Saturday, February 22, 2014

One Man, Revolutionizing TCM Textbooks

Acupuncture





Albert Stern is an acupuncturist in Denver, Co.  He is also a professor at Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Southwest Acupuncture College.  To aid in his students ability to learn point location he has taken his background as a medical illustrator and created TCM Picture Book.












Episode #17: One Man, Revolutionizing TCM Textbooks
Episode Description: Albert Stern, a licensed acupuncturist in Denver, Colorado, visits the show today. He describes the downfalls in current point location textbooks and how he is increasing the students chance for success with acupuncture medical illustrations, TCM Picture Book!





www.tcmpicturebook.com
About TCM Picture Book:
Studying acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine is not easy. There is just a ton of new information to take in, comprehend, and remember. It is a challenge to everyone studying the medicine.
TCM Picture Book provides texts and study guides to help in the process of learning Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Albert Stern






www.stickrust.com
About Stickrust:
Stickrust is Albert's artistic pseudonym.  The art work he produces as stickrust is painted with finger paint.  Subject matter is often abstract facial portraits and lively colorful bird images.













Friday, February 14, 2014

Come on! Gluten DOES NOT Cause Your Brain to Melt!

If a person is going to quote a research article for the love of everything sacred in this world read the whole research paper and not just the abstract.  Because abstracts lead to mis-leading posts saying that gluten will make you into a Parkinson's and Alzheimer's retirement home hall zombie !




The "shared" article that was going around looked like this.
And said "A new study shows a significant portion of the US population not only reacts to gluten and dairy but also that this reaction causes the immune system to destroy brain and nervous tissue".


The research paper referenced is titled "The Prevalance of Antibodies against wheat and milk proteins in blood donors and their contribution to neuroimmune reactivities".  Such a googlicious title!!!


The lead author, Dr. Aristo Vojdani, is the founder of  Immunosciences Lab Inc.  So the lead researcher/author is publishing this paper about his companies auto-immune essays which happen to be for sale. Hmmm


This paper says that  "3%–4% of adults may have IgE-mediated or immediate type hypersensitivity to various food antigens".  Excuse me, "MAY"!!!  And how many people in America are told or believe they have gluten intolerance, 30%-50%.  But yet even this paper proposes that the actual number "MAY" be between 3%-4%.  Chris and I often joke about how people have a much higher chance of being a sociopath (20%) than they do of being gluten intolerant.


Moving on in the research paper… 



The basis of the experiment was to take healthy blood from a service that sells people's blood, then to examine to make sure that the donors blood did not contain any viral antibody.  The other blood samples came from a company in Europe who sold samples of patient's blood who had some sort of co-diagnosis of "neuroautoimmune disorders and celiacs disease".  Some fancy lab work was done to see if cerebellar peptides (amino acids linked together, same thing as proteins but shorter amino acid sequence) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (just protein attached to a sugar, which helps with the process of myelination of nerves)   would mimic milk and wheat proteins.  Suggesting the possibility that the human body could mistake wheat and milk protein for important peptides and proteins in the brain. The original research actually looks ok, forego the lead researcher being founder of the assay's they used.

Conclusion: 

  1. Blogs can say anything
  2. The above research happened in a test tube
  3. Researchers don't know how any of there findings might be applicable
  4. Even if it is accurate, it makes assumptions that these mimicry milk and gluten proteins could only end up in the brain IF
    1. The gastrointestinal tract was completely non-functional
    2. The immune system was non-existent
    3. The blood brain barrier was damaged or genetically non-adaptive from preventing a donut from entering the brain 




BrainHealthBook.com - thanks for wasting my time, misleading readers, and possibility causing readers to believe that a gluten free diet could cure their neuro-diseases.







 Yin Yang Podcast is aware that gluten sensitivity and intolerance do exist. The restriction of gluten can help a certain percentage of people.  We are also aware of the terrible condition and symptoms celiac's disease can cause. We do not believe gluten will melt your brain.


Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Acupuncture Bus





Noah Goldstein LAc, Dipl. OM., is creating a new and innovative method to treat the public with acupuncture.  That method is called The Acupuncture Bus.





Located in Boulder, Co, Noah has taken his background of non-profit humanitarian work and applied it to Chinese Medicine.




Here is a picture of the pre-refabricated RV.



Keep up to Date on Noah's Clinic:




Sunday, February 2, 2014

Acupuncture at the Capital



Chris Powell, as part of his yearly endeavor to increase awareness about acupuncture and its legislation, visited Jefferson City, Mo the capital of Missouri (no it is not Kansas City or St. Louis).  Below is an interview from January 2014.





Here is the version that has been Yin Yang Podcastafied