The Eclectic Doctor

tcm exam hints

2009-12-16T18:42:00.001+08:00

Decided not to include meridians in the exam, there's just a lot to study...
Review the following:
1) 8 principles, particularly what each pair of principles is for (example, heat/cold refer to the nature of the pathogen, yin and yang refer to overall quality)
2) what are characteristics of excess (aka full) patterns? or deficiency (empty) patterns, etc etc

Know the following about the six levels - which one is characterized by alternating fever and chills? which one is characterized by four bigs (excess fever, thirst, sweat and pulse), which one is a sign of spleen weakness, which one affects heart and kidney? etc etc Same with four stages of warm disease - which one has faint skin eruptions, which one has real bleeding?

In Heart problems:
which pattern is characterized by cold? which one characterized by five palm heat? which is the mildest, which affects the mind?

SI problems - not included

In Spleen and stomach - study spleen qi deficiency, spleen yang deficiency, spleen qi sinking and spleen not controlling blood. know which appetite characteristic fits which pattern

Lung and LI Problems: how to differentiate lung qi vs lung yin deficiency? wind-heat vs wind cold? phlegm and body fluid deficiency? large intestine heat vs cold?

Liver problems: liver yin vs liver blood deficiency. how to distinguish liver qi stagnation, liver yang vs liver fire
Kidney - distinguish kidney qi from kidney yang and kidney yin deficiency...

Remember: Yang deficiencies are characterized by COLD. Yin deficiencies by empty heat

And maraming bonus!

--
Philip Nino Tan-Gatue, MD

Are Your Patients Using Alternative Treatment? NIH Starts Integrative Medicine Consult Service

2007-05-15T16:32:00.000+08:00

BETHESDA, MD -- May 14, 2007 -- The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has established an Integrative Medicine Consult Service at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center, the world's largest hospital devoted to research.

This service will provide physicians, nurses, and other members of the Clinical Center health care team the ability to discuss complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies with knowledgeable medical staff from the consult service and learn how various CAM practices might complement or interact with a patient's care as a research participant at the Clinical Center.

CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine, such as herbal supplements, meditation, chiropractic manipulation, and acupuncture. Integrative medicine combines treatments from conventional medicine and CAM for which there is high-quality evidence of safety and effectiveness.

The 2002 National Health Interview Survey showed that more than one-third of all American adults use some form of CAM. And a recent consumer survey of older Americans revealed that less than one-third of those who had used CAM discussed this information with their physicians. Since patients at the Clinical Center are participating in research studies, it is important to know what CAM therapies are being used and how they might affect the treatments being studied.

"Volunteers who participate in clinical research at the NIH Clinical Center are partners in medical discovery. We are committed to providing excellent care for them," said John I. Gallin, MD, Director of the Clinical Center. "This new consult service will help enhance the care they receive and the research conducted here."

CAM is not a new concept at the NIH Clinical Center. The Clinical Center's Pain and Palliative Care Service and the Rehabilitation Medicine Department offer acupuncture, Reiki, hypnosis, guided imagery, massage therapy, acupuncture, tai chi, and qi gong training. The Pharmacy Department consults on herbals and herb/drug interactions and has conducted research in these areas. The Integrative Medicine Consult Service will coordinate the resources of these existing services to meet the needs of the Clinical Center staff and its patients. In addition to offering clinical consultation regarding CAM therapies, the service will establish a research program embedded in NIH's clinical and translational research structure and provide CAM education for NIH staff, patients, and their families.

The director of the consult service will be Patrick J. Mansky, MD, a clinical oncologist and researcher at NCCAM. Mansky received his medical degree from Witten/Herdecke University Medical School in Germany, where he also gained experience and received instruction in Anthroposophical Medicine including herbal therapies, art therapies, and physical applications. After a postdoctoral research fellowship in immunogenetics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, he completed clinical residency training in pediatrics and internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Mansky joined NIH in 1997 as a clinical and research fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology and medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

"I am delighted that Dr. Mansky accepted the position of head of the consult service. This service will provide a focal point for CAM evaluation, research, and education in the NIH intramural community," said Robert B. Nussenblatt, MD, Acting Scientific and Clinical Director of NCCAM's Division of Intramural Research. "I hope the larger medical community will find this an important new addition to the evaluation and treatment of our patients."

In 2001, Mansky joined NCCAM as a staff clinician and clinical investigator leading the Oncology Program in NCCAM's Division of Intramural Research. He conducts research on the application of CAM interventions in the care and treatment of cancer patients and survivors, such as electroacupuncture for nausea from chemotherapy, use of mistletoe in combination with gemcitabine for treating advanced cancers, and effects of tai chi and exercise in cancer survivors.

"We are pleased with the creation of the Integrative Medicine Consult Service and the role we hope it will play in providing Clinical Center patients with the best possible integrated care," said, Ruth L. Kirschstein, MD, Acting Director of NCCAM. "Dr. Mansky's blend of clinical and research experience at the crossroads of the CAM and conventional medicine fields makes him an excellent choice to lead this consult service."

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine's mission is to explore complementary and alternative medical practices in the context of rigorous science, train CAM researchers, and disseminate authoritative information to the public and professionals. For additional information, call NCCAM's Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit nccam.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

SOURCE: National Institutes of Health

Some alternative and complementary medicine approaches to migraine relief

2007-05-10T21:35:00.001+08:00

Original article: http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2007/05/09/health/doc464226cd2388a421528408.txt

Some alternative and complementary medicine approaches to migraine relief

Acupuncture: Dr. Ying Li, a licensed acupuncturist and certified Oriental medicine practitioner, at Southern Illinois Acupuncture in Carbondale and Metropolis, treats each patient individually using acupuncture and Chinese herbal remedies.

Acupuncture is the gentle insertion of extremely thin needles into specific points on the body to stimulate the flow of Qi or natural healing energy.

"They come to me when they're having the headaches," Li said. "If they respond well to acupuncture, we will usually have success after two or three treatments. The treatments help improve the quality of their lives."

Alexander Technique: Liz Patula, a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique in Carbondale, said that her students who experience migraines have reported fewer headaches because of the new ways they are learning to use their bodies.

The American Society of the Alexander Technique describes the Alexander Technique as a mode of self-management that gives you independence in maintaining your health. Rather than being solely a recipient, you learn to soothe your own nervous system, release your own muscles and balance your own structure.

"I teach my students how to use their overall coordination in a better way," Patula said. If they have tension in the neck and shoulders, Patula teaches them how to use their body so that there is no tension. "This can help them deal with migraines and experience improvement," she said.

Biofeedback: This learned mind-body technique helps a person influence his or her involuntary physical functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brain waves. This treatment is approved by the National Institutes of Health for chronic pain and insomnia.

Chiropractic: "After we make sure that there are no underlying diseases or neurological problems, I conduct a spinal exam on a migraine sufferer," said Alan Nolen, D.C., who has been practicing in West Frankfort for thirty years. "Then I use manipulation, deep heat, ultrasound therapies. If a collapsed disc is involved, I use decompression therapy. I recommend a low carb, get-rid-of-junk-food diet."

Diet and exercise: Perkins recommends that her patients drink half their body weight in ounces of water each day. Any foods that seem to provoke migraines - especially those with increased levels of tyramine - should be eliminated from the diet. She also encourages exercise because it releases endorphins, which help pain.

Herbs and supplements: Magnesium, vitamin B-2 (riboflavin), butterbur, and feverfew are often recommended, according to the website of Andrew Weil, M.D.

Massage therapy: Marty Griffin, LMT and owner of Southern Illinois Massage Clinic in Herrin, is also certified in neuromuscular therapy, myofascial release therapy, and reflexology. When working with migraine sufferers, he uses a variety of treatments.

"I focus on relaxation," Griffin said. "I work around the eyes in an easy manner. I friction the suboccipital muscles under the base of the skull because there can be a lot of tension there. I work on all cervical and trapezius muscles, the neck and head areas, the temporalis muscles in the heads, and the scalp. I want to improve circulation by relaxing the fascia."

Antinociception of heterotopic electro-acupuncture mediated by the dorsolateral funiculus

2007-04-24T15:35:00.000+08:00

17/04/2007 - Antinociception of heterotopic electro-acupuncture mediated by the dorsolateral funiculus.

Country: U.S.A

Institute: The Institute of New Life Health Center, Boston, USA.

Author(s): Lee SJ, Lyu YS, Kang HW, Sohn IC, Koo S, Kim MS, Park BR, Song JH, Kim JH.

Journal: Am J Chin Med. 2007;35(2):251-64.

Abstract:

We investigated the inhibitory pathways that mediate the antinociceptive effects of heterotopic electro-acupuncture (EA) on formalin injection-induced pain in rats.

EA (2 ms, 10 Hz, 3 mA) was delivered to heterotopic acupoints HT(7) and PC(7) for 30 min; this was followed immediately by subcutaneous injection of formalin into the left hind paw of rats. Naltrexone (10 mg/kg, i.p.), an opioid receptor antagonist, was administered to evaluate the involvement of endogenous opioids. The dorsolateral funiculus (DLF), which is a descending pathway that inhibits pain, was transected at the ipsilateral T10-11 level of the thoracic spinal cord.

EA inhibited behavioral responses to formalin injection-induced pain and prevented the pain-induced increase in cFos expression in the lumbar spinal cord. Pretreatment with naltrexone did not inhibit the antinociceptive effects of EA on formalin injection-induced pain. Transection of the DLF ipsilateral to the acupuncture site eliminated the antinociceptive effects of EA.

These results suggest that the antinociceptive effects of heterotopic EA are mediated by the DLF and not by endogenous opioids.

Article Retrieved From: http://acupuncture.com.au - http://www.acupuncture.com.au/articles/viewarticle.html?id=095

The treatment of obesity by acupuncture.

2007-04-24T07:17:00.000+08:00

An interesting abstract posted on a mailing list. Have yet to find the original article, though.

Int J Neurosci. 2006 Feb;116(2):165-75. Related
Articles, Links

The treatment of obesity by acupuncture.

Cabyoglu MT, Ergene N, Tan U.

Department of Physiology, Selcuk University, Faculty
of Meram Medical, Konya, Turkey. tugcab@yahoo.com

The present study is an investigation of the results of the studies on the effects of acupuncture application therapy on obesity. It has been reported that acupuncture application in obesity treatment is effective in procuring weight loss. It can affect appetite, intestinal motility, and metabolism, as well as emotional factors such as stress. Increases in neural activity in the ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus, in tone in the smooth muscle of the stomach and in levels of enkephalin, beta endorphin, and serotonin in plasma and brain tissue have also been observed with the application of acupuncture. It has been observed that acupuncture application to obese people increases excitability of the satiety center in the ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus. Acupuncture stimulates the auricular branch of the vagal nerve and raises serotonin levels. Both of these activities have been shown to increase tone in the smooth muscle of the stomach, thus suppressing appetite. Among other things, serotonin enhances intestinal motility. It also controls stress and depression via endorphin and dopamine production. In addition to these effects, it is thought that the increase in plasma levels of beta endorphin after acupuncture application can contribute to the body weight loss in obese people by mobilizing the body energy depots through lipolithic effect.

Influence of needling the foot-yangming points on intracellular Ca2+ concentration in smooth muscles of the gastric antrum in rabbits.

2007-04-13T20:23:00.000+08:00

10/04/2007 - Influence of needling the foot-yangming points on intracellular Ca2+ concentration in smooth muscles of the gastric antrum in rabbits.

Country: China

Institute: Teaching and Research Section for Experimental Acupuncture, Department of Acupuncture and Massage, Hunan TCM College, Changsha 410007, China.

Author(s): Deng Y, Yi S, Lin Y, Yan J, Guo H, Xiang Z, Wu F, Liu W.

Journal: J Tradit Chin Med. 2007 Mar;27(1):65-9.

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of acupuncture at the points of Foot-Yangming Meridian on intracellular concentration of Ca2, called the 2nd messenger of gastric smooth muscles.

METHODS: 45 rabbits were randomly divided into the following 5 groups: a normal saline group, a model group treated with atropine, an acupuncture group treated by needling the points of Foot-Yangming Meridian, an acupuncture group treated by needling the points of Foot-Shaoyang Meridian, an acupuncture group treated by needling the points of Foot-Taiyang Meridian, i.e. 9 rabbits in each group. After treatment, the smooth muscles of the gastric antrum were taken to make the suspension containing alive single muscular cells, and the intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) was determined by a spectrofluorometer.

RESULTS: The concentration of [Ca2+]i in the group of Foot-Yangming Meridian was obviously higher than that of the atropine group (P<0.01), but with no significant differences found among all the other groups (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION: The influence of acupuncture at the points of Foot-Yangming Meridian on gastric movement is related to the release of intracellular Ca2+ in the gastric smooth muscles.

Article Retrieved From: http://www.acupuncture.com.au

From: http://www.acupuncture.com.au/articles/viewarticle.html?id=093

Tai Chi Boosts Immunity to Shingles Virus in Older Adults, NIH-Sponsored Study Reports

2007-04-07T13:00:00.000+08:00

Tai Chi, a traditional Chinese form of exercise, may help older adults avoid getting shingles by increasing immunity to varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and boosting the immune response to varicella vaccine in older adults, according to a new study published in print this week in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. This National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study is the first rigorous clinical trial to suggest that a behavioral intervention, alone or in combination with a vaccine, can help protect older adults from VZV, which causes both chickenpox and shingles.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/apr2007/nia-06.htm

The Alteration of Pain Sensitivity at Disease-Specific Acupuncture Points in Premenstrual Syndrome.

