Advice to an Interested Undergraduate

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It looks like it’s the season to be turning e-mails into blog-posts… I’ve been pretty busy just coming out of mid-terms and starting to focus on studying for our Comprehensive Exams that come at the end of this semester and cover all the material we’ve learned up until now. I just got an e-mail from a friend asking a few questions about “alternative medicine schooling.” I figured it might be something a wider audience would be interested in… so, for all those potential students of Chinese medicine out there…

I like these questions, they’re very practical, and they’re important things to have information about.

a) Recommendations for what to study undergrad to prepare for such graduate work. Would community college be a reasonable direction to take?

As far as undergrad goes, I would say that you can probably study whatever you want to, but it would be very very helpful in terms of both saving time and money to take as many bio-science classes as possible (similar to a pre-med major – but the way that usually works, is that you can often major in anything: English, Philosophy, History, while taking pre-med classes). These classes will be accepted as your Bioscience classes for your school and you’ll have a firm foundation and understanding of the sciences. That said taking some electives somewhere along the line about Eastern thought/philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, or Chinese History could also be helpful is setting up an understanding of where the Eastern medicines come from philosophically and culturally.
Another really important thing: not all schools require a full-undergraduate degree. So my current school (PCOM) for instance only requires I think around 60 undergraduate credits, and graduates then receive a Bachelors and a Masters when the graduate. Other schools like the one I’m transferring too (Southwest), do require Bachelors. I think community college would be a great way to go for undergraduate. You’ll save money and most likely get a good enough education to have the foundation you need for grad school.

b) Thoughts about what a person who’s interested in the field should do to prepare themselves
Self-cultivation. I would strongly recommend focusing a substantial amount of energy on figuring out who you want to be (as opposed to only thinking about what you want to do). You can practice being who you want to be every day, no matter what, and doing what you want to do should be an outgrowth of that.
Having a “spiritual” practice is important (meditation, prayer, yoga, qi gong), as is learning/knowing how to take care of your physical self (getting enough sleep, eating well). Spend the time leading up to school learning how to cook, learning what type of exercise is most enjoyable/fun for you.
Personally, I’d also recommend spending some time in some form of psychotherapy. This may sound a bit strange, but the more whole you are as a person, the more you’ve done to mature and understand your self, the better you’ll be at helping others and understanding others. I spent around 8 months in therapy my senior year of college and learned a tremendous amount about myself, patterns that I may have, weaknesses, strengths, etc. Getting to know yourself is important.
Touch people! Not in inappropriate ways (haha), but seriously, the more experience you have getting to know other people’s bodies with your hands, the better off you’ll be. To me this mostly means giving massages to your friends and family, being comfortable sharing your touch with them will help become comfortable eventually sharing touch with people who are initially complete strangers.
Read “The Web That Has No Weaver” and flip through some anatomy books.
Be treated by whatever modality you’re interested in. If it’s acupuncture, go get some acupuncture, from one person, from several. Get a massage or two or three. Talk to a few practitioners, find out what they like about it, what they don’t.

c) Thoughts about what the awesome things and the harder things are about going to alterna-medicine school
This questions is pretty fascinating to me, because a lot of the awesome things about school are the harder things about school. The awesome things about going to complimentary medicine schools are that you’re learning to help people heal. You’ll become part of a community of people who are working to help alleviate suffering. You’ll come to understand yourself, other people, and the world in new ways. Assisting others on their path to health is a fairly large responsibility, you have to know and understand a lot about how the human body works, from a Western scientific perspective as well as from an East Asian perspective. A lot of the concepts of the medicine may be foreign, some of them may not really make much sense at first, but eventually you’ll get it.
Also, I think it’s important at some point to do some research on the job market, and understand how much money you can expect to make and what it might take to either find a job or start your practice.

I’m always open to fielding more questions… and interested in hearing other people’s thoughts…

Stay warm, and don’t forget your Vitamin D!

The Healing Power of Storytelling

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Many moons ago, I started to discuss my love of stories. Today, we continue and go quite a bit deeper, only this time I’m taking what began as a letter to a dear friend, and after making a few adaptations, sharing it with the wider world.

