(Part 2) Best acupuncture & acupressure books according to redditors

I started by reading the Bubishi, a classical text about White Crane Kung-fu and is considered the origin of many Karate styles. It has some helpful charts, but most of the meridian names are in Chinese (as any legitimate book will be). The book that helped me the most when I started learning was Essential Anatomy for Healing and Martial Arts, by Marc Tedeschi. Awesome resource for reference, as it has charts by both individual meridians and the entire body. It is really overwhelming when you start trying to learn the meridians, but just start one at a time and you'll get it!

Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Anatomy-Healing-Martial-Arts/dp/0834804433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382547186&sr=8-1&keywords=essential+anatomy+for+healing+and+martial+arts

I am a beginner as well, but I will share the books I'm working my way through. They are not necessarily all beginner books as they range from general overviews to very thorough reference manuals. I hope you find something on the list that helps.

Most have Kindle samples you can download if you use Amazon.



Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F8FA6ZG/


The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XAZ625E/


The New Chinese Medicine Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0179ZS8R0/


The Spark in the Machine: How the Science of Acupuncture Explains the Mysteries of Western Medicine
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICS8MIE/


The Healer Within: Using Traditional Chinese Techniques To Release Your Body's Own Medicine Movement Massage Meditation Breathing https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D184QVW/


Optimal Healing: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine https://www.amazon.com/dp/0979948495/





Healing With Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition (3rd Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1556434308/


Recipes for Self Healing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0952464020/


The Ancient Wisdom of the Chinese Tonic Herbs https://www.amazon.com/dp/0446675067/


The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chinese Energy Healing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0345421094/


Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine: Zhong Yi Xue Ji Chu (Paradigm title) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0912111445/


Secrets of Self-Healing: Harness Nature's Power to Heal Common Ailments, Boost Your Vitality,and Achieve Optimum Wellness https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZJY5X4/


The Acupuncture Handbook: How Acupuncture Works and How it Can Help You https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GW4MG3W/


The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness https://www.amazon.com/dp/0595399509/


Acupuncture Points Handbook: A Patient's Guide to the Locations and Functions of over 400 Acupuncture Points https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D35N6SJ/


The Root of Chinese Qigong: Secrets of Health, Longevity, & Enlightenment https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FIICLXC/


Chinese Medical Herbology & Pharmacology https://www.amazon.com/dp/0974063509/


Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica, Third Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0939616424/





Finally, here's a few books by Mantak Chia that are profound, enlightening, vulgar, dangerous, or just aweful, depending on who you ask. I haven't read any of them but they made my list for some reason just to check out. I have a feeling he's an author people very much either like or dislike:

Chi Self-Massage: The Taoist Way of Rejuvenation https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594771103/


Awaken Healing Through the Tao: The Taoist Secret of Circulating Internal Power https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NGTUSV4/


Awaken Healing Light of the Tao https://www.amazon.com/dp/0935621466/


Healing Light of the Tao: Foundational Practices to Awaken Chi Energy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4WM6S/

I started reading the much lauded Between Heaven and Earth, but have found it actually quite hard to grasp the concepts.

A lot of amazon reviewers recommend it for beginners, but the book still feels advanced for me.

I don't know if I'm maybe approaching it wrong?

I don't have much background about Chinese Medicine, aside from casual discussions with friends who have tried it.

I agree with everything said above.

While we're talking about Energy Healing modalities that don't require 'special access', I'm a big fan of Quantum Touch.

Many alternate healing modalities work nicely and synergistically with Reiki, so there's no reason not to learn as much as you can.

Seconding the Trail Guide (and that company's eXplore videos online). The other one I'd recommend is Introduction to Massage Therapy, which covers most everything you need to know outside of anatomy.

I have a Bachelors in Chinese Medicine (mostly acupuncture), and a degree in Arts (Chinese Language and Religion), but looking at doing a PhD in the future in Chinese Philosophy and Medicine.

I'm not big on Wu Xing theory, and I'm not sure how much of it is classically derived, if that matters to you. For me, I treat what I see and feel. I try and palpate the patient a lot, particularly acupuncture channels. I really suggest this book http://www.amazon.com/Applied-Channel-Medicine-Lectures-Therapeutics/dp/0939616629 It's an amazing read, and I hope it will reinvigorate your passion for Chinese Medicine.

I work with another acupuncturist who has a masters in herbs and was in Western Medicine for 21 years, she has an insane amount of knowledge both in Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine, and I feel like a first year student in comparison to her. She really is amazing and seems to just know how to help patients, she has an amazingly high success rate, and is a source of constant inspiration - she does both acupuncture and herbs. Perhaps finding a mentor to work with who has practiced for a long period of time would help.

I do feel there are a lack of good teachers, and I keep trying to read books to improve my learning. The classics can be very boring too depending on the teachers, I had a teacher with a wealth of knowledge, but I kept falling asleep in his classes because he taught them so boringly.

Where did you study, America? I am from Australia and perhaps it is different, but we have quite a big emphasis on the 8 Diagnostics and Organ pathology, though when I treat I tend to feel for tender acu-points after I have a decent idea of the channels involved after interviewing and needle those. These ideas came from the above mentioned book.

Would be happy chat about anything Chinese Medicine or Daoism related anytime. You obviously have a good scientific mind, maybe you should try to find a way to integrate that into Chinese Medicine more whether doing research or clinical trials.

Not quite the answer you are looking for, but I would highly suggest this book. It's very informative, explains the process, and its very cheap used (7ish bucks with shipping for a used copy from amazon at the time i wrote this). I use stuff from this book for sinus issues all the time.

https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Acupuncture-Paradigm-George-Soulie/dp/0912111313

The second book on your list was a great read.

