Tetrasoma Acupuncture: Four Constitutional Diagnosis and Four Needle Technique

576 Pages·2015·4.65 MB·English

by  David Lee

TM
T A :
ETRASOMA CUPUNCTURE
F C
OUR ONSTITUTIONAL
D
IAGNOSIS AND
F N T
OUR EEDLE ECHNIQUE

Four acupuncture formulas that treat all the conditions
distal needles treat.
David Lee, Ph.D., L.Ac.
T TM A :
ETRASOMA CUPUNCTURE
F C
OUR ONSTITUTIONAL
D
IAGNOSIS AND
F N T
OUR EEDLE ECHNIQUE

Copyright © 2015 by David Lee, Ph.D., L.Ac
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced
or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of
the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN-13:978-1517482299
ISBN-10:1517482291
Acknowledgements
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PREFACE
THE HISTORY OF CONSTITUTIONAL MEDICINE
CHAPTER 1: CONSTITUTIONS AND ACUPUNCTURE
CONSTITUTION DEFINITION
CONSTITUTION AND MEDICINE
FOUR CONSTITUTIONS
FOUR CONSTITUTIONAL ACUPUNCTURE
ADVANTAGES OF FOUR CONSTITUTIONAL ACUPUNCTURE
FOUR NEEDLE TECHNIQUE
CHAPTER 2: DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS
SELF-DIAGNOSIS QUESTIONNAIRE AND DESCRIPTION
FOOD ALLERGY AND INTOLERANCE TEST
TORSO MEASUREMENT METHOD
FOUR BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL TORSO SHAPES
PELVIC PALPATION METHOD
SHOULDER AND CHEST SHAPES
FIRE DIAGNOSIS
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES: EAST MEETS WEST
FOUR TEMPERAMENT QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER 3: FOUR FORMULAS
FIVE ELEMENT BI-DIRECTION AND SEQUENCE
FOUR FORMULAS FOR FOUR CONSTITUTIONS
CHAPTER 4: CASE REVIEW
CHAPTER 5: DIAGNOSIS, TREATMENT, AND ASSESSMENT
DIAGNOSIS
TREATMENT
ASSESSMENT
CHAPTER 6: FOUR NEEDLE TECHNIQUE CHARTS
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Acknowledgements
My gratitude goes to the doctors who brought constitutional medicine to the
global stage, and especially my patient Elvira Wilson, whose loving heart and
tenderness have spurred my realization that meaning, living, and health are
intertwined.

