What is Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) ?
5,000 years of TCM, the greatest medicine in the world
TCM is a unique, distinct and independent medical system that has been practiced in China for more than 5,000 years and has been developed continuously throughout the centuries. It’s still the medicine of choice in China today, although Western medicine is practiced alongside it. Guided by a wealth of clinical experience and understanding, therapeutic TCM treatment brings impressive results to many diseases, with far fewer side effects.
Chinese Medicine had been exported to Europe and other continents hundreds and thousands of years ago, being practiced in more than 100 countries around the world, and influencing the development of many other herbal medicines in regions outside Asia. The influence of TCM on other alternative medicines (including homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic, physical therapy, etc.) can potentially be much more profound and significant than most people realize. Therefore, TCM is in a leading position in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), and serves the largest CAM patient population in the world.
TCM has a holistic approach to diagnosing, preventing and treating diseases by identifying patterns and then applying the individual or combined therapies of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, acupressure (tuina-a therapeutic massage), moxibustion or cupping, reflexology, tai chi and Qi gong. Its unique characteristics, which distinguish it from ‘orthodox’ medicine, are rooted in the “concept of holism” and “treatment according to syndrome differentiation”. Therefore, TCM can treat conditions that don’t necessarily fall into a particular ‘disease category’ or undiagnosable with Western medicine. More and more people in the Western world are turning to ancient techniques of TCM after conventional medical treatments fail them.
What makes TCM different from Western medicine
In TCM, both philosophically and medically, moderation in all things is advocated, as is living in harmony with nature and striving for balance in all things. Prevention is also a key goal of Chinese medicine, and much emphasis is placed on educating the patient to live responsibly.
One major difference is how the patient is regarded. In Western medicine, patients with similar complaints or diseases, usually will receive virtually the same treatment. In TCM, we believe in treating every patient differently, based on the notion that one does not treat the disease or condition but rather the individual patient. Thus two people with the same complaint may be treated entirely differently, because identical diseases can have entirely different causes if their constitutions and life situations are dissimilar. Disease is also considered to be evidence of the failure of preventive health care and a falling out of balance or harmony. In terms of the principles upon which it is based and the methods used, TCM, therefore, is considered by many in the West to be a radically different system of healthcare.
There is some confusion in the West about the fundamental philosophical principles upon which traditional Chinese medicine is based—such as the concept of yin and yang, the notion of five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water), and the concept of qi (chi)—yet each can be explained in a way that is understandable to Westerners.
Yin and yang describe the interdependent relationship of opposing but complementary forces believed to be necessary for a healthy life. Basically, the goal is to maintain a balance of yin and yang in all things.
The five elements, or five-phase theory, is also grounded in the notion of harmony and balance. The concept of qi (chi), which means something like "life force" or "energy," is perhaps most different from Western ideas. TCM asserts that qi is an invisible energy force that flows freely in a healthy person, but is weakened or blocked when a person is ill. Specifically, the illness is a result of the blockage, rather than the blockage being the result of the illness.
Besides these philosophical concepts that differ considerably from infection-based principles of medicine and health, the methods employed by TCM are also quite different. If allopathic Western practitioners could be described as interventionist and dependent on synthetic pharmaceuticals, TCM methods are mostly natural and noninvasive. For example, where Western physicians might employ surgery and chemotherapy or radiation for a cancer patient, a TCM physician might use acupuncture, tuina, cupping, moxabustion and dietary changes. TCM believes in "curing the root" of a disease and not merely in treating its symptoms.
To some in the Western world, this very strangeness is the reason why it might be attractive. To others, tired of what they perceive as their doctors' perfunctory, analytical, and sometimes cold manner, TCM offers a more humane, patient-oriented approach that encourages a high degree of practitioner-patient interaction and is not overly dependent on technology.
