Steeped In the Ten Thousand Things: a research digest & integrative medical discussion

Recorded December 16, 2021: We discuss a new acupuncture systematic review and meta-analysis looking at the most effective acupuncture methods for non-specific low back pain (NLBP). You can read along: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8068518/ We also discuss limitations of acupuncture research, placebo-needles, challenges in extrapolating this kind of research into clinical practice, and contrast acupuncture with some conventions in medicine that appear just as messy, if not more, compared to acupuncture. Our discussion also brings in the United States Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services information on their background research establishing the criterion for approving coverage of non-specific low back pain with acupuncture. We look at some of their limited parameters, protocols, and the underlying research search terms. We included new music from @vladest_art — 'Hold On' for interludes, and 'The Sun Will Rise' to close us out. License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Segment 1: COVID-19 and neurological injury - acupuncture for neuroplasticity and nuerogenesis and treatment of chronic cognitive disease https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/06/23/how-covid-19-can-damage-the-brain/ Xiao, L. Y., Wang, X. R., Yang, Y., Yang, J. W., Cao, Y., Ma, S. M., ... & Liu, C. Z. (2018). Applications of Acupuncture Therapy in Modulating Plasticity of Central Nervous System. Neuromodulation: journal of the International Neuromodulation Society, 21(8), 762-776. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29111577/ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/facts-figures Segment 2: Tea and Vaccines Safety - CDC Evaluates Risk/Benefit of Vaccines In Context of Myocarditis/Pericarditis Helen Branswell's thread on CDC report on myocarditis/pericarditis from mRNA vaccine: https://twitter.com/HelenBranswell/status/1407737409337532418 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/23/cdc-reports-more-than-1200-cases-of-rare-heart-inflammation-after-covid-vaccine-shots.html Segment 3: Acupuncture for Cancer Support and Cancer Pain Yang, J., Wahner-Roedler, D. L., Zhou, X., Johnson, L. A., Do, A., Pachman, D. R., ... & Bauer, B. A. (2021). Acupuncture for palliative cancer pain management: Systematic review. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. link Tack, L., Lefebvre, T., Blieck, V., Cool, L., Pottel, H., Van Eygen, K., ... & Debruyne, P. R. (2021). Acupuncture as a complementary therapy for cancer care: acceptability and preferences of patients and informal caregivers. link (related but not discussed) Jang, A., Brown, C., Lamoury, G., Morgia, M., Boyle, F., Marr, I., ... & Oh, B. (2020). The effects of acupuncture on cancer-related fatigue: Updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 19, 1534735420949679. link Segment 4: LongCovid Symptoms & Prevalence: Mao, L., Jin, H., Wang, M., Hu, Y., Chen, S., He, Q., ... & Hu, B. (2020). Neurologic manifestations of hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019 in Wuhan, China. JAMA neurology, 77(6), 683-690. link Sun, B., Tang, N., Peluso, M. J., Iyer, N. S., Torres, L., Donatelli, J. L., ... & Pulliam, L. (2021). Characterization and biomarker analyses of post-COVID-19 complications and neurological manifestations. Cells, 10(2), 386. link (related but not discussed) Persistent symptoms in adult patients one year after COVID-19: a prospective cohort study, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2021 Intro / outro song: 'Juparo' By Broke For Free is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

We bring you a bonus episode pre-election looking at both Trump's and Biden's Ziwei Doushu polestar charts in the context of their progressions (10 and 1 year), and their character/natal chart fate. Enjoy a casual and ad hoc exploration of their charts, with additional exploration of the impact of Qi Sha / 7 Killings /Executioner Star in the Spouse/Partners Palace. We hope you enjoy. For images of their charts - follow link. Sources used: Da Yuan Circle - Ming Liu's Polestar Astrology course & notes. The Spirit of the Stars: Navigating Your Fate With Pole Star Astrology (Book w/DVD) – January 1, 2019 by Narrye Caldwell https://zwdsastrology.blogspot.com/ Email the podcast for feedback, comments, questions, requests: steepedpodcast@gmail.com

We have a discussion about vaccines from the perspective of two educated people who went from deep skepticism to informed realism. We open the door to future discussions on the topic as well as teasing future episodes where we focus on specific research and related topics, including vaccine safety and relative risk, public health and vaccines, and why a complex dis Research or books referenced during the episode: Flaws, B. (1996). Keeping Your Child Healthy with Chinese Medicine: A Parent's Guide to the Care and Prevention of Common Childhood Diseases. Blue Poppy Enterprises, Inc.. https://b-ok.cc/book/1076795/578a30 Escandón, K., Rasmussen, A. L., Bogoch, I. I., Murray, E. J., & Escandón, K. (2020). COVID-19 and false dichotomies: time to change the black-or-white messaging about health, economy, SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and masks. https://osf.io/k2d84/ Hviid, A., Hansen, J. V., Frisch, M., & Melbye, M. (2019). Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: a nationwide cohort study. Annals of internal medicine, 170(8), 513-520. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M18-2101 "Here's Kamala Harris' birth certificate. Scholars say there's no VP eligibility debate: Harris set to accept VP nomination this week at Democratic convention." Ziwei Doushu - Polestar Astrology - Fate Calculation introduction. Abundant Heaven Traditional Chinese Medicine. All music used with Creative Commons licensing. Closing music is from FreeMusicArchive.org - Dusty Hills by Ketsa

