When working with a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine it doesn’t take long to hear the word “meridian” being tossed about. The meridians are fundamental pathways that display communications throughout the body. These meridians are a catch-all source to many of our physiological functions that traverse through the periphery into the limbs and extremities. The sake of this article is to dive into these peripheral meridians that are so fundamental to eastern medicine, and look at their role in regulating our circulatory and lymphatic system. Let’s begin by quickly defining these two anatomical systems. Anatomical meaning that they’re defined structurally in terms of common functionality and cellular make-up. The circulatory system is comprised of the blood vessels and all that circulates within them under the broad term “blood”. Anatomically the blood vessels are divided into three main divisions: that which carries oxygenated blood away from the heart (arteries and arterioles), ...

If you’ve ever been treated for an injury or chronic body pain over the past couple decades, then there's a good chance you’ve experienced dry needling, or at the very least you’ve heard of it and considered it as a treatment option. Dry needling is the term that refers to therapeutic needling that doesn’t include blood testing, injections and vaccinations - hence the word ‘dry’. Now of the large many who have had dry needling therapy, some have received it from their acupuncturist, some from their physiotherapist, some from their chiropractor, and others from their sports or athletic therapist. So the question often arises, “what is the difference between each of these professions when it comes to (dry) needling?”. Dry needling is the umbrella term for the therapy as a whole. Inserting dry needles into the body has several different effects and mechanisms by which it can influence the body back into a state of better health. It’s not as simple as “Oh! It’s sore here. Let’s ...

Qi is an abstract term. It only achieves a concrete or objective definition once it has been affixed to a second term providing context. For this reason, qi often plays the same role as ‘god’ does in spirituality. It can be used to unproductively describe spiritual phenomenon. On the other hand, its abstract nature has the ability to pragmatically group phenomenon that relate in ways outside of our current material-scope. On its own, the word qi signifies a rough aggregate similar to our english words “energy”, “vibe”, “spirit”, “feeling”, and “immaterial”. A word used to describe an immaterial feeling or sensation. To define it with latin & greek terms, maybe something along the lines of the affixes “ -ous”, “-ness”, “-y” or “-ity” would be our best translation. For this reason I tend to steer clear of the term as much as possible. If I am able to specify the qi factually, precisely, or in a way that is more familiar to northwestern hemisphere conventions, then I never hesitate t...