Institute for Traditional Medicine
Portland, Oregon
Welcome to the Institute for Traditional Medicine (ITM) Updates Webpage
The main ITM website, which has our earlier articles, is: www.itmonline.org. It remains a major source of information from our organization with several hundred articles.
This Updates website has newer articles and will gradually incorporate updated versions of most of the older articles. Please check this update site regularly to see the latest additions to the list of available articles. Also, for more information about ITM and its operations, including financial disclosure, please see Institute for Traditional Medicine Finance, Tax Filing, and ProgramAccomplishments. After reading that explanatory information, if you wish to view the submitted tax form, this link will take you to it: ITM 990.
The primary intended audience for the majority of ITM articles is practitioners of traditional medicine, especially traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and students of these medical systems. Therefore, the writings presume a certain basic knowledge of historical texts, medical jargon, and commonly used herbs, formulas, and treatment techniques, such as acupuncture. The primary author, Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D. (Director of ITM) does not, in posting this information, intend to convince practitioners (and non-professionals) of the effectiveness of traditional medicine. Rather, the aim of this information is to explain the concepts and reasoning behind treatment strategies and to aid practitioners in the process of selecting among many possible therapeutic options.
The original ITM website was constructed over a period of twenty years (1996-2016), with the work of Chris Dorr and Dianne Foster. It utilizes an old style of computer coding; we no longer have routine access to the site for modifications. With this new Updates site, each article link opens the article as a PDF document, which allows you to see it in the original formatting. These are copyrighted materials and may be used for your own studies; with permission, they may be copied for students or other educational distribution. Permission is not granted to post these articles on other websites, though translators may inquire about providing translated versions on certain sites. The current site was set-up by Allison Kwesell, Ph.D., and is managed by Anemone Fresh, N.D., L.Ac.
Technical questions about herbs, formulas, treatment principles, acupuncture strategies, patient diagnostics, etc., may be addressed to the ITM Director ([email protected]). For best results, identify yourself and your work, present briefly what you know about the subject and where you have need for assistance. For non-practitioners, some questions can also be answered, but the Director is solely providing explanatory information and is not serving as a health care practitioner or advisor. To aid in finding a local practitioner, this website has a guidance with the drop down menu titled “TCM Practitioners.”
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Biographical Notes about the Director, Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D.
I became involved in studies of herbal medicine and Asian healing systems in 1972, having completed University of Wisconsin courses in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and mathematics) and looking towards more wholistic fields to satisfy my other interests. I became involved in studies of yoga and Buddhism, and worked as a laboratory technician in a biochemistry facility (Enzyme Research Institute). Moving to the west coast, I studied and taught yoga in Vancouver, B.C., where I helped with a Healing Arts Symposium that exposed me to well-known herbal therapists, such as Dr. John Christopher. In Santa Cruz, California, I took up tai-chi and aikido and became involved in Tibetan medicine; my tai-chi teacher, Dale Strawhacker, introduced me to Chinese herb shops in San Francisco. Later, upon completing my Ph.D. research in biology (University of California 1979) and following four years work at the Fmali Herb Company as quality control and information specialist (with Ben Zaricor and Louise Veninga), I established the Institute for Traditional Medicine and Preventive Health Care (ITM) with my colleagues to provide educational and research opportunities. One of my early projects was to assist herbalist Michael Tierra in producing his first edition of Way of Herbs, and in that process I learned a considerable amount about traditional medicine frameworks. I was introduced to Dr. Hong-yen Hsu of the Oriental Healing Arts Institute, who provided me with several Chinese medicine texts that stimulated my efforts at explaining these valuable but difficult to understand therapeutics. This undertaking led to development of my training program Chinese Herbology. During a visit to northeast China with a team organized by Fmali Herb Company, I met Dr. Fu Kezhi, a retired herbal pharmacology professor, and entered into a long-term friendship and collaboration with him. The Oriental Healing Arts Institute invited me as a symposium speaker several times, as well as publishing articles I wrote for them. Dr. Fu searched out articles on subjects of interest and translated them for our organization. While working for Fmali Herb Company, I was also in contact with and exchanging information with the Herb Trade Association, the American Botanical Council, and the Herb Research Foundation, which gave me considerable insights into the entire field of herbal medicines, from wildcrafting to herb cultivation, pharmacology and clinic studies, manufacturing and product development, regulatory issues and how herbs entered into distribution. Many of my early students were studying to be or had become acupuncturists; the importance of understanding this medical therapy and its applications was evident. These early experiences and contacts (of which I have only mentioned a few as examples) that were developed over a period of about ten years, set up the situation where the career I currently pursue was launched. The posted articles reflect the different currents of influence on my understanding of the subject matter.
On a personal note, I am married (30+ years) to Edie Vickers, N.D., L.Ac., who practices at the two ITM clinics (An Hao Natural Health Care and Immune Enhancement Project), and we have a daughter who is a Doctor of Osteopathy; she has three children. I have been an active member of a charitable organization, Knights of Columbus, assisting in raising funds and distributing them to agencies throughout the region, for the past ten years.
