China Traditional Medicine

Archive for August, 2011

On initial appearances this little village seems like most of the other poor villages in this region of Africa. Eagled eyed people will notice the small building at the outskirts of the village. That building is a school, for the local children.There is also a water pump which gives the village fresh water. All these changes are due to the fastidious work of 28 year oldJennifer Abubakar Abena. Jennifer has become almost famous in the region for her extensive charity. She says she is working hard to enable people to have a better quality of life.

Like many parts of this country, Abubakar Abena’s village is at the center of high corruption in this country. When we interviewed her, she said “I want to reduce the level of corruption that our local community as to undergo. The police take bribes, there are gangs and inter-community warfare, it is time we put an end to this. I set up the charity to help the local people to have access to clean drinking water and the little school at the edge of the village will give access for every child to have an education.”

Abubakar Abenaexpects to support every village within the area to have the same level of access to fresh water and education. Abubakar Abena’s father operates the administration part of their charity and, together, they have managed to raise more than $10,000 dollars.

They intend to help fund projects to get fresh water to all villages in the region. At present many villages have poor living conditions and there is a very serious issue with sickness and disease. The local hospital is badly understaffed and there is a distinct lack of medicine for the community. Abubakar Abenastates that her work will help to supply every region with all the conveniences they require for cleaner living.

Laparoscopy is one of the Minimally Invasive Surgery available. This helps to view the inside of any body part.  Laparoscopy is a surgical procedure that is done with the help of different kind of flexible thin instruments and a camera that catches video inside the body part.  This is the first step taken before any kind of major operation is made.

Laparoscopy surgery is a procedure that includes making a small incision.  Then there are plastic tubes that are called ports which are going to be placed through the cuts. After the cuts are done, the camera and other instruments will be inserted inside.  This will help the surgeon view the inside of the body of the patient.  The camera will transmit the images caught inside the body to the monitor screen.  The camera is acting as the surgeon’s eye even if they do not have to make a large incision in the laparoscopy surgery.

There are various benefits of the minimally invasive laparoscopy.  Because there is only a small incision, there will be smaller scars, shorter hospital stays, lesser operative discomfort and quicker time of recovery.  There will also be less internal scarring because it is a minimally invasive surgery.

What is stress?

It is a word to the “fashion”, very often used nowadays but what does the reality behind it?

According to the Vademecum clinical Fattorusso / Ritter, “it means two things: firstly, the perception of a threatening environment by a subject who responds adaptively by compromising its welfare on the other hand c is the hormonal response of the organism cope with aggressive situations.

Nowadays, this term is often used to describe a situation invasive and / or a lack of time leads to nervousness or aggression. This may also mean a sense of helplessness, loss of control in our daily lives. For some, this will lead to the onset of disease, although medical research, the concept of stress is a factor in disease onset.

How Chinese medicine understands the concept of “stress”?

This concept does not exist in Chinese medicine, because medicine is a secular and the term “stress” was first described in the thirties by Hans Selye.

However, TCM is more focused on describing the emergence of diseases because of the emotions. Imagine, this is exactly 3,000 years Chinese doctors have understood the impact of emotions on our internal balance. Indeed, there is no “right” or “bad” emotions, but rather the use that is in fact, voluntarily or involuntarily, which may be damaging our health.

Take, for example, fear. It is often negative connotation in our intellectual societies, but it is the fear facing a threatening situation for our physical integrity that will allow us to escape to save us! The same joy, apparently very positive in our societies can be a sign of imbalance in the meaning of TCM, when faced with serious situations or any one laughs for a yes or a no …. where if you wake up at three o’clock in the morning exploded with laughter when we do dream of nothing in particular …

Beware, I am not talking here of mental disorder.

Anxiety, fear, facing a possible announcement of a serious illness can cause such reactions. Mismanaged emotion, or stasis on an emotion can injure the Shen and cause disease.

Here we go further into the designs according to Chinese medicine:
- Shen consciousness or organization *
- Jing or vital principle *
- Qi or energy
* These terms are borrowed from Mr John Essayet.

Before getting into the thick of things, what follows is a simplified view of these concepts in order not to disturb the general reader of TCM since this blog is primarily for consultants.

I hope that students and practitioners will forgive me this necessary simplification, in fact I do not pretend to give way, just key in trying to be as accurate as possible and not to betray the MTC and my teachers ..

Shen is the spirit, conscious awareness, be fully aware of its existence, realize his life’s task to be focused, be awake, or better still be “awakened”.

