Some thoughts on TCM.

A question I have been asked on occasion is; ‘what do you think TCM’s greatest acheivements are to date?’

The list below is what I believe to be the strength, power and the healing ability of Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Throw in its huge ability to ease pain on both the mental/emotional level and the physical body and I guess this list could be nearly considered finished.

TCM’s Great achievements:
1)Emphasis on prevention.
2)Its Concept of patterns of disharmony, linking together all the symptoms presented by a patient at any one time.
3) Treatment strategies for infectious diseases long before antibiotics were invented.
4) Identification of a pattern corresponding to what we call diabetes almost 2,000 years ago.
5)Treatment of many Ob-Gyn conditions.

My favorite is number 3. As time and time again I see it working. After that it has to be a call between no 1 and 5. Both very different reasons but both very valid.