The Very Basics of Chinese Medicine

Posted on April 9, 2022Categories Business and ManagementTags ,

In the West we tend to think of medicine as something that we take internally, either a liquid or a pill. However, Traditional Chinese Medicine – also known as TCM – embraces far more than just a pill or something in a bottle, and includes such things as acupuncture, moxibustion, massage therapy, cupping, Chinese herbs, and more.

Chinese herbs alone include leaves, roots, stems, flowers, and seeds of plants, such as cinnamon bark, ginger, ginseng, liquorice, and rhubarb. However, they don't only include parts of plants but also deer antlers, tiger bones, rhino horns, snake bile, and minerals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, and even asbestos. So the term TCM is very wide ranging.  You can also get course in chinese medicine in Australia.

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Furthermore, depending on whose figures you believe, TCM dates back anywhere between 2,200 and 5,000 years. Whichever figure is correct, it certainly has a long history.

What most people agree is that TCM is described in the earliest known written record which is from the 3rd century BC and is called Huangdi neijing (The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic). This describes the theoretical concepts that still remain the basis of Chinese medicine in London today which is that there are two opposing, yet complementary forces in the body – and indeed in the entire universe – known as yin and yang.

When these two forces are in balance and in harmony, the body is healthy. It is when they become out of balance that illness sets in. TCM seeks to restore the balance between yin and yang and bring the body back to health and wellbeing.