By Eric Brand

I was looking over some notes on herbal product labeling in Canada, and I noticed a few interesting things. I wrote another blog that talked about the advantages and the disadvantages of the laws that regulate herbal products in Canada, and here I just want to post a small comment on their labeling requirements.

Two things that are very interesting:

Concentration ratios must be listed on the Canadian labels. This means that the manufacturer must tell the consumer the relationship between the raw herbs and the finished product. If six pounds of raw herbs are used to make one pound of dry extract, the product would be required to provide this information on the label. This is not required by law in the USA.

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by Malia Kirby

In my last post, So You Think You're Present, Part One, I discussed being present and centered in the context of Chinese medicine and introduced an exercise to help us determine how mindful we may or may not be. Today's posting, part two of this series, will include some basic mindfulness exercises that we can offer to empower our patients (and ourselves) to help combat the stressors of everyday life and further aid our treatments.

Starting a daily practice
Yeah, I know. It's difficult to cultivate and maintain a daily practice long-term. At first, everything is new and interesting...or it can seem pointless and a waste of time, depending on each individual starting out in meditation. Pulling your butt out of bed earlier than you're used to can be irritating and I can guarantee that there will be days where you'd much rather sleep in, particularly during the holiday seasons or if you have neighbors who are notorious for throwing all-night parties that could wake the dead. You will have days where your first instinct is to throw your alarm clock out the window and cover your head with the pillow. You will have days where you'll want to quit and tell yourself that it is impossible for you to be mindful every single day and that only enlightened yogis on the mountain with nothing but time on their hands could possibly accomplish what I'm suggesting we all attempt. Here's a secret, though: everyone feels that way, even the "enlightened" yogis on the mountain. The point is to make the commitment to yourself; that your health, emotional outlook, spirituality, or whatever is driving you to begin a daily practice is more important than your current difficulty that will only last for a moment. It is worth it, but it's up to you to prove it to yourself. No one else can do that for you.

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By Eric Brand

Here are some nice specimens of San Qi that show the root with its tails and head still attached. Most San Qi is much tighter and denser, and all the rootlets are trimmed off, as is the head (neck). By looking at the whole root like this, we can see the relationship between San Qi (Panax notoginseng) and Ren Shen (Panax ginseng). Both have the characteristic neck coming off the top, and both have a plump, dense body with smaller rootlets. They also both have a distinct and similar flavor. There is an unmistakable characteristic ginseng taste that unites them, but otherwise their flavor is quite different from one another.

I bought the roots in the photo in an herbal wholesale market in Southern China. They were still a bit fresh, as though they were only recently dried, and they are not as tight and dense as the standard product. Perhaps they are not as dry or perhaps they are not quite as good, I'm not really sure. The vendor tried to pass them off as wild because of their distinct appearance, but wild San Qi is basically extinct and the wild product is never seen in trade. In these specimens, the small rootlets are fresh enough to chew. Trying to bite into standard San Qi would be unthinkable because it is way too dense.

By Eric Brand

Ginseng is by far the most famous herb in Chinese medicine; in fact, it is arguably the most famous botanical medicine in the world. The Chinese name for ginseng (Ren Shen) literally means “man root,” which alludes to its human-like shape. The doctrine of signatures thus suggests that there is a special bond between mankind and ginseng, and ginseng has been revered and deeply incorporated into Chinese medicine for millennia. By contrast, Dang Shen (Codonopsis Radix) only entered the materia medica in 1757 CE, well over 1500 years after the first materia medicas listed ginseng.

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By Eric Brand

I recently moved back to my hometown of Boulder after spending the past ten years or so living in Taiwan and California. In each place, it seems that the local culture has a strong influence on people’s perception of health and medicine. In particular, I find it fascinating to observe differences between places like Taipei and Boulder, which are night and day in terms of their attitudes and surrounding environments.

Allow me to give a little background on the things I notice about these places and the attitudes that seem prevalent to me. Boulder is a pristine land of sunshine and clean mountain air, and the locals tend to favor things like dietary restrictions, fasting, and cleansing. The environment is quite clean and pure, and there is a cultural bias towards separating things like foods into categories of “pure vs. impure” or “good vs. bad” based on a variety of ecological/moral/medical parameters. In Boulder, people do yoga and shop at Whole Foods to stock up on the stunning selection of vegetarian, dairy-free, organic, gluten-free items that are available to satisfy the local palate.

