What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine? Part 2

Traditional Chinese Medicine has continued to develop for more than two thousand years. One of its basic principles is Tian Ren He Yi (天人合一), meaning harmony between human beings and nature.

Nature is the external environment, while the human body is the internal environment. When Yin and Yang remain in relative balance, a person is generally less likely to become ill.

Illness does not depend only on the number of viruses present. A very important question is whether the body’s current condition provides a suitable environment for a pathogenic factor to survive and develop.

Consider the SARS outbreak in China in 2003. At that time, the characteristics of the virus were not yet fully understood. In modern medical research, the nature of a virus generally needs to be investigated before specifically targeted measures can be developed.

Western medical theory holds that infection is more likely when immune function is weak, and immune-supporting or immune-modulating approaches were therefore also used.

If immune strength alone explained the pattern, most patients might have been expected to be older people and children. In reality, many patients were young adults. This suggests that immune strength alone may not explain every aspect of an epidemic.

The infectious factor represented by SARS did not begin to exist only when people identified it. It may have existed earlier without spreading on such a large scale.

TCM approached the situation differently. Its traditional view was that the pathogenic factor had encountered favourable environmental conditions, and that this environment contributed to the appearance, development, and spread of the illness.

At the time, Guangdong and Beijing experienced successive climatic patterns involving cold, dampness, and heat. The outbreak first spread in Guangdong and later appeared in Beijing.

TCM also played a role in the treatment of patients in 2003. Even without complete knowledge of the virus itself, practitioners could assess the patient’s signs and the prevailing patterns of cold, dampness, and heat. People cannot control the climate, but treatment and daily adjustments may help change an unfavourable internal condition.

One aim of Traditional Chinese Medicine is to improve the body’s internal environment.

TCM traditionally uses the particular properties of medicinal substances to correct excesses and deficiencies in the body, making the internal environment less favourable to pathogenic factors.

Some TCM practitioners at the time also expected the epidemic to ease after late May, when seasonal and climatic conditions changed. Wind, temperature, and humidity can influence the external conditions required for transmission.

History shows that the course of some epidemics is affected not only by human intervention but also by seasonal and climatic change.

Here is a simple example:

If we do not know what kind of living thing is in a bottle, we may not know which poison to use. But there are other ways to make survival impossible: empty the bottle, seal it so that no air remains, or heat it from below.

Once its living environment changes, it may no longer survive, even if we do not yet know exactly what it is.

Part 1 discussed an ovarian cyst. In this traditional way of thinking, if a disorder can form in a particular environment, changing that environment may prevent or reduce further development. Mushrooms grow on wood but not on a steel plate. Would they continue to grow if the wood were placed in a dry desert?

Chinese medicine places importance on improving the body’s internal environment and uses the properties of medicinal substances to correct internal imbalances.

Western medicine treats the disease. TCM treats the person.

Traditional theory describes a relationship between the body’s Qi and Blood and natural influences such as wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, and fire. Under ordinary circumstances there is a natural harmony. When this harmony is disturbed, illness may become more likely.