Today we visited the Chinese Traditional Medicine Hospital:

            This experience included a brief introduction to Chinese traditional medicine, which focused on the balance between Yin and Yang. The lecture discussed the various ailments that men and woman are diagnosed with, such as headaches, gout, osteoarthritis, constipation, diarrhea, and nerve issues, and explained how these can be caused by the imbalance between Yin and Yang.

After explaining some of the techniques that are use to alleviate this imbalance, we were able to watch the techniques be performed and our fellow students were even able to experience them first hand.

Acupuncture: Acupuncture uses a series of different sized stainless steel needles, which are stuck in the patients skin, and rotated and moved to apply further pressure on that point to help release qi obstructions. Reesha was able to volunteer to have the acupuncture performed on her, and a spot near her ankle was chosen as the point of entry, as it was a overlap of 3 points of the meridian. The needle was stuck in that point, rotated, pushed in and out, and finally left to rest for about 15 minutes before it was removed.

Cupping- Myself and Chelsea volunteered for the cupping demonstration. Cupping is a technique that takes small glass bottles, along with burning swabs which are used to quickly heat the inside of the bottles, which are then placed onto the patients skin to cause suction on the skin. Chelsea had the technique performed on spots on her lower back, while mine used 8 different bottles that ran all the way down my entire back. The technique in Chelsea's case was used to stimulate the area for acupuncture to occur after, while mine was to stimulate the muscles for further use.

Moxibustion: This technique uses what looks like a burning cigar, filled with special Chinese herbs. One end is lit and held vertically over the patients afflicted area. Miranda and Chelsea volunteered for this. For Miranda, the lit end was held vertically over her hand and wrist and moved slightly around allowing the smoke to envelope the area. For Chelsea, the technique was expanded upon for patients who have abdominal issues. The lit end was stuck into a small wooden box, that had an open bottom. This was placed over one area on Chelsea's stomach, allowing the smoke to accumulate inside and hit her skin.

 

Massage: Brittany (shout out Katie), volunteered for the massage, which focused on head, neck, shoulders and hands. This massage started with examining her tongue and pulse, and the experts said they had some concerns about her weakened pulse and the appearance of her tongue. They attributed this to some sort of "blockage" and used that information to guide how they wanted to conduct the massage. 

A great day at the Chinese Traditional Medicine Hospital; we're all excited to go back tomorrow!