About Chinese medicine
Chinese medicine for health
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Chinese medicine has been around for a couple of thousand years. Of course, age doesn’t make it magic, and like most systems of medicine it isn’t perfect. But it does have a different way of looking at health and how we get sick, and a unique set of methods – acupuncture, diet, herbal medicine, massage and exercise – to treat illness and support the patient.
If you’re interested, here’s a link to a 2018 article from the science journal Nature about Chinese Medicine and its possible future
Your 'energy' body
According to Chinese Medicine (CM) the body comprises 6 pairs of internal organs Each organ has a set of functions which support the production and circulation of the energies of qi, blood and body fluids.
These energies in turn nourish and support the organs. The organs are all inter-related, and connected to each other by channels, known as meridians, which circulate the qi blood and body fluids.
Your life and health depend on this intricate balancing act and If anything goes wrong with it we get sick.
Traditional Chinese medicine and health
In Chinese thinking, health is far more than simply the absence of physical illness, it’s also about emotional balance and a general joy in being alive. According to Chinese Medicine, your mental and spiritual health is inextricably linked to the health of your internal system.
Assuming your internal organs are working well, your spirit is at ease, and you have sufficient qi, blood and body fluids, you ought to be in fine fettle. Beyond that, it’s all up to you.
To stay healthy, you need to take care over your lifestyle. In an ideal world, you should eat well, sleep well, take enough exercise and not smoke,, do drugs, eat or drink to excess or burn the candle at both ends.
You should avoid extremes of climate, sitting in draughts, drinking iced drinks, and a host of other common sense things. You should also make time for relaxation, meditation, walking in nature and perhaps some qi gong, tai qi or yoga – oh, and never neglect your senses.
Phew!!!
Chinese medicine and why you get sick
CM recognises that we are all born with predispositions to some kinds of illness – a kind of early nod towards genetics. If you are born with an underlying weakness in a particular organ, then it won’t be able to do its job properly and things can go wrong. For example, you might be more susceptible to catching infections, getting migraines, or having digestive problems.
Up to a point, your body can deal with a bit of a deficiency, but CM recognises that often the things that actually find that weakness and trigger illnesses are lifestyle issues – diet, stress, emotional issues, lack of sleep, over-indulgence etc. These put an extra burden on an already slightly inefficient system, and whoops, down you go.
Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can help to support your body through periods of illness or stress and I try to help you make simple lifestyle changes that fit with the demands of your life.
Chinese diagnosis and treatment
Chinese diagnosis is a painstaking affair. There are no blood tests or imaging systems, it depends entirely on your health history, signs and symptoms and ‘reading’ the pulse and tongue.
You’ll be asked many questions about your own and your family’s health history, whether anything makes your symptoms better or worse and about your lifestyle and any medication you may be taking.
Reading the tongue and pulse is a unique aspect of Chinese medicine. The quality of the pulses reflect how well each of your internal organs is working and the colour and coating of the tongue will also point to disharmonies..
Occasionally, it might also be helpful to palpate along a channel or over the abdomen to find any areas of tenderness or tension.
Having reached a diagnosis, I will come up with a suitable treatment plan, which I would discuss with you before starting treatment. You will probably be given ‘homework’ such as dietary changes. qi gong exercises, or perhaps meditation or breath work to support what we do in clinic.
The number of treatments you need really depends on your condition and how long you have had it. Some conditions are just inherently harder to change than others and the longer you have had them the more entrenched they are and the longer treatment will take.
If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch
