Traditional Chinese medicine

introduction

The Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or Chinese medicine is a healing art that was founded in China about 2000 years ago. Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on two principles. On the one hand on the Yin-Yang theory and on the other hand on the doctrine of the five phases of change. The Chinese developed these systems to classify abstract and concrete things in the world. According to them, a person was healthy when the flow of life energy Qi is undisturbed by the body.

Traditional Chinese Medicine includes:

• Acupuncture and moxibution
• Chinese drug therapy
• Chinese nutrition
• Qi Gong and Tai Chi
• Tuina massage

In summary one speaks of the five pillars traditional Chinese medicine.

Yin and yang

As early as the 4th century AD, people in China tried to define all the phenomena of the world by means of two interdependent but exactly opposite categories of all being. The alternation of ebb and flow, for example; Day and night; Light and shadow; male and female; Health and sickness. Originally meant Yin= Downside of a mountain and Yang= Sunny side of a mountain. These opposites are symbolized by the well-known sign of the monad. A circular area that is divided by two areas of equal size, which are characterized by contrasting colors (mostly black and white). Every field has a point in the opposite color, which should show that there is no perfect Yin or Yang, because where there is light, there is always shadow.

Some assignments to the terms Yin and Yang:

Yang - Yin

Man Woman

Sky Earth

Day Night

Summer Winter

Outside inside

Fever (warmth) - cold (shivering)

Hyper, fullness - hypo, emptiness

Positive - negative

Back - stomach

Left Right

Up down

Movement - rest

Hollow organs - storage (full) organs

Skin, musculoskeletal system - intestines

Do have

Ideal terms - material terms

Function - substance

Quantity - quality

The aim of Traditional Chinese Medicine is to create a balance between Yin and Yang. Health is a harmonious state between yin and yang, illness is an imbalance. In traditional Chinese medicine one tries to maintain this balance or to restore harmony in the event of illness. This is done through proper therapy, e.g. strengthens when weak and eliminated when full, warms when cold and cools when hot. Therefore, the individual therapy methods are also divided into Yin and Yang. Plants, herbs and food are differentiated and classified according to Yin and Yang. Nothing is really bad or extremely good about it. Because even apparently "bad" things can heal, and apparently extremely "good" things can kill. Even the opponents of the autonomic nervous system, Sympathetic (Yang) and Parasympathetic nervous system (Yin), are projected into this system in modern TCM.

The Yin / Yang teaching for medicine knows 4 rules:

1. Contrast: The constant struggle and the constant change between Yin / Yang drives the change and development of all things - that means life.
2. Dependency: The yang lives from the yin and vice versa. Each side forms the livelihood of the other. Together they stand for life itself. Applied to humans, the man corresponds to the yang and the woman to the yin. Reproduction and species conservation would be impossible without either.
3. Complement and limitation: When the yang withdraws, the yin increases. Transferred to the daily rhythm, the maximum of yang is around noon and that of yin before midnight.
4. Conversion: When the yin reaches a maximum it gradually becomes yang and vice versa. In medicine, this is called a "sudden change in symptoms": if, for example, a severe, acute, febrile illness (Yang) leads to a weakening of the patient, then TCM speaks of a change from Yang syndrome to Yin syndrome.

The life energy Qi

The Chinese call the energetic potential that flows through the human body Qi ("Life force / energy"). The Qi flows on defined channels from the middle of the body to the periphery and back. The Qi distribution serves to understand pathological disorders of the patient.
As we have already learned, Qi can also turn into a Yang qi as a synonym for function and activity and in one Yin qi can be classified as a synonym for the material part of the energy.

The five phases of change

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) evaluates observations and phenomena in the patient five phases of change. Each phase of change is assigned an element that is, however, constantly changing. The five Chinese elements are: Wood, fire, earth, metal and water. The 5-element theory is not about the appearance of the individual elements, but about functional relationships. There are numerous relationships between the five elements. The most important is that one element emerges from the other, one element promotes the other in an infinite order.

In transference to the interpersonal relationship it becomes Mother / son rule (nourishing cycle) called: Wood arises from water, wood arises fire, earth (ash) arises from fire, earth arises from earth or in the earth metal arises, from metal or better from mineral-rich earth arises water and from water arises again wood ... Conversely, the elements weaken each other, one speaks of the relationship Son / mother (consuming cycle): Wood drinks water, water washes out metal and minerals, metal displaces earth, earth suffocates the fire, fire consumes the wood, wood consumes water ... There is also a grandmother / grandson relationship (taming cycle): an element becomes here skipped. Fire melts the metal, but is also extinguished by the water.

The sum of all phenomena of a change phase is called Functional circle (chin .: Zang Fu). Meridians, seasons and - particularly important for diagnostics - feelings and emotions are assigned to the individual elements.

The following list gives an overview:

Change phase wood:

• Meridians: Liver, gall bladder
• Season: spring
• Climate: Windy
• Direction: east
• Colour: green
• Taste: Angry
• Tissue: Muscles, tendons
• Disease type: Colic, neuralgia
• Sense organ: eye
• Emotion: anger

Change phase fire:

• Meridians: Small intestine, heart, pericardium, triple heater
• Season: summer
• Climate: Hot
• Direction: south
• Colour: red
• Taste: Bitter
• Tissue: Blood vessels
• Disease type: Restlessness, fever
• Sense organ: tongue
• Emotion: Joy, passion

Transformation phase earth:

• Meridians: Stomach, spleen
• Season: late summer
• Climate: Wet
• Direction: center
• Colour: yellow
• Taste: Sweet
• Tissue: Connective and adipose tissue
• Disease type: Mucus buildup, edema
• Sense organ: mouth
• Emotion: Concern

Transformation phase metal:

• Meridians: Lungs, colon
• Season: autumn
• Climate: Dry
• Direction: west
• Colour: White
• Taste: Sharp
• Tissue: Skin, mucous membrane, immune system
• Disease type: Skin disorders
• Sense organ: nose
• Emotion: Sadness

Transformation phase water:

• Meridians: Kidney, bladder
• Season: winter
• Climate: Cold
• Direction: north
• Colour: blue
• Taste: Salty
• Tissue: bone
• Disease type: Degeneration, osteoarthritis
• Sense organ: ear
• Emotion: fear

Meridians and circuits

In traditional Chinese medicine, the energetic flow system is represented by the body as a channel system made up of so-called Meridians in which the qi flows. The meridians bear the names of the assigned organs. Again there is again Yin and Yang channels. Twelve meridians run symmetrically on each side of the body. These are divided into 3 circuits (front, back and side). One circuit consists of 4 meridians and supplies the entire body energetically.

• Meridians of the ventral / anterior circulation: Lungs (Lu), large intestine (Di), stomach (Ma), spleen (Mi)
• Meridians of the dorsal / posterior circulation: Heart (He), small intestine (Dü), bladder (Bl), kidney (Ni)
• Meridians of the lateral / lateral circulation: Pericardium (Pe), 3heater (3E), gallbladder (Gb), liver (Le)

For a detailed description of the individual meridians and their course see article "Acupuncture points and meridian theory".