Although the art and science of TCM has been around for thousands of years, it’s not necessarily stuck in the past. Ways of treating patients and manufacturing medicines are always evolving.
TCM has its own history which can be traced back 3,000 years. It is the second most ancient medicine, while ayurvedic is the oldest with 5,000 years of history.
In the past, when people thought about TCM, they imagined a long-bearded doctor doing pulse diagnosis and prescribing foul tasting concoctions. It was difficult for a modern person to take the image seriously
But today, Chinese herbs can be administered in far more palatable ways – in powders, medicated liquors, teas, granules, tablets, syrups, crystallised herbal extracts or even injected.
In China today there are hundreds of patented ready-to-use drugs which can be bought over the counter under supervision of pharmacists. And it is fascinating to realise these drugs were described in TCM text books 2,000 years ago.
TCM has its own theory very different from Western medicine. While Western medicine focuses on physical and chemical bases, TCM is philosophical.
Man and Cosmos are unified, is the basic philosophy of TCM. Whenever we and nature are in balance, we are healthy. Being unbalanced leads to disease.
Our body has yin and yang compositions. It is also vitalised by the movement of qi and blood. Yin and yang should be balanced. Yang excess or yin deficiency may cause a hot feeling.
On the other hand, yin excess or yang deficiency may cause a cold feeling.
Deficiency of qi and blood may also cause some specific symptoms.
Chinese doctors usually observe the patient’s five senses, along with a pulse and tongue diagnosis.
They will then differentiate illnesses into two groups. One is a deficiency of qi, yin, yang and blood. The second is an excess syndrome which comprises blood congestion, qi congestion and accumulation of heat and dampness.
Each syndrome has its own character. They are not so difficult to differentiate if a health-oriented person pays close attention to self-observation. He could do the diagnosis himself.
Qi deficiency leads to sweating, catching colds or developing allergies, a lack of energy, heaviness of the body and limbs, a low appetite, swollen extremities and loose stools. The tongue will be quite pale with tooth marks on the side.
Yang deficiency leads to a cold sensation, cold extremities, frequent urination, loose stools, a pale face, an urge to take hot drinks and infertility. The tongue is very pale or even light purple with more tooth marks.
People who suffer a prolonged illness usually pass from the stage of qi deficiency into a stage of yang deficiency.
A large number of people who are diagnosed as having so-called chronic fatigue or “syndrome X” in the West show these types of symptoms.
