It was great to see everyone again at the 2nd and 3rd workshop sessions, and I think I can safely say we had a brilliant time trying out Acumedic's electro-acupuncture equipment!
Prof Mei talked us different types of acupuncture and its modern day uses, including:
1) Chemotherapy side effect reduction
2) Pain Relief (eg Chronic Back Pain, as indicated by NICE)
3) Surgical anaesthesia in patients allergic to conventional anaesthetics
He also described possible mechanisms for how acupuncture works:
1) Pain Signal Blocking
2) Neurotransmitter Stimulation
3) Stimulation of Immune system and Auto-repair mechanisms
We got to try out some cutting edge electo-acupuncture pens, slippers and acupressure equipment, and learnt the locations of some useful acupuncture points, including the "Student's point", which is meant to improve concentration and memory - very handy!
The last session covered more on diagnosis and the key parts of a Chinese medicine consultation.
We learnt about tongue and pulse diagnosis, including how to take a pulse and differentiate a 'Floating' pulse from a 'Sunken' one. We also compared our own tongues to a fantastic library of patient tongue images illustrating different syndromes and diseases.
Herbal medicines and the health benefits of tea were discussed, and we discovered the basics of tea drinking and how to work out if a tea is 'White', 'Green', 'Oolong', 'Red', 'Poo'erh' and more.
This year's Acupuncture course has been a real success and I hope everyone has really enjoyed it!
Look out for certificates soon, and for those who missed the course this time, we will be arranging another one after Christmas.
~Alison Liu
IMS President 2011-2012
ims.kcl@gmail.com
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