The main ITM website, which has our earlier articles, is: www.itmonline.org. It remains a major source of information from our organization with several hundred articles.
This Updates website has newer articles and will gradually incorporate updated versions of most of the older articles. Please check this update site regularly to see the latest additions to the list of available articles. Also, for more information about ITM and its operations, including financial disclosure, please see Institute for Traditional Medicine Finance, Tax Filing, and ProgramAccomplishments. After reading that explanatory information, if you wish to view the submitted tax form, this link will take you to it: ITM 990.
The primary intended audience for the majority of ITM articles is practitioners of traditional medicine, especially traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and students of these medical systems. Therefore, the writings presume a certain basic knowledge of historical texts, medical jargon, and commonly used herbs, formulas, and treatment techniques, such as acupuncture. The primary author, Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D. (Director of ITM) does not, in posting this information, intend to convince practitioners (and non-professionals) of the effectiveness of traditional medicine. Rather, the aim of this information is to explain the concepts and reasoning behind treatment strategies and to aid practitioners in the process of selecting among many possible therapeutic options.
The original ITM website was constructed over a period of twenty years (1996-2016), with the work of Chris Dorr and Dianne Foster. It utilizes an old style of computer coding; we no longer have routine access to the site for modifications. With this new Updates site, each article link opens the article as a PDF document, which allows you to see it in the original formatting. These are copyrighted materials and may be used for your own studies; with permission, they may be copied for students or other educational distribution. Permission is not granted to post these articles on other websites, though translators may inquire about providing translated versions on certain sites. The current site was set-up by Allison Kwesell, Ph.D., and is managed by Anemone Fresh, N.D., L.Ac.
Technical questions about herbs, formulas, treatment principles, acupuncture strategies, patient diagnostics, etc., may be addressed to the ITM Director ([email protected]). For best results, identify yourself and your work, present briefly what you know about the subject and where you have need for assistance. For non-practitioners, some questions can also be answered, but the Director is solely providing explanatory information and is not serving as a health care practitioner or advisor. To aid in finding a local practitioner, this website has a guidance with the drop down menu titled “TCM Practitioners.”
______________________________________________________________________________________
Biographical Notes about the Director, Subhuti Dharmananda, Ph.D.
I became involved in studies of herbal medicine and Asian healing systems in 1972, having completed University of Wisconsin courses in the sciences (physics, chemistry, and mathematics) and looking towards more wholistic fields to satisfy my other interests. I became involved in studies of yoga and Buddhism, and worked as a laboratory technician in a biochemistry facility (Enzyme Research Institute). Moving to the west coast, I studied and taught yoga in Vancouver, B.C., where I helped with a Healing Arts Symposium that exposed me to well-known herbal therapists, such as Dr. John Christopher. In Santa Cruz, California, I took up tai-chi and aikido and became involved in Tibetan medicine; my tai-chi teacher, Dale Strawhacker, introduced me to Chinese herb shops in San Francisco. Later, upon completing my Ph.D. research in biology (University of California 1979) and following four years work at the Fmali Herb Company as quality control and information specialist (with Ben Zaricor and Louise Veninga), I established the Institute for Traditional Medicine and Preventive Health Care (ITM) with my colleagues to provide educational and research opportunities. One of my early projects was to assist herbalist Michael Tierra in producing his first edition of Way of Herbs, and in that process I learned a considerable amount about traditional medicine frameworks. I was introduced to Dr. Hong-yen Hsu of the Oriental Healing Arts Institute, who provided me with several Chinese medicine texts that stimulated my efforts at explaining these valuable but difficult to understand therapeutics. This undertaking led to development of my training program Chinese Herbology. During a visit to northeast China with a team organized by Fmali Herb Company, I met Dr. Fu Kezhi, a retired herbal pharmacology professor, and entered into a long-term friendship and collaboration with him. The Oriental Healing Arts Institute invited me as a symposium speaker several times, as well as publishing articles I wrote for them. Dr. Fu searched out articles on subjects of interest and translated them for our organization. While working for Fmali Herb Company, I was also in contact with and exchanging information with the Herb Trade Association, the American Botanical Council, and the Herb Research Foundation, which gave me considerable insights into the entire field of herbal medicines, from wildcrafting to herb cultivation, pharmacology and clinic studies, manufacturing and product development, regulatory issues and how herbs entered into distribution. Many of my early students were studying to be or had become acupuncturists; the importance of understanding this medical therapy and its applications was evident. These early experiences and contacts (of which I have only mentioned a few as examples) that were developed over a period of about ten years, set up the situation where the career I currently pursue was launched. The posted articles reflect the different currents of influence on my understanding of the subject matter.
On a personal note, I am married (30+ years) to Edie Vickers, N.D., L.Ac., who practices at the two ITM clinics (An Hao Natural Health Care and Immune Enhancement Project), and we have a daughter who is a Doctor of Osteopathy; she has three children. I have been an active member of a charitable organization, Knights of Columbus, assisting in raising funds and distributing them to agencies throughout the region, for the past ten years.