I was asked this question just the other day, and I get asked variations of it all the time. This is what I love about this medicine. The strength of Chinese medicine is in its ability to look at the patient as a whole person, as a sum of all parts. We are used to medicine and treatments that focus on one ailment, i.e headaches, or knee pain, or digestive disorders. This falls into the reductionist thinking of modern medicine, which is very different than the way Chinese medicine looks at the body. In Chinese medicine, all things are connected and interrelated. Diagnosis and treatments can only be effectively done when we understand the context of the main complaint. And while treating the main complaint, all the little things that accompany it are also being treated. I will share an example with you, lets look at anxiety. A woman in her late forties complains of an acute onset of fairly severe anxiety, she has heart palpitations, cannot sleep, works a full time stressful job, takes care of her elderly parents and recently has lost her appetite. Another patient, a young man in his early twenties also complains of anxiety. His Read More
Read More