"prevention is better than cure"

welcome everybody,

it's an old saying but it still rings true. surely everyone will agree, preventing ill health is smarter than waiting for ill health to strike. and it's saying that has never been more appropriate with all the bad press about hospitals not being fit for purpose, as well as the side effects of modern day cures. in the uk the irony of the national health service (NHS) is that it only pays lip service to health; it's vast resources are almost entirely directed at coming up with illness treatments!

well, that's just the way it is, and don't get me wrong, I've worked for the NHS (both as a health professional and as an acupuncturist). and I've been an NHS patient! there's plenty to admire about the work they do to keep the nation on it's feet. but do the NHS treat people when they are healthy, so that people can get the best and avoid the worst out of life when it comes to health matters? not in my experience and I suspect not in yours. perhaps the NHS, and western medicine generally, could take a leaf out of eastern medical practice, and master acupuncture in particular, by directing  more resources at preventing the causes of ill health.

the aim of the master acupuncturist is to see his/her clients only four times a year and to treat them to promote continuing health & harmony. of course, most of my acupuncture clients do not initially contact me because they want to stay healthy. understandably, in our culture we wait until we have a health problem and then resolve to do something about it. so, working in my uk clinical practice, I treat people for their varied symptoms of ill health. but once the symptoms have cleared up (and a recent study showed that 85% of clients receiving master acupuncture courses of treatment had their symptoms resolved), that's when I get the opportunity to invite clients on to the 'change of season' healthy treatment programme.

now let me say right now, there is no medical system that can guarantee 'health, wealth and happiness' for anyone. but in theory, it ought to be possible to reduce the chances of becoming ill and increase the chances of becoming healthier; and in practice, there is, with master acupuncture!

to do this there needs to be an examination of the main causes of ill health. the master acupuncturist will say there is only one cause i.e. an imbalance of organic energy (qi) that, by degrees, increases to the point that symptoms of illness manifest. so qi imbalance creates a state or pattern of disharmony.

in our modern western culture we understand this as conflict creating stress, and we know that stress leads to system distress and can eventually lead to illness.

it's not surprising, the way we live these days, how quickly stress can build up in us. the modern pace of life is very demanding, and even though we know enough about how we can stay healthy e.g. the work, rest, relaxation balance etc., well life just seems to intervene and all too often we end up with ill health if we are not prepared.

the objective in the 'change of season' treatment programme is, in master acupuncture jargon, a) rebalancing five element qi and b) harmonising guest/host qi for the new season. or, in modern understanding, the prevention of stress build up that can lead to symptoms of illness manifesting. there are two parts in this approach a) reducing current stress levels and b) protection from future stress antagonists.

getting the best out of each season and avoiding the worst from each season, in terms of health, wealth and happiness is a smart approach when it comes to "prevention is better than cure". master acupuncturists know that each person has their own unique 'personal energy signature'*, created at the time of their birth. they also know the energy signature of each unique season. armed with this knowledge, the master acupuncturist will assess the client using the traditional four methods of diagnosis and, crucially, take into account the client's plans and needs for the coming season. then it's on to the acupuncture treatment and quite often advice/suggestions for getting the best out of the next three months.

 

master acupuncture energy signature chart

*'personal energy signatures' when analysed reveal the predispositions that each of us have to contracting specific

conditions, much the same as genetic scanning achieves in western medicine. our constitutional strengths & weaknesses can be identified and balanced to promote health & harmony

at one time in our history a lifespan of 120 years was considered normal and almost expected. back then people were able to live virtually stress free e.g. there were fewer people living on the planet, plenty of resources, little pollution and an emphasis on natural means of production. the vast majority of us can't go back to this way of living. we have to deal with the twists and turns, the stress and the pace of modern living. we need every help we can get if we want to live long, healthy, happy lives. that's where the master acupuncturist can help, with the 'change of season' healthy treatment programme.


"prevention is better than cure" is a theme that I will be returning to in upcoming blogs on 'specific conditions and what you can do (as well as the master acupuncturist) to reduce the likelihood of these conditions occurring.'

www.masteracupuncture.co.uk

beginning at the beginning - with the secret of life!

welcome everybody to my first post as a blogger, to coincide with the launch of the www.masteracupuncture.co.uk website.

and what better subject to start my blogging life with than one that goes back to where it - life itself - all started. and not only that, a subject that explains why those that know are considered to be master acupuncturists. yes, you guessed it (did the title give it away?), it's the very secret of life itself.

ok, I could be elitist, esoteric and occultish by saying that the secret of life is 'li qi xu'.

or I could be a bit disingenous and say that the secret of life is not the same as the secret of the meaning of life (which of course we all know is 'the meaning you give to your own life')!

or, I could do the unthinkable and just say it as it is, in as plain as english as can be said.

well, it's you the reader that will decide which of the above to vote for after all is said and done, but my intention is to pitch this blog along the lines of common sense, although a bit of mystery and intrigue is likely to surface from time to time considering that I was taught this version of the 'secret' by my master, a man who some said was at one time in his life the high priest of the freemasons in the UK.

be that as it may, I will start by demystifying 'li qi xu' - in modern english this means 'the right rythm, the right proportion, the right number'. so, the secret of life is evocative of vibration - you don't exactly see it, but you can work out that it exists from looking at the patterns that it creates.

it's pure form is symbolised by the sine wave

 

it's conceptual form is symbolised by the spiral

 

the former becomes the tai ji symbol

and the latter becomes the five element symbol

in master acupuncture jargon.

now if all this sounds a bit like we're entering wave particle theory territory in quantum physics, think on. the concept of energy creating, controlling and nourishing the particles of form was thought up 5000 years ago by one Fu Hsi (c.3322bc), the first of the three legendary emperors of China, and it is said that he was the first freemason (the set square and compass symbol date back to his time and place!). Fu Hsi described the Universe in perfect rythm with his now famous trigram arrangement

 

along came Shen Nung, legendary emperor number two, and one of his achievements was classifying all things in terms of yin/yang, or as we think of these days, in terms of proportionality. this led the way for the third legendary emperor of China, Huang Di (2697-2574bc) to come to a complete understanding of the secret of life...a mastery of vibration in the organic universe. one of the first written books known to man was entitled 'Huang Di Nei Jing' ('the yellow emperor's classic on internal medicine'), and within it's pages lies the secret of life and how to use it for health & harmony!

what Huang Di had done was work out the vibrational patterns of the forces determining movement in time and space. he called these patterns 'the cycles of life'. we know them better as circadian rythms. he had also worked out that the external patterns of the universe and the internal patterns of a human were like reflections of each other in their construction, generally, and that if one looked more closely at these patterns it would be possible to identify, isolate and regulate individual characteristics.

so, to summarize the secret of life thus far, we could say that what started out as an understanding of the energetics of life (and vibrational medicine) back in the times of the legendary emperors has now come to an understanding of the particles of life (and genetic medicine) in the present day.

it seems that the secret of life operates in the seen and the unseen, the subtle and the gross,  alike!

now, as a clinical acupuncturist, I am more interested in and excited in blogging about all things acupuncture.
so expect plenty of this in my future blogs. however, if I get enough positive feedback from this blog on the secret of life then it could become a regular rolling feature of future blogs. let me know guys. thanks.