“I wanted to address once more our conversation and some of the reasons I think it can be helpful, and sometimes outright healing, to talk about things. First of all, it gets things out. You happen to have a number of emotional outlets, from yoga to music, many people don’t have as many, so simply telling a story can get it out, which is important, because bottling things up can cause all sorts of nasty things (like cancer). Getting it out can transfer the power from the story to the storyteller, which is important. We have a powerful experience, and that experience can have power over us, unless we’re able to confront it and learn to relate to it a way that makes us powerful. The act of telling a disempowering experience can return our power to us from the experience. It can give us new perspective, new understanding, and a new way to relate to the story. For me, writing has always been another way for me to get things out, gain perspective and understanding, and have power from my stories. However, something I’ve noticed is that I often want to share my thoughts and feelings and discoveries with others (even when they initially come from journaling). I think there is something very important about having others witness our experience. Something happens in the process of sharing our stories. For starters we are no longer alone. We have allies, the burden is no longer only on my shoulders (where we hold so much tension).

I believe that this is exactly what stops most of us from sharing: we don’t want to burden others. We’re afraid that others don’t want to be burdened. And indeed there are times when a listener has to go through some processing too, because they’re hearing a story that is hard to hear, maybe because it’s full of pain, or suffering, maybe because it hits close to home; whatever the reason is, it’s challenging. It  is my belief that friends and family members are always here to help and support. To be open (and when necessary compassionately nonjudgmental) listeners. A friend (or parent or brother or sister) is willing the share the burden, to help others become empowered and help others let go. To me, this is a fundamental part of friendship and familial relationships, and it’s an obligatory part.

I want to go back to “sharing the burden” though, because sometimes (perhaps more often than not), something more fantastic happens than just having someone to help take part of the load. Sometimes the burden is transformed, and it no longer has the same weight, it’s no longer a heavy weight on one’s shoulders because once you “get it off your chest” and see it from a new perspective (or just hear it externalized) it diffuses into something else. When this happens, the listener, be they friend, family, or professional, witnesses that transformation, and become a part of the experience of transformation. In these cases, there is no real sharing of a burden, because there is no more burden, there’s only a story, and a whole lot of love and gratitude. So, this is why I believe in the importance of sharing experiences, even when they’re painful yucky experiences, and this is why I hope that all of my friends and family (and one day patients) know that I’m hear to be open and listen. And I give thanks (though probably not as often as I should), to my friends and family members for being here (and there) for me when I’m in a place of need.”

I’d like to also mention that in general, men have more difficulty opening up to share. We’re “supposed” to be strong, we’re not “supposed” to need help, but truth is, we all suffer and we all need to share. If you are a man, take notice, and think about this, if you are a woman, think about your male friends/family members, and if/when you get the chance, be patient and encouraging. That said, there are plenty of women who live out the “everything’s fine” syndrome. Women, who are incredibly supportive of those around them, but don’t know when or how to reach out for support when they themselves are in need. They’ll swallow their grief and their pain, and it will often manifest physically. Sometimes, they’ll even hesitate to pursue physical care. If you know someone like this, try to create the space for them to open up and let go.

It’s interesting to me that this theme is coming up now, in the height of Fall, because Fall is the season for letting go. Just as the trees let go of their leaves, it’s a perfect time for us to let go of our painful experiences, and enjoy the sweetness of love and connection as we prepare to move into the Winter.

So, go somewhere beautiful, look at the leaves changing color as they die, giving one last final performance to pronounce the beauty of the cycle of life and death, and share the stories!

Vitamin D

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I tried to think of a clever title for this one, but alas, I’m keeping it simple.

This is the first weekend that I’m really feeling the shortening of the days. And so I remembered the teachings of my anatomy teacher: in the winter months, at this latitude, we simply cannot get enough Vitamin D from the sun. Some of the reasons vitamin D is important is because it helps strengthen the immune system, ensure stronger bones, and help regulate the body’s metabolism. As important as those things are, my biggest interest is in its ability to help regulate moods. I’m amongst those who are challenged in the winter months by the reduced amounts of sunlight, and if I don’t take preemptive steps I can find myself somewhat depressed. So this winter I plan on eating a lot of fish (cod, salmon, and mackerel have the most vitamin D, with tuna not far behind) and eggs, but I’ll also be taking a supplement (it’s hard to consistently get enough Vitamin D from your diet).

Fortunately, I’m learning in school many other ways to help overcome the wintertime blues. We all know about the basics: regular exercise, a healthy diet, enough sleep, but if that’s not enough regular acupuncture treatments are a good place to start to get some help. Hopefully, as my herbal knowledge increases I’ll be able to share some insight into that realm of the medicine as well.

So, soak up the sun while you still can, but maybe pick up some Vitamin D supplements from the store on your way home from your last time at the beach.

