bioavailability, Hall of Happiness, MRI research

[Guest guest]

Thank you Graham for the wonderful feedback. I am hoping this message

actually gets displayed, as my transmissions have been glitched in the past.

 

Have you come to any conclusions having compared decocted herbs versus raw,

ground? I am about to provide a Liver/Kidney Yin Xu hypertension patient

with the following formula. The raw dry herbs were ground and mixed with

just enough honey to hold them together. I know this patient will not

decoct raw herbs, thus I hope to ensure compliance by prescribing

honeyballs. The modifications to Qi Ju Di Huang Wan are what I am unsure

about being effective without decocting: jue ming zi, sang ji sheng, tian

ma, gou teng.

I'm interesed in your anecdotal evidence and would like to hear about it if

you may share, and will read it with a critical-thinking viewpoint.

Your grinder sounds delightful. I suggest calling Spring Wind for info on

obtaining a small, single blade herb grinder. I have also used a Japanese

herb grinder available commercially.

I support Sean Doherty's comments. After the last four years of an

inexorably long and winding road, anticipating the next few years as a new

practitioner is even more daunting. I offer the Hall of Happiness written

by Professor Cheng Man Ching who brought the short yang style t'ai chi form

to the west, and was a doctor as well:

May the joy that is everlasting gather in this hall. Not the joy of a

sumptuous feast which slips away even as we leave the table: nor that which

music brings - it is only of a limited duration. Beauty and a pretty face

are like flowers, they bloom for awhile then die. Even our youth slips

swiftly away and is gone. No, enduring ahppiness is not in these, nor in

the three joys of Jung Kung. We may as well forget them, for the joys I

mean is worlds away from these. It is the joy of continuous growth, of

helping to develop in ourselves and others the talents and abilities whith

which we were born - the gifts of heaven to mortal man. It is to revive the

exhausted and to rejuvenate that which is in decline, so that we are

enabled to dispel sickness and suffering. Let true affectiona nd happy

concourse abide in thhis hall. Let us here corrrect past mistakes and lose

preoccupation with self. With the constancy of the planets in their courses

or of the dragon in his cloud wrapped path, let us enter the land of health

and ever after walk within its bounds. Let us fortify ourselves against

weakness, and learn to be self-relian, without ever a moments lapse. Then

our resolutioln will become the very air we breathe, the world we live in;

then we will be as happy as a fish in crystal waters. This is the joy which

lasts, that we can carry with us to the ends of our days. And tell me if

you can, what greater happiness can life bestow?

New York, 1973

 

I apologize for the length and diverting from the herbs topic.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in the research on MRI and GB 37,

look at the Program NOtes of the Fifth Symposium of the Society for

Acupuncture Research.

 

-pz

 

 

 

Graham Jellett wrote:

Some of these I have been able to compare the effect between decoction,

pill(patent) and powder.

As to bioavailability I only have anecdotal evidence.

 

Sean Doherty wrote:

I was curious how the MRI research was done with acupuncture needles,

since almost all are stainless steel and would consequently be ripped

out of the person's body by the magnet. Did they use special

titanium needles, or did they stimulate in some other way?

 

On another note, I would like to make a comment about some of the

recent writings on the current state of Oriental Med in the states.

There have been a number of undertones, and overtones, throughout

these essays that basically say newly graduated practitioners are

inadequately trained and that their education is generally poor.

Although I agree that education can always be improved, I feel

somewhat disparaged by these comments as a new practitioner. I think

there was a lack of gentility for your newest colleagues of the

profession. In addition, almost all the comments failed to speak to

the realities of being a new practitioner. Where you are faced with

the task of building a practice, supporting yourself/family and

paying off what in some cases are sizeable student loans six months

after graduating. The current programs are much longer than those of

the past 10-20 years, and that trend is likely only to continue.

That we must continue to study the medicine is obvious, but to say

that we have to seek out a master and study with them for years after

graduation is not realistic in many cases. I think we are all eager

to learn as much as we can to better serve our patients needs. I

just hope we remember to temper knowledge with our hearts before

putting it to practice, or paper.

 

Humbly yours,

Sean Doherty

Nashua, NH

[Guest guest]

Would you be so kind as offer greater detail(s) on mixing Honey with the raw

herbs. Specifically do you heat the Honey first, roll together in wax paper

and pinch off into bite-size balls, form into lozenges, wrap again

individually in wax paper. Instruct the patient to swallow whole pills or

drop in hot water.

 

Additionally do you first make a syrup using the raw herbs then drop into

heated honey and remove and cool the honey coated pills?

 

Or take a large Raw Pill mixed with enough honey to hold them together and

drop in heated Bee's Wax to form a protective coating for latter use.

(remove bee's wax before using)

 

I think there are many ways of presenting Honey balls, all being quite

similar but I am interested in what seems to work better for some and not

for others.

 

ah, so many questions so little time.

 

Enjoy Life

Ed Kasper LAc.

 

 

The raw dry herbs were ground and mixed with

just enough honey to hold them together. I know this patient will not

decoct raw herbs, thus I hope to ensure compliance by prescribing

honeyballs.