2007-04-06T23:13:00.000+08:00

The Alteration of Pain Sensitivity at Disease-Specific Acupuncture Points in Premenstrual Syndrome.

Country: Korea

Institute: Acupuncture and Meridian Science Research Center (AMSRC), Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea. handongmu@empal.com.

Author(s): Chae Y, Kim HY, Lee HJ, Park HJ, Hahm DH, Ahn KE, Lee H.

Journal: 1: J Physiol Sci. 2007 Mar 24;

Abstract:

Acupuncture points (APs) are well-known to be small regions of local or referred pain that are more sensitive than surrounding tissue. Based on the bibliographical and clinical data, specific conditions are commonly believed to change the pain sensitivity at corresponding APs.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the pressure pain threshold (PPT) of specific APs is associated with the severity of premenstrual syndrome.

The 46 participants were female students attending a middle school. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) was measured using a structured questionnaire, the menstruation distress questionnaire (MDQ). High PMS (HP) and low PMS (LP) groups were divided based on their MDQ scores. The PPTs at sites in the leg (the APs SP6, GB39, and LR3 and a non-AP 2 cm anterior to SP6) and in the arm (the APs PC6, TE5, and LI4 and a non-AP 2 cm proximal to PC6) were measured using an algometer.

The PPT of the HP group at SP6 was significantly lower than that of the LP group (13.50 +/- 0.73 vs. 16.30 +/- 0.66 kilopascals, P < 0.05), but not at other APs or at non-APs.

The findings of our study support the hypothesis that alteration of pain threshold at specific APs is associated with the severity of corresponding diseases. Further studies are needed to determine whether observation of pain sensitivity at the APs could be used as an adjunctive tool for the diagnosis of a clinical problem.

Article Retrieved From: http://www.acupuncture.com.au - http://www.acupuncture.com.au/articles/viewarticle.html?id=091
Full Study: http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/physiolsci/advpub/0/advpub_0703260006/_article

Most who try them claim therapies help with sleep

2007-03-20T21:30:00.000+08:00

Most who try them claim therapies help with sleep
Sunday, March 18, 2007
By Hilary E. MacGregor
Los Angeles Times

Whether meditating before bed or sipping a kava kava nightcap, more than 1.6 million Americans use some form of alternative medicine when they have trouble sleeping.

In analyzing data from 31,000 Americans interviewed for the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that nearly one-fifth of adults reported difficulty sleeping in the last 12 months, and of those, about 5 percent used complementary and alternative medicine to treat their sleeplessness.

The majority of those who tried the therapies said they helped, with nearly half saying they helped "a great deal."

Nearly 65 percent of people using alternative methods to help them sleep used "biological therapies," such as herbs or supplements, and 39 percent used "mind-body therapies," such as self-hypnosis, guided imagery or other relaxation techniques.

The findings also shed some light on why people turn to complementary and alternative medicine to treat their sleep problems.

Forty percent of those who tried alternative therapies said they had not found conventional treatments helpful. Thirty-five percent said their doctor had suggested the approach. One-quarter thought conventional medicine was too expensive, and two-thirds thought it would be "interesting to try."

The report, published n the Archives of Internal Medicine, was part of a larger look at U.S. sleep habits. Researchers also found a strong connection between reports of insomnia or sleep troubles and other health conditions, such as obesity, hypertension, congestive heart failure and anxiety or depression.

Although the report didn't rank the popularity of specific herbal or behavioral remedies, doctors who recommend complementary and alternative medicine said some alternative therapies - such as melatonin, kava kava and valerian - can be effective in treating sleep problems and are typically safer than sleep drugs.

"People are aware that a lot of conventional therapies have side effects, and there is a potential for a dependency to develop," said Dr. Mary Hardy, director of integrative medicine at UCLA's Comprehensive Cancer Center. "If they want to be able to take something on a regular basis, they look to natural therapies to help with that."

Dr. Jay Udani, who runs the Integrative Medicine Program at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, said he would recommend anyone with sleep problems start with mind-body techniques such as self-hypnosis, meditation or guided imagery.

If that were not sufficient, he might recommend mind-body techniques combined with an herbal remedy - and melatonin would be his first choice. Even a low dose (1 to 5 milligrams) of melatonin can be effective, he says.

But doctors cautioned against mixing sleep-inducing herbs or supplements with sleep drugs. Consumers should talk with their physicians first, they said.

Dr. Soram Khalsa, an internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said he often recommends tryptophan and theanine, two amino acids that can be bought over the counter.

He said peri-menopausal women who have a slight hormonal imbalance - they are low in progesterone relative to estrogen - might benefit from natural progesterone before bed. He also recommends meditating at night.

"If you meditate for even 15 minutes with some deep breathing, that will help induce the alpha rhythm brain wave which will help you sleep," he said.

Hardy said her recommendations depend on the sleep disorder. People who have trouble falling asleep because of anxiety should consider relaxation therapies, such as meditation, or calming yoga poses before bed, she says.

Aromatherapy, such as lavender or geranium oils, can also help, she added, as can a pre-bedtime snack of foods that promote the release of seratonin, such as crackers, bread, tuna or a little milk.

"People are aware that a lot of conventional therapies have side effects, and there is a potential for a dependency to develop. If they want to be able to take something on a regular basis, they look to natural therapies to help with that."

Dr. Mary Hardy

director of integrative medicine, UCLA

Hypothalamus and Amygdala Response to Acupuncture Stimuli in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2007-02-25T14:55:00.001+08:00

Hypothalamus and Amygdala Response to Acupuncture Stimuli in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Napadow V, et al. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; Department of Radiology, Logan College of Chiropractic, Chesterfield, MO, United States.

Brain processing of acupuncture stimuli in chronic neuropathic pain
patients may underlie its beneficial effects. We used fMRI to evaluate
verum and sham acupuncture stimulation at acupoint LI-4 in Carpal
Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) patients and healthy controls (HC). CTS patients
were retested after 5 weeks of acupuncture therapy. Thus, we
investigated both the short-term brain response to acupuncture
stimulation, as well as the influence of longer-term acupuncture
therapy effects on this short-term response. CTS patients responded to
verum acupuncture with greater activation in the hypothalamus and
deactivation in the amygdala as compared to HC, controlling for the
non-specific effects of sham acupuncture. A similar difference was
found between CTS patients at baseline and after acupuncture therapy.
For baseline CTS patients responding to verum acupuncture, functional
connectivity was found between the hypothalamus and amygdala - the
less deactivation in the amygdala, the greater the activation in the
hypothalamus, and vice versa. Furthermore, hypothalamic response
correlated positively with the degree of maladaptive cortical
plasticity in CTS patients (inter-digit separation distance). This is
the first evidence suggesting that chronic pain patients respond to
acupuncture differently than HC, through a coordinated limbic network
including the hypothalamus and amygdala.

Pain. 2007 Jan 18;

Article Retrieved From: http://acupuncture.com.au

Acupuncture Enhances Generation of Nitric Oxide and Increases Local Circulation

2007-02-25T14:54:00.000+08:00

Acupuncture Enhances Generation of Nitric Oxide and Increases Local Circulation

Tsuchiya M, et al. Departments of Biochemistry, Osaka City University Medical School, Abeno-Ku, Japan.

Although it is widely used, the mechanisms and effects of acupuncture
on pain are not completely understood. Recently, increased nitric
oxide (NO) synthase activity has been found in meridians and
acupoints. Because NO is a key regulator of local circulation, and
because change in circulation can affect the development and
persistence of pain, we propose that acupuncture might regulate NO
levels. We studied the effects of acupuncture on local NO levels and
circulation in a randomized, double-blind, crossover study with 20
volunteers, each of whom underwent one session each of real and
noninvasive sham acupuncture in a single hand and forearm with a 1-wk
interval between treatments. NO concentration in the plasma from the
acupunctured arm was significantly increased by 2.8 +/- 1.5 micromol/L
at 5 min and 2.5 +/- 1.4 micromol/L at 60 min after acupuncture. Blood
flow in palmar subcutaneous tissue of the acupunctured arm also
increased, and this correlated with the NO increase. These changes
were not observed in noninvasive sham-acupunctured hands and forearms. In conclusion, acupuncture increases the NO level in treated regions and thereby increases local circulation. These regulatory effects
might contribute to pain relief provided by acupuncture.

Anesth Analg. 2007 Feb;104(2):301-7

Source PubMed

Article Retrieved from www.acupuncture.com.au - http://www.acupuncture.com.au/articles/viewarticle.html?id=062

Quackery!

2007-02-24T23:13:00.000+08:00

Medical Quackery (comic)

Commentary by Mike Adams, the creator of this cartoon:

The closer you look at conventional medicine, the more you realize just how much it's based on quackery. From the exaggerated claims of drug advertisements (which imply that swallowing patented chemicals will solve your life problems) to the absurd pro-drug, anti-nutrition regulatory proclamations by the FDA, the modern U.S. "sick care system" has become the laughing stock of the world.

Americans pay, by far, the highest fees in the world for health care services, and yet we simultaneously suffer the highest rates of degenerative disease in the world. Conventional cancer treatments, which essentially involve varying degrees of poisoning patients with either toxic chemicals or deadly radiation, have barely altered the survival rates for cancer in three decades. Heart disease rates continue to rise, diabetes is now an epidemic, and yet the drug companies, mass media and FDA increasingly promote new fictitious diseases in the hopes that they can sell even more dangerous prescription medications to people who actually don't need them.

Now here's the funny part in all this: Desperate defenders of conventional medicine -- with all its toxic chemicals, drug-induced deaths and fraudulent science -- have the gall to call natural medicine "quackery." Anyone who promotes good nutrition through supplements, vitamins or herbs is labeled a "quack," and anyone who dares question the sanctity of the cult of pharmacology is discredited, attacked and sometimes even arrested and jailed. (See my documented history of armed FDA raids against alternative doctors and vitamin companies in my book Natural Health Solutions and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them.

It's all so hilarious that it makes you wonder how the so-called "quack" police can continue to peddle their pro-drug propaganda with a straight face. According to them, sunlight is useless for human health, nutritional supplements have no impact on health, stress reduction through relaxation exercises is some sort of senseless voodoo and eating 100 calories of fresh produce has exactly the same effect on your health as drinking 100 calories of a sugared-up soda (to them, a calorie is a calorie, regardless of its source). Oh yeah, and they also say aspartame and fluoride are completely safe to swallow in unlimited lifetime quantities, with zero negative health effects.

In fact, the pushers of conventional medicine still believe that the mind has no health impact on the body -- a belief that was considered modern in the 1870's, but today, in 2007, it's downright antiquated. Don't believe me? Just ask your doctor about "mind-body medicine" and watch the condemnations roll off his tongue. M.D.s practicing today literally believe the body is divided into isolated compartments that have no effect on each other; hence the dividing up of doctor duties into roles like foot doctor, ear doctor, eye doctor, brain doctor and heart doctor. What happened to the WHOLE patient? You'd never see a Chinese medicine doctor limiting their treatment to the feet. The very idea would be considered laughable.

The entire belief system of conventional medicine truly belongs in the history books, and yet scrappy old M.D.s who probably should have retired ten years ago keep on pushing their Descartian distortions onto the world. They literally believe that if everyone in the world only had enough drugs in their bodies, we'd all be super healthy! If we just had enough vaccines to shoot up all the babies, and enough cholesterol drugs for all the senior citizens, and enough antidepressants for all the middle-aged people, we'd all be healthier, they claim. And the way to get more people healthier is to push more drug ads, to mandate more vaccinations and require more "mental health screening" of schoolchildren, just in case they might need ADHD drugs.

Sound insane? It is. And don't believe for a minute that modern medicine is based on anything resembling real science. The science was abandoned decades ago. All that's left today is an empty shell of a medical system that claims to treat patients but really just uses them as profit-generating machines to enrich some of the wealthiest corporations in the world: the drug companies. All the while, the deaths mount up... over half a million Americans killed by prescription drugs since 9/11, and the number increases by the minute. Imagine a modern nuclear missile striking a significant U.S. city, killing all its inhabitants in an instant. That's what pharmaceuticals have done to Americans over the last five years. The casualties of Big Pharma in just the last five years are now ten times larger than the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. And that statistic, by the way, comes straight from the Journal of the American Medical Association, which studied deaths caused by prescription drug side effects.

Today, the sick care industry is a deadly industry mired in dishonest advertising, corrupt regulators, brainwashed doctors, suppression of alternative medicine and always power, money and greed. It has become such a complete joke that modern medicine is actually harmful to the public. In other words, Americans would actually be far healthier if all the M.D.s, drug companies and FDA bureaucrats suddenly disappeared tomorrow! Pharmaceutical use would plummet, side effects would vanish, rates of fictitious disease diagnosis would drop to zero, and America would be a healthier, happier country. Our sick care system is, bluntly stated, keeping us all sick.

Doctors, of course, always talk about their evidence. "Where's the evidence that nutrition has any value?" they ask, as if drug companies would suddenly fund randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled studies on minerals that can't be patented. And yet their own medical journal evidence, to which they impart impressive degrees of reliability and stature, is almost entirely based on fraudulent science, designed specifically to achieve a statistical "success" using any means necessary: fudging the numbers, removing samples that don't fit the desired curve, burying trials that showed negative results, confusing correlation with causation and a hundred other devious tricks. The medical journals themselves, in turn, are financially supported by drug company ads, and they continue to publish studies secretly authored by the drug companies themselves (while utterly failing to disclose blatant conflicts of interest).

