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Neuromuscular Pain
Transcript of the Seminar:
http://www.institutevannghi.net/tribute/seminar88.html
NGUYEN VAN NGHI, M.D.
TRAN VIET DZUNG, M.D.
PRESENTED 17-18 SEPTEMBER 1988
1990 Jung Tao Productions
"If you want to develop acupuncture, if you want to make it
grow and spread, you have to be very strict in the way that
you learn things, rigorous or strict in the way that we learn
the words. Because if we employ words which are not
accurate, we are not going to learn anything. Because in
chinese medicine, every single word has a deep meaning,
and if we don't use them correctly, we may end up making
errors. And if there are errors in comprehension we cannot
help our patients, we cannot get results. And a medical
science where there are no results is a science that has no
future. That is why we are very strict about the terminology.
"
-- Dr. Tran Viet Dzung
"There are three things that I am sure about that I would
like to explain to you in a very simple way: First of all, the
further I get into my studies of acupuncture the more I
realize how little I know, that I know nothing; Two: among
my patients there are lots of failures, I fail to cure a lot of
people. But there is one thing I am sure about: that if I
don't succeed in curing my patients, it is not the fault of
acupuncture: I haven't reached the height of my prowess, I
haven't reached the peak of my possibilities and
achievements. There is acupuncture and there are
FOREWORD
These transcripts represent, in the most accurate fashion
possible, the lectures of Drs. Van Nghi and Tran in,
Bloomington, Minnesota, the 17th and 18th of September,
1988. The Doctors presented two full days of lecture on
Chinese Medicine, discussing such essential topics as San
Jiao energetics, treatment of cephalgias and traumas, of
superficial perverse energy invasion, and, most especially,
the energetics of gynecologic functioning and the treatment
of gynecologic conditions.
and the uterus; in other words, the point CV-3 is the front
mu point of the Bladder, as I already mentioned, and it also
brings water, or humidity, to the uterus. <This is the
Bladder, that is the front mu point of the Bladder> That is
why, in certain cases of uterine inflammation, [with]
sensations of heat and pain, to calm this pain, to stop this
pain, we puncture CV-3, tonifying it.
But now we're talking about physiology. We know that CV-3
sends vessels into the uterus, that is, internal vessels, which
we call small secondary vessels, which we also refer to as
'energetic capillaries', and you have to know all this.
Afterwards, it reaches CV-4, front mu of the Small Intestine.
We know that the Bladder and Small Intestine together are
known as the Tai Yang, so therefore that is the area, the
zone, of Tai Yang. Tai Yang means 'water' or 'cold'. That is
why, when the vessels from CV-3 arrive at Cv-4 they
immediately go internal and irradiate around the small
intestine. <This is the small intestine.> There is a sort of
mesentery system which goes to the Kidneys; in other
words, small vessels of the Small Intestine bring the water
from the Small Intestine toward the Kidney by means of the
mesenteric branch. And our colleague Dr. Tran will explain
that in detail to you later, whereas here, I am just talking to
you primarily about the importance of CV-4, because these
two points are specific points for gynaecology. From there,
the channel emerges at CV-5, CV-6, CV-7 and CV-8. That is,
from CV-7 to CV-3 there isn't a line or a channel, there are
only points, because the Ren Mai or Conception vessel
comes from the Kidneys, from the source. And these points
are situated on the interior, whereas the points that are on
the exterior are points which are emerging from the interior.
Now we are in the region of the abdominal wall. You can't
needle through the abdominal wall to find these points,
you'll bring about a peritonitis, so there's a special
technique. <This is the abdominal wall and the peritoneum;
here is the point, all of that is the point.> You put the needle
in, first of all, through the skin--you must not turn the
needle while it's still at the level of the skin; if you're still at
the level of the skin and you start turning the needle, it
causes extreme pain--you will lose your client. And our
profession involves keeping our clients. So you have to go
through the skin, and you begin to make rotating
movements, progressively, in and out movements, with very
light fingers. Do it gently, not brutally. You keep pushing the
needle in and suddenly you feel a slight resistance, this
means you're touching the peritoneum. But don't go through
it--you immediately pull back the needle, only about a
milimeter or so, and then you begin to manipulate the
needle, either to tonify or to disperse. Because in France, as
in the States, there are some unskilled acupuncturists,
clumsy acupuncturists, who go through the peritoneum and
cause a peritonitis, or go through the thorax and cause a
pleurisy, which is extremely serious. Naturally, in France
there are medical laws, these acupuncturists are barred
from practicing for life. I'm sure that it's the same in the
States. This is why we acupuncturists have to be very
careful--that can happen.
