Dr John H. F. Shen
by Ray Rubio, D.A.O.M., L. Ac. (Westlake Village, CA, USA)
Somehow, early in my practice about 10 years ago, I was lucky enough to come into contact with Dr. John Shen. At the time, I didn't know that this was "the" Dr. Shen, as in the famous Chinese Pulse Master and Herblist who was the inspiration for Dr. Leon Hammer's Pulse Book, and one of the major influences for Giovanni Maciocia, Jane Lyttleton, Lonny Jarrett, and many, many other leaders in our profession. I just found out that there was a workshop being offered in Berkley on advanced herbal prescribing, so I signed up and went. What an eye-opening, mind-opening, and heart-opening experience for me!
Dr. Shen was from the Menghe-Ding lineage of pre-moaist, pre-tcm Chinese physicians famous in Shanghai at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries. Like his predecessors of this lineage, Dr. Shen employed an extremely detailed pulse diagnosis system, a facial diagnosis system, and an herbal prescribing system that most closely resembled the Shang Han Lun style of prescribing characterized by very low dosages of individual herbs - often 1.5g to 3 or 6 g.
Dr. Shen was also renowned for the development of what he called "system diagnosis", wherein patients who have a multitude of signs and systems that don't fit neatly into any Zang-Fu pattern, can then be diagnosed with what Dr. Shen referred to as either "nervous system disease", "digestive system disease" or "circlatory system disease". (see chapter 14 in Dr. Leon Hammer's book, "Dragon Rises, Red Bird Flies" revised edition by Eastland Press for a thorough discussion of this topic).
In the few years that I was able to spend time with Dr. Shen in both his New York City practice, and in Shanghai before his death, I felt like I was given a glimpse into the past history of Chinese Medicine - before it became systematized and formulaic. What I learned from Dr. Shen, I mostly learned from watching him. Watching him ask questions, feel the pulse, and then tell the patient - not ask them - when, how, and why their disease or problem developed. By using facial diagnosis to determine the chronology of the disease, and using pulse/tongue and eyelid diagosis to assess the state of the nervous system, digestive system, and blood, then using probing questions to fill in the rest of the blanks - Dr. Shen was uncanny in his ability to unravel even the most mysterious and stubborn conditions. The following brief case will illustrate what I mean:
I was sitting with Dr. Shen while he saw patients during one of my trips to see him in New York City. Because Dr. Shen was quite famous, it was not uncommon for patients to fly from all over the world to come see him for help. On this particular day, a very elegant woman in her early 40's came in to see Dr. Shen complaining of violent, daily migraine headaches. Interestingly, this woman was the heir to one of the worlds most famous cosmetic/perfume families and had just flown in from Paris that day. She proceeded to explain to Dr. Shen that her headaches had started suddenly just about two years prior, and that she had been to see the best doctors in Europe to no avail. There was no family history of migraines, she had not had a head or neck injury preceding the onset of her headaches, and no medications had even been able to dull the pain even a little. She had also tried a virtual smorgasboard of alternative healers, again with no relief in her pain. Finally someone suggested that she see Dr. Shen, and so here she was.
Dr. Shen asked her some more questions about what she ate, when the pain was the worst, how was her sleep and stress levels, where the pain was localized, etc. The looked at her lower eyelid, and at her tongue very briefly, and finally he motioned for her to extend her wrist onto the pulse pillow so he could read her pulses. After spending about 5-10 minutes listening to her pulses, Dr. Shen sat back and proceeded to ask her how she was enjoying New York, where she was staying, was she going to see any shows while she was in town, etc. At this point, both the patient and I were slightly perplexed. I was perplexed because usually Dr. Shen would send the patient to the waiting room to wait while he wrote their herbal prescription, and he was just sitting there making small talk with her and not writing anything. The patient was annoyed because she had flown all the way from Paris to get help, not to chit-chat. Finally she started to weep, telling Dr. Shen that she didn't know how much longer she could live with these headaches, and that she had come to him to get herbal medicine to help her with the pain.
Dr. Shen paused, took her hand very gently in his, looked into her eyes and said that she didn't need herbs because she was already cured. I think my jaw dropped to floor, and she too looked absolutely flabbergasted. I wasn't used to Dr. Shen playing the faith-healer, so I wasn't sure what he meant. Finally, he looked at her and asked her if she had perhaps started wearing any new mascara about two years ago, around when the headaches started. She thought for a moment while she wiped her eyes, and then she slowly nodded her head and answered that her cosmetics company had launched a new mascara at that time which was formulated to be a "24-hour" mascara and be more long lasting after being applied. She had taken to wearing it at that time. Dr. Shen sat back and smiled and said that this was the cause of her headaches. He proceeded to explain that because all of her neurological and physical exams had turned up no cause to her headaches, and because there was no family history of them, and because the onset was so sudden without any head injury, Dr.Shen felt that the cause of the headaches had to be something local (in the head) causing an allerghic reaction. He said that the lower eyelid showed a chemical reaction in the bloodstream, and the pulse indicated the same thing. He then said that he also noted that when he had examined her lower eyelid, he noticed that the mascara did not come off on his fingers like it normally did with female patients. Dr. Shen advised her to stop wearing that mascara, and from that day on she was free of headaches. After that, whenever she was visiting New York City, she would make a point to stop in and drop off a present to Dr. Shen.