The so-called "evidence" supporting conventional medicine and the use of most pharmaceuticals, it turns out, is almost entirely fictional. It's as if tens of thousands of people stood around and agreed to pretend they were conducting real science, pretending to "search for the cure," pretending to regulate drug companies at the FDA, pretending to dispense medicine at the local pharmacy and pretending to be doing it all for the public good. It's all a grand pretending act -- a great hoax on the American people.

Of course, the quack defenders of conventional medicine strongly disagree with this -- and that's all part of their pretending, of course. It's their role to disagree with anything that challenges the status quo. Their jobs and egos depend on it!

Natural health is a huge threat to conventional medicine. If the American public learned the truth about nutrition, herbs, sunlight, acupuncture, superfoods and other naturopathic modalities, they would drop their drugs in a minute and pursue the safe, natural and non-patented therapies from the world of natural health. And that's precisely what Big Pharma cannot allow to happen. So drug companies continue their campaigns of influence, corruption, buying off the mainstream media and controlling the curricula at medical schools. The American Medical Association, which has been suppressing alternative medicine for literally decades, is perhaps the most visible defender of the drugs-and-surgery approach to sick care, but even the AMA is now increasingly being seen as hopelessly irrelevant and outdated.

The future of health will not be found in chemotherapy, pharmaceuticals or unjustified surgical procedures. It will be found in prevention, where people are taught how to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, depression, kidney stones, osteoporosis and thousands of other health conditions to which conventional medicine has assigned names. Disease prevention is the key to a healthy nation and, indeed, a healthy world. And it is precisely "prevention" that the sick care industry is opposed to. If diseases are all prevented, where will they find paying customers? Preventing disease is the fastest way to bankrupt Big Pharma.

This "Quack!" cartoon was designed as a simple way to point out the obvious: that any doctor who hands out pills for cholesterol, blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression, cancer and other such diseases is a quack. These pills are not merely useless at enhancing health, they are in fact harmful to patients, and they do absolutely nothing to address the underlying causes of these health conditions in the first place.

Quackery is so common today that it is even licensed by the state. It's called a license to "practice medicine," but it's really just a license to practice quackery.

And the truth about the whole medical hoax has become so obvious today that even a duck could tell you what it really is.

The next time your doctor tries to shove pills in your face, just say what the duck says. Quack!

Alternative Medicine: Tuina: Ancient pain relief meets modern life

2007-02-21T08:51:00.000+08:00

Tuina (pronounced "twee-naa") has been used widely in traditional medicine clinics and hospitals in China as well as in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and Taiwan for thousands of years. The knowledge and skill has been accumulated and improved throughout its very long history. Tuina is a form of Chinese manual medicine. It is commonly used to prevent and treat disease by removing obstructions and increasing vital energy, called Qi ("chee"), through manual methods, herbal remedies, heat pads, cupping and moxibustion.

Tuina practitioners are trained in five-year educational programs in traditional medicine colleges in China. After graduation, they serve additional apprenticeships under close supervision of experienced Tuina practitioners. Retired Tuina doctors often come to teach and pass their experience to other doctors and discuss difficult cases.

Tuina medicine is increasingly used to promote circulation, reset the relationship between bones and their surrounding tissues, increase joint flexibility, heal soft tissue and sport injuries, and balance Yin-Yang function of internal organs.

Tuina is a unique and independent medicine used for preventive as well as therapeutic purposes for both chronic and acute diseases. Diseases and conditions addressed in the U.S. by Tuina practitioners include back pain, sciatic pain, headache, muscle tightness, frozen shoulder, neck pain, tennis elbow, insomnia, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, stroke recovery, joint dislocation, poor childhood appetite and even the common cold.

To find a qualified and well-rounded Tuina expert, look for an experienced traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who is well versed in traditional Chinese herbs and also has the LAc credential, which stands for "Licensed Acupuncturist."

Benjamin Apichai, MS, MD (China); LAc; Bastyr Center for Natural Health

Parachutes Not Proven to Work!

2007-02-11T12:58:00.000+08:00

This is so good I had to post it.

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Gordon C S Smith, professor1, Jill P Pell, consultant2

1 Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cambridge University, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, 2 Department of Public Health, Greater Glasgow NHS Board, Glasgow G3 8YU

Correspondence to: G C S Smith gcss2@cam.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.

Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.

Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.

Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.

Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.

Introduction

The parachute is used in recreational, voluntary sector, and military settings to reduce the risk of orthopaedic, head, and soft tissue injury after gravitational challenge, typically in the context of jumping from an aircraft. The perception that parachutes are a successful intervention is based largely on anecdotal evidence. Observational data have shown that their use is associated with morbidity and mortality, due to both failure of the intervention1 2 and iatrogenic complications.3 In addition, "natural history" studies of free fall indicate that failure to take or deploy a parachute does not inevitably result in an adverse outcome.4 We therefore undertook a systematic review of randomised controlled trials of parachutes.

Methods

Literature search
We conducted the review in accordance with the QUOROM (quality of reporting of meta-analyses) guidelines.5 We searched for randomised controlled trials of parachute use on Medline, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, appropriate internet sites, and citation lists. Search words employed were "parachute" and "trial." We imposed no language restriction and included any studies that entailed jumping from a height greater than 100 metres. The accepted intervention was a fabric device, secured by strings to a harness worn by the participant and released (either automatically or manually) during free fall with the purpose of limiting the rate of descent. We excluded studies that had no control group.

Definition of outcomes
The major outcomes studied were death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score greater than 15.6

Meta-analysis
Our statistical apprach was to assess outcomes in parachute and control groups by odds ratios and quantified the precision of estimates by 95% confidence intervals. We chose the Mantel-Haenszel test to assess heterogeneity, and sensitivity and subgroup analyses and fixed effects weighted regression techniques to explore causes of heterogeneity. We selected a funnel plot to assess publication bias visually and Egger's and Begg's tests to test it quantitatively. Stata software, version 7.0, was the tool for all statistical analyses.

Results

Our search strategy did not find any randomised controlled trials of the parachute.

Discussion

Evidence based pride and observational prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a medical intervention justified by observational data must be in want of verification through a randomised controlled trial. Observational studies have been tainted by accusations of data dredging, confounding, and bias.7 For example, observational studies showed lower rates of ischaemic heart disease among women using hormone replacement therapy, and these data were interpreted as advocating hormone replacement for healthy women, women with established ischaemic heart disease, and women with risk factors for ischaemic heart disease.8 However, randomised controlled trials showed that hormone replacement therapy actually increased the risk of ischaemic heart disease,9 indicating that the apparent protective effects seen in observational studies were due to bias. Cases such as this one show that medical interventions based solely on observational data should be carefully scrutinised, and the parachute is no exception.

Natural history of gravitational challenge
The effectiveness of an intervention has to be judged relative to non-intervention. Understanding the natural history of free fall is therefore imperative. If failure to use a parachute were associated with 100% mortality then any survival associated with its use might be considered evidence of effectiveness. However, an adverse outcome after free fall is by no means inevitable. Survival has been reported after gravitation challenges of more than 10 000 metres (33 000 feet).4 In addition, the use of parachutes is itself associated with morbidity and mortality.1-3 10 This is in part due to failure of the intervention. However, as with all interventions, parachutes are also associated with iatrogenic complications.3 Therefore, studies are required to calculate the balance of risks and benefits of parachute use.

The parachute and the healthy cohort effect
One of the major weaknesses of observational data is the possibility of bias, including selection bias and reporting bias, which can be obviated largely by using randomised controlled trials. The relevance to parachute use is that individuals jumping from aircraft without the help of a parachute are likely to have a high prevalence of pre-existing psychiatric morbidity. Individuals who use parachutes are likely to have less psychiatric morbidity and may also differ in key demographic factors, such as income and cigarette use. It follows, therefore, that the apparent protective effect of parachutes may be merely an example of the "healthy cohort" effect. Observational studies typically use multivariate analytical approaches, using maximum likelihood based modelling methods to try to adjust estimates of relative risk for these biases. Distasteful as these statistical adjustments are for the cognoscenti of evidence based medicine, no such analyses exist for assessing the presumed effects of the parachute.

The medicalisation of free fall
It is often said that doctors are interfering monsters obsessed with disease and power, who will not be satisfied until they control every aspect of our lives (Journal of Social Science, pick a volume). It might be argued that the pressure exerted on individuals to use parachutes is yet another example of a natural, life enhancing experience being turned into a situation of fear and dependency. The widespread use of the parachute may just be another example of doctors' obsession with disease prevention and their misplaced belief in unproved technology to provide effective protection against occasional adverse events.

What is already known about this topic

Parachutes are widely used to prevent death and major injury after gravitational challenge

Parachute use is associated with adverse effects due to failure of the intervention and iatrogenic injury

Studies of free fall do not show 100% mortality

What this study adds

No randomised controlled trials of parachute use have been undertaken

The basis for parachute use is purely observational, and its apparent efficacy could potentially be explained by a "healthy cohort" effect

Individuals who insist that all interventions need to be validated by a randomised controlled trial need to come down to earth with a bump

Parachutes and the military industrial complex
However sinister doctors may be, there are powers at large that are even more evil. The parachute industry has earned billions of dollars for vast multinational corporations whose profits depend on belief in the efficacy of their product. One would hardly expect these vast commercial concerns to have the bravery to test their product in the setting of a randomised controlled trial. Moreover, industry sponsored trials are more likely to conclude in favour of their commercial product,11 and it is unclear whether the results of such industry sponsored trials are reliable.

A call to (broken) arms
Only two options exist. The first is that we accept that, under exceptional circumstances, common sense might be applied when considering the potential risks and benefits of interventions. The second is that we continue our quest for the holy grail of exclusively evidence based interventions and preclude parachute use outside the context of a properly conducted trial. The dependency we have created in our population may make recruitment of the unenlightened masses to such a trial difficult. If so, we feel assured that those who advocate evidence based medicine and criticise use of interventions that lack an evidence base will not hesitate to demonstrate their commitment by volunteering for a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial.

Contributors: GCSS had the original idea. JPP tried to talk him out of it. JPP did the first literature search but GCSS lost it. GCSS drafted the manuscript but JPP deleted all the best jokes. GCSS is the guarantor, and JPP says it serves him right.

Funding: None.

Competing interests: None declared.

Ethical approval: Not required.

References

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2. Bricknell MC, Craig SC. Military parachuting injuries: a literature review. Occup Med (Lond) 1999;49: 17-26.[Medline]
3. Lasczkowski G, Hasenfuss S, Verhoff M, Weiler G. An unusual airplane crash—deadly life saver. Unintentional activation of an automated reserve opening device causing airplane accident. Forensic Sci Int 2002;125: 250-3.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
4. Highest fall survived without a parachute. In: Cunningham A. Guinness world records 2002. London: Guinness World Records, 2002.
5. Moher D, Cook DJ, Eastwood S, Olkin I, Rennie D, Stroup DF, for the QUOROM Group. Improving the quality of reports of meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials: the QUOROM statement. Lancet 1999;354: 1896-1900.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
6. Lossius HM, Langhelle A, Reide E, Pillgram-Larsen J, Lossius TA, Laake P, et al. Reporting data following major trauma and analysing factors associated with outcome using the new Utstein style recommendations. Resuscitation 2001;50: 263-72.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
7. Davey Smith G, Ebrahim S. Data dredging, bias, or confounding. BMJ 2002;325: 1437-8.[Free Full Text]
8. Pines A, Mijatovic V, van der Mooren MJ, Kenemans P. Hormone replacement therapy and cardioprotection: basic concepts and clinical considerations. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 1997;71: 193-7.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
9. Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, LaCroix AZ, Kooperberg C, Stefanick ML, et al. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results from the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288: 321-33.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
10. Lee CT, Williams P, Hadden WA. Parachuting for charity: is it worth the money? A 5-year audit of parachute injuries in Tayside and the cost to the NHS. Injury 1999;30: 283-7.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]
11. Lexchin J, Bero LA, Djulbegovic B, Clark O. Pharmaceutical industry sponsorship and research outcome and quality: systematic review. BMJ 2003;326: 1167-70.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Related Article

Parachute approach to evidence based medicine
Malcolm Potts, Ndola Prata, Julia Walsh, and Amy Grossman
BMJ 2006 333: 701-703. [Full Text]

Article on Acupuncture for Breech Pregnancies

2007-02-10T09:30:00.000+08:00

Medicine works to turn baby (
A 2,000-YEAR-OLD Chinese technique involving acupuncture has been used to help turn a Bromsgrove mother-to-be's baby from a breech position.

Acupuncturist Tony Concannon, from the Creative Health Centre, Hagley Road, Stourbridge, helped Siobhan Atkins, whose baby had been medically determined to be in breech position.

The breech position means that a caesarean section would be needed - to prevent this Mr Concannon performed a Chinese technique called moxabustion(sic).

Moxabustion involves the use of moxa, a herb which is used to heat specific acupuncture points and helps to turn babies who are in the breech position into a safer position for child birth.

Mrs Atkins said: "My baby definitely was more active after the treatments and when the midwife examined me again the baby had turned. I am now looking forward to the birth with one less thing to think about."

