Traditional Chinese Medicine

By Author: knoxchinese
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CHINA is one of the first and foremost countries to imbibe the Medical Culture. The Chinese medicine takes a far different approach, when compared to other western countries. With a background of 5000 years of Medical Practice, they are the PIONEERS in every branch of medicines.
With a history of 2000 to 3000 years, Traditional 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 holistic understanding of the universe as described in Daoism, and the treatment of illness is based primarily on the diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes.

The clinical diagnosis and treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine are mainly based on the theories that apply the phenomena and laws of nature to the study of the physiological activities and pathological changes of the human body and its interrelationships. The typical TCM therapies include acupuncture, herbal medicine, and qigong exercises. With acupuncture, treatment is accomplished by stimulating ...
... certain areas of the external body. Herbal medicine acts on zang-fu organs internally, while qigong tries to restore the orderly information flow inside the network through the regulation of Qi. These therapies appear very different in approach yet they all share the same underlying sets of assumptions and insights in the nature of the human body and its place in the universe.

Herbal Medicine
Genuine Chinese people have found thousands of plants and herbs associated with the treatment of ailments, so herbal medicine is really a large system. Doctors would analyze their nature or property such as 'cold and hot' or 'yin and yang', utilize all sorts of raw materials, mixing them to cure disease. Thus it is also different from the western medicine.
Acupuncture (Zhen Jiu)
Acupuncture and massage have become more and more accepted within the medicine field of the world. What fascinates people is that fine needles and the gentle strength that can make you healthy without taking lots of pills. Now these two, complementary medicines, are the major representatives of Chinese medicine in the west.
Acupuncture is the experiential summary undergoing the long-term struggle by the Chinese people. Actually it consists of two parts: operations with needles and one with fire, both of them are essential and correlative during curing.

Chinese Massage

Massage, in Chinese called 'an mo' or 'tui na', it is another great contribution of the Chinese people made to the world of medical field. It is a kind of outer physiotherapy and has been approved to be one of great practical use. As doctors hold that, a network - 'jing luo' in human body serves as a passage for vital energy and blood, organs and joints all to be the entity of body, they regulate it through outside force of hands directly acting on the injured part, and turn the scale of pathological changes or improve the organ function to maintain health.

Depending on the strength and direction of hand, the power sinking into the body differs. Consequently some reach only the skin, some to the pulses, muscle and even marrow. The effects of massage have been affirmed by people who have experienced, that is, relieving the bones and muscles, adjusting dislocation of the joints, removal of muscle spasm and so on. Today the massage by the blind in China has been a fashion because of the effect and the provision of work chance.
Besides these massages for cure, there are also ones for keeping fit. Kneading the acupoints around eyes can give you a good eyesight; massaging simply and exactly on the three acupoints of head can quickly relax yourself; and massaging feet known as reflexology in the west can reflect the effects all parts of the human body, as the feet have a close relationship with the whole body and are known as the 'second heart'.

Chinese dietary therapy
An important aspect of Chinese Dietary therapy is that the “one diet fits all” approach doesn’t apply to the principles of Chinese Medicine. Literally one man’s meat can be another man’s poison and the dietary advice should always take into consideration the physical condition of the individual, environmental adaptations as well as the seasonal context within which that person is living.
The main basic principles of the Chinese Diet:
• The food mostly contains vegetarian and only 10% will be meat (white meat)
• They strictly follow two classifications, one part is a satisfying, filling and tasty content and the other is to digest and absorb the excess oil and acids.
• Variety is encouraged as it does not allow one to over eat. Over eating is strictly prohibited as it can have a bad impact on digestion
• Fresh ingredients are always preferred. Even the meat and fish is chosen when alive, in a restaurant. Organic food is the order of the day.
• Over cooking is avoided and microwave cooking is an absolute NO...NO...as it kills the life energy of the food, according to them.
• The method of cooking is stir frying, as it retains the minerals and vitamins of the ingredients. The food is eaten in a room temperature and neither very hot nor very cold.
• Utensils mostly used are earthen ware, porcelain and wood. Because the acids in the food will react with the metals and harm the health.
• Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and green tea or hot water is taken as supplement to aid the digestion.
• Last rule – relax and sit right when you eat.

TUINA
Is a Chinese manipulative therapy often used in a combination of Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Fire Cupping, Chinese Herbalism, Ta’chi, and Qigong. Tuina is hands on body treatment that uses Chinese Taoists and Martial Arts principles with an effort to keep in balance the 8 steps of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The practioner uses his hands and other parts of his body to treat and heal.

Myotherapy

Ove40 years of research and work this therapy – Myotherapy has evolved to become one of the main allied health disciplines in the field of Medical Science, which is practised in many countries across the world including Australia, Canada, U S A, U K, Malaysia, Thailand and Hongkong.

Myotherapy is a form of manual therapy which focuses on assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal pain and associated pathologies. This method of therapy involves specific trigger point treatment and others types like soft tissue massages, muscle energy technique, dry needle, joint mobilization etc.
Myotherapists utilize nutritional advice, therapeutic stretches, exercise prescription, education, use of thermal clothing and electro – mechanical therapies like ultra sound etc.