This issue kicks off with an article by Mandy Foster, the BAcC's Professional Conduct Officer, addressing problematic aspects of the patient-practitioner relationship and highlighting the professional ethics which should govern behaviour in this context. Safe practice while needling points on the head and neck is discussed by contributors Wen Jiang and Changjing Gong, while other articles focus on acupuncture research, qi gong, pulse taking, acupuncture in Cuba, and the shamanic origins of Chinese medicine.
Contributors address issues relating to women’s health from a number of perspectives, ranging from practitioner’s experiences in the treatment of recurrent miscarriage and infertility, to herbal formulae for PMS, and the use of the NADA auricular acupuncture protocol to manage the hot flushes and night sweats experienced by breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen and Arimidex medication. Professor Charlotte Furth sets the scene with some fascinating insights into how approaches to the treatment of women (fuke/gynaecology) and its status in the medical hierarchy have changed throughout the history of Chinese medicine.
In Chinese medicine, our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels of being are all considered to be expressions of different states of qi. In contrast to the mind:body split so deeply rooted in European tradition, Chinese medicine acknowledges that mind and body are mutually dependent, the state of one influencing the state of the other. It is this fundamental and eminently practical appreciation which enables Chinese medicine to provide such a valuable contribution in the field of mental health.
Articles in this issue explore the subject of reflective practice from a number of perspectives, highlighting its importance for us as practitioners, for our patients, and for the profession as a whole.
Authors 'see' different things and we are all the richer for that experience, from the time and expertise that scholarship demands in one article on ‘fire’ to the ability to describe a patient so well that we can 'feel' their reality in another. We have articles from Australia, China, India, Italy, Mongolia – reflecting the inspiration that Chinese medicine provides practitioners worldwide.
With both Chinese and western medical languages we often have to simplify for the sake of time and convenience. But to what extent is this simplification a reflection of our own lack of understanding and scholarship? How much of ourselves have we woven into our interpretations?
As acupuncture develops in the West we need to continue to maintain high standards in education and diversity in our approach to ensure its continued survival. Authors discuss their views on diversity and what it means to be an acupuncturist.
A recurrent question implicit in many of the articles is how to interpret the past through the eyes of the present, in particular looking at tributes to the work of Dick van Buren and J R Worsley, both pioneers in acupuncture education in the West, who sadly died, and to whom this issue is dedicated. Their deaths mark the passing of an era whose legacy influenced the development of acupuncture not only in the UK but in the US and Europe as well.
Authors highlight how responsibility to produce safe, ethical and competent practitioners shifts away from teaching and training to the profession and to the individual, once they are in practice. Many of the articles stress the importance of the ongoing dialogue we need to have with ourselves and our peers about why and how we do what we do.
How can we grow old gracefully and in good health? Can we really expect to live longer against a backdrop of increasing economic uncertainty, working long hours and playing hard? Authors discuss jing and qi deficiencies in children as well as jing essence. Also included are articles on the beginnings of acupuncture in China and the future of Chinese medicine.
Authors describe why acupuncture and tui na are such good treatment options to consider for children and how effort put in at an early stage can prevent disease getting locked in at a deep level in a particular phase of a child's development.
We explore a repertoire of treatment modalities that go under the name of acupuncture from myofascial trigger point therapy and the NADA protocol used as detoxification treatment in addiction settings to the practice of medicine as transformation and the role of reflection in Chinese medicine..
If you do not speak Chinese and do not have direct access to classical texts, how do you assess claims to authenticity and interpretation? What is the version of Chinese medicine that you practise and how did you construct it?
As men are comparatively infrequent attendees at GP surgeries, this issue looks at some of the diseases which specifically affect them (acute prostatitis, erectile dysfunction, male infertility and gout) and how Chinese medicine could be of benefit.
At the start of a new millennium authors debate the issues surrounding the assimilation of traditional medicines against the backdrop of the global dominance of western medicine. What kind of research should we foster and should government fund complementary medicine?
Tuning in and making sense of the different cycles of life to which we are subject are discussed from the viewpoints of modern science and ancient wisdom. We look at women's cycles and their interpretation in relatively more emancipated times as well as 7/8 year cycles and the movement of breath.
Statutory regulation - crossroads or millstone? Positions for and against are fleshed out in the context of the different meanings and identities attached to being an 'acupuncturist'. Would statutory regulation be of benefit to the development of the profession? Has it been for others?
How many practitioners are up to the task of being a physician, a counsellor and a spiritual guide? How much power do we want as practitioners? When and how do we know when we are out of our depth?
How do we help people understand the aetiology of their pain within the context of their lives? Managing the three components to pain, namely the physical, emotional and cognitive components, is part of the art of being a competent practitioner.
Central to Chinese medicine are diagnostic methods which value other ways of knowing from the scientific, rational approach of analysis prevalent in western medicine, such as the testimony offered by utilising our senses and using the wisdom of our own bodies.
We explore ethical principles in health care and how these impact on the therapeutic relationship between patient and practitioner. Are these principles different in the therapeutic encounters of complementary medicine as opposed to those of orthodox medicine?
Innovation is the inevitable result of the cross fertilisation of ideas which the meeting of cultures will necessarily foster and which must take place if Chinese and Oriental medicine is to become 'ours'. Some of these ideas stretch the boundaries of what is commonly understood as the domain of Chinese medicine.
The fruits of accreditation and validation processes are explored by demonstrating the exciting changes that are taking place within educational institutions regarding the process of learning, in particular the movement from didactic teaching methods to problem-based and student-centred learning.
Articles were especially solicited from Chinese authors to reflect the clinical diversity currently being practised in modern day China. These include articles on infertility, tui na and Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of childhood anorexia and the clinical application of Five Phase theory in the practice of herbal medicine.
This issue explores the flowering of a number of different medical traditions in the countries of East Asia, based on Chinese medicine, reflecting the different cultural determinants of the host nations where they flourished.
Practitioners discuss the treatment of a number of immune related diseases such as HIV and AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). Articles also explore the patients' perspective on being ill and being treated.
Issues relating to the role that research can play in the professional development of acupuncture are discussed with a view to developing appropriate research methodologies, identifying the research needs of the profession and exploring the relationship between research and practice
The first issue of EJOM explores various interpretations of the Chinese concept of shen, from studies of its meaning in the classics to western interpretations based upon the clinical experience of practitioners in the West.
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