FAQ on Traditional Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine is the oldest, professional, continually practiced, literate medicine in the world. This medical system’s written literature stretches back almost 2,500 years. And Currently ¼ of the world’s population makes use of it. One can say that modern Western and traditional Chinese medicines are the two dominant medical systems in the world today.

No. This system has been created by some of the best-educated and brightest scholars in Chinese history. These scholars have recorded their theories and clinical experiences from generation to generation in literally thousands of books. It is estimated that there are between 30-40,0000 books on Chinese medicine still in existence that were written before the turn of the century. Since then, thousands more books and articles in professional journals have been written and published in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Chinese medicine works by re-establishing balance and harmony within the body. This means balance between yin an yang, balance between the five phases, balance between the viscera and bowels, and balance between the qi, blood, and body fluids. This balance is reestablished by supporting the body’s healthy or righteous energy and attacking any unhealthy or evil energy.

Practitioners of Chinese medicine diagnose what is out of balance in the person’s body by employing four basic examinations. The first is questioning about one’s signs and symptoms, medical history and course of disease. The second is visually inspecting one’s face, body, and especially one’s tongue and its coating. The third is listening to one’s voice and the sound of one’s breathing as well as smelling any odors emanating from one’s body or excretions. And the fourth is palpating various areas of the body and especially the pulse at both wrists. Using a combination of one’s sighs and symptoms, tongue diagnosis, and pulse diagnosis, the practitioner can determine the pattern of disharmony which requires rebalancing.

If something is too hot, the practitioner seeks to cool it down. If something is too cool, they try to warm it up. If something is too wet, they try to dry it, while if something is too dry, they try to moisten it. If something is too much, they try to make it less. And if something is too little, they try to build it up. If something is stuck, they try to move it, and if something is flowing inappropriately, they try to make it flow in the right direction and amount.

The main professionally applied methods of re-establishing balance are Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture-moxibustion. Chinese herbal medicine may be prescribed internally or applied externally. Acupuncture and moxibution seek to regulate the flow of qi and blood within the body by either inserting fine, sterile needles at certain acupoints or warming certain acupoints by various methods. In addition, they counsel their patients on diet and lifestyle, all according to the theories of Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine is a complete medical system which attempts to treat the full range of disease, acute and chronic, traumatic, infectious, and internally generated. That being said, if a disease is extremely virulent or far advanced, and especially if there are serous changes in organic tissue, Chinese medicine by itself is sometimes not powerful enough or too slow. In particular, Chinese medicine is an excellent and effective choice at the beginning of any disease or for diseases which modern Western medicine either does not understand or for which it has no effective treatment. Furthermore, Chinese medicine can also speed up the healing process when use in conjunction with modern Western medicine.

Very. When practiced correctly by trained, qualified professional practitioners, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are extremely safe. In fact, when practiced correctly, they have no side effects and produce no iatrogenic or doctor-caused disease. If a patient reports side effects from a Chinese medical treatment, the practitioner modifies the treatment until there is healing without side effects. This is because Chinese medicine seeks to restore balance to the entire person, not just a piece or part. Side effects mean there is imbalance which needs to be corrected.

Chinese medicine has worked for thousands of year on literally billions of people. Because of the diverse population of China and its varied geography, Chinese medicine have proven itself effective on all sorts of ethnic groups in all sorts of climates and lifestyles. In fact, Chinese medicine is so universally effective that the World Health Organization has selected it for world-wide propagation. At this time, thousands of practitioners around the world are proving every day that Chinese medicine works no matter where one lives or what race one belongs to.