1. “Governor: Vermont Seeing Worst Flooding in a Century,” Burlington Free Press, August 29, 2011, www.burlingtonfreepress.com.
2. Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 72.
3. Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine (New York: Ballantine, 1991), 34.
4. Depending on your view and interpretation of Chinese medicine’s history, the text dates to the first century BCE, as per Unschuld, Medicine in China, 75, or much farther back, to nearly 2800 BCE. The later date for the Nei Jing is presented by Jeffrey Yuen and other more traditional Taoist practitioners and teachers of Chinese medicine in unpublished teaching notes. My personal propensity is to accept the older, more traditional understanding of Chinese medicine in general and the historical understanding of the publication of texts in particular. Regardless of the specific date, the text was first published several millennia ago. Even the more recent publication date places the origin of the text over two thousand years. And regardless of the particulars, the Yellow Emperor’s Classic clearly articulates an understanding that what is happening in nature has an impact on our well-being.
5. Wang Bing, Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine, trans. Wu Liansheng and Wu Qi (Beijing: China Science and Technology Press, 1997), 18.
6. Zhang Zhong-Jing, Shang Han Lun: On Cold Damage, trans. Craig Mitchell, Feng Ye, and Nigel Wiseman (Brookline, MA: Paradigm, 1999).
7. Jian Min Wen and Garry Seifert, trans., Wen Bing Xue: Warm Disease Theory (Taos, NM: Paradigm, 2009), 8–9. The Wen Bing Xue is considered a modern classic in that it reflects older medical thinking but was published comparatively recently in relation to other seminal works. The School of Heat was more thoroughly developed during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties, although it reflects thinking that clearly connects to the ideas and practices that predate it by many centuries, including the School of Cold.
8. Liansheng and Qi, trans., Yellow Emperor’s Canon, 28–30.
9. For an introductory discussion of Yin-deficient heat, see Giovanni Maciocia, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Text for Acupuncturists and Herbalists (New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1989), 182–83.
10. While the terms Yin and Yang are not always capitalized, I have chosen to do so to emphasize their fundamental importance in Chinese medical thought. For an in-depth discussion of Yin and Yang in the Nei Jing, see Unschuld, Medicine in China, 83–89.
11. Lenny Bernstein, R. K. Pachauri, and Andy Reisinger, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report (Geneva: IPCC, 2007), 30.
12. James Hansen, Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth about the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), xv.
1. Lake Champlain Basin Program, “2011 Lake Champlain Flood Update, Draft,” May 27, 2011, 7, www.lcbp.org.
2. Fred Pearce, With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change (Boston: Beacon Press, 2007), 41–42.
3. Ibid., 3–5.
4. Ian Sample, “The Father of Climate Change,” The Guardian, June 30, 2005, www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/jun/30/climatechange.climatechangeenvironment2.
5. Bill McKibben, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), xiii.
6. Ibid., 45 and chap. 1.
7. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Global Forest Resource Assessment 2010: Key Findings 2,” www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 3.
10. IPCC, “Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007,” section 1.3.1, note 8, www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch1s1-3.html#footnote8.
11. McKibben, Eaarth, 43.
12. Jim Robbins, “What’s Killing the Great Forests of the American West?,” Yale Environment 360, March 15, 2010, http://e360.yale.edu/feature/whats_killing_the_great_forests_of_the_american_west/2252/.
13. Raymond E. Gullison, Peter C. Frumhoff, Josep G. Canadell, Christopher B. Field, Daniel C. Nepstad, Katharine Hayhoe, Roni Avissar, et al., “Tropical Forests and Climate Policy,” Science 316:5827 (May 18, 2007), 985–86, doi:10.1126/science.1136163.
14. Marlowe Hood, “Forests Soak Up Third of Fossil Fuel Emissions,” Cosmos, July 15, 2011, http://fgdfgfd.cosmosmagazine.com/news/forests-soak-third-fossil-fuel-emissions/.
15. Yude Pan, Richard A. Birdsey, Jingyun Fang, Richard Houghton, Pekka E. Kauppi, Werner A. Kurz, Oliver L. Phillips, et al., “A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World’s Forests,” Science 333:6045 (August 19, 2011), 988–93, www.globalcarbonproject.org/global/pdf/pep/Pan.etal.science.Forest_Sink.pdf.
