Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine

This article gives a brief introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM. It also includes a little bit on the history of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Traditional Chinese Medicine is an ancient medicinal science that originated in China about 3000 years ago, wherein the approach to understanding the human body is based on the holistic understanding of the Universe as stipulated in Taoism.

In other words, this means that the human body is an organic being of wholeness by itself but is also a unified entity connected with nature. This premise then makes it plausible that any changes in the natural environment will directly or indirectly affect it in some manner.

Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine Treatment

For example, geographical environments are believed to influence differences in physical constitution of the body. This is a factor that will be taken into consideration in TCM at the time of diagnosis and treatment prescribed to bring the body back to its original state of wholeness.

Thus, in TCM, the guiding principles of diagnosis and treatment are in accordance with seasons and environments, day and night cycles which will impact the functional aspects of the human body.

TCM therapy commences with analysis of the entire system and then addresses the correction of the pathological changes, to nurse the body back to health and vitality.

Thus, as is evident, the treatment of the disease is fundamentally different from the approach taken by western medicine in that, the treatment of any diseased condition is reached via a process of diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes.

To put this simply, evaluation of a syndrome includes assessing and reviewing the causative factors, location of disease, nature of disease, and also the confrontation between pathogenic factors and immune system of the body.

As opposed to the practice of western medicine, treatment is not based on symptoms alone, but the differentiation of syndromes is also taken into consideration. Thus, patients with the same or similar disease are provided different treatment plans, and patients with different diseases (but fall within the parameters of the same syndrome), are treated in a similar manner. This then, is the fundamental difference in approach between western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine Theories

Clinical diagnosis of diseases and syndromes in Traditional Chinese Medicine is chiefly arrived at via the concepts of yin-yang and five elements theories.

Put simply, these theories encompass the laws of nature and apply the same to the study of physiological and pathological activities of the human body and their inter-relationships.

Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapies

Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies typically include those such as