Treating the Root and the Branch

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No, trees are not the only metaphor in Chinese medicine, and though I have written about Chinese medicine and trees before, this time it’s a little more about how Chinese Medicine works, and why it’s sometimes able to treat diseases when Western Medicine fails.

We usually go to the Doctor when something is wrong with us. We have pain or discomfort or something isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. Maybe we’re going to the bathroom a little more often they we should be, maybe we’re having trouble going at all. These are symptoms which in Chinese medicine are referred to as the “branch.” Western medicine has plenty of ways to treat the branch, but for many situations, there’s no real way to treat the underlying physiological problem causing the symptom, which in Chinese medicine we call the “root.” An example of a situation in Western medicine where the “root” can be treated would be with bacterial infections – we have antibiotics which treat the cause of the inflammation and pain.

Both acupuncture and herbs are often very effective at treating the root and the branch for many diseases. The underlying reason for that as far as my understanding goes, is that because of the way Chinese medicine has evolved and developed, understanding the actual disease involves understanding its etiology. In other words, if someone comes to me and is experiencing  a headache, I will then ask them a host of questions that will help me understand which type of headache they have. In Chinese medicine we have tools to treat different types of headaches with different etiologies. The idea is that here, we’re treating the root of the problem, the thing that is causing the headache, rather than just treating the headache. In working with our patients this way we can often have an impact on many symptoms they’re experiencing that they never realized were connected.

One of my teachers goes even farther. He says, we don’t treat headaches, or lower back pain, or dysmenorrhea, or fatigue. What we do as acupuncturists and herbalists is help people bring their body back into balance and alignment, both internally and with the world around them. The result is a reduction or disappearance of the symptoms they’re experiencing.

I like this idea a lot.

Preventative Medicinal Teas

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The fall is here, which is exciting because it means cooler weather, squash, changing colors, sweaters and scarves, and just an overall shift in the general feeling in the air. It’s time to take a deep breath, let go of things we don’t need and gather in the things we do as we head into a quieter and more still part of the year.

It’s also a time when people will start to get the dreaded cold. The sniffly nose, the headaches and body aches, and the fevers are all part of the colder part of the year for most of us. So, I’m interested in preventing the colds, and if I (or anyone I know) does get sick, recovering quickly.

We’re all familiar with the basic tenets of staying healthy: eat well, get enough exercise, but not too much, get enough sleep, laugh a lot; but sometimes life stresses come along and take their toll. Acupuncture can definitely health boost immunity as can certain herbal formulas like Yu Ping Feng San (a.k.a Jade Wind Screen). But another thing I’m experimenting with now are Chinese Medicinal Teas.

This experimentation may be turning into something of a small start-up business… How does “Alimental Herbs  – Nourishing you to Health” sound? More details to come, but for those of you in the New York area, please contact me if you’re interested in trying out some samples.

Needling: Acupuncture Techniques

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Part of the acupuncture curriculum involves, over the course of our 3-4 years of study, needling all of the points AND having most (if not all), of the acupuncture points needled on us. How many surgeons can say they’ve had the surgeries they’re performing performed on them or how many psychiatrists know what it feels like to be on the pharmaceuticals they’re prescribing  (yes, I know that’s different, but it’s worth a thought nonetheless)? This is a way for us to know know what our future patients are experiencing, and we serve as practice dummies for each other.

Today in class amongst the points we needled were L.I. 15 Jianyu and S.J. 14 Jianliao. These two points are at the origin of the deltoid (shoulder muscle) and needled into the shoulder. We have a great teacher who does a really good job demonstrating and guiding us through the process, and what was amazing, where the affects of needling the point. The shoulder completely relaxes is opened up. My needling partner gained around 30 degrees of range-of-motion with about ten minutes of needle retention. I have pretty flexible arms as is, but really felt my shoulder joint relax and open up. This has me looking forward to learning about needling more of the areas where I (and/or my loved ones) tend to hold a lot of tension.

It’s amazing what the body will do when poked in the right direction…

Squash!!!

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I LOVE Squash.  Fortunately for me, squash season is here!

The other night I made an acorn squash soup from a couple of squash we got from our CSA. Roast the squash with some butter, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and a bit of allspice and/or nutmeg for about an hour on 350⋄F. Caramelize some onions, with some garlic, throw in a bunch of fresh ginger, add in the roasted squash (scoop the meat out of the skin) add some soup-stock, and blend (feel free to add more spices now, to need – and you can also throw in carrots, sweet potatoes, etc).

