Well, it was just a matter of time until I wrote something about Facebook.
What a webiste, eh? Seems like the whole world is on it!
I decided to see if there’s anything good for the CM community. There are many people who practice or study CM that are on FB, but what I’m going to write about are the groups. Many groups to write about so let’s get started:

Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture: counting 138 members from around the world, mainly with updates and an interesting video of Peter Deadman. Note it.

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Chinese Medicine Notes aims to bring you information of all kinds- links, research, personal thoughts, book reviews (coming soon), and now we are happy to bring you a job board with offers that just might help you start or go on with your career.
If you are looking for people to work for you, post a job offer. If you are looking for a job- just start looking, hopefully you will find what you are looking for.

I was looking for the best platform and could only find the one that you see, so apologies if you are outside the USA looking for a job, these jobs are for the US only.

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Defending Chinese Medicine- part 1 was posted at the end of December 2007.
Yeah, took me a while to get part 2 going, I know, but better late than never, you know?
The best way to go is to read part 1 and then go on to part 2, this way you will know what on earth I’m on about…
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Dr. Barrett goes on to write about a study that was healed in Germany, where they used  “a fake needle”, and they concluded there’s no difference between the effects of inserting a regular acupuncture needle and a fake one.
This study has a funny smell to it, if you know what I mean, even if just because Dr. Barrett tells us so little about it.
Maybe this will be a good point in time to say that research in general, when it comes to CM, pose a bit of a problem.
Being very scientific, I always feel that they miss on testing things that are vital in CM and in the interaction between doctor-patient (practitioners included). CM is not scientific, at least in the way that Western Medicine is, and right there and then, CM has the disadvantage. Granted, there are many studies that show CM works, but do they serve us as good as we think? What about the beautiful philosophy that CM is based on, how are we going to prove that?

Under the sub-category of “Risks Exist”, we found risks that Dr. Barrett mentioned as possible in CM, but he also forgot to mention they exist in Western Medicine too- whether in a simple test or a surgery. He mentions Chinese herbs were not effective, were not approved and are not safe to use- all lies. Not only are there many studies about different Chinese herbs (an easier aspect of CM to research than acupuncture for example), but all the Chinese herbs prescribed today are legal and approved by the FDA itself (let alone TCM!). He goes on to write about all the mistakes in diagnosis and treatment that are being done by different practitioners, but fails to mention that it is another part of the learning process- just as it is in Western Medicine.

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Don’t you just love it when you talk to people about Chinese Medicine and then they say something like “oh, that’s all good, but when it comes down to it, I want to be treated by something that really works. No offence but CM was never proved”?
Don’t you fall in-love with those articles on the Internet that tell you you’re a quack because you practice CM? And then they explain how you wasted money for 4 years on studying something that doesn’t work, isn’t correct, never was proved scientifically, and they go on telling the whole world to be careful from people like you, your friends, your teachers…

Research in Chinese Medicine is not a new thing. I personally think it’s a bit of a problem to force the research models that apply to Western Medicine on CM mainly because CM includes to much more. How do you research the pulse? How do you research the TMM channels? How do you research the treatment of Shen in Shen?
And if you can’t do it according to the rules of research by Western Medicine, does this mean it’s all lies?
Of course not. Not everything in this world is research-able.
But they are important because this is just another way for CM to develop a serious dialogue with WM.

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One of the first posts on CMNotes was about Chinese Medicine Books for the first year.
When I was writing that title, I did not think that as of the 2nd year, there’s really no way to say which book is most suitable for what year. I mean, most of us start reading Elisabeth and Father Larre’s work on the 2nd year, for example.
So I’m just going to mention books that I feel are very important for any student to read, and of course every practitioner can go back to the books and learn something new. Which is an important point regarding reading books in CM, at least to my humble opinion. I think that what you understand in a book on the 4th year is quite different then what you can understand from the very same book 3 years after reading it for the first time.
And then I thought- why not make different posts for different subjects? I get to write about more books and you get more information about books according to their subject.
Yes. I sometimes surprise even myself.

There isn’t really a field of “Chinese psychology”.
We don’t separate body and mind, and we always pay attention to both aspects in man. But sometimes, and I’ll whisper it so no one will hear it but you, we simply need to address one aspect more than the other.
I find that studying TCM gives a very superficial idea of human psychology and I also think that TCM itself doesn’t really address psychological issues- big or small.

