by Honora Lee Wolfe If you want to be perceived as an expert on a specific subject (improved sports performance, preventing anorexia, treating or preventing fibromyalgia, you name it), go to your local/regional paper and TV station websites and find… more »

by Lorraine Wilcox Leaves from Chinese mugwort (Artemisia argyi Levl. et Vant) are processed to make mugwort floss, the main material used in moxibustion. This species of mugwort grows throughout large regions of China, but the most ancient books did… more »

By Eric Brand What exactly are “granules?” Granules are concentrated extracts that are made by decocting raw herbs and then evaporating the water to form a dry powder. The basic process typically starts from whole, uncut herbs, which are first pr… more »

By Eric Brand Well, the day has finally come that my book on granules (A Clinician's Guide to Using Granule Extracts) is going off to the printer. Thus, I'll be doing a short series of posts on granules that combine some new material with some excer… more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. As a child, I remember my grandfather as a paragon of good health. While he did refrain from smoking and alcohol, which no doubt attributed to his overall health and longevity, he also ate as he pleased, enjoying a wide variety… more »

by Bob Flaws Today is the second day of the fourth lunar month, the month in which Tibetan Buddhists believe Lord Buddha was born, reached enlightenment, and died. So it's a special month for practice and doing the Dharma. Therefore, I'd like to shar… more »

by Bob Flaws The hallmark of standard professional Chinese medicine is treatment based on pattern discrimination, bian zheng lun zhi辨证论治. This means that, in standard professional Chinese medicine, treatment is primarily p… more »

By Juliette Aiyana During my time as a student and  novice practitioner I was convinced, by disinformation, that the most effective nutritional therapy to heal the commonly diagnosed pattern of energetic disharmony of qi and blood vacuity in America… more »

By Eric Brand Practitioners often refer to prepared Chinese medicines as “patent medicines.” Many vocal scholars (such as Bob Flaws) emphasize that the phrase patent medicine is a misnomer that paints the wrong impression about Chinese herbal medicin… more »

by Bob Flaws I was flipping though some back issue of Shang Hai Zhong Yi Yao Za Zhi (Shanghai Journal of Chinese Medicine & Pharmacology) and I found a very interesting article by Bao Lai-fa on pages 36-37 of issue #12, 2002. Dr. Bao works in the… more »

By Eric Brand In case you missed it, the NY Times ran a very favorable article on acupuncture today. Here is the link to the article. The article mentions that 3.1 million adults reported using acupuncture in 2008, compared to 2.1 million in 2007 (a… more »

By Eric Brand Coping with the occasional bout of traveler’s diarrhea is an occupational hazard for many practitioners that travel around the world. For example, I often travel to China and I am invariably placed in cultural situations where I must i… more »

by Malia Kirby I certainly did not grow up eating what most in the natural health community would consider a healthy diet. Meat and potatoes were standard fare, vegetables were usually coated in some sort of cheese sauce, and any grains eaten usuall… more »

Writing articles is a wonderful way to get your name in front of lots of people with very little effort. However, if you’ve never done this before, it can be a little intimidating at the beginning. Who could I write for, you might ask? How to I get star… more »

by Lorraine Wilcox It has been two weeks since I picked mugwort and hung it up to dry (see my August 19th, 2010 blog). I picked three kinds of mugwort: I went into a canyon in Malibu to pick Artemisia douglasiana (California mugwort). I also went to… more »

by Grainne McKeown Last year, in December of 2009, I embarked on a journey to underserved populations in Asia with little more than a bag of needles and some herbs. Ten months later, I started a non-profit called Mindful Medicine Worldwide which wou… more »

By Eric Brand As I mentioned in a previous blog, I recently had the pleasure of joining one of my teachers on a field research trip to Sichuan, China. During our trip, we stopped by Chengdu’s large herbal market, which is slowly starting to regain i… more »