When you puncture points on the back or in the thorax you
[can] provoke lipothymia [faintness, syncope], there will be
loss of consciousness. The needle can also go through into
the thorax; we have to be extremely careful, both in the
United States and in Europe: you should never needle
people when they're sitting down, and never standing up.
The patient should always be lying down or partially lying
down. This is very important, because we're in the States,
not in China; if the patient becomes unconscious, loses
consciousness, you'll have to call the ambulance and the
police. It happens in Europe. I'm sure it will happen here
too. This is why: there are certain points which can very
easily cause a lipothymia, for example, GB-21. Dr. Tran is
going to talk to you about this. When you puncture it deeply
and you turn the needle, if you do a quick manipulation it
itself in the uterine wall and it will not, it may not transform
into heat, it transforms into phlegm (the word mucus in the
western sense of the word is something which is secreted by
the organs, whereas the word phlegm means that there is a
materialization of humidity). Cold-humidity, when it
stagnates for a long time, turns into drops of a substance;
this substance, when it is in the uterine muscle, develops,
gets bigger, increases in size and we call it fibroma. But
when we talk about fibroma in western medicine, there are
uterine fibromatosis and fibroma. In the case of fibromatosis
it also always entails metrorrhagia. In this case, the disease
is more serious, whereas in the case of small fibroma
acupuncture can treat this condition. But if the fibroma is
the size of a head, then you have to operate. We're not
going to exaggerate what we can do.
When there is too much heat in the uterus, this heat
damages or interferes with the blood; we say in western
medicine that the heat dilates the vessels and can burst
vessels, which is where hemorrhage comes from. In
gynaecology, when we use the word hemorrhage, we have
to be careful; women have periods which prolong for a long
time, they might last twenty days, every month she may be
unwell for twenty days. We call that prolonged periods. We
Americans have one word to describe this illness, we
describe this as a case of menometrorrhagia--and that we
can treat. In the case of real uterine hemorrhage, you
mustn't insist on treating it, you mustn't keep this client,
you must send her to a specialist, because this kind of
hemorrhage is often of cancer, origin of cancer, or it comes
from another very serious illness. Even in western medicine
there are limits, because now I am a western gynaecologist;
if this patient comes with a hemorrhage, I will examine, and
I will establish that there are some doubts, I won't keep this
patient, because this could be of a cancerous nature. I would
immediately send her to a surgeon specializing in obstetrics
to do a complete examination. This way of treating fits in
of energy. But when you talk about what energy, they're not
exactly sure. When you talk about the formation of energy,
they can't tell you exactly how this energy is formed. This is
why what I'm going to tell you is important as a basis of
acupuncture. And in talking about the formation of the
different types of energy I have to talk to you about the San
Jiao.
You know that the San Jiao is something extremely
important. It's so important that I'm going to tell you a
story: you know that in the eleventh century in China, there
was an emperor; you know that at that time chinese
emperors were well known for being very erudite, not only in
poetry and music but also medicine. One day he heard talk
of a chinese doctor who only treated people by means of the
San Jiao. He sent for this doctor to come to his court, and he
asked him: 'Why --in the human organism, you have the
meridians, you've got the muscles, the bones, the organs
and bowels--how can you say that you treat everything by
means of the San Jiao?' The doctor answered him: 'This is
such a difficult and important subject that I can only tell
somebody who has sufficient knowledge of the subject.' The
emperor, crazy with rage, had him beheaded. And since this,
the generations of the doctors who came afterwards always
get together to study the idea of the San Jiao.
