What is Chinese Medicine?
Traditional Chinese medicine (also known as TCM) includes a range of traditional medical practices that originated in China. It is considered as a Complementary or Alternative Medical system in much of the western world while remaining as a form of primary care throughout most of Asia.
Traditional Chinese medicine practices include treatments such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, dietary therapy, Tui na and Shiatsu massage. Qigong and Taiji are also strongly affiliated with TCM and occasionally incorporated as part of the treatment plan.
Chinese Medicine has formed a unique system to diagnose and cure illness. The TCM approach is fundamentally different from that of Western medicine. In TCM, the understanding of the human body is based on the understanding of the individual and the treatment of illness is based primarily on the diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes.
Evaluation of a syndrome not only includes the cause, mechanism, location, and nature of the disease, but also the confrontation between the pathogenic factor and body resistance. Treatment is not based only on the symptoms, but differentiation of syndromes within Traditional Chinese Medicine. Therefore, those with an identical disease may be treated in different ways, and on the other hand, different diseases may result in the same syndrome and are treated in similar ways.
Chinese Medicine Theory is extremely complex and originated thousands of years ago through meticulous observation of nature, the cosmos, and the human body. Major theories include those of Yin-yang, the Five Phases, the human body Channel system, Zang Fu organ theory, six confirmations, four layers, etc.