear white coats and take blood pressure readings - we wear a costume to create the association in a patient's mind to the established image of a doctor with the power and authority to heal their sickness. That image is incredibly powerful.

Your self has a natural tendency towards health. The body, mind and spirit are incredible organic systems that work in harmony with the inner and outer world. Medical systems are designed to remind you of that, to nudge you back towards health when you forget your own power. What have you forgotten?

Plants are Important

An archaeologist and a botanist have teamed up to study artwork from the Mayan Classical period, dating from 250 BCE to 900 CE.

You might wonder, what is a botanist doing studying ancient art? Turns out the Mayans created lots of ceramic pieces depicting various plants of the rain forest, many with such accuracy that the genus and species of the plants can be determined. The scientists are trying to identify which plants were of importance to the people, in "hopes [that] the research will unveil secrets known to the Maya that have become lost in time."

What kind of secrets are they looking for? The archaeologist Charles Zadir says:

The Maya have lived and used rainforest plants to heal themselves for thousands of years. We are just beginning to understand some of their secrets.

That's great! Plants are awesome! It's wonderful that there are people out there advocating for the preservation of the rain forest and for research into the importance of plants in our lives.

But wait... keep reading:

This research has already been of interest to pharmaceutical companies that are looking to extract alkaloids from plants that were important to the ancient Maya.

Aw, man! Just when you thought that you could escape the clutches of greed, the truth comes out. In the researchers' defense, they probably had to provide some lucrative justification for the work that they're doing, otherwise they wouldn't get funding. But, it just irks me that there always has to be some kind of monetary motive.

Bump: Crossfit Pacific Coast

Our classmate Traver Boehm L.Ac has opened up a Crossfit gym in Santa Barbara. Take a look!

Crossfit Pacific Coast

Iggy Pop Practices Qi Gong

I caught an interview with Iggy Pop on the radio the other morning, and for a brief moment it sounded like he said he practices qi gong to stay fit and trim. After a little bit of research, I thought I'd share what I'd found, spoken by the man himself:

You've had almost thirty years in the spotlight. What do you do to stay fit and sane?

Half of it's just the simple shit, like, I try not to work too hard, too often, and try to avoid people. You know how I lurk. I avoid human beings, and I try to like sleep at night and get up in the morning. I eat what people say you shouldn't eat, but really good quality. So I devour gigantic steaks, cooked, fried, in butter and shit. Only really good ones. I don't eat much crud. And then I'll have fried eggs and bread dipped in olive oil. I don't snack a lot -- when I eat it's so fucking good. I have chocolate ice cream for dessert, you know. I get all satisfied, and that's it. And I do this exercise -- that's the one thing that really kind of helps my motor run. I do this sort of Chinese exercise called Qi-gong. It's very similar to Tai Chi, which I also do a little of. And I do that shit for about a half-hour a day. - Rolling Stone

Qigong is such a powerful form of energy that some of the masters in China can walk on tissue paper. You know -- twelve large men cannot push me. There are guys who can do that shit. I've learned enough of the qigong to deal with the musician's lifestyle. - Esquire

I’m 26 years old, and I have love handles. You’re 56 with a six-pack. What’s your workout regimen?
I do about 40 minutes a day of qi gong, the fundamental exercises of tai chi. It looks like nothing, but if you learn from somebody who knows the shit, it’s really hard. Or I’ll swim about 200 yards in a pool, just to get a little bulk. I’m about 140 pounds, but I was a big boy when I graduated high school — 160 pounds. Singers look funny at 160, unless you’re in Lynyrd Skynyrd. - Blender

What is your vital daily ritual?
I do Qi Gong. It’s Chinese shit, like Tai Chi. If you get good enough at it, then you can walk through fire and start a cult. - exclaim.ca

Statement of Fact: Your Heart is Dirty

浊气归心

Zhuo qi gui xin.

Turbid qi goes to the heart.

This statement is usually interpreted to mean that the turbid part of the clear goes to or gathers in the heart where it becomes the blood. To understand this concept, we must know that, just like yin and yang, clear and turbid each can be subdivided into clear and turbid. Thus the clear of the clear goes to the lungs to become the qi, while the turbid of the clear goes to the heart to become the blood.

• Statements of Fact in Traditional Chinese Medicine, by Bob Flaws

Welcome Back!

I love Spock.

I love Spock so much, I wanted to include him on our blog. However, there was nothing on the vast expanses of the interwebs that linked Spock to health. I couldn't help but put up a picture of him anyway.

On a similar note, here's an article written by a doctor from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, titled Star Trek and the Future of Family Medicine. It's an interesting look at how the evolution of the physician character on the show throughout the seasons reflects society's view of the role of physicians in real life.

These characters are the products of fertile imaginations and indeed are in all aspects fictitious. Yet, they represent an interesting mix of both the present perceptions and future hopes of their creators and their audience. A picture emerges of physicians who become more intellectual and calculating and less encumbered by human emotions and imperfections. They become less like the people they care for and less familiar, perhaps echoing the public’s loss of a sense of the intimacy of the doctor-patient relationship. These doctors literally come to embody the experience of personal alienation that patients feel within the present health care system. On the other hand, by using the extraordinary technologies of the day, the Star Trek physicians rarely fail in curing the most advanced and mysterious ailments. In this way they reflect the often unrealistic expectations of today’s patients regarding medicine’s ability to cure disease, an attitude that leads to mounting frustration for all involved.