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A discussion of many diverse topics within the realm of Alternative Medicine and Healthy Living, some of which include: Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, Eastern Nutrition, Pulse Diagnosis, Psychology and Bodymind Medicine, Aromatherapy, Philosophy, Spirituality, Buddhism, Meditation and Family.

Ross Rosen's Interview on Blog Talk Radio on his lineage of Chinese medicine, Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis and Contemporary Oriental Medicine

Ross Rosen's Jan. 12 2009 Lecture on Chinese medicine and on his upcoming book debunking many western medical myths regarding health

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FREE Webinar on diagnosing and treating shock and trauma

Here is a FREE recording of the webinar I taught on Thursday July 12 on the diagnosis and treatment of shock and trauma.

http://medigogy.com/webinar/diagnose-and-treatment-shock-and-trauma-pulse

I present an introduction to the concept of Heart Shock, signs, symptoms,strategies and treatments (herbal and acupuncture, including the use of the secondary vessels).

Enjoy.

Ross

Ross Rosen teaching Webinar on the Shen-Hammer Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis

A reminder that I will be teaching a 5 hour webinar on the Shen-Hammer Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis system. Saturday December 17th. 12:00noon EST/9:00am PST.

For those in California, this course will count as a live class!

I will teach the underpinnings of the system, theoretical framework, methodology, describe the locations of the 28 pulse positions, discuss the sensations and interpretations of the majority of the 80+ pulse qualities, explain the pulse waves and their significance, as well as go over the importance of rate, rhythm, and stability, Dr. Shen's systems model and Heart patterns, including Heart Shock, and more....

PDA points approved...

You can access it here: http://www.prodseminars.net/product/introduction-shen-hammer-contemporary-chinese-pulse-diagnosis

Hope to see you there.

Shen-Hammer Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis Seminar

Please join us for a weekend seminar on the Shen-Hammer Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis (CCPD) pulse diagnostic system. The class will be held Sat-Sun January 9-10, 2010. As always, these classes are limited in size to ensure significant one-on-one attention and instruction.

The class details:
Dates: January 9-10
Times: 9am - 5pm
Location: Center for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine, 166 Mountain Ave, Westfield, NJ 07090
Cost: $300
CEUs/PDAs: 16
Registration: email centerforacupuncture@gmail.com and/or call (908) 654-4333 and send check made payable to 'Ross Rosen' to the above address.
Instructor: Ross Rosen, JD, MSOTM, LAc, CA, Dipl OM (NCCAOM)

Ross Rosen is one of a small group of close students of Dr. Leon Hammer and a certified teacher in Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis. He works closely with Dr. Hammer on a regular ongoing basis.

Ross Rosen...is a valued instructor of and a direct inheritor of my work and teaching. He is extremely observant and creative in his work, adding to our accumulated knowledge more than any other associate. Of great value is his ability to formulate the essence of Chinese medicine in simple terms accessible to the average person. Chinese medicine at its best, as practiced by Ross Rosen, is capable of discerning the disease process at a very early stage before it manifests an illness, therefore preventing disease, and above all capable of delineating and treating the individual who has the disease.
--Dr. Leon Hammer

Ross has published numerous articles on CCPD, which can be accessed at: http://chinesepulsediagnosis.blogspot.com/

The class will introduce the major concepts of CCPD, the Principle and 22 Complementary pulse positions and the most commonly encountered pulse qualities, clinical significance and some interpretation and much more. 70% of class will be dedicated to hands-on pulse instruction and training. Those attending will leave the weekend with a body of knowledge and skills readily and immediately transferable into one's clinical practice.

Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis™ (hereinafter "CCPD") is a sophisticated system of diagnostics which relies on the subtleties of the sensations, qualities and structure of the radial artery at both wrists. Heavily steeped in ancient wisdom and classical pulse diagnosis dating back thousands of years, CCPD breaks out of the dogma of pulse systems that in many respects are not relevant to the present day and age. CCPD provides insight into the modern diseases and constitutional imbalances that affect modern man in an industrial world.

