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…
Category Archives: Constitutional types
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…
Some clinical observations from Nanjing
Today we have another guest post from a member of the group that journeyed to Nanjing this past November to study jing fang with Dr. Huang. Bernd Schleifer is a practitioner from Munich who has an active practice, and weak spot for good books on medicine written in Chinese. ************************************* Reading the Ten Key Formula…
Navigating the levels
If you are regular reader of classicformulas.com then you have a pretty good idea of the value that Dr. Huang places on constitution, formula presentation, illness and the interaction between them. If you have worked with these methods yourself in the clinic, it is likely that it has at times sharpened your clinical eye…
Constitution and Formula Scope
Perhaps practicing medicine is much like forest management, fiddling around with the economy of a large developed country, or arranging a 100 table banquet. There are individual issues; the overpopulation of a certain insect, corruption in a key business sector, unrelenting fever, or who should sit next to who. There are hot spot issues, the…
Why differentiate constitution?
. . I will be taking a group to Nanjing next month to study with Dr. Huang. To prepare and brush up my Chinese I’m going over his lecture notes. They are a treasure trove of clinical common sense and revelation. They also help to illuminate why the Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan I gave…
Introduction to the 10 Key Formula Families
We should see The 10 Key Formula Families out in print sometime in March. I am hoping you will find it as interesting to read, as I found it to translate. More importantly, I trust it will give you another lens to focus clinical reality. Dr. Huang’s emphasis on constitutional types and herb presentations is…
Opposites inform
We know from the texture of our lives that the Chinese yin/yang theory of opposites attracting and mutually transforming into one another is one of the ways that life grows, unfolds, and transforms. It is somehow comforting to know that moments of despair will in time transform, and that present frustrations can be the inspiration…