Better Health and Long Life Through Traditional Chinese Medicine
The two-thousand year old practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a practice that continues to be utilized by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. The advent of more modern medical practices have not altered these traditions at all. It could be argued that modern medicine has been influenced more by Traditional Chinese Medicine than the other way around.
While there is very little data on the scientific efficacy of practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine, the anecdotal experiences of many, many generations - as well as the holistic and spiritual underpinnings - keep the practices alive and relevant in most Chinese and non-Chinese families.
My grandmother on my father’s side of the family did not adhere to Traditional Chinese Medical healing or lifestyle principles. She ate what she wanted and relied only on modern medical practices for her health care. She died relatively young of type 2 diabetes. Her sister, my great aunt, however, has always adhered to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and is - at 84 years of age - still going strong.
One of the most important ideas of Traditional Chinese Medicine is the balance between the two parts of everything that occur in nature: The Yin and the Yang. The common allegories for this phenomenon are the sunny and shady sides of one hill or mountain, the sun and the moon, or fire and water. The idea is that many ailments stem from an imbalance of these two parts. The healing remedies seek to introduce harmony to the imbalanced area and thus remedy the ailment. Yin is the side that concerns itself with water and coolness. Yang is the side that controls fire. Colds, flus and issu...
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...nature balances itself. The sun burns off the morning fog and warms the day but then sets again. So, thus, must the body balance motion and rest, heat and cool. Application of pressure (acupuncture) is thought to balance the flow of energy (or qi) to heal pain and other ailments by unblocking points of blockage of qi. Similarly, the method of “cupping” is thought to unblock qi and open pores to draw out the bad energy. Kinetic movement and massage are employed to great benefit to assist in enabling the healthy flow of qi and thus induce balance and therefore healing.
Many of the remedies born of the intricate Chinese Traditional Medicinal system of healing, such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion, cupping, exercise therapy, massage techniques, and dietary therapy, are accepted as part of the modern, healthy lifestyle of billions of people worldwide.
Risse, Guenter. Modern China and Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Symposium Held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Springfield, IL. 1973.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is quite complex and can be difficult for some people to comprehend. This is because TCM is based, at least in part, on the Daoist belief that we live in a universe in which everything is interconnected. What happens to one part of the body affects every other part of the body. The mind and body are not viewed separately, but as part of an energetic system. Similarly, organs and organ systems are viewed as interconnected structures that work together to keep the body
Acupuncture, ayurveda, chiropractice, homeopathy, meditation, osteopathy, and yoga are just a few of the many types of medicine practiced all over the world. According to the western establishment, all these forms of medicine are called alternative medicines. However, some of the aforementioned techniques have been in continuous use for over six thousand years, predating western medicine by over four thousand years. Yet, still many M.D.'s reject alternative forms of medicine. One of the buzzwords in medicine in recent years has been "holistic medicine". Physicians are becoming more aware of the need to treat the whole patient rather than just certain symptoms. Due to this realization, a small percentage of doctors are turning to ancient forms of medicine as a guide to alternative treatments. As alternative forms of medicine emerge in the western world, Christian scientists need to determine the moral, religious, and scientific validity of such techniques in order to gain a more holistic approach to medicine.
William Collinge quotes Chuang Tzu in his American Holistic Health Association Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine saying, "Heaven, Earth and I are living together, and all things and I form an inseparable unity" (13). Tzu's comment contrasts the traditional American dream of individualistic power and solidarity, but no matter how ethnocentric or arrogant the Western society can be at times, the influence of the world is still present. The health care system is a prime example of how the unification between world cultures brings benefits to society. The Western culture has been developing and refining scientific methods of health care for centuries. Illnesses that were incurable in the past are now treatable with drug medications and by complex surgeries. But along with the absence of the old illnesses, come new ones. People are living longer and chronic and degenerative illnesses are more common. Due to the development of new illnesses, Western medicine has been consulting the traditions and treatments from other cultures for aid in diagnosis and health care. In The American Holistic Health Association Complete Guide to Alternative Medicine, William Collinge states that, "the joining together of conventional and alternative traditions may well permit us to have a more balanced quality of life. At the least, it has helped to bring the concept of health back to medicine" (Collinge xxi). Collinge's use the word "balance" in his description of the quality of life is interesting, because a form of alternative medicine whose central focus is on the balance of the body is Chinese medicine. Due to the onslaught of new chronic and degenerative illnesses, Western culture initiated the search for ...
