Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine Paperback – June 30, 1992

This is an excellent book on the principles of TCM. I started reading it in the lobby of my acupuncturists and decided to get my own copy. It is pretty in depth and technical.

My favorite book,! So much information!

Chinese Medicine is a fascinating and complex system of healing that has been used for thousands of years. It's based on the idea that the body is a system of interconnected energy channels, and that disease is caused by an imbalance in these channels.Chinese medicine practitioners use a variety of techniques to restore balance to the body, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage, and dietary therapy.Chinese medicine is often used to treat a wide range of conditions, including pain, digestive problems, allergies, and emotional issues. It's also used to support overall health and well-being.One of the things I love most about Chinese medicine is that it's a holistic approach to healing. It doesn't just focus on treating the symptoms of a disease. It also addresses the root cause of the disease and helps the body to heal itself.Chinese medicine can be a bit overwhelming for beginners, but there are a number of resources available to help you learn more. I recommend starting with a book or website that provides an overview of the basics of Chinese medicine. You can also find a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner who can help you to develop a treatment plan that's right for you.If you're looking for a natural and holistic approach to healing, I encourage you to learn more about Chinese medicine. It's a powerful system of healing that can help you to achieve and maintain optimal health and well-being.

Very comprehensive book and yet easy to understand. I particularly like soft bound version of the book. It is easy to hold and pull back the pages to get comfortable with. highly recommend if you’re like me and just getting to know about Chinese medicine. although I can see how it could be a great guide for those who are more advanced also.

