Traditional Chinese Medicine

Every society has different views concerning the body, cause of disease, and healing. The way people in a society view themselves and healing will affect treatments. The diversity of healing cultures around the world can largely be attributed to the isolation many societies used to have. The concept of globalization is relatively new and has led to many places combining age-old healing traditions with the new. A great example of this is Chinese traditional medicine and its belief that illnesses are caused by supernatural forces affecting the qi, to combat those forces treatment involves spiritual healing and the use of herbs. To some this may be considered a primitive practice but, it is widely used internationally in the modern world.
The …show more content…
The first is Tui Na or massage. It contains techniques that are different from the Western ideas of massage. The practitioner of Tui Na tries to affect the functions and energies within the body and the mind of the patient. Tui Na is practiced slowly and emphasises that both the practitioner and the client have to be in a meditative trance-like state. Another central part of Chinese medicine is the importance of the abdominal region. In Traditional Chinese medicine the organs are classified according to (zhang) the five solids. The main organs in the body are the heart, lung, liver, kidney, and spleen. There are also six hollow (fu) organs which are the small intestine, stomach, gall bladder, the triple burners: the three body zones. The zones are upper burner; anything above the diaphragm, middle burners; upper abdomen, and the lower burners; colon, urogenital system, and lower extremities. Most bodily functions are attributed to the solid organs and according to Chinese medicine, all the major energy are located there. This makes the abdominal massage is crucial to healing. The second treatment involves the use of herbs and animal body parts. Raw herbs usually would be taken home and made into a "tea" or ingested in capsule form and animal parts, when ingested, could also contribute to the health of the patient. Acupuncture is the fourth treatment and it is the gently inserting fine …show more content…
Most of its treatments make use of the observations of the body and connecting it to phenomena. This is no different than the Tibetan view of the sacredness of the body, both use imitative magic to create symptoms and treatments. Unlike, Tibetan and Pennsylvania Dutch it does not call upon gods to heal the sick and healing is seen as successful when the person does not experience their ailment. Healing is defined by the culture, but each practice makes use of the triad: heart, body, and spirit. When you are healed according to this culture, your whole body is healed and harmony is restored. As well as the idea that the human body is connected to the universe in some way. It seems in the Western sense that Chinese medicine is seen as a last resort if Western treatments do not work. Westerners see Chinese medicine as strange and primitive thinking and if they’re cured in any way by using TCM it is an accident or a placebo. But, it is only seen as primitive because of mistranslations or Westerners do not learn how the Chinese see the body. Chinese medicine stresses that no single part can be understood without understanding the whole. Traditional Chinese medicine should not be used as a last resort. In China, TCM ,if used, is in conjunction with Western medicine. This has benefits because Western notions of healing is not preventative, while Eastern