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The Challenge of Our Condition

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As Oriental Medicine steps into the twenty-first century, clients and doctors alike find themselves in a world unrecognizable to inhabitants of ancient China. Power generating plants, internal combustion engines, and industry belch tons of toxins daily into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods we eat. No region of the globe is untouched by this onslaught. No individual is unaffected. Those with autism and Alzheimer's are the genetic "canaries" in our population — those least able to handle the toxic load — and the dramatic increase in these disorders is but a tiny reflection of the mercury and lead poisoning we are inflicting upon ourselves.

The food we eat is a joke. Never before in the history of humankind has so much food been available to the masses, regardless of season. Diseases of dietary excess are increasing exponentially — everywhere, not just in industrialized nations. And, paradoxically, never before has our food been so bereft of nutrients, while riddled with pollutants, both intentional and accidental.

Likewise, our numbers are grossly disproportionate to what the planet can reasonably support. Overcrowding alone causes “dis-ease,” both mental and physical. Now, more than ever before, the wisdom of Oriental Medicine will be called upon to ease the burden of the condition we’ve created.

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The principles of Oriental Medicine were conceived in a time very different from our own. Fortunately, they are as sound today as they were two thousand years ago. But if Oriental Medicine is to step into its rightful place as a prominent force in the world of twenty-first century American medicine, it will need to find new responses, in accordance with its principles, to meet the more challenging forces at play today.

The Response

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Happily, that is precisely what is happening. As Oriental Medicine spreads to the West and other cultures, fresh innovations are emerging from unforeseen quarters as powerful tools to address the ills of humanity’s creation.

The following list enumerates just a few of these innovations, which add to Oriental Medicine’s growing arsenal in the battle for survival in these "interesting" times. Each of these techniques has proven itself to be immensely valuable in addressing the above concerns and their results. To delve more deeply into any of these modalities, simply click on its name for more information.

 

A Rose Is a Rose
Is a Rose…
Isn’t It?

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It’s worth clarifying here, that many of the modern modalities mentioned above are used by practitioners other than Doctors of Oriental Medicine. What's interesting, however, is that, just like acupuncture, many of these methods are much more effective when used and understood within the context of Oriental Medicine than it is without — even when the technique did not originate in Oriental Medicine.

Take ‘prolotherapy’, for instance.

• Wouldn’t you prefer receiving injections from someone who uses thinner needles in a precise, caring manner, and who is skilled at finding a precise locus where results will be obtained? That describes a good acupuncturist.
• Wouldn’t it be nice if the person treating you with prolotherapy, recognized a deeper cause of your weak connective tissue, so that prolotherapy became an interim therapy until the root causes were resolved?
• Because the deeper cause is also responsible for other problems, present and future?

And what about ‘trigger point therapy’?

• We’ve seen clients whose previous doctor was unable to make a differential diagnosis between pain requiring prolotherapy and pain resulting from trigger point syndromes.
• What are the true causes of a trigger point syndrome?
• When is it appropriate to graduate from injections to maintenance through acupuncture?
• Case Study:
• A very slender young woman was recently referred to me for the treatment of trigger points — specifically trigger point injections. This woman has significant, long-standing yin deficiency, including exhausted adrenals, complicated by an eating disorder. Qi deficiency is another dominant aspect of this patient’s present condition.


• If I were practicing outside the context of Oriental Medicine, I would simply begin administering trigger point injections to this woman, which would result in a long, drawn out course of treatment, probably with frustrating results for all parties concerned.


• From the vantage point of Oriental Medicine, this client’s trigger points and pain syndrome are the result of insufficient nourishment of the muscles and tendons. Without correcting these imbalances, trigger point injections would act as palliative care at best. Consequently, both advanced and traditional methods are being used to correct the imbalances before trigger point injections become a prominent part of this woman’s treatment.