East and West of Culture Care
Group 4
The term Traditional Chinese Medicine or
TMC
• Refers to the range of health practices that have
developed in China over thousands of years based on
the traditional Chinese Philosophy on the harmony of
the body and spirit with the environment.
• Known originally as Classical Chinese Medicine but
was forbidden by the Communist government for
many years. In 1960’s decreed it revival and give its
present name.
• As medical method, it is taught in Medical Schools in
China, Asia, Europe and many parts of the United
States.
• TCM is a socio-cultural phenomenon-
• As method of healing disease two methods are sited to explain
• • Many adherents often find TCM practices very effective and
offering palliative efficacy, especially where western medicine
fails for routine ailments such as flu and allergies and
managing to avoid the toxicity of the chemically compose
medicine.
• • Provides only the available care when resources are
inadequate to import and adapt to Western medical
technologies.
• The Foundation of TCM begun with Lao Tzu and philosophy of
Taoism, Tao meaning “way”, “path”, or “course”- the way of
nature that regulates all earthly and heavenly matters.
• Man must live according to the order of nature as to achieve
harmony with it. When this harmony is violated the result is
illness.
The Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal
and water)
Principles of the five
elements is essential to
understanding the philosophy
behind the traditional Chinese
Medicine. Why? Because they
are said to be corresponds with
each other, health is seen as condition where one’s
action must conform to the natural correspondents of
the elements.
Yin and Yang
Chinese philosophy
believes that there are two
primal opposing but
complementary forces in all
things in the Universe. This
forces are the Yin and the
Yang which , when acting in unison, promote the
pathological order of the human body.
Principles:
•Yin and Yang are not opposites.
Everything has its opposite although not an absolute
opposite but only relative.
Example: winter can turn into summer.
• Yin and Yang are Interdependent.
One cannot exist without the other
Example: day cannot exist without night
• Yin and Yang can be further subdivided into Yin and Yang
Any yin or yang aspect can be further subdivided into
smaller yin and yang sub units.
Example: temperature can be seen as either hot or cold.
• Yin and Yang consume and support each other
Yin and yang are usually held in balance- as one
increases the other one decreases.
Example: excess of yin there is a yang deficiency.
• Yin and Yang can transform into one another
Yin can transform into yang and vice versa
Example: night changes into day
• Part of Yin is in Yang and part of Yang is Yin
There is always traces of one in the other
Example: there is always light within the dark.
Relationship of the body organs
Under Chinese philosophy the organs are subdivided
into two main types:
• Ts’ang - 5 solid organs those that collect, and store
secretions namely, the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and
the kidneys
• Fu - organs of excretions namely, the gallbladder,
stomach, large intestine, small intestine, bladder and
the lymph system.
The Chinese macro approach to
diseases
• The popular Chinese adage, Chinese medicine treats
humans while western medicine treats disease is
borne of the underlying principle in TCM that the
body can achieve order and harmony.
• The Chinese treatment perspective targets the
imbalance, not the infectious organism that caused it.
Primary Goal is to re-establish the balance that was
lost during illness, the moods and factors of
disruption of which differ from person to person.
Diagnosis Of Diseases
Two main methods:
• Inspection - also known as glossoscopy, involves an ocular
observation of the tongue which provides clues to 100 health
conditions of the body as determined by its color and normality
of appearance.
• Palpation – Also known as sphygmopalpation, involves feeling the
pulse of radial artery using the three middle fingers. Chinese
medicine looks at the pulse as the store house of the blood, and
thus its strength and regularity are indications of good health.
A pulse that is weak and skips a beat indicates a cardiac
problem. TCM considers fifteen ways of characterizing the
pulse, each of which is determinant of each diagnosis.
Other Methods of diagnostic:
• Observation of the patient’s face
• Palpation of the abdomen for tenderness
• Observation of the sound of the patient’s voice
• Observation of the surface of the ears
• Observation of the vein on the index finger on
small children
• comparisons of the relative warmth or coolness
of different parts of the body.
Chinese Methods of Healing
• Nutrition is an important component of healing in Traditional
Chinese Medicine. That is the reason why there are Chinese staple
foods such as thousand years eggs as well as special diets preceding
childbirth and surgery.
• Yin and yang figure in the realm
of food and cooking.
• Yang foods are believed to increase
the body’s heat
(e.g. raise the metabolism)while
yin foods are believed to decrease
the body’ heat( e.g. lower metabolism)
Chinese rice congee
• The Chinese ideal is to eat both types of food to
keep the body balance.
• Restoration of health is
the primary aim of the
popular Chinese
treatment known as
the acupuncture.
•There is also the method known as
Cupping which is used to address problems
related to the hot and cold tensions of the body.
• Chinese used massage therapy which they called as Tui
Na involving stimulation of body points in order to
address orthopedic and neurological conditions.
• Chinese medicine is very particular about the
gathering and collecting of herbs.
•Chinese drugstore is best showcase of how widely the
Chinese employ herbal remedies to health care.
•Finally , traditional
Chinese follow particulars
practices in the use
of amulets are those
made of jade,
considered by them as
the most precious
of all stones.
•The use of jade charms is commonly done to bring good health
and to prevent harms and accidents.
•Jade is considered the giver of children, health, immortality,
wisdom, power , victory, growth and food.
Hispanics
Japanese Americans