Oh, and don’t forget to roast the seeds with some salt, pepper, and paprika (throw some curry on there for extra spice), full or protein and fiber (I found that 225⋄F. for about an hour and half was perfect).

To me squash (and pumpkins) are amazing because they’re like a full meal, they’re really easy to make, and they’re very nutritious. From a Chinese Medicinal point of view they help strengthen the digestion and improve qi circulation. Pumpkins can help treat eczema and edema, help keep blood sugar levels balanced (especially good for diabetics), and help clear our mucous from the lungs (Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods). The spices generally used with squash and pumpkin (ginger, nutmeg, allspice) are generally very warming and can help with circulation too.

So, if you’re looking for a delicious, nutritious, and easy to make meal, look no further!

Beginning a new year

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It’s been a while since I’ve written and a lot has happened since. I got engaged, which is a tremendous shift in my life and the continuation of an already amazing journey in a beautiful partnership. My fiancé and I decided to move out of New York city and to a place we expect will have an environment that is more supportive to us (Boulder, CO). We’re planning to stay in New York and move in the spring and I’ll continue my studies at Southwest College of Acupuncture in the fall. I’m usually not one to transfer, so I think this will be an good opportunity for me to learn more about myself as I grow. The new environment will offer an exploration of new aspects of the medicine, and be the perfect place for a new business (about which I’ll share plenty more in the future). I intend to get back on a steady swing of writing this Fall, and there’s plenty of content I’d like share.

We started our Fall semester yesterday and already I’m enjoying myself and excited for everything that’s in store. I had my first clinic shift yesterday which is a little different than the past two and about which I’ll go into detail in the near future. This morning we had our first Needle Techniques class which is very hands on and which will involve a whole set of new important skills.

Along with many others, I’m now heading into a few days of introspection and internal realignment. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is upon us, and it always seems to come at just the right time. I’m looking forward to a few days of relative quiet, and to reemerging ready to continue cycling through time.

That’s all for this little update…

Trees: Harmonizers of Yin and Yang

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Last weekend I went up to Vermont. Being out in nature amongst the trees always rejuvenates me and reinforces how important a connection to nature is for my health. There is a lot for us to learn from the way the natural world works.

On this trip, for the first time I saw the way trees grow and live through the lens of Chinese thought. As a biologist, I’m well aware that trees are made up of layers. In the middle is inert hardwood (heartwood) and on the outside is the protective layer of bark. In between the heartwood and the bark is where the magic happens.

In that narrow space are the xylem and the phloem. The xylem takes all the water and earthly nutrients up and out to the leaves, while the phloem takes all the energy capture from sunlight through photosynthesis down to the roots.

So where to Yin and Yang fit in? What does any of this have to do with that I’m learning now about Chinese medicine? Everywhere and Everything!

The water and the earthly nutrients are very Yin (Yin being the word used to describe darker, lower, colder, and material aspects of thing – the original character means “shady side of a mountain”) and the energy, the light which is captured at the top of the tree and turned into sugar is very Yang (Yang being the word used to describe the lighter, higher, hotter, more energetic aspect of things – the “bright side of the mountain”). The xylem and the phloem serve as the trees meridians moving Yin to Yang and Yang to Yin.

We’re just like this trees. We try to balance Yin and Yang out within out bodies. We need our physical substance, our Yin, and our metabolic process, our Yang, to work together to maintain life.

Most of the time tress are healthy and happy and (hopefully) most of the time so are we.

Sometimes, like last summer, it rains a lot and the trees don’t get as much sunshine as the usually do. This puts stress on the trees ability to harmonize and balance Yin and Yang, and some trees as a result get sick. Other times, like this summer, its very hot and relatively dry, and once again, it’s a struggle to maintain balance between Yin and Yang.

We, once again are the same (though we have more control over what comes into our bodies and how much we move around). If we eat too much heavy fatty foods and/or spend too much time sitting and relaxing, we’ll overwhelm ourselves with Yin and our bodies will struggle to stay balanced and healthy (not enough Yang making use of Yin). Conversely, if we don’t eat enough substantial food and/or expend too much energy running around and being stressed out, we’ll burn ourselves our, overwhelming the body with too much Yang burning up the Yin.

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Therapy are all about helping to bring the body and mind’s Yin and Yang back into balance. Giving the body and mind a push in whichever direction it needs to go.

I guess I owe the trees of Vermont (and my cousins who were so kind to share their home with us) a big thanks for this one.

