Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a unique medical system that has been in use for 3000 years.  TCM is the use of the ancient Chinese healing art of influencing and rebalancing the life forces of Yin and Yang within the body by using a number of modalities.


Some of the more common modalities are Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal medicines, Tui Na ( Chinese therapeutic massage), Tai Qi and Qi Gong . Related developments are modalities like Japanese Acupuncture.

 

Acupuncture effectiveness is now accepted in various countries including New Zealand. There is an increasing demand for acupuncture as more people seek safe and effective natural treatments that do not have the risk factor associated with drugs and surgery.

 

Acupuncture treats the whole person as well as the specific problem. With its unique system of diagnosis, an acupuncturist will, in addition to asking details of the presenting problem, ask for a history of past illnesses, familial tendencies, and general symptoms of the individual with the aim of determining a complete picture of the patient’s health.

 

In this way acupuncture has always been used as a preventative medicine and can bring positive benefits to almost any individual. 

 

TCM is based on two conceptual principles: Yin and Yang and The Five Elements.

 

Yin and Yang are one key to understanding, diagnosing and treating in Traditional Chinese medicine. These concepts are defined as complementary opposites and can be used to describe what happens in the world around us as well as all the parts and functions of the body.  Yin is about form and substance while yang is about function. Water is more cold, condensed and  yin than steam which is hotter, less dense and yang. Steam condenses into water which when heated vaporises and becomes steam. They are opposites like night and day or light and dark and yet there is always an element of each within the other.

 

Within the body some organs are more yin / internal / solid like the heart or liver while some like the colon and bladder are more hollow, external or yang in function. It must be remembered that Yin and Yang are always relative. What is yin in relation to one thing may be yang in relation to another. The front of the body for instance is yang relative to the back and yet the abdomen is yin relative to the chest.

 

Another key concept underlying TCM is Five Element system of fire, earth, metal, water and wood. Just as these elements relate in some ways for instance to environmental seasonal conditions like wind, heat, dampness (humidity), dryness and cold, and just as the seasonal patterns follow a regular cycle, this same pattern happens on a micro scale within the body. In the body the kidney and bladder are associated with winter and affected by cold, the liver is associated with wood element, which is associated with spring and affected by wind.