16. Alex Morales, “Oceans Acidifying Fastest in 300 Million Years Due to Emissions,” Bloomberg, March 2, 2012, www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/oceans-acidifying-fastest-in-300-million-years-due-to-emissions.html; Yale Environment 360, “Ocean Acidifying Faster Than Any Time in 300 Million Years,” March 2, 2012, http://e360.yale.edu/digest/ocean_acidifying_faster_than_any_time_in_300_million_years_study_says/3357/. Citing Bärbel Hönisch, Andy Ridgwell, Daniela N. Schmidt, Ellen Thomas, Samantha J. Gibbs, Appy Sluijs, Richard Zeebe, et al., “The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification,” Science 335:6072 (March 2, 2012), 1058–63, doi:10.1126/science.1208277.
17. Morales, “Oceans Acidifying.”
18. Hansen, Storms, 80, 82.
19. One example of Chinese medicine’s reference to the oceans is in the categorization of the He-Sea acupuncture points. They are located near and along the knee and elbow creases, where the joints flex. As with much of Chinese medicine, there has been and continues to be much discussion about the use and nature of these points. From my clinical experience, the He-Sea points, especially those along the Yin meridians, are very effective at both clearing heat and tonifying Yin, addressing Yin-deficient heat in particular.
20. Summarized by Eliot Barford, “Rising Ocean Acidity Will Exacerbate Global Warming,” Nature, August 25, 2013, doi:10.1038/nature.2013.13602, citing Katharina D. Six, Silvia Kloster, Tatiana Ilyina, Stephen D. Archer, Kai Zhang, and Ernst Maier-Reimer, “Global Warming Amplified by Reduced Sulphur Fluxes as a Result of Ocean Acidification,” Nature: Climate Change 3 (2013), 975–78, doi:10.1038/nclimate1981.
21. Pearce, With Speed and Violence, 8.
22. Steve Connor, “Exclusive: The Methane Time Bomb,” The Independent, September 23, 2008, www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html.
23. Steve Connor, “Vast Methane ‘Plumes’ Seen in Arctic Ocean as Sea Ice Retreats,” The Independent, December 13, 2011, www.independent.co.uk/news/science/vast-methane-plumes-seen-in-arctic-ocean-as-sea-ice-retreats-6276278.html.
24. Steve Connor, “Danger from the Deep: New Climate Threat as Methane Rises from Cracks in Arctic Ice,” The Independent, April 23, 2012, www.independent.co.uk/news/science/danger-from-the-deep-new-climate-threat-as-methane-rises-from-cracks-in-arctic-ice-7669174.html.
25. Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope, and Peter Wadhams, “Climate Science: Vast Costs of Arctic Change,” Nature 499 (2013), 401–3, doi:10.1038/499401a.
26. Pearce, With Speed and Violence, 78–81.
27. Michael Marshall, “Major Methane Release Is Almost Inevitable,” New Scientist, February 21, 2013, www.newscientist.com/article/dn23205-major-methane-release-is-almost-inevitable.html#.Uie8frxA975.
28. Edward A. G. Schuur and Benjamin Abbott, “High Risk of Permafrost Thaw,” Nature 480 (December 2011), 32–33, doi:10.1038/480032a.
29. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Sources of Greenhouse Emissions,” www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources.html.
30. Steve Connor, “Glaciers in Retreat around the World,” The Independent, December 8, 2011, www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/glaciers-in-retreat-around-the-world-6274223.html.
31. A. Rabatel, B. Francou, A. Soruco, J. Gomez, B. Cáceres, J. L. Ceballos, R. Basantes, M. Vuille, J.-E. Sicart, C. Huggel, et al., “Current State of Glaciers in the Tropical Andes: A Multi-Century Perspective on Glacier Evolution and Climate Change,” The Cryosphere 7, 81–102, doi:10.5194/tc-7-81-2013.
32. Oliver Duggan, “Report Finds Antarctic Thaw Is Twice as Bad as Anyone Thought,” The Independent, December 26, 2012, www.independent.co.uk/news/science/report-finds-antarctic-thaw-is-twice-as-bad-as-anyone-thought-8431149.html.
33. Kirk Johnson, “Alaska Looks for Answers in Glacier’s Summer Flood Surges,” New York Times, July 22, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/us/alaska-looks-for-answers-in-glaciers-summer-flood-surges.html?_r=0.
