Traditional Chinese Medicine

TCM is the Traditional Chinese method of observing patterns that occur in nature and treating imbalances in harmony with those patterns.  TCM offers an alternative framework for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.  There are several principles underlying all TCM diagnosis, treatment and prevention:

• Five Element Theory – Used to treat imbalances in the creation and control cycles within each of these elements:  Water, Metal, Earth, Wood, Fire

• Eight Principles – Used to divide disease conditions for the purpose of diagnosis and treatment: Yin/Yang, Interior/Exterior, Excess/Deficiency, Hot/Cold

Key Benefits

• Allows diagnosis and treatment to extend beyond health as defined by a lack of disease to the realm of prevention and creation of health as defined by the balance between mind, spirit and body.

Capabilities

• Diet and Lifestyle Changes – Based on philosophy that ‘you are what you eat’
  • Uses diet as medicine to treat imbalances.   For example, foods classed as ‘warming’ (heated foods, spicy foods, garlic, or ginger) could be used to treat ‘cold’ conditions such as upper-respiratory infections or arthrititis (vs a Western Medicine approach to treating arthritis would be to limited to using drugs to treat the symptoms of arthritis).
• Herbal - Combinations of herbs are used to provide a broader range of treatment possibilities.
• Must be considered as sets of herbs: work together to promote healing of a system
• Acupuncture - The ancient Chinese method of treating injury, illness and imbalance in animals.
  • Involves the stimulation of specific points along a Meridian System using needles, electrical current, laser stimulation and/or injection of fluids. 

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