As traditional medicine has become increasingly popular in recent years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) also attracts plenty of attention from around the world. In fact, more and more patients have chosen TCM as an early-stage treatment for various kinds of chronic diseases not only because of its relatively mild adverse effects, but also of its continuous applications and developments, making this ancient medical system shares an equal status with the modern medical system.
Yet, TCM after all is a unique system dissimilar to main stream medicine. The terms that TCM Practitioners commonly use such as “Yin Yang,” “Qi,” “Five Elements” etc. always make patients in a puzzle. So, what exactly is TCM and what are its characteristics?
TCM has a long and rich history of almost three thousands of years. It is a medical system with the aim of curing, characterized by herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, and “Qi Gong” (Deep Breathing Exercise). Its theories and techniques still hold practicability in today’s modern world.
Basically, Western Medicine cannot provide healing before successfully determining the name of a disease and its recognized treatment. TCM, on the contrary, will not rigidly adhere to finding out the name of the disease, but to pay attention to the overall conditions and symptoms of the patients, and then employ a proper treatment accordingly. For instance, TCM can offer treatment to conditions like constant fatigue and frequent flu those non-disease problems, so as to improve the overall constitution and thus preserve good health.
There is sufficient scientific proof of the effectiveness of TCM, still when comes to acute diseases that need emergency medical treatment or surgery, the efficiency of Western Medicine is comparatively higher. That’s why to integrate or combine TCM therapies with Western Medicine in order to take advantage from each other and build a better healthcare system has become a worldwide trend. In fact, during 2003 outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the combination of TCM and Western Medicine treatments provided much better results and created a whole new perspective for the world.
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