Chinese medicine is a sophisticated medical model dating back some 3,500 years. Its primary focus has always been the prevention of disease.
Where western medicine concentrates its effort on illness once it is revealed, the emphasis here is on health and generating and preserving life.
In the classical text Huangdi Neijing, it states that to wait for disease to arise before tending the body is “akin to digging a well only when one is thirsty, or to cast a weapon after the war has already broken out.”
There are several methods used to preserve health, some of which will come as no surprise: food and nutrition, exercise and emotional well-being. Yet what is unique to this medicine is its insight into an individual’s specific, unique constitution.
If you feel too hot, spicy foods are best avoided. Those feeling cold will require some warmer foods and herbs.
Health can be achieved by following simple daily practices that encourage health and discourage disease in your particular body.
A common analogy used in Chinese medicine compares illness to a tree. The root of the tree is the pattern developed in the body over years of habitual behaviours, while the symptoms a person develops are its branches. No matter how often you clear away the branches, the root problem remains and is never addressed. New branches grow, new symptoms or health issues arise, all stemming from the same core pattern. Treating the root problem is the only way to change the progression of disease. This is the inherent art of Chinese medicine.
This concept explains the differences in how we experience a certain illness: three patients presenting with insomnia will have very different sleep patterns. One will struggle with falling asleep due to a busy mind, pointing to digestive issues. Another will sleep lightly and be woken several times throughout the night with difficulty staying asleep, pointing to a lack of specific nutrients in the blood. Another will be awake all night, a clear indication of a liver imbalance.
In traditional Chinese medicine, disease is addressed on an individual basis. When the root pattern is established, Chinese medicine offers not only effective treatment, but a guide to a new way of life.
Ginette Cloutier has a doctorate in traditional Chinese medicine, from Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences in Nelson, BC.
