Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture, Herbal Remedies, Nutrition, Qigong and Meditation for Total Health PDF
Preview Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture, Herbal Remedies, Nutrition, Qigong and Meditation for Total Health
Tom Williams Ph. D. is a practising acupuncturist and Member of the Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As well as being a Senior Educational Psychologist in Ayrshire, Scotland, he is Regional Tutor for the Northern College of Acupuncture and a tutor counsellor in social science with the Open University. ‘Health Essentials’ series There is a growing number of people who find themselves attracted to holistic or alternative therapies and natural approaches to maintaining optimum health and vitality. The ‘Health Essentials’ series will help the newcomer by presenting high-quality introductions to all the main complementary health subjects. Each book presents all the essential information on a particular therapy, explaining what it is, how it works and what it can do for the reader. Advice is also given, where possible, on how to begin using the therapy at home, together with comprehensive lists of courses and classes available worldwide. The ‘Health Essentials’ series titles are all written by practising experts in their fields. Exceptionally clear and concise, each text is supported by attractive and helpful illustrations. Books in the series: Acupuncture, Peter Mole Chinese Medicine, Tom Williams Hydrotherapy, Leon Chaitow Self-Hypnosis, Elaine Sheehan Health Essentials CHINESE MEDICINE Acupuncture, herbal remedies, nutrition, qigong and meditation for total health TOM WILLIAMS Contents Foreword Acknowledgements An Introduction to Chinese Medicine – What it is and where it comes from. 1. The Basic Principles Behind Chinese Medicine – A Chinese view of the world. 2. The Basic Substances – How Chinese medicine understands the make up of the human body. 3. The Meridian System – The networks and connections of the human body. 4. The Zangfu System – How Chinese medicine sees the organs of the human body. 5. The Causes of Disharmony – A Chinese view of illness. 6. Diagnosis and Patterns – How Chinese medicine understands the nature of illness in the individual. 7. Treatment Approaches – The various ways that Chinese medicine will treat illness and disharmony. 8. Chinese Medicine and its Place in Twenty-first-century Health Care – How Chinese medicine might fit into a new health-care paradigm. Notes Appendix: Solutions to the Exercises Bibliography Glossary Useful Addresses Index Foreword CHINESE MEDICINE, BOTH in its philosophical content as well as in its practical application to the healing of disease, has a great deal to offer the Western mind. First and foremost, Chinese medicine operates from the perception that illness is created as a consequence of a disturbance occurring within a person’s emotional and mental bodies. Western medicine still neglects this truth. Secondly, Chinese medicine philosophically maintains that healing is a process that must engage the entire body – that is, regardless of where in the physical body an illness has developed, the understanding is that the entire body is ill. Western medicine still maintains that a disease is an isolated entity in a body – thus, statements such as ‘the cancer is contained in this organ’ are commonly heard in our hospitals. The Chinese perception is the accurate one – when illness develops, regardless of what it is and where it locates itself – the fact is that the entire body is ill. The Western medical world, and the population on this side of the globe, has much to learn from Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine brims over with wisdom, logic and a deeply thorough understanding of the full content of what it means to be a thinking, feeling human being. The language used to describe both the human being and the illness, while often symbolic, is also incredibly more on target. For example, according to Chinese medicine, we are made up of earth, wind, fire, water and metal. Translated into practical terms, people who have too much water are often more emotional and prone to depression and other illnesses that are the consequence of the mismanagement of one’s water content. Too much fire in a person causes a hot temper and the illnesses produced by too much fire feel like fire – migraine headaches, neurological disorders and rheumatoid arthritis – all burning diseases. Fire disorders are treated with water remedies because fire needs to be cooled. Too much air and not enough earth results in a person who has an abundance of ideas and an insufficient amount of patience to bring these ideas to fruition. Impatience and nervousness manifest in a person with too much air in his or her nature. The treatment: earth remedies, assisting in grounding the person. This book comes at the right time. The Western world is more than ready to add to its own technical medical knowledge the wisdom that comes from working with the spirit of the human being in order to heal the body. Caroline M. Myss, MA International teacher, lecturer and author of Creation of Health – Merging Traditional Medicine with Intuitive Diagnosis with C. Norman Shealy, MD, Ph. D. Acknowledgements THERE ARE MANY people who deserve to be mentioned and without whom I would never have had the confidence to attempt this book. Firstly, I must mention my teachers of Chinese medicine who have become more than passers-on of information; they are now more fellow travellers on the same journey. To Hugh McPherson, Richard Blackwell, Nick Haines, Charlie Buck and Han Liping, thank you for bringing the gift of Chinese medicine to me. Secondly, there are many friends who have helped me believe in myself and with whom I have been able to share some of the insights of Chinese medicine. Gabrielle McGuire has demonstrated the reality of Qi energy; Gillian Kamming has been my closest ‘ear’ about so many things; George Docherty has made me laugh till I dropped. To all of them and many others beyond mention – thanks. To all my patients and students – past, present and future – a sincere thanks. I have learned something unique from all of you. I have to pay especial thanks to Caroline Myss, not only a wonderful teacher but also one of the most inspirational and visionary figures in the field of energy medicine in the world today. Caroline’s contribution will probably never be fully grasped until long after we are all gone, but her friendship, knowledge, encouragement and professionalism have been a constant source of inspiration to me. Finally, of course, a heartfelt sense of love and thanks to my family – Mary, Emma, Jennifer and Neil – your patience and understanding are without limits. I dedicate this book to my wife Mary: a better example of true healing energy, both personally and professionally, it would be hard to find. An Introduction to Chinese Medicine CHINESE MEDICINE IS a system of diagnosis and health-care approaches that have evolved over the last 3000 years. The Chinese approach to understanding the human body is unique and is based on the holistic understanding of the universe as outlined in the spiritual insights of Daoism. This understanding has produced a highly sophisticated set of practices designed to cure illness and to maintain health and well-being. These practices, including acupuncture, herbal remedies, diet, meditation and both static and moving exercises, appear very different in approach yet they all share the same underlying sets of assumptions and insights into the nature of the human body and its place in the universe. The last twenty years or so have seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of a whole range of therapies that have their origins well outside the accepted boundaries of Western scientific thought. The derivatives of Chinese medicine – particularly acupuncture, herbal remedies and Qigong exercises – have been among the most notable and they now enjoy a growing respect not only from patients who have experienced their benefits at first hand but also from an initially sceptical Western medical fraternity. However, regardless of the therapeutic benefits, it is likely that patients will, at some point in the process, ask themselves the question ‘How is this working?’ On face value, it is only common sense to wonder why the insertion of fine needles into a variety of points on the body – more often than not bearing no obvious relationship to the presenting problem – can have such a dramatic effect. Any patient wrestling with the problem of trying to consume a herbal mixture that would do justice to the witches in Macbeth must, at times, question what is going on. Many hundreds of practitioners who experience for themselves the
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