History of Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine has been around dating back as much as 2-3,000 years. Today in China it continues to be used and has also become integrated with Western Medicine. Chinese medicine was created by Chinese scholars, whose theories and Chinese Medical Illustrationpractice of Chinese medicine was recorded and used experientially. There are an estimated 30-40,000 books on Chinese Medicine written before the turn of the century. Since that time, thousands more books and research articles have been written and published in the People's republic of China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

ENERGY BALANCING

The Doctor of Chinese Medicine believes that illness manifests itself with symptoms. Unlike Western medicine, a doctor of Chinese medicine looks at specific patterns of imbalance… disharmonies in the energy system called Meridians.

WHAT IS A MERIDIAN?

A meridian is a channel within the body that carries the energy called Qi. Qi is the energy that drives the organs and when the Qi is out of balance, the areas affected will manifest their symptoms along the related meridian.

HOW DO WE DETERMINE YOUR IMBALANCE?

A Doctor of chinese medicine will do a comprehensive examination of your complaint. Diagnostic techniques include:
-observation of your complexion
-your behavior (active versus passive)
-observing the color of your tongue body and its shape or coating
-Palpation of your pulse (in Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis can reveal imbalances by the rate, depth and width of your pulse)
-Auscultation of the heart using a stethoscope
-listening to your voice - is it clear, hoarse or low/high
-observations of excretions - odors etc.

So as you can see, Doctors of Chinese medicine are interested in all your bodily functions. In addition, your SHEN or spirit - state of mind - your emotions - are also very important. For example joy or happiness is associated with the heart, grief with the lungs, anger or depression with the liver, worry with the spleen, fear with the kidneys.