Chinese Medicine Revisited: A Western View of Chinese Medicine, Montakab Hamid D.

Chinese Medicine Revisited. Where the Chinese Tradition meets with Western Thinking. This book explores the fundamental theories of Chinese Medicine as seen by an MD, trained both in Western and Oriental Medicines. The principals of the Chinese Medical thought and the various dialectical systems are explained and de-mystified. The physical and especially the energetic structure of the body and the channel systems are described in detail. The notions of health and disease are analyzed from a modern medical perspective. The greater part of the book deals with the very original Chinese diagnostic system which is explored and developed in a practical manner, with numerous charts and color tongue photos. Further emphasis is put on constitutional and temperamental evaluations. The last chapter, in collaboration with various experts in their fields, offers an overview of the four pillars of Chinese therapy: Acupuncture and its adjunct methods (moxibustion, cupping, Guasha, plum-blossom hammer, blood-letting), Herbology and diet, Tuina-massage and Qigong. Touching also on other Chinese practices that have, over the years, been associated with health, such as Cultivation of the Mind, Astrology, Feng Shui and the Yi Jing. The book is very well referenced and documented, and by its thoroughness and simplicity, it offers an excellent tool for the beginner as well as the advanced practitioner who can discover here a source of coherent correlations and explanations of the complex Chinese concepts often missing in the standard text-books. Chinese Medicine Revisited could even be recommended as an in-depth introduction for the lay-person, in helping them realize the true Holistic dimension of Chinese Medicine, its philosophical background and the basic theoretical concepts as well as the detailed overview of the therapeutic range of its various methods and their clinical indications.