I'd also recommend the the book 'the spark in the machine'

As for nei jing translations, unschuld has the best one. It's expensive though. But no worries, a quick google search just showed me you can download an entire PDF of the 1500+ pg book for free here. Enjoy.

http://www.biblio.nhat-nam.ru/Huang_Di_Nei_Jing_Su_Wen-Unschuld-Tessenow-1-2.pdf

Tongue Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine

I don't have a particularly detailed answer to your question except from some of my inferences reading about Tibetan knowledge - especially the 17th Century which is my primary interest.

(1) The concept of a "paramedic" is probably incredibly foreign in the Himalayas or on the Plateau. Consider that there was no such thing as a standing army (maybe in Songtsen Gampo's time, but certainly no such thing by the time of the Dalai Lamas and the formation of Bhutan) and no sort of specialization of warriors (ex. light cavalry, heavy infantry, etc.) so there would be no "paramedics" either. What medicinal knowledge is on the battlefield is probably homegrown recipes that the men carried from their villages or nomadic routes where it would be transplanted to a battlefield situation. We're talking mostly herbal medicines and it's probably reasonable to consider that more than a few would leave home with some medicines (some effective, and some not) that were reported to heal or make them stronger.

(2) Any more advanced medical knowledge - any advanced knowledge in general - was held by the literate monastic class. Monks (and occasionally nuns) held all of the knowledge in the Himalayas primarily because it was monks who knew how to read. Until the 20th Century, literacy wasn't really thought of as an endeavor that went beyond religion. The word for Tibetan script even means "Dharma sign" (chökey). A quick Amazon search of "Tibetan medicine" reveals a lot of hits, though I can't verify their authenticity since I know very little about medicine, Tibetan or otherwise.

It's reasonable to consider the presence of monks on a battlefield both before (giving blessings of protection) and after (giving both religious blessings and practical skills to help battlefield injuries).

This doesn't fully answer your question, of course, but you might want to start your search with Soundings in Tibetan Medicine. It's apparently more anthropological than historical, but my ex-gf was pretty high on its wealth of information. I regret not looking more into it, though admittedly Tibetan medicine is a bit outside my general line of work, in retrospect it probably could have helped me in the long run. I'll have to take a look at it when I'm at an English library.

Anyway, just looking at the list of "Tibetan medicine" books on Amazon, the rest of the list doesn't look quite as academic, but I'm drawn to this in particular because it seems to have a lot of original documents. The rest of the search page is interesting (many of the books have Tibetan teachers with Westerners to interpret their "technical" training into English prose) but of course it would be hard to verify much of their information. Perhaps cross pollinating might give you a good idea of what was going on. It's reasonable to assume (as it's often claimed) that Tibetan medicine is a fusion of Indian Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's reasonable because Tibetan Buddhism is mostly derived from late Indian Vajrayana teachings, but there is significant Chinese influence in Tibet, beginning with Songtsen Gampo's marriage with Princess Wencheng and up to the Present Day (see the 1950 invasion).

(3) Ladakhi Medicine is (AFAIK) different from Tibetan, but related. It may be worth inspecting if you're interested, especially in this time period. From what I remember from Helena Norberg-Hodge's experience in her admittedly not-quite-academic book Ancient Futures Ladakhi doctors are referred to as "amchis" and have developed a special type of medicine all based around the concept of avoiding surgery. Apparently a Ladakhi king lost a wife under the knife and forbid surgery in his grief. Since Ladakhi doctors are forbidden from cutting open the body, they assess a patient's health by taking a series of pulses around the body. I don't know how extensive this practice is across the Himalayas, but it's worth a peek, especially since Ladakh developed interestingly in the 17th Century (along with Bhutan).

(4) There was a significant Mongol presence on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas in the 17th Century. The complex politics of Tibetan power dynamics was largely based around a series of Mongol tribes - the Oirat, the Qoshot, and the Dzungar to name the most prominent - and their various patronizations of this Lama and that King led to their employment as forces to destroy Bhutan (and I'm guessing Ladakh also). So while Tibetans were certainly on the battlefield, it's probably worth considering what the Mongols knew medicinally (since the concept of a "paramedic" was probably also foreign to the Mongols) since there would be a lot of cross-over when fighting with, against, and intermarrying with Tibetans. My preliminary Amazon search for "Mongol medicine" reveals a lot of stuff focused on Chinese medicine: Medieval Chinese Medicine, and A Soup for the Qan seem promising in this respect.

Hope that helps!

Yang Jwing-Ming's Analysis of Shaolin Chin Na has been a good resource for me. The BJJ stuff that other people have linked are good, too, but I feel like standing joint locks are under-represented, especially in the MMA crowd. Yes, they are generally hard to get a tap from, especially if your opponent is somewhat skilled or has a high pain threshold. But IMO, standing Chin Na has certain advantages over BJJ-styled locks in self-defense situations or fights where weapon retention and staying on your feet is important.

This is the newest edition of the text I used in school. It was very clearly written and great for a solid, basic knowledge of massage, anatomy, and physiology.

this mindset you have only hurts you. the book touch for health is based entirely on the Chinese meridian systems, and is one of the primer books for AK, and MAT
http://www.amazon.com/Touch-Health-paperback-John-Thie/dp/087516871X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421996869&sr=8-1&keywords=touch+for+health&pebp=1421996866505&peasin=087516871X

Also there was a time when acupuncture was considered pseudoscience by some people and guess what, some people still think it is, despite the research that is out... so the current research isn't always accurate and holding blind faith to it is really ironic.

you both sound really angry as well, very closed minded. That is not healthy either. good luck.