34. U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, “Retreat of Glaciers in Glacier National Park,” http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/research/glacier_retreat.htm.
35. Allie Goldstein and Kirsten Howard, “Glacier National Park Prepares for Ice-Free Future,” National Geographic, September 10, 2013, http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/10/glacier-national-park-prepares-for-ice-free-future/.
36. Gregory T. Pederson, Lisa J. Graumlich, Daniel B. Fagre, Todd Kipfer, and Clint C. Muhlfeld, “A Century of Climate and Ecosystem Change in Western Montana: What Do Temperature Trends Portend?,” Climate Change 98:1–2 (January 2010) 135–54, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-009-9642-y.
37. Hansen, Storms, 74. As I interpret the last part of Hansen’s statement, he is suggesting that the predictions we have from the IPCC, which are forecasting very serious, planet-wide changes, may be significantly understating the magnitude of the effects.
1. Chinese medicine talks about the thin and thick fluids in our bodies, the jin and ye, respectively. For a brief discussion of jin-ye, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 55.
2. The ideas about latency come primarily from my study with Jeffrey Yuen, 88th-generation Taoist priest and internationally recognized teacher and practitioner of Chinese medicine. He does not write extensively, as his tradition, which dates back to the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) through an unbroken lineage, is primarily an oral one. While we may have a more modern, Western bias toward information that is written down and published, classical Chinese traditions maintain that oral transmission is essential to maintain the contextual nature of the medicine. I began in-depth study with Yuen in 2005 and have numerous references in personal notes from classes on a wide-reaching range of topics about latency in Chinese medical thought and practice.
3. Simon Rogers and Lisa Evans, “World Carbon Dioxide Emissions Data by Country: China Speeds Ahead of the Rest,” January 31, 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/31/world-carbon-dioxide-emissions-country-data-co2, citing U.S. Energy Information Administration, “International Energy Statistics,” www.eia.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/IEDIndex3.cfm?tid=90&pid=44&aid=8.
4. See Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, chap. 1, for discussion of Yin and Yang. My emphasis on how Yin creates Yang is somewhat of an extrapolation beyond what Maciocia discusses, but it does, in my opinion, speak to the foundational nature of Yin.
5. This is not to imply that I believe that all patients should be treated for the specific diagnosis of Yin-deficient heat. Rather, I am talking about what I see as a country—the United States—and a culture—of Western, techno-industrialization—that has been too active for too long to maintain balance.
1. Bob Flaws, The Tao of Healthy Eating: Dietary Wisdom from Chinese Medicine (Boulder, CO: Blue Poppy Press, 2001), 54.
2. For more information about dampness, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 64–66, 144–50; for a discussion of damp heat, pp. 66, 69, 73, 78.
3. For a brief discussion of the term summer heat, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 297–98.
4. Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 53–55.
5. For some of the many examples of Western medical ideas about coffee, see: Donald Hensrud, “Is Coffee Good or Bad for Me?,” Mayo Clinic, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/coffee-and-health/faq-20058339; Rob van Dam, “Ask the Expert: Coffee and Health,” Harvard School of Public Health, www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/coffee/; Neil Osterweil, “Say It’s So, Joe: The Potential Health Benefits—and Drawbacks—of Coffee,” Web MD, www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/coffee-new-health-food.
6. Dan Bensky and Randall Barolet, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Formulas and Strategies (Seattle: Eastland Press, 1990). Rou Gui (Cinnamon Bark) is used in the Chinese herbal formulas Jin Gui Shen Qi Wan (Kidney Qi Pills from the Golden Cabinet) and You Gui Wan (Restore the Right) to strengthen the Qi and Yang of the Kidney. Both formulas continue to be widely used today, to the extent that they are available in prepared pill form. Although both Kidney Qi Pills and Restore the Right are considered strengthening and warming—and therefore Yang—many of the herbs in the formulas are cooling and relaxing—which are Yin. For example, in the Kidney Qi Pill, Rou Gui and the other herb that warms the Yang—Fu Zi (Aconite)—together make up only six grams of the eighty-one-gram formula, a total of about 7.5 percent. Restore the Right contains additional herbs that strengthen the Yang, and Yang components make up a higher percentage of the formula, but a major emphasis is also on preserving the Yin. While formulas do exist that strengthen the Yang exclusively without addressing the Yin, they are discussed less and used less often than formulas that do both. See Bensky and Barolet, Formulas and Strategies, 275, for information about Kidney Qi Pills from the Golden Cabinet and 278 for Restore the Right.
