Archive for category Acupuncture
The Beginner’s Guide To Five Phase Theory
Posted by admin in Acupuncture on February 4, 2011
By Marisa Fanelli
One of the theories most used in acupuncture practice is Five Phase theory, and it is amazingly effective. In fact, my first professor in graduate school said that this particular treatment should be used for those who patients who come in lacking faith in acupuncture, since it gives such instant and powerful results.
I tend to combine different types of treatments according to what I see, but Five Phase is always integrated into how I diagnose and treat. From the beginning, this type of treatment appealed to my inner detective…and also to my inner psychologist. I am one of those people who loves personality quizzes and psychological tests, and ways of fitting character traits into overall patterns. With this type of “profiling”, the health, appearance, and character of the patient can all be used to determine which organ system is dominant or unbalanced. This can clue me in to what type of treatment will best suit the patient.
The Five Phases are Earth (Stomach/Spleen), Metal (Lung, Large Intestine), Wood (Liver/Gallbladder), Fire (Heart/Small Intestine), and Water (Kidney/Bladder). Each of these phases has specific characteristics attributed to it, and these characteristics are concentrated within the mind and body of the individual who belongs to that phase. I’ll give a brief example here:
The Liver corresponds to the Wood phase. Liver/Wood people are rigid, regimented, and self-controlled. They like schedules and plans. Health-wise, they are prone to headaches, hypertension, tremors, tics, Read the rest of this entry »
Acupuncture and Meridian Circuit Systems
Posted by admin in Acupuncture on February 4, 2011
By James Spears
A meridian based approach to acupuncture therapy seems like a standard necessity; however, the most common forms of pattern identification are not based on methods that emphasize the associations between the channels. While selecting meridians and points are part of any treatment strategy, emphasis is first placed on syndrome differentiation, and secondly on determining appropriate channels and points. This is a core foundation of Chinese medicine that allows acupuncturists to address root imbalances that underlie symptomatic expressions.
If we examine the most popular methods of syndrome differentiation we will find that they are based on symptoms that are grouped according to exogenous factors, the 5-elements, or the zang-fu organs. Although it is common to identify symptoms along meridians, it is less common to actually base pattern identification on a method that works almost exclusively with the relationships that exist between the channels. For instance, if a patient suffers from a headache in the temples one may conclude that the GB meridian is involved. After this it is common for the clinician to think in terms of zang-fu or 5-element imbalances; the headache may be identified as a liver yang pattern, or an excess of fire or wind, and this depends on what other symptoms are present. It is less common for the clinician to think in terms of the temple headache as being a symptomatic expression in the foot shao yang channel, and then arriving at a treatment strategy that is based on the GB meridians connection to the SJ, LV, and HT channels.
Though a clinician that uses zang-fu or 5-element methods of differentiation may ultimately use some of the same channels, their process of determining these meridians is different than someone that uses a channel based approach to pattern identification. The meridian based approaches that I speak of have been cited by several sources including the Nei Jing, the Shang Han Lun, Dr. Richard Tan, Master Tung, and Dr. Wei-Chei Young.
A channel based approach to acupuncture takes as its starting point the relationships that exist between the meridians according to their classical Chinese names, such as the connection between the hand and foot tai yang channels. Read the rest of this entry »