The authors have an excellent skill in communicating the concepts of Chinese Medicine to humans born into a western mindset with wonderful clarity. It was a joy to read. It's weakness from my point of view as a physician is that they seem to take their knowledge of western medicine from "a straw man" image of either what it was in the past or as if it was a solitary discipline epitomized by the surgical orientation of one of the author's father. Since I started in another career before medicine (biological psychology) I find that western and eastern medicine are both valuable disciplines, each with their own merits and their own weaknesses. As time marches on, with each vast system of healing having much more exposure to the other now than at any other time in history; we are also able to witness the needed and natural phenomenon of regression toward the mean. I could phrase that more poetically and spiritually as convergence toward the "Middle Way", the Tao or the balance of Yin and Yang.Despite the inward aching of "De Qi" when I felt them hit a potentially true weakness in western medicine and the times when I felt they were perhaps a little further off the grain -- overall I found the book refreshing, hopeful and ripe with wonderful possibilities for strengthening the role of the client or patient in their own healing. The latter is something severely weakened in our third-party system of western medicine whereby someone elses pays for something to be done to me by procedure or pill, but yet I don't really have to nor am I inspired to change much about how I rest, recreate, eat, exercise or relate to my fellow earthwalkers or environment.In eastern medicine these issues are all part of a larger concept of healing that has been sadly drained out of western medicine. Why this problems exists is complex and obviously western practitioners have their blind spots and exaggerations which have contributed to some but not all of the flaws. I especially think that it is not because most of us do not care as physicians. Nor is it because we have never spent time struggling with the passivity of the western model. There is no simple answer, but part of the accelerated dilemma lies with our institutionalized and bureacritized systems of delivery, now so heavily laden with other agendas that the essence of what we hoped for has sometimes been left out. Instead our "essence" became commercially packaged for mass production and profit mostly by people and corporations who never touch or sit face-to-face with the the real person made of flesh and blood (and qi) who came seeking healing.Wholeness as glimpsed here could also be lost to the practice of eastern medicine, if the painful lessons in the evolution of western medicine are not studied with more thoroughness and heart than the authors exemplify in some of their superficial cliques -- such as doctor as mechanic. Science and medicine have moved on in the lives and practice of many if not most physicians.I would point out that China in the early days of its exposure to western "materialistic science" likewise seemed to have become "intoxicated" with the grand idea that one could systematize, categorize, control and demystify nearly everything -- the tools becoming grandiose in their promise for mass production, delivery and speed. But at the end of the day, we and I believe they also ultimately realize that individual humans and complete living biological systems are always more than ... more than the micro by itself, more than a logical linear string of mechanisms, more than the isolated part, more than the quantity that is measurable by current standards and represented in group averages. Furthermore, healing done in harmony with the body's inate wisdom takes time.Everytime I prescribe a medication I do so with some appreciation for what seems to be known about it and some hesitancy also realizing that for the person sitting in front of me it may have a somewhat different effect that than promised by the manufacturing drug company. Thus, my limited experience with Chinese medicines prescribed by L.Ac. colleagues and what I read between the authors lines tells me they understand the same -- there is great variation among individuals and their response to a given preparation will vary. Some of these differences may be explained by liver enzyme systems for metabolism, renal clearance, variations in biological half-lifes, and interactions with other medications in western medicine. They might be explained by season, time of day, age, gender, and propensity toward the expression one of the 5-Elements patterns in Chinese medicine. However, all our systems of explanation are imperfect in the face of life, its diversity and its wounds.Nonetheless, I feel the authors did a very solid job of opening dialogue about their understanding of potential differences between left/right, east/west, yin/yang and ultimately eastern and western medicine. I would love to see that dialogue continued with a deeper respect between both sides -- for the greatest benefits of all of those who feel they are born and driven to be healers and who pursue with great diligence the expression of one or more healing arts and sciences from their own point of entry into the great mandala of wholeness. Such a healing of the split between healers seems likely to do even more for those who come to them for healing.There are many strong sections of this book -- I felt most drawn to the initial sections on theory, 5 elements, and the adaptation of archetypes to explain differences between people incorporating the physio-spiritual-pyschologic dimensions of the elements. I appreciated the balance in presentation of these types -- all of which have significant strengths and vulnerabilities for injury or illness. Unlike some texts I've read in which I felt the author might obviously like one type of person better than another; instead I felt a deep respect and appreciation communicated by these authors for every type of human, a recognition of equality or equilibrium between them and that all are needed to complete the human species. I also felt the emphasis on the positive side of each archetype, creating for the individual who possesses it a very important image of what it could look and feel like to be healthy. Sometimes that is greatly needed after a person has endured months or years of criticisms (even well intentioned) and chronic illnesses.I do not know enough about chinese herbal medicines to speak to those sections. I definitely carry a fear for my particular group of patients/clients who have marked kidney insufficiency and who already have to take many western medicines; I am concerned that the additional burden of interactions with herbs and just more "stuff" for their already threatened filters to manage could overwhelm them. In this situation even the foods we would normally consider healthy (fruit, whole grain breads, nuts) can become toxic or lifethreatening by overdosing phosphorus or potassium. Thus I just don't go there with the population I serve. I am unable so far to speak to how this works with other groups. Nonetheless, I find much of interest in the book -- plenty to feed my imagination in the potential use of acupuncture and qi gong for assisting with pain and the de-spiriting aspects of chronic illness.

this book will be my source for many years to come.I was able to tie a lot of loose ends after my acupuncture training.it easily and efficiently helps understand the basis of the elements and more.Highly recommend to those who want to deepen this understanding

This book is fantastic. It is so well written and gives legitimately accurate information about Chinese medicine. It's very thorough. Great book to read but also an amazing reference book when you need it.

Beyond excellence! It has been a long time since I have read such a greatly written book. The vocabulary is amazing. The plethora of beautiful english words excited me with enthusiasm and spirit. It is a great read; not only from the literature part; but also the way Chinese Medicine have been explained in such simple yet beautiful language. The metaphor used to explain the Chinese medicine philosophy is simple and beautiful. I am doing my Doctoral program in Chinese Medicine. But till now I have not visualized or heard anyone explain it in a similar fashion; such light and yet meaningful way....well, my description does not do justice to her writing. So let me stop by saying 'thank you; you have given the world a great literature in Chinese Medicine'. I only wish she indicated the points she used, instead of saying 'a point on top of the foot between the third and forth...'