The major systems of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The three key components of traditional Chinese medicine are Chinese herbal medicine,
Acupuncture & Moxibustion, and Chinese massage therapy.
Traditional Chinese medicine is the world's earliest medical system and is used as a principal
medicinal treatment system by far too many people.
It is formally acknowledged not only in China but also in Japan and other nations in central and
south-eastern Asia with the same cultural tradition.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an essential component of Chinese civilization and one
of China's significant modern medical systems in practice.
The countless prescriptions of Chinese materia medica are centered on a philosophical context,
rendering a holistic medicine system in theory and practice.
As all the ancient traditional medicines of the world, Traditional Chinese Medicine
acknowledges the person as a whole composed of body, mind, and spirit.
The organs and limbs communicate and collaborate through the meridian system, which
performs a very significant function in the processes of physiology and pathology.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture helps re-establish a person's natural equilibrium, and it is mainly structured to increase the patient's cumulative health.
Acupuncture represents simply one of many energy medicine procedures that generate tangible healing advantages as a healing therapy alternative.
Acupuncture's beginnings can be traced back more than 2,000 years, making it one of the world's oldest health care systems.
It can enhance the healing process of the body by setting needles in certain regions on the body.
The principle of Acupuncture deals with manipulating qi force across the body.
Using other techniques, including acupressure, moxibustion, cupping, laser therapy, electro-stimulation, and massage, the therapist can also stimulate the acupuncture points to rebalance the qi flow.
According to Daoist values, qi is the vital force that is part of any living thing and is the central inherent essence in both traditional Chinese and martial arts.
" In A Clinical Introduction to Medical Acupuncture, the authors, Aung & Chen, state, "Traditional Chinese medicine distinguishes not only one but several different kinds of qi. In a general sense, qi is something that is defined by five "cardinal functions."
These cardinal functions are the core elements that keep the body alive and binds it with the essence.
The primary purpose of qi is to keep the body heated during cold temperatures, particularly the extremities.
Qi also allows the intervention of biological functions such as breathing, sweating, regulating the nervous system, and most importantly, the circulation of all bodily fluids, including blood in the veins.
Acupuncture is envisioned as a practice of stimulating the body to foster and enhance natural regeneration.
The original Chinese argument is that energy pathways pass through the body and its surface in continuous movements.
These pathways of energy, termed meridians, are like rivers that flow through the body to irrigate and sustain the tissues.
A constraint to the motion of these flows of energy is like a barrier that opposes others.
The meridians can be manipulated by inserting needles into the acupuncture locations; the needles of Acupuncture unclog the obstructions and restore the continuous movement through
the meridians.
Therefore, acupuncture treatments can assist the vital organs of the body in correcting instabilities in their digestion, absorption, and output of energy, activities, and the propagation of the energy through the meridians.
The contemporary research explanation is that by inserting the needles throughout the points of Acupuncture triggers the nervous system for releasing chemicals in the body, spinal cord, and brain.
These chemicals either alter the distress sensation or initiate the release of other chemicals and hormones that impact the body's internal regulatory process.
The enhanced power and biochemical equilibrium provided by Acupuncture will stimulate the natural healing capacities of the body and promote physical and emotional well-being.
Chinese massage
Chinese massage is a technique of retention and pressure to alleviate the pathology in various regions of the body. Massage allows a pleasant sensation to the skin.
It stimulates blood flow and helps reduce stress.
There are excellent advantages to combine massage with herbal medicine. Massage can improve and accelerate the action of herbal remedies.
In its use of the meridian system, Chinese massage is strongly linked to Acupuncture and is deemed efficient for a comparable spectrum of health issues.
It is a powerful and comprehensive therapy and is classified in conjunction with herbalism, diet, qigong, and one of Traditional Chinese Medicine's essential arts.
There are textbooks for massage as far back as the most ancient medical texts of the Nei Jing (722-481 BC).
It is documented in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) that the imperial hospital had 56 massage physicians more than the total number of herbalists and acupuncturists.
Chinese herbal medicine
Chinese herbal medicine provides a form of therapy that is superior and longer-lasting than Western medicine. Herbs contain a lot of body-acting chemical substances that minimize the
probability of potential side effects.
Chinese herbal medicine's genesis can be traced back to at least five thousand years.
Chinese herbal medicine provides an integrated approach to disease and prophylactic care, focusing on both the prevention of illness and therapy.
The immune system is enhanced by strengthening and improving ordinary body functions and promoting a general sensation of well-being.
Chinese herbal extracts are herbal healing potions transformed into a powdered or granular form.
Pills have been made from ancient times by blending several herbs and other ingredients that have been dried and ground into a powder. Then they were mixed with a binder and molded by
hand into pills. Traditionally, the binder was honey.
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is a variant of heat therapy that burns dried plant materials called Moxa on or adjacent to the skin tissue.
The purpose is to warm and reinvigorate the body's Qi flow and dissipate several pathogenic activities.
Usually, Moxa is obtained from Chinese mugwort's dried leafy material (Artemesia argyi or A.vulgaris), but it can also be composed of other ingredients.
In the same session, practitioners often perform both Acupuncture and moxibustion when necessary for the scheme of diagnosis and therapy. Practitioners reckon that when used together,
the therapies boost the efficacy of each other.
In TCM fundamental theory, Moxibustion activities are based on two features exerting the functions of Moxa and fire and the action of the meridian system.
Moxibustion functions can be primarily classified into warm nourishing, warm dredging, and warm melting.
Warm nourishing relates to the virtues of Yang warming, qi toning, blood nurturing, and soothing depletion.
Warm dredging relates to blood activation functions, stasis dissolution, qi promotion, dredging channels, and pain relief.
Warm melting applies to the activities of phlegm reduction, reducing stagnation, wind removal, evaporation of moisture, poison removal, and heat purification.
Mechanism Research of Moxibustion
Modern research of moxibustion started in the earlies of the last century.
( Shao H. Clinical application and mechanism research of moxibustion. Shanghai Journal of
Traditional Chinese Medicine. 1980;(3):41–43.)
In 1912, Japanese scholars commenced observing the physical characteristics of moxibustion
materials and the effects of moxibustion on blood pressure and intestinal peristalsis.
(Zhou Z-H, Yuan Y-Q. Survey of Japan moxibustion methods.Chinese Acupuncture
&Moxibustion. 2008;28(1):65–67.)
To date, more and more inquiries have been carried out on the effects of moxibustion on the
human body or investigational animals, involving almost all major physiological processes,
particularly in the areas of pain relievers, strengthening immunity and anti-aging.
Currently, more and more trials have been undertaken on the results of moxibustion on the
human body or research animals. These studies cover nearly all significant physiological
mechanisms, especially in pain relievers fields, enhancing immunity and anti-aging.
The usually agreed opinion is that to generate extensive benefits, the meridian system pairs with physical and chemical effects of moxibustion.