Everything I'm going to tell you is found in the Nei Ching,
especially in the Da Cheng ("Art and Practice of
Acupuncture"). But as you already know, in the ancient
texts, whether it is the Nei Ching or the Da
Cheng,when they talk about ideas, they talk about one idea
in book one, another one in book five, and then the third
one they come back to in book three. So they never give
you a synthesized, or global, idea of the whole thing. I'm
going to try to do a synthesis of all these ancient books and
to try to give you a complete idea of the San Jiao.
You've noticed that I've been using the word 'San Jiao'.
You've never heard me speak of the 'Triple Heater'. Because
for us this word means nothing. 'San ' means 'three'. 'Jiao'
means 'metabolism'. In other words, the function of the San
Jiao is the function of the division into three metabolisms.
These three metabolisms are: metabolism of energy,
metabolism of blood, and metabolism of organic liquid.
Today we're going to speak about energy. I'm going to
present several ideas: I'm going to talk about the formation
of Ying energy. As you know it's also called Nutritive, or
nourishing, energy. I'm going to talk about the formation of
Jing energy, which you know is the energetic quintessence.
I'm going to also talk about Wei energy, which is very
important here in the United States because it concerns
allergy a lot; it's the defensive energy of the body. And then
I'm going to talk of the energy Tong Qi, which we could
regard as Ancestral energy. And then to conclude
everything, I'm going to explain how to treat by using the
San Jiao.
First, Ying energy. <This is the Stomach: the cardia, the
fundus, and the pylorus.> This is the anatomy described in
western medical terminology. As you know, in Chinese
Medicine the cardia is the upper Jiao, the fundus is the
middle Jiao, and the pylorus is the lower Jiao. And the three
'burners' together make the San Jiao. We prefer to use the
term San Jiao, and if you really want to use the term in a
western way, it would be better to call it 'triple metabolism',
for the reasons I described earlier. And since in the west,
whether it is in Europe or in the States, we have the habit of
calling it the 'triple heater', [I'm] going to continue to use
that term, but you should understand that that is a term
which has been badly translated. Why? Because all the ideas
about the San Jiao show that it is concerned with the
metabolism of water; when you talk about 'triple heater' it
has an idea of heat, or Yang, which doesn't mean anything.
You know that man is between Heaven and Earth. We're only
alive because of the food we eat and the air we breathe.
<Here is >the food, it comes into the digestive tube and
reaches the fundus. When it reaches the fundus, what arises
is a phenomenon of metabolism. This gives off an energy, as
a result of this metabolism, which in western medicine we
call calories, but which we call the energy of the cereals,
energy of the grains, because it comes from food, and the
food comes from cereals, cereals come from the earth. This
energy which is produced from the cereals--where does it
go? It goes to the Spleen. Why to the Spleen? Because you
know that the Spleen and Stomach are the Yin-Yang system.
So this energy of the cereals goes to the Spleen. Once it has
arrived at the Spleen, the Spleen send this energy to the
Lungs. Why? Because the Spleen and the Lung are in a
mother-son relationship [Earth creates Metal]. <Here is the
Spleen, here are the Lungs.> The Lungs are the child of the
Spleen. So the energy of the cereals which reaches the
Spleen reaches the Lungs. Also the energy of the Spleen and
the Lungs together is Tai Yin; they both have the same
energetic level: the Spleen is the Tai Yin of the foot, and the
Lungs are the Tai Yin of the hand. When this energy of the
cereals, or if you prefer, energy of the Earth, reaches the
Lungs, the Lungs have two roles: the first role is the
absorption of the Earth energy coming from the Spleen, and
the other role is the absorption of the Celestial energy
coming from the heavens, or the sky; in other words,
oxygen. <This is oxygen from celestial energy.> The energy
of the sky is Yang, whereas the energy of the Earth is Yin.
