Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
Traditional Chinese medicine is a system of health care with roots that can be traced back thousands of years. The modern day practice of TCM includes acupuncture, herbology, Tui Na (Chinese massage), and various forms of therapeutic exercise, Tai Qi, Qi Gong, and meditation.Best known for its treatment of pain through the use of acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine is in fact, a complete and comprehensive form of health care. It is used to treat a wide variety of acute and chronic health concerns. In addition, TCM is used to maintain existing good health and to prevent the development of disease conditions.
What are the causes of disease in Chinese Medicine?
Many things can upset the balance of the body and disturb the flow of Qi:
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Emotional states, such as stress, worry, anger, fear, grief etc., each one of which has a particular effect on the energy balance of the body.
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Diet, malnutrition, overeating, too much salt or greasy foods, eating erratically or in a state of tension.
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Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, wrongly prescribed medicines or medicines with side effects, even tea and coffee can over stimulate the body.
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Weather conditions, such as cold, damp, wind, heat, etc., and particularly sudden changes in weather.
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Exercise and rest; too little or too much of either.
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Trauma, hereditary factors, poisons, epidemics.
Treating the whole person Western medicine and Chinese medicine approach
disease in fundamentally different ways. Western medicine looks for an
external cause or agent of a specific disease which it isolates and controls
or destroys with drugs or surgery. Chinese medicine takes into account
not only the disease symptoms but also the age, habits, physical and emotional
traits and all other aspects of the individual, and attempts to put together
an overall picture of the patient in order to evaluate any patterns of
disharmony that have arisen. Health is a state of total harmony between
the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the individual. Illness,
on the other hand, is a disharmony that manifests itself as certain symptoms.
The symptoms on their own are often unimportant; they are merely a part
of the syndrome of harmony or disharmony which makes up the whole person.
The goal of TCM is to address the individual's condition on all levels
and to restore the person to a state of natural balanced health.
A partial list of conditions that may benefit from traditional Chinese medicine:
Excerpt from the Canadian College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine www.ccaom.com