The True Status of Chinese Medicine in the United States

Europeans and Americans are undoubtedly proud to call their Western medicine conventional or orthodox medicine, and to call the medical systems of non-Western countries and some traditional therapies (many of which have been handed down by indigenous people) and folk therapies in Western countries complementary, alternative and non-traditional medicine.

The existence of alternative medicine precisely exposes the inadequacies of modern medicine.

Chinese medicine, especially acupuncture and other physical therapies, has been embraced by Americans. Currently, there may be more than 20,000 doctors licensed in Chinese medicine and acupuncture and more than 10,000 Chinese medicine clinics in the United States.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is "medicine originating and formed in China, characterized by a holistic view and a discriminatory approach to treatment". Chinese medicine has a history of several thousand years. At the same time, Chinese medicine also refers to "Chinese medicine discipline professional team", that is, Chinese medicine doctors. The classification of TCM mainly includes TCM internal medicine, TCM surgery and TCM orthopedics and traumatology.

Chinese medicine refers to traditional Chinese medicine, which is the study of human physiology, pathology, diagnosis and prevention of diseases. It carries the experience and theoretical knowledge of the ancient Chinese people in their fight against diseases, and is a medical theory system gradually formed and developed through long-term medical practice under the guidance of ancient simple materialism and spontaneous dialectical thought. In terms of research methodology, it is based on a similar holistic view, the physiology and pathology of internal organs and meridians, and identification and treatment, and is based on simple system theory, cybernetics, fractalism, and information theory.

Generally speaking, Chinese medicine refers to the traditional medicine created by the Han Chinese working people, so it is also called Chinese medicine. Other Chinese medicine, such as Tibetan medicine, Mongolian medicine, Miao medicine, and so on, are called ethnomedicine.

The Chinese medicine is based on the doctrine of yin and yang and the five elements, and regards the human body as a unity of qi, form and god. Through the methods of looking, smelling, asking and feeling, combined with the four diagnostic methods, it explores the cause, nature and location of the disease, analyzes the mechanism of the disease, the changes in the organs, meridians and joints, and the changes in the qi, blood and fluids, and judges the positive and negative changes of the evils, and then comes up with the name of the disease, generalizes the type of the evidence and formulates it according to the principle of diagnosis and treatment. The positive side of TCM treatment lies in the hope of helping to restore the balance of yin and yang in the human body, while the negative side is the hope of taking care of life and quality of life when drugs must be used to slow down the deterioration of the disease. In addition, the ultimate goal of TCM is not just to cure diseases, but to help human beings reach the realm of the four archetypal figures of the True Man, the Supreme Being, the Sage, and the Sage, as suggested by the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.

The theory of Chinese medicine originates from the summary of ancient Chinese medical experience and the ideas of yin and yang and five elements. Its contents include the doctrine of essence and qi, the doctrine of yin and yang and five elements, qi, blood, fluid, internal organs, meridians and collaterals, constitution, causes and mechanisms of disease, treatment principles, and health maintenance. As early as 2,000 years ago, the Chinese medicine monograph "Huang Di Nei Jing" was introduced, laying the foundation of Chinese medicine. So far, the theory, diagnosis and treatment related to Chinese medicine,

Chinese medicine has a complete theoretical system, and its uniqueness lies in the holistic view of "the unity of heaven and man" and "the correspondence between heaven and man" and its diagnosis and treatment. The main features are:

It is believed that people are part of nature, which consists of two substances: yin and yang. Yin and Yang are opposing and interdependent, always in motion and change. In the normal physiological state, the two are in dynamic balance. Once this dynamic balance is disrupted, it will be in a state of sickness. But in the treatment of disease, correcting the imbalance of yin and yang, we do not take an isolated, static way of looking at the problem, but mostly from a dynamic point of view, that is, we emphasize the "concept of constant motion". We believe that man and nature are a unified whole, i.e., "the unity of heaven and man", "heaven and man correspond". The law of human life activities and the occurrence of disease and nature's various changes (such as seasonal climate, geographical area, day and night, morning and evening, etc.) are closely related.) . The physical characteristics and morbidity patterns of human beings also vary according to the natural environment in which they live and the degree of adaptation to the natural environment. Therefore, when diagnosing and treating the same disease, the emphasis on time, place, and population is not uniform. It is believed that all the tissues and organs of the human body are a whole, and they are physiologically and pathologically interconnected and interact with each other. Therefore, we never look at a physiological or pathological phenomenon in isolation, but from the perspective of the whole to view the disease, especially emphasizing the "holistic view".