Alternative Massage Medicine You Can Do At Home

Written by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc


You may have only experiencedrepparttar most common types of massage- circulatory or Swedish, deep tissue, maybe even shiatsu. But you should also know about a more powerful form of alternative massage medicine you can practice on yourself at home.

Tui Na, The Chinese Alternative Massage Medicine

Tui Na, pronounced 'twee nah', literally means 'push grasp'. The push and grasp refer to two techniques you do with your hands (and there are at least six different hand techiques). Tui na is a sophisticated form of acupressure, a true alternative medicine massage style, because it can be used to treat all manner of disease.

In my new book, I spend an entire section (several chapters) talking about acupressure and how to use it as one ofrepparttar 114730 tools in your healing toolkit. Whether it's short-term to relieve a headache, or long-term to improve your energy level, you can use some of this alternative medicine medicine yourself. In fact, if you're seeing an acupuncturist now, they can guide you even more specifically about what acupoints to massage.

Simplifyingrepparttar 114731 Alternative Massage Medicine

It takes thousands of classroom hours to learn all there is to know about Tui Na. That's probably not practical for you. So,repparttar 114732 simplest hand technique to use is just to push on a point. You can rotate your finger or knuckle onrepparttar 114733 point (in a circle while pushing in), or just push in, release, push in, release, etc. You can even just clamp down on a point and hold it.

The key,repparttar 114734 thing you can't avoid, and which I can't go into in this small space, is knowing which points you should massage on yourself. The reason it's complicated isrepparttar 114735 same reason we can call this alternative massage medicine something like a real medicine- because it's personalized to you and your imbalances, and it heals rather than just making you feel better for a little while.

Acupuncture: Questions and Answers with an Expert

Written by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc


Questions and Answers about Acupuncture

In April 2003, I was interviewed by Anupam Sharma, a journalist withrepparttar magazine from India, Fourth Dimension, which reaches 171,000 readers monthly both there and abroad. I thought you’d like to read it, because I answered a lot ofrepparttar 114729 commonly asked questions about acupuncture that I haven’t written about onrepparttar 114730 Pulse of Oriental Medicine (PulseMed.org), and because you probably won’t be able to get that magazine.

Anupam Sharma (AS): Dr. Brian Carter, Thank you forrepparttar 114731 prompt reply and agreeing to do this interview. Tell me, doctor, how does Acupuncture work? Please explainrepparttar 114732 science behind this traditional method of healing

Brian B. Carter (BBC): Acupuncture is based on Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine (CM) has its own system of diagnosis and treatment, and acupuncture is only one therapy within that medicine. Those who have developed CM since before 2500 B.C. (when our first literary work,repparttar 114733 Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine, was written) used both symptoms and signs to diagnose disease before treating it. They developed a unique form of diagnosis called 'pattern differentiation.' Patterns are sets of specific symptoms and signs. For us, findingrepparttar 114734 signs includesrepparttar 114735 feelingrepparttar 114736 pulse and looking atrepparttar 114737 tongue.

For acupuncture specifically, there is also diagnosis according torepparttar 114738 channels. It's actually a very complicated system of theories... not as simple as it first seems. That complexity allows for a sophisticated flexibility in diagnosis and treatment that can adapt to most clinical situations. According to modern science, acupuncture works viarepparttar 114739 immune and nervous systems. It has local peripheral nervous system and central nervous system effects. Professor and physicist Zang-hee Cho has begun to use PET scans to maprepparttar 114740 brain loci affected by specific acupuncture points. Acupuncture affects neurons, electrolytes, neuro-transmitters, and neuropeptides. But even once all that data is in,repparttar 114741 traditional system of channels and pattern differentiation will still berepparttar 114742 clearest map of how acupuncture works. The biomedical view of physical phenomena is not always well-integrated.

My best analogy is that your brain is a computer, andrepparttar 114743 acupuncture points arerepparttar 114744 keyboard; you dorepparttar 114745 right points, and that tellsrepparttar 114746 brain how to changerepparttar 114747 configuration ofrepparttar 114748 mind and body.

AS: In which diseases is acupuncturerepparttar 114749 most effective?

