Golden Needle Practitioner Library

by Bob Flaws

Recently a Blue Poppy customer told us how successful Blue Poppy Burn Ointment is for radiation-induced burns. Radiation burns are damage to the skin or other biological tissue caused by exposure to radio frequency energy or “ionizing radiation.” When radiotherapy is used to treat various types of cancer, burns from the radiation are often an unavoidable side effect. These burns can cause great discomfort and distress to the patient. According to this patient’s practitioner, Blue Poppy Burn Ointment is the only thing that has been markedly successful in treating these burns. While most practitioners immediately understand that our Burn Ointment is indicated for other common, every-day types of burns, such as being burnt by fire or touching an extremely hot object, they may not think of radiation burns as within the scope of this remedy. However, radiation burns are most definitely within the scope of our Burn Ointment.

Follow up: 

In fact, I first began treating radiation burns subsequent to cancer therapy with a version of this ointment in the early 1980s based on an article in the long-defunct Journal of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For those who were not around at the time, ACTCM was started in San Francisco by C.S. Cheung, and its journal was one of the first and best sources of information on the then novel style (at least in the U.S.) of TCM. Due to the clarity, logic, and mature doctoral demeanor of its articles (all translated from Chinese), it was this journal more than any other source in English which convinced me that TCM was the style of Oriental medicine I wanted to practice. I had been eclectically collecting any and all information on Oriental medicine since 1977, but when I first came across the JACTCM, it was like a light went off in my head. After reading several issues, I went out to San Francisco to interview for applying to ACTCM. Ironically, because I had been in practice as an acupuncturist for five years, the interview panel felt I was over-qualified. So, leaving that interview, I immediately applied to the Shanghai College of TCM’s acupuncture program for non-Chinese health care professionals. When I cam back to the States, I continued reading the JACTCM until it stopped publication with (I believe) the retirement of Dr. Cheung. In any case, I first got turned on to treating radiation burns with a version of our burn ointment from this journal so many years ago.

So, if you have any patients suffering from radiation burns, give our ointment a try. And also don’t forget that the most common type of radiation burn is a sunburn caused by UV radiation. Blue Poppy Burn Ointment can also be used for that. Given that it’s summer, I know there’s no shortage of sunburns out there.

Copyright Blue Poppy Ent., Inc., 2009. All rights reserved.