Traditional Chinese Medicine TCM
Compared to Western medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with its history of thousands of years, is something completely different. While Western medicine mainly treats symptoms, TCM understands the body as an integrated whole and disease is seen as an imbalance within the body. As all parts of the body are linked in subtle ways, by treating patients, TCM restores balance between the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects. Also, TCM sees each patient as having his or her unique pattern of symptoms that form a syndrome or pattern of imbalance. TCM therefore does not treat specific diseases. This approach gives each patient an own individual treatment.
TCM sees the human body as the result of yin and yang. While yin is the inner, negative principle, yang is the outer, postive one. A person gets sick whenever the two aspects lose their harmony.
TCM believes that vital energy is the essential substance of which the human body is composed. These vital energies are qi, blood, essence, and other body fluids.
Qi is the energy that makes us think, feel, and move. It is derived from the air we breathe in and the food we take to us. When qi is blocked, the function of our organs is adversely affected and diseases may result.
Blood is the material base for bones, muscles, nerves, skin, and organs. It also contains the spirit with which the psyche is balanced.
Essence is the body’s regenerative and reproductive substance. It regulates growth, reproduction and development and, together with qi, helps to protect the body from harm.
Body fluids protect, lubricate, and nurture the body together with the blood. While dehydration may result in dry skin or constipation, excess fluids can produce lethargy.
These vital energies circulate through the meridians and link all different parts of the body. A person is healthy when they flow smoothly, but when they are congested or blocked, various symptoms of illness may result.
TCM and The Five Elements
The five elements, fire, earth, metal, water, and wood represent the processes around the cycle of nature and thus also apply for the human body. This cycle of nature is seen as:
wood feeds fire; fire produces ashes out of which earth is formed; the earth contains metal which when heated becomes liquid and this liquid turns into water vapor; water again nourishes wood.
The five elements and how they relate to the human body are seen as follows:
In TCM the element fire relates to the functions of the heart and small intestine. The earth element represents the stomach and the spleen. Metal is embodied in the lungs and the large intestine. Water relates to the urinary bladder and the kidney. Finally, the element wood relates to the liver and the gallbladder. Ideally these five elements maintain balance in a body.
TCM and the Four Methods of Diagnosis
The four methods of diagnosis are: observation, auscultation and olfaction, pulse taking and palpation, and inquiry. As the human body is an organic whole and all parts are connected with each other, the inside is related with the outside and the outside with the inside. Pathological changes inside are reflected outside.
Observation means that a doctor watches the outward appearance of a patient. As the inside corresponds with the outside, when an inner organ doesn’t work right, it will be reflected on the outside through skin pallor, tongue, the sensory organs of the face, and excrement.
Auscultation and olfaction are methods for a doctor to gather information through hearing and smelling.
Pulse taking and palpation may be the most important aspect of the whole examination. The pulse differs in depth, speed, strength, shape, and rhythm. Different conditions of the pulse refer to different pathological syndromes. The palpation includes pressing the skin, hands, feet, chest, abdomen, and other areas to search for pathological changes.
Inquiry is a way for a doctor to learn more about the patient’s condition by questioning the patient and his relatives.
Through these four diagnostic methods, a TCM doctor will be able to find out what’s wrong with a patient and will then be able to prescribe the best treatment.
TCM Treatment Methods
TCM knows two main treatment methods, herbal therapy and acupuncture. Other methods include acupressure or massage and moxibustion.
Herbal Therapy
While the Chinese pharmacopoeia lists more than 6,000 different medicinal substances, there are about 600 herbs in common use today. They are classified according to their temperature characteristics, such as hot, warm, cold, and neutral and to their taste, namely sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, and salty. However, it is important to understand that one herb does not just possess one quality. It is rather a combination of properties that may reach as many as twelve organs. For instance, a patient suffering from heat disorders may be treated with a mixture of cold herbs and warm herbs, as long as the overall mixture remains on the cool side. Likewise a patient suffering from cold disorders may be treated with a mixture of cold and warm herbs as long as the overall mixture is on the warm side.
Therefore, TCM doctors rarely prescribe just one herb to treat a condition. Instead they prescribe formulas which may contain up to twenty different herbs.
Acupuncture, Acupressure/Massage and Moxibustion
Acupuncture, acupressure/massage and moxibustion base on the theory of meridians. According to this theory, the vital energies qi and blood circulate in the body through a complex system of channels which are called meridians. These meridians connect internal organs with external organs or tissue. Through stimulating certain external points of the body which are reached by meridians, the flow of qi and blood is regulated and diseases are treated. There are twelve pairs of regular meridians systematically distributed on both sides of the body and two major meridians that run along the midlines of the abdomen and back. Along these meridians, more than three hundred stimulation or acupuncture points are known, each having its own importance in therapy.
These points can be stimulated with needles as in acupuncture, with a practioner’s hands and fingers as in massage or by moxibustion where moxa sticks made of dry moxa leaves are ignited and held above the specific acupuncture points. Acupuncture and moxibustion are often combined.
Effectiveness of TCM
While for people in the West, the principles of TCM may be difficult to comprehend, there is no doubt about its effectiveness. TCM has been proved to be successful in treating numerous conditions from allergies to weight loss. But also certain forms of cancer and, as recent studies have shown, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS are known to positively react to TCM treatment. Many Western physicians have begun to understand the benefits of TCM and now include acupuncture, herbal remedies, or other components of TCM (obviously just on a very limited basis) as part of their practice. TCM is not only very effective, it also causes almost no adverse side effects and, compared to Western medicine, is a lot cheaper.
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