by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. Our little town of Boulder Colorado has had 23 inches of snow in the last couple of days. In honor of this atypical yet beautiful weather, I thought I would share with you my recipe for chai. There's nothing I like more on a co… more »

by Bob Flaws Several days ago I posted a blog supporting SIOM's proposal for an acupuncture only entry-level degree program. As a follow-up to that, I would like to state my opposition to a "first professional doctorate" (FPD) degree if such a degree… more »

by Eric Brand I loved Bob’s recent post on authenticity. It would be impossible for me to follow up with a similar post, because Bob summarized my feelings on the topic perfectly. Instead, I’d like to write a post on how to buy authentic Korean and… more »

by Bob Flaws I believe the single most important class in our entry-level education in Chinese medicine is basic theory. This class is the foundation upon which everything else is built. If you've ever built a house, shed, barn, or even sand castle,… more »

by Bob Flaws Thinking about some of the blogs I've written lately, it seems to me that one of my recurrent themes has been authenticity. In fact, I think authenticity has been in the forefront of my mind for a couple of years now. In a number of my b… more »

With all the carnage in Detroit, I am not even certain that anyone can purchase a new GMC truck anymore, but I have always appreciated their unique selling proposition (USP) or company slogan, which is, "Do one thing and do it well." This is a slogan th… more »

by Bob Flaws Recently there's been a controversy within our profession in New Mexico over scope of practice issues. Arguably, New Mexico has the broadest, most permissive legal scope of practice for "acupuncturists" in the country. (New Mexican pract… more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. I have suffered from insomnia several times in my life for various reasons, the latest of which was attending acupuncture college. Insomnia isn’t all bad though. For instance, it has afforded me the opportunity to watch a numbe… more »

After reading about SIOM's new acupuncture degree program in the November issue of Acupuncture Today, I sent them the following comments. Perhaps others may find what I had to say interesting. I have touched on some of the issues concerned in this messa… more »

On Sept. 15, 2009, Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, announced the approval of a vaccine for the H1N1 (Swine Flu) virus, with 195 million doses to be available either as a single inoculation or as an inhaled mist over the com… more »

by Bob Flaws I learned a new word over the weekend, "soteriology." According to Wikipedia, "Soteriology is the study of religious doctrines of salvation, which are a feature of various religions." So why think about this word in relationship to Chine… more »

Last weekend I taught a Practice Success class at a well known acupuncture college. During the class, a discussion arose that has been on my mind for the last two days. I made a statement of opinion that shy people should "get over it" and be willing to… more »

by Bob Flaws On Saturday, Honora was at a well-known acupuncture college teaching a business class. One of the school's more prestigious and well-known faculty members was auditing the class and asked lots of very interesting questions. Toward the en… more »

by Bob Flaws Shawn wrote a nice blog yesterday on colon cleansing and I'd like to use that as my point of departure today. Colon cleansing is just one example of a large group of medical fads and fallacies, all of which start with the premise, "All d… more »

According to a report in American Health Magazine, the overwhelming reason why most of us visit our doctor’s office is upper respiratory infections such as colds, flu, and bronchitis… over 190 million office visits per year! Another 150+ million visits… more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. In case you hadn’t noticed, “cleansing” is one of the biggest fads in alternative health care right now. My spam filter at work collects literally hundreds of emails a day advertising various products and procedures. (This tren… more »

By Bob Flaws I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before in this blog, but the late great Dr. John Shen once said, “Western medicine is hard to study but easy to practice. Chinese medicine is easy to study by hard to practice.” Personally, I think the… more »

by Eric Brand PCOS is an interesting condition because it illustrates the integrative nature of modern Chinese medicine. PCOS was not traditionally recognized as a disease category in ancient times, though of course many patients with PCOS would hav… more »

by Bob Flaws Last week I had dinner with a Tibetan friend of mine from Amdo who speaks both Tibetan and Chinese and whose grandfather practiced Tibetan medicine. During the course of our conversation, my friend asked me about the differences between… more »

by Eric Brand The more things change, the more they stay the same. Let’s look at the treatment of vomiting in pregnancy. This condition that has been known since ancient times and its fundamental treatment has remained fairly consistent throughout… more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. I stepped from my front door this morning to a wondrous sight. Last night when I arrived home I noticed that the little ash tree that grows near our front door had begun to turn. This morning it had changed into a shade of gold… more »

by Bob Flaws Yesterday, I closed out my Facebook quotes for the day with one from the Ling Shu (Spiritual Axis/Pivot): "Wind, rain, cold, heat, [if these] do not obtain vacuity [i.e., meet with vacuity], evils are not able solely/by themselves to dam… more »

by Bob Flaws Honora's filming two tuina instructional videos today. If that goes well and people buy these, we may offer more video distance learning. Most people don't know that Honora is an exceptional tuina practitioner besides being a cracker-jac… more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. I’ll speak for all of us – we have hard jobs. Since I’ve moved back home to Colorado I’ve been catching up with old friends and colleagues that I haven’t seen in years. After getting up to speed on each other lives, the conv… more »