Clinical Nature

Headache is one of the most common clinical symptoms whose underlying cause can be difficult to diagnose and treat. This article describes how Chinese medicine uses the nature and location of pain as well as associated symptoms to diagnose and treat the common causes of headaches. (more…)

Situated in the gentle jungle and rice fields of Bali, Indonesia is a school radically changing the way we teach children from all corners of the globe.

“Green School in Bali, Indonesia is giving its students a relevant, holistic and green education in one of the most amazing environments on the planet.”
www.greenschool.org

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Herbs that can “warm the interior” belong to a category of Chinese medicinal herbs used to treat various internal cold syndromes and their associated symptoms. Most of the herbs in this category are widely used culinary spices and traditionally consumed in winter for their warming properties.

• Fu Zi and Wu Tou (Aconite Root)
• Gan Jiang (Dried Ginger)
• Rou Gui (Chinese Cinnamon Bark)
• Wu Zhu Yu (Evodia Fruit)
• Xi Xin (Chinese Wild Ginger)
• Hua Jiao (Sichuan Pepper)
• Gao Liang Jiang (Lesser Galangal Rhizome)
• Ding Xiang (Clove)
• Hu Jiao (Black Pepper)
• Bi Ba (Long Pepper)
• Xiao Hui Xiang (Fennel Seed)

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Fluoridation of drinking water is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply to reduce tooth decay. It is hailed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. The water fluoridation controversy is also one of the most scientifically, ethically and politically contested debates between pro and anti-fluoridation supporters since its introduction to the present day. (more…)

Shaped by glacial temperatures, stark landscapes and protracted winters, the traditional Inuit diet had little in the way of plant food, no agricultural or dairy products, and was unusually low in carbohydrates. Most people subsisted on what they hunted and fished.

Patricia Cochran, an Inupiat from Northwestern Alaska describes her food culture:

Our meat was seal and walrus, marine mammals that live in cold water and have lots of fat. We used seal oil for our cooking and as a dipping sauce for food. We had moose, caribou, and reindeer. We hunted ducks, geese, and little land birds like quail called ptarmigan. We caught crab and lots of fish – salmon, whitefish, tomcod, pike, and char. Our fish were cooked, dried, smoked, or frozen. We ate frozen raw whitefish, sliced thin. The elders liked stinkfish, fish buried in seal bags or cans in the tundra and left to ferment. And fermented seal flipper, they liked that too.

These foods hardly make up the “balanced” diet most of us grew up with, and they look nothing like the mix of grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy we’re accustomed to seeing in conventional food pyramid diagrams. Yet how can people who gorge on fat and animal protein be healthier than we are? (more…)