When, in the Lungs, Yin and Yang meet, the Ying energy is
formed. It's Nutritive Energy. This energy goes to the
superior part of the thorax, and emerges at the point which
you all know, which is Lu-1. Then it goes into the Lung
channel, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, etc., as far as
the Liver channel, at which point it returns to the Lung. This
is following the cycle known as the circadian cycle of 24
hours. That is, that the energy circulates in the Lungs from 3
the laws of the Five Phases (Wu Xing), according to the law
of inhibition (Ko cycle). Occasionally you have patients who
come to see you in your office, for whatever, but if they got
stuck in a traffic jam on the way to your office they'll arrive
in a state of anger. With the use of one single point you can
treat their anger. So for whatever reason they're coming to
see you, if they come presenting one of these emotions--joy,
or fear, or whatever--you can treat them with one single
point; and then at the end of the treatment you can ask
them, 'well, what about your sadness or fear?' And they'll
say, 'it's completely disappeared'.
The Nei Ching talks about the cycle of inhibition. Here is the
law of Five Phases: the Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung and
Kidney. I already explained to you that the Liver is
associated with anger; and the Heart, joy; and the Spleen,
worry or anxiety; and the Lung sadness; and the Kidney,
fear. For example, if I want to treat anger, here is the law of
inhibition: you know that this is Wood, this is Fire, this is
Earth, this is Metal, this is Water. You know that Wood
controls or inhibits Earth, Earth inhibits Water, Water inhibits
Fire, Fire inhibits Metal, and Metal inhibits Wood. Anger is an
abnormal feeling corresponding to Wood. If I want to
diminish the anger I have to increase Metal, because Metal
destroys Wood. So I have to find a point corresponding to
Metal. Here is the principal channel. I gave you the example
of anger, which also corresponds to Wood and to the Liver.
So I'm going to use a point found on the Liver principal
channel. Here is the principal channel of the Liver. You know
that the principal channel of the Liver is Yin. And you know
that from <here to here> are the Su-Antique points: the
Jing-well, Yung, Yu, Jing-river and Ho points. The Jing-well
point of a Yin channel corresponds to Wood; the Yung point
corresponds to Fire; the Yu point to Earth; the Jing-river
point to Metal; and the Ho point to Water. I've just
explained, I'm going to treat anger. I have to treat a point
on the Liver channel, and on this Liver channel I have to
I've spoken about Ying Qi, Jing, Wei; <here is the cardia, the
fundus, and the pylorus.> We spoke about the Middle Jiao,
we talked about the Lower Jiao, and you will tell me of
course that I haven't yet spoken of the Upper Jiao: we're
going to talk about it now. The upper Jiao is where the Dong
Qi exists; if you translate, 'Qi' is 'energy', 'Dong' could be
translated as 'innate' or 'hereditary', or 'ancestral'. The
chinese colleagues in Shanghai translate this term 'Dong Qi'
as 'the energy of the thorax', 'thoracic Qi'. This is accurate,
but not completely accurate, it is only part; I will explain to
you in a minute why. Doctor Van Nghi preferes to translate
this term by 'creative energy', and we will understand that in
a moment, why he uses that term. The Dong Qi is found at
this level, at the cardia. In order to understand Dong Qi we
have to understand energetic embryology.
We're going to digress for just a moment to discuss
energetic embryology now: when there is copulation
between male and female, Yang and Yin join, combine; and
from here immediately you have a movement. There is a
type of center, a core, here, which is constantly moving;
because there is yin and yang there is constant movement.
Are there any gynecologists or obstetricians here? Is there
anyone here who has done lots of births? Is there anyone
here who has done a lot of deliberate abortions? Has anyone
done curettage here? But: if you do a curettage--in other
words, if you cause an abortion on a woman who is pregnant
approximately 28 to 21 days (now they use aspiration, so
they don't examine the product which is taken from the
uterus); in the earlier times, such as the time of Doctor Van
Nghi, they always used to examine what was removed, so
they were told always to look for this small core, which had
to be moving, and if there was no movement that meant
that the abortion was incomplete and there was still a
pregnancy.
This center, or this concentration, is at the level of the
cardia. Since there is movement, there is yin and yang, so
When did you have the accident, to get that scar? 11 years
ago. So we're talking about a chronic problem; and you can
see that he has muscular atrophy. So we can tell that there
are nerves which have been attacked. But what is
remarkable is that he can still move his arm quite freely,
which is already a considerable advantage; because in
principle, once there's muscular atrophy, the atrophy can
spread to other muscles and the patient cannot lift his arm.