Mr Concannon said: "Although I have treated morning sickness and backache in pregnancy, and used acupuncture as pain relief in labour for many years, the turning of breech presentations in this way has never ceased to amaze me.

"At times, it has been almost miraculous. It is safe and in terms of our healthcare service, cost-effective."

http://www.battling-heartandstroke.com/2007/02/acupuncture-for-stroke-patients/

2007-02-10T09:14:00.000+08:00

By Karina Jacobsen

In recent years many stroke patients have begun to turn to ancient Chinese medicines and cures to help them recover from their stroke. They use these along with modern medications and treatments as well. Alternative medicine does seem to have some great effects on stroke patients and has helped them to fight fatigue and also has helped to ease the tension in their muscles as well.

Many people who have suffered from a stroke have been left with permanent problems that keep them from taking part in activities that used to be normal for them. This can include activities such as speaking, being able to walk, seeing, reasoning, remembering, and understanding concepts. There are many treatments that can help stroke patients and some of these treatments actually use a mirror to get visual clues so that patient can receive help.

Once Chinese form of alternative medicine that is being used to treat stoke patients is acupuncture. Acupuncture uses a special machine to stimulate needles that have been turned into specific places in the body. While many doctors in the past have disagreed on the effectiveness of acupuncture, more and more studies are showing that acupuncture does have some great benefits. Today acupuncture is more widely accepted in the medical field and many doctors are seeing the great benefits it has to offer.

Acupuncture basically offers electrotherapy and is supposed to help balance the energy in the body. When acupuncture has been used on stroke patients within the first year after their stroke it has been found to be very effective. Acupuncture has helped to improve their speaking and other motor skills, as well as the way the blood circulates through the body. When a stroke occurs, it is because of lack of blood flow to a certain part of the brain, and this causes tissue damage in the brain, which is permanent. Many stroke patients lose many of the abilities they used to have and this becomes very frustrating to them. Rehabilitation is a very important part of stroke recovery, and using acupuncture as a part of this rehabilitation can provide wonderful benefits to stroke patients.

Although acupuncture is relatively new to many peoples’ thinking, it has been around for hundreds of years, originating with the Chinese. Modern medicine has found that acupuncture does have many benefits if it is done correctly(emphasis by Phil). If you are a stroke patient and you decide to turn to acupuncture for help, be sure that you have it done by someone that is licensed to do it. You do not want to go to just anyone, but want to find someone who has a great reputation, so they can help you and not hurt you.

Immunization: Bane or Boon?

2007-02-08T08:11:00.000+08:00

I admit that I am writing this in reaction to the following blog entry by a very good friend of mine:

It is my belief that immunization is the single greatest thing medicine has offered to humankind. Immunization embodies the essence of preventive medicine. Because of immunization, millions are spared from death and disease.

Yes, I agree. Immunization is a great tool and that it's use spares millions from death and disease.

BUT...

"...single greatest thing medicine has offered to mankind"?

I'm afraid that I have to disagree with this a bit. Given that I am now into alternative medicine, I feel that this statement must be qualified a bit more. For one thing, immunization is a gift not of medicine as a whole, but of Euro-American Pharmaceutical Medicine. Chinese, Ayurvedic, and other forms of medicine are not involved in immunization at all.

Secondly, I consider antibiotics to be the greatest gift of Euro-American Pharmaceutical Medicine to mankind. Sometimes, antibiotic use causes more harm than good, admittedly, but there is no doubt that antimicrobials and antibiotics, when used properly, does much to eradicate diseases that many forms of complementary medicine are helpless against.

"Immunization embodies the essence of preventive medicine."

Sorry my friend, I was forced to gag on this one. Immunization is nowhere near the embodiment of the essence of preventive medicine. To paraphrase Dr. House of House, MD, there is a Great Wall of China with armed sentries between immunization and the embodiment of preventive medicine.

The true embodiment of preventive medicine, in my humble opinion, and in the opinion of the sages of Chinese medicine, is adapting one's life to Heaven. What does this mean? It means living properly, adjusting one's clothing and diet to the environment and particular health conditions, proper exercise, etc. It means being in harmony with nature. Proper diet doesn't necessarily mean counting calories too. Let me give just one example. Grilled foods are popular in Japan and Korea. Japanese and Korean weather is very cold. Therefore, grilled foods which add Heat to the body is good and adaptive to the environment. However, the weather here in the Philippines is already hot. By eating grilled foods, we are adding more Heat. Hence, we feel hotter. We are then forced to drinking ice water a lot to feel cooler, which then impedes digestion and causes a whole myriad of other problems. Is it therefore no surprise that Filipinos are generally less healthy than they?

For me, immunization, especially adult immunization, is good but risky. Vaccines may contain unknown proteins that may trigger autoimmune reactions. Is it too much for me to speculate that there MAY be a connection between the increase in vaccine use and the interestingly concomitant increase in autoimmune diseases? Is it not possible that, by emphasizing vaccination, we are also indirectly telling people that it's okay to abuse your lifestyle. Who needs to protect oneself from excess Wind and Cold when there is a shot available to combat a few strains of influenza?

Don't get me wrong. I believe in vaccination. My daughter's been vaccinated against the major infectious diseases such as Hepatitis. However, I strongly object to any statement that leads to a false sense of security in patients. I also want people to know that there are risks involved with vaccination. Just Google the terms "vaccination", "autoimmune", "mercury" and "animal protein".

I will say it again. Vaccination is not the essence of preventive medicine. It is proper lifestyle and diet. My daughter is now 2 and half years old. I have taken great pains to adjust her diet and activity according to Chinese medicine principles. I am proud to say that she has only had ONE cold in her whole life. Never had fever except after one vaccination. People look at her think she's five years old due to her physical stature and activity. Lifestyle adjustment people!

Can Acupuncture Help Control Menopause Symptoms?

2007-02-03T11:31:00.000+08:00

Can Acupuncture Help Control Menopause Symptoms?

Kathryn Whittaker

The treatment for migraines and other menopause symptoms is not the same in every part of the world. Different cultures have different medicine practices and beliefs. However, it is interesting to note that the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), acupuncture, is becoming a popular therapeutic method in Western culture to treat a variety of psychological and physical conditions including menopause.

TCM views menopause as the time in a woman’s life when her body shuts down her natural monthly reproductive cycle because she can no longer reproduce. However, it is believed that her body stops menses to conserve her qi (body life energy), so as she ages she can retain all of her resources.

Unlike women in western culture, for most women in the East, menopause is rather uneventful. It is thought the reasons for this is because Western women lead a more fast-paced, stress-ridden lifestyle, and tend to consume poorer diets. Thus, as a result, women in Western culture tend to experience far more intense menopausal symptoms than their sisters in the East.

Despite the real causes of menopausal symptoms, the fact remains that Traditional Chinese Medicine does not consider menopause to be a syndrome. The thought is that women suffering through menopause have a variety of qi problems such as constrained liver qi and kidney yin deficiency. In other words, their qi is imbalanced and is wreaking havoc on their mind and body.

Thus, the goal of TCM is to uniquely treat each woman based on her specific symptoms. This means that different techniques aside from acupuncture may also be suggested, such as Chinese herbs, lifestyle or dietary changes and exercises - all of which are used to help restore balance to the body.

How does acupuncture work? Acupuncture is based on the belief that there are approximately 2000 acupuncture points (trigger points) throughout the body. These trigger points are linked to one another via a group of 20 different meridians (pathways). Meridians are responsible for conducting qi between the surface of the body and the internal organs. Qi has a specific affect on each point it passes through. When qi properly flows throughout the meridians and all its points, it maintains a healthy balance in the mind and body.

During an acupuncture treatment for menopause, an acupuncture therapist will help a woman bring balance back to her body by focusing treatment on the trigger points related to her symptoms. Only some trigger points are used, and will vary depending on the symptoms. Thus, every menopausal woman is treated individually based on her problem.

Acupuncture is administered through the use of tiny, solid needles that are inserted into the targeted trigger points. The purpose of the needles is to help stimulate the meridians to encourage qi production. This might mean needles could be inserted into the shoulders, arms, legs or even the feet. If inserted properly, needles shouldn’t cause pain or bleeding; however, their may be slight discomfort or a tingling or numbing sensation which fades fast. Treatment is often very relaxing, and sessions usually last for 30 minutes.

Does acupuncture benefit menopause? Yes. Research has found that most women who participated in different acupuncture studies found relief from menopausal symptoms including:

• Hot flashes • Insomnia • Stress • Anxiety • Vaginal dryness

If you are interested in using acupuncture for alternative or complimentary treatment to ease menopause symptoms, it is imperative that you visit a qualified and experienced acupuncture therapist, in order to realistically determine if this method is an effective treatment option for you.

Remember, no two women are treated the same, and acupuncture therapy is often long term, ongoing treatment.

About The Author

If you would like more information on the different ways to ease http://natural-menopause-relief-secrets.com/blog, please visit http://www.natural-menopause-relief-secrets.com

From personal experience, PREVENTION is very important.

Agitated Behavior In Dementia Significantly Reduced By Regular Acupressure

2007-01-26T22:07:00.000+08:00

Acupressure can significantly reduce agitated behaviour in older patients with dementia, according to a study published in the February issue of the UK-based Journal of Clinical Nursing.

Researchers at the National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan found that providing 15-minute treatment sessions twice a day for five days a week yielded considerable benefits, including reductions in verbal and physical attacks and wandering.

But once the four-week treatment period ended, agitation levels started to rise again, suggesting that acupressure needs to be provided on an ongoing basis.

20 patients were studied over six weeks, including one week before the treatment started and one week after it finished. All lived in dementia special care units at a long-term care facility.

70 per cent of the patients suffered from severe behavioural disturbances, with a further five per cent suffering from extremely severe impairment. The remaining 25 per cent were classed as medium.

An average pre-treatment score of just over 79 was recorded on a specialist scale developed to measure agitation levels. After four weeks' treatment this had fallen to just under 60.

Pre-treatment agitation was highest in the 65-59 and 80 plus age groups (82 and 97 respectively) and in males (83).

"Agitated behaviour in people with dementia is a major concern for caregivers" says co-author Professor Li-Chan Lin from the Institute of Clinical Nursing at National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan. "It can endanger patients and others, make it necessary for them to be moved from familiar surroundings and demoralise and psychologically distress caregivers.

"People are living longer and, as a result, we face increased numbers of people with dementia. It is very important that we find interventions that enable us to provide more effective care for them, both in their own home and in long-term care facilities."

During the study, carried out with colleagues from the University, different types of agitation were measured on a specialist scale.

In week one, before the acupressure treatment began, physical attacks were given an average score of 5.53. These included pushing, beating, scratching and pinching.

Agitation levels were measured daily and by week two, when the treatment began, the physical attack score had fallen to 1.46. By week five, the last week of treatment, the score had fallen to 0.53. In week six, when the treatment had stopped, the figure rose to 2.17.

Verbal attacks, which included repeated questioning and shouting, showed a pre-treatment score of 2.81 in week one, 0.54 in week two and 0.29 in week five. By week six it had risen to 1.36.

Similar patterns were recorded for non-physical and non-verbal agitation, which included wandering, stealing, undressing and tearing things.

Wandering aimlessly was measured using pedometers. This reduced from an average of 5,368 steps a day in week one to 2,611 in week five. By week six it had risen again to 3,374.

Patients received acupressure based on five key pressure points - Fengchi (GB 20), Baihui (Du 20), Shenmen (He 7), Niguan (Pe 6) and Sanyinjiao (Sp 6) - after a short warm-up session which consisted of holding, rubbing and pressing the palms and finger joints on both hands.

Each acupressure point was pressed for two minutes using three to five kilograms of pressure.

"Our study showed that providing patients with acupressure twice-daily for five days a week significantly reduced agitated behaviour and wandering" says Professor Lin.

"This has important implications for the future care of dementia patients as it provides an effective option that, following training, can be carried out at home or in long-term care facilities."

Acupuncture may be effective in treating Parkinson's

2007-01-25T01:47:00.000+08:00

Acupuncture may be effective in treating Parkinson's

From Dailyindia.com:

London, Jan. 23 (ANI): South Korean researchers say that acupuncture, a traditional Chinese medicine technique of inserting and manipulating needles into various points on the body, may be effective in treating the type of brain inflammation suffered by patients with Parkinson's disease.

Lead researcher Sabina Lim at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and her colleagues used a standard mouse model of Parkinson's disease, in which injections of a chemical known as MPTP kill off brain cells that manufacture dopamine.

Some of the injected mice were then administered acupuncture every two days in two spots, one behind the knee and one on top of the foot, the points which in humans could potentially be seen as targets for treatment of Parkinson's.

Another group of mice received acupuncture in two spots on the hips, not believed to be effective for acupuncture, while a third group had no acupuncture at all.

By the end of seven days, the MPTP injections had decreased dopamine levels both in the mice that not receiving acupuncture, and those who received it to about half the normal amount. But in the acupuncture-treated group, dopamine levels declined much less steeply, and nearly 80 per cent of the dopamine remained.

Lim says that the mechanism behind this effect is still unknown, but she and her team suspect that because inflammation in the brain often accompanies and worsens other symptoms of Parkinson's disease, acupuncture might maintain dopamine levels by preventing inflammation.

They have already performed a clinical trial of acupuncture in humans with Parkinson's disease, but the sample size was not large enough to verify that there was a definite effect.

