Witty comments from some great minds on the unnaturalness of most medicine

I have always appreciated the wisdom and wit of the doctor, poet and essayist Oliver Wendell Holmes. Here is his comment on medicine:

I firmly believe that if the whole material medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be better for mankind--and all the worse for the fishes.

Another famous quote about using natural methods to achieve or maintain health comes from the inventor, Thomas Alva Edison:

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

Or how about this lovely quote from Florence Nightingale:

We know nothing of the principle of health, the positive of which pathology is the negative, except from observation and experience. And nothing but observation and experience will teach us the ways to maintain or to bring back the state of health. It is often thought that medicine is the curative process. It is no such thing; ... nature alone cures. ... And what [true] nursing has to do ... is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.

Ben Franklin was another genius who commented on the unnaturalness of what passes for medicine:

He's the best physician that knows the worthlessness of most medicines.

The Hippocratic Oath is traditionally sworn to by medical students upon finishing their studies and becoming a doctor. Here is the relevant passage from that document:

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

The other great Greek doctor/philosopher that is considered one of the founders of Western medicine is Galen, and he is famous for saying,

First do no harm.

. If you expect to try to heal the body, you cannot use methods that work against its own healing mechanisms, at least not without doing enormous harm to the patient. That seems obvious, right? And yet the whole of modern Western medicine now consists almost entirely of drugs and surgical procedures that interfere with or even completely destroy the body's own healing mechanisms. What is UP with that?

It is my fervent hope that more and more doctors will tire of not being able to make anyone well, that they will tire of merely prescribing more and more medications and surgery, never seeing their patients get better, always seeing them get worse and worse. I know there are doctors who feel frustrated by their inability to make a real difference, but their training has given them nothing else to offer. Many of them went into the profession because they wanted to heal people, and instead they find themselves merely contributing to their patients' health problems.

I saw earlier today that Representative Barney Frank from Vermont proposed a new system of funding medical research. Rather than allowing corporations that produce medical products to run the show for their own profit at the expense of patients, there will be a fund made up of a certain percentage (0.05% I believe he suggested) of the GDP, which would amount to something like $80 billion, and that fund would underwrite scientific research. The fund would buy patents at a good price, so researchers are motivated to do research, but instead of big corporations getting the profits, the government could give the patents away and drug companies would be free to produce them at much lower cost. I thought it was a first step away from a medical system run by corporations for their own profit (bad medicine!).

Tylenol shown to double the risk of developing a blood cancer

From Dr. Mercola's newsletter today:

A new study involving researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle revealed that 9 percent of their study participants who used large amounts of acetaminophen developed blood cancer, compared to 5 percent of those who took the drug and did not get sick.

Statistically speaking, this means chronic acetaminophen users had nearly twice the risk of developing blood cancer.

The risk was small -- chronic, "high" acetaminophen use raised the cancer risk from about 1 percent to 2 percent -- but still significant enough to raise serious safety concerns. Further, the definition of "high" use was using acetaminophen at least four times a week for at least four years -- an amount that numerous Americans could easily exceed without even realizing it. A large part of what makes acetaminophen so dangerous is that it's found in so many products; it's actually the most widely used painkiller in the United States.

My advice is to avoid not only prescribed medications at all costs, but also all OTC medications. They are not benign. I doubt taking one pill a month would hurt you significantly, but most people take them several times every week, or even several times every day! That is an enormous exposure to something that has been proven to double your risk of blood cancers.

When there are such good natural alternatives, why bother with painkillers that harm you?

First Aid . . . for Pets!

I was reading an article online this morning and a caption caught my eye: "If your dog was choking, would you know what to do?" No, despite getting trained regularly in First Aid and CPR as a healthcare professional, I wouldn't know how to stop a dog from choking. Dogs do have a habit of eating like wolves, that is, gulping down whole chunks of food without chewing. Choking would not be a hard thing to imagine.

I clicked on the link and it took me to the American Red Cross website where they were selling books, one on First Aid for dogs and another for First Aid for cats. As a lifelong pet owner, I realized that I didn't know how to do the Heimlich Maneuver on a pet. Now I do.

So for those of you whose family includes a beloved furry-faced, four-pawed member, you might want to read up on pet First Aid.

