An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by on Sep 1, 2010
When you hear about Traditional Chinese Medicine, what is the first thing that pops into your mind? Odd stuff in jars in dark smoky rooms where equally odd old men mutter strange incantations in Chinese as they burn incense in a pot? Actually, there may actually literally be such places and maybe they do practice some form of Traditional Chinese Medicine too – but in these modern times, Traditional Chinese Medicine can also mean medicine that is practiced by even Western followers of the traditional ways of treating patients as the Chinese have learned all these centuries. And for such Western practitioners, Traditional Chinese Medicine may not mean burning incense as well but rather keeping rather immaculate and clinical treatment rooms where any modern patient would feel comfortable being treated for whatever is ailing him.
One part of Traditional Chinese Medicine that many Westerners may have heard of is acupuncture which is closely related to acupressure. Both acupuncture and acupressure are based on the premise that throughout our body certain points exist at which energy might be strongest. When the Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner finds some energy points to be “blocked”, he might prescribe a round of acupuncture (meaning, sharp sterile needles are inserted at such pressure points to release your vital energy that has been blocked there), or simply press down on the pressure points in a prescribed way so that the blocked energy finds itself flowing again through your body and the ailment is relieved. Though some Westerners may find this Traditional Chinese Medicine belief to be a bit strange, many other Western medical practitioners now advocate these two Traditional Chinese Medicine practices and may even use them in their own clinical practice.
Depending on who you talk to, Traditional Chinese Medicine may be considered either a form of alternative medicine or a form of complementary medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine may be a type of alternative medicine in that you can opt for Traditional Chinese Medicine practices rather than the conventional Western style of medical treatment – thus you chose an alternative. Traditional Chinese Medicine practices become complementary medicine when you allow both a Western style of medical treatment and the Traditional Chinese Medicine practices to be used side by side at the same time when you are undergoing treatment for your ailment. It may be easier to determine the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine when you opt to have it by itself, rather than mixing it with other forms of treatment. This is because the symptoms of your ailment might get relieved under a complementary medicine type of treatment program so you might get confused as to which treatment option really worked for you.
Not surprisingly, many people of Oriental lineage are strong believers in Traditional Chinese Medicine and may eschew modern ways of treatment so that they can favor Traditional Chinese Medicine treatment options alone for themselves and their loved ones. Is this good? It depends on the ailment – there are some ailments that modern ways of treatment seem to have been very effective at treating (such as cancer) for which there is little evidence that Traditional Chinese Medicine can cure. If you want to be sure of getting well, you may want to pursue Traditional Chinese Medicine only after modern scientific ways of diagnosing an illness have failed to show what you are really ill with. There is some evidence of a so-called placebo effect when complementary medicine methods are used where modern treatment practices have failed to give the desired cure.
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The Role of Qigong in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by on Aug 30, 2010
One Traditional Chinese Medicine practice that Westerners may find intriguing is the breathing discipline called Qigong (also dubbed chi kung by others.) This Traditional Chinese Medicine practice is related to the concept of the role of your body energies play in influencing the actions of your body in coordination with specified breathing patterns. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, ailments may result when bodily energies are trapped or constrained in a certain way and need to be released so that your body remains in a state of balance or wellness. This Traditional Chinese Medicine belief is related to the concept of Yin and Yang, which is said to be integral to how the elements of the universe are made up within your body – when Yin seems to be too strong, for instance, then Yang becomes too weak. To achieve wellness, you need to bring both Yin and Yang energies back into harmony within your body. Qigong is the Traditional Chinese Medicine practice that aims to facilitate harmonization of your energies which seem to be (as the Westerners put it) “out of whack.”
Qigong as a Traditional Chinese Medicine discipline may be a bit complicated for Westerners to fathom since it is not a single body of knowledge practiced by just one group of Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine advocates. There are estimated to be over 3,300 styles plus schools that propagate this Traditional Chinese Medicine discipline nowadays. The commonality between styles and schools is that they all advocate the role of qi or chi in Traditional Chinese Medicine – meaning, your breathing can affect how energy is distributed throughout your body and in connection, how ailments can be relieved through proper breathing coupled with the right body movements so that your body is brought back into harmony. The name itself (Qigong) means qi (or breath) and gong (or the discipline itself) – taken together, Qigong then is the art of adjusting your breathing to achieve optimal health benefits.
It should not surprise newcomers to Traditional Chinese Medicine that Qigong is closely related to Oriental martial arts, where proper breathing is necessary to achieve the right results. From a Western medical perspective alone, Qigong is a pretty good Traditional Chinese Medicine discipline because it has been scientifically proven that altering breathing patterns can result in better stress reduction treatment and facilitates improved exercise practices. Qigong can be likened to another Traditional Chinese Medicine practice which is meditation (that incidentally is also integral to some Oriental martial arts as well.) To believers in Qigong though, this art of breath work goes much further than just Traditional chinese medicine health benefits – it is their way to tap into their oneness with the universe and even connect to those universal energies that they believe all exist within us.