"The bottom line," Nature magazine quoted Lim as saying, "is that, even though Parkinson's patients are treated with acupuncture therapies in Korea, it is difficult to say that it can 'cure' the disease."

Ruth Walker, a movement disorders researcher at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, said that using acupuncture to treat Parkinson's would also mean diagnosing the disease early enough.

"Parkinson's doesn't even manifest until you have lost a large proportion of dopamine cells," she said.

The study has been published in Brain Research1. (ANI)

Comment: This is personal for me. My dad has Parkinson's.

Ancient medicine all the buzz in modern China

2007-01-23T19:02:00.000+08:00

The article

BEIJING (Reuters) - With doctors urging amputation to stop the gangrene spreading upwards from his toes, Liu Guorong was skeptical when a friend said bee venom might save his foot.
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"I was doubting this place," the 58-year-old diabetes sufferer said in a raspy voice during a visit to the Xizhihe Traditional Medicine Hospital on the outskirts of Beijing.

"When I got here, I had no idea what I was doing and what the bee sting treatment was all about."

As Liu found out, it was painful.

Bees were placed on his foot and provoked to sting him in a bid to rejuvenate the blackened, rotting flesh by flooding it with a rush of protein-rich blood.

A folk remedy for treating arthritis, back pain and rheumatism for 3,000 years in China, practitioners say that such pinpointed stings can repair damaged cells, stave off bacteria and ease inflammation.

Doctors at Xizhihe hospital believe they can even cure liver ailments, diabetes and cancers.

They admit, however, that they do not really know how it works.

"Our knowledge has increased over the years," said Xu Xiaowang, Xizhihe hospital director.

"But there are still large areas that are unknown to us all... There are too many unanswered questions," Xu said.

Western-trained doctors dismiss the treatment as unscientific and dangerous.

"It's alternative medicine and has no basis in western medical science... I would doubt its efficacy," Professor Christopher Lam, a chemical pathologist at the Chinese University in Hong Kong said.

"People allergic to bee stings can develop hypersensitivity reactions like a sudden drop in blood pressure, swelling of the airways, cold sweats... it may be life threatening," Lam said.

Hazy science notwithstanding, at 20 yuan (about $2.50) a sting, the treatment offers a cheap alternative to mainstream medicine.

"Doctors at other hospitals were telling me that they needed to cut my foot off," Liu said. "I'd spent loads of money."

Liu has been to Xizhihe several times to get stung and is now on a course of orally-taken bee venom medication. He now expects to keep his foot.

"The flesh is growing back ... I'm feeling better," Liu said.

DYING TRADITION

Bee venom is just one of an exhaustive catalog of ancient folk remedies involving bugs, herbs, animal parts and massage that make up traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Incorporating elements of mysticism and based on a philosophy developed several thousand years ago, TCM is regarded as an alternative medicine in the West, but in China it remains a central plank of modern health care.

About 3,000 private clinics provided TCM treatments to more than 230 million people in 2005. Health officials say it generated 95 billion yuan that year -- more than a quarter of the medical industry's total income -- and revenues have grown an average 20 percent a year over the past decade.

The government, sensing an export-driven cash cow, plowed 740 million yuan into research and development last year in a bid to bolster TCM's scientific credibility and standing in Western markets where alternative remedies are increasingly welcomed.

And yet, domestically, TCM is in free-fall.

Once the only player in the market, economic reforms have ushered in foreign drugs and foreign-trained doctors, forcing a showdown between modern Western practices and ancient Eastern pragmatism.

Between 2000-2004, TCM's share of prescription drug income declined by nearly a quarter, state media reported.

Increasingly spurned by China's time-poor youth, TCM is also under siege from academics who deem it unscientific and of dubious medical benefit.

Zhang Gongyao, a scientist at Central South University in Changsha, capital of China's central Hunan province, created a media storm in October after he posted an essay on his personal blog urging the government to strike TCM from the official medical registry.

PAIN RELIEF

Western medicine, however, let alone basic health care, is a luxury many of the country's 1.3 billion people cannot afford.

Fees at state-run hospitals, robbed of funding after deregulation in the 1990s, have soared in recent years, while individual spending on health care nearly doubled from 1978 to 2002, according to health ministry statistics.

Beijing has pledged to spend more on basic health services, but expensive public health care ensures a steady stream of customers to small, private clinics like Xizhihe -- where relief may be as cheap as a few beestings.

Lu Jiumei, a middle-aged woman with rheumatism, made the three-hour journey to Xizhihe from her home-town in Hebei province to get bee venom therapy.

"I don't think this could be harmful to the body in terms of side effects. I have been treated a few times now," she said.

She grimaced as an angry bee deposited its salutary sting into her leg. But a few moments later, a smile broke out on her face.

"My pain is relieved a lot and it's going away," she said, patting a freshly swollen mound on her thigh.

Just a few comments: Why doesn't anyone ever mention that Zhang Gongyao is NOT a medical doctor, NOT a biologist, NOT a chemist, NOT a pharmacist, NOT even a medical anthropologist. He is a professor, true, but in the Southeast University of Changsha's SCHOOL OF POLITICS AND ADMINISTRATION. Here is his profile from the school's site:

Zhang Gongyao's Profile

Comment on Article: Poking holes in acupuncture theory

2007-01-15T21:32:00.000+08:00

http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=1739
At first glance, the title of this article seems to tell us that the author is attacking acupuncture. However, upon further reading, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the author, Dr. Mark Kestner, is NOT bashing acupuncture per se. On the other had, he actually acknowledges that it works!

So what is Kestner's beef? He believes that the ancient Chinese way of explaining pathophysiology and treatment is difficult for the western mind to understand. Actually, I agree. Granted, his presentation of Chinese medical theory in the article is oversimplified, but I agree with his assessment that Chinese medical theory is difficult to comprehend for the conventional western doctor.

Difficult, but not impossible.

I decided to comment on this article and link to it because I believe that this is the proper attitude with regards to western doctors looking at acupuncture. Dr. Kestner is basically saying, "Hey, I don't get how it works, and maybe I can never swallow the Chinese traditional explanation. But heck, it works, so we shouldn't rule it out. In the meantime, let's do more research into the mechanisms of how acupuncture works!"

Kudos to Dr. Kestner. Unlike a certain medscape genmed editor, Kestner is not so blind that he ignores all the evidence that shows the effectiveness of acupuncture. Kestner's attitude is similar to that of the ancient Christian saint who uttered, "I do not seek to understand so that I may believe, but I believe that I may understand." What this means is that Kestner believes despite not understanding, yet hopes to understand in the future.

Non-prescription Compound Found In Chillies Destroys Cancer Tumours Safely

2007-01-12T11:43:00.000+08:00

UK scientists have shown that capsaicin, the chemical that burns your mouth when you eat chillies and an active ingredient of over the counter drugs, can kill cancer cells with little or no harmful side-effects.

The study is published in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.

The team that conducted the research came from the Universities of Nottingham in England and Cardiff, in Wales, and was led by Dr Timothy Bates, who is a member of the Medical Research Council (MRC) College of Experts.

The researchers believe that capsaicin, and other similar compounds, attack the mitochondria of cancerous cells, causing them to "switch off" and die (apoptosis, or cell death) without harming surrounding tissue. Mitochondria are organelles (tiny granules of tissue with their own DNA) that live inside the cells of our bodies and convert nutrients into ATP - the chemical fuel that feeds our cells with energy.

Dr Bates, who is an international expert in anti-cancer drug development and mitochondrial research in particular, said this discovery might explain the low incidence of cancer in countries where they eat a lot of chillies like Mexico and India.

From a development view this discovery is exciting for two reasons. First, because capsaicin and related compounds already exist in food that is eaten regularly, they are already safe, readily available and not unknown. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly as far as development costs and timescales go, these compounds have already been approved for use in a range of drugs such as skin ointments to treat psoriasis and neuralgia. Converting their use to treat cancer would be much cheaper and quicker compared to starting from scratch with a new compound.

Dr Bates and his colleagues tested the capsaicin on H460 human lung cancer cells, which is recognised as the "gold standard" for new anti-cancer drugs. However, they also tested similar compounds on pancreatic cancer cells and found the same effect - the tumour cells died off leaving the surrounding tissue intact. This is a very exciting result because pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of less than one per cent and is currently one of the most stubborn cancers to treat.

The study that led to this discovery is the first to emerge from a newly formed Nottingham UK-China Collaboration on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NUKCAM). The collaboration has members from the University of Nottingham and the Chinese National Academy of Sciences, for example Professor De-An Guo, who is head of the Shanghai Research Centre for the Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Prof Guo is working with Dr Bates to discover why traditional Chinese medicines are successful in treating cancer and other diseases.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is considered an alternative medicine in the west. But in China it is an important part of the public health care system.

The last twenty or so years have seen an increasing interest on the part of the West and China to come together and explore this wealth of knowledge that dates back thousands of years. The main thrust of joint projects, like this one, is to examine the theories and uses of TCM using western scientific methods and tools.

Another important milestone in this East-West collaboration will be when The World Health Organization's (WHO) initiative to to standardize TCM nomenclature reaches conclusion. It is said to be in its final phases, and there is a paper on this by Tony Reid in the The Journal of Chinese Medicine.

As lovers of Sichuan food and dishes will know, chillies do feature prominently in the Chinese diet, and apart from adding fire and flavour are believed by local followers of Chinese medicine to help ward off the ills caused by their damp and muggy climate.

Phil's Comments: Chili peppers are good, but too much can still irritate your gastric mucosa.

Traditional healing arts under attack in modern China

2007-01-10T12:47:00.000+08:00

Traditional healing arts under attack in modern China
ONLINE PETITION TO REMOVE PROTECTED STATUS IGNITES FUROR
By Mark Magnier
Los Angeles Times

XIKOU, China - The fur is flying, not to mention the acupuncture needles, the herbs and the $15,000-a-pound bull gallstones.

China's ancient healing arts, as integral to national identity as the Great Wall or steamed dumplings, have become embroiled in the country's struggle to balance tradition and modernity.

A professor at a regional university kicked off the controversy in October with an online petition calling for traditional medicine to be stripped from the Chinese constitution. It has a protected status that, in theory, guarantees it equal footing with its Western counterpart.

Zhang Gongyao and fellow critics have blasted Chinese medicine as an often ineffective, even dangerous, derivative of witchcraft that relies on untested concoctions and obscure ingredients to trick patients, then employs a host of excuses if the treatment doesn't work.

For adherents of the 3,000-year-old system, this borders on heresy.

The Health Ministry labeled Zhang's ideas ``ignorant of history,'' and traditionalists have called the skeptics traitors bent on ``murdering'' Chinese culture.

Ironically, the firestorm dovetails with a growing embrace of Chinese medicine abroad as an antidote to the perceived soulless, money-obsessed nature of Western health care.

A Chinese government delegation on a recent visit to California said the United States could surpass China soon as the best place to learn traditional medicine, said Lixin Huang, president of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco, the nation's oldest such graduate program.

Since 1949, the number of traditional doctors trained in China has fallen by nearly half to 270,000, while the number of Western-trained doctors has jumped twentyfold to more than 1.7 million.

Criticism that traditional medicine is not scientific dates centuries. But Zhang's remedies -- an end to national insurance coverage for traditional medicine, rigorous scientific standards and obligatory Western training for traditional doctors -- have hit a nerve at a time when traditional Chinese medicine is increasingly on the defensive.

Although Chinese schools pump out thousands of traditional medicine graduates each year, nearly half never practice -- they chose the specialty because other departments were full.

A common criticism of Chinese medicine involves its often-unregulated ingredients.

``Many herbal medicines considered innocuous are actually very toxic,'' said Fang Zhouzi, a biochemist, columnist and founder of a Web site that targets academic fraud. ``But practitioners and proponents cover this up using various excuses.''

The Food and Drug Administration banned products marketed as Chinese herbal medicine during the 1970s and '80s after they were implicated in several deaths. In 2004, the FDA issued a ban on the herb ephedra after it was linked to heart attacks and strokes.

Chinese traditional experts blame misuse. They point to guan mu tong, which has been used for centuries to treat urinary tract infections. Problems surfaced only when Westerners used it incorrectly as part of a weight-loss therapy, they say.

Nor are Western drugs free of powerful side effects, others counter.

Chinese medicine's use of endangered animal and plant ingredients also has been cause for concern. Officially, China forbids trading in the items, but rising incomes and old habits threaten species worldwide.

Only about 30 Chinese tigers, hunted for their bones and other parts, remain in the wild, experts estimate, compared with tens of thousands a few decades ago. Tiger parts are used for rheumatism and to increase virility.

Eclecticdoctor.com

2007-01-10T12:44:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Google and Blogger's cooperation, I can now use my eclecticdoctor.com domain name directly with blogger's services without having to worry about webspace! Just like with Google's domain services, Blogger does the hosting while I just point the domain to blogger.

Now if only templates were easier to customize (hint hint!)

At the same time, I've decided to reserve eclecticdoctor.com's use for news and commentaries about Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I'm going to be coming up with a different personal blog soon.

Happy New Year 2007!

2007-01-09T20:23:00.000+08:00

...albeit a little late, here are my new year greetings! More updates as soon as I feel energetic enough to type them...

Time to needle the Zusanli point...

Merck to "pirate" Traditional Chinese Medicine compounds to develop new drugs

2006-12-18T19:35:00.000+08:00

German pharmaceutical giant Merck announced last week that it would collaborate with a Chinese pharmaceutical company to develop new cancer drugs based on traditional Chinese herbs and botanical medicines.

Hong Kong-based Chi-Med -- a pharmaceutical firm that develops consumer health products from natural ingredients used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) -- said it will team with Merck to find potential cancer drugs among roughly 10,000 herbal TCM compounds. However, critics say the partnership will only serve to allow Merck to generate more profits from "pirated" natural plant chemicals sold as expensive pharmaceuticals.

Consumer health advocate Mike Adams, author of "Take Back Your Health Power," said Merck's partnership with Chi-Med would result in the company locating, copying and patenting chemicals found in Chinese herbs, then selling them as prescription drugs.

"When Chinese firms steal intellectual property from the United States, we call it piracy, but when drug companies acquire medical know-how from Chinese medicine, it's called research," Adams said. "But let's be clear here -- I don't believe Merck is about to start promoting Chinese herbal cures for anything.

"Merck is most likely looking for molecules it can identify, modify and patent as pharmaceuticals," he said. "If it finds anything that works, the medicines will likely be sold as Western drugs, not Chinese medicine, and the FDA will continue its assault on herbal medicine even as it approves drugs based on herbal medicine."

Ulrich Betz, head of strategic innovation and research portfolio management at Merck, said the company is eager to begin a "productive collaboration" with Chi-Med. "It will allow us to extend our interaction with the emerging Chinese pharmaceutical indus
try that builds on longstanding tradition and knowledge combined with modern scientific technology," he said.

Merck's collaboration is one of many attempts by Western pharmaceutical companies to increase their presence in China. Swiss drug firm Novartis recently announced plans to open a $100 million Western research and development facility in Shanghai.

However, Adams says rich Western pharmaceutical companies will take advantage of the generosity and cost-effectiveness of TCM therapies.

"In my opinion, this [collaboration] is nothing more than greedy corporations exploiting the generous, open-source nature of Chinese medicine," Adams said. "It is the Western world's piracy of Eastern wisdom, and it is only being done because drug companies have realized that Western-developed medicines are far more dangerous, and don't work nearly as well as Chinese medicine."

This is both good and bad. It's good that western drug companies finally recognize the efficacy of Chinese medicine, but bad in more ways. First, Merck will just make kaboodles of money out of it, and second, no way that guys like Wallace Sampson and Stephen Barrett will use this bit of news to admit the positive power of Chinese Medicine. In fact, they will conveniently ignore this information and suck up to Merck by merely stating that they developed newer, "modern" drugs.

In addition, the western mind is again forgetting that the power of Chinese medicine is not in the ingredients, the individual chemicals. It's also how they work in harmony with each other. That's why individual herbs may falter but as a team, they work well. Also, the more western Chinese Medicine becomes, the more the importance of Syndrome Differentiation and individualized treatment is lessened.

An Open Letter to Fr. James B. Reuter, SJ

2006-12-06T12:25:00.000+08:00

Dear Father Reuter,

I am writing to you based on the statements you have been making regarding the Subic rape case. I hope you still remember me. I interviewed you in 1992 and you told my mother you were impressed with my understanding of media. I met you again in Europe in 1999 and you were happy to see me. Please do not be offended by what I am about to say.

I think that while offering spiritual guidance to the accused (I will not say "convicted rapist and the acquitted, since you deemed the trial a farce), is a magnificent and holy deed, the remarks you have made to the media are, in my humble opinion, out of place. I quote:

"I think that these boys were tried by headline, they were tried by the media, and the media went with the first ghastly headlines, which were not true, " he said.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-12-04-voa13.cfm

Is this not the same media that you have been a part of all these years? The same media you yourself champion and work with? Forgive me for saying so, but are these not the words of a sore loser? Had the verdict gone the other way, would publicly say the same thing?

I would like to point out that I myself started monitoring this trial with a neutral mind. For a while, "Nicole's" behavior led me to doubt her story. But gradually, the testimony of my teachers in the UP-PGH: Dr. Raquel Fortun and Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go tilted the balance in favor of "Nicole". Still, I am not a lawyer. I am a doctor. Leave the medicine to me and the legalities to the attorneys and the decisions to the judge.

The judge weighed the evidence. He came to a conclusion. I'm sure it was painful but he had to do what he thought was right given the evidence.

And you have the gall to publicly call the trial a farce. Yet, were you not the one painting a rosy picture of the accused as sweet, innocent victims and basically calling "Nicole" a slut who seduced them? And to the very mass media you now blame for this so-called travesty! UP law students monitored online blogs and found that majority of them thought "Nicole" was a loose woman who had it coming. No doubt these opinions were given fuel by you in your statements.

This is a free society. However, rights end when others are trampled upon. The fact is your boy admitted sex with a woman too drunk to stand up. This is backed up by witnesses who have nothing to gain. You are free to think what you want but not to question the credibility of others such as Judge Pozon and the witnesses who came forward.

I'm sorry, Father Reuter, but I must unapologetically say this: I am disappointed by how you let the soldiers indirectly use you to manipulate the media.

I still admire you, Father. I still consider you a hero. However, I beg you to redeem myself in my eyes.

Seppukku or Japanese ritual suicide is ludicrous. All you need do for me, and for your adopted country, is to temper your words and be silent when you have nothing appropriate to say.

I remain your friend,

Philip Nino Tan-Gatue, MD.

ASEAPS Lecture

2006-12-02T20:34:00.000+08:00

Today I gave a lecture on behalf of Dr. Ed (whose blog is linked to on the sidebar) for the First ASEAPS (Association of South East Asian Pain Societies) Congress. It was held in Philippine Plaza Hotel.

I admit I felt honored and a little ego-boosed by Dr. Ed's asking me to take his place. I mean, the guy knows dozens of acupuncturists. Of all of them, he asked me to do it. Either he thinks I'm good enough or he realizes I can still be ordered around, heh heh.

Either way, it was a fun experience, to talk about Acupuncture to other pain specialists. Meeting and chatting with Kit Navarro was a pleasure, as well.

Five Phases Sentai!

2006-11-23T22:36:00.000+08:00

For those not in the know, sentai refers to the genre of japanese kiddie shows wherein five multicolored spandex clad superheroes fight as a team against an evil empire. Power Rangers is a collection of americanized sentai. In the Philippines, Bioman is the classic example.

Next year's sentai is rumored to be Beast Fist Squadron Gekiranger. And their theme is the five phases or five elements of Chinese philosophy! These five phases are very significant in Chinese medicine as well.

Exerpt from Wikipedia:

* GekiRed will represent Mars (火星, Kasei, lit. the "Fire Star"), and practice Dragon Kung Fu.
* GekiBlue will represent Mercury (水星, Suisei, lit. the "Water Star"), and practice Snake Kung Fu.
* GekiYellow will represent Jupiter (木星, Mokusei, lit. the "Wood Star"), and practice Leopard Kung Fu.
* GekiBlack will represent Saturn (土星, Dosei, lit. the "Earth Star"), and practice Tiger Kung Fu.
* GekiPink will represent Venus (金星, Kinsei, lit. the "Metal Star"), and practice Crane-style.

I'm loving it already.

RIP, Ken Ishikawa

2006-11-22T12:03:00.000+08:00

I got this news a bit late, but I still have to write my thoughts.

Ken Ishikawa is mostly unknown among non Japanese, but to fans of GETTER ROBO, this is a great loss. GO NAGAI is familiar as the creator of the Super Robot genre, illustrating and writing MAZINGER Z.

But for Getter Robo, Go tapped his friend Ken Ishikawa to do the illustrations. And I dare say Ishikawa is responsible for making Getter Robo on par with Mazinger.

Here is an article on Getter Robo that I wrote for Japan Hero. You can see some stills from the 1974 anime and some artwork by Ishikawa. Ironically, I had forgotten to mention Ishikawa in this review... Anyway I was writing about the ANIME not the manga...

GETTER SHINE!

Chinese Medicine Guild

2006-11-19T12:33:00.000+08:00

Don't forget to visit the Chinese Medicine Guild!

Ranking Bond

2006-11-19T00:20:00.000+08:00

Respectfully disagreeing with EW, here are my rankings

20) Die Another Day - tried too hard to be a "tribute" movie... and fails. It just rehashes old plots - Lasers in space? see Diamonds Are Forever. Surgical appearance change by villain? same movie.
19) A View to A Kill - Christopher Walken is great, but Roger is just TOO old here.
18) The World is Not Enough - that's not how brain damage works...
17) The Man with the Golden Gun - I'm a Knick fan, but not a Nick Nack fan.
16) Tomorrow Never Dies - Jonathan Pryce tries...
15) Live and Let Die - Too soon after Connery.
14) Diamonds Are Forever - Charles Gray as Blofeld... ugh.
13) Octopussy - I slept through it.
12) The Living Daylights - not suited for Dalton's talents, and that whistle thing...
11) Moonraker - Jaws is back. But he becomes a joke.
10) Goldeneye - the best of the Brosnan movies, which isn't saying much.
9) You Only Live Twice - Connery was tired of playing Bond this time, and it shows.
8) Doctor No - here only because the franchise is still raw at this point.
7) For Your Eyes Only - loved the realistic spy story
6) The Spy Who Loved Me - Great sets! Great car! (Lotus Esprit)
5) Thunderball - the height of spymania in the sixties.
4) Licence to Kill - I like gritty, vengeful Bonds.
3) On Her Majesty's Secret Service - underrated.
2) Goldfinger - this is THE prototype Bond movie.
1) From Russia With Love - It's Sean's favorite. It's mine too.

Casino Royale

2006-11-17T21:42:00.000+08:00

I won't say much. I won't spoil it. All I will say is this.

This is the way Ian Fleming meant James Bond to be. Daniel Craig is no Sean Connery, and I admit this movie would be PERFECT if a young Connery played the lead. However, Craig holds his own, and makes Pierce Brosnan seem like a pussycat.

This movie has more twists than the Cretan Labyrinth and more climaxes than a porno movie.

Bond is BACK.

Too Much Fun

2006-11-17T15:52:00.000+08:00

I'm having too much fun playing with the page elements, har har.

Blogger Reborn Again

2006-11-14T20:53:00.000+08:00

First came Yahoo beta, then Yahoo mail beta, and now Blogger beta.

Okay, so Yahoo doesn't own Blogger - Google does, but everyone is upgrading their services. I'm glad that Blogger's made it easier to customize page elements. No doubt, this is an answer to Wordpress' similar features.

Of course, it necessitated my switching to blogspot hosting as opposed to using the page on my own server. I don't mind.

American Accent

2006-11-09T22:30:00.000+08:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.
The Midland
The Northeast
The South
The Inland North
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Wind and Water

2006-10-02T10:51:00.000+08:00

Given the past few days' events: huge storm, trees falling down, power outages (My cable internet provider is still on the brink), and general chaos - the words Feng Shui (literally wind and water) came to mind. Feng Shui is seen by many as a method of "geomancy" or using geographical landmarks et al for "fortune telling" or "ensuring good luck."

In reality, the basic concept of feng shui is that of adapting to the environment. If there is a river there, or a hill, or a forest - nature's Qi led those structures to be formed there. To be in harmony with nature means to adapt to the environment, not bulldoze it for convenience's sake.

I can't help but wonder if storms are nature's retribution for our abuse of the Earth and our own bodies?

Wind and water. One couldn't help but think of them during the howling storm.

Reactions to Wallace Sampson

2006-09-24T15:18:00.000+08:00

Specific Reactions to Wallace Sampson's comments

"There are two major misconceptions about acupuncture, Sampson says, and both contribute to the misunderstanding of its worth as medical treatment. First, most people assume that it's an ancient Chinese cure that has existed, unchanging, for centuries. Not so, says Sampson, noting that "acupuncture was formalized in a complex way over the past 100 years, mostly in Europe and France and after the Communist takeover in China. Before that time there was no consistent formalization of acupuncture points or what each place was supposed to do. It was largely regional, and the thinking varied from city to city."

Comment: no one assumes that Acupuncture has gone unchanged for centuries. Like western medicine, it has gone through trial and error, evolution, and different degrees of standardization. If one is to fault acupuncture for being non standardized, the same argument may be made against western medicine! As for being regional, one must understand that TCM places much more emphasis on environment and diet and lifestyle than western medicine. As those variable vary from city to city, so must treatment. Migraines in the cold north usually have different etiologies than the warm humid south, for example, necessitating different treatment.

"The other mistake people make about acupuncture, Sampson says, is that it offers specific cures. "It is nonspecific," Sampson says. "If it has the effect of, say, releasing endorphins through the application of needles, well, many things release endorphins -- a walk in the woods, a 5-mile run, a pinch on the butt.""

This is a valid attack on acupuncture ONLY if JUST releases endorphins. It doesn't. Can endorphins alone explain stroke recovery?

"Clinically, it has been shown that acupuncture can have counter-irritative effects. The basis for this is simple: If you have a headache and someone applies pressure through needles to your arms and neck, you get distracted from your headache. "It has no effect on disease process," Sampson says, "but it can affect perception of symptoms through these nonspecific devices, such as attention diversion or the desire of the patient to please the treater and feel benefits."

Again, such ideas are INSULTING to the patient. Acupuncture can relieve pain that the pills cannot. Who are we to deny that it works? I treat patients with acupuncture and there are indeed tangible results such as lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels. A person wish frozen shoulder can have IMMEDIATE and LASTING relief sometimes just after one session. It would be a tragic slap in the patient's face to say this is only due to him wanting to "please the treater".

