The theme of this month's newsletter was an easy one for me, as many of us were recently quite involved with watching the Olympics. So, I googled acupuncture and Olympics 2012, and came up with all sorts of stuff.

We all know that in order to stay in peak condition and to recover from injuries, both major and minor, most athletes follow regimes of training, working out, diet, supplementation, (but not steroids, hopefully, thank you), and various body therapies, from chiropractic and massage to..... acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine!

In this edition then, I am sharing some of the information I found, about acupuncture, cupping therapy, and about Cordyceps, (Chinese name Dong Chong Xia Cao), a Chinese medicinal substance, and how these therapies are used by Olympic athletes. I am also recycling a bit I did last year on how Chinese Medicine treats sports and other minor injuries, as its approach is a bit different from that of Western Medicine.

Okay then, have a great month and I will see you next time.

Best As Always,  

Beth 

Chinese Medicine and the Treatment of Physical Injury and Trauma         

  For this newsletter focused on TCM for Olympic athletes, I want to start out by addressing the use of Chinese Medicine and acupuncture in the treatment of physical injury and trauma.  Many professional sports teams these days are adopting these techniques and rightly so: Chinese Medicine can speed the recovery of these kinds of injuries and sometimes quite significantly.

Trauma is certainly not limited to those who play sports but is something to which we are all vulnerable. From trips and falls to car accidents and post-surgical trauma, Chinese Medicine in its various forms is capable of addressing it all.

The treatment of injuries in Chinese medicine developed largely from the martial arts tradition and is called Die Da Medicine, variously translated as Fall and Hit Medicine or Iron Hit Medicine. 

Historically, masters of the martial arts were also masters of medicine, and had at their disposal many techniques to help heal the variety of injuries that are likely with martial arts practice.  

Included in their skills were acupuncture, massage, bone-setting, and a variety of herbal medicines used both internally and externally.

Acupuncture, herbal medicine, and other techniques work to stop bleeding, lessen bruising, reduce inflammation and pain, increase range of motion, and cut healing time dramatically. The sooner treatment is begun the better. (For real emergencies at the initial trauma, please go to the ER.) 

Of course acupuncture and an appropriate herbal prescription is only available from a qualified practitioner but there is much one can know about self-care with these injuries. To learn more about self-care, and also find out why Chinese Medicine generally discourages the use of ice with injuries, this video will be instructive.

To read more about the history of Die Da medicine (and to see a very cool martial arts website where there is much to learn), click here.

This section of the newsletter does not really need an introduction but is a smattering of what I found regarding acupuncture and Olympic athletes.

Happy clicking, reading, and listening, I hope you find it interesting!

Here is what I liked the best:

Summer 2012 Olympics Brings Acupuncture to the Forefront  

6 Olympians Who Ache for Acupuncture  

Acupuncture and Sports Science Give Team Japan an Edge

Acupuncture USA Vaults to Olympic Silver

Olympic Gold Medalist Talks Acupuncture 

The translation of Cordycep's Chinese name Dong Chong Xia Cao is literally Winter Bug Summer Grass, and it is a fungus that grows out of the body of various insects and their larvae. The Chinese, famous for their resourcefulness, have literally used this fungus, complete with bug host, for a few millennia at least.

This medicinal came to wider public attention in 1993 when several Chinese women track and field athletes broke multiple world records at an event in Germany. Among their training rituals and a possible contributing reason, was a brew made with this substance.

In our modern world we call it Cordyceps, its Latin name, and it is considered an adaptogen, which means that it is a metabolic regulator that lends a non-specific enhancement to the body's ability to respond to various stressors. Among it major (more specific) functions, is that it increases both respiratory capacity and cardiac power. It improves endurance and stamina, and allows a quicker recovery period after physical activity. This is all of this done, of course, with no detrimental effects, and thus one can see its usefulness for athletes and for all of us as well. Cordyceps has a host of other functions, too, it being an overall energy tonic, and being anti- bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal among other things.

Here is an article for more info, and a somewhat surreal video of time lapse photography from the BBC, showing the fungus growing from the body of an ant.

Cupping, along with its closely related cousin gua sha, are therapies integral to the practice of Chinese medicine, and are practices I perform routinely on many of my clients. These therapies have a variety of purposes, but are most often used to relieve muscle tension by literally removing stuck blood from a muscle and scattering it in to the subcutaneous tissue, often creating a bruise (which should be a minor annoyance only and heal up over a few days). For athletes and for those of us who often overuse our muscles, it is a quick, safe, and effective therapy.

For some more photos of the aftereffect of cupping on a Chinese Olympic swimmer, this is your link. For an entire website devoted to cupping please click here, and if you want  a video demonstration this link will work. (And, fyi, although the practitioner in the demo is using fire to create the vacuum in the cup, in my practice I use the modern variety of cup with a pump mechanism attached, so I will never accidentally light anyone on fire!)