7. While this image is common in Chinese medicine and Chinese philosophy, it was most clearly presented to me during my initial Chinese herbal medicine training with Thea Elijah during my master’s degree training at the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture from 2002 to 2004. I have several references in personal notes about the analogy of the oil lamp and its relevance to the relationship between Yin and Yang.
8. For a discussion of the effects of cold food and iced drinks on digestion, see Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, chap. 2, 9–24.
9. See Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 10–11 for the idea of the Stomach as a cooking pot that needs to maintain a warm temperature to digest effectively.
10. For a discussion of the connection between dairy and dampness, see Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 18–20, 30.
11. “Coffee Facts for National Coffee Day,” Live Science, September 29, 2011, www.livescience.com/16297-coffee-facts-national-coffee-day-infographic.html. Doing the simple math of 450 million cups of coffee daily for 365 days in a year, that would equal about 165 billion cups, more than the 150 billion mentioned. Although the yearly amount seems low if the daily amount is correct, the 150 billion cups is still a staggering amount of coffee consumed each year.
12. “83% of U.S. Adults Drink Coffee,” Food Product Design, April 1, 2013, www.foodproductdesign.com/news/2013/04/83-of-us-adults-drink-coffee.aspx.
13. U.S. Census Bureau, “State & County QuickFacts,” http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html.
14. For a brief description of the effects of green tea, see Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 105. Flaws explains that green tea is cool and a diuretic. In particular, my clinical experience is that its diuretic properties are part of its ability to clear out dampness.
15. For a discussion of Western herbal use of dandelion, see Peter Holmes, The Energetics of Western Herbs: Treatment Strategies Integrating Western and Oriental Herbal Medicine (Boulder, CO: Snow Lotus Press, 1998). 677–79. For the Chinese understanding of dandelion, see Dan Bensky, Andrew Gamble, and Ted J. Kaptchuk, Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica (Seattle: Eastland Press, 1993), 89–90.
16. Bensky et al., Materia Medica, 89.
17. Holmes, Energetics of Western Herbs, 677–79.
18. For more in-depth descriptions of making decoctions, or strong teas, from plants, see James Green, The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook: A Home Manual (Berkeley, CA: Crossing Press, 2000), chap. 9, 111–16. Also see Richo Cech, Making Plant Medicine (Williams, OR: Horizon Herbs, 2000), 65–72.
1. Many scholars and practitioners of Chinese medicine believe that “Five Elements” is a mistranslation of the term wu xing. Wu can clearly be translated as the number five, and xing in my mind does imply more of the idea of phases than elements. The word phase suggests movement and change, while elements could suggest something like the periodic table of chemical building blocks of life, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and so on. This molecular focus is clearly not what Chinese medicine is referring to, which makes the term Five Phases a more accurate, though less often used, modern translation. For a more scholarly discussion of the Five Phases, see Unschuld, Medicine in China, 52–61. For a discussion of the mistranslation of wu xing and a discussion of Five Phases theory, see Ted J. Kaptchuk, The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000), 437, and the remainder of appendix F, respectively.
2. I’ve chosen to capitalize the phrases Five Elements and Five Phases to emphasize their historical and current importance in Chinese medicine, similar to my capitalization of Yin-Yang.
3. J. R. Worsley’s perspective on the Five Elements includes an emphasis on constitutional treatments, where one of the Five Phases is understood to be our source of both strength and weakness. Similar to the constitutional idea in homeopathy, Worsley’s interpretation emphasizes that the root cause of both sickness and health is this elemental constitution. See Peter Eckman, In the Footsteps of the Yellow Emperor: Tracing the History of Traditional Acupuncture (San Francisco: Long River Press, 2007), for a discussion of Worsley’s development of the Five Elements constitutional approach. See also J. R. Worsley, Traditional Acupuncture: Traditional Diagnosis (Taos, NM: Redwing, 1990), for his presentation about his ideas on this constitutional Five Elements model.
4. Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 84.
5. Ibid., 57.
6. For a discussion of jing, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 38–41.
7. Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 55–56. I am focusing on the concept of prenatal essence in this discussion, and not including the idea of postnatal essence that can be created from the food we eat and the air we breathe. The idea of the prenatal jing we get from both parents and share with our children seems most relevant to the discussion of the underlying causes and consequences of climate change.
