Thea Elijah has been a practitioner of Chinese herbal medicine for more than 20 years. She is the former Director of the Chinese Herbal Studies Program at TAI SOPHIA and at the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture. She has studied with Ted Kaptchuk, Leon Hammer, and Lonny Jarrett. (Note her herbal article in Lonny Jarrett’s book, The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine.) Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallee and J.R. Worsley have been equally influential in shaping her understanding of the depth of Chinese medicine. She lives in Vermont with her family, and teaches widely. For more of her articles, audio and teaching schedule: www.perennialmedicine.com.
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) affects more than 15% of the U.S. population but evades most practitioners’ radar. Just five years ago, it wasn’t even on my radar, despite already having 20 years of experience as a clinician at that time. The more I dug (similar to leaky gut and post-COVID syndrome), the more I found my patients were suffering from this disorder.
Research supports the effectiveness of selecting the distal acupuncture points for the treatment of microtrauma and for relieving pain, particularly in cases of chronic shoulder pain. But to make the treatment results long-lasting, clinical experience and research suggest that instead of treating the most painful structure first, we identify the inhibited driver, restore reliable recruitment, confirm it with immediate re-testing, and only then address the painful area as a branch of a deeper pattern.
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The motivation behind our practice of medicine is important, impacting not just our experience but also the experiences of those we treat. It is perhaps for this reason that the aspiration to help not just some, but all beings heal, has historically been an important part of the medical tradition. To explain this, we need to consider how medicine is interwoven with other social domains.