The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs, 1e [Hardcover]

Giovanni Maciocia CAc(Nanjing) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0443043051 | ISBN-13: 978-0443043055 | Edition: 1

A foremost Western expert on Chinese Medicine demonstrates how acupuncture and Chinese herbs are used in everyday clinical practice. He integrates extensive research with abundant direct clinical experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This well laid-out book with excellent texts is easy to use, and suitable for Chinese medicine students and practitioners. To quote from another new book edited by Hugh MacPherson, Acupuncture Research, 'One of the key characteristics of a profession is the ownership of a unique body of knowledge that informs professional practice and is constantly reviewed, renewed and augmented by the profession itself.' This beautifully presented text by Maciocia has clearly achieved this outcome." Australian Journal of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

"This book is one of the most authentic and comprehensive in print and will prove to be an invaluable resource for practitioners of Chinese medicine." Embody Magazine, summer 2009

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 924 pages
• Publisher: Churchill Livingstone; 1 edition (March 14, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0443043051
• ISBN-13: 978-0443043055
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #748,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag, January 24, 2003

By 

Brian B. Carter (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs, 1e (Hardcover)

This book is huge, even though it's only about 34 diseases. It's filled with case studies that easily transform into CA state board test questions.

My study partner went through and pulled every one of these case studies out to memorize them. I found myself doing the same, since I disagreed with Giovanni's diagnosis about 25% of the time... I had to memorize his diagnosis anyway. In one case, he got no result, and consulted with a Chinese doctor, who diagnosed the patient the way I had when I firsted saw the signs and symptoms!

What's really infuriating is when he uses a rationale to diagnose something one way in one place, but then doesn't consistently apply that in other cases.

So, we are required to know Giovanni's opinions and diagnosis style even if they may be wrong. It would have been nice to see - in a reference book - a separation between mistaken treatments and ideal/accurate treatments.

Also, there are short sections on western diagnosis in some diseases... but be careful, because biomedicine frequently revises its understandings. This is NOT your source for clinical biomedical info. It may be easy to understand, but may not be up to date or accurate.

There is an interesting section on distal points and their target areas.

As with Giovanni's book, the Foundations of Chinese Medicine, it's not always clear if his ideas come from classical CM or from his own mind. I'd caution the reader to balance their understanding with the works of Wiseman, Deadman, and Sionneau.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK ... but not the colour on the cover ..., December 11, 2005

By 

D. Lloyd "Yu Long" (London, Ont. Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs, 1e (Hardcover)

I initially dove into this book, very well laid out and attractive but don't be deceived it's not the be all of diagnosis despite it's mammoth number of pages. As far as I've been trained, he's about 70% of the full story ... definately a wonderful introduction to TCM's internal medicine but not everything you need to know. His appendix pages on western differentiation are very welcomed, but are quite basic. Many people in TCM are not so interested in Western meds. but they are very important so thumbs up on the inclusion.

It's not a bad book, but it's not so great as the Chinese texts I have in my library who give you the same info at a fraction of the cost, less room on your shelf and a lot less speculation.

Thanks to Maciocia we have a solid intro to TCM, for that I think we are all indebted ... but his factory of TCM books are a bit much considering you can get the real info from the source in Chinese Textbooks with both Chinese and English in them.

Yours,
Hastings

25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great study and reference book., January 22, 1999

By 

Flory ([e-mail]) (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Practice of Chinese Medicine: The Treatment of Diseases with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs, 1e (Hardcover)

This book blends, technically yet accesibly, Oriental and Western Medicine. Clear and to the point, it comprises abundant case studies to illustrate the diseases and treatments presented. It is a must for anyone incorporating Oriental Medicine/Western Medicine in their practice.