In other words, at the same time as having muscular
atrophy, he has muscular laxity. So if the patient had not
had an accident, and if he did not have pain like now; if a
patient came presenting these signs of atrophy in these
muscles, without having had an accident, this patient would
be presenting with very serious signs and symptoms; we
would say that the patient had multiple sclerosis.
The pulses are normal--he's had acupuncture treatment-since we're here, we'll talk generally about the pulses: in
women, the right pulses are stronger; in men, the left-hand
pulses are stronger. Why? Because often at the beginning,
the French say, the right hand belongs to women, that we
put it there out of politeness. Now we know that in this part
is the pulse of the Lung, in other words, energy. And that
the energy of the Lungs is the master of all the energy. The
woman has more energy than a man. Look: we are two
human beings; but she loses blood every month, so the
woman only has energy; whereas the man has his energy
and blood; this is why they say women have more energy
than men, and that the man has more blood than the
woman. This is proved by the Ren Mai and the Chong Mai:
these come from the lower abdomen, in other words the
region back there we were talking about, which is the area
where the blood and energy arrive. In the man, these
meridians originating in the Dan Tien ascend to the face,
and that's why he has a beard and moustache. Woman has
no blood at the time of her menstrual period, and the Ren
Mai and Chong Mai are at that time in a state of deficiency of
is LI-4; this is about right, I'm tonifying the three Yin. Now
the disease is external, because if it had really affected the
marrow, especially in that part, all of the area from here
down to his feet would have been paralyzed, so we know
that the problem is external, as the marrow has not been
affected. This is why I have to puncture a point to provide
this induction, to reestablish the connection between the
external areas.
Wai guan means 'external barrier'. It is located between the
two bones, and I'm pumcturing it very deeply. And I am
using the associated technique, which means that
sometimes I tonify ,and then I sedate. I'm needling in the
direction of GV-6. Now I want to reinforce the action of
these points. I have to use the Curious Vessels. Now I have
to look: have I used any points of the Curious Vessels?
Notice that SI-3 is the tonification point of the Small
Intestine, but actually it is also the opening point of the
Governing Vessel. But the Governing Vessel is also
associated with the Yang Qiao.
Which means that I have to puncture Bl-62, in the foot. Here
I punctured SJ-5, which is the opening point of the Yang
Wei. The Yang Wei is associated with the Dai Mai, which
means that I also have to puncture GB-41. Here I punctured
LI-4, so automatically I have to puncture St-36, because LI4 and St-36 are important points of the Yang Ming; this
would mean that the points are correct. Why have I said
now that this acupuncture treatment is correct? You know
that the hands belong to the sky, and the legs, the feet
correspond to the earth, belong to the earth. And Man has to
respond to both heaven and earth. Man breathes in order to
live; and eats the products of the earth in order to live. Now,
man's body is ill--I've punctured all the effective points; and
I've regulated his body with energy of the sky and earth. It's
a very important theory in Chinese Medicine. We Americans,
of course, are going to simplify everything: what does that
mean--sky, earth? It shocks us a little bit. So we say, in
order to treat an illness, first of all you treat the local points,
the points corresponding to the illness, and regulate these
points with distal points. What are distal points? They are
the Su-Antique points. If you look at these points, they are
all Su-Antique points. SI-3 is the Yu point; this is the Yu
point; this is the Yuan point; that's the Luo point. So all the
points from the fingers to the elbows, and from the knees to
the feet, are Su-Antique points. This is the Ho point of the
Large Intestine.
Now I'm going to propose to our president: this is a
demonstration. In order to really cure this patient, one
would have to manipulate the needle in a continuous
manner. In other words, you would have to stay with the
patient and continue to turn the needles--which is not
possible, because we have other patients to see as well.
