Practical Chinese Medicine: Understanding the Principles and Practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Making Them Work for You

As the author of many books on herbal medicine, Penelope Ody shows a knack for distilling the essence of the various modalities of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She covers theory, diagnostics, and the major therapeutic approaches in an upbeat and helpful manner. The graphics offer colorful, easy-to-follow, always helpful support. This reviewer found the nicely balanced thumbnail descriptions of herbal remedies and the illustrations of key acupressure points of special value--a perfect way to get started on a longer journey into TCM or simply to discover a half-dozen handy ways to treat one's own ailments.At times, to be sure, the author's positive approach seems to slide into political correctness. Are we to believe that things were nice and peaceful in China's history until the Westerners showed up? And is it really just a supposition of Westerners that Yin and Yang have something to do with female and male? Also, it would have been helpful to scatter through the text a dozen brief paragraphs offering clinical evidence of effectiveness and safety. Some of the evidence is in fact very striking, as in the case of prevention of breech delivery with moxibustion. Dr. David Ho of HIV treatment fame recently noted that the major modalities of TCM had not been thoroughly tested against HIV. One must ask why not, and suspect that certain immunostimulative (Qi boosting) herbs, acupuncture or electroacupuncture, or moxibustion--perhaps in combination with natural remedies from other cultures--might prove surprisingly effective.

I have chosen this book to be the very first one I read in my exploration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The book is incredible. It is expertly written, overflowing with charts, pictures, diagrams, and much much more. It is an introduction to almost everything there is in TCM -- The Ying/Yang, the 5 Element theory, Acupuncture, Acupressure, Tai Chi, Qigong, Herbology, Moxabustion, and much more. It is very easy to read with very strategically placed illustrations of the concepts being discussed. I am very glad I chose this particular book as my introduction to TCM. Though it is an introduction I know it will serve me for years to come as a good reference too -- its Herb listing is large and easy to follow and understand. I would recommend this to beginners such as myself for a wonderful journey of exploration of the world of TCM.