By contrast, Taipei is a dense city with plenty of pollution and no concept of food allergies. When it comes to food, variety, freshness, and flavor are the things that people prize and most locals tend to eat absolutely everything as long as it is fresh and tasty. While people like natural organic food from deep in the pristine mountains, people that eat organic food exclusively are few and far between compared to Boulder. Taiwan does have a significant number of vegetarians, but most are vegetarian for religious reasons (they also avoid eggs, garlic, chives, onions, scallions, etc) and other dietary restrictions are rare. In Taiwan, the majority of people eat all manners of creatures from land and sea, and a formal banquet could easily have a dozen beasts served in a single meal. They don’t overdo any one thing but they eat absolutely everything, and this diversity is emphasized in their cuisine.

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By Eric Brand

We often comment on the fact that Blue Poppy’s website is one of the finest resources in the industry for free professional information. However, our website is huge, with thousands of pages of content. Where should one look to find all these treasures?

The TCM Infoline section is without a doubt the crown jewel when it comes to our free educational resources. Over the years, Bob Flaws has translated summaries of over a thousand Chinese journal articles, and he has also written many articles based on his own perspectives and clinical experience. Originally, these articles were sold as PDFs, and there are many rabid knowledge enthusiasts out there who spent hundreds of dollars to buy these articles one-by-one (I bought quite a few myself back in the day). A few years back, Blue Poppy made the decision to put all these articles online for FREE on our website. Every student and practitioner in the field of Chinese medicine should be aware of this awesome resource, so please help us to spread the word.

The scope of articles available on the TCM Infoline section of our site is astounding. From this link you can either search for articles or browse by subject. For example, there are 19 hits for Xiao Chai Hu Tang alone (out of over 1400 records). From podcasts to translated summaries of journal articles, there is something for everyone. Most of the information on there comes from Chinese journals or classical texts, and the Blue Poppy website is the only source of much of this material in English.

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By Eric Brand

I have mentioned a number of modern masters on my blog. Regular readers will notice that several posts have referenced the work of Prof. Chang Hsien-Cheh, a teacher that I look up to with the upmost respect.

In the West, Chinese medicine is new and many of its branches are poorly developed; consequently, practitioners often do not fully realize how extremely advanced the specialists are in the various disciplines that all fall under the umbrella of “Chinese medicine.” Like all enthusiastic students, I’ve personally been very inspired by the profound expertise of some of the teachers that I’ve encountered. Over time, I’ve had the fortune to meet many people that I would consider to be true experts in Chinese medicine, and I like to blog about “modern masters” in an attempt to convey what it really means to me when I call someone a world-class expert. In this spirit, I'd like to take this chance to introduce Dr. Chang and a few of his contributions to Chinese medicine.

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by Malia Kirby

A few months ago, Shawn wrote an excellent post on needle technique (How to Needle Like a Mosquito...Without Sucking) and discussed the need to be present while locating points and performing assorted techniques. The question is, how do you know when you're truly present or if you're just shining yourself on?

To answer, I challenge you all with the most difficult ten second exercise that I have had given to me from one of my spiritual teachers. Are you ready? Are you sure? Well, brace yourself, because here it is:

Every time you walk through a doorway, stop before walking through it. Look at the doorway and notice the details. Notice the grain in the wood or reflections on the glass. Feel the ground beneath your feet. Take a deep breath, reach out for the handle, open the door, and consciously walk through the doorway.

Seems easy, right? When I was first presented with this exercise, I had been cultivating a practice of my own for a number of years and I believed that I could easily accomplish what my teacher was asking and move on to bigger, better, and more exciting things, assuming I had achieved a higher level of competence through my previous experience. Alas, I was young and arrogant, and I promptly had my hind-end served to me nicely on a spiritual platter. At the end of each day when I was to check my progress, I found myself realizing that I had been so wrapped up in my work that I had completely forgotten my assigned task. Not only had I forgotten to walk through every single door in a mindful manner, but I had also completely forgotten about the task itself!

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By Eric Brand

Our esteemed colleagues Marnae and Kevin Ergil recently won first prize in the prestigious PROSE Awards for their book “Pocket Atlas of Chinese Medicine.” This year’s PROSE (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) Awards received a record-breaking number of entries, more than they had ever received before in their 34-year history. Over 60 publishers submitted titles, and Marnae and Kevin’s book won first prize for the subject category of Nursing and Allied Health. Congratulations to the entire team!