Alchemical Acupuncture, from Jeffrey C. Yuen

I was reading through my notes from a class in Chinese Philosophical Thought that I took with Jeffrey C. Yuen in the Fall of 2009. It was a wonderful class (well, I'm a philosophy nerd), and found this wonderful section on alchemical acupuncture:

One of the most important doctors of the Tang Dynasty, Sun Si-Miao, started using salt moxa on the navel. Sea salt represents the taste of Water, place it into the navel, then put moxa cones on top of that. As the salt absorbs the heat, it drives it into that area that is mysterious, the connection back into the source, Source Qi. That Fire will transmute that Source Qi, that Jing in your navel, and will allow you to do visualizing. If I am to go back to the formless, what form do I want to be in? The person is visualizing what they want out of their life. From the formless created the formless spark to generate form. You have to do this with “clarity, simplicity and purity, which brings completion.”

Begin with the "passage to the spirit" (Ren 8). Once this is activated, you have the "great meeting," the idea of Jiao, Exchange, between Yin and Yang (Fire meets Water). Then needle where Yin and Yang exchange, which is Ren 7,bringing Yang to Yin. Yin Jiao is right underneath the navel, and distally GB-35, left and right, emanating from that single point, nothingness giving birth to somethingness, Yin, and that somethingness gives birth to everything else. In Daoist cosmology, The One divides in two, the two give birth to a third, and the three give birth to the Ten Thousand Things (all the forms that exist in life).

Alchemical acupuncture is for patients who are stuck in their point of view. You’ve tried everything with them, but things just aren’t changing. They feel frustrated and don’t know where to turn next.

Treatment:
- Salt moxa on Ren-8
- Silver needles on Ren -7, and then GB-35 bilaterally. The needles will become tarnished by the impurities of patient’s life. (Silver is a much more powerful conductor of Qi, of electricity, than the stainless steel or copper needles we usually use.)
- During the needling, the patient is visualizing what they want in their life, who they want to be.

Best candidate for alchemy is a patient who thinks nothing is happening in their life. Patient cannot perceive any change, cannot feel anything happening. They may not be allowing changes to occur. They don't see any options for themselves, a very common state of mind. We have to open up their portals to help them get outside of their usual point of view, to open them to the possibility of change.

Practitioners, please let me know what results you get if you decide to try this with some of your more difficult to treat patients. Thank you. And thanks, Jeffrey. What a privilege to learn from you!

FDA Hearings on the Effects of Artificial Food Dyes on Children

Having just returned from testifying before an FDA committee considering whether to put a warning label on foods that contain FD&C synthetic food dyes, I am happy to report that although we lost the vote, it was close. Eight members of the committee voted against warning labels, and six members voted in favor. Not bad, considering how rich and powerful the chemical companies are. I'm considering it enormous progress in the fight for pure foods.

If you or someone you know of has ever had a reaction to a food additive of any sort, there is a webpage where you can go to report it. The FDA argued that so few people had reactions that they did not feel compelled to add a warning to food labels at this time. I know that isn't true. Just since posting on my Facebook page that I was going to testify about my own severe reaction to Yellow No. 5, a slew of people responded saying they knew of someone.

So here is the link:

I was happy to get an email from a lawyer who testified about her four year old son's extreme reaction to food dyes. Apparently top chefs are getting onboard, stating that they never use artificial ingredients of any kind in their foods, and recommend eating only pure foods. I have thought for several years now that approaching famous chefs might be a great way to get the word out about the harm that artificial food additives can do, from MSG to texturized vegetable protein (TVP) to artificial colors and flavors, to citric acid. This list is nearly endless.

My advice? Don't eat anything from a package. Eat fresh vegetables and meats and grains and nuts and seeds and fruits. Simple, right? And so delicious!!!

Influence of the Earth School . . .

Life is short, so I want to blog about Taoist medicine, not so much about the intersection of politics and medicine in general, though I'm sure from time to time there will be things I think worth saying about that intersection.

But the utter passion of my life is the medicine brought to this country by Jeffrey C. Yuen, Taoist master, medical genius, and my teacher.  That is what the Transformative Medicine blog is primarily going to be about in future.

