Ross Penman Acupuncture Talk at UTS

Here's Ross Penman and myself after the talk

Hi Blogs,

We had another talk for the Tai Yi Society just recently at UTS. Managed to get Ross Penman to come in. Now internationally you may not of heard of him, but here in Sydney he's well known. Very interesting man and a very successful practitioner. He works from the ground floor of a mansion in the exclusive suburb of Neutral Bay in Thrupp Street. I had to work hard to get him to come in and I had to book him 3 months ahead before the talk! Anyway it all came together and it was the first public talk he had done in at least 25 years! It was quite an achievement. Even more so as he wouldn't tell me what he was actually going to talk about.

***Latest update ***

Ross asked me to remove the synopsis and biography

No problem. Stay posted!

Quick UTS TCM Lecturer Profile: Congxing Yang

Smiles turn to horror as an assignment is revisited...

Here’s a privileged glimpse into a tutorial and a snapshot look at one of the lecturers at UTS in action. Thanks Congxing.
Firstly the reason I took these pics is that I have always loved the documentary feel of a sequence of pictures of a person interacting, talking and expressing different parts of their personality. These pics are an attempt to capture that. But mostly they are smiling ones… Even more satisfying is that I was allowed to capture them in tutorial in the office of the individual. So there’s a bit of flavour there.
Congxing Yang, everybody calls him Cong which is pronounced “Chong”, is our main lecturer for Chinese Herbal Formulas 1. Herbal formulas are a nightmarish dip into the Chinese language, in depth reasoning of TCM diagnostic theories (mind bending) and massive amounts of recall of individual Chinese herbs and also of herbs mixed up in different groupings-even more confusing!
Anyway Cong put on a wild fire tutorial at 12 today. That’s lunch time isn’t?? Anyway the exam is tomorrow and he provided a window of opportunity to stretch out some last minute ideas and fill in a few more gaps. You know that’s pretty cool, shows a lot of passion for the subject and demonstrates heaps of patience too. I think the main thing you can see from these pics is Cong’s sense of humour. So dedication and a sense of humour. Rare, rare, rare! Thanks Cong!

Clinic Skate

J skating ...

You know when things get pretty busy it always good to let off some steam. At Uni this can develop out in pretty fun ways. Observe the ancient art of Chinese Medicine Skating. For those not initiated in this art all I can say is that it helps the Qi.

The Good, The Bad and THE Trashy

This is one of the best line ups of all timeMore of an idea of how we roll TCM Sydney! Even better line up!We had a Fourth year send off celebration. Now technically no one has graduated, but they have to go to China for 3 months to intern in a Hospital . So this is the last chance for everyone to get together after the majority of studying is done, and why not?

The Tai Yi Society organised it, I'm and executive member. I'm second from right in the top picture with the others from the society. I'll spare you from any of the other pics during the night. The theme was the good, the bad and the trashy. So a few people turned up as good super heroes and trashy nurses. I wasn't brave enough this year and I don't have a nurses outfit either. Was a great night and we had people from all years and we also combined with Western Sydney University and another college. I definitely met some great people and had a great time!

Kidney 1, on the sole of the foot

We went over the points today on the Whiteboard. Top left Kidney 1 (KD 1): Dangers-it SMARTS. Problems-it hurts. Both are correct Michael needling me up on the point
I turned the camera on me just at the right moment-no joke, no exaggeration. That is excactly what it felt like!!!
Michael demonstrating the point. If you notice I have hit dead centre on my cross mark!
As you may know by now we have been practicing the more difficult acupuncture points in the Clinic 4 practical classes. Today the practical vaguely flashed into my mind in the morning on the way in to Uni and then I tried to flush it out of my mind straight away. The Kidney Channel starts on the base of the foot. It’s a strong point and it hurts. It hurts going in and then it hurts going out! However I am glad I have done it now as I can needle this point with confidence as I have been needled here and I’ve needled it on someone else (thanks Michael). BTW this point isn’t needled much in the real world, and never have any fear if you go to get acupuncture as any good acupuncturist will explain what they’re doing. You don’t have to agree to any of it.
Also these pics come courtesy of my new phone which I am very happy with, thanks to a very kind and generous benefactor :)

Western Health Science Tutorial

We outlined the process of cell division in play dough... But we also made Gumby
This really cool Korean piggy
And this really tasty looking hot dog (in the back ground is the cell division process)
Western science can be a pretty dry subject, so we had a practical class for our tutorial, and it became kind of fun. Play dough is for ages 4 to 8, I think, but we did fine.

