Yi-Po Anthony Wu, MD, M.P.H.
Medical Director and founder of PCMC

• Western medical training at National Taiwan University, Worcester City Hospital, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
• Masters degree in Public Health, University of Hawaii
• Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Acupuncture training in Taiwan and at New York University
• Director of Pacific Pain Clinic 1988-93
• Director of Pacific Complementary Medicine Center since 1999
  

It is the common wish of all people to enjoy good health and long life. With the advances in medicine, we have come to expect that.

Where health and longevity are concerned, not all peoples and cultures are equal. World Health Organization (WHO) studies show that the breast cancer rate in Japan has been much lower than that in the U.S. for decades. The same studies also show that environmental factors outweigh genetic factors. The longer a Japanese American woman lives in the U.S., the closer she approaches the breast cancer rate or risk faced by American women. Cited among the environmental factors are diet, breastfeeding, exposure to hormone-related chemicals, and emotional stability.

Life span of people in Japan is also longer than that of the U.S. population, though Japan has spent a lot less on health care per capita. Longevity of the Japanese people is attributed mostly to their healthier lifestyle. In this issue of our newsletter, Dr. Brian C. Loh and Michael Shi expound on the principle of life and health preservation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Their articles point to the direction that Pacific Complementay Medicine Center has always been taking, namely, teaching and guiding our patients beyond the treatment of disease to nurture a life of wellness and longevity. Modern western medicine, having developed advanced technology for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, has become increasingly oriented toward the material aspects of the human body. Psychiatrists treat mental illnesses with drugs that control or alter the mind.

The mind has been reduced to a function of the physical and chemical states of the neurological system. The importance of the mind in health and healing has been re-introduced in the western world in the last two decades, thanks to the advocacy of alternative thinkers like Norman Cousin, Bernard Lowe and Bill Moyer.

In The Anatomy of a Disease, Norman Cousin describes how, by including large doses of vitamin C, laughter, and positive thinking, he managed to cure his supposedly "incurable" autoimmune disease. His case posed a challenge to the medical profession. Bernard Lowe, professor emeritus from the Department of Cardiology of Harvard Medical School, found that, through meditation, monks in Himalayan Nepal could sustain extreme cold and control their heart rate and blood pressure. He concluded that mental power could produce amazing results.

Bill Moyer, in the companion book to his television series, Healing and the Mind, interviewed many avant-garde healers including Dean Ornish, David Spiegal, Margaret Kemeny, David Eisenberg, Jon Kabat-Zinn and John Zawacki, to explore the role of the physician and of the mind in healing. Interestingly enough, TCM has its roots deep in a mind-body culture which has for generations recognized the connection of mind/emotions to health and illness.

Physical and mental health are simultaneously taken into account when diagnosing and treating. Our annual Spring Health Seminar will begin in April 16 for six consecutive weeks. The theme is life preservation in its various aspects such as diet and mental health.

 In Peace & Health,

          Yi-Po Anthony Wu, MD

BALANCE - THE KEY TO WELLNESS
by Michael Nian-Peng Shi, L. Ac.

Health preservation and longevity are goals that everyone shares. In the traditional Chinese medical (TCM) perspective, longevity is the result of a balanced approach in all that we do in life. In other words, it is the result of putting to practice concepts of health preservation.

According to TCM theory, only when there is balance (Yin and Yang) can we obtain optimal health. Yin and Yang are symbols representing opposites, for example, action or function versus inaction and substance respectively. Concepts of Yin and Yang come from the Yi Jing (Book of Change), and are dynamic or always moving.Therefore, this balance that we seek is always altering and moving in relation to multiple factors, be it dietary, seasonal, emotional, physiological, etc., requiring of us the ability to adapt and change.

TCM places emphasis on three aspects of living in this discussion of health preservation. They are internal (emotional) balance, external (environmental/seasonal) adaptation and balance, and miscellaneous lifestyle (most important of which is diet) balance. Each one of the three can extend from simple everyday ideas to in depth discussions of etiological, emotional or physiological states that exist when we become ill.