In this episode, we look at two studies around tea and its impacts on health; one through the lens of gut microbiota and the other through a population-based study of over 100,000 Chinese adults and the impacts of tea on incidence of atherosclerotic heart disease and all-cause mortality. How are these two studies, which vary greatly, connected and how can we look at them in the larger context of tea research, public health, and tradition? All studies mentioned in this episode are available in-full, here. The two primary studies discussed are: Wang, X., Liu, F., Li, J., Yang, X., Chen, J., Cao, J., ... & Zhao, L. (2020). Tea consumption and the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: The China-PAR project. European journal of preventive cardiology, 2047487319894685. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2047487319894685 Zhu, J., Cai, R., Tan, Y., Wu, X., Wen, Q., Liu, Z., ... & Yang, H. (2020). Preventive consumption of green tea modifies the gut microbiota and provides persistent protection from high-fat diet-induced obesity. Journal of Functional Foods, 64, 103621. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464619305456 Kamala Harris' birth certificate - re: Ziwei Doushu polestar fate calculations & Bazi astrology coming up Closing music is from FreeMusicArchive.org - Dusty Hills by Ketsa

We focus in on a single topic, looking at a collection of systematic reviews & meta-analyses that look at the clinical effectiveness of tai chi in the treatment of a variety of medical issues. All the papers are available for download here. The book recommended by Zach is here: https://www.amazon.com/How-choose-Tai-Chi-teacher-ebook/dp/B076VTH4NK All music is from Freemusicarchive.org

During this week's episode, we begin looking at a paper to learn what the 'syndemics' model of disease is, why it reminds us of East Asian medical approaches and perspectives, and how the concept of "Damp" might be a valued concept to include in addressing complex 'biosocial' complexes of disease formation and complication. We follow up by talking about the challenges of identifying with 'Chinese Medicine' in a politically complicated time, the value of building trust between doctor and patient, and how acupuncture can be a type of exposure-therapy to therapeutic 'trauma' or discomfort. We end the discussion by focusing on the current solar term named "Autumn Begins", which marks a clear transition from Summer to Autumn and comes with a list of ways (including a soup like this) to offset Damp-Heat conditions in the weather/climate and how to prepare mentally for the arrival of Winter. References: Singer, M., Bulled, N., Ostrach, B., & Mendenhall, E. (2017). Syndemics and the biosocial conception of health. The Lancet, 389(10072), 941-950. Mahase, E. (2020). Covid-19: What do we know about “long covid”?. bmj, 370. Yong, E. (2020). Immunology Is Where Intuition Goes to Die: Which is too bad because we really need to understand how the immune system reacts to the coronavirus. The Atlantic. Salguero, P. (2020). Metadisciplinary Approach to Asian Medicine: (Part II in the “Approaches to Asian Medicine” series). Medium. Yang, Y., Islam, M. S., Wang, J., Li, Y., & Chen, X. (2020). Traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of patients infected with 2019-new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2): a review and perspective. International journal of biological sciences, 16(10), 1708. Cam, L. (2016). How to drain 'dampness' (濕) with traditional Chinese soup and tea. Timeout.com All music is from Freemusicarchive.org with special attribution to the closing song, Spell on the Witch House (with Tesla Tea) by Humanfobia.