It has always been difficult to find the perfect book for TCM 101 students or passionate laypeople that want to learn more about Chinese medicine. While Ted Kaptchuk’s “Web That Has No Weaver” has long been a mainstay in this category, Marnae and Kevin’s Pocket Atlas of Chinese Medicine has taken the subject to a whole new level in terms of clarity, scholarship, and design. Published by Thieme International, a major German and U.S. based medical publishing house, the “Pocket Atlas” contains contributions from a number of outside experts in addition to the powerhouse team of Marnae and Kevin Ergil. Simon Becker (Switzerland), Stephen Birch (The Netherlands), Mary Garvey (Australia), Michael McCarthy (Ireland), Anne Reinard (Luxembourg), Yves Requena (France), and Douglas Wile (USA) also contributed to the book, and it features a beautiful design with lots of great color photographs.

In all aspects, this book has pioneered new ground in terms of an introductory textbook. The authors of many introductory texts cannot read Chinese and thus have limited access to the primary Chinese literature. In this respect, the Ergils completely blow away the competition. Their material is thoroughly grounded in accurate sources and they have preserved the technical accuracy of the material while still making the subject accessible to readers that are new to Chinese medicine. This is no easy endeavor. The book provides an essential introduction to all the main branches of Chinese medicine, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, tui na, qi gong, and dietary therapy, and it does an excellent job illustrating the rich history and cultural factors that surround Chinese medicine.

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By Eric Brand

Honora alerted me to a very interesting article on BBC News today, located at the following link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8520171.stm

The headline of the article is “Guilty plea in Chinese herbal ‘cancer’ case,” and the article reports on a practitioner of Chinese medicine in the UK who pleaded guilty to selling a banned product that contained AA (aristolochic acid). AA-containing products have been banned in the UK since 1999, and while the article doesn’t specify the exact herbal product that was used, an accompanying video shows footage of a product labeled as Guan Mu Tong, a toxic Mu Tong substitute that is also known as Manchurian aristolochia. The video feed is a bit confusing because the article states that the patient took small brown pills while the video shows bulk herbs, so it is impossible to ascertain exactly what the patient ingested other than that it tested positive for AA.

Differentiating safe products such as Chuan Mu Tong (Armand’s clematis) or standard Mu Tong (akebia) from toxic substitutes such as Guan Mu Tong (Manchurian aristolochia) has been a recurring theme on our blog here at Blue Poppy. We strongly feel that education is crucial to the future of Chinese medicine in the West, and as practitioners it is absolutely essential for us to be informed about issues such as medicinal identification and safety concerns such as aristolochic acid.

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by Bob Flaws

In my experience, as recent converts to Chinese medicine, we tend to be starry-eyed and gullible as a group. We are so enamored of this new love of our life that we often fail to ask some really important questions, questions we would normally ask when dealing with more familiar, less romantic areas of our life. Many of us are still infatuated by this medicine, this "brave new world." We've stepped into a new universe. We love it, and we want more and more of it. However, it's well known that converts are often stronger (and more gullible, more fanatical, and more fundamentalist) believers than people who have grown up within a tradition. People who have grown up within a tradition have a greater depth of familiarity with it and are aware of some of the negatives neophytes are ignorant of or willfully blind to. Sometimes our enthusiasm feels a bit naive in retrospect, but ultimately it is just a normal expression of our inherent passion. In some ways, it is a perfectly natural stage of evolution in a person's familiarity with and, therefore, understanding of something new and alluring.

For instance, some readers may gasp at the idea that quackery was and is an on-going problem in Chinese medicine. This is nothing new. If you read the premodern Chinese medical literature (such as Blue Poppy's Great Masters Series), famous Chinese authors frequently bemoaned the prevalence of quacks working within their society. For instance, Zhang Jing-yue created his famous 10 questions in the late Ming dynasty because it was so easy for supposed "experts" to simply feel a patient's wrist and then tell them they needed to buy some very expensive medicine that they or their associates just happened to have on hand. Imperial medical bureaus, colleges, and their examinations existed dynasty after dynasty in Old China, in part, to try to weed out these quacks. Several years ago, the famous German sinologist Paul U. Unschuld wrote about the history and prevalence of quackery in Chinese medicine. Although, to my knowledge, this essay has never been translated into English, I can tell you it caused apoplexy among many "younger" German practitioners I know. Here in N. America, there has been at least one instance of a "famous" doctor of Chinese medicine selling licensing exam answers to those who simply wanted Green Cards, and, in large cities, more than a few "acupuncture clinics" are simply fronts for prostitution. However, more worrisome are those "practitioners" who purposely cheat their naive patients by selling supposed secret formulas at inflated prices based on little or no medical justification. This topic has been explored in the Chinese literature for centuries.

