Why I Love Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine has a long history to it. Thousands of years of tradition and empirical data backed by results can be traced back to the ancients, who spent their whole lives learning the art of healing.

Often times, we feel we have to choose one or the other - Western versus Eastern Medicine. By understanding that both have their role in modern-day medicine, we can learn from both ways of thinking and create integrative, synergistic ways of healing.

In practicing Chinese Medicine, we consider the totality of the whole body; what we would consider “holistic”. This includes not only physical ailments but mental and emotional aspects of health as well. In fact, the 7 emotions (anger, joy, worry, grief, sadness, fright, and pensiveness) are believed to be some of the main contributors to internal disorders of the body! This is easily relatable for those who worry and cannot eat, or those who are grieving and find themselves frequently getting sick.

Western medicine has the tools and technology to diagnose many serious diseases which is a wonderful blessing. Eastern medicine teaches us to identify disease patterns; one disease may have many patterns, and many diseases can be attributed to the same pattern. Together, Eastern and Western medicine can strongly advance the state of our healthcare system globally! Anyway…

For today’s sake, let’s consider a relatively simple ailment: the common cold.

In Western medicine, two people diagnosed with a common cold would receive the same treatment regardless of their body constitution (rest, cough syrup, anti-inflammatory such as aspirin, etc).

In Chinese medicine, we would use our diagnostic tools such as tongue and pulse diagnosis to determine each individual’s particular constitution and treat according to what we discover.

For example, one person with a common cold may present with a sore throat, high fever, and an aversion to cold. This person presents with a Heat pattern.

The other person has chills, craves warm, and an aversion to heat and wind. This person presents with a Cold pattern.

This is a overly simplified way to look at it, but a good example in how one disease can have two different patterns and therefore need to be treated differently.

Chinese medicine practitioners are rigorously trained in being able to discern between different diagnosis patterns and would treat each patient according to their individual presentation.

This explains why one herb or formula may work for one person but not the other. One person may experience great results whereas the other may be worse off if they tried to take the same remedy! This is also why I strongly recommend working with an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner instead of self-diagnosing without proper education and training.

Chinese medicine works wonderfully because it considers each individual as a complex landscape. We are all uniquely different inside and out and to practice a form of medicine that understands that is an honor.

This is one of the many reasons why I love Chinese Medicine.

Thanks for reading!

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