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Kungfu and Arthritis Foreward
to Arthritis: The Chinese Way of Healing and Prevention
Perry A. Chapdelaine, Sr., Executive Director/Secretary
The Arthritis Trust of America/The Rheumatoid
Disease Foundation
Until the exceptional journey of Marco Polo in the thirteenth
century, Europeans viewed scientific, religious, medical, and philo-
sophical ideas in a very limited manner, perceiving themselves as
the world’s, if not the universe’s, center.
Marco Polo brought to Western consciousness but a tiny frac-
tion of long accumulated Chinese wisdom, including knowledge of
the invention of gunpowder, printing press, rocketry, and, of course,
the shocking details of a huge civilization already thousands of
years old.
Had thirteenth century Western thought-leaders been suffi-
ciently open to new ideas, Marco Polo could have prepared us for
a workable medical system based on the Chinese concept of pri-
mary energy, a subtle bio-electrical force pervading our every cell,
common to us all, and capable of preventing illness, healing when
ill, and extending life and it’s quality.
While a great deal of Chinese wisdom was still locked up in
the archives of special teachers (masters) under the seal of secrecy,
we would nonetheless have learned much about healing from the
vast array of material already available in the thirteenth century:
acupuncture, herbology, massage, beneficial breathing techniques,
and, most importantly, the many ways to distribute and to increase
the flow of this subtle energy force which they called “Qi,” pro-
nounced “Chi.”
Apparently Western consciousness has at last prepared itself
to receive this grand Chinese legacy, because “Qigong” (energy
work) knowledge and training, or its offshoots, have proliferated
greatly in Western society during just the past twenty years. West-
ern medicine has begun to accept the existence of Qi and its circu-
lation in the body .
Yang Jwing-Ming, Ph.D. is indeed a master when describing
in numerous published volumes the extensive Chinese literature,
explaining not just well-known facets of the lore, but also reveal-
ing those long-hidden, secret manuscripts that were until the 1970s
reserved for the elite.
Dr. Jwing-Ming’s Arthritis: The Chinese Way of Healing and
Prevention describes how virtually all disease states, including the
many various forms of arthritis, can be conquered or changed by
deliberately changing our own flow of bioelectrical current.
With the guidance of one such as Yang Jwing-Ming, we learn
many simple exercises which condition our tissues and permit us to
increase the flow of blood, thus oxygen and other nourishment, to
those parts of the body in need.
More importantly, we’re taught to “lead” our Qi forces our-
selves, so that we can direct the flow of this primary subtle energy.
According to Dr. Jwing-Ming, “In order to use Qigong to maintain
and improve your health you must know that there is Qi in your
body, and you must understand how it circulates and what you can
do to insure that the circulation is smooth and strong.” All this, and
more, is presented in clear language that seems to flow easily from
a very patient teacher.
While the 4,000 year history of shrewd Chinese observation
resulted in many beneficial methods for preventing illness, or achiev-
ing wellness, none is more basic to the arthritic that that which is
described in this book.
As representative of a non-profit, charity foundation dedicated
to wiping the scourge of arthritis from the earth’s face, and because
of the quality and content of Arthritis: The Chinese Way of Healing
and Prevention, my Board of Directors could do no less than
prompt me to recommend this book to the forty million Ameri-
cans who suffer from osteoarthritis, the six million who suffer from
rheumatoid arthritis, the one million gout sufferers, and the thir-
teen million or so who suffer from various forms of related, so-
called “auto-immune” or collagen tissue diseases.
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Arthritis: The Chinese Way of Healing and Prevention, Yang’s
Martial Arts Association, ISBN 1-886969-42-6
®