I noticed a single paragraph in my notes from the Third Weekend of the two-year herbal course I'm taking with Jeffrey:

"The question revolves around Ming Men. If you go back to the Nei Jing, there is no mention of Du-4 as Ming Men. There is a concept of Ming Men, but no specific location is given. According to CCM, the constitution should not be toyed with, you don’t use those points casually, represent sacred aspect of body. Irresponsible to go straight to pre-natal level when you can work with post-natal. So don’t treat middle back because you will arouse the lower back, refers to relationship of KI supporting the SP. Some people say Du-3 is really Ming Men! You would instead work with Du-14 instead."

This is an unexpected interdiction. I and most of my colleagues think nothing of applying moxabustion to Du-4, thinking we can tonify the Original Qi very directly that way (well, at least KI Yang).  But he's saying that it could be considered irresponsible to work with pre-natal qi when you can work with post-natal qi. I do a lot of Eight Extra treatments in my private practice, it's just the sort of patients I get, people who want to go in and work out all the kinks from their childhood and family relationships, and the various imbalances in their relationship to the world at large as well. Yet, Jeffrey here is pointing out that we should work with Du-14 instead of directly affected Ming Men.

Food for thought. Yes, why not use Du-14 instead of Ming Men?  It would allow the deepest energies of a patient's body draw from that well of Yang energy, rather than imposing my will as a practitioner on something so profound, so . . . personal as a patient's source of their deepest, most cosmic self.  The principle of non-interference. Jeffrey here is suggesting that we consider carefully whether it is the best choice to directly affect the gate through which a person's soul enters into this body, into this incarnation.  It is a sacred gate, Ming Men, and ought not be used to treat everyday issues.

We Westerners are so quick to take action, to DO something, to have an effect, to change things quickly and strongly.  Perhaps it behooves us as practitioners of an Eastern medical art to approach healing with less force, with less need for things to change quickly or obviously.  Developing a softer approach will require some self-cultivation for most of us in the U.S. Patience. Trust. Gentleness. Acceptance. These subtle qualities take time and attention to develop, but what a lovely thing to be working on!

The power of love

The title of this blog entry may sound corny, but it is nonetheless what I've been thinking about this morning.  I was feeling such a deep gratitude to my teacher, Jeffrey Yuen, for not only passing on his knowledge of Taoist Chinese medicine, but also because he is a true master.  What do I mean by that?  He walks his talk.  He lives and breathes compassion.  There is no judgment felt anywhere in anything he

Even those closest to me often say things that make me feel bad about myself.  Jeffrey just doesn't have that in him.  It's mystifying.  Here's my explanation:

He is not identified with his ego, therefore he doesn't need others to be anything other than what they are.  It is the ego that wants others to conform to our idea of who they should be.   Judging others does not come from the heart.  Love doesn't need anything to be different than it is.  Love is in love with the world exactly as it is, warts and all.  Love embraces every single thing about the universe, about reality, and loves it deeply and completely.

Now THAT sort of love is transforming.  After dedicating myself to alchemical work with Jeffrey (working on spiritual transformation rather than physical healing), I began to see all sorts of things shifting into a more positive, happier, more peaceful way of experiencing the world.  This love thing really does work.  I was hoping to be able to go through the experience of transforming my spirit to see how that affects the physical body and mind.  If I had a personal experience that it is possible to transform the body by transforming the spirit, that would then pass from me to my patients, giving them the ability to believe in the possibility of their own self-transformation through attention to the spirit.

I always wondered why great spiritual masters studied one on one with a guru type teacher.  If you've ever read Rumi, you know the ecstasy he expresses whenever he mentions his teacher, Shams, and the unconditional love Shams brought him to experience toward all of life.  Well, now I understand that kind of devotion, I have felt the indescribable gratitude one feels toward the person who has embodied that kind of absolute and all-embracing love in the world.   Jeffrey's example makes it possible for me to believe in the power of love to transform negativity.

It is one thing to learn by reading and studying or even practicing clinically.  It is another to know someone personally who actually embodies unconditional love.  The only other person I have ever met that gave me this same feeling of unconditional love was the Dalai Lama.  I met him twice, and felt bathed in the pureness of his love.  It was as if wisdom and childlike innocence were blended together.  Many things made him chuckle with delight, yet I know that he is a highly educated and brilliant man (he has studied astronomy, physics, neurology, the guy is no slouch in the brains department).

Thank you, Jeffrey, for being who and what you are, and for coming to the United States to pass on your great knowledge, wisdom, love and compassion.  Your students and the people they help through your medicine will be forever grateful.