Naturalpath

A person's particular condition at a given time is an important consideration in making dietary choices. For example, someone who is recovering from the flu should eat a diet designed to counterbalance the sickness. For a high fever with parched mouth and throat, moisturizing, cooling foods are appropriate, whereas for someone with a fever accompanied by aches and chills, foods that are warming and stimulating would be helpful.

Because changes in climate and season can have a profound effect on our health, Chinese medicine takes these into account as well. A cooling diet of raw, juicy foods would be healthier for most people in the summer when it's hot and dry, while in the cold, damp, windy winter months a warming and enriching diet stokes our internal fire, strengthens our resistance and protects us from the elements.

Acupuncture has been used to treat a variety of illnesses for more than 2,000 years. Acupuncture is a component of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) system of medicine.

As such, a diagnosis based on TCM is generally made prior to the administration of acupuncture needles. This TCM diagnosis, which is much different than diagnosis in Western medicine, is based on a practitioners observation (of the pulse and tongue) and a thorough patient interview. The patient interview is useful for assessing the bodys balance of yin and yang (hot or cold properties), for evaluating deficiency or excess patterns of disease, and for determining the state of the bodys internal organs and channels.

“Chinese medicine is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest system of natural medicine that has existed continuously for over two thousand years. We have records dating back at least two thousand three hundred years, so we know that these practices were being used and developed in very ancient times and have been a part of Chinese culture and Asian civilization in general for millennia.

"Acupuncture, as an example, is a method of healing that is low-tech. It requires very simple implements, and in ancient times people used shards of stone, ceramic pots, pieces of bamboo, or, in the Middle Age, they began to use different metals – iron, copper, gold and silver.

“Whatever the level of technology that the civilization had, they developed very simple tools for stimulating the body to promote a healing response. There’s a great deal of controversy, still, about how acupuncture itself was discovered or invented. But let’s just say that thousands of generations of practitioners and patients have demonstrated without a doubt that this method is effective.

“The fact that it’s so simple in its essence and so low technology to produce the implements makes it a very serviceable method of healthcare for people all over the world. One of our missions has been to promote the use of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine as a system of primary care, particularly in underserved communities throughout the world - and not only in the third world, but also in the United States, where people still don’t have access to health care the way they should”

“Every culture has a way of describing that which animates human life. For the Chinese, the word ‘qi’ is at the heart of Chinese Medicine and the perspective on what health is about.

“Every living thing has qi, and it’s this qi that is enhanced, dispersed and regulated by both Chinese herbs and Acupuncture.

“In my own practice, diet and nutrition can be at the very center of what I’m doing with someone, but not necessarily with everyone.

“If someone comes with an acute injury and is otherwise in perfect health, I would interview them about their diet and their nutrition, but it wouldn’t necessarily require an intervention or an alteration of those habits.

“Many people in this culture that we live in are not eating the right foods for them, and the fact that they’re not eating the right foods for them is causing them discomfort, pain and suffering. We can’t proceed until we begin to deconstruct what they’re doing, experiment with other ways to eat, and see what effect that has. “

All of medicine is detective work. When I’m working with someone I’m entering into a partnership to do that detective work with them in the context of their life and their body.”