CCPD, while having its roots in classical pulse systems, was significantly adapted by Dr. John H.F. Shen over the course of his long and well renowned career having seen hundreds of thousands of patients. After an intensive apprenticeship with Dr. Shen over a period of 28 years, Dr. Leon Hammer took on the arduous task of codifying and continuing the evolution of this pulse system.

The intricacies of CCPD are complex and require significant amounts of hands on training with a certified teacher to fully learn. Essentially, however, information is synthesized from the combinations of various qualities felt at the six principle pulse positions and the twenty two complementary positions, as well as the qualities perceived uniformly over the entire pulse and at each of the requisite depths. Integrating the information from these seemingly disparate parts, one is able to arrive at a complex diagnosis which prioritizes levels of imbalances of not just the symptomatic representations, but more importantly the root causes of disease.

Incorporating concepts and clinical realities that have not been diagnosed by any diagnostic methods in Chinese medicine, CCPD is truly a treasure which can change the lives of patients. By incorporating a precise measure of a healthy balanced pulse, even the subtlest deviations from this norm can be detected, thus establishing its importance not only in treating disease, but also as a preventative medicine.

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Pulling it all together (CCPD, COM, CCM, Classical pulse, etc.)

Today an initial patient visit highlighted the integration of Contemporary Chinese Pulse Diagnosis, Contemporary Oriental Medicine, Classical Chinese medicine and Classical pulse diagnosis.

The patient, a 66 year old female artist (retired mostly due to jealousy of her now deceased husband and fear), complains of severe left hip pain and osteoarthritis. The pain began 5 years ago after her husband's death, a long drawn out illness of Alzheimer's and complications, in which the patient was the primary caregiver. She is a former yoga instructor (not in many years) and is troubled that she can no longer move her body freely. She is overly controlled by her aggressive daughter, as she was by her first husband (divorced, then re-married) and her sister in childhood. Her pain is on the left Gall Bladder channel around GB 29-30. Pain is localized, but is also felt around the knee cap and lateral shin, mostly Stomach channel. In addition, she has lost muscle tone in her left thigh. The hip pain is worsened upon walking and putting pressure on the leg during a full stride. Balance and posture have been affected.

Patient experiences anxiety and some panic, and fear since the death of her husband. When stressed, she experiences occipital tension and loss of smell and appetite with some nausea and occasional vomiting.

Childhood history: corrective procedure for being tongue-tied; polio age 13 (miracle cure by local healer); sled accident and back injury age 15.

A few relevant findings on the pulse:
1. CCPD:
HT qi deficiency (changing intensity (3-3+), Interrupted pulse, Changing Intensity (2) over Uniform Impressions)
HT blood deficiency (increase rate on exertion 28)
Yin-Jing-Essence deficiency (Ropy)
LR qi stagnation (Tense Robust Pounding (3+ to 4))
LR blood stagnation (Choppy, engorged distally (2+) and ulnar engorgement)
GB qi and blood stagnation (Choppy Inflated)
SP deficiency/connective tissue weakness (Squirmy entire right side, especially middle)(see comments for description of Squirmy)
ST qi stagnation with heat (Tense Robust Pounding (3+ to 4))
Blood Thick

2. CCM pulse:
HT not expressing its Shen
LU not diffusing wei qi to the surface
BL/KI sinew meridian activity
BL/KI divergent meridian activity
ST luo vessel heat/stagnation
LR blood stagnation

Analysis and Integration:
Seeing the connections between these two pulse systems and diagnoses and how they each relate and explain the patient's symptoms and findings are interesting.

Arthritis in COM has much to do with the HT and its ability to control the circulation and dissemination of blood to the distal regions of the body. It is very common to see HT qi deficiency on the pulse with arthritis. HT blood deficiency is another very common characteristic. I have written on this in the past in my journal article with Chinese Medicine Times. You can find that article here.

