Archive for the ‘Tweetz’ Category

@algancao – on Gancao, The Two Most Herb

@La_Yerberia Glycyrrhiza glabra is known as the “two most herb” in Chinese culture. It is the MOST sweet and the MOST yellow.

Licorice root is sweet & yellow, both point to the Earth element (meaning digestion). Sweet calms too, which is why it is added to formulas.

Licorice root’s (gan cao) sweetness is like a sweet person amongst an angry crowd. They can calm others and make them work together better.

Last modified: July 16, 2010 · al · No Comments
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@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. :)

Last modified: March 1, 2010 · al · No Comments
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@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

Last modified: February 19, 2010 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: January 21, 2010 · al · No Comments
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@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).

Last modified: September 30, 2009 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: September 23, 2009 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: September 9, 2009 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: September 9, 2009 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: September 9, 2009 · al · No Comments
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@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.

Last modified: September 9, 2009 · al · No Comments
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