The patient above was only once of hundreds that I observed with Dr. Shen where he used his superior powers of observation and logical thinking to unravel very difficult cases. Dr. Shen always reminded me it is more important to understand life, than to understand disease, because disease usually comes from life. He said that being a doctor of Chinese Medicine was very similar to being Sherlock Holmes - one had to be an astute observer of even the smallest details. Sadly, Dr. Shen passed away at 90, still much too soon for myself and his other students and patients who knew him and loved him. From him I learned that all of the herbal knowledge and acupuncture knowledge in the world mean very little without the correct diagnosis.
Ray Rubio, D.A.O.M., L. Ac., (FABORM), is President of the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine (ABORM), and Chair of the Reproductive Medicine Department at the Yo San University DAOM Program in Los Angeles.
Dr. Rubio has been in practice for more than a decade, and his practice focuses exclusively on the treatment of Male and Female Reproductive Disorders/Infertility.
Dr. Rubio is a member in good standing of ASRM, PCRS, ESHRE, and Resolve, and he lectures frequently to Acupuncturists on the topic of Infertility and TCM. Dr. Rubio is also President of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Special Interest Group for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
Dr. Rubio has also presented to the REI Fellows Program UCLA/Cedars Sinai Medical School program, and he lectures on the subject of Male and Female Infertility for the Lotus Institute, Health Stream/TCM TV, and for both the AAAOM Expo and the Southwest Symposium. He also mentors other Acupuncturists who wish to study Reproductive Medicine.
機(jī)翻:
沈鶴峰博士
雷盧比奧，華盛頓特區(qū)，洛杉磯。(美國加利福尼亞州西湖村)
不知怎的，在我大約10年前的實(shí)習(xí)初期，我有幸接觸到沈約翰博士。當(dāng)時，我不知道這就是沈博士，就像中國著名的脈學(xué)大師和草藥專家一樣，他是利昂·哈默博士脈學(xué)著作的靈感來源，也是喬瓦尼·麥克伊奇亞、簡·利特爾頓、朗尼·賈勒特以及我們這個行業(yè)許多其他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的主要影響之一。我剛發(fā)現(xiàn)伯克利有一個關(guān)于高級草藥處方的研討會，于是我報名去了。對我來說，這是多么令人眼界大開、心胸開闊、心胸開闊的經(jīng)歷?。?/p>
沈博士出身于19世紀(jì)末20世紀(jì)初上海著名的前中醫(yī)孟河丁氏家族。沈博士和他的先輩一樣，采用了極為詳細(xì)的脈診系統(tǒng)、面部診斷系統(tǒng)和草藥處方系統(tǒng)，這些系統(tǒng)與《傷寒論》的處方非常相似，其特點(diǎn)是每味草藥的劑量非常低，通常為1.5g至3或6g
沈博士還以發(fā)展他所稱的“系統(tǒng)診斷”而聞名，在這種診斷中，如果病人有許多與臟腑模式不完全相符的體征和系統(tǒng)，就可以被診斷為“神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)疾病”、“消化系統(tǒng)疾病”或“循環(huán)系統(tǒng)疾病”。(關(guān)于這一主題的詳細(xì)討論，請參閱東方出版社修訂版萊昂·哈默博士的著作《龍飛鳳舞》第14章)。