""I look at it this way: what if acupuncture didn't exist?" he says. "Would medicine or society be any worse off? If no one knew about it, nothing would change. You would still have ways to apply counter-irritation, through massage or rubbing."

If acupuncture didn't exist, then many people would have kidney and liver failure from too much drugs. People would spend more time and money on rehabilitation for stroke. And more people can't sleep well at night.

"In general, he says, one of the biggest problems with the whole notion of "ancient Chinese medicine" is that it falsely pits itself against "Western medicine."

In reality, it is the bigots such as Sampson who falsely pits Chinese medicine with Western Medicine. Many people like myself integrate the two disciplines with little problems - most coming from the aforementioned bigots. I work in the Philippine General Hospital. I work in a Rehabiliation Clinic. No clashes so far! In fact, I can help keep stroke patients compliant with therapy!

"Western medicine, on the other hand, has grown up as the world rejected those ancient notions."

I ask, so why are so many patients and practitioners embracing these "ancient notions" again?

Acupuncture Useless?

2006-09-24T15:00:00.000+08:00

Wallac e Sampson says Acupuncture is Useless

Closed-minded bigots like Wallace Sampson have made a living working to deny ordinary people the benefits of complementary practices such as acupuncture. He even goes to trivialize the complaints that patients feel can be treated by acupuncture. In my opinion, he insults and belittles patients who really find relief in complementary medicine. Even worse, he does so while turning a blind eye to the continuing downpour of evidence that supports the use of acupuncture to treat diseases which he himself with his western medicines have difficulty making progress in.

Here is an example:
Fibromyalgia Symptoms Respond to Acupuncture

Millions use alternative medicine to get to sleep

2006-09-24T14:51:00.000+08:00

Excerpt:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- One in six Americans frequently have difficulty falling asleep, and 4.5 percent of them use some type of alternative medicine to treat their sleeping problems, a new study shows.

"Most respondents who used herbal therapies or relaxation techniques found these therapies helpful for managing their insomnia or trouble sleeping," Dr. Nancy J. Pearson and colleagues from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Pearson and her team analyzed information from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey to find out how common sleeping difficulties were and how often people used alternative techniques to treat them.

Of those surveyed, 17.4 percent reported that, over the past 12 months, they regularly had difficulty falling asleep or suffered from insomnia.

The researchers found that 4.5 percent of those with sleeping troubles, or an estimated 1.6 million people, are using complementary and alternative medicine to help themselves sleep better.

Herbs and relaxation exercises were the remedies most commonly used. About 60 percent of those who used alternative medicine for insomnia said they told their doctor they had done so. Alternative medicine use was more common among younger people, and among more educated individuals.

Anyway you can click on the above link to see the rest.

Funny how it's the "More educated" who are open minded about Complementary Medicine. What does that say about the biased ramblings of the closed minded "doctors"?

Another Day, Another Lecture

2006-09-13T21:42:00.000+08:00

This time it was to a third year nursing class at the Bulacan State University College of Nursing.

Lost And Found

2006-08-31T07:07:00.000+08:00

Now it can be told.

My phone was stolen last Friday.

Right under my nose.

Near my Makati Clinic.

After moping for a while, I realized that it was time to move on.

I decided to get a cheap phone and a used palm. After all, all I needed palm wise was a unit that could store my TCM databases.

I was busy all day saturday with patients, so I went to Greenhills, a place known for cellphones and electronic gadgetry, on Sunday.

Lo and behold, There sat my Treo for sale!

Suffice it to say that I got it back without paying a dime or too much hassle.

Thank you, Saint Anthony.

More quotes

2006-08-25T11:42:00.000+08:00

"To be great is to be misunderstood."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes I'd like to Share

2006-08-25T09:02:00.000+08:00

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.

Thomas J. Watson

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.

Hippocrates (460 BC - 377 BC)

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.

Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931)

Medscape editorial

2006-08-22T23:39:00.000+08:00

I wish to comment on Dr. sampson's statements and then answer with some of my own. For the record I am a MD from the University of the Philippines who has incorportated TCM into his own practice.

Advocates of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) say that TCM cannot be evaluated through "Western" judgment because TCM differs in tradition and orientation.[1] This mystery can be dispelled by examining TCM history objectively.

I answer that: To compare Western medicine with TCM, ayurveda, or any other form of complementary medicine is like comparing Catholic and Protestant doctrine: one will invariably run into a clash in terminology and philosophy. Let me illustrate using a Catholic/Protestant example. For Protestants, the word "worship" usually means offering praise through song and scripture reading. So for a Protestant, Catholics really worship saints and Mary. For Catholics, "worship" means offering the Blessed Sacrament to God the Father in Mass, so when a Catholic says he does not worship Mary, the Catholic is right using HIS terminology.
Another example? Imagine if I were an Englishman and I told an American that I would like to knock her up. I only mean that I want to wake her up, but the American would intepret the same words in a more offensive sense.

Ultimately, the mistake of medical practitioners of different traditions is not that they try to integrate them, but that they try to force their own traditions into another.

This is the same with TCM and Western medicine. Similar terms have dissimilar meanings. The thinking process upon arriving at a diagnosis is different.

TCM developed in a tradition of an authoritarian culture. Independent thinking and argument were discouraged. A tradition of objective science did not develop.[2]

The same authoritarianism can be said of "western" medicine and science before the renaissance. This argument has no bearing here. And besides, is modern medical science, funded by drug companies truly objective? What is being objective? Being objective means looking at the evidence without bias. A patient receives acupuncture and acknowledges a difference. The unbiased observer acknowledges the same difference. A biased supporter may embellish the "result" and I acknowledge that this is wrong. But one is also wrong if one denies the result merely because one does not understand.

Diseases were not described.

One look at the Shang Han Lun, the Pi Wei Lun, or any other TCM text will refute this. Rather, they were not described in the same manner modern western medicine would describe them.

Symptoms and physical characteristics were related only to natural elements and the cosmos.

Hmmm, so a flame, where we get the word "inflammation", is not a natural element? If you fault TCM for describing concepts in terms of natural elements, then western med can fault itself as well.

Ideas conformed to those of the emperor and state. TCM contained no concept of physiology, biochemistry, organ function, heredity, or infectious disease. Tongue and pulse diagnoses were essentially random; therapies based on them were useless -- accepted on authority, not proved.[3]

TCM knew thousands of years before Western medicine did that blood flows through vessels, that kidney failure leads to anemia, and other later "discoveries". Just because TCM terms it's concepts differently does not mean it does not share the same concepts. They understood the relationships between organs. They understood that characteristics were transmitted from parents to children (they called it pre-heaven essence). They knew about infectious disease (but not microorganisms) before Europe did (TCM knew about certain plagues that are transmitted from person to person)

Tongue and pulse diagnoses essentially random? Therapies based on them useless? No more useless than a western doctor trying out all sorts of drugs to lower a person's BP to no avail.

What made TCM therapies appear effective? A collection of nonspecific psychological mechanisms, now known to be sources of error: misdirection, counterirritation (in the case of acupuncture and moxibustion), suggestion, and compliance demand. These observational errors and treater-subject interactions resulted in erroneous post hoc conclusions. Error was compounded by inability to identify error itself or to detect long-term effects. Conditioning and reinforcement, amplified by social pressures, created patient satisfaction and appearance of therapeutic success.[4]

They appear effective because they are effective. Such ideas insult the patient. By that logic, then the patient should respond more to more socially accepted western practices than to the "weird" TCM principles. Sometimes they do respond better to western therapy. However, we should not attribute the success of TCM to mere placebo, because the same can be said of western medicine.

New anthropological findings and China scholars' re-evaluation indicate that acupuncture descended from various informal techniques, not formalized until the 19th and 20th centuries, largely by Europeans[5,6] and in China by the cultural revolution. TCM is not highly regarded by modern Chinese physicians, as 85% or more of medicine there is scientific, and TCM is utilized through self-referral.[7]

Au contraire, there have been standard acupuncture points since the 2nd century, there have been schools of acupuncture and Chinese medicine since the time of Wang Wei Yi's Bronze Tang dynasty acupuncture statues. TCM not highly regarded by modern Chinese physicians? SO WHY DO THEY STUDY IT EVEN IN WESTERN MEDICAL SCHOOLS? WHY ARE THERE INTEGRATED EAST-WEST PROGRAMS IN CHINA? WHY ARE THERE STAFF ACUPUNCTURISTS IN MODERN CHINESE NEUROLOGIC CENTERS?

I get referrals from neurologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, rehab specialists, orthopedic surgeons and internists.

TCM advocates in Western countries alternately propose that acupuncture effects have other scientific explanations, but unless they can prove that it has real effects and does not work through these nonspecific mechanisms that can apply to any method, their claims remain unverified and probably erroneous.

Time and time again, the effect of TCM is demonstrated in front of audiences and through studies. It is just unfortunate that many people choose to IGNORE the evidence or choose only those that support their opinions. I have personally opened many western doctors' eyes to TCM by demonstrating acupuncture publicly using THEIR patients.

That's my opinion. I'm Dr. Wallace Sampson of the MedGenMed Editorial Board.
And this is mine: The truly knowledgeable person knows that no matter how much he knows, he knows that there is much he has yet to know. The true scientist shapes his opinions according to objective observation, not the other way around.

Needles for sale

2006-08-19T21:19:00.000+08:00

Just letting everyone know I'm now selling acupuncture needles. Just contact me for details.

Hong Kong Convention Comments

2006-08-17T22:56:00.000+08:00

I just finished Day 1 of a conference/trade show aimed at promoting the modernization of Chinese medicine. Yes, people, the words "chinese medicine" and "modern" are not mutually exclusives. I came looking for acupuncture gadgets, prepared herbal formulas and medicinal teas. I even got some free samples - heh you think western medicine is the only field with freebies?

And then it's heigh ho heigh ho back home to Manila I go.

YATC (Yet Another Template Change)

2006-08-13T19:15:00.000+08:00

No, folks, this isn't some "I need a new template" binge. The old one used off-site images which have since gone the way of the dodo. Thus, the need for a new template.

mp3 answers

2006-07-29T12:48:00.000+08:00

from garrick...

1.Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense. NO CHEATING!
4. Tag 10 people to play this game too.

+++

• How are you feeling today?
JIKU-Mirai Sentai Timeranger - Kumi Sasaki

• How do your friends see you?
It is Done - John Debney

• Will you get married?
Gun Fight Protect Gear (Saber Rider OST) - Dale Schacker

• What is your best friend's theme song?
Fight! Kamen Rider V3 - Hiroshi Miyauchi

• What is the story of your life?
Kyushuu (Dancougar OST)

• What was high school like?
Ultraman 80, TALIZMAN

• How can you get ahead in life?
Austin Powers Theme

• What is the best thing about your friends?
King of Space, Grendaizer - Isao Sasaki

• What is today going to be like?
Five Hearts with Five Robo - Hironobu Kageyama

• What is in store for this weekend?
The Power of Love - Huey Lewis

• What song describes you?
Fight Jumborg 9! - Masato Shimon

• To describe your grandparents?
Take off to Victory! Dale Schacker

• How is your life going?
Gasshin! God Gravion - Masaaki Endo

• What song will they play at your funeral?
Mazinger Z (Super Robot Spirits 2000) - ALL CAST

• How does the world see you?
Look! Goranger - Isao Sasaki

• Will you have a happy life?
Fire Wars - JAM Project

• What do your friends really think of you?
12 Tasks of Asterix - Gerard Calvi

• Do people secretly lust after you?
Chung Kuo Ren - Andy Lau

• How can I make myself happy?
Build Up! Dekaranger Robo - Takatori Hideaki

• What should you do with your life?
Nageki no Rosario - JAM Project

• Will you ever have children?
DRAGON - JAM Project

More Quickie Updates

2006-07-23T10:26:00.000+08:00

Wow, I've been so busy lately that I haven't really had a chance to write anything meaningful. So... here are some more short blurbs.

...Megamall clinic discussions slow but sure. Still, other alternative offers include a rehab group in Libis and a group in Wilson. Personally I'd prefer Wilson because it's near but I've known the people in Libis for a long time now. I also realize that Libis is near QC, near Pasic, near Marikina and near San Juan.

...Wrote an article published in Tulay magazine. I just wish I had a chance to edit the title they put.

...Due to appear on TV on August 11! Glad is isn't SEPTEMBER 11.

New Personal Record

2006-07-01T22:08:00.000+08:00

26 patients in one day. Ta dah!

In Your FACE!

2006-06-21T20:54:00.000+08:00

This is the nicest NBA Finals I've seen in a long time. Pat Riley has proven he can win a championship without a pre-made team (in your face Phil Jackson!) and Shaq has proven he can win a championship without Kobe-ballhog-adulterer-arrogantasshole-Bryant.

And who remembers Bryant's 81 point game now? Only those delusional enough to think he is anywhere near as good as Jordan.

Or better than Wade.

Wade showed poise, hogged the ball only because he had to, and yet, most importantly, delivered in the clutch. I'm a purist who detests one man scoring shows, but if one man has to score, let it be in the flow of the game, and let his team win.

In your face, Bryant! Hey Jerry Buss! Who should you have kept NOW?

Wow

2006-06-20T20:45:00.000+08:00

Fascinating. The way the dominoes fall.

