Some of the following information will be posted statically on the forum and here at the top. I wanted to take a moment and emphasize a few points and rules of conduct on ICAMA. As, this is the home of all of those using it, so it should remain an inviting place for all to come and visit.

All discussions should be respectful by all parties participating. All posts which are positioned in an adversarial manner, contain disrespect or inappropriateness will be deleted. If repeated behavior persists, your account will be deleted. This website has been for the purpose of discussing ICAMA philosophy and treatment protocols for IC and it's related conditions with an integrated model of Chinese medicine.

Any questions that are conducted with respect to the amount of education, clinical experience, and success of both ICAMA and Chinese medicine itself will be answered with an equal amount of respect in the spirit of educating and offering insight into health as it relates to IC and Chinese medicine. It is our desire to create and stay in the positive at all times. This too is critical for good health and longevity-including our own!

Medical advice is not to be given from patient to patient, as this may be dangerous given the individual circumstances of each person's uniqueness. We are going to provide. We deliver swift response time to our patients with our emailing service and advice will come quite quickly.

Relating other diagnoses into the paradigm of Chinese medicine is a part of our job at ICAMA. We are interested in educating the public by creating a translation for these modern diagnoses and treatments into ancient concepts that are easy to understand, which have worked for centuries. Issues such as:

-SIBO is the biggest example, which is referred to in Dr. Brizman's dissertation as Low- grade Microbial Translocation

-various bacterial imbalances

-parasitic imbalances

-lyme disease

-various nerve dysfunction

-mast cell proliferation

-mitochondrial dysfunction

-pelvic floor dysfunction

-hormonal imbalances- this is another big one- there is a lot discuss here

There are many types of holistic approaches to health. We are obviously biased toward Chinese medicine, as we feel that what it offers is quite profound. When I first began doing this work almost 20 years ago, some of the treatments they were giving for this condition were really unthinkable. I set upon a path to use the immense body of knowledge about human physiology of those who developed Chinese medicine more than 2,000 years ago and use it in a way that tied in with the contemporary condition of IC. The uniqueness that Chinese medicine brings to this clinical picture is that it allows for the many different patterns of physical body types and imbalances that may fall to this condition. It allows for the variability of one human being different from another. It also allows for the WHY something is occurring rather than it is simply occurring-thus the identification of certain pattern imbalances. In other words—it is not the same as using some other forms of holistic medicine in a Western medicine model by using an herb or supplement to balance out one particular blood level or condition. It seeks to look at the organ system which caused that imbalance so that the body can then not continue to cause that problem repeatedly over time.

Although the dissertation is a bit difficult to get through, it does organize all of this information in a clear manner. For those who found my dissertation too much, I am planning on going through the concepts in an easier manner on my blogs or provide a different space for this. I am unsure which is preferable by me and all those here using this informational site.

While ICAMA does embrace Western testing, it has evolved over the years to be on an as-needed basis as opposed to blanket testing at onset of treatment. We do not believe in creating more expenses up front for our patients with certain tests that will likely render predictable results. Healthcare is a very personal thing and people tend to feel passionately in one direction or the other and we are here to support those personal choices.

We will be joined by two moderators on our chat site which, until now has been completely unmoderated. It was our desire to offer this very confidential space to our patients for the purpose of discussing their treatment and feelings. And confidentiality will continue-we do not read that part of our site. But, there will be moderators in charge of making certain that the climate ICAMA is dedicated to upholding is being maintained by all of those whom are using it.

Our recipe page and product guide will be further upgraded. Should you have recipes to share, please email them to us so that we can post them. We encourage patient participation on this so that

Lastly, we welcome any information you may want to share. Please email us privately and we will post.

Dr.M