Qiological Podcast

We give a great amount of respect to the Classics in Chinese medicine, but understanding these foundational texts of our medicine can be challenge, even if you do understand the old form of Chinese.Just as many of struggle to get through the brilliance of Shakespeare, the classics of Chinese medicine require a particular kind of attention. And it doesn't hurt if you actually can understand the "gu wen" classical Chinese language. It's even more helpful if you engaged the other classic literature of China from an early age.Our guest in this episode Leo Lok did just that, and in this conversation we see how terse lines from the classics can speak eloquently to confusing cases in the modern clinic.Listen in and get a glimpse at how the classics can be applied to difficult clinical cases. You'll be wanting to spend more time with the Su Wen (Simple Questions) after this!Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Medicine is a curious business. The “agreement” is that the patient has a problem and we as practitioners are going to fix it. It’s not an unreasonable expectation in our fee for service world. And after all, we are the experts that are supposed to know how to resolve a medical condition.But what often gets left out of the conversation is the question of “what is healing?” Along with “who” is responsible for that and “what” is to be done?Healing is a curious business. And while patient and practitioner both play a role, more often than not, it’s an inside job.In this conversation with Alice Whieldon we explore what is helpful, the invitation that arises from dropping expectation and agenda, and the connective resonance that arises from simply seeing how it is for another.Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Nothing new about city and rural life being very different. But what about when it comes to having an acupuncture practice? What’s it like to practice to practice away from the bustle of big city? Are country folk really that different from city slickers? And what about non-mainstream medicine like acupuncture, how’s it accepted in the hinterlands?In this conversation with Barbara Bittinger we discuss the benefits of living and working in rural America and how community is not just an idea but an essential aspect of day to day life.Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Can you remember in those first couple of years of puberty when your senses began to quicken and a new world began to open up and you started to question your place in the unfolding this world?Adolescence is a glorious and often troublesome ripening and as with so many aspects of our lives these days... it’s medicalized as pathology instead of being seen as a series of dress rehearsals for the challenges the world will ask of us in the future. Acupuncture can be tremendously helpful teens navigating this phase of life and for their parents and families and as well, as medicine does not see kids separate from the family in which they live. Listen in on this conversation with Rebecca Avern on using acupuncture to treat adolescences. Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

It’s easy to think of researchers as stotic characters in laboratory coats who rely on their frontal cortex and religiously follow the flowchart of “science.”But science is not a flowchart, and researcher is really another name for someone who grew into adulthood with their curiosity intact.Listen in to this conversation on luck, intention, intuition, investigation and biofields.

It is surprising where life can take us. We follow a hunch or a nudge and somehow gain some momentum that in time generates wind for our sails.Not many westerners in the 1970’s started along the road of Chinese medicine. In this long ranging conversation with Jake Fratkin we discuss his perspectives over time and his current thoughts on medicine.Listen in for a conversation about herbs, TCM, Japanese acupuncture and the curious road of practice that unfolds when you follow your interests.Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

Chinese medicine is not one medicine; it’s a kaleidoscopic plurality. There is no one true acupuncture; we have a rich ecosystem of perspectives and methods. The  trouble with learning something new is that we have let loose of our current understanding usually acquired through effort and hard work. It’s hard to release what we’ve struggled to learn. Our limited understanding of the terrain becomes our turf. It takes a certain amount of confidence in ourselves, and recognition we know we don’t know, to be able to learn something new that may contradict or call into question that which we comfortably feel like we can rely upon.Two years ago I started learning Saam acupuncture on a hunch after reading Toby Daly’s article from the Journal of Chinese Medicine. It was at first unpleasantly mind-bending, it took me far afield of what comfortably felt like competence. It invited me into another perspective that eventually came full circle, in that it connected up some of the streams of herbal medicine that I’d been following over the years.In this conversation, two years after my first podcast discussion with Toby, I’m able to bring a different set of questions and perspectives now that I’ve got a taste for how the Five Phases and Six Conformations connect in ways I could not previous see. Listen into to this conversation to get a sense of lenses and perspectives of the Buddhist monastic stream of Saam acupuncture. Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

We often think of emotion as one thing. That we are sad, or angry, or frustrated, or joyous. But often it’s more complicated than that. Many times there will be an entanglement of emotion. Love and anger, grief and guilt, or excitment and anxiety. It’s when emotions get entangled people can really get stuck as it is hard to sort work through one emotion when it’s intimately connected with another toward which you’re not attending .In this conversation with Lillian Bridges we explore our emotional makeup, how it shows on the face, and how we can use the dynamics of the five phases to better understand and sort out these deep internal influences that can so dramatically effect our physiology and relationships.Listen into this conversation that goes into our “internal weather,” the right use of Will and how our feelings can strongly influence our perceptions and perspectives.

The Chinese say 活到老學到老 hou dao lao, xue dao lao, which can be translated as “continue learning for as long as you live.” It’s good advice, and when it comes to the practice of medicine, it’s essential. Our work gives us an endless opportunity to learn and deepen our understanding.In this conversation with Kathy Taromina, Craig Mitchell and Dan Bensky we discuss what they have been learning about using Chinese herbal medicine in responding to the symptoms of Covid-19, as they carry out a study that is being done at the Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine.Doctors of the past have left us a treasure trove of ideas and clinical strategies for treating epidemic illness and all of these methods are coming into play in our modern world, as we learn more about how the Coronavirus affects different people.Listen into this conversation on how experienced herbalists are learning from the wide range of presentations that are showing up in the clinic. And how you can access the information that is being collected from this study for your own learning and use in the treatment of infectious illness.Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.  

The Chinese and people of East Asia deal with epidemic disease on a regular basis. And every time a new bug comes to town, they learn a little more.While we in the west have access to some of the classic materials on treating epidemics, we don’t have the same level experience. It’s not really our fault, epidemics don’t roll through here in the west as often, and even during the cold and flu season most people don’t seek us out first. So our skills are not as polished as we’ve not had the experience to hone our clinical skills.In this speical edition conversation with Thomas Avery Garran and Shelley Ochs we discuss their new eBook on Chinese medicine and Covid-19.Listen in to this conversation on how the Chinese are using traditional medicine at a scale we simply don’t see here in the west.Head on over to the show notes page for more information about this episode and for links to the resources discussed in the interview.