What is Chinese Medicine? ~ Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been practiced for over 3,000 years and has a long tradition of clinically proven protocols. It has a similar philosophy as Naturopathic medicine. Practitioners of TCM look for the root cause of disharmony in the body.

In Western medicine, indivduals with the same disease will get very similar treatments. In TCM, each individual is viewed as unique and how dis-ease manifests is unique to them. This translates into different patterns for the same disease and different treatments. When treatments are individualized, there is better clinical success.

TCM practitioners usually don’t rely on the same diagnostic tools as Western medical practitioners. They use visual and palpatory skills as well as “The Ten Questions” to diagnose. Visual skills include tongue diagnosis, inspection of the complexion, general demeanor, and body language. Palpatory skills include pulse diagnosis and palpation of meridians and organs. The Ten Questions is comparable to the review of systems and are used to diagnose and to assess progress on subsequent visits.

TCM uses a variety of modalities to treat disease including acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, and massage among others. The terms used in TCM are much different than Western medical terms. Because the body is viewed as a reflection of the earth, many terms in nature are used to describe the body.