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About Chinese Medicine
Traditional
Chinese medicine is a natural medicine, an Oriental naturopathy. In
general, it uses safe and non-toxic treatments with no or low iatrogenic impact in an
effort to re-establish balance within the patient and between the patient and their
larger environment. The practioner of Chinese medicine seeks to nudge the body's
own homeostatic mechanisms just enough for the body to right itself. Chinese
medicine does not try to force changes on the bodymind but rather provides the
opportunity, the space for the bodymind to itself instinctively move towards greater
health and ease.
Because the professional practioner of traditional Chinese medicine works in
concord with nature and not against it, Chinese medicine, like most natural
medicines, works slower and more smoothly than modern Western medicine.
Therefore, the prospective patient must be willing to give Chinese medicine a
chance to do its job at the body's own pace. One month of healing for each year a
chronic condition has persisted is a generous and realistic time-frame. At first, this
may look like the "never never" plan. But, when viewed from the perspective of a
seventy year plus life span, six months, a year, a year and a half, or even two is
actually a short time if real, deep health and balance are obtained. Having practiced
traditional Chinese medicine in the Canada since 1987, it is clear that
those patients who stick with Chinese medicine for more than six months get the
best and most profound results. In Chinese medicine, traditionally, a doctor could
not claim a cure until the patient was able to go through four seasons without a
relapse or recurrence. The sweetest music to my ears is when patients tell me two
or three years after having undergone a course of Chinese medical treatment how
consistently better and better they feel once having been pointed in the right
irection.
Professional Chinese medicine is based on the Doctrine of the Mean, the way of
moderation. When seeking balance, more than enough of anything will tip the
balance, and once that balance has been tipped, the bodymind will tend to swing
erratically for some time. Therefore, it is important to discuss with the professional
practioner of Chinese medicine all therapies one is using or wishes to use to get a
focused therapeutic principle of treatment . The professional practitioner can help
the patient decide what foods, vitamins and minerals, and over the counter
medicines are appropriate based on their individualized Chinese energetic
diagnosis. In general, symptomatic shotgun therapy is best avoided. It rarely results
in actual balance.
The treatment plan of deep relaxation, aerobic exercise, diet, herbal medicine, and
acupuncture is a comprehensive and holistic treatment plan which seeks not only to
allay symptoms but also to restore balance at a deep level of one's being.
The better the patient's compliance and the more perserving their
following of the totall treatment plan, the better the therapeutic result.
difficulties. But, not only will one's condition show marked improvement, the patient's
entire health and well-being will take a turn for the better. As in the story of the turtle
and the hare, it is slow and steady which wins this race. It is little wonder that the
turtle is a traditional Chinese symbol of longevity.
Chinese traditional music |
