Clinical Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine最新文献

Belching, or hiccup in TCM, can be a very serious condition for the suffering patients experience in their working, learning and social situation, and yet, little attention is given for its treatment in Western Medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine theory suggests the condition may be a warning sign of deterioration of other acute or chronic diseases, which requires early diagnosis and treatment to prevent complications. Acupuncture treatment involves the principle of harmonizing stomach function and descending inverse through specific point selection, which is determined by the different types of hiccup. The acupuncture treatment, which is very inexpensive and without side effects, has been 100% effective in this study, has increased the patients’ acceptance and confidence in this therapy.

On February 15, 2003 the Tri-State College of Acupuncture hosted the first in a series of colloquia to facilitate communication and cross-fertilization among leaders in acupuncture practice, research, and education in North America. In this first meeting, the purpose was to bring needling technique and the issue of de qi into an open forum, to address the issue of needling stimulation and needling sensation. To this end, five Master Practitioners (representing different styles and traditions of acupuncture) were each invited to demonstrate and discuss their techniques to an audience of leading researchers, educators and each other. An open forum discussion of each practitioners’ methodology and underlying theory ensued. Though the initial focus was on needling technique and de qi, the organic nature of the discussion illuminated a complexity of inextricably linked themes, underscoring acupuncture as a complex interaction between practitioner and patient.

What became most evident is the excitement generated by bringing together an interdisciplinary panel of experts, and that the creation of a forum to facilitate such interaction would be of great benefit to the field of acupuncture. It is our hope and expectation that developing such a forum for interaction among experts in the field of acupuncture will serve as a catalyst for ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue to inspire novel collaboration and further investigation into this complex and fascinating medicine.

How can we account for the fact that traditional Chinese medicine is both so ancient and yet so effective? This apparent paradox is difficult to explain from the world view of the physical sciences. To address it, we must be aware of the gap between East and West, and bearing such awareness in mind we can begin to shed light on such questions from the perspective of system science. In doing so we will discuss Y$\text{ı}\text{̄}$n-Yáng and the Five Phases theory, which constitute the basic theoretical framework of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In these ancient Chinese modes of reasoning, Y$\text{ı}\text{̄}$n-Yáng is the first step to classify the qualitative properties of things, while the Five Phases are employed to analyze and express the relationships among systems. Following this combination of contemporary and ancient ways of thinking, Traditional Chinese Medicine can provide a promising method to deal with complex things.

Part I examines the modern theory of metaphor against the background of progress made in the understanding of consciousness, language, and cognition. The role of metaphor in the construction of medical systems in China and the West is then discussed. An inquiry into the metaphors used in the expression of emotion in English and Chinese follows. Part II of the article will focus on the metaphors of depression in Chinese and English common languages, and the metaphorical implications of the respective medical heritages in each of these. The possibility is that the sharing of medical metaphors cross-culturally has broad implications for the deeper understanding of human dysfunction it suggested. It is also demonstrated that anyone reaching across cultures to treat Westerners with Chinese medicine, or Chinese with Western psychology/biomedicine, can benefit greatly by learning more about the basic structure of conceptual metaphors in each system. It is shown that this exercise allows for greater sensitivity to patients, more flexible treatment strategy, and better communication.