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~Dedicated to my beautiful friend who asks wise questions~

I’ve been asked to write about the difference between TCM acupuncture and 5 Elements theory.
Oy! So much to be said, how can I leave something out? And will it be clear? Am I really the person for the task??
OK, deep breath…. right. Now.
This is what I came up with, and feel free to add your own perspective in the comments section.

5E in short
The 5 Elements theory (or the 5 phases) is a vital part of Chinese philosophy.
In Man we can see a reflection of nature, meaning that we can see in Man many of the phases that occur in nature, as Man is a part of nature.
The 5 elements according to CM are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.
All of the things we can see around us can be categorized according to the 5E- emotions, sounds, seasons, colors and so on.
According to this theory, a person has the 5E in him at all times, but one element stands in the heart of that individual, one element is the core of a person being. Know what that element is and you will understand what makes this person tick.
Of course there are other elements that can be seen in this person, sometimes one uses an element that is not the core element to protect himself, therefore confusing people around him and practitioners.

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February 7th marks the beginning of the year of the Rat.
The celebrations in China are quite inspiring, so I’m told, with lots of fire works, colors, and since we have a rat in our hands- Mickey Mouse is everywhere.
Maybe someone should tell them Mickey is a Mouse (hence the name) and not a rat?
Then again, why spoil the celebrations?
In addition to the fire works- which are meant to make everyone happy, banish demons and get the attention of the gods, the Chinese welcome the new year with their family and loved ones, and of course- food. How can one survive a family re-union without food? Different traditional foods have different meanings- melon with sugar for health and maturity and so on.
As colorful as the celebrations are, the main color is red which means good luck in Chinese culture. Red dominates the cloths people wear, the envelopes in which they get the new year’s bonus at work, calligraphy work that is hanging outside the doors and windows and so on. The traditional dragon and lion dance is spotted everywhere, in pure carnival spirit, and since the new year is also the celebration of spring there’s an even greater sense of tradition and ethnic identity in the celebrations.

That ends, but this is only the beginning of 15 days of festival and each day symbolizes something else, for example- the 2nd day is dedicated to the in-laws, this is the day where one visits his in-laws to show them respect. There are more days like these, until the 15th day, which is the festival of lanterns, which is supposed to be a beautiful sight.

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The world wide web is packed with so many websites and blogs, that sometimes you just don’t know how to reach them all, which is good and which is, well, not so good.
We will list here the 10 links of Chinese Medicine we think you must bookmark and visit, as they offer good content and important info.

1. Deepest Health: Eric Grey’s blog is one of the first stops I make every day as I start my Internet-round. I mentioned it on my links list and I will mention this blog in the future as it is, simply, a great and interesting blog. Period. Note it.

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I must be honest with you: if this is the question, acupuncture vs. herbs- acupuncture will be the winner any day.
I don’t mean to put down herbs, I really don’t, I just don’t like them very much. As I see their benefits and think that they are very powerful, studying them is almost like a punishment, and let’s face it- it’s just not fun!

But acupuncture- now there’s an art! There’s a place to be creative.
Yes, I can hear all those herb-people saying “but you can be very creative with herbs too!”, but it’s just not the same.
OK, ok, I will tell you the tale of my struggle with Chinese herbs, which will explain why I don’t like ‘em, I just don’t.

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I was lucky enough to have a short correspondence with Dr. Leon Hammer, a psychiatrist turned CM practitioner.
Those who don’t know Dr. Hammer should really update their knowledge about the man who contributed an amazing book to our shelves, a book called “Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies“. In the book he shows, among other things, how CM can be used to treat the Shen, and he brings us Dr. Shen’s theory- his own teacher and mentor.

Dr. Hammer was born in the USA on 1922.
During the years between 1948-1970 he dedicated himself to psychoanalysis and psychiatry, in which he studied the treatment of children, various psychological approaches (Gestalt for example) and Hypnosis.
In 1971 he started studying Chinese Medicine with Dr. Van Buren.
In 1974, Dr. Hammer met Dr. Shen, his biggest influence in CM.  Until 1989, Dr. Hammer studied many aspects of CM such as Auriculotherapy, Chinese Herbs, 5 Elements and more.

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