As an introduction, without getting into an academic discussion by introducing more theoretical concepts in TCM, we will touch on the essence in each of the three aspects, hopefully bringing to you, every man or woman, a foothold in the quest for health and longevity. We are social beings and as such internal or emotional balance is the foundation of our health in TCM theory. Repressed or excessive feelings, such as sadness or joyfulness, are reasons that may cause imbalance.

Even without tests and studies to tell us so, we all have intuitive insight through personal experiences that let us know the far reaching consequences our emotional states can have on our health and quality of life. More and more modern research have been carried out and shown that people who are balanced emotionally and have nurturing relationships live a generally longer and healthier life.

Even in cases of people suffering from terminal illness, this factor can mean additional years of life and health. TCM theory extends into how the "seven emotions and six worries" can directly affect and trigger specific illness. An example is stroke (attack of wind) as a result of excessive anger.

Another example is someone who is excessively pensive and worrying over a period of time resulting in digestive weakness. Many illnesses have factors related to emotional imbalance. External adaptation and balance involves our understanding of environmental changes or pathogens that require us to either make adaptive changes in lifestyle or preemptive treatment to help fight off the effects of seasonal changes or pathogens.

TCM discussion involves the six pathogenic qualities. Our state of health is a direct result of our basic physiological balance or imbalance in relation or struggle with the six pathogenic factors. This concept has, over the last twenty years, been proven to be a very accurate description of the nature of health. Namely, we now know the importance and complexity of the immune system and its role in our ability to recover from even the most common of the common cold.

Health is maintained when we achieve a balance in adapting to these changes. The third aspect is miscellaneous lifestyle balance. In terms of TCM this is a broad and important category that covers a wide range of topics, most important of which is diet.

The food that we consume provides sustenance and nutrition. In TCM terms food encompasses many substances from the water that we drink to the medicinal herbs that we take. These substances are categorized, in TCM terms, according to its affects on the five Yin internal organs and Six Yang organs. Food, therefore, have a direct affect on our internal physiological function.

We can affect our internal organ balance through choice of which food or herbs to eat. Health, again, is the result of moderation and balance in diet. Central to TCM health preservation is the idea of balance. Balance in all aspects of our life enables us to live healthfully and to a ripe old age.

The Concept of Life Preservation In Traditional Chinese Medicine
by Brian Chee C. Loh, L.Ac., O.M.D.

To preserve life means to maintain the health of a healthy person. The Way of Life preservation is thus the methods to maintain health. What is health? To be healthy, one must satisfy the conditions of yin-yang ping heng (balance of yin and yang) and xing shen bing ju (presence of both form and spirit).

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the human body is formed by the yin and yang essential energies. Yin and yang are the foundation of life. The internal organs, channels, meridians, in a human body can all be delineated according to the yin and principles. In a normal human body, the yin and essential energies are constantly at a dynamic equilibrium or balance.

In a healthy person, not only are the yin and yang energies at a dynamic equilibrium, they vary in accordance to the changes of the seasons, so that there can be consistency between the nine seasonal climates and the pulsation, concordance between “form-flesh” and “energy-blood”, harmony between internal organs and the meridians or channels, thus maintaining optimal health conditions.

In other words, a healthy person with balanced yin and yang enjoys full qi (energy) and xie (blood), has harmonious organic functions, adapts well to heat and coldness of the seasons, and efficiently carries out mental and physical activities. When a person is alive, yin and yang are even and in balance.

When a person gets old, both yin and yang diminish. When a person is sick, yin and yang are out of balance, that is to say, one is in excess while the other is deficient. When a person dies, yin and yang becomes disengaged and separated. “Form” refers to the concrete, i.e. the body. “Spirit” refers to the abstract, i.e. the mind, consciousness, and mental activities.

