Our guest speaker this week, Dr. Snohomish Brown, is a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine at the Yo San acupuncture clinic. He specializes in mental and emotional disorders as well as chronic pain, using various techniques of Chinese medicine, including massage therapy and acupuncture, to improve his patients' conditions. During our workshop, Dr. Brown dived in to various concepts of Chinese medicine and the applications to his practice. Here's a summary of our workshop:
Dr. Brown opened with an activity he called "dredging the channels," an exercise intended to break up qi stagnation in the body and get qi flowing again. We tapped up and down our body and swung our arms around to hit certain points on our shoulders and back/torso. Dr. Brown explained that qi is the "commander of blood" and blood is the "mother of qi." The qi goes where the blood goes, so blood flow directs our qi to certain parts of the body so that our body can function properly. Qi stagnation often results in a dull ache that can be relieved through massage. If blood becomes stagnant from high qi stagnation or from injury, we often feel a sharp, intense area of pain or pressure. Acupuncture is used to improve blood flow, thus removing qi stagnation and the pain.
After the exercise, Dr. Brown discussed the different concepts of integrative medicine shown in the charts below. Take your time to go through them and digest how our health is intimately tied to and categorized by the 8 Principles of Diagnosis: yin/yang, excess/deficient, interior/exterior, and hot/cold. Remember, you have a limited amount of yin and yang you're born with, so make sure your lifestyle doesn't pull too much from this "health savings account" and adds to it instead!
If you have any questions, feel free to email Dr. Brown: snohomishbrown@gmail.com
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