The Chinese healing art of acupuncture is one that can be dated back at least two thousand years. Some authorities maintain that acupuncture has been practiced in China for even four thousand years. Though its exact age is vague, what is certain is that up until the recent twentieth century, much of the population of the world was uninformed about acupuncture, its origins, and its capacity to promote and maintain good health. Even today in relatively "advanced" nations such as the United States there are many who hold acupuncture under the stereotype of a new or radical medicine, one which would almost always be a second choice after more familiar Western approaches to handling illness.
Chinese medicine has a tradition dating back thousands of years, but in recent years it has changed drastically. The influences of Western medicine, Communist ideology, and other government policies have been the force behind this evolution. Since 1950, Chinese medicine has been standardized and transformed into a mostly state-run program that integrates both traditional Chinese medicine and the more scientific, modern style of Western medicine. During this transition, traditional Chinese medicine struggled to find its place in the new Communist society. Today, multiple medical techniques have been blended together which allow the Chinese to receive top-notch healthcare, while retaining their culture and tradition.
Traditional medicine plays a vital role in health care, which is based on scientific researches, rigorous experiments and clinical practices (World Health Organization, 2000). With the growth of chronic diseases, ageing and the diversity pathogenic factors, the medical environment, and conditions have changed. In recent decades, modern scientific medicine was developed in the Western world, such as Europe and the United States, which considered complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as normal treatment. Alternative healthcare aim to treat physical and mental illness, using methods such as acupuncture, homeopathy and herbal medicine (ibid). Singh and Ernst (2009) state that alternative medicine has limited efficacy for certain ailments,
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) differ from each other in many ways. TCM favors a holistic approach, views the universe and body philosophically and develops inductive tools and methods to guide restoring the total balance of the body. In Chinese medicine, the correct balance between Yin and Yang make up the vital energy, Qi, an essential life-sustaining substance of which all things are made. Some Traditional remedies include herbal medicines, acupuncture, massage and moxibustion, an herbal heat therapy. Western medicine is closely linked to the scientific method and emphasizes biochemical processes causes disease, its treatment and health. This form of treatment views all medical phenomena as cause-effect sequences and relies on drugs, radiation and surgery to alleviate symptoms and cure diseases. As you see, the two types of medicine are completely challenged differently depending on the doctor, the diagnosis, and the treatment options. All of these are completely different when compared with each other.
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Introduction [NCCAM Backgrounder]. (n.d.).National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine [NCCAM] - nccam.nih.gov Home Page. Retrieved December 11, 2011, from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/chinesemed.htm
Acupuncture doesn’t allow people to get ahead of themselves like Victor did; the way of thinking brought about is that of a natural sense. The techniques of the alternative medicine allow people to remember how magnificent and sacred the human body is and realize that it cannot be created through lab work or perfected through medicine. With Western medicine, patients can take up to four or five medications before finding one that suits their needs and most can have many life threatening side effects. With acupuncture, it is one procedure and one attempt to heal a patient with NO major side effects. Acupuncture is a unique ancient art that is backed by thousands of years of Chinese thought and research and has been proven affective for many people and their illnesses.
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.
There are so many Asians in the United States but their traditional medicine is not very common here. Now, being US citizens, they still reap all the benefits Western medicine has to offer, however a big piece of the puzzle is missing-their historical methods of treating disease. This is not just a problem for the Asians, it is a problem for every ethnicity that has “historical medicine”-this is every nation on earth because all these cultures had “original” medicine values. Sadly, the peoples of the different cultures who live in the US have not been taught the ancient healing arts and medical schools do not teach those wonderful arts. There needs to be a beautiful amalgamation of modern medicine and natural, alternative, or “original” medicine, which includes, and is certainly not limited to, Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine. I say this in the least bombastic way possible, but, I don’t think medical school makes someone a doctor. Every person who has had the honor of receiving the prestigious “MD” insignia after their name knew that they were a doctor “inside” themselves before they went to medical school. Going to medical school is a
When you are sick you take medicine, but there are many remedies for the same problems. The use of herbal remedies traces back to the Chinese in the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well by a compiled book in China written back more than 2,000 years ago (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Modern medicine has roots that are more recent in the development and production of synthesize drugs (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). The old generations took herbal remedies to improve their health, but now as time and people, progressed modern medicine comes on top. Herbal and modern medicines have good and bad points, but one has qualities that are more effective.
Chinese-American Charles Feng (2012) remarks in the peer-reviewed Journal of Young Investigators, that traditional medicine differs vastly in its philosophy from allopathic medicine, and the combination of traditional and allopathic medicine is more effective than either independent healthcare system (para. 17). The integration of traditional medicine causes doctors to become familiar with strong and weak facets of either system, and expand their understanding of their patient’s health and treatment (para.