6/14/2006: Traditional Chinese medicine

Another xoB WaPo image has this woman in Jinan, China receiving what the caption calls "traditional Chinese medical treatment. That's a walnut on her eye and "dry moxa leaves" in her ear. Why? Seems to be part of acupuncture:

Chinese medicine will never stop amusing and interesting me.

One traditional chinese procedure is to use extremely powerful suction cups / vacuums on your skin, leaving GIANT round bruises.

Acuhickey?

Quick! TEll Annoydsas and KImberly!! Quick-quick! They will SOOOOO totally want to get in on this!

Mrs. Elspode is neither Chinese, nor traditional. I would be very, very concerned.

Cupping...it works...

I've seen a bunch of people around MY school with those bruises.

If you were in Cleveland, that would be a surprising statement, Ibram.

Well I do go to the Taipei American School, though about 90% of the school is Asian...

Welcome to the Cellar Owl!

The guy in the background looks like he has an ice bag on his head.....must have hemorrhoids.

Wecome to the Cellar Owl, are you in the Far East?

The ancient healing art of cupping may have multiple origins.

I have a cup in DoDads.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Owl Hey there! Yep it's called cupping and it works--well for my gf's asthma, anyway

Nice Welcome

Thanks for the nice welcome.
Heh.
Not far-east, i'm in Midwest, heh. :-)

when i first saw the picture, i thought the walnut was just a seriously swollen eye.

holistic medicine is cool.

I'm sorry, but I must say it. Why does that old lady have a super-sized marijuana cig?

She would have to be stoned to let them stick a burning cigar in each ear and a walnut in her eye.

My father-in-law was trained in both traditional Chinese and western medicine. I asked him once if he knew any acupressure that would help me quit smoking (he was retired when he came here, so never got licensed for acupuncture). He said yes, grabbed my arm and squeezed. I figured if someone did that to me every time I started to light up, I'd quit in no time. (Zyban for a week finally did the trick, thank you.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123 Good point. In fact, I think that is the basis of much of those types of "medicine." Kind of a mind over matter thing. If you are concentrating on the sucking of your skin, or a walnut in your eye, or needles sticking out of various body parts, you may be relaxing and not thinking of whatever ails you, therefore aiding the process of healing. But I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV.

Yes, but can chinese medicine cure Ed Zachary disease?

Okay, here is where I reveal myself as a Doctor of Traditional Oriental Medicine, US and China trained, and a purveyor of moxabustion, cupping, needling and similar practices that may seem quite bizarre but which generally work.

Now, it isn't just placebo, but ALL medicine, including magilla's Zyban works better if it engages the placebo response. And placebo, for those of you who think it means "fake" really means engaging your body's own defenses to fight disease. (Magilla, btw, ear needling using the NADA protocal works better than grabbing pressure points on the arm. I have even used it effectively with crack addicts, along with counselling.)

Cupping, which is used extensively in a number of cultures- Russians, Italians, Egyptians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, other Africans- works by
stimulating circulation and the immune response expressed through the blood, with some nerve stimulation thrown in for good measure. I have used it to lower blood pressure and once to stop hiccouping of several days duration. It may be acompanied by pricking the skin first, which yes does draw blood and sets off an immune cascade.

Now I have never seen the opthamologic moxa eyeglasses, or a moxa stick in the ear. The techniques taught in US schools are somewhat limited. Although they told us that an acupuncture student should always have a blister from direct moxa on Stomach 36, I never met anyone here who followed that advice. If you make a tiny cone of moxa and light it on a watermelon it will make a laser-like hole through the middle of the melon. Mugwort has some very cool properties.

I just thought the big doob was helping, until I realized it was in her ear. That is just WRONG!!!!

Both ears.