And, in America, time equals money. So we have a piece of
electrical equiptment. You have to have at least two painful
points, because the electrical apparatus has two leads, or it
has one circuit with two clips. So here you have six points,
so I would use three circuits. Following the technique of
dispersion, you look at each unit and it has a light, the light
blinks on and off like that. When you see that it's going very
quickly, it means that it's dispersion; if it goes very slowly,
it's tonification. And with this patient you would have to use
a dispersion technique, and it would have to remain in place
for fifteen to twenty minutes. Then you would take the
needles out, and then the patient will feel a lot better than if
you had done this by hand; no--because we can't stay there
and do this by hand, it takes too long. But, anyway, in a
while he will definitely feel a bit better. In other words, he
would be having about the same reaction as he did in the
treatment by hand. But if we're using the electical
equiptment, he would be radiant at the end of the
treatment, he would feel very much better.
manipulate by hand. Since we're coming into the twentyfirst century, we have all kinds of technology that we can
take advantage of. And you will have 100% recovery with
this technique. We're going to leave tomorrow; but I'm sure
some of you will begin practicing this technique, and you will
be extremely happy; you will even be delighted and amazed.
I also talked a moment ago about pain caused by a
deficiency of Blood and energy. For example: in the case of
facial neuralgia, in Western Medicine they always talk about
neuralgia of the Trigeminal Nerve--and they don't cure it,
they never cure it. Whereas Chinese Medicine is very
precise; when we talk about facial neuralgia, we have to
look for the cause: is it the Cold, is it Blood stagnation, is it
psychological, or is it because of a deficiency of Blood and
energy? When it's a pain caused by a lack of Blood and
energy, we first puncture the painful points. Then we tonify
Blood and energy. <Here, I will disperse the painful points.
Where would be dispersed? You have to disperse on the
opposite side. Suppose I have a neuralgia here, caused by a
lack of Blood and energy: there is no blood or energy, so if
you put in a needle to disperse it you're just going to cause
pain. you have to puncture the opposite side. Here the term
dispersion really means to eliminate, to move the Blood and
energy from one side to the other side, to cause a circulation
of Blood and energy from the side which is not under attack
to the side which is attacked. This is why the terms
'tonification' and 'dispersion' in the West are always badly
understood. 'Tonify' can also mean 'regulate' and
'harmonize'. So everything really depends on your
knowledge of Chinese Medicine.
Now, how do we tonify Blood? You have to know that there
are three organs governing Blood: the Liver, the Spleen and
the Kidneys. Here, however, in this case, we're just talking
about a local deficiency. In the case of leukemia, for
example, or anemia, you would have to use points on these
three organs' channels. We know that there is a point which
joins the energy of these three meridians--which is Sp-6.
moment the patient will be calmer, but the next day there
will be the same pain. This would seem to indicate that it is
not the Trigeminal Nerve that is the cause of the problem; if
it were the Trigeminal Nerve, then once you inject an
analgesic product it would be immediately cured. But it isn't.
Let's suppose that it is the Trigeminal Nerve, because
science has told us this, and we have to listen: so we say
that on the Trigeminal Nerve, especially the second branch,
<in this area> the point SI-18; <here is the face; here is
the zygomatic bone; here is the masseter muscle, and the
second branch is just at that point.> And for we
acupuncturists, SI-18 is located there, so we are very
clever--to keep our colleagues the MDs happy, we say that
it's accurate, and we say that we're treating according to the
Western idea of physiology. So we would puncture SI-18;
and the MD, looking at your treatment, would say, 'Of
course--you've punctured the second branch of the
Trigeminal Nerve.' So we all agree on that. But of course we
are really only doing it because of SI-18. Because in every
case of facial neuralgia, this point is always very painful. If
there's pain, I would turn quickly. And this pain often
radiates to <this area>, which is SI-19; and this pain also
often goes to the eye. This is why, during an attack of the
pain, there are tears; eyes closed like that, and the twisting
of the face because of the pain--because the pain is also
causing muscular spasms in the face. But we don't describe
it that way; we say, when there is pain it injures the
pathways of the meridians, and the meridians are often
found in the muscles, and that's why there are muscular
spasms. I'm showing you the existence of the channel
because under normal circumstances, there are no
meridians. As I sit here at this moment, I don't know if I
have a Heart or Lungs; but if I have dyspnea, I would be
very aware that I have a problem with my Lungs. Health,
that is, the human being in good health like me, I'm whole-ask me about my eyes, as far as I'm concerned I don't have
any; I don't feel my arms; but if I have a pain in my
behind the ear, you lift up the ear, you will see a slight
depression; at the bottom of this depression you will find SJ17, of which the name is Yifeng, "Hidden Wind". In other
words, the wind hides in the face and causes pain. This is
the most important point to treat when wind is causing
problems in the face.
