Guest guest Posted July 5, 2003 Report Share Posted July 5, 2003 Dear Z'ev, Jim and All, I hope you'll bear with me just a bit as I wanted to take a moment to respond to Z'ev's and Jim's reference to Michael Broffman. I hope you'll respond to the question that I pose at the end, if only within yourselves. It's of interest to me that (back in the 1970s) I was guided by Michael to achieve balance through CM-guided behavior rather than CM remedies such as acupuncture and herbs. I survived some of the most rigorous periods of my life by therapeutically writing poetry and drawing in my journals. This was a small part of Michael's plan tonify kidney and remove stress from the spleen. In addition, a subtext of all of my graduate training from medical school though graduate school was nutrition and diet. So many of my professors presented diet as the single greatest stressor in human life. Over recent years I've been impressed by my friend Nam Singh's decision to stop treating his patients with acupuncture but rather to address lifestyle, diet, and the physical circumstances of the client's life. Like Michael, Nam would offer herbal formulas as an occasional addendum to the counseling. Over the years, I signed up twice for Nam's 1st year and twice for his 2nd year of training in Chinese cooking. It's basically a Chinese medical training that focuses on diet and lifestyle, and omits acupuncture. It includes herbs as a part of the recipes for cooking delicious foods in various seasons and for various individual needs. The "clinical setting" is the kitchen and the diningroom. I consider this training a wonderful addendum to CM medical school. One of my classmates was Jason Robertson from this list. Finally the subtext of this message is embodied in the quotes below by the current head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the current U.S. Surgeon General. If you are a medical practitioner of any kind in America, they indicate that diet and lifestyle is the epidemic that you must address at this time in American history. America is a culture of excess (and its resulting deficiencies), and all medical modalities must adjust themselves to address this. I wonder if those on list are carrying this message with themselves consciously in their work? I suspect that some are. In gratitude for your kind attention this. Emmanuel Segmen "The No. 1 health problem in the U.S. is not SARS. It is not emerging infectious diseases. it is the epidemic of obesity that we are watching unfold before our very eyes." Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 9, 2003. "We are now breeding a generation of dysfunctional middle-age people. This epidemic we're predicting dwarfs terrorism." Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General, March 15, 2003 in which he describes the epidemic of childhood obesity as the "terror within." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 5, 2003 Report Share Posted July 5, 2003 Emmanuel, A brilliant meditation on something we often forget. I am glad to hear that there are practitioners like Nam Singh out there. I would very much like to meet him when I come to San Francisco next. I am also a fervent adherent to the school of diet and lifestyle being of extreme importance. I also agree that diet is one of the great stressors in our society, and that obesity is an epidemic. I mostly worry about the students at PCOM and other acupuncture colleges, because their diets are so poor. No matter what I say or teach, very few seem to take any interest in diet as a factor in their own health. When I go to conferences, few attendees seem to have any dietary awareness. If we really want to aid the transformation process in our patient's health, we must first take care of our own through diet, lifestyle and exercise. They are powerful tools to develop our own healing power. On Saturday, July 5, 2003, at 11:18 AM, Emmanuel Segmen wrote: > I hope you'll bear with me just a bit as I wanted to take a moment to > respond to Z'ev's and Jim's reference to Michael Broffman. I hope > you'll respond to the question that I pose at the end, if only within > yourselves. It's of interest to me that (back in the 1970s) I was > guided by Michael to achieve balance through CM-guided behavior > rather than CM remedies such as acupuncture and herbs. I survived > some of the most rigorous periods of my life by > therapeutically writing poetry and drawing in my journals. This was a > small part of Michael's plan tonify kidney and remove stress from the > spleen. In addition, a subtext of all of my graduate training from > medical school though graduate school was nutrition and diet. So many > of my professors presented diet as the single greatest stressor in > human life. Over recent years I've been impressed by my friend Nam > Singh's decision to stop treating his patients with acupuncture but > rather to address lifestyle, diet, and the physical circumstances of > the client's life. Like Michael, Nam would offer herbal formulas as > an occasional addendum to the counseling. Over the years, I signed up > twice for Nam's 1st year and twice for his 2nd year of training in > Chinese cooking. It's basically a Chinese medical training that > focuses on diet and lifestyle, and omits acupuncture. It includes > herbs as a part of the recipes for cooking delicious foods in various > seasons and for various individual needs. The " clinical setting " is > the kitchen and the diningroom. I consider this training a wonderful > addendum to CM medical school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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