Chinese Medicine

Taking the pulse is a surprisingly informative means of diagnosis in TCM

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a complete health system with unique methods of diagnosing and treating illness. TCM views the body as a reflection of the greater world. As such, the body is in constant, dynamic interaction with the environment. Health in this system is not static, but rather the ability to adapt gracefully to all the changes and challenges that life sends one’s way. Anything from the shifting seasons to dietary choices and emotional stress can upset this delicate balance and create internal disharmonies. A healthy person can manage these changes while maintaining equilibrium or homeostasis.

Treating the Whole Person with Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine diagnosis stresses the interrelatedness of all aspects of physiology and pathophysiology. Rather than focus on discrete disorders (headache, indigestion, infertility), systems (cardiac, pulmonary, renal), or conditions (Diabetes, Hypertension, Addiction), the Chinese medicine practitioner takes all of these factors into account in order to understand why specific conditions occur in certain individuals, determines what other aspects of the person may be effected, and chooses the methods that will best redirect these harmful cascades.

Because Chinese medicine focuses on the individual’s entire constellation of symptoms, each diagnosis consists of a specific “diagnosis of disease,” as well as a more general “constitutional pattern diagnosis,” that describes the person’s tendencies and predispositions. For example, chronic headaches, teeth grinding, and irritable bowel syndrome can be understood as three branches of one root constitutional pattern and can therefore be treated with the same acupuncture treatment or herbal formula recommendation.

Chinese Medicine and Disease Prevention

Chinese medicine aims to maintain the individual’s healthy dynamism before diseases or pain conditions occur. The goal of Chinese Medicine is to prevent disease by maintaining the body’s smooth flow of Qi. Through a combination of acupuncture, herbs, moxibustion, body work, dietary suggestions, and stress management, Chinese Medicine provides one with the tools to make positive change, maintain optimal health, prevent disease, and actively participate in recovery if illness should occur.

Treating Disease with Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine does not “fix” so much as provide the body with the information and support it needs to initiate the natural healing process. After all, all healing is self healing - even the greatest surgeon can not heal the simplest paper cut.

As environmental forces - stress, lifestyle, diet, and climate – impact the body, it is easy for diseases to develop. Illness occurs when Qi becomes obstructed causing build up in some areas and deficiency in others. The goal of Chinese Medicine is to smooth out obstructions, restore balance, and prevent illnesses from becoming severe or chronic. If an illness is already chronic, the goal of Chinese medicine is to fortify the body and facilitate return to a healthy and dynamic state of well being.

Modalities of Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture

Acupuncture involves the insertion of fine, sterile, disposable needles into specific points on the body known as acupuncture points. These points act as gates into the body’s Qi (“chee”) and restore it’s smooth flow. Qi, translated as “breath,” “air,” or “energy,” is the substance that mediates all of our body’s interactions with the external environment. It is said that no disease can occur as long as Qi moves smoothly throughout the body. To facilitate this smooth flow, acupuncture harmonizes areas of deficiency and excess within the body by manipulating the distribution of Qi, blood, and body fluids (lymph, excess fluid, swelling, etc.). By manipulating and harmonizing the body’s Qi, blood, and body fluids, acupuncture acts as a way of both preventing and curing disease.

Herbs

Herbs are an integral aspect of a Chinese Medicine Treatment. Herbs greatly enhance the effect of acupuncture because they are not only able to redistribute substances within the body but are also able to add essential substances to the body. As dietary supplements, Chinese herbs can boost internal deficiencies as well as eliminate harmful substances that accumulate pathologically.

Customized herbal formulas are based on ancient combinations that are cooked together into a tea. Herbs can also be dispensed as granules, pills, tinctures, wines, and topical creams, pastes, and plasters.

Tui Na

Tui Na is a manual bodywork technique that utilizes Chinese channel theory as well as ideas of supplementing, draining, and harmonizing to promote the smooth flow of Qi. As a complement to acupuncture, I combine Tui Na methods with Western thoughts on anatomy, physiology, and orthopedic injury to manually target areas where injuries and tension have created stagnation and pain. Whenever possible, specific self-massage or tui na techniques are recommended to promote well-being in between treatments.

Tui Na has a lot in common with chiropractic bodywork. Some people believe that chiropractic was introduced to America with the Chinese workers building the western section of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Moxibustion

Moxibustion is the ancient method of burning dried mugwort leaves, or “Mogusa,” on or near the skin. Mogusa can increase blood flow to areas of injury and warm areas where cold accumulates. This treatment is used as an adjunct to acupuncture treatment when appropriate.

Diet and Chinese Medicine

Maintaining Health with Diet

Western medicine has only discovered in the last century what Chinese doctors have known for millenia. The foundation of a healthy diet is regularity and balance. Foods should be eaten calmly, slowly, and at regular intervals throughout the day. Chinese medicine separates food into flavors – salty, bitter, sweet, spicy, sour, and bland – each of which acts on the body in a specific way. Foods also have temperatures due to their inherent nature as well as the way they are prepared. The best way to maintain health is to avoid eating too much of one flavor or temperature by choosing a wide range of foods that are seasonal, fresh, and unprocessed. By eating a varied diet, one can maintain an internal balance that fuels both the body and the mind.

Diet As a Cause of Disease

Foods with strong flavors have a powerful impact on the body. If one eats too much of a certain flavor, sugar for example, or too much of a certain temperature, such as fried foods cooked at very high heat, it is easy for imbalances to occur. Not only do these imbalances create diseases, they also weaken the body and make one more susceptible to other environmental stressors.

Treating Illness with Diet

Diet can be used both as a method of treating and diagnosing disease. Diet can be used as medicine by manipulating the balance of flavors and temperatures one eats. Because every person has different needs and predispositions, no one diet is good for everybody. While some people must eat foods that are warming and energizing, others benefit from foods that are cooling in nature. Also, specific food cravings or food allergies can draw attention to imbalances within the body that can then be treated by changing the ratios of food flavors and temperatures being ingested.