Maciocia - Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine E-Book

Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine

Second Edition

Giovanni Maciocia, CAc (Nanjing)

Acupuncturist and Medical Herbalist, Visiting Professor, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Peoples Republic of China

Churchill Livingstone

Front matter

Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine

Commissioning Editor: Claire Wilson

Development Editor: Veronika Watkins

Project Manager: Nancy Arnott

Designer/Design Direction: Charles Gray

Illustration Manager: Merlyn Harvey

Illustrator: Michael Courtney/Richard Morris/Jonathan Haste/E.P.S

Copyright

2011 Giovanni Maciocia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publishers permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our Web site: www.elsevier.com/permissions.

This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).

First edition 1998

Second edition 2011

ISBN 978-0-443-10422-0

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

With respect to any drug or pharmaceutical products identified, readers are advised to check the most current information provided (i) on procedures featured or (ii) by the manufacturer of each product to be administered, to verify the recommended dose or formula, the method and duration of administration, and contraindications. It is the responsibility of practitioners, relying on their own experience and knowledge of their patients, to make diagnoses, to determine dosages and the best treatment for each individual patient, and to take all appropriate safety precautions.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors or editors assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein.

Printed in China

Foreword to the First Edition

East Asian medicine must always negotiate a peculiar tension between revered point of departure and thousands of years of experience. If the ancients are overvalued, the clinical application could be interpreted as a decline. If the accumulated experience is praised too highly, the original sources can seem to have been a bit too flawed. Each practitioner must also embody this tension; to what extent does one follow strictly the established authority and to what extent do unique cultural and personal exigencies supersede standard perspectives? Successfully navigating this polarity has been a key component of the vitality of the entire East Asian medical tradition and a hallmark of a sensitive and masterly practitioner.

Excellence in the tradition of East Asian medicine has always been defined by the ability to be simultaneously immersed in the past while also responding meaningfully and practically to the present. To be a great teacher for any generation of the tradition requires the rare ability to summarize contemporary experience and then integrate these insights into the perennial dialogue of the archaic. Time and timelessness. New insights and revered knowledge. Change and reverence. Movement and stillness. These two poles must balance upon a single fulcrum, becoming a unified body of knowledge in an unbroken transmission. An almost impossible goal, this enterprise is also an absolutely necessary task for every generation. The history of East Asian medicine is a remarkable chain of transmission and modulation from one generation, dynasty, and even country, to the next.

Our generation seems especially significant in this transmission and transformation of East Asian medicine. We are participants in a huge leap: health expectations, disease burdens, linguistic barriers and complex cultural obstacles must be bridged. The ancient traditions must not only co-habit and interact with modern biomedicine and a host of other complementary therapies, but also graft themselves upon a very different civilization. Clarity, sensitivity, knowledge and wisdom must all be brought to bear lest the authenticity of age-old theory and techniques weaken into shallow semblance. Under what circumstances should modern clinical experience suggest modification in ancient approaches? How would such alteration fit comfortably into the tradition? How can such an adjustment become the very link to preserving the continuity with the past? These are serious questions needing thoughtful responses.

Giovanni Maciocia is a respected guide in this transitional period of East Asian medicine to the Western arena. His accomplishments as a teacher and writer have made him a major force in this successful movement from one world to another. The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, The Practice of Chinese Medicine and Tongue Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine are all outstanding contributions of scholarship and clinical acumen, and this present volume, Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine