If you’re interested in Chinese Medicine and want to learn more, you can view my blog or choose from some of the best books and resources on Chinese Medicine that I have selected below.
Neurochemical Mechanisms of Acupuncture is a unique blend of clinical and scientific research explaining the basic biological mechanisms and processes underlying the practice of traditional Chinese acupuncture. The authors Ji-Sheng Han, M.D. and Song-Ping Han, M.D., Ph.D. have broken through the veil of mysticism surrounding traditional Chinese acupuncture.
This book reviews their 40 plus years of stringent research that has discovered the real meaning and neuro-biological equivalents of such hypothetical constructs as Qi and meridians. Here presented for the first time is a treatment method with the benefits of acupuncture in a form compatible with the teachings of Western Medicine.
The editor of this book, Dr. Angelica Kokkalis, O.M.D, L.Ac, is a graduate of Beijing Medical University class of 1989 where she completed her residency in Traditional Chinese medicine. She offers a unique blend of Eastern and Western medicine. She is the president of The Han Institute. Its core mission is to treat neurological illnesses by researching and validating the best treatments from around the world, thus setting a global standard for the treatment of neurological diseases.
Ted J. Kaptchuk, O.M.D., is associate director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. The Web That Has No Weaver is the classic, comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of Chinese alternative medicine.
This accessible and invaluable resource has earned its place as the foremost authority in synthesizing Wester and Eastern healing practices. This revised edition is the product of years of further reflection on ancient Chinese sources and active involvement in cutting-edge scientific research.
This was one of the first books on Chinese medicine published in English for the layman and despite its limitations, it is still one of the best.
In this intriguing companion volume to a PBS TV series, Moyers explores the roles of thoughts and emotions in illness and health through interviews with 16 doctors and scientists. He visits stress-reduction clinics and a cancer patients’ support group, and he investigates the new field of psychoneuroimmunology, which emphasizes the importance of patients’ attitudes to optimal immune-system functioning.
He also travels to China to study acupuncture, therapeutic massage and chi gong, the manipulation of vital energy to ameliorate chronic neurologic and muscular diseases. Among those interviewed are University of California physician Dean Ornish, who has reversed heart disease in patients with treatments combining meditation, stress-reduction exercises, group therapy, walking and vegetarian diet; neurobiologist David Felten, discoverer of nerve fibers that link the nervous system to the immune system; and Thomas Delbanco of Harvard Medical School who seeks ways to transform the doctor-patient relationship so that patients are more actively involved.
The 2nd edition of The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs describes the application of traditional Chinese medical theory to the diagnosis and treatment of 48 diseases, conditions and disorders. In addition to the existing 34 covered in the first edition, 14 new conditions and symptoms have been added, and these include common, chronic, and acute conditions which clinicians may see in their practice. Each chapter contains aetiology and pathology; differential diagnosis according to TCM; selection of treatments with acupuncture and herbs, with explanation of choices; case studies for illustration; summary of Western differential diagnosis; and discussion of prognosis and prevention. This book brings the enormous wealth of the author’s experience, and his insights in applying TCM medicine to a Western context, to the support of all clinicians whatever their own range of experiences.
Shiatsu and Stretching is a clear text with acupressure and stretching with numerous illustrations on stretching and acupressure. This is acupressure at it’s best. It’s very detailed in the information that it gives on basic techniques in an easy-to-follow forum. It’s both for the professional practitioner and the layman alike.
A good book for Do-in (self-administered shiatsu). If you are already trained as a shiatsu practitioner then this book will be a great addition to your library. There are some points listed in this book that is not in the Complete Book of Shiatsu by Toru Namikoshi.
If your just starting out, or if you’ve taken years of classes on the matter, Mr. Namikoshi will show you step-by-step exactly what points to hit, in what order for maximum effectiveness, and using what positioning of the body as well as the hands and fingers you are applying with.
Zhang Yu Huan and Ken Rose guide the reader through the basic structure of Chinese culture. The first part will be particularly helpful to those who do not know the Chinese language in the way it shapes and articulate thought for those who think in Chinese. The entire cosmology upon which medical theories and perceptions have been formulated is laid out as a reflection of the mirror (language) that bears the warpature to best suit the Chinese language. The first part ably shows how the fact that Chinese does not have temporal tenses in its grammar affects the shaping of premises with regard to the body and medicine in Chinese worldview. Food and Chinese cooking are also introduced as important vehicles that have carried Chinese medicine through its path of evolution. The latter part of the book deals with more theoretical concepts, including philosophy, and how they gave rise to and founded certain clinical practices. The book is an organic introduction to a science that is founded and corrected on the lived experience of thousands of cases observed over two thousand years.
Treating AIDS With Chinese Medicine is an essential source for practitioners treating HIV/AIDS – especially in a community-based setting. It is extremely readable and provides information covering pattern identification, herbal and acupuncture treatment plans and practical advice on creating a non-profit community clinic serving this population. It is a book I refer to again and again.
Early in the AIDS epidemic, practitioners of Chinese medicine realized that their ancient healing art (based on enhancing the body’s own functioning and ability to overcome illness) might offer unique resources in fighting this diseases. Treating AIDS with Chinese Medicine is a comprehensive handbook directed toward the practitioner and/or patient who needs to understand not only how to treat persons with AIDS but how to work with the resources of Western medicine.
