A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
In Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) we find a number of mushrooms prominently recognized and esteemed:
- Reishi-lingzhi
- Coriolus–yunzhi
- Maitake-huishuhua
- Cordyceps–dongchongxiacao
- Shiitake – xiang gu
Category: Herbal Medicine
Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan
A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
Gui zhi fu ling wan (GZFLW) is one of those formulas I studied in my TCM education but did not see often prescribed in our college clinic, so I graduated without much of a feel for it. Now, however, not a week goes by without me giving this formula to at least one patient. It is in my category of “tried and true” remedies. I credit Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D. and Nigel Dawes with opening my eyes to this formula.
Blood stasis is a common element in many American patients. Chinese medicine has numerous formulas that can deal with this, ranging from very strong ones with insects to milder ones. GZFLW would have to be placed on the mild and extremely safe side of the spectrum. It was actually developed to treat breakthrough bleeding in pregnancy, so we know it is safe.
Continue reading Gui Zhi Fu Ling WanCordyceps
A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
In the winter of 1997 I drove home from night class at OCOM where I was working on my master’s degree. That evening we had studied the yang tonics. The last one we had talked about was cordyceps. It was a substance I was familiar with already since I was working in a Chinese herb company that imported a few tons of the stuff every year and sold it to manufacturers. But here I was studying it in a more focused way, reading Bensky and listening to the teacher. When I drove home I flipped on the TV; it was set to the public television channel. The very first image that popped up on the screen was of a Tibetan woman carefully digging up cordyceps. Fascinating timing. I take note of synchronicities of this sort and took it here to mean that cordyceps would play a key role in my professional life, and that has been the case.
Continue reading CordycepsThe Hobgoblin of Dose
A Blue Poppy blog post by Bob Quinn
A year ago I gave a Scholar’s Hour talk at NUNM in Portland, OR with this—The Hobgoblin of Dose—as the working title. I want to come back to this topic in this blog post, in part because I am working on a review of Stephen Birch’s new edition of Shonishin, and in this book he gives a great presentation of Dr. Yoshio Manaka’s dose model, but also because of a recent interaction with a patient, an interaction I have experienced many times with many patients over the years. By the way, I recommend this new edition of Shonishin—it is an improvement on a book that was already stellar.
Continue reading The Hobgoblin of DoseHistory of the Energetics of Western Herbs
An Interview with Jeremy Ross by Bob Quinn, May 1999
Bob Quinn: Jeremy, as someone who practices acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, I have always been struck by the rich theory that I have to draw upon in building Chinese herbal formulas. I’ve had a strong interest in the use of Western herbs for quite some time as well. When I look at the current scene in Western herbal medicine, it seems there is not a similarly rich theory to draw upon to inform our selection of herbs when we are building a formula. Can you address this issue with some historical perspective?
Continue reading History of the Energetics of Western HerbsMenopause: An Interview with Jeremy Ross
THE IMPORTANCE OF TAILOR-MADE PRESCRIPTIONS
Jeremy Ross: Before I go into the cases I’d like to make a brief comment about products on the market aimed at addressing menopausal complaints. If you are lucky, you can get favourable results for a time with a ready-made pill. The problem is that you can have many different kinds of menopausal syndromes. If you don’t make a tailor-made herbal combination for the client, you aren’t going to be able to address their unique and changing presentation.
Continue reading Menopause: An Interview with Jeremy RossAscending & Descending in Chronic Lyme Disease
Recently I conducted an interview with Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D., one of our great classical scholars. He and I have done quite a few interviews to date. It was on the topic of “ascending and descending” in herbal medicine. In the past we have spoken at length on Lyme disease, aconite prescribing, the Fire Spirit method, Gu syndrome and other topics. These past interviews are all easily found online. In this blog post I want to expand on ascending and descending as it applies to chronic Lyme disease patients.
Continue reading Ascending & Descending in Chronic Lyme DiseaseGu Syndrome
While I was in the OCOM DAOM program I had the good fortune to observe many hours in the Hai Shan Clinic of Heiner Fruehauf, Ph.D., a noted classical scholar and sinologist. After I finished my DAOM degree I went to work in his clinic for a number of years. It was there in the Hai Shan Clinic that my still ongoing adventure/mission with treating chronic Lyme disease began.
Chronic Lyme is just one instance of what was called Gu syndrome in ancient times. Heiner’s first article on Gu syndrome, published in the late 1990s in The Journal of Chinese Medicine was a watershed moment for Chinese medicine in the West. It struck a chord that resonated with many practitioners who had, like Heiner, been struggling to help patients with strange constellations of symptoms. Gu translates as “demon possession”; when you work with chronic Lyme patients, you hear again and again statements like, “I feel possessed,” or “I don’t feel like myself”—all this from people who have not read Heiner’s work and who know nothing of Gu Syndrome. Obviously he touched on an important phenomenon that was being missed by the modern TCM system and textbooks. Paul Unschuld’s Medicine in China, required reading at many TCM colleges, does contain mention of Gu Syndrome, but from reading it one would not suspect that the ancient Gu literature was in any way relevant to modern medicine and its challenges.
Continue reading Gu Syndrome