This episode is an exploration of a sea of topics, all in the ocean of coronavirus research, implications on clinic/classroom experiences and safety, and the need to root ourselves in a more grounded sense of time and place as societal upheaval pushes us all to the limits. In our first section, Spill the Tea, we share the teas we are drinking. Michael is enjoying one of his teas, a "Jasmine Aroma" Phoenix Oolong. Zach is drinking a Pu'erh tuocha from Floating Leaves tea shop. During our extensive research discussion, we cover a number of papers on Chinese herbal medicine, approaches to studying it, and how to bring traditional methods of formula selection into modern clinical usage, most notably in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and it's symptoms. Chung VC, Ma PH, Lau CH, Wong SY, Yeoh EK, Griffiths SM. Views on traditional Chinese medicine amongst Chinese population: a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies. Health Expect. 2014;17(5):622-636. Sinha, S. K., Prasad, S. K., Islam, M. A., Gurav, S. S., Patil, R. B., AlFaris, N. A., ... & Shakya, A. (2020). Identification of bioactive compounds from glycyrrhiza glabra as possible inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein and non-structural protein-15: A pharmacoinformatics study. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 1-15. LuoLiu, P., & Li, J. (2020). Pharmacologic perspective: glycyrrhizin may be an efficacious therapeutic agent for COVID-19. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 105995. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/07/418056/building-blocks-covid-19-antiviral-drugs-identified-rapid-study https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/infectious-disease/Protein-mapping-finds-over-60/98/i12 Gilbert C. Gee, Marguerite J. Ro, and Anne W. Rimoin, 2020: Seven Reasons to Care About Racism and COVID-19 and Seven Things to Do to Stop It. American Journal of Public Health 110, 954_955. Eng, Y. S., Lee, C. H., Lee, W. C., Huang, C. C., & Chang, J. S. (2019). Unraveling the molecular mechanism of traditional chinese medicine: formulas against acute airway viral infections as examples. Molecules, 24(19), 3505. Zhang, A., Sun, H., Wang, Z., Sun, W., Wang, P., & Wang, X. (2010). Metabolomics: towards understanding traditional Chinese medicine. Planta medica, 76(17), 2026-2035. Liu, X., Lv, M., Wang, Y., Zhao, D., Zhao, S., Li, S., & Qin, X. (2020). Deciphering the compatibility rule of Traditional Chinese Medicine prescription based on NMR metabolomics: A case study of Xiaoyaosan. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 112726. HealthCMi. COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Herbs Found Effective. 14 June 2020, www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/2039-covid-19-coronavirus-herbs-found-effective. Music used at end: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Humanfobia/Witch_Spell/02_-_Spell_on_the_Witch_House_with_Tesla_Tea

During this discussion we will spend some time looking at two separate papers that address anxiety, its complex societal causes and acupuncture as an effective treatment. We also spend some time discussing what it has been like to practice acupuncture and learn acupuncture during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wrap up reflecting on the daily and lunar hexagrams and how they give us insight into current events and the unfolding realities before us - also we are reminded the solar term "Autumn Begins" arrives in less than two weeks. Addressing the Social Determinants of Mental Health: If Not Now, When? If Not Us, Who? - Psychiatric Services - August 01, 2018, Pages 844-846 Acupuncture and electroacupuncture for anxiety disorders: A systematic review of the clinical research - Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice, Volume 31, May 2018, Pages 31-37 Abundant Heaven Acupuncture's COVID-19 Policies and Procedures Da Yuan Circle - Liu Ming's organization for the mantic arts & other Chinese traditions We welcome feedback, questions, topic suggestions, and ask that if you find our discussion helpful or valuable, please share with your friends and colleagues. If you want to reach us: Michael at michael@abundant-heaven.com Zach at zkrebs@gmail.com All music is from freemusicarchive.org https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Loyalty_Freak_Music/Best_Of__Pick_Your_Player/Loyalty_Freak_Music_-_Best_Of_-_Pick_Your_Player_-_31_Coexistenz https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lobo_Loco https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Soft_and_Furious/Best_Of__Pick_Your_Player/Soft_and_Furious_-_Best_Of_-_Pick_Your_Player_-_12_Youre_Magic

Steep something to steep in the discussion with us. Join us as we explore past and current research on a wide variety of topics around various aspects of integrative medical practice. We will have the following segments each episode: "Spill the Tea" - a look at what we've been drinking or are drinking this past week "Reading the Research" - we go over the studies we've gathered and are digesting from the past week "Talking Story" - we share stories from our week in the clinic or in the classroom "Reading Tea Leaves" - we look at one or many of the divinatory devices & reflect on the past/present/future Steeped in the 10,000 Things will also aim to schedule interviews and will be open to suggestions on topics or deeper investigations into topics. Please feel free to reach out and share any questions you have about any of the topics we discuss. We love helping explain and explore more deeply on the topics we find interesting. Dr. Michael E. Brown, DACM, L.Ac. is a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine, licensed acupuncturist in the Bay Area, California, and life-time student of medicine, brings his passion for learning and understanding to the podcast, hoping to help bridge the gaps between simplicity and complexity to honor the mystery and nuance of nature and our experiences. He observes that classical Chinese conceptions of the body and medicine hold valuable perspectives and stunningly accurate understandings of human physiology that are frequently being explained and/or confirmed through current scientific research, which only highlights the need for both poetic and technical ways of seeing and explaining the complexity of human physiology. He is a tea lover, a home-brewer, a poet, and a happy father of a 2 year old. Zachary Krebs is a student at POCA Tech, a community acupuncture program, and University of the People, a tuition free college educating people people without access to higher education. Both programs emphasize a core value and committment to open information up make it accessible to people turned away by our traditional institutions. Threading open source concepts into individual and community health is his passion. Also a tea lover and father to an almost 3 year old, he knows the value of keeping humor alive in these super serious times.