What is the Chinese Medical System?

 

What is Chinese Medicine?

 

Chinese Medicine (referred to as "CM" from here on in) is an indigenous medical system dispersed throughout the eastern asiatic continent. It is similar to other indigenous systems of medicine in that it adheres to the following principles:

  • Human-centred
  • Holistic
  • Preventative

CM is human-centred in that the senses and abilities of the human being are viewed as accurate and sensitive. This has profound implications for how CM views the world.

It is holistic in that all major aspects of being alive and human are given significance, and are seen to be in a cyclic interplay.

Finally, CM is preventative due to the recognition that emergencies are such highly unstable and inherently dangerous situations that even knowledgeable and heroic actions have little guarantee of success.

 

 

The Tools of Chinese Medicine

 

CM is a medical system with a great deal of experience, both in observing the terrain of health and disease as well as in offering interventions for disease and methods for health cultivation. Within the CM system there are many tools, one of the most famous of which is acupuncture. It is important to note that, without the theoretical foundation that CM provides, these tools become husks of what they could be. The potential usefulness of these tools depends largely on how theory dictates they should be used. The following case study will illustrate the point.

Male, retired.

Dull aching pain on posterior aspect of both thighs for almost one year at time of initial visit. No initial injury discovered and onset was gradual. Pain is aggravated by sitting in any position, and is otherwise constant. Patient had tried acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, laser therapy and conventional treatments with zero results.

Upon examination and interview, the author's opinion was that all type of manual therapy including acupuncture were contraindicated due to Qi deficiency, and that the necessary treatment involved the use of herbs to correct a growing condition of damp-heat.

Course of treatment began with noticeable improvement occurring within a week. Four weeks after commencement of herbal regimen, patient reported feeling almost completely recovered. Full recovery occurred 2 weeks later.

It is important to note that, in this instance, the acupuncture was initially carried out by a therapist with no apparent understanding of Chinese Medical theory. The patient displayed a whole system Qi deficiency, which by itself denies acupuncture as the primary form of treatment. The presence of damp-heat in a patient of this age also indicates a need to supplement the Pi/Wei (digestion) , regulate Qi flow and lightly drain Shi-Re (Damp-Heat), the whole collective presentation of which requires an approach via herbal medicine.

To conclude, without the understanding provided by Chinese Medical Theory, acupuncture would be accused of not working, and the patient would have been wrongly disillusioned about the capacities of both acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.

(note: follow-up 1.5 years later showed no recurrence)

It is a fundamental principle of any activity that depending on the situation only certain modes will work, while others cannot, this fact not invalidating any of the modes. Everything has its place and time. The art and science lies in knowing what to do, when.

To summarise - acupuncture, herbology, massage and so on, are nothing without the experience and wisdom (and, yes, science) of the Chinese medical system.

(Go to the Tools of Chinese Medicine)

 

 

The Place of Chinese Medicine

 

While CM provides some truly astounding effects in the area of serious illness, it excels in the area of disease prevention and health promotion. On the other hand, Western Medicine excels in care of trauma and some end-stage diseases, but shows its failure most clearly in its way of considering disease - if no organic finding is discovered, then "there is nothing wrong with the patient", and further, the assumption that the body "makes mistakes" and "if not in a state of equilibrium, tends to degenerate". CM has always placed highest importance on never reaching a stage where an organic finding would be present, depends wholeheartedly on the body functioning correctly and views the body as being capable of immense regenerative capacity.

WM and CM provide what could be termed "complementarity". WM can often provide a very strong and fast suppressive therapy, during which time CM can begin the process of regeneration and restoration. As CM's repair work nears completion, the WM may be eased off. This describes a complete course of treatment. WM often stalls at the first stage - disease or symptom suppression, with no follow-on to the next stage: "cure" or "healing". This is a significant failure of current standard-of-care, and has led to several of the "new epidemics": obesity, diabetes, chronic degenerative diseases, and cancer.

Overall, Western medicine and Eastern medicine, strangely enough, are largely complementary - each fills in the other's weaknesses. This notwithstanding, there are still difficult issues regarding what Integrative Medicine can and cannot be.

(Go to Integrative Medicine)

 

 

Does Chinese Medicine have a Spiritual Component?

 

CM has made various choices, as a profession, about how to handle the fact of our spiritual form. On the whole, the decision has been one of non-interference and subtle adjustment.

Non-interference has to do with the idea of clearing the obstruction so that the spirit can be seen. This is subjectively perceived as a feeling of wholeness, or of being "more one's self", and therefore feeling greater clarity and connection with one's spirit. Because it is assumed that every human being has a connection to the "Tao", it is not necessary to do much more than "polish the mirror". What this means is that because the mind-body-spirit is an integrated whole, treating the body unavoidably treats the mind and clears the spirit.

Subtle adjustment refers to the process of teaching by example - the example, in this case, being the way CM frames human health and illness. Thus it is important for patients to become aware of the essential principles of Chinese Medicine and to re-educate themselves on the topic of health. For example, we have great misapprehensions in our modern day:

 

the role of food and health

Food is what our body is physically made of. Eat well or be made out of inferior building materials.

the role of emotions and health

Emotions define how our body will function. Be calm, for the most part, or your physiology will dysregulate.

the role of lifestyle and health

Lifestyle defines how much energy you will consume. Rest enough (and exercise properly without overdoing it) or your body will not be able to repair itself and you will never have enough energy.

the role of research, in particular the study of complex systems

Research is about ignorant people trying to learn more. Laudable and all, but don't forget it. We do not know everything. In fact, a human nutrition PhD I know likes to comment that even if we took all the biomedical information available on planet earth regarding physiology, we would still know less than 1% of what is going on.

the place of a patient, or what it is we are indebted to ourselves to do when we become ill

If we started life out fine and got through puberty all right, then the reason we become ill is through self-abuse or neglect - and we will not overcome our illness if we do not fess up.

This is real knowledge that has been painstakingly gained (and yes, tested) over the course of hundreds of generations. These "rules" are not flexible, although there are individual variations based on personal constitution and history, for example.

By having correct examples to follow, we can polish our mirrors and reveal ourselves. This is the final goal of Chinese Medicine.