Hello Everyone!

Well, it looks like I took the summer off with this newsletter, but I am back at the computer now, and am ready and enthusiastic to share more tidbits with you about Traditional Chinese Medicine, how wonderful it is, and how it can save the world!  (Okay, the saving the world may be a bit of an overstatement but only a bit, as TCM really does have great potential to keep us happy and healthy and alleviate a huge amount of suffering in a natural, safe, and inexpensive way.)   So get ready for some more info.

This month I have decided to feature the Western concept of adrenal fatigue, what it is, why it is, and what can be done about it.  It is rampant in our stress-filled culture and Chinese Medicine has recognized this syndrome picture for as long as the medicine has been around. 

I am also including an article on tongue diagnosis (Miley Cyrus's tongue to be exact) as I ran across a fun article about this, and am providing you with a Youtube link to a documentary from the 80's that is an elegant introduction to the classical Chinese scientific worldview that includes quite a bit of information about the theoretical structure of  Traditional Medicine.

In addition to the topics mentioned, I want to remind all of you that cold and flu season is coming up (and is actually sort of here already), and there are indeed treatments, preventative and otherwise in TCM for these maladies.   Allergies are also a big problem in Austin, and this concern is equally as preventable and treatable, so keep that in mind.

Feel free to check out the archive of this newsletter (link just to the left) as well as there is much I have already presented that may be of interest. 

Okay for now, be well, be happy, and more next month.

Best Always,

Beth

 Chinese Medicine and Adrenal Fatigue              

The concept of adrenal fatigue is getting a lot of attention these days and well it should, most all of us

manifest this symptom picture to some degree especially as we get older.  It can be brought on by stress of any variety, be it mental, emotional, or physical, and can be mild to severe.  It describes what happens to us over time when our adrenal glands secrete too much hormone in response to our perceived stresses and unhealthy lifestyle habits.  Specifically, this is when our sympathetic fight or flight mechanism gets turned on too much.  This response is appropriate when running from predators, but in our everyday life the same response often gets activated any time we are challenged (or have a cup of coffee) and for many of us that is a lot.  (Try listening to the news these days without wanting to run away!)  This syndrome begins by our bodies secreting too much hormone and develops over time into a deficiency of hormone and a fatiguing and depletion of our entire system.

In western medicine, this is a functional medicine issue.  Many MDs do not recognize this symptom picture as the symptoms are generally subclinical, meaning that although they are genuinely experienced, there is often no definitive test to identify their origins.   And hey, if there is no test, there is no problem and no treatment.

The good news is the subclinical realm is a place where TCM excels.  Having developed so many centuries ago, there were no technologies available for diagnosis outside of the practitioner's trained senses, so all diagnosis was done through inspection whether it be visual, aural, olfactory, or tactile. Thus, in TCM we are able to recognize functional patterns and see where imbalances exist before they are serious enough to show up on western tests. AND there are effective treatments as well.

In TCM adrenal fatigue correlates exactly with "kidney deficiency."  (Please remember that in TCM we use organ names to denote many more issues and relationships than their western counterparts, so when we say you have a liver issue, for example, that is not a diagnosis that your actual liver is diseased necessarily, but that the set of functions associated with that organ are manifesting such that they are showing imbalance.)

Anyhow, there is plenty more to know:  what are the symptoms specifically, what supplements and lifestyle factors can help, how can we prevent this, and what are the Chinese Medicine correlates.   Here is a good link. 

Ever since I learned Chinese tongue diagnosis oh so many years ago, I have often had great fun when at the movies diagnosing various celebrity tongues (as they are presented massively larger than life and it is an automatic thing I do).  So, when I saw this article diagnosing Miley Cyrus's tongue, I had to check it out.  

 Here it is for you in the spirit of fun of course.

And, if you want to know more about tongue diagnosis and check out your own tongue, this website, which I have featured in past newsletters, is also fun and itwill help you out and give you more information.

Okay have fun with it!

The Heart of the Dragon was a PBS/BBC documentary series produced in the 1980's.  It is broken into several one hour segments with titles such as Remembering, Believing, Eating, Marrying, Correcting, etc.   This series, in my opinion, was great quality stuff, and most of these episodes are still quite relevant to understanding the history, philosophy, and dynamics of China.  I love the whole series and am happy to report that it is now available on Youtube.  And, if you have one of those fancy new TVs, you can hook up your computer to the TV and watch it like any other show.

For my purposes here, I want to recommend the episode entitled "Understanding."  It presents the classical Chinese "scientific" world view and includes a great deal of commentary on traditional medicine. I give it four stars and say check it out!