8. See ibid., 55–56, 83–87 for additional discussion.
9. Personal notes from master’s degree acupuncture training with Thea Elijah, 2002–2004.
10. See Richard Heinberg, The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: New Society, 2005), 57–117, for a discussion of the history and current use of oil.
11. For a more in-depth discussion of peak oil, see: Heinberg, Party’s Over; Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006); and James Howard Kunstler, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Grove Press, 2006).
12. For a discussion of tar sands oil in Canada, see the Samuel Avery, The Pipeline and the Paradigm: Keystone XL, Tar Sands, and the Battle to Defuse the Carbon Bomb (Washington, DC: Ruka Press, 2013), 1–13. Also see Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent (Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2010), chap. 2, 11–17.
13. McKibben, Eaarth, 28–30.
14. My perspective of jing as including a generational understanding of environmental sustainability is an expansion of what is presented in current Chinese medicine by Maciocia in Foundations of Chinese Medicine and Beinfield and Korngold in Between Heaven and Earth, for example. I do believe that it is a reasonable extrapolation of the ideas of our individual jing to a global scale.
15. For information about these jing tonics, see Bensky et al., Materia Medica.
16. Chinese herbs like Tu Su Zi (Cuscuta Seed), Shu Di Huang (Prepared Rehmannia Root), Gou Qi Zi (Lycium Berries), and He Shou Wu (Polygonum Root) have been recognized for generations to tonify jing. The formula Qi Bao Mai Ren Dan, which has the poetic translation Seven-Treasure Special Pill for Beautiful Whiskers, tonifies jing as well. See Bensky et al., Formulas and Strategies, 273–74.
1. For a discussion of the Sheng cycle, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 95–99.
2. Liansheng and Qi, trans., Yellow Emperor’s Canon, 64–68, and ibid., 437–40.
3. While there is a place for newness even in our era of yang and Wood excess, climate change makes it clear that we clearly lack the wisdom to create new life forms. As with our warming planet, bioengineering and genetic modification are experiments in which we might not know the exact outcome but can certainly anticipate the general results. Like climate change, changing life at such a basic genetic level without first attempting to understand the long-term consequences to the planet or our lives is another indication of a lack of cultural wisdom.
4. For more about the idea of wind in Chinese medicine, see Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 3, 150–52, and Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 64, 66, 70, 167, 169.
5. For a nice synopsis of the differences in Eastern and Western medical perspectives, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, chaps. 2–3, 17–45.
6. Unschuld, Medicine in China, 31.
7. For the reference to “all against all,” see ibid., 37. For a discussion of the simultaneous development of a cultural, military, and medical view during the Warring States era of continuous conflict, see ibid., 29–46.
8. Looking at the assumptions of modern Western biology from an older Eastern perspective does not in any way invalidate or diminish the importance of climate research. Understanding what is happening biologically is of vital importance to addressing both the more superficial and deeper issues of our warming planet. I see the emphasis on competition in nature as one interpretation among many.
1. For more in-depth discussion of K’o cycle, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 95–103, and Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 19, 21–23.
2. Yin and Yang are not often used to describe the K’o and Sheng cycle, including the contemporary J. R. Worsley inspired interpretations of the Five Elements. I do think it an accurate blending of the ideas of Yin-Yang and the Five Phases to say that the Sheng cycle is Yang and the K’o cycle Yin. For a brief discussion of a historical perspective on the connection between the Five Phases and Yin-Yang, see Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 440–41.
3. For more discussion of the Metal, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 204–18.
4. For a brief discussion of Heavenly Qi, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 83. I have notes from classes with Jeffrey Yuen on several Chinese medicine topics about the function of the Lung, including its role of taking in Ancestral Qi with inhalation.
5. For more information about the Large Intestine, see Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 96, and Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 115.
6. For more information about the functions of the inhalation and exhalation of the Lung, see Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 90–93, and Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 83–84.
7. From notes from master’s degree acupuncture training with Thea Elijah, 2002–2004.
8. From many years of study of Tai Chi Ch’uan, I’ve heard Wolfe Lowenthal use the “pulling silk” metaphor many times. My understanding is that he is sharing what he learned from his teacher Cheng Man Ch’ing, creator of the Yang-style short form.
9. For a discussion of the relationship between Metal and Wood and Water, see, Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 208–11; Kaptchuk, Web That Has No Weaver, 444–46; and Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 19–20.
