The Past
Medicine from the East: traditional Oriental medicine
CAPTION: A Ming dynasty drawing of acupuncture points
According to the Chinese written script, Chinese medicine has a history of about 5000 years. Unlike other ancient medicine, a lot of Chinese medicine thoughts were based on Chinese philosophical thoughts. Therefore, they often explained ailment as imbalance of yin, the dark, and yang, the light, chi, and this add to the uniqueness of Chinese medicine. However, the philosophical thoughts also hinder the advance of Chinese medicine, because of the respect on human body. Though surgery was not a main method of curing in Chinese medicine, they developed an oral anesthesia about 2000 years ago, which unfortunately did not pass to later generation, and performed some surgeries like, fixation of hare-lip, abortion of dead fetus, catheterization, abdominal operation, and brain surgery. The acupuncture, which was putting needle on certain points of the body, was also widely used to cure illness. The Chinese also used herbal medicine to cure diseases.
Introduction
Traditional Oriental medicine is medicine from the Orient or Far East, which includes countries like China, Japan, and Korea. Though they all have some differences, their basis is similar due to the influence of traditional Chinese medicine, which has a history of more than two thousand years! It is not commonly used now to cure diseases now, since the result is not quickly. However because of its long-lasting effect and its emphasis on curing the root of ailment, it is used commonly today to help a person keep healthy. Sometimes you can see people doing chigong in the park. They are using it to help balance their chi, the energy inside the body, so they can prevent disease. In Asia, women take herbal medicine after their period, to make them healthier. Now, people even do acupuncture to lose weight! So, as you can see, this ancient kind of medicine is still affecting people’s life today.
Acupuncture Points
A symbol of yin and yang
According to traditional oriental medicine, chi, the body’s energy, moves in canals in body called jingluo. On the jingluo, there are some specific points that when stimulated can help to regulate the chi and balance it. In order to stimulate them, the acupuncture points, the doctor used very thin needles to poke them. Every point is different, some controls yang chi, while others control ying chi. They also respond to different organs. So, people sometimes just press their certain acupuncture points to promote the function of their certain organs. Pressing acupuncture points is a common way to lose weight in Asia. It is simple and convenience. People with soar back also use acupuncture to reduce the pain. Amazingly, recent experiment and research have found out that acupuncture can be used as anesthesia for surgeries, which might be a explanation for hare-lip surgery that was done after Hua Tuo’s recipe for oral anesthesia disappeared.
Pharmacology
Shennnong, a legendary Chinese emperor who ruled China about 5000 years ago, is said to be the first one to find the use of herb. In the legend, he tasted hundreds of plants to find which one is best for food. As he tasted the plants, he also found out the medical use of the plants and his discovery was compiled into book in Han dynasty, which was about 1200 years ago, into a book called The Divine Farmer’s Herb-Root Classic, the first book on pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Besides herb, it also contains information about animals and minerals that can be used medical uses.
In traditional oriental medicine, the medicines are organized into four different chi categories, and 5 different taste categories.
Chi
Chi flow throuhgout the body
The four chi categories include cold, cool, hot, and warm. Cold and cool are similar and so as hot and warm, however they have different degrees as you can tell from their names. By knowing what chi category a medicine is, the doctor can select the right medicine to balance the chi and make the patient’s body feel better. Eating food according to the chi categories can also promote a healthier body. If the chi in your body is more cold or cool, you should eat hot and warm food to help balance it. If the chi in your body is more hot and warm, you should eat cold and cool food. The use of chi category to keep health is more commonly seen today, since the effect of traditional oriental medicine is not instantaneous.
Taste
The five tastes are sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, and salty. Each taste has an advantage and a disadvantage if you eat too much of that taste. We always think that eating sweet stuffs is bad for the body, but in traditional oriental medicine eating sweet stuff can help you to nourish and balance your body. However, if you eat too much, you will get sour bones and even lose your hair. So, just like the Chinese philosophy have always says, “be moderate.”
Diagnosis
The ways to diagnose diseases in traditional oriental medicine is very different from the west. It doesn’t require any sophisticated instruments like sophisticated instruments like x-ray and ultrasonic of today’s medicine. It requires only our four of our five senses, smell, sight, touch, and hear. Taste is not used as a way of diagnose, however it can be used. There was a historical story about a prisoner tasting an emperor’s manure to find cure for the emperor’s disease so he can be released. The following are the five ways to diagnose diseases in traditional oriental medicine.
Sight
The look of your face can tell a lot of your body. The color of your face, the way your expression is, and the shape of your face can tell your health. For example, when you are sick, your face will probably look pale, and sometimes some infection can give you a swelling face. When a person doesn’t feel good, there will be a solemn look on the face; that is why facial expressions can be use to diagnose diseases. The traditional oriental medical doctor can also use your eyes, tongue, hair, neck, finger, skin, and even your manures and urine to examine your health, because if something is wrong with your body, it will shown abnormality on the outside of your body, and in traditional oriental medicine each outside part of your body represents an inside organ of yours.
Touch
Taking pulses is a part of the touch diagnose. By doing this, the doctor will know how balance your chi is and what part of body of yours is wrong. Pressing an acupuncture point also does the same thing, since diseases will affect these points, and cause the points that don’t usually hurt when being pressed to hurt while being pressed. The temperature of your hands is also a part of the touch diagnose.
Smell
The doctor will observe the smell of your breath, sweat, urine, and excrement to whether you have a disease or not. By telling which of these is smelly, the doctor can tell where the disease come from.
Sound
Have you ever notice that when you get a cold, your voice change? That is how the doctor can tell if you are healthy or not by the hearing the way you talk. The way you breathe is also a good way to tell if your have a disease or not. The sound of your cough, hiccups, throwing up, and the sound your stomach also tells the doctor about your health.
Ask
When you go to a doctor, the doctor will ask what’s wrong with you. It is the same thing with traditional oriental medicine. The doctor is not you, so he or she can’t feel the illness you are feeling. So, they need to ask the patient about where the pain is and how does it feel like. Besides this, the doctor will also ask how well is your sleep and what did you eat to find the cause of the disease.