Arthritis in CCM is often the result of bi obstruction syndrome resulting from an invasion of wind-cold-dampness. Often the initial location affects the tai yang system. There are different interpretations on progression, the Su Wen detailing a longer history towards the formation of the bi syndrome (penetration from the head, to the throat, chest, abdomen, sacrum, Kidneys, triple burner mechanism to the Bladder shu points). The Divergent meridians are another theory on progression wherein the bodymind is unable to resist a pathogenic external invasion allowing for the yuan qi to come to the assistance of wei qi and translocate the pathogen to the interior (typically at the level of the joints). Resources are diverted to allow for this latency and over time are depleted resulting in more chronic degenerative conditions. Initially, the resource that is used up is yin-jing fluids at the level of the BL/KI. When taxed, the jing converts to blood at the second confluence (GB/LR), then to thin fluids-jin (ST/SP), then to thick fluids-ye (SI/HT), etc. So, looking at the BL/KI divergent meridian problem with degeneration, we are seeing a yin-jing-essence condition. This is also reflected in the Ropy pulse (CCPD).

So we can see the connection with the HT deficiency, Ropy pulse and the BL/KI divergent meridian activity. They reflect lack of resources and degeneration of structure.

One can look at the muscle pain that the patient experiences from a sinew meridian perspective as well. Pain with movement, particularly extension, relates to the tai yang sinew meridian of the leg. (Pain elicited by rotation would suggest shao yang (if seated shaoyin), pain with weight bearing, yang ming, etc.) When flaccidity is present with weakness it implicates a more chronic picture in which the pathogen has affected the yin internal pair, here the Kidneys. So yang and yin sinew meridians are involved in this case.

So, putting it together we see the location of the pain as relating to the GB channel at the hip (qi and blood stagnation on the pulse) and knee cap (yang ming) and lateral leg (GB and ST channels) with the nature of that pain being related to the tai yang leg sinew meridian (BL: BL sinew meridian pulse) and leg shao yin (due to it's chronicity). The chronic nature is demonstrated by the lack of muscle tone and weakness, a yin deficiency according to CCM creating lack of fluid volume and resources to nourish the muscles/connective tissue, etc. This is further evidenced by the Squirmy pulse (CCPD) reflecting the connective tissue weakness and SP involvement. The ST heat shows up from a luo vessel perspective from internal factors (lifestyle, diet, emotions). The ST luo vessel psychological make-up from a CCM pespective is a retreat from stimulation, weak lower limbs (can’t move to the places to provide you with the experiences you want); feeling of emptiness, no enthusiasm or animation. The 2nd trajectory of the ST luo vessel goes to the KI channel and deals with fear even to the point where the legs can paralyze (ie loss of tone). This is emptiness of the ST luo. The patient does show some of the major themes, especially of the second trajectory. Fear has been a major issue for her since her second husband died 5 years ago. This is the exact time frame that her pain started as well. The heat from the ST also contributes to the yin deficiency and lack of nourishment of the earth element which controls the 4 limbs and the connective tissue. This exacerbates the sinew meridian lack of tone. After all, wei qi has its origin not just in Du mai/Kidney yang, but also via ST yin (the pure nourishes the sensory orifices and the turbid the sinews and skin).

Emotionally, the anxiety and panic can be explained in COM as an imbalance of the HT and KI. Being tongue-tied at birth suggests HT as well.

The symptoms of occipital tension and loss of smell with stress and accompanied nausea/vomting can be seen as BL sinew meridian symptoms (occiput and nasal area) involvement with the LR/GB internal organ imbalances of qi and blood stagnation with rebellious qi into the vulnerable earth organs.

The polio can be seen potentially as the first major challenge to yuan qi weakening the taiyang and shaoyin conformations.

And of course, the initial trauma to the patient's back setting the stage for where the chronic degeneration would manifest.

What is significant in tying these systems of diagnostics together is the richness of the information that they provide. The depth at which one can understand a patient's complaints and experience of suffering only enhances one's options therapeutically. Understanding all of this from multiple paradigms also allows for increased treatment options and modalities and more specific as well as varied interventions. Using CCM, one's options in treatment are extended to the use of not just the primary meridians, but also the sinews, divergents and luo vessels. Each of these secondary channels has a greater affinity towards a specific level of imbalance and allows for a more targeted approach. Of course, this is not an in depth discussion of either system of CM, either in general or as it pertains to this case...


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Center for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine • Telephone: 908-654-4333
166 Mountain Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090