Chinese
Medicine
What It Does
Chinese medicine is a complete medical system that has diagnosed, treated, and prevented illness for over twenty-three centuries. While it can remedy ailments and alter states of mind, Chinese medicine can also enhance recuperative power, immunity, and the capacity for pleasure, work, and creativity.
How It Thinks
Within Chinese cosmology, all of creation is born from the marriage of two polar principles, Yin and Yang: Earth and Heaven, winter and summer, night and day, cold and hot, wet and dry, inner and outer, body and mind. Harmony of this union means health, good weather, and good fortune, while disharmony leads to disease, disaster, and bad luck. The strategy of Chinese medicine is to restore harmony.
Each human being is seen as a world in miniature, a garden in which doctor and patient together strive to cultivate health. Every person has a unique terrain to be mapped, a resilient yet sensitive ecology to be maintained. Like a gardener uses irrigation and compost to grow robust plants, the doctor uses acupuncture, herbs, and food to recover and sustain health.
Yin & Yang — tap the symbol to spin it
| Yin 陰 | Yang 陽 |
|---|---|
| Earth & winter | Heaven & summer |
| Night & cold | Day & hot |
| Wet & inner | Dry & outer |
| Body & rest | Mind & activity |
| Nourishing | Transforming |
Neither is better than the other. Health is their harmony.
Hear from patients — tap any card to read their full story
Qi, Moisture, Blood,
Spirit, Essence
Just as Nature contains air, sea, and land, the human body is comprised of Qi (pronounced chee), Moisture, and Blood.
The three substances — tap each to learn more
Organ Networks — Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung, Kidney
As Nature is organized by five primal powers — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — so the body is divided into five functional systems known as Organ Networks. These Networks govern particular tissues, mental faculties, and physical activities. Tap each one to learn what it governs and what happens when it is out of balance.
Patient stories
Wind, Dampness,
Dryness, Heat, Cold
In Nature, extreme wind, dampness, dryness, heat, and cold wreak havoc in the world. These same forces can derange balance within the human body, weakening or obstructing the movement of Qi in the organs.
Tap each climate below to see how it manifests in the body.
Patient story
How Illness Arises
Qi, Moisture, and Blood circulate within a web of pathways called channels that link together all the parts of the organism. Health exists when adequate Qi, Moisture, and Blood flow smoothly.
Symptoms as varied as joint pain, headache, anxiety, fatigue, menstrual cramps, high blood pressure, asthma, indigestion, and the common cold occur when their circulation is disrupted. All illness is understood as a consequence of either a depletion or a congestion of Qi, Moisture, and Blood.
Two patterns of imbalance
- Weakness & lethargy
- Frequent illness
- Poor digestion
- Inadequate blood flow
- Aches & tension
- Tenderness & pain
- Distended abdomen
- Irritability & swelling
Just as soil becomes depleted through overuse, so the Qi, Moisture, and Blood are eroded by overwork, emotional tension, mental strain, too much or too little exercise, and inadequate diet or rest, impairing the capacity of the Organ Networks to do their jobs.
Patient story
How Your Practitioner
Reads Your Body
Practitioners assess a person's health by feeling the pulsations at each wrist and by observing the color and form of the face, tongue, and body. This information is interpreted in the context of a patient's present and past complaints, work and living habits, physical environment, family health history, and emotional life.
What your practitioner observes — tap each to learn more
Two examples — tap each card to see the diagnosis
This indicates Heat and congested Qi. Max may be complaining of stomach pain, migraine, nausea, fever, or bronchitis.
This suggests deficiency of Blood and Moisture, undermining the Liver, Heart, and Spleen. Emma may feel tense, anxious, unable to conceive, or struggle with fatigue, depression, or insomnia.
Patient story
Restoring Harmony
The goal of treatment is to adjust and harmonize Yin and Yang — wet and dry, cold and heat, inner and outer, body and mind.
This is achieved by regulating the Qi, Moisture, and Blood in the Organ Networks: weak organs are tonified, congested channels are opened, excess is dispersed, tightness is softened, agitation is calmed, heat is cooled, cold is warmed, dryness is moistened, and dampness is drained.
Treatment may incorporate acupuncture, herbal remedies, diet, exercise, and massage.
Explore each treatment — tap to select
Acupuncture is based on the understanding that Qi courses through channels in the body just as streams and rivers ebb and flow across the surface of the earth. Every Organ Network has a corresponding set of channels. The acupuncture points are located in small depressions in the skin called "men" or "gates" where the channels come closest to the surface.
