Is Traditional Chinese Medicine Right for You?

By now, acupuncture, Chinese medical treatment using tiny needles, is mainstream enough that it shows up in daily comic strips. But, it is just one mode of treatment offered by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which includes the whole medical philosophy, science, art, and practice of the Chinese medical tradition.

Several years ago, I had a series of acupuncture treatments by an American-born, American-trained acupuncturist in an American city. So effective were those treatments that when I reached a point (no pun) for a career change, I began the three-year program of study at an American school of traditional Chinese medicine.

TCM can also be called "qi-medicine," since traditional Chinese medical theory and practice is based on the concept of qi (pronounced "chee"), a mysterious force that manifests in a variety of ways. When diet, exercise, emotions, even weather are all in accord, the qi flows. When things are out of balance, however, with a deficiency or excess or blockabe of qi, then illness occurs. When I studied TCM, One of my teachers taught us, in Chinese, the proverb, "Same disease, different treatment; different disease, same treatment."

In TCM, a disease is more like a symptom in Western medicine. Two people can have the same disease, but each has a different cause, a different blockage or imbalance, and so, each has a different treatment. Or, two different people might have different diseases with the same cause, so that each would have a different treatment.

The TCM practitioner determines the causes by conducting a lengthy interview with questions covering the whole lifestyle, as well as observation of the body, especially of the tongue. One of my most vivid memories of a TCM class is of a slide show of tongues in colors I still can't believe tongues appear in. Taking the pulse is such an important part of the examination that in Chinese, going to the medical practitioner is referred to as having one's pulse taken. The practitioner determines the causes of the complaint, then draws upon a range of treatments.