Last Friday, I gave a brief lecture and demonstration at the Malolos General Hospital. For those not in the know, Malolos is a historical town in Bulacan province a short drive away from Manila.

Today they contacted me and invited me to see patients in their hospital! For acupuncture and Chinese medicine!

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

I can't help but think, "What if I actually put up some SLIDES in that lecture?"

Quickies

2006-06-18T21:59:00.000+08:00

Some short news blurbs:

Hmmm, may finally get San Juan clinic - stay tuned!

Dad had some sweating and loss of balance last Friday. Restarted and then adjusted his herbs and now is back to normal. I just love Chinese medicine.

Saw Dolphy AND Eddie Guttierez today at Peking Garden. Everybody's celebrating Fathers' Day.

The HEAT is on

2006-06-14T23:14:00.000+08:00

Damn damn damn, I missed the grand Miami comeback! The series is now 2-1 in favor of the Mavs, but now we have some excitement!

First Time

2006-06-13T19:44:00.000+08:00

I just delivered my first lecture for the UP College of Medicine today. A few years ago, I never dreamed this moment would be possible. Yet there I was, with a hundred and fifty or so third year medical students awaiting to listen to my every word. At least, those students who were AWAKE were, heh heh.

New Blog Template... Again

2006-06-11T23:24:00.000+08:00

I hope you guys like it. I certainly do.

RIP

2006-06-10T17:30:00.000+08:00

My aunt just died of leptospirosis. We docs all missed it, thinking it was a bad flu.

Can't elaborate anymore. Am still recovering.

Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs

2006-06-05T22:00:00.000+08:00

I thought of the title as I am watching Frasier. Again, they both talk about confusion (tossing and scrambling) and messiness. Well, the mysql table of my wordpress blog screwed up. So here I am back to blogger.

Philip Joins RxPinoy

2006-04-08T09:01:00.000+08:00

I now have my own entry in RxPinoy, the Philippines' online medical directory! Click here to take a peek!

Revamp

2006-04-07T19:45:00.000+08:00

I have decided that keeping a separate website and blog is redundant and so I am restoring the blogger platform to my tan-gatue.net site. The old site and the old blog are still accessible through http://www.tan-gatue.net/portal and http://www.tan-gatue.net/blog respectively.

Birthday Bash

2005-09-28T12:17:00.000+08:00

Last night was my best birthday ever, at least friend wise.

We had agreed to go to this new Peking Duck restaurant and planned to go dutch. Secretly though, I was mulling whether or not to go through with my plan of paying for the meal. Everyone already said I didn't have to pay, but of course I was still considering it. It was my idea to go out, after all.

Then, I saw that the guys bought me this HUGE birthday cake! Let's just say I still have 3/4 of it back in the kitchen after 12 or so people dug into it. Some twice.

After seeing their thoughtfulness, I made my decision. I was going to pay for the feast. I secretly went over to a waitress and paid the bill. Everyone was shocked at what I did.

But nothing prepared me for what happened this morning.

One of my classmates came up to me and stuffed a hundred yuan bill in my pocket. "Take it," he said, "it's for last night."

I was stunned.

Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday To Me

2005-09-27T15:21:00.000+08:00

Cherry (my wife, for you uninitiated) was the first to call me. Just before midnight last night. It's not the same as waking up next to her in the morning, but when you're all alone in a foreign land you take what you can.

My mom called around seven. She made sure to have baby Chiara wide awake so that she could put the phone to her ear. I can imagine her face going bright with anticipation - she just loves playing with her grandma's cellphone ha ha.

By now, all my classmates here in acupuncture class know about my birthday. Kinda sweet that they actually care. It's been so long since I received birthday greetings from classmates. Allan sent me an SMS, except he sent it to my Philippine cellphone number! Good thing Cherry was there to relay the message to me here in China.

My classmates and I are going out tonight. Hope the food is as good as advertised.

More Quick Updates

2005-09-26T16:19:00.000+08:00

Obviously, I'm too tired to even try to come up with a witty entry title.

So here goes:

Am checking out Google's personal portal. Much more streamlined than others.

First day of clinic today. Mr. Lee commended me on the improvements I made in my technique.

Rumors of a Windows treo being released soon. Was buying my Treo 650 a mistake? Still, I'm quite happy with my Treo, so why even think about it? If I wanted a Windows phone, I would've bought an O2.

Birthday tomorrow. First birthday I'll be spending away from ANY family members.

And off I go...

Catching Up

2005-09-25T13:44:00.000+08:00

Okay, now for a bit of catching up. Here are some more briefs to summarize happenings since my last post.

I've decided to make SPR Coffee my coffee shop of choice. Fiore (the old haunt) is just a few minutes walk away from my apartment, but their food and coffee are pricier. I have two choices on going to SPR. A taxi ride costs 9 yuan. I could also spend 1-2 yuan taking the bus, then walking for fifteen minutes down Changbai Road to SPR. Either way, the monetary savings make up for the trip cost. Also, the connection in SPR seems to like me more XD.

I just finished my practical exam (last Thursday) and mid terms (last Friday). I almost aced the practical exam's acupuncture point location part, I did ace the needle insertion part and I gaffed the cupping part. All in all, I got an 85. No news on the mid term results, but I think I did well. Heck, except for the Front Mu points (which conveniently slipped out the back of my mind), the whole thing was easy as pie.

We also discovered the Blue Marlin restaurant and Bar along Taiping Beilu. It has easily supplanted Swede and Kraut as my current favorite foreign (and thus, pricey) restaurant here in Nanjing. The good part is that the food actually seems to be WORTH the extra money. Ultimately, that's what counts - you feel you're getting what you're paying for.

Tomorrow we start clinical work. I end up in the same hospital as before: the Nanjing Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Well, more on that next time.

And I still can't see my blog on blogspot...

Cellular Memory

2005-09-18T09:35:00.000+08:00

Here's some interesting food for thought:

http://www.acupuncture.com/newsletters/m_apr03/main3.htm

It relates ancient Chinese medical theory with, among others, transplant rejection.

Cafe Culture

2005-09-17T12:01:00.000+08:00

Last I checked, I could've sworn I was in the People's Republic of China.

Popular media in the US tends to portray China in ridiculously overblown proportions. In a recent Austin Powers movie, Chinese primary school students were seen dressed in those blue Mao-type suits. To be frank, nobody below the age of sixty wears those anymore. Personally, I think China is a great place to have a suit custom made - exemplary prices and impeccable quality. KFC and McDonald's restaurants are everywhere. I can almost swear that diet coke tastes better here than at home.

Still, I didn't expect this.

I am in an internet cafe right now. Back home, I am used to internet cafes being filled with foreigners or local students doing internet stuff - emails, chats, or what I'm doing now - blogging.

Here where I am now, I am surrounded by young college students. They are up to their necks in online games. To my left is a guy playing Starcraft. To my right is a dude playing some Chinese online RPG.

My sinuses are seething from cigarette smoke. Two rows behind me, some guy is cursing every few minutes, muttering what sounds like "fack".

I don't even want to know what those two scantily dressed ladies down the aisle are doing here.

I guess similar scenes can be found back home in the Philippines. But that's just it. That's back home. Home, where people still dream of being little brown westerners.

Didn't expect a similar culture here in China.

I mean, whatever happened to the famed work ethic Chinese students are supposedly known for? I was once told that Chinese students are so busy with work that they have no social life at all.

Oh I get it! Maybe they're computer majors experimenting on something.

Riiiiiight.

Silly Me

2005-09-15T21:22:00.000+08:00

So I look at my blogger page and see that this blog wasn't updated since August 25. I go ballistic and wonder where my post went. Oh silly me! I forgot to PUBLISH the previous post. Hardy har har.

China Blues

2005-09-07T16:44:00.000+08:00

I'm using the school's internet service now so I'll make this quick.

Great. Found new place. Nice hot piping bath water. Has elevator. Convenient location.

Ugh, no phone, no cable internet. Must find better source for net bytes than this place.

And I still can't read blogspot.

Argh.

More tomorrow.

The Die is Cast

2005-08-25T19:25:00.000+08:00

Just made plans for yet another sojourn into Nanjing, land of salty duck and unpredictable weather. I'll be leaving on September 2 and will be going to Nanjing via Hong Kong (I get a couple hours to shop. Since I know where I want to go already, that's all the time I need.)

The problem with China is that blogspot is blocked by ISPs. Funny thing is, Blogger isn't I'll be able to post regularly, yet be unable to see my own blog!

Bug's Eye

2005-08-11T22:58:00.000+08:00

I don't remember where I had heard of them before, but I'm sure I've read about them somewhere - a brand of urinal that puts a picture of a fly near the bottom. The logic behind the design was deceptively simple. Men would be more motivated to aim right, if they see a bug they can try to drown with their pee.

Well, I saw one of those urinals today at the Crowne Plaza Hotel along Ortigas Avenue.

And yes, I was quite motivated to aim properly.

Unfortunately, I discovered that there's no fun in it unless you can see the bug writhing in agony while drowning in your kidney filtered waste.

So much for hitting the "bug's eye".

Friendster Folly

2005-08-05T14:30:00.000+08:00

I am currently in an Internet Cafe in Greenbelt, Makati City. As part of my cyber-ritual, I logged on to friendster, among other sites. Right after I typed http://www.friendster.com on the browser's navigation bar, I found myself accessing another users' account.

When will people learn to log out? Especially when using a public terminal?

I had learned that lesson the hard way. I put out a warning then, and I am putting out a warning now.

When in public, never, ever, forget to log out.

Formatting FUBARs

2005-07-30T17:59:00.000+08:00

FUBAR means "F---ed Up Beyond All Recognition." Garrick was kind enough to let me know that my blog's sidebar was FUBARed down to the bottom. I had not noticed since I only use the infinitely superior browsers Mozilla and Firefox instead of Internet Exploder (sic). All I had to do to correct it was to bump the offending post (the D&D class one with all the tables) off the main page by making THIS post.

But the question remains: how come the other browsers could read it right while IE couldn't?

Echinacea Examined

2005-07-30T02:02:00.000+08:00

A new study has concluded that echinacea is not effective in treating colds. It was originally used by Native Americans to treat wounds and infections. These days, echinacea is marketed as an immune booster, among other things.

Now what do I think about all this? I believe that it a common mistake in today's world is to assume that all colds are alike. Even western medicine knows that there are thousands of microbes that cause cold and flu symptoms. Sure, getting hit with one virus will render one more able to fight off re-infection (as in Measles or Chicken Pox). But in the cold's case, there's always another bug waiting in line.

For all we know, echinacea is only good for certain types of germs.

Notable too is the Chinese medical concept of common cold symptoms being caused by several combinations of pathological conditions - invasion of external pathogenic factors, blockage of qi flow, etc... Chinese medical treatment and acupuncture point selection depend on analysis of such factors. This translates to the fact that I may needle a patient on one set of points and apply moxibustion here, and needle a whole different set and use no moxibustion in another. It all depends on the perceived pathology behind the cold symptoms. Heck, in Chinese medicine, there are also several different types of migraine - all with different recommended points and herbal decoction recipies.

In plain English - what works for one may not work for some others. Even more so, I believe, if people assume that all colds are alike. I'm not saying the study is wrong - I'm just saying we should keep these perspectives in mind.

Welcome Home, Larry

2005-07-29T11:24:00.000+08:00

That's how the New York Knickerbockers basketball franchise is marketing the recent and highly publicized hiring of their new head coach, Larry Brown. The main angles of the marketing campaign are: Brown is a native New Yorker; Brown is a franchise savior; Brown is a recent NBA Champion.

Nice marketing, but ultimately franchise success is predicated on wins. Especially wins at the end of the season enabing one to bring something else home: the Championship Trophy.

Hope you can bring that home with you, Larry.

Welcome home.

Logo Lunacy

2005-07-28T12:58:00.000+08:00

Like the text, "The Eclectic Doctor"? It's actually an online generated gif file, courtesy of . For the record, I used the X-Files font. It gives a feel of mystery and familiarity at the same time, in my opinion.

The Eclectic Doctor

2005-07-27T16:29:00.000+08:00

This really should be the first post, but what the heck.

After being delightfully tickled by Garrick's blogging prowess, I re-examined my existing blogs. I have one at Xanga, which I consider my "personal" blog, and my "professional" one, also here at blogger.

So why add this one? I guess it's a matter of new identity, new beginning.

No more "Phil's Fiefdom", where the emphasis was that the blog was MY space on the net. "The Eclectic Doctor" is much more appropriate to the image I want to get across cyberspace. I AM eclectic in my approach to nearly everything, and I AM a doctor of medicine.

I'll still be keeping the "professional" one at but that will be for really "formal" stuff.

Rants and raves and general commentaries go here.

What Dungeons and Dragons Class Are You?

2005-07-27T15:24:00.000+08:00

How fitting that I am a Druid, in real life, I'm studying medical acupuncture and herbs!

You scored as Druid.

The fury of the storm, the gentle strength of the morning sun, the cunning of the fox, the power of the bear-all these and more are at the druid's command. The druid however, claims no mastery over nature. That claim, she says, is the empty boast of the city dweller. The druid gains her power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. To trespassers in a druid's sacred grove, to those who feel the druid's the distinction is overly fine.

Wizard

100%

Druid

100%

Cleric

90%

Monk

80%

Paladin

70%

Bard

60%

Ranger

50%

Fighter

50%

Sorcerer

40%

Rogue

30%

Barbarian

20%

What DnD Class Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com