Bubbling Spring Acupuncture Clinic

Hu Qing Yu Tang was a famous Chinese pharmacy which began business in A.D.1874 during the reign of Emperor Tongzhi of the Qing Dinasty. The pharmacy is renowned far and near in southern China due to its persistence in purchasing and preparing the highest quality of drugs. The ancient building has a unique style, and in 1988 the State Council designated it as a protected cultural relic. Hu Xueyan, the first owner of the pharmacy, was not only a successful businessman but also a high-class official in the imperial court.

TCM Museum, Hangzhou

TCM Museum Architecture

TCM Museum Inner Couryard

The Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the first of its kind in China, houses an Exhibition Hall including mind boggling and impressive displays of Chinese materia medica, a Medicine Preparation Hall, a Chinese Health Care Clinic and very well stocked pharmacy, a Restaurant of Medicinal Diet. The Exhibition Hall introduces the development of Chinese medicine, including its origin, the life of well-known doctors during its long history, famous books of medical science and China’s herb exchange with foreign countries. In the Medicine Preparation Hall, the museum’s staff also perform the arts of traditional pharmaceutics.

SunSimiao – Medicine King

SunSimiao – Medicine King

This is a statue of Sun Simiao (AD. 581-582), a famous pharmacologist of the Tang Dynasty. He wrote ‘Precious Vital Prescriptions’ and ‘Precious Ancillary Prescriptions’, each 30 volumes! He captured the achievements of different branches of medicines before the Tang Dynasty systematically and had a great influence on the medical science of later generations. He was honoured by the people as ‘Medicine King’.

The Yellow Emperor

Examples of Ancient Texts.

Anyone who has studied traditional Acupuncture or Shiatsu has heard of the ‘Yellow Emperors’s Internal Classic’ – one of the most important classical texts in TCM. This book appeared in the Han Dynasty and deals with the flavour and properties of medicines as well as the convention in prescriptions, under the theory of TCM.

Tongjun Old Man

Tongjun Old Man – Originator of Chinese Medicine

Born in the age of the Yellow Emperor, Tongjun is thought to be the originator of Chinese Medicine. He wrote a book called ‘Tongjun’s records of Gathering Medicines’ which sadly was lost. Legend has it that he gathered medicinal herbs on the Tongjun Hull, Tongfu county, Zhejiang Province and cured sickness in patients.

    The Development of Pharmacology

The displays in the museum describe the development of the three areas of pharmacology: materia medica (Chinese herbal medicines); concoction (processing, roasting, baking, or immersing, according to the medicine properties and requirements); and prescription (including set formulations by famous physicians developed over thousands of years – now based on pharmacologically perfect theories, and prepared using modern scientific technology). The earliest prescription book in China is the ‘Fifty-Two Prescriptions’ copied on the silk excavated from Mawangdui – a tomb of the Han Dynasty. A book called ‘On Thyphoid and Mixed Diseases’ written by Zhang Zhongjing in the last years of Eastern Han, was honoured as ‘originator of all prescriptions’. Many books followed in the Yin, Tang and Southern Song Dynasty’s. ‘Universal Aid Prescriptions’ from the Ming dynasty compiles the great works of previous generations. Pictured here are a small selection of the many traditional medicines on display at the museum:

Herbal Medicines in the TCM Museum, Hangzhou

To learn more about the fascinating history of Chinese Medicine – I highly recommend a visit to the museum. The Silk Museum and the National Tea Museum, located in the misty peaks overlooking the famous Westlake, are also excellent places to visit in Hangzhou. These three museums were also among the few places I found with English translations which was welcome. This year I have started to learn Mandarin – but it is I confess very difficult.

I leave you with a picture of me in the pharmacy.

Helen Trill

Helen Trill Visiting the Renowned Hangzhou TCM Museum Pharmacy

Acupuncture has long-lasting effects on period pain

Investigators from Australia and New Zealand report that acupuncture treatment can reduce menstrual pain intensity, and that its effects can still be felt one year later. A randomised controlled trial was performed with 74 women randomly assigned to one of four treatment arms: low frequency manual acupuncture (LF-MA), high frequency manual…

5 Week Mindfulness Course Starts 1st Nov

We are familiar with the need to exercise our body to become fitter, stronger and more flexible. We now know from neuroscientific research that there are similar training techniques that will cultivate and strengthen the minds capacity.

One such technique is Mindfulness – an ancient Buddhist practice which has profound relevance for our present day lives – to waking up and living in harmony with…

Does Acupuncture Help Insomnia or Frozen Shoulder?

Acupuncture helps with depression-related insomnia

Acupuncture could be a viable alternative to medication for treating depression-related insomnia, report the authors of a meta-analysis from China. Eighteen randomised-controlled clinical trials with 1678 participants were analysed. The results showed that acupuncture treatment led to significant improvements in sleep scores compared with…

‘Evidence Based Acupuncture’  have produced this excellent summary of the current research on acupuncture for acute and chronic pain. Pain is a Global Problem

Over 1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain.1 Nearly one third of American adults experience chronic pain,2 and almost one in five surveyed Europeans indicated they have moderate or severe chronic pain3The three…

Mindfulness Workshops at Work

It was a pleasure to be invited to provide two Mindfulness workshops for the employees at The Open University last Friday as a part of their wellbeing week. 

