Why can salamanders grow new legs, and young children grow new finger tips, but adult humans can't regenerate? What is the electricity that flows through the human body? Is it the same thing that the Chinese call Qi? If so, what does Chinese medicine know, that western medicine ignores?Dan Keown's highly accessible, witty, and original book shows how western medicine validates the theories of Chinese medicine, and how Chinese medicine explains the mysteries of the body that western medicine largely ignores. He explains the generative force of embryology, how the hearts of two people in love (or in scientific terms `quantum entanglement') truly beat as one, how a cheating heart is also an ill heart (which is why men are twice as likely to die of a sudden heart attack with their mistress than with their wife), how neural crest cells determine our lifespan, and why Proust's madeleines evoked the memories they did.The book shows how the theories of western and Chinese medicine support each other, and how the integrated theory enlarges our understanding of how bodies work on every level. Full of good stories and surprising details, Dan Keown's book is essential reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know how the body really works.
Prologue. Part 1. 1. In the Beginning 2. The One Cell Universe. 3. 'A Name but no Form ' 4. The Triple Helix. 5. The Spark of Life. 6. What is Qi? 7. Cloning Sheep with Qi. 8. How Qi Folds the Body. 9. Organ Qi. 10. Origini. 11. Tricky Dicky and Little Pricks. 12. Human Fractals. 11. The Leonardoes and the Perfect Man. 12. Evolution at Warp Speed. 13. When Sonic Hedgehog Turns Nasty. 14. What Are Acupuncture Points? 15. Currents of Qi. Part 2. Ming Men: The Embryology of Chinese Medicine. Introduction. 1. 2. 3. 4. Yangmion: Beauty and Brains. 5. The Yolk of our Body. 6. Blood the Middle Layer. 7. Embryological Surfers. 8. Yin. 9. The Six Yin Organs. 7. The Emperor. 8. Arm Shao Yin Channel. 9. Emergency Case Report. 10. The Stubborn One. 11. The Ad-kidney? Gland 12. The Kidney Makes the Marrow. 13. The Kidney Controls the Bones. 14. Fire at the Gate of Vitality. 15. The Kidney Controls Water. 16. Kidney is the Seat of Fear in our Bodies. 17. The Kidney Jing Fills the Brain. 18. The Kidney Controls the Sex Drive. 19. Leg Shao-Yin. 20. The Inspiring Organ. 21. The Odd Organ. 22. The General. 23. The Emperor's Bodyguard. 24. Yang. 25. The Surfing Channel. 26. The Invisible Channel. 27. The Gut Channel. 28. The Gut Channel again. 29. The Lymph Channel. 30. God's Channel. Epilogue. Appendix 1. How Cancer Moves. Appendix 2. Yin and Yang.
This book is an important milestone in our understanding of how acupuncture might operate in the body, and the often remarkable correspondences between traditional Chinese and modern medical thinking... Dr Keown uses the holistic framework of Chinese Medicine to pull modern concepts together to give an inkling of what a true integrated medicine of the future might look like... the author, makes visually appealing comparisons... The writing style is creative and often humorous... Overall this book is a great read, and will certainly be enjoyed by acupuncturists interested in the connections between biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine.
