Tung's Points by Dr. Tan

Dr. Tan’s use of Tung’s points.

Aside from using his balancing methods for treating orthopedic disharmonies, or any other channel disharmonies that occur in the body, he has a set of points that he keeps in his repertoire to treat painful symptoms that occur. A quick overview would be to divide the distal points by the limb on which they are on.

Hand Dorsal Points

Ba guan- Shoulder, upper arm, upper leg pain and atrophy w/ numbness and burning.

Fen bai- Eye problems

Fu ke- Gynecological

Qi hua- Arthritis, tendonitis, knee, and elbow problems

Zhi yang- Wind stroke paralysis

Zhong bai- To balance the galbladder meridian.

Palmar Points

Chen yin- Prostrate

Chong xian- Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Asthma, pain behind the lungs in the back.

Feng Chao- “Female problsms”

Mu Guan- Arthritis, RA

Shuang lang, Shuang ling- Blood stasis due to cancer. Serious problems, close to death

Tong gu- balances the kidney channel

[Via http://springstream.wordpress.com]

Needle in the haystack: NYC’s sliding-scale acupuncture center

Third Root in Ditmas Park is a long way from Capitol Hill in every sense. Especially in its community give-back spirit. A non-profit dedicated to being “a friendly and financially accessible wellness and healthcare resource,” Third Root is the only place we know that offers sliding scale acupuncture.

Acupuncture here runs you from $15 to $40, during Community Acupuncture hours. It’s not a temporary recession-era deal, explained one of the founders. “It’s honor system here year-round.” (You don’t have to produce pay stubs or prove unemployment, a la Ryan NENA Community Health Center.) The session resembles a typical New York needling in every way except one: No private room.

Seven practitioners, mostly graduates of the Pacific College in acupuncture and Chinese herbs, cooperatively run the holistic health center and yoga studio, which just celebrated its first anniversary. Five are acupuncturists; the others teach yoga and offer massage.

Community Acupuncture takes place in the street-front yoga studio, where a half-dozen folding chaise longes (surprisingly comfortable) are set up, and an excellent sound system plays pretty decent spa music. (More nature sounds than Enya.)

I’d braced myself for a gratingly earnest encounter that I associate with working a Park Slope Food Co-op shift, but it wasn’t necessary. The staff here wasn’t the least bit, well, uptight. I completed the standard health forms (am I often thirsty? can I feel my heart racing? does exercise make me feel more energized or less?), and, Julia, the acupuncturist-on-duty, asked me further questions in a chair-side whisper—the music sufficiently muffling our chat—before painlessly inserting the thin needles into my ankles, knees, and ears.

I didn’t feel like I was giving up much in exchange for my privacy at all. In fact, it felt like Shavasana or a group nap. The only drawback: the snorer in the chair beside me. Still, I got a top-dollar treatment for $40. And I’m sure I’m not the only person in the city who needs that.

Community Acupuncture, $15–40 (plus a one-time paperwork fee of $10), Third Root Community Health Center, 380 Marlborough Rd, at Cortelyou, Brooklyn, 718-940-9343, thirdroot.org

Know of any other top-notch places offering low-fee services, skin care, or bodywork? Tell us, here!

[Via http://wellandgoodnyc.wordpress.com]

She Says... 10 dpo

Well folks, here we are again. 10 days past ovulation. This time last cycle I was starting to take pregnancy tests (since 10dpo is just about the earliest time you can get a positive on a home pregnancy test). Five straight days of waking up at the butt crack of dawn to test was exhausting and disappointing, to put it mildly. So this time? NO TESTS UNTIL 14dpo… the day of my expected period. Also happens to be the day I go in for my blood pregnancy test. I may even just wait and see what the beta results are… but Benjamin said he really wants that moment of seeing the positive test together, so we’ll probably test that morning.

This morning I woke up to a lower temp than I was hoping for, so who knows, maybe that’s a sign that this month isn’t it for us. However, I woke up several times last night, and ended up taking my temp at 4am, two hours before my normal time… so those results are probably not reliable at all. I got a 98.0 at 4am, and then 98.8 at 6am. Confusing. My nipples have been tingly and a little tender on and off for the last few days, which could be a good sign. I never get sore boobs, not even way back when I used to get my period. So who knows.

I’m restricting myself from Google, which means I might have to restrict myself from the computer as a whole   But, lucky for me, Benjamin and I have a TON to do this weekend to prepare for Turkey Day next week. Today: acupuncture, yoga, dog walks, cleaning the bathrooms, making my checklists and grocery lists. Tomorrow: deep cleaning the whole house and giving the dog a bath. Here we go!

Since I don’t have any fun info to share today, I will leave you with a video that absolutely cracked Benjamin and I up. We are huge fans of the tv show Glee. On the last episode, the football player broke the news to his girlfriend’s parents that she was knocked up while at their house for the first time for dinner. Hilarious.

