there are more things in heaven and earth ...

Yesterday my chiropractor, who is as much a naturopath as he is a chiropractor, performed an interesting test on me. He practices muscle testing, which "... involves testing the body’s responses when applying slight pressure to a large muscle, to provide information on energy blockages, the functioning of the organs, nutritional deficiencies, and food sensitivities, among other things. It can also be used to test the body’s responses to herbs and other remedies."

Like acupuncture, another practice that I know has helped me over the past few years, I'm not sure that I really understand how muscle testing works, but I have to admit that it does seem to point out some of my strengths and weaknesses. My gall bladder kept checking weak in muscle testing when my gastro-intestinal doctor continued to say my stomach pains must just be IBS. A CAT scan confirmed gallstones and a sonogram a gall bladder with a thickened wall, indicating that it hadn't worked correctly for a long time. Muscle testing seems closely tied to Traditional Chinese medicine, as my chiropractor tests a lot of acupuncture/meridian points.

Anyway, today he tested my scar - the incision site in my belly button where my gall bladder was removed. It tested weak - a "leakage" site - leakage of qi. He used a little device that had a laser light for a few moments on the scar and then tested me again and I tested strong.

I have always been attracted to alternative methods of medicine, to a whole body concept of healing as opposed to Western medicine's focus on the individual parts. Some may find these practices strange, too remote from what they are used to when they go to a doctor, but to quote Beetlejuice's Lydia Deetz, "I, myself, am strange and unusual."

Of course I choose to combine Eastern and Western practices. I did opt to have my gall bladder removed. But after a Western operation I see no harm, but instead great benefit, in Eastern and alternative therapies to help rebuild my strength. Western medicine basically gives you a script for pain killers and sends you on your way, not telling the patient that just because the operation was a one day in and out procedure that the burden of recovery would be on said patient. And that the healing time would not be "just a few days," but rather a few months.

Is my body no loger leaking qi? Only time will tell. But I have to admit that I find the idea of qi leakage points pretty fascinating.

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