Dr. Brianna Livesay Thayakaran, DOM, LAc

Have you ever wondered how a medical system that's thousands of years old can still make sense of today's health concerns?

Here's a thought: maybe there aren't really any *new* diseases—just new names for patterns that have existed all along.

That's what I explore in this week's Substack. If you're interested in integrative health, East Asian medicine, or seeing modern illness through a different lens, I think you'll enjoy it.

Read more here: https://open.substack.com/pub/drthayalive/p/nothing-new-under-the-sun-what-ancient?r=8a9tqq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

While reviewing the core beliefs used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), I noticed an unexpected parallel with the twelve acupuncture channels of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It sparked a fascinating question: could these two seemingly different systems be describing the same human experience through different lenses?

In this week's Substack, I explore this original framework and the questions each channel invites us to ask.

Read it here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/drthayalive/p/two-maps-of-the-human-mind-cognitive?r=8a9tqq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

This week’s Substack looks at one of the most controversial prayer studies ever published, and what happens when we take seriously the idea that some things might sit at the edge of what science can currently explain.

Prayer, acupuncture, and the limits of measurement.

Read substack article here: https://open.substack.com/pub/drthayalive/p/prayer-isnt-the-woo-woo-part-anymore?r=8a9tqq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Can a broken heart really break the heart? In this week’s Substack, we explore the embodiment of the mind and demonstrate how the heart, brain and emotion all converge. We examine what Western medicine describes as Broken Heart Syndrome and how it influences what Chinese Medicine refers to as Shen.

Read article here: https://open.substack.com/pub/drthayalive/p/when-emotion-becomes-biology-the?r=8a9tqq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true