Practitioners' News

February 5, 2019 is the start of the Chinese Year of the Brown Pig. This is a Yin Earth Year with the Yin Water of the Pig below. This combination is a tricky one as the Elements are in opposition. Luckily, they are in the Yin form of the elements so any skirmishes or conflicts should be minor. The combination of Earth and Water together make mud, which is why this year’s Pig is brown! This can be taken literally, meaning that there will be more mud created in the natural world, or it indicates that there may be a lack of clarity in people’s thinking. Taken even further, it may be that there will be some mud-slinging politically – a messy proposition!

As many practitioners of Acupuncture and TCM know, Yang Sheng is the practice of nourishing life. The branch of TCM knowledge called Qi Gong provides practitioners with a large number of internal and external practices that were developed over the centuries to promote physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Abdominal acupuncture (Fu Zhen) is a powerful new system of acupuncture which was introduced in China by its developer Prof Bo Zhi-yun in 1991. Abdominal acupuncture (AA) uses the area between Ren12 (Zhongwan) and Ren3 (Zhongji) on the vertical line and Sp15 (Daheng) as the outer most points on the horizontal lines.

Unique in the pantheon of plant medicinal preparations, essential oils capture both the substance, yuan qi and the spirit, wei qi, of a plant. Inherent in plants in the same way that blood is inherent to the human body, oils carry the nutrients and the genetics to every corner of the plant. When we extract oils from plants and plant parts, we change both the concentration and nature of a plant’s natural oil content, yielding a compact, powerful, and previously unborn substance.

For years now, you have been asking us to add essential oils to the products we carry. We have taken your requests to heart and have taken the time to learn what we can about the industry and the products available so we can provide you with bioactive oils of therapeutic quality at a reasonable price. It has been no easy task, and it has taken us a long time to bring on a line of essential oils that meets the quality standards of Eastern Currents products for many good reasons. We are excited to share with you our new line of essential oils, Vital Qi.

As the holidays roll around, it’s easy for you and your practice to get lost in the shuffle of your clients' and patients’ busy lives. Of course, there are a lot of people competing for their attention so it’s important to stand out and make them realize that you aren’t preoccupied with *getting* something from them, you’re there to give and help them. A great way to accomplish this is with EarSeeds!

The body that is spoken about in the Chinese classical medical texts is always a living body, not a body devoid of life, a corpse, an anatomical body as an inert cadaver which is cut with the scalpel, the blade of the dissector. The body is perceived as a form in unceasing transformations, ever in motion, with all kinds of flow running inside. Nothing is still, immobile in the body at the likeness of all that exists in the cosmos.

There are many Chinese medicinal herbs that double as foods, and some famous herbs are used in the specialty tradition of herbal broth cooking. But to be fully integrated with a living Chinese medicine, there is nothing more powerful than organizing your daily foods as the herbs of your life. Rather than adding medicinals to dishes or using formulas after meals, the idea is that the formulas you rely upon can be used to create recipes and meals that fully enact their strategies. Foods are your agents, based on herbal principles and a thorough knowledge of the energetics of common foods.

At KPC Products, we recognize our success has been attributed to a unique combination of stringent practices, industry expertise, and respect for family values. Our story traces back five generations to when our ancestor, Tsai Liang Hai, sailed across the strait from Fujian province to a small village in Taiwan. Prior to his arrival in 1892, he had spent over twenty years selecting herbs and mastering the art of herbal remedy.

As wildfires blanket the Western Canada and the United States, decreased air quality can be felt all across North America. The health effects of wildfire smoke exposure range from eye and respiratory tract irritation to impaired pulmonary function. As air quality worsens, patients are experiencing the effects of the smoke. Chinese herbs can be beneficial to address these issues.

