Your Guide to Medical and Health Guides.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, commonly abbreviated TCM, is a range of traditional medical practises originating in China. The practises range from dietary therapy and herbal remedies to acupuncture and various types of massage, including Shitatsu and Tui na. The meditative practice Qigong and the martial art Tai chi chuan (which is often carried out for health reasons rather than for protection) are also closely associated with traditional Chinese medicine.

Importnat parts and believes in Traditional Chinese medicine includes, the Zang fu organ hypothesis, Ying and Yang, Wu Xing (AKa the five phases in English) and the meridians. Traditional Chinese medicine derives a lot of its basic philosophy from the same general ideas that inform Taoist and Buddhist thought.

One of the most important sources of about traditional Chinese medicine is a 2000 year old book calledShen Nong’s Herbal Classic“. This is the oldest preserved book on Chinese herbal remedies and classifies 365 species of roots, woods, grasses, animals and furs into three different categories:

• The first category contains herbs that are chiefly responsible for maintaining and restoring body balance. If you belive what is written in the book will these herbal supplements have virtually no undesirable side-effects and are affective against multiple diseases.
• The second category is comprised of tonics and booster, and the reader is warned against prolonged consumption of these products.
• The third chapter contains info on disease specific treatments. The items in category three are typically used in small doses.

Two thousand years after the book was composed, herbal medicine is still considered the primary therapeutic modality of internal medicine by a large part of the Chinese population. Single herbs are often combined with each other to form mixtures consisting of anything from two to over 25 herbs.

Although most westerners have come in contact with Chinese herbs, thai chi and acupuncture, the abovementioned Zang Fu organ hypothesis is much less known outside China. Zang Fu is built around a belief system on how the organs in the body work and how they interact with eachother. It is strongly linked to the belief in Yin and Yang, with the term Zang referring to the yin organs and the term Fu referring to the yang ones.

Kidneys, spleen, lungs, heart, pericardium and liver are all considered zang (i.e. yin) organs, while the stomach, large and small intestine, gall bladder and urinary bladder are fu (i.e. yang) organs. The fu list also contain the San Jiao organ but this organ does not have a physical component and is likely primarely a energetic organ.

Every organ corresponds to another organ, there are however two exceptions from the San Jiao, pericardium. Each zang organ is paired up with a fu organ, and each pair is assigned to one of the five Wu Xing phases. The heart and the small intestine is assigned to fire, spleen and stomach to earth, liver and gallbladder to wood, lung and large intestine to metal, and kidney and urinary bladder to water.