The Science of Acupuncture

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For a long time now, I’ve been trying to figure out how to explain the legitimacy of acupuncture despite the limits of science in explaining how or why it works. The fact that acupuncture is effective in treating animals, which is evidence that placebo effect is not the only thing at play here, often falls on ears that are not open (this was brought to my attention by Michael Smith a founder of NADA).

The folks at City Acupuncture of New York did an excellent job and covering this topic here, sometimes it best just to leave it to the pros.

Pain-management

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This is a topic far beyond my current capacity to write about, I bring it up because someone else did an incredible job shining some light on the topic.

I strongly encourage people to read this: http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/blog/pain-management

Acupuncture: Being All it Can Be

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Well, I saw this video posted on a Chinese Medicine Adventures Blog that I follow and had to post it too…

Pretty exciting stuff, maybe we can one day treat everyone before wars and prevent them from happening, wouldn’t that be cool.

(P.S. for those of you who subscribe to the blog via e-mail you need to go to the website to watch the video)

Nourishing Life: Nature

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I have always had a strong connection with nature. Call me crazy, but going for a walk in the woods, or hanging out by a creek or river tends to have a calming and soothing effect on me. The rhythm of the waves at a beach pull me out of my memories or fabrications of the future and into the present. Every season seems to switch me into a different mode of being that always feels necessary and appropriate.

In Chinese Medicine there’s a fundamental idea that we should live in harmony with our surroundings and a wise awareness the healthiest surroundings are made by a power much greater than that of humankind. In these modern times, we’ve successfully created environments that are meant to make our lives easier and more comfortable, and in many ways we have succeeded, but along the way we’ve emphasized some things over others and our better lives aren’t always fully balanced; New York City is an extremely good example of this.

So what are we city/suburb dwellers to do? Get out. It doesn’t have to be every day or even every week. Once a month, at least once per season, get away from electrical humm of modernity and closer to the dynamic stillness of nature. Soak up the songs of the birds, the creaks of the trees, and the gurgling of the streams and breath – be in the balance. See how it makes you feel and experience how it makes you be.

We can also find coves nature within our oceans of technology. Parks, community gardens, even just sitting next to a nice big ol’ tree for a moment can make a difference, and we can bring plants into our homes. Simple things that can make a big difference in our health.

I know things!

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I just made it through mid-terms and I had a surprisingly awesome experience studying for them. While studying for my Acu-points mid-term, I sat down, and as a review, started writing out everything I know. After a few minutes I looked down at a page, full points and categories on 7 channels and I realized that a year ago, I knew none of this. It was one of those important moments where I became aware of my progress.

Whenever I work on a long-term project, I often get caught up in the future, but am getting better at being content in the present. Another important part of any journey is to take intermittent brakes to look back and acknowledge the progress you’ve made. It’s encouraging and empowering to see what you’ve accomplished and how your hard work has come to fruition.

I spent the summer after graduating from college working on a farm, and at the end of every week we would take some time to walk the fields with the specific intention of bringing our awareness to the changes that had happened over the past week. I was always blown away by how much taller the tomato plants were, and how many new baby plants had been planted. More importantly the feelings of fulfillment, satisfaction, and gratitude that filled me, helped me take a day off (which I always needed to replenish myself) and fueled me in the following week.

Whether we’re growing food, teaching children, running a business, or learning acupuncture points, it’s vital to step back occasionally and bring awareness to what we’ve achieved thus far. We may have a ways to go before we reach our ultimate destination, but that may be all the more reason to be proud of how far we’ve come.

On Being Challenged

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I just took the most challenging test I’ve taken at PCOM so far and I’m actually really grateful for it. To be perfectly honest, so far, school hasn’t been all that challenging. It hasn’t been a walk in the park and there have been plenty of stressful moments, but it also hasn’t pushed me to my limits. I like being pushed to my limits – because that’s when I learn how to break through them. I like being asked questions that make me think and apply my knowledge,and not just regurgitate information that I’ve memorized, this was a test that asked me to think.

This was a test that really engages you with the material, giving us mini-case-studies and asking us which herb(s) we would use, asking us to recall commonalities between herbs, differences between herbs, when should one be used over the other. It was a great test, the kind of test I’ve been waiting for since I came back to school, and guess, what… I don’t think I did all that well. I think I did okay, and that’s okay because I’m learning and the grades are here to guide me, to help me understand how I’m doing and if there’s anything I need to be doing differently. Now I know there is.

Here’s to being challenged, and being in a place where we respect the challenges and appreciate them as ways to grow.