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Traditional Chinese Medicine
3000
Years of Tradition
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Traditional Chinese Medicine is a comprehensive system of health
care with a continuous tradition of over 3000 years. It includes acupuncture and herbal treatment as well as massage, dietary
therapy, meditation and exercise. These therapies work with the natural vital energies inherent within all living things to
promote the body's ability to heal itself. This system is used extensively by one quarter of the world's population who reside
in Asia, and is rapidly growing in popularity in the West. |
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Huang Ti
This legendary emperor is attributed for the earliest known Chinese medical writing, Huang-ti Nei ching (The Canon
of Internal Medicine). This canon consists of two treatises, one a dialogue about living matter between Huang Ti and his minister
Qibo, and the other a description of medical physiology, anatomy, and acupuncture. This famous classic is considered to be
the bible of traditional Chinese medicine but its true authorship is unkown. |
TCM's Working Principle
Shen Nung
This emperor taught his people how to cultivate grains as food, so as to avoid killing animals.
He is said to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medicinal value, and is assumed to be the author of Shen-nung pen
ts'ao ching (Divine Husbandman's Materia Medica), the earliest extant Chinese pharmacopoeia. This text includes 365 medicines
derived from minerals, plants, and animals. The true authorship of this work is also unknown.
Shen Nung is venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine and is believed
to have introduced the technique of acupuncture. |
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Chinese medicine is based on an energetic model rather than the biochemical
model of Western medicine. The ancient Chinese recognized the vital energy behind all life forms and life processes. They
called this energy Qi (pronounced Chi). In developing an understanding of the prevention and cure of disease, the ancient
physicians discoverd a system of cyclic energy flowing in the human body along specific pathways (meridians). Each pathway
is associated with a particular physiological system and internal organ.
Disease is considered to arise from deficiency or imbalance of vital energy in
the energetic pathways and their associated physiological systems.
The pathways or meridians of energy communicate with the surface of the body
at specific locations called acupuncture points. Each point has a predictable effect upon the vital energy passing through
it. Modern science has been able to measure the electrical charge at these points, thus corroborating the locations of the
meridians mapped by the ancients.
Traditional Chinese Medicine has also developed methods of determining the flow
in the meridian system, using an intricate system of pulse and tongue diagnosis. Findings from these modalities are combined
with other signs and symptoms to create a composite diagnosis. A "personalized" treatment plan is then formulated to induce
a balanced state of health. |
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 In depth Traditional Chinese Medicine information here. |
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