10. Jeffrey Yuen teaches about the five branches of Chinese medicine—acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition, massage, and internal practices like Tai Chi and Qi Gong. From the historical development of these branches, each was understood to be a complete medical system unto itself, capable of treating all diseases and promoting individual health. There is a contemporary school of Chinese medicine in California called Five Branches University that incorporates these different aspects of Chinese medicine in the curriculum. A major part of Chinese medical diagnosis and treatment can be seen as balancing the influences of nature within us. The importance of the effects of the Five Phases of the seasons and the weather (hot, cold, damp, dry, etc.) speak to its nature-based perspective. One prominent lineage of Chinese medicine that emphasized the importance of interacting and living in balance with nature was the Naturalist School. While I read the totality of the Nei Jing as a medical and philosophical discussion of a nature-based perspective of personal and societal health, for a very brief discussion of this Naturalist School, see Maoshing Ni, trans., The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine: A New Translation of the Neijing Suwen with Commentary (Boston: Shambhala, 1995), 4. Also see chaps. 2, 9, 19, 22, 42, 43, and 66 of this translation for discussion about the effects of the seasons and the weather on our health and specific treatments to address these conditions.
1. There has been a long historical discussion about whether the Pericardium is its own separate organ and whether the Triple Heater is an organ or a function. I’m presenting the perspective that they are in fact separate organs with separate functions. For a brief discussion of the debate about the nature of the Pericardium and Triple Heater, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, chap. 11, 103–4, 117–20.
2. For additional information about the Five Phases correspondences, see Liansheng and Qi, trans., Yellow Emperor’s Canon, 64–68, and Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 176–79. For a discussion of the functions of the four Fire organs, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 71–76 for the Heart, pp. 103–4 for the Pericardium, p. 114 for the Small Intestine, and pp. 117–20 for the Small Intestine.
3. This discussion about the different scales of relationships associated with the Pericardium and Triple Heater is not written about in this way in any of the Chinese medicine texts cited. It is my extrapolation on the Yin and Yang aspects of the Fire as embodied by the Pericardium and Triple Heater, respectively. For example, as a Yin organ of the Fire, the Pericardium is about our relationships to smaller groups, while the Triple Heater is the Yang organ and is about our interaction with larger groups and the world.
4. For a brief discussion of Heart-Kidney communication, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 23–24. Also see Lonny S. Jarrett, The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine (Stockbridge, MA: Spirit Path Press, 2003), 5–10, as well as pp. 10–13 for commentary on the connection between the Heart-Kidney axis and cultural changes.
1. American Cancer Society, “Cancer Facts and Figures: 2014,” www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/webcontent/acspc-042151.pdf; American Cancer Society, “Lifetime Probability of Developing or Dying From Cancer,” www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/lifetime-probability-of-developing-or-dying-from-cancer.
2. American Cancer Society, “Cancer Basics,” www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/what-is-cancer.
3. American Cancer Society, “Cancer Facts and Figures,” 14.
4. American Cancer Society, “Lifetime Probability.”
5. American Cancer Society, “What Causes Cancer,” www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/index.
6. See Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 71, for the clearest presentation of the temperature and nature of alcohol.
7. Maciocia attributes this description of tobacco to Qu Ci Shan. See Giovanni Maciocia, “The View of Tobacco in Chinese Medicine,” blog post, February 3, 2009, http://maciociaonline.blogspot.com/2009/02/view-of-tobacco-in-chinese-medicine.html.
8. Different cultural perspectives have different views on the use of tobacco. Many Indigenous people here in the United States and worldwide consider it a sacred plant and continue to use it ceremonially. In no way am I criticizing this, and I strongly believe that the old and traditional understandings of Indigenous people are essential to our personal health and cultural sustainability. My intention with the discussion of a Chinese medicine understanding of the nature of tobacco is to present its hot, stimulating, potentially toxic nature in the context of our overstimulated lives and overheating planet. I have no doubt that within the context of Indigenous cultural and spiritual beliefs, the use of tobacco can be important tools for fostering health and well-being.
