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Chinese Medicine - Get An Idea on Acupuncture And Chinese Herbal Remedies

China has been one of the most ancient civilizations in the history of mankind. Along a series of technological contributions to the world, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has marked a presence in modern society.

We only need to see the huge amount of Chinese herbal remedies that are available in the market and find that it has become quite popular among the western world. If you are considering TCM, then it's better to know more about its history.

What Is It?

Since Chinese civilization has maintained a continuous presence for thousands of years, it has permitted its doctors to accumulate three thousand years experience of trial and error.Their basic premise is that all of the organs in the body influence with each other, even with the environment. This holistic approach is used by the doctors to determine an appropriate treatment for the patient.

How Does It Differ From The Rest of Oriental Medicine?

Although in the rest of Asia Pacific there are countries that are different from one another, as different as Turkey is from Germany, it is common for western culture to think of them as the same or similar thing. In reality, each oriental civilization is quite different from one another. And the same happens with their medicine.

For example, Japanese medicine (also known as Kampo) evolved from Chinese medicine, but took a different road, by focusing itself in the use of herbs for the treatment of patients.

In the case of Korea, it also had its roots on Chinese medicine, but as with the Japanese, they started using domestic herbs for their treatments.

Mongolia medicine history is a bit more complicated. They already had an evolving medicine when they were invaded by the Chinese who tried to impose their own system. As a consequence, there was some mixture of procedures, but the Mongolians maintained strong differences, like the use of animal tissue.

As we can see, the medicine of each region of Asia Pacific may have been influenced by the Chinese, but maintained it's originality by using local resources.

Is TCM For Everyone?

No. Unfortunately, a lot of people use TCM as an illegal means to obtain money, selling products with alleged benefits for their clients' health. What is more, they don't know the real effects of their contents. For example, many of them contain aristolochic acid, a known carcinogen, and it seems to be a relation between cardiomyopathy and traditional Chinese medicine.

What about Chinese medicine and balding? Unfortunately, there isn't a cure yet for this ailment. Even Chinese medicine and its millenary knowledge hasn't been able to find a way to stop it

For these reasons, you should go to a TCM doctor who can give you adequate information on the treatment, even when you are not pregnant, nursing or suffering from a chronical disease. As in western medicine, it's not very wise to auto medicate yourself.