These 2 hr workshops included:

• Mindfulness of breathing

• Body scan

• Mindfulness in everyday life / informal mindfulness 

• The 3-step breathing space 

and some other exercises to understand what it’s all about. This is my own tried and…

One Doctor expressed to me that the younger generation there are in general a lot less knowledgeable about the origins and philosophies behind their traditions than the older generations. Certainly the many young couples I saw were very fashion conscious and constantly taking selfies – in that sense, it was just like here!

Here are a few photos of the hospital which include: cupping, acupuncture with needle stimulation or moxa for knee pain, back pain and stroke recovery, and a photo of me!

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Inpatients Acupuncture

Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of TCM

Cupping Therapy (on me)

Cupping Therapy (on me)

Knee pain (patient also has diabetes)

Me!

Lower back and sacrum pain with sciatica

Stroke patient

Multi-bed clinic in outpatients (Acupuncture)

The last is an example of the multi-bed clinic setup. There were several clinics in the Acupuncture outpatients dept, each with a Doctor and about 10 beds. The patients would just arrive whenever it suited them and if already registered, they’d take an available bed or wait for one. The Doctor would go around and talk to each, put the needles in, and then the students of the Doctor (there were usually around 5) would connect up the needle simulators and put the lamps on or add the moxa. Mornings seemed to be a very busy time indeed.

In outpatients people received treatments for back pain, sacrum pain, knee pain, insomnia, anxiety, weight loss, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, shoulder and scapula pain, pain from cervical spondylosis, trigeminal neuralgia, facial paralysis, bowel problems, frequent urination, tinnitus, stress, depression, migraine, allergic rhinitis, shaking head, abdominal distension, ankylysing spondylosis.

I spent some time at the inpatients department too. These patients mostly had facial paralysis – as did a large proportion on the outpatients, back problems, or had had a stroke. I wasn’t too sure what to expect and went there with an open mind. It was pleasing to find that many of the treatment protocols were the same or similar to the ones I have been taught by my teacher Maria Mercati and use in my own clinic – using TCM Acupuncture. No mention or sign of the popular westernised version of traditional acupuncture called ‘5 element acupuncture’ in China. But there were new things to pick up – extra little tips and combinations of points, and also a newer Microsystems style called abdominal acupuncture which I learnt while there and could prove pretty useful for a number of painful conditions. I also learnt more about how to help patients recover from stroke. 

As a bit of a Tai Chi and Qigong enthusiast I was hoping to come upon a large group practicing, but I think perhaps it happens in smaller parks in the early hours of the day, far away from the busy area known as Westlake where I was staying. Something that seems very popular now in the evenings in parks is a type of choreographed dancing which I think is called Square Dancing. It looked quite fun.

Bye for now, Helen Trill @ Bubbling Spring Acupuncture Clinic, Peterborough, UK

Greetings from Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of TCM – First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University – China

Hello! Just a short post to say hello from Hangzhou in China. So far I am having a very useful and interesting time at the acupuncture department of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital here. I am spending time with a number of different Doctors who specialise in different styles of acupuncture and the treatment of different conditions, using acupuncture, needle stimulation, moxa,…

When Yang Collapses–Rebuilding The Fires

Yang collapse–sounds pretty severe, right? In Chinese medicine it is–and it’s often a long, slow and difficult hill to climb for recovery. Why? Literally, you have burnt out the fire and transformative functions in the body. Most importantly, clients who have reached deep Yang deficiency are notoriously bad about resting– which is essential to rebuilding Yang.

How deficiencies arise

You played…

The Back Pain Show 2017

Have you heard about the Back Pain Show? Organised by the charity BackCare, the exhibition will feature therapies, products and services associated with the treatment of back pain as well as a range of professional conferences and seminars. Full details available on the show website. 

 This year it’s being held in Birmingham on 19th and 20th May and it’s FREE – just register at The Back Pain Show…

How to Yangsheng This Winter

The Chinese have a tradition of nourishing life that goes back at least 2500 years. It is know as Yangsheng. In this case, the character yang means to nourish, and sheng means life or vitality. To quote from Peter Deadman’s recent book ‘Live Well Live Long‘ – the culmination of a nearly 4 decades of work (1):

          He summaries the main ways to cultivate health as:

Avoiding behaviors that…

I was invited back for the second year in a row to a corporate wellbeing day held for employees at ERT in Peterborough today. What an awesome thing to do for their staff. I ran a couple of sessions combining Qigong, Tai Chi and Mindfulness which were received well. 

Thank you again so much for coming today and providing a great experience for my colleagues.

They had various other things going on,…

Feedback from Oct 2016 Mindfulness Workshop (held at Bubbling Spring Acupuncture Clinic in Peterborough)

It’s so nice to get such great feedback from my mindfulness workshop students last week:

“The reduced light and bell really set the scene for thinking a bit differently. Practical experience with the tea was really good (and nice tea).”

“3 step technique takes something done on a management…

Quit Smoking with the NADA Auricular Acupuncture Protocol

http://www.bubblingspringclinic.co.uk/smoking-cessation-.html

        The History of the NADA “Quit Smoking” Protocol

In the mid-1970s, Michael Smith, a medical doctor at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx area of New York, modified an existing system of auricular acupuncture into a simple technique for the treatment of many common drug addictions as an alternative to methadone. This selection…

Bubbling Spring Acupuncture Clinic feature in QueenBee magazine

Great to see my acupuncture clinic feature in the health section of QueenBee magazine. In case you’ve not managed to get hold of a copy, here’s my article: Treatments are available for a wide range of health conditions, including: sinusitis, hay fever, migraine, nausea, indigestion, constipation, IBS, high blood pressure, neck-shoulder / back / knee pain, arthritis (both osteoarthritis and…