Qiu 秋 the fall, the autumn, shows an ear of grain (on the left) filled with fire 火 (on the right). Summer’s firing is over, the fall is here; inner time, metal time to cut the ties that bind. Autumn is two edged: on the one hand the harvest season with its mellow abundance, and on the other, the rapidly shortening days with the nip of death in the keen air. A time of evening, of rebalancing, the scales tipping in favour of the dark, the cold, the yin, the in. Central to it is the full moon mid-autumn festival zhong qiu jie 中 秋 節, held on the 15th day of the 8th month (September 8th in 2014), to celebrate the growth and power of yin, of harvest, of woman and the moon. Sunbathing is out, moon gazing is in, and moon cakes are all around!

You might be able to provide a complete cure for your asthma patient – a lasting cure, not just symptom relief. In my practice, I have seen people completely recover from chronic asthma, both pediatric and adult. There is no one “magic” point to fix the problem, of course. But you can learn to track the flow of channel Qi and find out where the blockage is occurring: why the First Divergence isn’t kicking in when it should.

Low back, hip and IT band issues are frequent problems practitioners deal with day-today. Many times, our patients present with tissues that have become extremely compressed and adhered. As an additional support, many practitioners have encouraged patients to do selfcare treatments with foam rollers and other compressive-type tools with some success. With the development of silicone cups, practitioners now have an entirely new set of tools for relieving pain and promoting fascial health.

When you have patients that are pushing long hours, or are exhausted new parents, or out of joint shift workers, or entrepreneurs that are hell bent on working 18 hr days, then remember Natures’ gift of Adaptogen herbs. I personally got tired of recommending 12 separate herbs to patients and combined all the most important plants into two products, Awake and Asleep. These new combinations are convenient and my patients were thankful not having to take so many capsules. I would recommend you try these in your practice as they are essential for healthy aging and managing those stressful times.

Coconut products have been heralded as a wonder "super food" for humans for years, but did you know that the same benefits that humans enjoy, our animal friends can also experience? Eastern Currents offers Olie Naturals Coconut Oil and Coconut Crumble, as fibre-rich and supportive coconut products that are nourishing, supportive, and safe for consumption by our favourite animal companions!

After having translated, worked with, and taught the Great Treatise to students of Chinese medicine for several years, I realized that this text deserves to stand on its own and be much more widely read and discussed than it is at present, perhaps because it is hidden within the voluminous Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor. In addition, the material covered in this text is so deep, complex, and foreign to our modern way of thinking that I have come to accept over the years that no single translation, whether into modern Chinese or any Western language, could ever do it justice, much less make the content understandable to an uninitiated reader who does not have access to the original source text and the volumes of historical commentaries and discussions in classical Chinese.

If you practice Acupuncture you should include Qigong in your daily routine. The classic texts of Chinese medicine often speak of the importance of the mind, intention, and spirit for the success of acupuncture treatment. Establishing a consistent Qigong practice can help focus our spirit and direct it toward improving both our health, as well as the health of our patients.

We often find that tulips droop after we put them in water. Kelly's mother shared a secret she learned from her mother. The trick she said, is once they droop, prick the stem all the way through, just at the base of tulip flower with a sewing needle or safety pin.

Spring is ruled by the Wood Element, which represents new beginnings. Wood is the intermediary between the dormancy of the seed associated with the Water Element and the flowering of the Fire Element. Wood is a time for new beginnings, for creating a new ‘‘big picture,’’ for planning and strategizing so that the mature versions of our ideas and of our actions develop in the strongest possible way. Chinese herbs are powerful allies during the Wood Phase because they are so effective for removing obstructions and nourishing what is lacking. Here are some formulas you and your patients can use to help create a sure course of development for this new season.

The face shows a remarkable amount of information in a relatively small space. We are all face readers as we evaluate faces every time we meet someone new or engage in conversation. Chinese Face Reading gives the benefit of thousands of years of observation, where minor differences in the shape and size of every feature were categorized, the various places on the face were correlated with the organs and every detail of the face was given importance. The most difficult aspect of face reading is combining the traits into a profile of a unique individual. We inherit many traits, but ultimately, each person is responsible for what shows on his or her face. Only you have the ability to control how you act and react and what you chose to express. So, the next time you feel like frowning, you might want to transform it into a smile. Or when life gives you a learning experience, it is truly a chance to grow and gain wisdom and your face will show it.