By Eric Brand This formula comes from a Chinese gynecology textbook, it is a recipe for a navel plaster that is applied to treat uterine fibroids. Click here for a more extensive article on fibroids, and click here and here for interesting blogs ab… more »

By Eric Brand Bob Damone, the current Academic Dean of San Diego’s Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, was one of my most influential teachers during the formative period of my Chinese medical education. Bob’s classes laid a strong foundation that… more »

By Eric Brand Chinese herbal medicine features an amazing array of different products, all of which are customarily sliced and processed in ways that highlight their unique identifying characteristics. This is an unusual and distinctive approach tha… more »

By Eric Brand The other day PCOM Chicago instructor extraordinaire Brendan Mattison posted an interesting comment on my blog on herbs that enter the extraordinary vessels. Brendan was inquiring about the history and use of the phrase “yao yao,” lite… more »

How many times have you sat in a waiting room or reception area at a doctor or dentist or law office, car dealership, tire store, or wherever? What we mostly find in such situations are magazines...usually not up to date ones...and possibly not of any i… more »

Walking down the street in Boulder, or, I expect, almost any town in the US these days, you'll see at least some empty store fronts. Unless there is a sign about relocating the business, it always makes me sad when I see these. It may mean a broken drea… more »

by Jae Park Preview by Honora Lee Wolfe About two years ago, Jae Park, a doctoral student at Five Branches Institute: College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, requested an adequate quantity of the Blue Poppy formula for supporting patients with type… more »

By Eric Brand We recently used my organic ginseng connection in China to produce an awesome batch of organic Ren Shen granules (coming soon, probably within a month or two). The photo above is a perfect illustration of why some excipient is required… more »

By Eric Brand Below is a list of herbs that are said to enter the eight extraordinary vessels: Bai shao (Paeoniae Radix Alba): Governs yang wei (yang linking vessel) [aversion to] cold and heat [effusion] and dai mai (girdling vessel) abdominal pa… more »

by Malia Kirby You have to have it in your blood, you have to grow up with the soil underneath your nails, the smell of the grapes in the air that you breathe. The cultivation of the vine was an art form. The refinement of the vine is a religion that… more »

By Eric Brand I was reading a rather fascinating piece on binders and excipients the other day that deserves a few comments. I mentioned the link to this paper in a previous blog on a different topic, but I’d like to revisit the central theme of the… more »

By Eric Brand In Chinese medicine, a variety of different formulas for supplementing yin provide us with a wide range of clinical choices for our patients. We have Er Zhi Wan (Double Supreme Pill), Liu Wei Di Huang Wan (Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill… more »

By Eric Brand Here is a link to an excellent article by Micah Arsham. Micah is a student at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, and she recently won an essay contest with this piece. It will be published in the next edition of Or… more »

By Eric Brand The other day I made one of the classic blunders. I was stressed and flustered, not paying enough attention to what I was doing as I helped my father move boxes around the house. Shortly thereafter, I felt a sinking feeling in my stoma… more »

For a great update on the current situation in Europe regarding herb regulations and actions to improve the situation, click on this link. more »

by Shawn Kirby L.Ac. “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” - Mark Twain - Margaret (not her real name) was 68 years of age and in relatively good health. She came to see me complaining mainly of nig… more »

with Malia Kirby MK: This is Malia Kirby, L. Ac. and Practitioner on Staff at Blue Poppy Enterprises and we're here today with Whitfield Reaves, author of The Acupuncture Handbook of Sports Injuries & Pain, a long-term practitioner of acupu… more »

By Eric Brand This link goes to a fantastic article by my teacher Zhao Zhongzhen's team that compares two species of Huang Qi (astragalus) with Hong Qi (hedysarum). Astragalus and hedysarum are often used interchangeably, and different regions tend… more »

By Eric Brand In ancient times, Ci Wu Jia and Wu Jia Pi were poorly differentiated from one another. It is likely that Ci Wu Jia has been used historically in Chinese medicine for a long time, but it was traditionally grouped together with Wu Jia Pi… more »

By Eric Brand A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about the organic herb situation in China. As we’ve mentioned before on this blog, about 50% of the product on the Chinese herbal marketplace by weight is wild-crafted, and the rest is cultivated. About… more »