Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest medicines in the world. It is a medicine that over the years has spread throughout the planet. It is very curious that without the promotion or encouragement of anyone, today, it is a medicine that is practiced in 186 countries, and is also UNESCO intangible cultural heritage of humanity, in its disciplines of acupuncture and moxibustion.
Traditional Chinese medicine is composed of four fundamental pillars for treating health:
1- Manual therapies (massage, Tuina, Anmo, acupressure, reflexology, osteopathy, and joint manipulation)
2- Instrumental therapies (acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, etc.)
3- Nutritional therapy, which encompasses everything we ingest, including liquids. (Fitoterapia, y farmacología china).
4-Energy therapies, Chi-kung Taichi and their forms of healing. (Fitoterapia, y farmacología china).
4-terapias energéticas, Chi-kung Taichi y sus formas de sanación.
This ancient set of therapies began in the Chinese mountains with Taoist monks, people dedicated to cultivating their health and studying the nature that surrounded them.
It was through study and dedication to the nature of humankind and its environment that they gradually developed all these techniques to improve the quality of life for themselves and others.
The earliest texts discovered by historians are those of the Yellow Emperor. This emperor, one of the most important figures in Chinese mythology, reigned according to tradition from 2698 to 2598 BC.
Traditional Chinese medicine is practiced today in many different ways, but all are based on the theories that have been developed from the book mentioned above and the Yellow Emperor’s Canon of 81 Difficulties, also called Nanjing.
There is some difficulty in administering acupuncture treatments correctly in the West, as time and money are sometimes obstacles to providing an ideal treatment tailored to the patient’s needs. In China and other Asian countries, acupuncture is administered daily or every other day to increase the treatment’s effectiveness and create changes in the patient’s health as quickly as possible.
As I mentioned before, in Europe, it is difficult to undergo daily treatment, both due to lack of time and the cost of the treatment. If these treatments or services were included in our public healthcare system, they could be practiced daily, thus increasing the effectiveness and recovery of patients.
Each of these techniques works very well on its own, but they are especially effective when combined with other traditional Chinese medicine techniques. That is why doctors or therapists of Chinese medicine usually combine various healing methods to restore the patient’s health, always trying to improve the individual at all levels: mind, body, and emotions.
This medical discipline views health holistically, without separating organs or systems from the body as a whole. We see health as a whole, where the body is the container of everything that happens in the individual. We understand that all external and internal influences that affect a person can influence and unbalance the body and mind. Therefore, we seek the root of the imbalance to regulate it, either at an organic or physical level, or at an emotional, mental, or energetic level, taking into account all areas that can affect the person.
