HOW DOES TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE DIFFER
FROM WESTERN MEDICINE?
Western medicine is concerned with isolable disease categories or agents, which it focuses on,isolates, and tries to change,control or destroy. Western medicine starts with a symptom then reaches for an underlying mechanism-a precise cause for a specific disease. This disease may affect various other parts of the body but it is relatively self-contained. Precise diagnosis frames an exact, quantifiable description of a narrow area.
In contrast, the Chinese physician directs attention to the complete physiological and psychological individual. All relevant information is gathered and woven together into a "pattern of disharmony." This pattern then describes a situation of 'imbalances." This diagnostic technique does not turn up a specific disease entity but renders a poetic yet workable description of a whole person. No single part can be understood without it relation to the whole.
FROM WESTERN MEDICINE?
Western medicine is concerned with isolable disease categories or agents, which it focuses on,isolates, and tries to change,control or destroy. Western medicine starts with a symptom then reaches for an underlying mechanism-a precise cause for a specific disease. This disease may affect various other parts of the body but it is relatively self-contained. Precise diagnosis frames an exact, quantifiable description of a narrow area.
In contrast, the Chinese physician directs attention to the complete physiological and psychological individual. All relevant information is gathered and woven together into a "pattern of disharmony." This pattern then describes a situation of 'imbalances." This diagnostic technique does not turn up a specific disease entity but renders a poetic yet workable description of a whole person. No single part can be understood without it relation to the whole.