Michael Moore's constitutional intake form.

From: "Niamh" <niamh.nmcginley.fsnet.co.uk>
To: <herb.lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 21:06:26 -0000
Subject: [Herb] constitutional intake form

Good, have been waiting for an excuse to ask about that. How do you get a picture from the various parts about the constitution, I know some of them are common sense. for example, stuffy nose in morning, stuffy nose in evening or nausea am/ pm. How do these things add up?

Níamh

From: Henriette Kress <hetta.spamcop.net>

(Niamh talks about the intake form from the herbal energetics booklet. <a href="liver-energetics.html">That booklet was mentioned earlier today, <a href="http://www.swsbm.com/ManualsMM/MansMM.html">compleat with URL.)

'kay, Niamh, you noticed that the lines to put the _X_es on are divided into

The art is to know why any given _X_ is on the "hot" or "cold" side. Once you know that you know how important each _X_ is - that means you can discount the unimportant ones. My rule of thumb is, more'n 3 Xses difference (in the larger groups) is a clear sign; more'n 2 (in the smaller groups) is a clear sign. Either have to be confirmed by talking over the Xses with the client; I ask "so how often" and "how interesting, tell me more" - it's pretty easy to get a full picture that way.

There's some people who put Xses everywhere ("I had that 20 years ago, should I mark it?" ... no, actually, I'm after the current picture. You can put history into parenthesis if you like, though.).

Other people don't mark anything.

With both I just go through the intake form verbally, from start to finish.

Then there's the patterns.

If the liver is hot then upper and lower GI, kidneys, and reproductive should be neutral to hot - certainly not cold. (If you've read the booklet you should be able to tell me why that is so... class, there will be a test in a weeknahalf.) If there's discordance you should look for patterns, problems, trouble. And if nothing your client tells you can explain _why_ the patterns don't match up, you might want to refer them to a MD for a full checkup.

In the same vein: if the liver is cold then upper and lower gi, kidneys, and reproductive should be neutral to cold - not hot. Again, if not, look for patterns, problems, trouble.

That intake form, properly understood, is an admirable tool for pinpointing the weakest system(s), the one(s) that, if inflamed, should be left alone and built around, and if not inflamed, should be shored up with mild herbs.

Also, understanding it all really drives home the point that the liver is the most important organ there is. If it is out of balance (hot, or cold, as the case may be) then all the rest limps along, too. So help the liver first; and help the rest if there's any problems left over, after the liver is back in balance.

This is probably why I go through oodles and doodles of liver herbs.

One of my students asked me, Hey teach, it seems that everybody who comes in has a cold liver, how come? Kid, said I, hot liver folks don't visit herbalists. They don't have insidious problems that MDs and their meds can't help. Cold liver folks have allergies, and gut problems, and all that jazz. Hot liver people have high blood pressure, and that's pretty much it, until they keel over at a fairly early age.

From: "Niamh" <niamh.nmcginley.fsnet.co.uk>

> That intake form, properly understood, is an admirable tool for pinpointing the weakest system(s), the one(s) that, if inflamed, should be left alone and built around, and if not inflamed, should be shored up with mild herbs.

Thank you so much for that, am going to try to digest it as soon as I have room......

So do use it as the starting point for your consultations, or do you take your case history first and then tie up the ends with it? I think it is fantastic, for the simple reason that when you get down an avenue with a patient it's sometimes hard to get up again and see a broader picture. It can get a bit too focused especially when there is a lot of illnesses to deal with it. The day to day functions, ultimately the greatest pointers to imbalance get brushed over and then you can't see the wood for the trees.

From: Henriette Kress <hetta.spamcop.net>

> So do use it as the starting point for your consultations, or do you take your case history first and then tie up the ends with it?

First, I write down the problem the client came in for.

Then, they get the intake form. That then is a basis for all discussions.

If I don't write down what they came in for I tend to forget it ... so they get all in balance, but that might not touch their most vexing troubles for a while. Troubles irritating enough to seek out an alternative practitioner, eh? And it makes sense to give relief on those, with symptom-masking herbs if needed, and work on long-term wellness separately. That makes for happy clients, which means more clients.

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Related entries: Cold and hot liver, western style
Also see: Blog: Liver energetics in alcoholics - Blog: Hot vs. cold liver.