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By Eric Brand

This is a nice specimen of wild Huang Qi. Wild Huang Qi has a very deep, powerful tap root. It is less uniform and much larger than the cultivated product, which is often pressed and sliced longitudinally to create decoction pieces that resemble tongue depressors. In its natural state, the cultivated root is a much tighter, straighter, and shorter version of the wild root pictured here. Wild Huang Qi is easily distinguished from cultivated Huang Qi, and good quality wild product is said to have a strong odor characteristic of the bean family (to which astragalus belongs).

I know very few people who have come through the last year financially unaffected. Almost everyone has had some shift in their financial life: lowered spending expectations, higher credit card interest rates, retirees having to go back to work, people losing jobs and relocating, fewer patients in our clinics and those who do come in opting for fewer visits. Whoever we want to blame for the financial tsunami that has affected most of the planet one way or another, anyone with sense can see that it is going to take time for this contraction to “respiral” itself outward into renewed growth.

That being said, if we truly believe in the fundamental principle of our medicine…the co-creating and codependent yin and yang of the universe…we know that nothing can or should expand forever. Within any alive and, therefore, dynamic system there must be a balancing force of contraction. The good news is that nothing lasts forever; and the bad news is that nothing lasts forever.

So what can inspire us in our work and our lives through this current difficult financial cycle? Perhaps the year of the OX (ending Feb. 13, 2010) was a help to all of us, the energy of the OX being plodding, persevering, steady. The coming year of the Tiger, however, could be energetically more volatile and certainly not plodding or patient, though the Tiger can be both fierce and tenacious. We may have to try harder to stay focused and to accomplish our lives with compassion for ourselves and the larger world. Below are a few things I think about to help myself until the universe changes the flow of things.

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By Eric Brand

This is a nice specimen of wild Dang Shen. I put a pen in there to give it a sense of scale. These roots are much, much larger than the cultivated product, and the "lion's head" (shi zi tou) characteristic of Dang Shen is clearly evident.

These wild roots were purchased in China by Eric Brand, photographed by Eric, and authenticated by Prof. Zhao Zhongzhen, one of the world's leading experts in Chinese herbal identification. They have a strong odor and are easily distinguished from the average cultivated product.

Eric Brand

I have to say, I love working at Blue Poppy. We have a team of incredibly intelligent and benevolent people working together in a beautiful office overlooking the mountains, and the company feels like a family. Like many practitioners, I came to Chinese medicine because I truly enjoy helping people and making a difference, and no company embodies this holistic spirit quite like Blue Poppy. Even as a new TCM student, I knew that Blue Poppy was working to better the profession and the planet, but now that I work at Blue Poppy I have an even greater appreciation of the depth of this contribution.

Funding Research

The other day I wrote a brief blog about an authentication research project that we are working on. This project was made possible by a generous donation from Blue Poppy to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Blue Poppy has no competing interest in the study (i.e., we don’t sell raw herbs); rather, we are funding the project purely because we know it will have a positive impact on the profession. Ultimately, educating practitioners about herbal safety will protect our scope of practice and allow us all to engage in progressively more advanced traditional and scientific arenas.

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By Eric Brand

This is a brief abstract of a research project that I am working on. This is not an official press release, just a little foreshadowing of what is to come:

Authentication is a multidisciplinary specialty within Chinese herbal medicine that focuses on the correct identification of medicinal products. Over the centuries, many different regional substitutes and adulterants have been introduced into the herbal marketplace, and many herbs that have similar names and appearances are easily confused. To achieve reliable therapeutic results and avoid potentially harmful substitutes, it is essential for Chinese medical practitioners to use correctly identified herbal medicines.

The present study represents a collaborative effort between researchers at the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, Hong Kong Baptist University, China Medical University in Taiwan, and NYCC. The study assesses the prevalence of adulterants at U.S. schools of Chinese medicine before and after specialized training is provided in product discernment. Eric Brand, a TCM advisor to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, will collect samples of 24 commonly confused herbal medicines at U.S. schools and will provide training in product discernment to clinic managers and faculty at those institutions. At a one year follow-up visit to each school, samples of the same 24 herbs will be taken to assess the effects of education on the prevalence of adulterants at the institution. In each case, the samples will be de-identified (blinded) and recorded by Roy Upton, the Executive Director of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (Roy will also be doing a parallel project for Western herbal medicines). The samples will then be sent to Prof. Zhao Zhong-Zhen at Hong Kong Baptist University and Prof. Chang Hsien-Cheh at China Medical University for identification and authentication. Profs. Zhao and Chang are well-known specialists in herbal authentication and both are TCM advisors to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia. Additionally, Prof. Kevin Ergil and Prof. Jason Wright of Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine of NYCC will be contributing to the study design and methodology. Kevin heads the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine’s taskforce on safe herbal medicine compounding and Jason is the Chair of Herbal Medicine for the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

