Interactive Medical Acupuncture Anatomy

I spent some time debating whether to give this book a four star or a five star review. I am in the process of devouring this remarkable tome; I do love it. It is one that I wish I'd have had in acupuncture school, and is a welcome and important addition to my library. Every point is described in terms of its anatomical relationship to the body. But unlike the usual texts such as Deadman, both the narrative and the illustrations include each point's detailed relationship to, and action upon the underlying structures such as muscles, nerves, and vessels. Point indications speak the language of conventional pathophysiology, so that we get protocols (with rationale) for actual Western diseases such as for example hepatitis, cholecystitis, diabetic gastroparesis, etc. They are research-based and cited. What a welcome breath of fresh air as opposed to the struggle of dealing with archaic terms as "wasting and thirsting disease, running piglet disorder," etc. which for me, as RN-turned-acupuncturist, has always felt a bit professionally embarrassing. The author makes a convincing case for adapting the language of today's modern medicine to the "metaphor-based" language and practice of "traditional" acupuncture in order to be able to integrate with other healthcare professionals, and communicate to our medical colleagues and patients, in a shared language understood by all. I agree with the author's premise that the resistance to science-based acupuncture will only serve to hinder the profession's growth and credibility and that acupuncturists must become familiar with scientific concepts such as neuromodulation, in order to begin to understand how acupuncture really works. That being said, I disagree with the author in her unequivocal rejection of the concept of "Qi." I do not know many acupuncturists who can settle on an agreement of what Qi actually is, myself included, but I am not ready to discard the concept of some as yet unknown "force" or "bioenergy" that flows through the living organism. I recall having the opportunity to observe a dead cell versus a living cell in a petrie dish under a microscope, and our biology professor asking: "what is the force that animates the living cell?" "Oxygen" or "blood vessels" is not an adequate explanation, and I will not be discarding the concept of Qi unless and until there is a more convincing or satisfying explanation for that palpable "thing" I work with every day. I will not remove a star just because I don't agree with everything. It's a magnificent book.

Great book

Great book for acupuncture.

Cheaply put-together content

Excellent, purchased for my daughter who is training to be an acupuncturist. her comment this would easily replace at least 4 of the text books she is using.

The main reason I made the purchase was for the CD. There are so many other acupuncture books available to buy. I've been having a hard time with the CD. I even purchased a new laptop with the CD/DVD drive to be able to use this in class because the book is so heavy to carry around. My husband is studying programing and he said the software design makes it so difficult to use. There are good thing in the book, but I do regret purchasing it because I wanted the CD. For example, when you are in full screen view on a part of the leg and you want to zoom in a little bit more around the ankle, the software doesn't allow you to do that. If you use Ctrl + to zoom in, then it would zoom in at the center of the screen, which is the knee. There is no scroll bar to zoom and scroll up and down on the screen. Bad design/programming. You have to open this software in Internet Explorer, which is very weird because you have to find a way to accept this as "safe." There were no instructions included with the CD, so you have to just put it in your computer and figure it out yourself. I found at least one error with point location. So frustrating! Does anyone know of a better software mapping of the human body with acupuncture points?

The better book about anatomy of acupuncture points.

Love this informative book!

Great book - plenty of detail around anatomy. An added bonus - some evidence around point combinations for specific situations. I have not yet used the CD.

A beautiful and intelligently designed book.