What is Traditional Chinese Medicine?
The "Roots" and "Branches"
of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Chinese Medicine is a 4000-year-old sophisticated system of medicine that, at its essence, seeks to understand and facilitate homeostasis and harmony in human life. It is based on the simple principle: "any system that is in harmony lends itself to health, wellbeing and sustainability. A system that is in disharmony falls into illness, disease, suffering and collapse".
Chinese Medicine has always looked at the body as being rooted and inseparable from nature and in fact, often uses nature analogies to describe health and disease. Long ago, the ancients already knew what modern scientist have recently proven:
human life, nature and the universe are all governed by the same laws of quantum physics and energy and that at the deepest level, everything that creates and sustains our life is interconnected and interdependent"
Two concepts are unique and fundamental to Chinese Medicine:
- Qi (usually translated as "vital energy" or "life force energy"), and
- Yin and Yang (the harmony of all the opposite elements and forces that make up existence).
Qi, Yin and Yang are the "Roots" of Chinese Medicine.
Qi, Yin and Yang form the "stems of life" in Chinese Medicine. Resting on these principles is the balance of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory and application, including the causation patterns of disharmony, which form the "Branches."
Practitioners of Chinese Medicine use different modalities to ensure the smooth flow of energy in your physical, mental and emotional life. Health and wellbeing are not just the absence of disease but includes 'Quality of Life', or, "ensuring you are healthy and comfortable so as to participate fully in and enjoy all life's events".
"Root" and "Branches" are important concepts in Chinese Medicine. There is always a source or "root" cause to imbalance and, by tailoring the treatments to the whole person we are able to treat not just the branch (presenting symptom or diagnosis) but effect real sustainable change and health in the body.
