Terminology – When reading about Chinese Medicine you may often encounter familiar words that have a special meaning within Chinese Medicine, to distinguish this meaning from the common use we will capitalize the words. As an example Lung would refer to the TCM meaning while lung refers to the conventional anatomical lung. Another example could be Wind, while wind would refer to the common reference to airflow or weather.

Introducing TCM.

Traditional Chinese Medicine, from now on referred to as TCM, is a "holistic" medicine with an emphasis on "Man and his relationship to Nature." For five thousand years the Chinese have been developing TCM by observing people and nature.

During this time many natural methods of treating disease have been developed. These methods have been proven safe and effective by countless generations of Chinese. More than three thousand years ago the Chinese discovered Acupuncture, developed healthy exercise techniques like "Tai Qi" and "Qi Gong" and created the most complex and effective herbal medicine in existence.

Today these techniques continue to improve. In China, Traditional Chinese Medicine is in the hospitals, working alongside Western medicine. The Chinese people and their government recognize its great history and enormous contribution to understanding human health and disease. Therefore, throughout China in hospitals and research centres, extensive study and development of TCM continues.

To many the language that TCM uses to describe disease seems strange. This is because it describes our state of health in terms of harmony, balance and in relation to nature and its rhythms. In the West we are simply not used to hearing our health described in these terms. However, many people find that they can relate easily to TCM descriptions - much more so than complex scientific explanations.

In contrast to TCM, medicine in the West developed by pulling everything apart - using a microscope and looking at the pieces. This western approach makes it difficult to gain a "holistic" view, it’s a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees!

The Chinese have long understood that nature, and man, as a part of nature, is always in a state of dynamic equilibrium. Remaining nearly the same yet always changing. Each day the sun rises and sets, each year the seasons come and go. The body too has its seasons, movements and rhythms.

In TCM this understanding of nature has led to ways of recognising imbalance in the persons natural rhythms. The factors involved in these imbalances are often described in natural terms. For example, Hay fever (rhinitis) in TCM is seen as a blockage or disturbance in the function of the Lung, usually related to invasion of the body by an outside influence (the allergen, often called a pathogen). However this disturbance of Lung function can only occur if the body's defensive energy (the immune system) called Wei Qi in TCM is inadequate. An ancient saying in TCM is "If the Qi is strong, evil cannot enter". From this we can see that the main disharmony occurs due to what is termed ”Excess - Deficiency disorder" this is a relative imbalance between the defensive Qi and the pathogen.

If for instance there is little pathogen present (weak), the body can cope without too much trouble. However as the amount of pathogen increases (becomes stronger) the body copes less and less effectively. On the other hand if the body Qi is strong then the pathogen produces little effect and explains why most people don't get hay fever. But when the Qi becomes weak hay fever can develop. When people become tired or stressed this weakens the Qi and accounts for why many people experience a worsening of symptoms at these times.

From this basic understanding of Hay fever, TCM then looks very carefully, at how the imbalance actually effects you as an individual. It determines the NATURE of your relationship to the pathogen. Which is described once again in natural terms. For example when people suffer from Hay fever they exhibit many different symptom pictures some have a runny nose and watery eyes, some have a runny nose and a feeling of heaviness in the limbs but no watery eyes. There are many different ways in which the Hay fever effects different people but all of these ways can be described by TCM!

In Part 2 we will look at how TCM relates natural events to processes in ourselves.