About this project Walk into any reasonably sized bookstore in China and you will find shelves full of the experience of Chinese medicine doctors. Case studies are the bones and blood of furthering one’s skill as a doctor. We all gain a foundation, a skeletal structure from our textbooks and first years in medical school….
Author Archives: Michael Max
Rules of Thumb
Rules of thumb are useful. Being able discern a constitutional type is a broad brushstroke rule of thumb. We can effectively condense experience, and it is often a shortcut to where we are headed. Except for when it is not. I was working through the diagnosis on a young woman recently and thought I had…
Treating cold damage
This blog usually features translations, case studies, or clinical observations into the workings of Chinese herbal medicine. Today’s post is a bit different. It is a more personal story; my story of the past 24 hours, and an insight into the interaction of wei and xie qi (衛和邪氣). It started a couple days ago with…
The lighter side of translation
We all know that translation is rarely a well balanced algebraic equation. Norms, habit, personal preference and worldview all play a role in how meaning crosses between language and culture.
Thoughts on focal distention
Focal distention, golmus, pi, call it what you will, the name is not nearly as important as the illness process that it describes. This is one of those concepts upon which there is a wealth of thought and disagreement. Some say it is a sensation the patient has, others say it is the doctor that…
Discovery
. The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!”, but “That’s funny…” ~Isaac Asimov . We have these kinds of opportunities all the time in our clinical work. The pulse that does not feel quite like any pulse we have felt before. The odd reaction…
Huang Qi Constitution revisited
One of our astute readers pointed out some discrepancies between the description of the astragalus constitution as it is written in The 10 Key Formula Families, and how it was presented in one of Huang’s recent lectures. This prompted a little email discussion with him about how his thinking has changed since the original publishing…
Pleco for iPhone
If you drift on over to the Pleco website you will see that as of December 18th the new Pleco dictionary for the iPhone will be available at the App Store. I’ve been using this software as part of the beta testing program for the past six weeks. It is brilliant. If you have an…