AcuGraphing

Here at Miridia headquarters, we spent the weekend holding our live training with Dr. Jake Paul Fratkin. “Clinical Applications of AcuGraph Meridian Diagnostics” was a huge success, with every seat sold out and very high ratings from attendees.

Highlights included advanced graph interpretation and treatment, Japanese needling techniques and philosophy, Dr. Fratkin’s wealth of clinical experience, and of course, my bare backside. (Dr. Fratkin demonstrated his back treatment on me in front of the class–including needling GB 30.)

We had a really great group of practitioners, including brand new AcuGraph users and well-seasoned veterans. Thanks to all who participated–it was an amazing weekend. How amazing? Here are some pictures and a few quotes from attendees…

The weekend was well attended and a huge success

I recommend this course to all acupuncturists–even the ones that don’t own the AcuGraph (yet.) It covers all the basics in meridian therapy and expands their knowledge and adds to all that they already know.

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I pride myself in not giving a “Band-Aid” treatment to my patients. Band-Aids, in the form of pharmaceutical drugs, are often used as a cover up in the Western medical arena for an underlying health problem. As acupuncturists, we are taught to search out which imbalances are causing symptomatology to occur. I want to share a secret with you. Last week, I became convinced that Band-Aid treatments may benefit my patients…

Case Study

A patient presented in my office on December 31st with a graph that looked like this.

Baseline Graph:

Let’s analyze the graph for a moment. What do you see?

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Most people really don’t have any answer to this question, or any idea even what an acupuncture needle is.

I keep a list of challenges that inspire me to expand my potential. Last year there was one in particular that inspired me and motivated me to take action.

Meet and become liked by 50 people who will most benefit your business.

In 2011 I set a goal to expand my circle of influence within my local community by doing speaking engagements about acupuncture to local organizations. Well, I’ve reached the goal, and looking back, a lot happened that I didn’t expect…

I learned…

• that most people really have no idea what acupuncture is, or more importantly, if it can help them.
• that there are more opportunities available to speak with people than I expected.
• that it’s not as frightening as I expected, because I know so much about the topic, and…
• that this has pumped my practice so full of patients, I don’t know what to do with myself.

To reach this goal of mine, I started by asking my patients if they were involved in organizations that needed speakers. Next, I found a local business networking group, I joined and attended meetings, and I asked everyone in my group to help me to book my calendar with no-cost speaking events. Ask and ye shall receive! This approach worked wonders and I was invited as a guest speaker to multiple local events throughout the year.

Public speaking has been a very effective way to build relationships in my community. When you use public speaking to your advantage it is easy to establish yourself as an expert in your field and also get new patients. Many organizations are looking for someone interesting to come and talk to their group. Acupuncture is VERY interesting! Come up with some great stories, facts, and statistics that relate to their organization and you’re set.

Want to see these same results in your practice? Follow this outline and you will be successful:

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Do you have patients who come in for regular acupuncture tune-ups? With patients who come in regularly, you get to know their graphs pretty well. I can usually look at the graph and know if they had been partying over the weekend, if they have had a cold, or if they are under a lot of stress. Recently I had a patient come in and her graph was NOT normal. Well, at least it wasn’t normal for her. Let me show you…

By looking at the graph I started to ask her questions:

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Dr. Chris Teo just sent me another case study from his work with cancer patients. In this case, his herbal therapy and e-therapy treatments produced a very noticeable improvement in the patient’s symptoms. Interestingly, the patient’s graphs got better as well, confirming that the treatments were positively affecting the meridian system. Have a look:

http://painandwellness.org/2012/01/08/breast-bone-cancer-e-therapy-relieved-pains-of-her-backbone/

Thanks, Dr. Teo for another outstanding learning experience!

What is the difference between constipation in a younger person and constipation in the elderly? Constipation always involves heat. In a younger person, it is common for constipation to manifest from heat–usually from food stagnation. Constipation in the elderly is a little different.

There are a lot of changes that happen in the body as we begin to age. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, a pattern known as “Yin and Blood Deficiency” begins to manifest at the age of 40 and then continually progresses over the years. Yin and blood relate to the viscous fluids in the body. Many common aging symptoms are due to this normal progression of yin and blood deficiency. Some of these symptoms include:

• Loss of teeth
• Loss of height
• Osteoarthritis
• Vaginal dryness
• Premature ejaculation
• Dry skin
• Loss of vision
• Poor digestion
• Constipation

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Hello Friends,

As 2011 comes to a close, I find myself in a reflective mood. Year end is always a good time to reflect on the year, recognize blessings, and ponder the future. As I’ve done so, I realize how blessed I am to do what I do every day. And of course, I’m thankful for all of you and what you do every day as well. While there may be much wrong in the world, the continued growth and progress of Asian Medicine and acupuncture are encouraging bright spots.

Here are a few of my favorite things from the year in AcuGraph. I hope you’ll find some of them worth revisiting.

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According to traditional acupuncture theory, breast health is most affected by the channels that run directly through the breast–Stomach, Liver, Kidney, Lung, Pericardium and Spleen channels.  To test this theory, Dr.Chris Teo recently wrote another research article entitled, Meridian Disharmonies in Women with Malignant Breast Lumps, analyzing patients with malignant breast tumors.

By graphing these patients before sending them for further medical care, he was able to find common meridian disharmonies that we may not have considered to be relevant. What did he find?

• All women who had a malignant breast tumor had disharmonies in their bladder meridian.
• Other meridians which showed a disharmony included: Lung, Spleen, Liver, Small Intestine, and Triple Energizer

Now, admittedly, the sample size is small, and this study can only be considered preliminary. Nevertheless, it does bring us some interesting information. Dr. Teo is finding that in science and modern medicine, ideas and theories change as more observations are made throughout time. Ancient Chinese text has established the idea that the Stomach, Liver and Kidney meridians play “the most significant role in breast malignancy.” He sees that digital meridian imaging devices, such as the AcuGraph, allow for opportunities to further research and to reevaluate or “fine tune theories that were handed over to us hundreds of years ago.”

I hope you enjoy reading his research article.

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A little while back, I shared a story about a patient with pancreatic cancer.  It has now been almost a year since she was diagnosed, and she made the decision to treat with conventional medicine in the form of chemotherapy. She also decided to supplement her treatments with acupuncture and nutritional therapy.

I worked in conjunction with her Western medical doctors while she underwent chemotherapy. I treated her twice weekly to alleviate the side effects of the chemotherapy. Between her chemotherapy sessions I continued to treat her bi-weekly to boost her immune system and build up her energy levels so she could survive the next round of treatment. Together, we worked through a full range of symptoms as they presented along her her journey through chemotherapy infusions, including all of the following:

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You may recall that Kimberly wrote last month about graphs that are predominately green even though the patient is in very poor health. (See When “All Green” isn’t “All Good.”). In that article, she gave a case study and taught that very low graphs may show many normal meridians simply because everything is so low there’s no way to differentiate excess or deficiency.

Well, not to be outdone, our friend and researcher, Dr. Chris Teo, just published a study of 24 cases of cancer patients with low graphs. Each has remarkable findings, including low Qi and often splits related to the cancer areas. It’s a tremendously valuable resource for correlating health with graph readings, even when those readings are very low.

Dr. Teo continues to do groundbreaking research, even as he treats cancer patients in his Malaysia clinic, and we are deeply grateful for his contributions.

Click here to see Kimberly’s original article

Click here to see Dr. Teo’s study

Wishing you a great week,

–Dr. Larsen