Now let's talk about wind. You know that in Chinese Medicine
we distinguish six types of climatological energy: Wind,
Cold, Heat, etc. [Dry, Damp and Glare]. These energies
belong to the heavens [Cosmos], or the sky, and we
describe them as the six celestial energies. When they
penetrate into our bodies, our organisms, they cause pain,
and then we regard them as Perverse energy. The first time
I used the word "Perverse" in the West, in 1969, I received a
lot of letters form my colleagues, who complained that I had
introduced terms from the Middle Ages, and now we're in
the scientific age; and I replied: 'When a woman leaves her
family to go and live with another man, I would call this
woman "perverse". I would say the word "Perverse woman"
is ultra-modern, and not as ancient as they thought."
Certain people propose that the word 'Perverse' should be
replaced by the word 'pathogenic energy'; this is a great
error, because our energy, when it's disturbed, for example,
the energy of the Liver, blocks, or if it invades the energy of
the Spleen, it invades the Spleen channel, in this case it is
also perverse. When you're talking about Perverse energy in
general, we're talking about cosmic energy which penetrates
into our bodies. The other energies, such as Cold, Heat and
Humidity, cannot penetrate into our bodies. They have to be
carried in by the Wind. For example, if I lived at the North
Pole, there's only Cold up there, there isn't much Wind; I
wouldn't catch cold, I would feel cold, but this Cold wouldn't
penetrate into my body. This is why in Chinese Medicine you
often come across the terms, for example, Wind-Cold, WindHeat, Wind-Humidity, etc. But there are illnesses which are
caused only by Wind. So when you talk about Cold, what
you really mean is Wind-Cold. You should understand this,
otherwise you could come across these terms in American
third treatment, you absolutely have to tell them that "if you
don't continue these treatments, the pain will come back".
This is what medicine is all about--it's also commerce.
Especially acupuncture! Never cure an illness in two or three
treatments. Don't do it--because the MD's don't like it! And
your colleagues, too. [Note: this was said tongue firmly in
cheek.]
I've just talked about facial neuralgia. Now I'm going to talk
about headache, cephalgia. It's the same thing: you need to
know the cause, you have to know the clinical signs, in order
to be able to apply an appropriate therapy. In general, you
need to know that all the Yang Channels ascend to the head.
You know that the Yang Channels bring Water towards the
head; because the brain is the place of mental activity, so
the brain is always overheated, and our body has to
constantly bring Water to it to cool it down; like the engine
in your car, you always have to have water to keep it cool.
And the meeting point of Water on the head is Bahui, GV-20.
So when there is a disturbance of the three Yang of the
hands, especially disturbances caused by a penetration of
Perverse energy, it can cause cephalgia, heaadaches of socalled exogenous origin. But the head, the skull, is also the
point where the Jing is concentrated. When there is a
deficiency of Jing, it also causes pain; the Jing is located in
the interior of the skull, it is the 'quintessence'. In the case
of deficiency, it causes a cephalgia which is intracranial,
which is called, in Western medicine, encephalalgia, in other
words in the interior part of the skull. But there are also
vessels carrying blood and energy to the head. In the case
of deficiency of blood and energy, caused for example by a
hemorrhage, or a post-partum metrorrhagia, or a serious
illness of long duration, this can also cause cephalalgia, but
in this case the headache is of internal origin.
Now we're going to talk about headache of external origin.
This is always caused by Wind-Cold. Wind-Cold attacks the
Channels, causing headache, which we describe as headache