June 2015
I was thinking today, one of the very fascinating things about Chinese medicine is how you can have a group of people with the same exact set of symptoms whom require completely different treatments. How the exact kind of treatment will make different people feel awful depending on their fundamental balance causing the issue. In looking up any problem in chinese medicine, it is always further differentiated according to syndrome in Chinese terminology.
Wind, in Chinese medicine is used as a term for a few different things. One use of this word is to describe various presentations of colds or flus. The word Wind is used in combination with terms that fruther define the type of Wind (or cold or flu). Among others, we use terms such as Wind Cold, Wind Heat, Wind Damp to define the symptoms of the attack so that we can then determine what is needed to treat the condition.
OK so, I just spent a half an hour on a whole other piece to this post about Wind attacking the body and that being the term used in viral attacks and it got erased. I will try again tomorrow, as I have to go. This was the supportive piece to it-so I will leave it here for part one. So sorry-it is not quite complete.
I had a conversation yesterday with a patient. Quite interesting. She is a patient who has done really well over her time with me. Her intense burning has been chipped away at over time and she has managed no burning tp quite low levels depsite her continued sweet eating. If she would be able to stop it-she would not have any incidence of even low levels here and there that she has. However, that is not what is interesting.
This is a great article on raw milk. http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/microphotography-of-raw-and-processed-milk/
Yesterday afternoon I took a walk on the beach with an old friend. She was asking me about the work that we do. As I was recounting how it all developed, I remembered how incredible and important it is. I remembered the first time I read about Chinese medicine and how I fell in love with it. Even though I had spent a very long time -I think about three years studying western anatomy and physiology. When I opened that first book on Chinese medicine- it just all made sense even though it was written in a "language" with very foreign terminology.
One thing I have realized I have not mentioned is this kefir cheese in the picture. It is loaded with probiotics and is delicious. We eat this often in our family and it is something that I always froget to mention to people. For those of you at the end of list three-remind me and ask if it might be appropriate for you! Or for those of you eating yoghurt already-this is OK to try. But make sure you ask us first just in case-everyone is a bit different.
Dr. M
Today I was reminded why I do what I do for a living and what pulled me off the track of the life I had before-after becoming very ill. No one believed me. I was dreadfully unwell and no one heard me. They said it was all in my head. My story is long. Some of you know it and others perhaps don't. But, in the end, I won the battle over my struggles. I ended up going back to school. I saved myself. And after getting my Ph.D., I managed to change lives all around the world for the better.
We will be going out of town from the 27th to the 6th-Back on the 7th. As always, we will be checking emails-probably not AS often-but checking. So, don't worry!
Dr.M
This is a great article about the side effects of the birth control pill http://kellybroganmd.com/snippet/oral-contraceptives/ and it is only the tip of the iceberg. My dissertation is filled with information correlating the use of the Pill and other hormonal contraceptives with IC and other chronic inflammatory disorders.
"Basic IC Syndromes
Syndromes involving direct change to GALT through its affect on mucosal tissue or microbiological balance: