By Kristen Porter, MAc, LAc and Beth Sommers, MPH, LAc
Working with new and returning patients not only provides us with the opportunity to use training and diagnostic expertise, but also offers "teachable moments," during which we can be involved with health and wellness promotion and education. Treatment planning encompasses the spectrum of discussion that we initiate with patients that provides them a framework of what might be expected from treatment, as well as an estimate of the length of time required to gain clinical benefits. It is a mutual agreement between patient and provider that can set the tone for a positive and enriching healing experience.
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By Marilyn Allen, Editor
I have just returned from a visit to Taiwan and the interior of mainland China. There was a saying that I discovered in the SuHo Paper Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. It reads: "We understand we have to plant our feet on solid ground to practice our dreams, little by little, to make them last for good." Of course, this made me think about acupuncture and Oriental medicine, both through it's connection to the past and where it is going in the future.
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By Yin Lo, PhD
What do a 25-year-old male with migraines, an 80-year-old lady with diabetes and a doctor with a brain tumor have in common? To answer this question, let's look at a little experiment that was done recently. We asked each of these three subjects to drink our medical water, which we now called double-helix water because it had stable water clusters shaped like a double helix (see last article for more details).
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By Jake Paul Fratkin, OMD, LAc
In the October 2009 issue of Acupuncture Today, I wrote on how to use pulse diagnosis to distinguish patterns as excess, deficiency or complex excess with deficiency. I ended that article by saying that most complex layered cases that enter the clinic will show excess/deficiency patterns affecting the liver, stomach and spleen. Our job, as herbalists, is to evaluate the various stagnation and deficiency patterns and to apply the appropriate herbal formula.
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