The Importance of Bitter

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, good health is dependent upon eating a variety of foods. Specifically, eating the five flavors daily. The 5 flavors are: pungent, salty, sour, sweet, and bitter. Many Americans eat an excess of sweet flavored foods leading to congestion. The flavor that is often most missing is bitter.

Bitter tasting foods clear inflammation and damp/mucous accumulations. It is excellent for those who are overweight or suffer from acne for example. Examples of bitter foods are: turnips, romaine lettuce, and asparagus. Bitter Melon is one of the most bitter foods consumed regularly by people. It is an acquired taste but works amazingly well to detoxify the body and balance those who indulge in excesses of sweet foods.

A simple recipe for bitter melon is to stir fry it with eggs:
1. Slice the bitter melon in half and remove the seeds.
2. Slice into thin pieces.
3. Heat oil in a skillet.
4. Add bitter melon slices and eggs.
5. Stir until eggs are cooked.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

bittermelon.org is a website dedicated to the benefits of this vegetable.

Real Food

I was spoiled as a child. My dad had grown up on a farm so we always had a good size vegetable garden in the backyard. My mom made the majority of our food from scratch. I can trace the exacerbation of my health problems as a teen went I started eating more processed foods. As a young adult I went back to eating the way I had as a child but I haven't had the time to maintain my own garden and I really missed the difference in quality. This had been my dilemna for a while.

I drove up to what looked like an old time market at the Poway Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. I went up to Jr Organic's booth and picked up my bin of weekly vegetables. While I was there I also picked up a dozen of some of the best eggs I've ever had for $2.50 and a bunch of beautiful flowers for $4. I joined a CSA 2 weeks ago and now I’ll never go back.

CSA stands for community supported agriculture. It basically allows small farms to sell directly to consumers. These farms can grow food in an ethical and healthy way, like avoiding pesticides and rotating crops to avoid soil depletion. It also supports family-owned local farms. The vegetables are picked that day so everything is very fresh. It is also the cheapest way to buy organic foods. Another added benefit is that the people who sell and buy there are very friendly. It makes you feel like you are part of a community. Warning: The vegetables aren’t as pretty but they definitely taste better.

In terms of Chinese nutrition each food has its own properties, and diet is adjusted according to the seasons and one’s constitution. As a general category low glycemic vegetables tend to clear heat, detoxify, and build yin and blood. High glycemic vegetables are qi tonics. In order to be healthy it is crucial that the food we eat be healthy and free of toxins.

Two wonderful references on Chinese nutrition are Paul Pitchfork’s Healing with Whole Foods and Maoshing Ni’s The Dao of Nutrition.

For a list CSA's go o Local Harvest or Eat Wild.

Qigong – Exercising Your Qi

Qigong refers to exercises that promote the proper flow of qi, or vital energy, in the body. This term is an umbrella term for a wide variety of exercises including meditation, Dao-In (Chinese Yoga), Tai Chi, and breathing techniques. Its definition could be extended to include exercises cross-culturally that provide similar benefits. Qigong is the foundation for Traditional Chinese Medicine. The practice of qigong is an integral part of excelling as an acupuncturist and health maintenance for everyone.

Self-cultivation through a qigong practice is often part of an acupuncturist’s training. The concept of qi is difficult to grasp for Westerners. Qi is often translated as “vital energy” or “bioelectric energy” but this there is no English term that truly conveys its meaning. Qi is the “prana” of the Indian tradition. It is insubstantial. Its healthy flow powers the healthy function of our bodies. Feeling qi move through your body takes seemingly abstract, metaphorical concepts such as “meridian” or “yin and yang” and makes them into real, practical terms.

Short, simple qigong exercises are often given as homework to patients by their acupuncturists in order to empower them to make positive changes in their health themselves. The following is a qigong exercise I have given to my patients. This exercise is particularly important for women after giving birth to recuperate the proper flow of the channels. It is taken from the book Ancient Wisdom from a Modern Master; The Healing Art of Qi Gong by Master Hong Liu, which I often suggest to my patients.

