What is chinese medicine?

What is Chinese medicine?

Chinese medicine in its entirety is not just a medicine but a way of life, you can see its influence in the lives of many Asian communities throughout the world, embedded in their cultures and food, with its end goal to prevent disease and to promote health.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an accumulation of thousands of years of knowledge and ideas formed from the struggle against diseases, ultimately forming a diagnostic system to treat disease. Over the centuries it has evolved and continues to do so as new ideas and approaches to classic ideas are revised and as more knowledge is spread throughout the world.

Its holistic approach considers the connection between your body and surroundings, everything is connected, with every aspect of life (Environment, emotions, consumptions etc.) being considered in its course to prevention and managing diseases. We consider the overall condition, not just symptoms, so each treatment is tailored to the individual and not just a non-specific problem.

While we approach diagnosis in the form of Qi (“Life force/ Energy”), Yin and Yang, affecting the various organ systems, these are terms used to describe the various changes occurring, aiding us to analyse the disease mechanism and changes throughout your body to determine the evolution of disease.

We view imbalances in these systems as the cause of  disease and so through various techniques, help the body restore balance. These modalities include Herbal medicine, Acupuncture, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, food and dietary advice, exercises, massage, moxibustion etc.

In modern settings, Chinese medicine is commonly used in conjunction with Western medicine. For example post surgery to aid in healing and recovery or in conjunction with various treatments as well as in pain management plans etc.