In the past when society was largely agrarian, in order for families to survive, they needed to have many children for work. The famous Chinese poet, Li Po, was the 16th son and his father didn't even bother to give him a name. He would say, "Hey, 16th son, go get the 8th son!" So, for thousands of years, it was crucial for the family to have many children for economic survival. I myself come from a large family in Tokyo with 24 uncles and aunts and 54 first cousins. My grandparents were married by the age of 17, and they had no birth control. My father was the 13th child and the only boy in the Shima family.
The Industrial Revolution from the 18th and 19th century started slowly, but it steadily changed the agrarian society to an industrial society over the next 250 years. Nowadays, women comprise 46.8% of the work force in the United States. More and more, the trend is that people are getting married later in life, and then start thinking about having a family after age 35! Both Chinese and Western medicine claim that 28 is THE prime age for a woman to get pregnant because a woman’s fertility starts to go down-hill after that age. In California alone, I have practiced Chinese medicine for infertility for over thirty years, and the age range of my infertility patients are between 35 and 46.
At the beginning of the 1980s, I remember I used to pay a great deal of attention to balancing Blood, and I must say that I had some good results. Then as I kept treating infertility among women over the age of 35, I started placing a lot more emphasis on Kidney Yin, Kidney Yang and Kidney Jing (Essence), because I came to realize that Blood was always either deficient or stagnant among “older” women, and in addition, their Kidneys were extremely depleted. I therefore began to fortify their Kidneys with herbs first. I then also started practicing the wisdom of the Qing Dynasty’s genius physician, Ye Tian-shi’s—prescribing a great deal of animal materia medica such as Lu Jiao Jiao (Colla Cornus Cervi), Bie Jia (Carapax Trionycis), and Gui Ban (Plastrum Testudinis), just to name a few. These herbs I have found are especially effective for burned-out modern career women.
In terms of acupuncture, I started intensively studying the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and Channel Divergences from Mr. Tadashi Irie, who became my life-time mentor until he passed away in late 1980s. Besides conventional TCM points for Blood and Kidneys, I have been using the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and Channel Divergences to exert direct influence on the reproductive organs. These methods of treatment are the culmination of my years of experience as a practitioner, and something that I hope to be able to impart to all of you through my courses.
About the Author
Dr. Miki Shima has been practicing acupuncture and Oriental medicine for over 30 years, specializing in immune disorders and infertility. Dr. Shima has taught over 200 workshops and seminars all over the U.S. and in other parts of the world. He is a speaker at most major Oriental medical conventions and one of the most popular teachers in Oriental medicine today, focusing on stimulating presentations of unique Japanese acupuncture and herbal techniques.
To learn more about infertility and Chinese Medicine, click here [2] to view a complete list of courses by Miki Shima.