Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Study Notes

General Advice and Study Strategies

• Email Questions: Students are encouraged to email questions about specific concepts they find difficult.

• Tutorial Focus: Tutorials will cover acupuncture points, memorization techniques, TCM concepts, and refreshers.

• Balancing Course Load: Key is balancing Herb 1 with other courses due to its heavy memorization load.

Herb One: Key Strategies

• Focus on Categories: Learn about categories (e.g., exterior-releasing) rather than individual herbs initially.

• Prioritize Herbs: Focus on the first few herbs listed in each category, as instructors emphasize these.

• Meridian Tropism: Note which meridians each herb affects.

• Key Characteristics: Remember one or two standout characteristics for each herb.

• Category Recall: If unsure of an herb's function, remember its category to aid guessing in multiple-choice exams.

Herb One and TCM Practitioner

• Even if pursuing acupuncture diploma only, understanding basic herbs is important.

• Knowing common kitchen herbs can help educate patients.

• Example: Ginger

  • Ginger is a wind-cold exterior-releasing herb.

  • Contraindicated for wind-heat conditions (sore throat with inflammation).

  • Adds fuel to the fire for wind heat.

  • Good for colds that are cold in nature but not inflammatory

  • Runny nose symptoms: clear and profuse or white (not much yellow indicating inflammation)

  • Ginger is quite spicy

• Concept of Heat: Relate TCM heat to inflammation in Western medicine terms.

• Other Kitchen Herbs: Retain knowledge of kitchen herbs like peppers and ginseng.

  • Mint cools and clears heat. It is perfect for wind heat.

Recommending Single Herbs

• Recommend kitchen herbs only due to safety.

• Avoid recommending unfamiliar herbs (e.g., Fu Zi/Aconite) due to potential toxicity.

• Kitchen herbs example: Nutmegs, peppercorns, ginger, dry paprika helps with muscle relaxation, aloe

• Aloe is heat-clearing and a laxative when ingested; use cautiously.

  • If a person has a lot of heat that scorch up all of the liquid in their intestine leading to constipation, you can recommend aloe.

Importance of Herbal History

• Herbal medicine is a significant part of Chinese medicine.

• Understanding herbal terminology reveals the spirit behind Chinese medicine.

• Herbs can be paralleled to acupuncture points.

• Create imagery to aid herb memorization.

• Focus on key points highlighted by instructors.

• Avoid wasting time memorizing every detail.

Acupuncture Points

• Prioritize Star Points: Focus on three or four-star acupuncture points.

• Do not try to remember every single indication of every point.

Channel Theory and Memorization

• Channel flow and direction is a key foundation.

• Knowing general channel flow aids in remembering meridian pathways and orders.

• Knowing general channel flow aids in remembering meridian positions and orders.

• Identify patterns in channel pathways.

Six Divisions for Yin and Yang

• Six Divisions: Names the six divisions are: So Yang Ming, Xiaoyang, Tai Yang, Tai Yin, Zhe Yin, Xiaoyin. The order is from outer to inner.

• Categorize yin and yang channels (hand and foot).

• Understand exterior/interior relations of organs (Zhang Fu) for pathology.

• Connect to Five Elements theory for diagnosis.

Rule #1 for Acupuncture Channel Flow

• Raise Hand Posture: Use a raised hand to visualize channel flow.

• Sky is seen as more yang, and the earth is more yin

• Yin channels flow from yin to yang (lower to higher).

• Yang channels flow from yang to yin (higher to lower).

Rule #2

• Yin channels begin or end at the chest.

• Hand channels: Yin channels of the hand start from the chest and end at the fingers.

  • Example: Lung channel starts in the chest and ends at the thumb.

• Foot channels: Yin channels always begin from the toes and ends at the chest.

• If you are ever confused about your position, try raising you hand so that you know which is more Yin or Yang.

Rule #3

Yang channels always begin or end in the head. So let's say we know that we start with the lung channel which always starts in the chest. If that is the case, it has to be the most Yang channel so it has to be a Yang channel.

The next channel after the lung is the Large Intestine which starts at the finger and flows to the head. Then since the last channel from the lung is still flows into the head, the next channel has to start in the head which would mean it's a Yang channel of the foot.

Raise your hand the same way when you start to analyze where where the position should be.

Paired Channel: Yang Ming

• Pairing Channels:

  • Tie Yin pairs with Yang Ming: Tai Yin to Yang Ming.

  • Solidify channels early so it is easy to remember later.
    *Tips: When recalling these channels, it is import to tell yourself a story to remember and have it ingrained in yourself.

Yin Organs and Nature Relationships

• When talking about yin organs, remember that the organs are a bit more dense than the Yang organs

• Example of a dense Organ: Spleen, very dense.

Channel Clock

• You guys remember the timing: You guys need to remember it. The timing of certain organs will play a big role in how long we should live our life.
  The One Time I Remember: Think about the stomach from 7 to 9 and spleen from 9-11. The time slots are important to remember. That is why you need people should have their biggest time to take advantage of digestive time.

How To remember it channel

• As long as we can solidify this in your memory, we will know that Tie In will go to Yang Ming. From Here, it would have to start with the hand which will start from the chest and end in the hand.

• Generally, the channel has to start from the chest and end in the head.
  *So after the Small Intestine Ends, the next channel after the stomach would have to start in the foot which is the greatest Yang.

*Because the foot tie channel of the foot spleen ended in the chest, what kind of channel will then begin. We are going to have something that starts in the Yin Channel to continue the Yin and Yang.

Shaoyin: You do end to think of the Shaiyin channel for the example above which starts at the channel.

We are going from the foot to the hand

As you draw the diagram, you can tell yourself from all of this.

We know Tai Yin and Yang cycle from the top go from Tai Yin and it bounces all the way to Zhiyin and what's the process for Zhauyin from Xiaoyang.

Zheyin goes to hand, Xiaoyang goes to heal

Channel Flow Chart

*Starting with hand, and going to the Yin Channel (Lung) which only has 3 steps to it

From there, we can go form the foot to the Tai Yang to the Foot.*Remember that all of this will play into the Chinese medical theory but at the same time, there will be the Westen concept.

Channel Flows vs Other Medical Theory

This should go to this concept by concept. This all goes this way the the energy is how flows. Like what you memorized. But to separate and remember that it doesn't have other that other is the how, here there are two different channels