Medical Qi Gong PERINEUM BREATHING

· Powerful Longevity exercise.

· God for male/female problems (prostate, sexual dysfunction, cancer, menstrual, UTI, yeast infections, etc.)

· Don’t do in a car or place you may get distracted. Focus is very important during the exercise.

· Don’t have sex immediately before or after doing exercise (though it may provoke sexual energy)

How To Do The Breathing

Sit on the end of a chair or stool with perineum off the edge of the chair. (Egyptian stance).

Inhale, pull perineum (and only the perineum) into the body, hold (2 seconds) and exhale completely (release while exhaling). Focus on the perineum during the exercise.

Release completely or it may exacerbate problems.

Women -24 breaths (Numbers based on the I-Ching)
Men - 36 breaths .

Chong Mai goes through the energy centers, chakras - all the endocrine glands (helps balance hormones).

Why I Became an Acupuncturist

I was not raised to believe in anything that deviated from modern Western Medicine. My grandfather and uncle were MD's and my father was an engineer so anything "unscientific" was completely discounted. I credit my own healing crisis with changing how I view health and my personal responsibility for it.

I had always been a very healthy child. Around puberty I began having bizarre symptoms. I had joint pain, migraine headaches, menstrual problems, hair loss, and other seemingly unrelated issues. It wasn't until I was 17 that I was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma (a tiny tumor in the pituitary gland). I was faced with a laser procedure to remove it that could damage the entire gland. Out of desperation, my mom took to me to see an acupuncturist, one of the few they had in North Carolina at the time. My health turned around completely in 3 months. A year later I went back and did another MRI and there was no adenoma.

After my experience my mom began seeing our acupuncturist. To make a long story short, after I finished college my mom and I decided to attend acupuncture school together and to open our clinic together. We want to give other people the opportunity we had to transform our health.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, Lost in Translation

There is a great deal of confusion as to what to call what we do. We are called "acupuncturists" but acupuncture is only one modality utilized in our medicine. Herbal medicine, massage, nutrition, moxibustion, gua sha, cupping to name a few therapies, evolved together over centuries into what today constitutes Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The term TCM is also problematic.

TCM, Oriental Medicine(OM), Chinese Medicine, and Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM) are often used interchangeably. The medicine originated in China and was exported over the years to neighboring countries which modified and developed their own styles. Currently Traditional Chinese Medicine is what is emphasized in most American acupuncture schools with Japanese and Korean styles being also very popular.

At our clinic, we received the foundation of our training at a lineage-based, Chinese owned school. However, our current needling style is influenced by Japanese acupuncture. The term Oriental Medicine has often been used to give credit to other traditions based on TCM that evolved in the counties surrounding China that are often used by American practitioners. However, currently many are trying to change the term to the more politically correct Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM).We choose to use the term TCM, though it continues to be a problematic term, because it is the most popular and commonly understood term for our medicine.

What Schooling is Required to Practice Acupuncture?

This varies a great deal by state and the titles are confusing. In the state of California, where I practice, 3,000 hours at an accredited school are required as well as passing a rigorous state board exam. The school I attended in California required 3,600 hours to graduate and I was awarded a Masters in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The curriculum includes Traditional Chinese Medical theory, extensive courses on Chinese Herbs, Acupuncture, Western Science classes, Qigong, and more. From the state I have the title Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.). This is a bit confusing as we do a great deal more than acupuncture, including suggest herbs.

A professional doctorate is just recently being offered. It requires an additional 2,500 hours and a Capstone project. Completing the program awards you the title of Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and allows an acupuncturist to legally call himself/herself "Dr."

The titles become confusing as acupuncturists migrate from state to state and bring with them their old titles. In New Mexico, for example, the title for a licensed acupuncturist is Doctor of Oriental Medicine (DOM), even though the licensing requirements are comparable to the Masters' requirements in California. For specific information on licensing requirements in your state look at www.acufinder.com.