9. As with the discussion of coffee, I hope the brief presentation about ideas in Chinese medicine is not read as a condemnation of people who smoke or use tobacco. It’s not about morality or shame; it’s about temperature. We live in a hot, overstimulated, jing- and wisdom-deficient culture. So many of us are drawn to the stimulation of hot substances like coffee and tobacco because it resonates with how we’re encouraged to live and what we’re encouraged to believe. The Yang “up” we get from both substances mirrors the Yang quest for continuous economic growth, newness, and doing. As with coffee, if you’d like help to stop smoking, a well-trained Chinese medicine practitioner should be able to help. In my clinical experience, treating many people who have stopped smoking, Chinese medicine can significantly reduce cravings and help clear out the heat and moisten the dryness that has very likely been created. If needed, it can also tonify the jing.
10. See Flaws, Tao of Healthy Eating, 71–109, for a list of foods and their temperatures, including that of the meats discussed.
11. For a discussion of the use of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians to treat RNA, DNA, and cancer, see Ann Cecil-Sterman, Advanced Acupuncture: A Clinical Manual (New York: Classical Wellness Press, 2012), 220–21. For the specific uses of the Eight Extras, see 218–336.
12. For a discussion of the nature of Centipede and Scorpion and current and historical uses of both substances to strongly treat wind, heat, and toxicity, see Bensky et al., Materia Medica, 427–28.
13. Reference to the first written source of the text comes in the publisher’s forward, written by Bob Flaws, in Yang Shou-zhong, trans., The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica: A Translation of the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing (Boulder, CO: Blue Poppy Press, 1998), iii. As mentioned earlier in the endnote discussion about the date of the Yellow Emperor’s Classic, the date for the Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica is also open to debate. As noted by Flaws, the first reference dates to the Qin dynasty (221–216 BCE).
14. See Bensky et al., Materia Medica, 323–24, for discussion of the effects and nature of Gan Cao (Licorice).
15. See ibid., 68–70, for discussion of the effects and nature of Sheng Di Huang (Raw Rehmannia) and Xuan Shen (Scrophularia).
16. The need to balance the invigorating effects of Yang with the cooling of Yin is one of the many benefits of internal practices like Tai Chi and Qi Gong. As forms of exercise, they are slow-moving and contemplative, indicating their internal, Yin focus. For most people most of the time, they create little if any sweating. And when sweating does occur, as can happen when practicing in a hot environment, it’s certainly not the intended purpose of the practice. Rather than dispersing Qi and sweating out our Yin, as can happen with more Yang, externally focused exercise, Tai Chi and Qi Gong can strengthen our energy and increase our fluids.
17. National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, “Cancer Costs Projected to Reach at Least $158 Billion In 2020,” January 1, 2011, www.cancer.gov/newscenter/newsfromnci/2011/CostCancer2020, citing Angela B. Mariotto, K. Robin Yabroff, Yongwu Shao, Eric J. Feuer, and Martin L. Brown, “Projections of the Cost of Cancer Care in the United States: 2010–2020,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 103:2 (January 19, 2011), 117–28, doi:10.1093/jnci/djq495.
18. American Cancer Society, “Treatments Linked to the Development of Second Cancers,” January 30, 2012, www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/medicaltreatments/secondcancerscausedbycancertreatment/second-cancers-caused-by-cancer-treatment-treatments-linked-to-second-cancers.
19. Ibid.
20. As with other patient case studies, his name has been change to protect confidentiality. For the sake of privacy, the specific numbers of his blood work have also been changed. However, the general relationship between the changes in his blood work, as well as the specific percentage of change in his white blood cell count, accurately reflect the differences recorded by Western lab tests.
21. Medline Plus, “Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL),” March 23, 2014, www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000532.htm.
22. Ben being told to wait until his white blood cells had doubled, justifying chemotherapy, is an individual example of the more systemic issue in Western medicine of waiting until the disease has appeared before it’s treated.
23. The Wen Bing Xue is discussed in chap. 1. See Wen and Seifert, Wen Bing Xue, 36–38. Also see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 194, for a very brief discussion.
24. The formula was a modification of Xi Jiao Di Huang Tang (Rhinoceros Horn) and Rehmannia Decoction. In place of the horn from the endangered rhinoceros, Xuan Shen (Scrophularia) makes an excellent substitute. Along with the additions of Quan Xie (Scorpion) and Wu Gong (Centipede), Da Huang (Rhubarb Root) was used to clear out blood heat and toxins through the bowels.
25. Tait D. Shanafelt, Heidi Gunderson, and Timothy G. Call, “Commentary: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia—The Price of Progress,” The Oncologist Express, May 12, 2010, doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2010-0090.
