Archive for the ‘Tweetz’ Category

@algancao – on “Spirit” in Tongue Diagnosis and Fresh Fish

Shen (spirit) of the tongue in Chinese medicine diagnosis has nothing to do with one’s immortal soul, but healthy and harmonized qi and blood.

CM Tongue diagnosis provides a transferable skill too, the ability to assess the quality of fresh fish by observing its shen (spirit).

Old fish lacks shen (spirit). It is flat and flaccid, its color lacks vibrancy, and its sheen has no twinkle. Same thing with tongues. :)

March 1, 2010   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – on Endangered Species use in Chinese Medicine

Tiger parts used in TCM getting a lot of buzz lately. Seems the “year ‘o the tiger” is spiking demand for endangered animal parts.

Legitimate modern TCM docs don’t traffic in endangered species. Poachers and sex addicts do. Trad. Med takes the rap. http://nyti.ms/bfZE7J

By extension, we should also blame conventional medicine for black-market sales of opiates or “feel-good” prescription drugs.

We should also blame the use of tiger penis as an aphrodisiac on professional golfers, since that’s in the news today. #tigerwoods

February 19, 2010   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – on TCM as Pseudoscience

@chigurh is TCM pseudoscience? Only when we’re trying to explain it in the West. Many feel the need to try and speak in biomedical terms.

TCM and pseudoscience: I think that our expectations of anything called “medicine” must be “scientific”. That’s a modern prejudice.

TCM (herbalism) is more like cooking than pharmacology. Different chefs include variant ingredients for the same dish, such as pasta sauce.

January 21, 2010  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On the Season of Yangming

I love the smell of yangming in the morning. Weather in Santa Monica, warm, dry, breezy. Deep blue skies and a general sense of life.

Fans of Chinese medicine will recall that there aren’t really 12 acupuncture channels but six that have branches that enter the hand & foot.

The Shang Han Lun (written 200 ce) organizes diseases into six channels. shaoyang, taiyang, and yangming (little, big, and bright yang).

The other three channels according to “On Cold Diseases” (SHL) are shaoyin, taiyin, and jueyin (little, big, and terminal yin).

September 30, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Mulberry Leaves ‘n Roots

@Pihoqahiaq Silk moths inspired Chinese to look to their key food source, the mulberry tree, as a source of medicinal products.

Silk moths create a white, metallic substance. White and metal are associated with autumn and Lungs in Chinese medical (5 phase) theory.

Hence, there must be something in Sang Ye (mulberry leaves) that is good for the Lungs. Mulberry’s root bark (sang bai pi) is white too.

September 23, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Speaking Chinese in English

My favorite line from a current TV commercial “He can speak French… in Russian.” http://bit.ly/e5W3i Sat Aug 01 15:25:29

But what of the MD who speaks Western medicine with Chinese medicine terms? http://bit.ly/4EBbA

Are an MD’s Western medicine (WM) descriptions of essence (jing) deficiency as the cause of cancer valid from Chinese medicine (CM) logic?

The author of “Acupuncture and the Cancer Patient” describes Kidney essence as governing reproduction, growth, and development. I agree.

September 9, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Meditation for Pain

Meditation is challenging to the mind in that it requires one to focus on something boring. Ultimately the mind gives up and just shuts up. Fri Jul 24 15:29:29

What remains with stilled mind the Taoists call the “host”, while the verbal part is the “guest”. We ARE the host, the brain is the guest.

From the perspective of the host mind, sensations of the body (thoughts too) can be seen as something transitory, happening to someone else.

In meditation, pain can be perceived as happening to the body, but not to you. You feel it, but it is like it isn’t your problem.

September 9, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Metaphorical Medicine

@bweapons One insight provided by alt.med is looking at the body (and everything else) differently, provided it is clinically relevant. Thu Jul 23 14:35:14

Docs say that “damp” or the external “evil qi” terms we use are bogus colorful speech. No reality to these perceptions at all.

We can choose to perceive the body at gross or molecular levels. Ultimately, our scientific perceptions are as questionable as CM ideas.

Looking under microscopes of increasing magnification, the lines between the discrete individual and the non-self environment are blurred.

September 9, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Huo Ma Ye (Cannibis)

State of California and city of Los Angeles talking about taxing “medical marijuana”. Feds have to legalize 1st. #hope #budget #itsabouttime Thu Jul 16 15:39:29

Personally, I think that cannabis is not as healthy as meditation, exercise, etc but much safer than alcohol, anti-depressants, drugs…

Told the step-kids that marijuana is the beer of my generation. Not an evil gateway drug, but something adults do to relax after work.

How do you define drug addiction? Seeking relief from outside the self? If that’s the case, then mother’s milk is the first gateway drug.

September 9, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments

@algancao – On Chinese Medicine Education

@acupunisher “Inner traditions” and many psycho-spiritual approaches seem like practitioner projection and excessive mental gyrations to me.
Sat Jul 11 15:28:01

@bweapons Chinese medicine is based on a different metaphysic than biomedicine, but both evolve through creativity and peer review.

Scientism is the metaphysic that only science can know truth. This leaves out the observer, (s)he who subjectively experiences whatever.

Perhaps Chinese medicine favors subjective “quality of life” over changes in lab data. We spend lots of time trying to prove via lab data.

September 9, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Tweetz  No Comments