The unity of form and spirit is an important guarantee of vitality. On the one hand, the spirit dwells in the form, while the form holds the spirit. The existence or non-existence of the form determines the existence or non-existence of the spirit. The spirit exists only with a form and cannot be without a form. On the other hand, the spirit that is bonded to the physical form has tremendous influence on the form. It is always said that “one thrives with the spirit and dies without it.”

The TCM concept of health based on the two principles of (1) balance of yin and yang and (2) presence of both form and spirit has effectively guided people for thousands of years to maintain health to rid themselves of disease, and to prolong life.

According to TCM theory, the standard of health should be:

• Strong and energetic, full of strength and energy, not catching cold easily - a manifestation of ample yang energy of spleen and lung.

• Strong bones and firm teeth, flexible waist and agile legs - kidney contains jing (essence) and controls bone, this is a manifestation of ample kidney energy.

• Good hearing and eyesight, luscious hair and glowing moist facial complexion - a manifestation of ample qi (essential energy) and xie ( blood).

• Even breathing and loud voice - a manifestation of normal lung and kidney functions. · Normal digestion and absorption, smooth urination and regular bowel movement - a manifestation of healthy spleen and stomach functions.

• Average weight, firm and even pulse - a manifestation of normal internal organ function and metabolic function. Stable emotions and good memory - a manifestation of healthy emotions.
  

HIERBAS BUENAS - Soybean
The Best Source of Vegetable Protein and Isoflavones

Soybean is a legume. According to traditional Chinese medical (TMC) classification, soybean and soybean products have a heat-clearing nature and sweet taste. Soybeans moistens conditions of dryness.

Soybean has a high protein content (38%). It boosts milk secretion in nursing mothers and is used to treat childhood malnourishment Soybean contains more protein than cow’s milk without the saturated fat or cholesterol. Raw soybeans are hard to digest, because they inhibit the digestive enzyme trypsin.

Therefore, all soybeans, green tender ones or mature dried ones, yellow ones or black ones, have to be well cooked. The fermentation process in making tofu, tempeh, miso, and soy sauce also eliminates the trypsin-inhibiting effect. Soybean sprouts make a delicious vegetarian soup stock. As a matter of fact, the Asian vegetarian diet boasts a great repertoire of soybean and soybean products prepared in numerous variations.

There are entire cookbooks devoted to tofu dishes. Fermented black bean (also a member of the soybean family) mixed with minced garlic provides the base for the spicy “black bean sauce.” Soybean is concentrated in essential fatty acids (EFAs), including omega-3, which plays an important role in balancing the levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), that are commonly referred to as the “bad cholesterol”, and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), that are commonly referred to as the “good cholesterol.”

Unlike cholesterols, EFAs are not produced by the human body and must be gotten from dietary fats and oils. Soybean is also rich in isoflavones. Soy isoflavones are known to ease menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, PMS symptoms, and bone loss. Soy protein and isoflavones have been shown to protect the arteries, lower cholesterol, and aid in the prevention of breast and uterine cancer.

The lower breast cancer rate of Japanese women, according to reports by the World Health Organization (WHO), is attributed to the dietary factor that Japanese women consume more vegetables and soybean products. However, it is necessary to point out that soybean and soybean products are good for people of all ages, male or female.

As the body grows and ages, isoflavones help with bone density, balance cholesterol, maintains libido and heart health. In the United States, due to the stressful lifestyle and sugar laden diet, a lot of people complain of hypoglycemia which is characterized by low blood sugar, chronic fatigue, headaches, sweet craving, depression, difficulty concentrating, and mood swings.

Soybean, black beans, and tofu are recommended along with mild exercise and regular meal schedule to overcome such conditions. Soybean milk is a superior substitute for cow’s milk, especially for people who are lactose intolerant. Soybeans and tofu are also desirable food for people with diabetes.