I would like to thank doctors Young-ju Becker, Elizabeth Fordyce, Mora
Marco, and Xin Tong for their review and constructive feedback; and my
colleague Bruce Pendleberry, whose weekly meetings for the past 16 months
have provided constructive criticism and consequently furthered my confidence
in constitutional acupuncture.
About the Author
David Lee, Ph.D., L.Ac., is a licensed acupuncturist and an Asian herbal
medicine practitioner. He received his doctorate of philosophy in Oriental
Medicine in 2006 from American Liberty University in Fullerton, California. In
addition, he received his master’s degree in Oriental Medicine in 1999 from
Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine. He completed an
externship at the Daniel Freeman Hospital in Marina del Rey, California, and at
the University of California’s Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center
in Los Angeles. He studied pre-medicine and received a bachelor of arts in
psychology at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Lee has been practicing
since 2000 and is currently based in Thousand Oaks, California. He is also the
author of Tetrasoma Diet for Four Body Types (2015).
Preface
Constitutional medicine is by nature holistic and comprehensive in
perspective. Its application provides multiple benefits that promote the normal
functioning of the body through positive biological activities. The effect on
diverse physiological pathways, both direct and indirect, culminate in a steady
and lasting improvement from chronic diseases.
Because the treatments are set, constitutional medicine is simple and straight-
forward. There is little to no need to chase after various symptoms or signs of
diseases. By adjusting the constitution back into balance, this form of treatment
empowers the body to establish internal homeostasis with more efficiency than
any other means. Thus, the body develops increased ability to buffer and bounce
back from diseases and injuries.
Although these treatment methods are gentle and subtle, this does not mean
that the results are any less effective. The impacts of constitutional medicine are
powerful, as opposed to being merely forceful. The former is readily accepted by
the body, resulting in resolution of the disease, while the latter is eventually
rejected by a body in the form of side effects, resulting in mere maintenance of
the disease’s symptoms.
Discovering the diagnostic tools presented in this book will open up another
view of human health, and the various case studies of constitutional acupuncture,
dietary, and Asian herbal treatments presented herein will assure you of their
validity. These applications are readily accessible and applicable. In short, the
fruit is ripe for the taking.
First, you will learn the essential methods for identifying each constitution.
In order to do this, there are four main tools to consider: (1) psychological
profiling of the patient’s mind and behavior; (2) assessing the patient’s
physiology and diseases; (3) noting any allergies to and intolerances of foods;
and (4) gauging the torso shape of the patient’s body.
In addition, included here are four sets of Four Needle Technique (FNT)
formulas. These have the power to heal the same diseases acupuncture has been
known to treat, but in more systemized, predictable, and reproducible ways.
They are tools that can empower any acupuncture practitioner around the world.
The knowledge contained herein is an accumulation of the last ten years’
experience of treating more than 30,000 patients in the Los Angeles area. FNT,
in accordance with the theory of Four Constitutional Acupuncture (FCA), was
administered to these patients without the addition of any other treatment points.
Once you have mastered FNT, you can develop other needle techniques that
provide identical results based on the concept of FCA. In other words, FCA is
not bound by FNT but can express itself through transporting points, even with
different needle techniques.
It is hoped that the concepts and practices presented in this book will be used
as a foundation for other practitioners to increase the efficacy of and confidence
in their treatments. With the global acceptance of acupuncture and Asian
medicine, an exponential increase in the use of FCA is projected due to its
simplicity, reliability, and reproducibility. As it becomes trusted by more
practitioners, we will be able to build on this knowledge to make our treatments
even more effective. Thus, we are moving toward the next step in the evolution
of acupuncture and its widespread acceptance.
The ultimate goal is to refine the system of distinguishing between
constitutions for the benefit of the patients’ health, as well as the betterment of
society in general. I trust that a practitioner of constitutional medicine, especially
in the apprentice stage, will not fall into the trap of unwittingly stereotyping a
person to the point of unduly placing him or her into a box.
There are new concepts of and connections to the various constitutions put
forth in this book. You might wonder how the disparate disciplines of Eastern
medicine and Western Grecian temperament types have come to be integrated
into a regimen of acupuncture, diet, and Chinese herbal treatments. We will take
the history of constitutional medicine in the following section as a starting point,
after which I will show how my clinical research has revealed various relevant
connections that have improved on the theory and application of this system.
Although various constitutional treatments have received accolades, until now
correctly diagnosing the constitutions has remained difficult, even though there
are only four options. My studies have found that integrating the Grecian
philosophy of the four temperaments has resulted in increased accuracy of
diagnosis.
You will find that the constitutional diagnostic tools contained in this book
bring Asian medicine closer to being an objective process, and thereby making a
standardized interpretation possible. All this information may seem a bit
complex at first, but you will find common threads and consistent patterns in
diagnosing and treating the constitutions. Because there are conventional
characteristics that fit the constitutional types, the identification becomes
relatively easy. This, combined with FCA techniques, will help quickly build
confidence in your treatments. While it usually takes years or decades to master
any discipline in Asian medicine, the time it takes to master constitutional
acupuncture is cut down drastically with these techniques.

David Lee, Ph.D., L.Ac.

The History of Constitutional Medicine
Four Constitutional Acupuncture’s (FCA) foundation goes back to The
Classic of Difficulties in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine (Nanjing,
100-200 A.D.) in which the five elements were assigned to the transporting
points of limbs were assigned to the five elements. This work also described the
promoting and controlling relationships between them: by understanding the
interaction between the five elements one could also learn how to tonify or
sedate them.
Saam (pronounced “Sah-ahm,” ca. 1644-1742 A.D.) created Four Needle
Technique (FNT) based on the relationship of transporting points with the five
elements as put forth in The Classic of Difficulties. A diseased meridian was to
be treated by tonifying or sedating it with two points on a meridian and with two
horary points. The knowledge of diseases at that time was based on the prevalent
theories of external factors and internal imbalances of the viscera and meridians.
Constitutions were first described in chapter 64 of The Spiritual Pivot, the
second text of The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine. In it we find
descriptions of 25 types, which are themselves an expansion of the five element
types.
In 1894, Jema Lee founded Sasang Four Constitutional Medicine (referring
to “four images”) when he published Longevity and Life Preservation in Eastern
Medicine, which combines his own constitutional theory with herbal
applications. His unique view was that each of the four constitutions had innate
excessive and deficient states of viscera. Through reinterpretation of Zhang
Zhong Jing’s cold-induced disorders (ca. 150-210 A.D.), Jema Lee refined the
herbal formulas to better fit his newly-defined four constitutions. He also
identified foods that were beneficial and harmful to these constitutions.
Jema Lee did not practice acupuncture but he had envisioned a development
of an acupuncture protocol for his constitutions: Acupuncture has an ability to
produce immediate results for various types of diseases while often the Asian
herbal medicine is not as quick. Each of the Taeumin [Greater Yin person],
Taeyangin [Greater Yang person], Soeumin [Lesser Yin person], and Soyangin
[Lesser Yang person] constitutions has acupuncture points that have superb
influence on Qi’s up-down and slow-fast movements.
By 1965, Dowon Kuon converted Jema Lee’s four constitutions to eight and
assigned five element states of excess, deficiency, and neutral to his
constitutions. He further adapted Saam’s FNT to these constitutions by
expanding the tonification and sedation techniques from one to four.
During the 1970s, Manhoi Huh developed the Torso Measurement Method