We’re thinking this may be how we tell Benjamin’s family at Thanksgiving dinner, if we get good news on Wednesday.

Just kidding.

Kind of.

[Via http://thisplaceisnowahome.wordpress.com]

She's here

Yes!  My mysterious AF has arrived, and even earlier than my clinic predicted.  So I just have one little hoop to jump through before we can officially start IVF#3…. a day 2 blood test tomorrow.  Hopefully all my obnoxiously misbehaved hormones will tow the line and be on their best behaviour tomorrow.   My FSH is the one that I’m a bit worried about as it’s always been borderline and because my cycle has been so mucked up recently I am holding my breath that it isn’t because of my rebel FSH hormone levels.

How natural is it for a IF’er to be looking forward to the next ‘problem’ rather than just going into a situation with blissful ignorance? Any suggestions on where on earth I can find my blissful ignorance?  I haven’t seen it for far too long and am scared it’s been smothered to death by bitter negativity.

On other news, I had my first acupuncture appointment on Tuesday.  I had such a terrible morning leading up to the appointment that I was a complete mess by the time I arrived (a day that starts with an argument is NOT a good one).  She took my pulse and said “Whoa, you are running on adrenaline only aren’t you?”  And I closed my eyes and forced the tears not to start again (had shed far to many of them for one day).  We spoke about my childhood problems with my kidneys and if you’ve had acupuncture will know that in traditional chinese medicine the kidneys are the main connection to fertility.  So she immediately thought there were a number of things she could try to get my kidneys and my uterus more friendly with each other.    She also asked me if there was a particular time of the day that I lack energy and when I replied with “around 5-7pm” she smiled knowingly.  This freaked me out a little and then she pulled out a diagram which shows that in traditional chinese medicine they believe that energy travels through the body at different times of the day and each organ has a specific time that it is most active.  Heres the spooky bit.. the time that the kidneys are most active is between 5-7pm, which in my acupuncturist’s mind, explains why this is a time of the day I always feel tired and indicates that my kidneys are a bit sluggish.  I won’t deny she had me intrigued but my knee jerk reaction is to be cautious of anything vaguely ’airy fairy’.  But the airy-fairy stuff aside, I loved the acupuncture session.  After the stressful day I had I found it difficult to relax to begin with, but by the end of the session I was in another world and really felt that ’something’ had happened.  Whatever it was, I walked out a better person and hopefully that is because my kidneys & ovaries are now good friends who will welcome the ivf drugs with open arms.  I really like the acupuncturist I chose, she has a lot of experience working with infertility & pregnancy and I didn’t have to explain the ins & outs of  ivf to her which was what I was dreading.  I hate having to go back to basics with explaining the ivf process to people, it’s just a big reminder that I know too much about a subject i’d rather be unaware of, so to have someone who already knew that stuff made me feel a bit more normal. 

So hopefully i’ll be starting my injections tomorrow (please let my FSH be normal) and then it will be full steam ahead towards getting pregnant before Christmas.

 

U.S. Government Medical Researchers Ask Dr. Fan

By invitation of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in Bethesda, MD, Dr. Arthur Fan (Fan Ying) recently lectured more than 20 medical doctors and clinical fellows on current progress, scientific studies, and clinical effectiveness evaluation in the treatment of movement disorders, especially Parkinson’s Disease, with acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

As part of his Jan. 29, 2007 lecture on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) main campus, Dr. Fan showed videos demonstrating the beneficial effects of TCM on Meige’s syndrome (a dystonia) and Huntington’s disease, in addition to Parkinson’s. After the lecture, Dr. Fan answered questions regarding the placement of acupuncture needles in the body and scalp, the differences between manual and electric acupuncture, and the safety of using traditional Chinese herbology in neurological patients.

“In the treatment of movement disorders, which often diminish patients’ quality of life and are difficult to heal with Western medicine, TCM may dramatically improve patients’ lives by decreasing clinical symptoms in some cases,” says Dr. Fan. “For example, after acupuncture, the stiffness and shaking of extremities caused by Parkinson’s will often stop for many days. Also, TCM, including herbology and acupuncture, can improve patients’ sleeping and stabilize their emotions.”

Dr. Fan holds the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) certificate in Oriental Medicine, which comprises Acupuncture, Chinese Herbology and Asian Bodywork. This little-held certificate reflects his expertise in the use of Chinese herbs and therapeutic massage, as well as acupuncture, in the authentic practice of Chinese medicine.

Dr. Fan’s clinical practice is continually enhanced by his evidence-based research in TCM. In China he conducted research in his medical specialty areas under grants from the Chinese Nature Science Foundation. In the United States he has been an active scientific researcher in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) under federal National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants. For the University of Maryland medical school, Dr. Fan is currently a consultant for the scientific study of TCM.

As an internationally noted TCM research scholar, he is also a CAM reviewing expert for several well-known medical publication houses including Elsevier and World Scientific. The recipient of several important awards from the Chinese government, Dr. Fan has been the subject of coverage by the international news agency Reuters Health.