在幾年的時間里，我得以與沈博士一起在紐約和上海行醫(yī)，在沈博士去世前，我感覺自己仿佛被給予了一瞥中醫(yī)過去的歷史——在它系統(tǒng)化和公式化之前。我從沈博士那里學(xué)到的東西，大部分是從觀察他那里學(xué)到的?？粗麊枂栴}，感受脈搏，然后告訴病人——不要問他們——什么時候、怎樣、為什么他們的疾病或問題會發(fā)展。通過面部診斷來確定疾病的時間表，并通過脈搏/舌頭和眼瞼診斷來評估神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)、消化系統(tǒng)和血液的狀態(tài)，然后通過探查性問題來填補(bǔ)剩下的空白——沈博士甚至能夠解開最神秘和最頑固的狀況，這是不可思議的。下面的簡短案例將說明我的意思:
我和沈博士坐在一起，他在我去紐約看他的一次旅行中看到了病人。因?yàn)樯虿┦亢苡忻?，所以從世界各地飛來看他尋求幫助的病人并不少見。在這個特別的日子里，一個40多歲的優(yōu)雅女人走進(jìn)來看沈醫(yī)生，抱怨她每天都有劇烈的偏頭痛。有趣的是，這位女士是世界上最著名的化妝品/香水家族之一的繼承人，那天剛從巴黎飛來。她接著向沈博士解釋說，大約兩年前，她的頭痛突然開始，她去歐洲最好的醫(yī)生那里看病都沒有用。沒有偏頭痛的家族史，她在頭痛發(fā)作之前沒有頭部或頸部受傷，甚至沒有藥物能夠減輕疼痛。她還嘗試了一個替代治療者的虛擬自助餐，同樣沒有減輕她的痛苦。最后有人建議她去見沈博士，于是她來了。
沈博士還問了她一些問題，比如她吃了什么，什么時候疼痛最嚴(yán)重，她的睡眠和壓力水平如何，疼痛的部位等。他看了看她的下眼瞼，又看了看她的舌頭，最后他示意她把手腕伸到脈搏枕上，這樣他就能讀出她的脈搏。沈博士花了大約5 - 10分鐘聽完她的脈搏后，坐了下來，繼續(xù)問她在紐約過得怎么樣，她住在哪里，她在城里的時候會去看演出嗎等等。此時，病人和我都有點(diǎn)困惑。我很困惑，因?yàn)樯蜥t(yī)生通常會把病人送到候診室等待，而他寫的草藥處方，他只是坐在那里與她閑聊，沒有寫任何東西。病人很生氣，因?yàn)樗菑陌屠柽h(yuǎn)道而來尋求幫助，而不是閑聊。最后，她哭了起來，告訴沈醫(yī)生，她不知道自己還能忍受這些頭痛多久，她來找沈醫(yī)生要草藥來幫助她緩解疼痛。
沈博士停頓了一下，輕輕地握住她的手，看著她的眼睛，說她不需要草藥，因?yàn)樗呀?jīng)痊愈了。我想我的下巴掉到地上了，她看上去也大吃一驚。我不習(xí)慣沈博士扮演信仰治療者，所以我不知道他的意思。最后，他看了看她，問她大概兩年前頭痛開始時是否開始涂睫毛膏。她擦了擦眼睛，想了一會兒，然后慢慢點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，回答說化妝品公司當(dāng)時推出了一種新的睫毛膏，這種睫毛膏被配制成“24小時”睫毛膏，使用后更持久。那時她已經(jīng)習(xí)慣了戴它。沈博士坐了回去，笑著說這是她頭疼的原因。他接著解釋說，因?yàn)樗械纳窠?jīng)和身體檢查都沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)引起頭痛的原因，也因?yàn)闆]有家族史，而且因?yàn)榘l(fā)病如此突然，沒有頭部受傷沈覺得頭痛的原因一定是局部(頭部)引起過敏反應(yīng)。他說，下眼瞼在血流中顯示出化學(xué)反應(yīng)，脈搏也顯示出同樣的情況。他接著說，他還注意到，當(dāng)他檢查她的下眼瞼時，他注意到睫毛膏沒有像通常對女性患者那樣掉在手指上。沈博士建議她停止使用睫毛膏，從那天起，她就不再頭疼了。此后，每當(dāng)她訪問紐約市時，她都會特意停下來，送上一份禮物給沈博士。
上面的病人只是我和沈博士一起觀察到的數(shù)百個病人中的一個，沈博士利用他卓越的觀察力和邏輯思維來解開非常困難的病例。沈博士總是提醒我了解生活比了解疾病更重要，因?yàn)榧膊⊥ǔ碜陨?。他說，當(dāng)中醫(yī)和當(dāng)夏洛克·霍姆斯非常相似——一個人必須敏銳地觀察哪怕是最細(xì)微的細(xì)節(jié)。遺憾的是，沈博士在90歲去世，對我和其他認(rèn)識他并愛他的學(xué)生和病人來說，這還為時過早。從他那里我了解到，如果沒有正確的診斷，世界上所有的草藥知識和針灸知識都是微不足道的。
雷盧比奧，華盛頓特區(qū)，洛杉磯。，是美國東方生殖醫(yī)學(xué)委員會( ABORM )主席，洛杉磯Yo San大學(xué)DAOM項(xiàng)目生殖醫(yī)學(xué)系系主任。
Rubio博士已經(jīng)從事了十多年的實(shí)踐，他的實(shí)踐僅側(cè)重于治療男性和女性生殖障礙/不育。
魯比奧博士是ASRM、PCRS、ESHRE和resolution的優(yōu)秀會員，他經(jīng)常向針灸師講授不孕癥和中醫(yī)的主題。魯比奧博士也是美國生殖醫(yī)學(xué)協(xié)會( ASRM )補(bǔ)充和替代醫(yī)學(xué)特別興趣小組的主席。
魯比奧博士還向REI研究員方案UCLA / Cedars Sinai醫(yī)學(xué)院方案作了介紹，并在蓮花研究所、保健流/中醫(yī)電視、aaom博覽會和西南專題討論會上就男女不育問題作了演講。他還指導(dǎo)其他想學(xué)習(xí)生殖醫(yī)學(xué)的針灸師。
