Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM):
Traditional Chinese Medicne (TCM) has five thousand years of history, and is based on the experiences from practices and explorations and have been proven in the clinics. It has been accepted and continue to be widely developed in Modern medicine.
TCM is considered a form of complimentary or alternative medicine in the West. The unadorned theories in TCM are based on nature philosophies that is very different from Modern Medicine. But in principle, the both are very identical. The main theories are Yin (negative) and Yang(positive), Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal,water), Zang Xiang (organs), Qi (energy), body fluid (blood) and meridians.
TCM uses natural materials to treat the patients, such as needles, herbs, moxa, cupping, Tui-na (acupressure) and body exercises. They can be divided into internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology and others. Mostly, TCM is very safe if the patient is treated by a good trained acupuncturist.
Acupuncture has a relatively young history in the West. President Nixon first introduced Acupunture and Chinese medicine to the United States after returning from a trip to China in 1972. During the trip, one of the members of his party had to have an emergency appendectomy and had acupunture performed during the surgery for anesthesia and pain relief.
Since that time, the N.I.H. (National Institutes of Health) has formed the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine to lead the Federal government in further research in acupunture and TCM.
The American Cancer Society has helped to educate many patients on the benefits of acupunture to aid in control and nausea and pain during chemotherapy and cancer treatments.
