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Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, and cure of disease. TCM emphasizes the important balance inside the body. If the important balance has been broke disorder and disease tend to follow, rebuilding balance with different herbs is the TCM's way to cure disease. In fact, TCM is in an advantageous position to cure disease especially stubborn disease what we have not known enough about.
The Oldest and Most Sophisticated System of Natural
Healing on Earth
Chinese Herbal Medicine has been used successfully
for centuries in China to create radiant health and
well being. Chinese knowledge of herbs dates back
to 4000 years ago when Shen Nung's Herbology of Chinese
Medicine was compiled. Chinese herbal medicine is
made up of flowers, seeds, fruits, leaves, branches,
roots, bark, mineral and animal. It is important to
use herbs grown in China rather than outside of their
native environment in order to get the full benefit.
The Medicine
of Harmony
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The reasons Chinese herbal medicine is so popular are
because of its emphasis on prevention as a healing
method , and it is simply gentler and safer than chemical
medications. Chinese herbs can also be taken to reduce
the side effects of other medication. Herbal medicine
can strengthen the body's immune system while antibiotics
weaken the system.
Each
herb has its own specific characteristics.
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In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the different characteristics
of herbs are employed to treat diseases and rectify
the hyperactivity of yin and yang (described below),
thus curing the diseases and restoring health. The
various characteristics of these herbs are properties,
flavors, channel tropism, actions of lifting, lowering,
floating and sinking, etc.
How are herbs
categorized?
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1. Property: It refers to the cool, cold, warm, or
hot nature of the herb. For example, herbs which cure
heat syndromes (fever, thirst, constipation, sore
throat) have a cold or cool property. On the contrary,
herbs of warm or hot nature usually have positive
effects on cold syndromes (cold hands and feet, pale
complexion, loose stools).
2. Flavor : it refers to the taste of the herb (pungent,
sweet, sour, bitter, salty, neutral, or astringent).
Herbs of similar taste normally have similar in effects.
3. Channel tropism: Channel tropism refers to a drug's
selective therapeutic effects on a certain part of
the body.
4. Actions: Actions of lifting, lowering, floating
and sinking refer to the upward, downward, outward
or inward directions in which drugs tend to act on
the body.
A
balance of yin and yang represents a state of health
and longevity.
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The concept of harmony is central to Chinese medicine.
Without it there wouldn't be health. The determination
of harmony in Chinese medicine is based on the universal
theory of yin and yang. Yin-yang is simply a symbolic
way of defining opposite forces that are at work in
everything from the universe down to the molecule
of the body. Yin and Yang represent the masculine
and feminine, day and night, hot and cold, external
and internal etc.To the Chinese, the human body is
the cosmos in miniature. When imbalance occurs, diseases
and weakness will result.
Chinese believe food and herbal medicines can correct
yin-yang imbalances by supplementing the deficient
element. One example of basic preventive care based
on yin-yang theory is to adjust the diet according
to the season. In summer, cooling yin foods should
be increased in the diet, and in winter, more warming
yang foods should be added to the meal.
Interaction
of the Five Elements
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Since ancient times, the Chinese have divided the
world intofive symbolic elements: Wood,
Fire, Earth, Metal, andWater . The five elements encompass
all the phenomena of nature. Each force represented
by the Five Elements has a generative and a subjugated
influence on one other force. The ancient wisdom also
compared the elements contained in nature with the
main organs of the body, and matching them to demonstrate
their interdependence and mutual reinforcement and
restraint: Fire for the heart, Metal for the lungs,
Earth for the spleen, Water for the kidneys and Wood
for the liver.
The generative cycle of the Five Elements:
Wood generates Fire (it burns to generate Fire).
Fire generates Earth (it produces ashes).
Earth generates Metal (it can be mined from the ground).
Metal generates Water (it becomes molten when heated).
Water generates Wood (it promotes growth of plants).
The subjugative cycle of the Five Elements:
Wood subjugates Earth (it breaks up the soil and depleting
its nutrients).
Earth subjugates Water (it absorbs it).
Water subjugates Fire (it extinguishes it).
Fire subjugates Metal (heat changes it from solid
to liquid).
Metal subjugates Wood (an axe can cut down a tree).
This explains how one element can help or suppress
another. Since Water (the kidney) can nourish the
Wood (the liver), the kidneys are the "mother"
of the liver. If a patient has liver problem, a doctor
will decide by his physical appearance which category
his particular symptoms manifest. It also explains
how external environmental factors affect each organ
and the body as a whole.
Today, the basic natural relationships of yin-yang
and the Five Elements prove to be reliable guides
in both diagnosis and treatment of disease. Chinese
herbal medicine can be used to manipulate these natural
relationships to adjust energy imbalances in our body.
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