The ancient Chinese knew enough anatomy to know that the brain is the source of most conceptual or mechanical actions of human beings.
But Shen also includes all that and a qualitative understanding of the human spirit.

The heart is the home of the shen, this is not the brain as described by Western medicine. Do not they say “have a heart to work?”
The eyes are opening Shen, do not we say “look is a reflection of the soul”?

Shen described the vital activities, emotional, intellectual human being.
All the emotions in excess can harm the Shen and this will lead either to a loss of sleep, anxiety, phobias, depression or other functional diseases.

Jing is an extremely complex notion, we borrow the phrase of P. Sionneau in “psychic disorders in Chinese medicine” Editions Guy Trédaniel:

“Jing is the fabric of life, the program exists, the matrix from which all manifestations, all life.” It is “the potential of manifestation through which learning can occur” We recall in this connection that I have already described in other sections, while developing other concepts:
the JING JING also refers to the innate and acquired Jing also called sky prior to the first heaven and the second post.

The innate jing (sky earlier) is transmitted by our parents at conception.

It comes from our lineage, our ancestors, parents.
“Its quality depends on the vital capacity of the species, ancestors and relatives of the individual”. The acquired Jing (heaven later) comes from:

Food and beverage is the energy (Qi) of the earth,
- Air (breathing) is the energy of heaven,
- The cosmo-telluric: light, water, air, sun, motion energy of the universe is the energy of heaven and earth
- Or proprioceptive sensory phenomena: human energy
- Emotions, feeling of wonder, well, the just want to live: human energy.

Qi (translated as energy) and pronounced “chee” in Chinese, is the “Kiai” of karate and samurai …
The concept of Qi is derived directly from the symbol of Tai Ji

Tai Ji or symbol of Yin and Yang Yi Jing from the 11th century BC

Yin is black on the drawing.
Yang is the bright part.
Yin and Yang is a classification of the universe is the beginning of the analysis, the beginning of understanding the universe and its dynamics.
This is the beginning of science as it is to describe, classify, reproduce, apply, understand and explain our universe.
The first book that describes the principles Yin and Yang Yi Jing, mistranslated by “the book of divination” dated to around the eleventh century BC
In a later article, I’ll do an article on the Yi Jing and what it actually is and how it can be useful in our daily lives.

Yin represents the feminine principle, the moon, which receives the dark, power down etc. …
Yang represents the masculine principle, sun light color, which expands, what impulse, energy upward.
It is the complementarity in the opposition (not as strict notion of duality in which the Greek philosophers originated our civilization).
Yin and Yang describe the interdependence of two dynamics: “yang is hot and cold Yin, no hot without cold, no cold you can not talk about hot” in the Treaty of acupuncture and moxibustion “Publishing Science Technical and Shang Hai.
Yin and Yang are moving to permanent growth and decay.
Yin and Yang are transformed into one another: for example the ice (the principle
cold at its peak) can produce hot (Yang) try to take handfuls of snow!
Is contained in the Yin-yang and vice versa: when the sun goes down there is already a transparent moon, when the night ends the day on the horizon.
Observe again the figure of Tai Ji, and you will see all these concepts, note that the figure is still round and we know that the circle has no beginning or end, as the figure eight, like the universe, c ‘is the description of the dynamics of the universe that is proposed, the first eleven centuries BC
The universe can not be static, can not stop because otherwise it would be his death (the equation well known to physicists entropy = zero), the universe and therefore life is chaos that is say the movement.
J.C eleven centuries before, it makes you wonder …
That’s why I always insist on saying that the concepts of Chinese medicine are confirmed for some cases by current scientific research.
These are not folk designs, made by cranks esoteric arrears.

Look at the figure of Tai JI

Qi is the synthesis of the two principles which oppose and come alive.
The Chinese character Qi is a pot cooking grains or leaves an aroma.
Cereals are the yin, the principle that nurturing comes from the Earth.
The stock or water vapor is Yang, it rises from Earth to Heaven.
Qi is the interaction of Yin and Yang
To exist, Qi needs of Yin and Yang are fundamental to any event.
Yang is the immaterial part (water vapor) is a mobile energy, bottom-warming.
While Yin is represented by the hardware aspect = grain feeder.
All energy has the ability to transform into subtle energy. In the human body and by extension all forms of life, Qi is different shades.
We’ll talk later.

Simply stated Qi is breathing, food physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, but also all the constant biological body (that’s me saying).
If you wish, we’ll stop there for today and will resume later in the article as a new concept needs time to be assimilated and digested by our gently Shen …