1. Barbara Kirschbaum, Atlas of Chinese Tongue Diagnosis (Seattle: Eastland Press, 2000). See Dominique Hertzer’s Foreword, xii–xiv, for specific references, and the entire forward for a brief discussion of the history of tongue diagnosis.
2. The Eastern and Western perspectives on the importance of the brain speak to the different cultural views that have shaped the medical traditions. With Chinese medicine the brain is described as a curious organ that is accessed directly through treating the Gallbladder. For a brief discussion about the unusual qualities of the Gallbladder, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 115–16. However, Maciocia does not use the word curious to describe the brain. My categorization of the brain as a curious organ comes from my studies with Jeffery Yuen. The Wai Ke tradition in Chinese medicine specializes in treating neurological conditions and associates their root causes primarily to an excess of internal wind. As discussed earlier, wind is associated with the Wood phase as well as the Gallbladder and Liver. Interestingly, the Wai Ke tradition also understands all dermatological conditions as coming primarily from wind. As a result, practitioners working within this perspective specialize in treating both neurological and dermatological conditions. At our clinic, we regularly utilize the Wai Ke diagnostic and treatment principles to address neurological and skin conditions, and we have consistently seen excellent results. In addition to the case studies from chap. 6, on Wood, about grand mal seizures and migraines, we’ve seen dramatic improvements and complete resolution with epileptic seizures, childhood seizures, and febrile seizures. We’ve also seen excellent results addressing the causes of psoriasis, eczema, acne, and a very wide range of other skin conditions, including skin cancers. My understanding and clinical application of the Wai Ke lineage also comes from my training with Jeffery Yuen. There are no written references to it that I’m aware of that have been translated into English.
3. Most of the discussion in this chapter corresponds to what is currently written about tongue diagnosis, including in-depth clinical texts like Kirschbaum, Chinese Tongue Diagnosis, as well as more introductory texts like Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth. Kirschbaum presents a very concise visual differentiation of some of the major historical differences in the organs associated with parts of the tongue (p. 2). The view I’m presenting this chapter is very similar to fig. 5, p. 2, with the difference being that I don’t associate the condition of the two Intestines with different sides of the back of the tongue.
4. The differentiation between vertical and horizontal cracks comes from my study with Jeffrey Yuen. For both Kirschbaum, Chinese Tongue Diagnosis, and Beinfield and Korngold, in Between Heaven and Earth, cracks in the tongue are associated with dryness and Yin deficiency.
5. A puffy tongue can also indicate dampness, where too much fluid is accumulating. From my clinical experience, one difference between the puffiness of Qi deficiency and dampness is that with a lack of energy, the enlarged size of the tongue can appear as spread out rather than concentrated in a more clearly defined area. As part of this difference, when the top of the tongue associated with a particular organ is puffy, I usually associate this with dampness rather than Qi deficiency.
6. For a condensed discussion of the function of the Spleen and Stomach, see Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 89–92. Also see pp. 111–13, citing the classical Five Phases text, the Nei Jing. To read a primary source presentation of the function of both organs, see Ni, Yellow Emperor’s Classic: for a discussion of the Spleen, see pp. 21, 42, 289, and 314. For a discussion of the Stomach, see pp. 40–41, 46–47, 89, and 314. See pp. 116–17 for a discussion of the interrelation of these organs.
7. See Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 78–79, for a brief discussion of the role of the Liver in ensuring the smooth flow of Qi.
8. See chap. 10, note 2, above for more information about the Wai Ke tradition of Chinese medicine and its focus on treating internal wind and neurological conditions of all kinds.
9. Kidney Qi and Yang deficiency are also associated with symptoms of the lower back, legs, knees, feet, and ankles. In my clinical experience, osteoarthritis is often associated with Kidney Yin-deficient heat as well as deficient jing. Because it is a basis for the Qi, Yin, and Yang of the Kidney, when there’s jing deficiency, all of these are deficient as well. See Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 252–57, for a brief discussing of the differences in deficient Qi, Yin, and Yang of the Kidney as well as jing deficiency.
1. See Maciocia, Foundations of Chinese Medicine, 21, for a brief presentation about the association of the Earth phase. For a more in-depth discussion of Earth, see Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 190–203.
2. See Beinfield and Korngold, Between Heaven and Earth, 236–37, for a brief discussion.