In the past, the discipline of Qigong was a closely guarded secret of Oriental martial arts practitioners and other believers in Traditional Chinese Medicine as well. But now that the Orient and its secrets have been opened to Western students as well, we may find this Traditional Chinese Medicine practice is now being explored and even accepted by Western medical arts practitioners too. Chinese hospitals have been advocating use of Qigong practices as part of normal Traditional Chinese Medicine procedures in treating their patients since year 1989 onwards. Even major Chinese universities are now offering studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine practices like Qigong to their students. And fortunately for Traditional Chinese Medicine advocates, even the current government in China has adopted Qigong as an integral component of the National Health Plan, thus putting Qigong under formal government regulation. This allows Traditional Chinese Medicine like the Qigong discipline to be practiced openly rather than force advocates to practice Qigong in secret.
For more details about Traditional Chinese medicine choose our website Chinese herbs and browse our various products. Visit our blog for more information about Traditional Chinese Herbs
Healthy Healing – Pt. 3: Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by on Aug 28, 2010
This clip is Part 3 of my hour-long video, World of Healthy Healing: Unleashing the Healing Power of Herbs, which aired on public television in 2000, and is still available on DVD. In this part, I give a short history and background to the herbal and spiritual aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Qigong
Posted by on Aug 18, 2010
www.MassageNerd.com Presenter Steve Collins www.QiDoc.com He severely injured his vocal cord a few years ago and he is just lucky to be able to still speak.
Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture 2 of 2
Posted by on Aug 16, 2010
www.MassageNerd.com Presenter Steve Collins www.QiDoc.com He severely injured his vocal cord a few years ago and he is just lucky to be able to still speak.
Traditional Thai Yoga Massage Training ? Rejuvenate Your Life
Posted by on Aug 15, 2010
Thai massage is a form of massage that is considered to be energizing and lots of rigorous stretching. Thai massage is popular due to many factors and many times it is referred as Thai yoga massage. This kind of massage is very beneficial and number of benefits are directly associated with the massage. Specialized Thai massage has the power of relaxing your mind, body and soul with its powerful stretching. This is popular among many professionals who use this therapy to reduce their work related or any kind of daily stress. In this kind of massage the therapist makes the use of his body parts such as hands, legs and feet to move the person in a series of postures that are similar to yoga. This is the main reason, why many people refer to this type of massage as Thai yoga massage.
Those who know the benefits of such massage vouch for it all through their life. This type of Thai body massage helps to improve the range of motion helps to increases mobility and flexibility of human body and it brings about a marked improvement in circulation of blood all over the body. Different methods and techniques are adopted in the Thai massage. There is also the use of acupressure, muscle compression and joint mobilization during the treatment of the patient. Such kind of body massage helps to relieve all kinds of stress of an individual. Today there are several people who are interested to learn more about traditional Thai massage, how the massage therapy of Thailand came into existence and the benefits of such therapy. Traditional Thai massage as the name suggests, is quite old. This is one of the oldest forms of manual medicine that dates back to almost 2500 years. There are a number of elements that are combined in this massage such as shiatsu and acupressure, along with different forms of yoga. Thai oil massage is quite popular and is considered to be very effective for entire body massage and is known to be a soothing relief for all kinds of pain related to bones and muscles. This is popular with young, old men and women alike and those suffering from joint pains are specially benefited by this.
The TTC Spa School is a renowned government accredited Thai massage school situated in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It offers several courses including therapist training after which students receive certificate from Ministry of Education, Thailand. This is one of the most popular and reliable places where you can learn about therapist training course which consists of traditional Thai massage, Thai oil massage, foot reflexology among many other types of massage. This is considered to be one of the best schools that impart Thai massage training. There are many kinds of Thai massage courses available for the learners and are available in many levels and of different duration. You can learn more about traditional Thai massage and other forms of massage through these courses. If you enroll for any of these Thai massage training courses you will learn more about the techniques of massaging and the benefits associated with each of the forms of massage.
The TTC Spa School, a renowned government accredited Thai massage school situated in Chiang Mai, Thailand offers several Thai massage courses on completion students receive certificate from Ministry of Education, Thailand.
Herbal Therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine : Traditional Chinese Medicine: Herb Taking Tips
Posted by on Aug 14, 2010
Traditional Chinese medicine, or tcm, involves using a variety of herbs in order to treat a variety of ailments. Learn some tips for taking herbs from a registered herbalist in this free alternative medicine video. Expert: ACUPUNCTURE ROBERT LINDE Bio: Robert Linde, acupuncture physician and registered herbalist, has studied herbs since 1975 and practiced traditional Chinese medicine for over 6 years. Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz
Dr. Jeni Lim Traditional Chinese medicine film by Thierry Damilano
Posted by on Aug 10, 2010
Dr. Jeni Lim combines both eastern and western knowledge to treat physical symptoms as well as the psycho-spiritual aspects of her patient’s condition. Her focus is on enhancing one’s natural beauty by balancing health on the deepest levels while restoring and maintaining each individual’s sense of personal wellbeing.
Management of Cancer with Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by on Aug 8, 2010
Product Description
(Donica Publishing) Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital, Beijing. Presents a discussion of the role of Chinese medicine in postoperative management and the alleviation of side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Give… More >>
Management of Cancer with Traditional Chinese Medicine
Acupuncture Techniques in Traditional Chinese Medicine : Classifications of Acupuncture: Traditional Chinese Medicine
Posted by on Jul 31, 2010
Learn about the different classifications of acupuncture – free video.