The translation from the Chinese 五行 (wŭ xíng) into Five Elements does not convey its essential meaning of movement. The character 行 is composed of two parts, 彳on the left and 亍 on the right. They are actually the same radical drawn differently. The radical means a step made by a human foot. 行 is composed of a left and a right step. It means walking, or movement. Understanding Chinese ideas is easier if one remembers that they are about process and change.

Just added a discussion of yin/yang to the faq under the heading of Chinese Medicine. This is the first installment of what will become a primer on Chinese medicine. Please read:

Urinary Bladder 1, named Jing Ming, meaning Bright Eye, is located within the eye socket, but off the eyeball. It is useful for inflammation of the eye causing redness, swelling, heat sensation, and pain. Also for blurry vision, eye twitch and itch. Needless to say, needling has to done carefully. Its location is defined as a depression .1 cun above the inner canthus of the eye. One cun is the width of the patient's thumb measured at the distal joint so this is one tenth of that distance. The safe way to exactly locate Jing Ming is not by measurement but by palpation. Textbooks recommend needling with the eye rolled down. Palpate the spot yourself and you will find that the depression is actually more open with the eye rolled up, and that is the right way to needle Bright Eyes. The patient in the picture is smiling because of the relief she is feeling.

New students may take advantage of the 50% discount for a private class and experience how customized and targeted instruction can help them along their paths.
This issue features three stories. Ancient history meets space age science in the perennial Quest for Immortality. Pangu Created the World is a Chinese creation myth. Its meaning and relevance to Chinese medicine are explored in Heaven Above, Earth Below.

"The human gut is home to trillions of individual microbes representing thousands of species of bacteria and non-bacterial organisms called archaea. The exact membership of this highly complex ecosystem, known as the microbiome, varies from person to person." "The global rise of chronic health conditions, ranging from obesity and diabetes to bowel disease and cancer, is increasingly being linked with perturbations in gut flora...TCM's reliance on complex mixtures of compounds, and its philosophy of treating the human body as a whole, complete system that needs to be balanced, matches up well with the synergistic properties of the gut microbiome."