'Indeed, when we can drink from our rivers, it means that a whole ecosystem is healthy and in balance. Rivers can only be drinkable when all actions and relations in an entire watershed contribute.This could be a guiding principle for our societies, as a replacement of economic growth. Drinkable rivers as an ancient and new compass, guided by the following, simple question: “Does this behaviour, this measure, or this innovation contribute to drinkable rivers?”'

In medicine, the idea of smooth-flowing rivers is very old, going back to the Huang Di Nei Jing, the classic book of Chinese medicine, which lays out the traditional ideas and techniques of acupuncture.

https://drinkablerivers.org/

#drinkablerivers #acupuncture #neijing

The Whole Person Research Workshop by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health discussed examples of research studies in these three areas from diverse fields and explored methodologies potentially appropriate for whole person research.

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/news/events/methodological-approaches-for-whole-person-research

#research #nhs #wholeperson #ecologymedicine #medicine #alternativemedicine #person #acupuncture #neijing

Gastrointestinal problems, Irritable Bowl Syndrome, constipation, allergies, Crohn’s disease, etc., are all connected to the gut. On the alternative medicine corners of the internet, the advise given is mostly about food and supplements.
While eating good food is an important pillar of health, there can be a certain obsessive quality to these recommendations. If the digestive system is not strong enough, foods cannot be broken down and absorbed properly, nutrition cannot be taken adequately from the food. Focussing on what is missing and supplementing those deficiencies, is typical for Industrial Medicine and the forms of alternative medicine that mainly mimic Industrial Medicine with other means.
Nature-based medicine focuses on the root causes, like emotional disturbances, unhealthy breathing or exercise habits, scars, tensions in the body and ancestral legacies and uses things like acupuncture to increase the blood flow to the abdomen, and creating a healthy “fermentation vessel” in the gut, so that the balance between the “good” bacteria and the “bad” ones shifts naturally, and the intestines can function properly, increasing the uptake of nutrients. Instead of focussing on what suppositiously is lacking in our lives or, the opposite, focussing on “detoxifying” what we perceive as being unwanted, natural medicine, like traditional acupuncture, aims to optimise the body’s normal, healthy functions, and trusts that this will allow the body to re-align itself with its true purpose according to nature’s design.

All this being said, here is a page full of wonderful ideas by Salvador Katz. He is a master of the dark arts of fermentation, the process that pre-digests your foods, adds flavour and good bacteria as well. Incorporating some fermented foods into your diet will be a great way to enhance it. Doing the fermentation yourself is cheap and fun, and can have you experimenting with flavours you would never get in the store. Fermenting foods is a traditional practice, and fits well into how our bodies have evolved.

https://www.masontops.com/pages/sandor-katz-fermentation-workshop

#acupuncture #gastrointestionalhealth #fermentation #traditionalmedicine #medicine #alternativemedicine #neijing #health #gut

If traditional acupuncture seems very different from what you know, then that is because it is! It was developed by a very different people, people that saw the world like this, and who thought different as well.
That does not mean that we cannot use insights from classical China in the modern world. Indeed to deal with the frustrations and disappointments of Industrial Medicine, we can turn to the basic text book that has inspired over two millennia of doctors: The Huang Di Nei Jing. It is still relevant as ever today, and can be a guide to improve health and treat disease. Differently, but effectively.

https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2021/03/sanxingdui-culture/#

(Kudos to Edward Neal)
#tcm #acupuncture #china #tradition #insights #neijing #neijingnaturebasedmedicine

In our hubris, we often think we are the centrepiece of the world, with everything else on the planet being set pieces as the background for our performance. This view is the basis for fantasies about humans able to control nature, to prevail over the uncertainties of life, and it has grown more and more strong in recent years and lead to much suffering. However, the opposite view is, slowly, discretely gaining traction as well. The world is alive, and nature enforces her own patterns. Even the soil is brimming with life, and even making sounds at it! (1) The earth is not a passive place where we were dropped unwinkingly, but the pulsating, breathing overflowing cradle that is sprouting humans, and taking them back in her lap once their time is up.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) works with these natural graining patterns, rather than against them. There are many branches of TCM, including traditional acupuncture, but a rather recent sprout of TCM, Neijing Nature-Based Medicine (2), deserves a special mentioning because it embraces these principles explicitly.

(1) https://knowablemagazine.org/article/living-world/2022/life-soil-was-thought-be-silent-what-if-it-isnt
(2) https://neijingstudies.com/

#neijing #earth #sound #tcm