Bladder Channel Acupuncture

Bladder 10 needled both sides. Remember not to penetrate to the brain Halfway done and each alternate inside Bladder point is needled
Our lowest point needled along the spine was the Bladder 32,in the second sacral foramen, that is a hole in the base of the spine on the sacrum. Sounds horrible but it's all routine now

Acupuncture from almost the very top to almost the very bottom... Thanks for letting me use the pics Michael.

In this class we marked out the Bladder Channel and then needled it. This is done by finding the first thoracic vertebra of the spine and asking the victim to move their head from side to side while gently pinching around the vertebra. On head movement thoracic vertebra 1 will be stationary while the vertebra above, cervical vertebra 7, will move. This becomes the landmark to find all the other vertebra from. Then we marked each vertebra of the spine and associated the acupuncture point with it. You know what? Everybody has a different type of spine. Some people have longer bits, others shorter bits, some with bits missing. It's hilarious or should I say interesting. Anyway it's less hilarious when you have an examiner breathing down your neck (spine related joke) asking you specific questions about what goes where and how. Interestingly this was one of the quietest classes so far. The back being less painful too needle. However when I went for an acupuncture treatment today I was coincidentally needled along the Bladder Channel and I screamed out like a kid who couldn't get his chocolate bar. Was painful. You may also like to note that we cover each other in ink and proceed to needle. Ink poisoning is not an issue as the person doing the needling has to wear gloves...That's the law.

Point Locating Device

Hand held point locating device in action Didn't I see this in Star Trek The Motion Picture?
This semester has been the biggest and busiest so far, so basically I'm updating with little nuggets of information. I'm glad I'm still able to hold your attention though.

This device turned up in clinic today. It's a battery powered point location device. It works on electrical resistance on the skin to find the location of an acupuncture point. Being demonstrated on the Ying Tang point on the forehead in the above pic, thanks Jee. Basically it beeps and lights up when placed on the skin. Anecdotally I remember Peter Meier relating a story about someone who was very deficient in Qi down their legs, lack of sensation and feeling, and no readings coming up with a similar device. Clinically I have never seen them not make a noise when placed anywhere on the skin. If there is no noise, or location of acupuncture point, basically you press harder and you get a result. Also I've seen alcohol swabs used to wet areas to create a result too. Anyway love them or hate them they provide some use for some practitioners. I recall when one day we were unable to get a result with a reading from the device with a patient and we were all very concerned. A simple change of the batteries and the patient was much better ;)

Patent Pill Packaging

I was walking past my local Chinese Medicine establishment on George Street, when I stopped at this sign in its window. Breast Mate pills were being marketed in broad day light. Well thank goodness there wasn't a picture of a pair of Chinese Medicine breasts being displayed as part of the marketing. As Chinese Medicine grows and with China's development I can't wait to see other products with even better names hitting the high streets.

Where is Chinese Medicine?

The TCM Department is nestled within the Faculty of Science. Apparently it missed out on the Nursing Faculty. Before all that there was a an independent school that merged with UTS sometime in the 80's I believe. That's a brief history of TCM here at UTS and here is the sign that proves where it is today. The future, you may ask? Well I should imagine it will stay where it is. Numbers are pretty small for the yearly intakes though, it may be that it could disappear? I hope not and can't imagine people not at least being interested in TCM. It would be great to have a TCM hospital here in Australia. Maybe one day...

Tongue Diagnosis: Front Flip, and Bum Diagnosis Combo

Bum Crack Diagnosis and Tongue Diagnosis Front End Flip Two of my most popular checked out posts are the Bum Diagnosis Post and Front End Tongue Flip Post. When the opportunity presented itself to combine both, well it could not be resisted!!

Must be some sort of Spring, Yang time.