In ancient times, when cities were fortified by walls, gates were opened to receive sustenance and closed to keep harm away. With acupuncture, the gates of the body are opened and closed to adjust circulation in the channels and expel noxious influences from them.
Thin, solid, sterile stainless steel needles are inserted into acupuncture points to communicate from the outside to the inside. Acupuncture mobilizes Qi, Moisture, Blood, invigorating proper function of muscles, nerves, vessels, glands, and organs.
How it feels
Insertion of the slender needles goes unnoticed by some, and to others feels like a small pinch followed by a sensation of tingling, numbness, ache, traveling warmth, or heaviness. Sometimes people feel Qi moving at a distance from the point of insertion.
Needles remain in place for twenty to forty minutes. Usually relaxation and an elevation of spirit accompanies treatment. It is as normal to want to continue resting as it is to be immediately energized. Most people are pleased to find that sessions are not uncomfortable and even look forward to them.
Because Chinese medicine reverberates in the body and spirit, it can be a catalyst for subtle yet far-reaching change.
Herbal medicine is itself a powerful method of healing. Western drugs often control symptoms, but do not alter the disease process — antibiotics eliminate bacteria but do not improve a person's resistance to infection; diuretics rid excess fluid without improving kidney function. Chinese herbs treat the underlying condition as defined by traditional diagnosis, and rarely cause unwanted side-effects.
Since fatigue results from a lack of Qi, herbs that nourish the Qi have an energizing effect. Since blurry vision, restless sleep, and irritability result from depleted Blood, Blood-enriching herbs improve vision, sleep, and equanimity. Since dry skin and dehydration arise from insufficient Moisture, herbs that replenish it soften the skin and relieve an otherwise unquenchable thirst.
Formulas combine benefits
Chinese herbs are usually combined in formulas to enhance their individual properties and actions. Symptoms and signs are matched with therapeutic effects, reflecting the particular conditions and needs of each patient.
Formulas are available in a variety of forms: crude herbs to be boiled into tea, liquid bottled extracts, ground herbs packaged in pills, and powders. Herbs, more like foods than drugs, can supplement our diet and fortify our constitution as well as prevent or remedy ailments.
Duration of treatment depends on the nature of the complaint, its severity, and how long it has been present. Acupuncture is scheduled as often as three times a week or as little as twice a month. Response varies. Some need only a few sessions while others need sustained care to reverse entrenched patterns established over time. As symptoms improve, fewer visits are required — individual progress being the yardstick.
It is as normal to want to continue resting after a session as it is to be immediately energized. Some notice a relief of symptoms or feel more energetic in the days that follow treatment. Most people are pleased to find that sessions are not uncomfortable and even look forward to them.
What Acupuncture
Can Treat
It would be most accurate to say that acupuncture treats disorders of Qi, Blood, and Moisture, and disturbances of the Organ Networks — but this does not correspond to the Western vocabulary of named diseases and conditions.
Acupuncture may be helpful for: withdrawal from addictions such as sugar, coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, and cocaine; stress reduction; post surgical recovery; chronic fatigue; the signs of aging; and decreased immunity. Some of the many conditions for which acupuncture is considered appropriate are listed by the World Health Organization of the United Nations.
Tap a category to explore — swipe sideways if there are more:
How Chinese and Western
Medicine Differ
Because Chinese medicine views people as ecosystems in miniature, it seeks to improve our capacity to balance and renew our resources.
- Sees you as a whole ecosystem
- Treats the root, not just symptoms
- Anticipates & prevents problems
- Strengthens your own resources
- Protects health day to day
- Focuses on named diseases
- Targets symptoms with precision
- Intervenes after crises arise
- Heroic rescue in acute situations
- Essential for emergencies & surgery
Often Western medicine intervenes only after crises arise, whereas Chinese medicine anticipates problems by sustaining our interior landscape. By correcting depletion and stagnation at earlier stages, greater problems later on are avoided.
Sometimes Western medicine has nothing to offer for nagging chronic complaints that Chinese medicine can help. The two are not a substitute for each other. They are often complementary. Whereas Western medicine may heroically rescue us, Chinese medicine can protect and preserve our health day to day.
Regulation of practice
The regulation of health care practice differs from state to state. Safe and effective practice standards have been established by the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncturists (NCCA). All practitioners certified by this Commission or the state comply with strict requirements for sterile needles. Many health insurance policies elect to cover acupuncture treatment.
Patient stories
"Chinese medicine can effectively treat acute and chronic conditions and provide preventive care. To discover whether Chinese medicine is helpful for you, try it."
© 1991 by Harriet Beinfield & Efrem Korngold