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Why don't I...

What is it with resistance? What is it with talent wasted? Why, if I am good at something, value that thing, and want to expand it, am I so helpless in the face of my own — inertia is not the right word, or maybe it is. Inertia is the tendency of a body at rest to remain at rest, and one in motion to remain in motion. I remain at rest. Terminally. Maybe it’s ADD. When I suggested to my therapist that maybe I had, like, shadow ADD, she laughed at me (seriously – she laughed). Shadow? she chortled. Honey, you have full-blown ADD. You are the poster child for ADD!

Well, fuck. She thought I should get tested and get medicated. She insists there are very high-level medications now that target specific areas of the brain. She says some areas do not grow up, do not develop at the same rate as others. Children have a lot of success with the new meds; once they “get it” about how it feels to be in sync, the adjust, and they re-integrate, and the are OK (or at least that’s what I think she said).

So why are all the ADD kids I know drug addicts? Maybe she has a special line to the hot and new in the medical world. She treats kids more, but she’s an art therapist, so I like her. (As soon as I have insurance again, I will go back.) My homeopath laughed at getting tested. What do you need a diagnosis for? he said. So they can give you Ritalin? Clearly, he is on the same newsfeed as I am. Maybe I do want Ritalin (I know I don’t; just sayin’), maybe I do. I remember speed, back inthe drug days of the 70’s. I loved speed. Unfortunately, Speed Kills is not just a bumper sticker; it is a harsh and vicious reality. No, speed is deadly. But something about that experience feels perfect.On the other hand, i cannot do any kind of sedatives. I hate them. I feel like I am underwater.

Most of the time I am so tired I can’t do anything, so I just watch as the crap piles up and falls over and think, wow, that’s falling over. Maybe I will sort of stack up the pile a little better. But that’s about it.

So, dancing? Ha. Writing? Well, arguably, yes, I am writing now, and I am doing nanowrimo, so I am better off than I have been, but still: Ha. This blog is my free space, where I can say whatever the fuck I want because it is not connected to me. My name is not on here, so fuck you, you don’t know me and if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

There. I wish I had the courage to put my name on here, and sooner or later i will, because face it, I am a big showoff, but for now, I can experiment in peace. And I like it being on this blog, where other people can read it and find it it they need to, so it is public, but private, because no one knows me, or my family, or my friends. I don’t have to worry that so and so will take offense at something I say. They will never read it, and if they do, they can’t prove I said it, so HA!

Even in my fiction i worry. I can’t talk about what i really want, what’s on my mind, because those people who are on my mind might be hurt by things I say.

So anyway, back to my problems, because hey, this is all about ME now, isn’t it. Or maybe it’s about you, maybe you have this problem too; in that case it’s about us.

So maybe all my problems would be solved by medication. I like that idea; it’s easy. No work on my part. The homeopath and acupuncturists have actually improved my situation with medication, but there is a crucial difference. I Dislike the the thought of taking something every day, a symptomatic remedy as opposed to a cure. My acupuncturists and homeopath, they are making me truly more well through transformative medicine. I am all for this. And I used to be worse. This is better (I am writing, am I not?). But there is still so far to go.

And dance, what I really want to improve, is moldering. Time is not on my side. Time is a sword in my side. Dance has a short shelf life. Indecision cripples me, inaction cripples me (literally). Illness cripples me and I can’t seem to shake it. It’s getting harder. The voices say, just give it up. You never practice. You suck. But I don’t suck, and I know that. I don’t practice either. I know that, too. What a vicious circle. Would ADD medication help this? If so, give me some. If not, give me something.

Women's Health and Chinese Medicine

The preventive care and treatment of women’s health is based on the notion of Chinese Medicine’s whole-body’s health – emotionally, mentally, and physically. The ancient literature for gynecology and obstertrics in Chinese Medicine can be traced back three thousand years. Many early writings were related to fertility and pregnancy issues.

The famous two-thousand-year-old classic text, the Yellow Emperor, provides detailed descriptions about the female anatomy, physiology, pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of many women’s health issues. Those issues were summarized into five main categories, namely, menstruation, leukorrhea, pregnancy, pre- and post-delivery of babies, and miscellaneous disorders including mastitis, yeast infection, infertility, tumor, and menopausal syndrome.

Chinese Medicine emphasizes maintaining a regular and good quality of menstruation cycles without PMS as an essential element for a woman’s long-term health. In other words, the quality of the monthly menses is a very important benchmark for a woman’s overall health. In Chinese Medicine, each menstruation cycle is divided into four phases. Each phase requires a different principle and herbal regiment for preventive care and treatment of disorders.

In addition, Chinese Medicine emphasizes proper care and tonification before and after each pregnancy. Each childbirth consumes a portion of a woman’s essence which needs to be timely and properly tonified to avoid post-partum disorders or illnesses. Proper and daily care of a woman’s health over the life span can minimize future post-menopausal symptoms.