Background:

In my normal life beyond this research project, I work at Blue Poppy as an herbal medicine and sourcing specialist. This particular research project has been made possible by a generous contribution by Blue Poppy to the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia team. Blue Poppy has no competing interests (the project deals with raw herbs, which are not a part of our business); we are simply dedicated to advancing education in the field of Chinese medicine. The AHP team is grateful for Blue Poppy's support in this academic project, and Blue Poppy is honored to have the chance to contribute to this important scientific endeavor.

By Eric Brand

Chinese medicine is expressed through a complex body of technical terms. While an average Chinese person can read the words in a Chinese medical classic or a modern textbook, the meaning is largely incomprehensible if the person hasn’t studied Chinese medicine. While the technical nature of TCM literature is self-evident in the Asian world, in the West we find that people who haven’t studied Chinese often lack an appreciation for the depth of technical terminology in the field. It is obvious to any Chinese layperson that TCM has complex and specialized terminology, and within the Chinese community of educated practitioners, the importance of clear and accurate expression is a given.

Consequently, when the expert community in Asia ponders the globalization of Chinese medicine, significant attention is paid to the issue of terminology. After all, Chinese medicine’s depth of insight cannot reach the outer world unless there is a way to talk about TCM concepts in foreign languages. While Chinese medicine uses more metaphors and has more colorful terminology than biomedicine, the two medical systems are comparable in terms of their academic sophistication and heavy use of specific, specialized terminology.

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By Eric Brand

Pictured above is a collage of different types of ginseng. I’ll probably do future side-by-side photos that illustrate differences in grades and styles of ginseng, for example, comparing red slices, red whole roots, white whole roots, adulterated roots, etc.

In this photo, starting from the top row, left to right, one can see several different types. See this key:

11 22 3 4 5

6 7

1: The two white roots in the top left are Korean-grown white ginseng. These were sourced in Taiwan, they are authentic 4 year old roots that are classified as straight ginseng, from the 2009 harvest. This type is best for boosting fluids and supplementing qi without the warmth of red ginseng.

2: Moving to the right, the next two roots are Japanese Dong Yang Shen. The par-boiling used in their processing causes the outside to be a creamy yellowish-white while the inside is red. Claim to fame is that it tends not to produce heat.

3: The one red ginseng root in this photo is a relatively good grade of Chinese red ginseng. The root is large with a well-developed neck, and its cortex is slightly golden in color, which is often a sign of quality. More warming and stronger for supplementing qi.

4: The thin root with a long neck is half-wild ginseng from Chang Bai Shan (Yi Shan Shen). This type is densely striated with a long, thin neck. It is grown by transplanting roots into the forest. This is better than average white ginseng but it is more expensive.

5: The root at the top right is organically-grown white ginseng that is grown in China from Korean seed. Good quality, reasonable price.

6: The big root at the bottom center is called “da zhua zi,” or “big chicken claw.” This name refers to its gnarled, heavily branched shape. Generally straight roots without whiskers are preferred for normal prescription use, but these big roots with the whiskers intact look nice when soaked in alcohol. This root is classified as organic white Chinese ginseng, grown at the same farm in Jilin as #5 and #7.

7: The root at the lower right is organically-grown white ginseng from China from domestic Chinese seed. Same farm as #5 and #6, but different seed stock.

I have a free webinar at TCM TV today at 12:00pm PST. Here is the link

By Eric Brand

Shi Hu is a yin-supplementing medicinal that is sold in many different grades and qualities. True Shi Hu refers to dendrobium orchid, but in actuality most of what is used as Shi Hu on the market is a tolerated substitute rather than true dendrobium. The substitute pictured above is an authentic medicinal, but it is considered a less expensive and less effective form of Shi Hu. True Shi Hu and its substitute (which is properly called “You Gua Shi Hu,” derived from Ephemerantha fimbriata (Bl.) P.E. Hunt et Summ) are both in the orchid family, but they are from plants in different genera that have significantly different appearances. Generally speaking, the two should be differentiated in trade and in clinical use.

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