A beginner’s guide to this Eastern point of view.
by sherry j. chen, nd
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been around for thousands of years and views the body as a whole — all while integrating the mind and spirit. In fact, there are many hospitals in China that solely dedicate their practices to it. (Although more and more hospitals in China have integrated both TCM with conventional Western medicine).
Acupuncture is probably the most well-studied and known aspect of TCM in the west. It can be used for many types of illnesses, but it is most popular for pain management. Those who seek acupuncture treatments may be people who are experiencing anything from chronic constipation and acne to migraines and PMS. The applications are not limited to one disease as TCM works on a fluid model of medicine.
Chinese herbal medicine is another aspect of TCM. Herbal formulas by practitioners are usually based on thousand-year-old formulas; however, they’re altered according to the specific needs of each patient. Not to mention, herbal medicine is used to counter the process of aging and can be consumed as an herbal broth or soup.
Other practices within TCM include Tui Na (the application of pressure, stretching, manipulation and such by the therapist to illicit a healing response); Gua Sha (the use of scraping motions on areas of the body to release blockages); cupping (suctioning cups to the body to help improve the flow of energy or remove blockages); food therapy (based on the fact that foods have different properties that can influence a person’s health); and finally, Qigong (an exercise that helps build and move energy within the body).
Before any treatments are carried out, a TCM practitioner usually gets a detailed history of the patient’s health. All in all, the technique of how to weave the intricate story of the patient into finding the root cause of the illness is the art of traditional Chinese medicine.
REFERENCES
A history of Chinese medicine, D Hoizey, MJ Hoizey, P Bailey, PU Unschuld – 1993 – Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh.
Advances in the acupuncture treatment of acne. Dai G. Hospital of Shandong College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong Province. 1997 Mar;17(1):65-72.
Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica by Dan Bensky, Andrew Gamble, Mark Saltzman, Ted J. Kaptchuk, Marisa Saltzman, Jeffrey C Yuen. Edition: 12, revised
Published by Eastland Press, 1993.
