Can traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) treat a disease? Generally speaking, the answer is “Yes”. But it depends on what disease that you suffer and who is your TCM doctor.
Before applying Chinese herbal medicine to treat a disease, you should understand that, TCM has a different view from Western medical science.
Western medical science believes that most of diseases, especially an inflammation, is caused by invaders from outside the body – bacterial infection. But TCM may argue that, why people live in the same environment, some people suffer from the disease, but others not? It is obvious that, environmental factors are not the only cause of a disease. If you are strong enough, if your body is in a good healthy condition, then you are likely “bullet-proof” – no bacteria can invade into your body. Only when your health is compromised or you are out of balance, the “outsiders” – bacteria get their chance to invade in the body.
These different views lead to different ways to treat a disease. Western medical science believes that if you can discover or invent a medicine or treatment to kill the invader – the bacteria, then the disease will be cured. TCM believes that if you can restore the balance of the body, make the body strong enough to fight the invaders, then the disease will be cured naturally.
These different ways lead to different principles: Western medical science believes that if a medicine or treatment is effective, then it must be repeatable, and it must be effective to anyone or everyone who suffers from the same disease. But TCM would say that, “unfortunately, people are different”, if people have the same patterns (same symptom groups), you may use the same formula to treat them, but if they have different patterns, then you must not use the same formula to treat them, even they suffere from the “same disease” that determined by Western medical diagnosis based on Western medical disease categories. That is why even in treating a common cold, TCM has different herbal formulas to deal with different patterns.
So the conception of Western medication is more general and universal, while TCM is more personal and case by case.
When applying Chinese herbal medicine to treat a disease, the experience of a TCM doctor is very important. Not like in Western medical science, doctors most times are using the medicines and treatments that are already invented by researchers, they just need to follow the guidelines or instructions of the medicines or treatments. But in TCM, a doctor must know how to create a formula, case by case, according to the pattern. That is why, when you have a disease and visit different Western medical doctors, you are likely prescribed the same medicine or treatment, but if you visit different TCM doctors, you are likely to get the different herbal formulas. So in Western medical science, 10 years practice can make you a good doctor, but in TCM, with 20 years experience, you might be still “too young” – “not senior enough”.
For more information about Traditional Chinese Medicine, go to Natural Remedies Center: http://www.naturalremediescenter.com/treat/chinese-medicine/