BBC: Most people are familiar with acupuncture's effectiveness for pain. Most importantly for pain, it can prevent chronic pain syndromes whererepparttar 114750 nervous system still produces pain signals even inrepparttar 114751 absence ofrepparttar 114752 original problem. In 1997,repparttar 114753 NIH came up with a list of diseases for whichrepparttar 114754 scientific literature supported efficacy, which included nausea and vomiting, pain, tennis elbow, menstrual cramps, and fibromyalgia.

That list was much shorter than what acupuncture has traditionally treated, of course. Since 1997, even more studies have shown effectiveness for early post-stroke, acute spinal cord injury, as an adjunct in alcoholism, labor pain, migraine, post-surgical nausea and vomiting, and as part of a smoking cessation program. These arerepparttar 114755 highest quality studies: randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCT's) with more than 33 subjects per group. There are plenty more studies that don't meet that high standard, but still may offer valuable insights for clinical practice.

There is currently a study of acupuncture for high blood pressure going on at Harvard, and early reports are that it's very effective. I personally got a diabetic man disqualified from his free blood pressure medication study with a modern Chinese point prescription. Our weekly acupuncture treatments brought his blood pressure down belowrepparttar 114756 study's minimum requirement. Acupuncture also is great for a number of psychological conditions. There are 17 other RCT's currently ongoing, all funded byrepparttar 114757 National Institutes of Health.

AS: Do you think thatrepparttar 114758 modern western medicine has failed in curing certain kind of diseases like backaches, mental tension, or headaches?

BBC: It always depends onrepparttar 114759 cause. For backaches, we need an x-ray to see ifrepparttar 114760 spine is involved. For a backache or headache due to a tumor, I would certainly want MRI's and CT scans, and surgery. Of course, for cancer, we can do drug or Chinese herb chemotherapy. Or you can do drug chemo with supportive herbs to boostrepparttar 114761 immune system. For headaches, acetaminophen, aspirin, and NSAID's are very useful, though acetaminophen isrepparttar 114762 leading cause of liver failure in hospitals, and NSAID's can cause stomach ulcers. The new triptan drugs for migraines are very helpful forrepparttar 114763 acute migraine, but may not be as good as acupuncture and herbs for preventing recurrence. For any stubborn problems, or those for which western medicine cannot findrepparttar 114764 cause, acupuncture and herbs are superior.

As far as mental tension or stress goes, acupuncture and herbs work wonders. Western medicine uses sedatives and antidepressants. Most people don't want to be sedated, some antidepressants have debilitating side effects like impotence, and others are difficult to come off of safely... some even will create a dependency of sorts such that you get a rebound depression after you've been off of them for a number of months.

AS: Alternative healing methods like yoga and meditation and acupuncture becoming more popular amongrepparttar 114765 people inrepparttar 114766 west? If yes, why?

A lot of people like yoga because it's physical. Meditation is hard for fast-paced noisy-headed Americans. Most people say they just can't stop thinking. They don't realize that they're always thinking like that. We're over-stimulated here.

Acupuncture is nice because it helps you stop thinking, reduces anxiety, produces calmness. You can meditate whilerepparttar 114767 needles are in. Acupuncture is more popular here than Chinese herbs are because more MD's accept it. There's enough scientific evidence, and a number of MD's are practicing acupuncture full-time. Americans still don't understand herbal formulas, orrepparttar 114768 system of medicine that underpins Chinese herbs. They're used to going to a health food store and buyingrepparttar 114769 latest single herb for a single symptom. And there aren't enough Chinese style herbalists inrepparttar 114770 U.S. to expose everyone to it yet.

AS: How long have you practiced acupuncture?

BBC: I've only been practicing a few years. I followrepparttar 114771 idea that we need to learn true classical Chinese medicine before we can innovate intelligently, so I have a couple of mentors (Philippe Sionneau and Robert Chu) who have been practicing for about 10 years each. The formal school education is justrepparttar 114772 beginning. Our generation has a lot of translating to do to get Chinese medicine into English. Probably less than 1% ofrepparttar 114773 literature has been translated. We have some ofrepparttar 114774 most important and basic works, but we still have a lot to learn.

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