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Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine
While acupuncture is a key element to Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is actually only one of the five pillars of healing within TCM. These pillars work in tandem with each other to help heal the mind, body, and soul.
The 5 pillars of healing in Traditional Chinese Medicine are:
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Acupuncture
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Moxibustion
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Chinese Herbal Medicine
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Tui Na
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Qi Gong
According to TCM, being in a state of health is all about having a strong and balanced Qi within your body. Qi is translated as “life force” and “vital energy” and is what makes us feel healthy and alive. Certain things can block our Qi within our bodies which can cause us to get unbalanced.
Your Qi is also intimately connected to the balance of Yin and Yang within your body. Yin and yang represent all opposite, but mutually interconnected forces in the world like light and dark, feminine and masculine, and rest and movement.
These same equal, yet opposite forces exist in our bodies. In terms of the human body, yin represents everything that is in the lower body and yang represents everything that is in the back and upper body. Good health is achieved by balancing your yin and yang and supporting your Qi.
ACUPUNCTURE
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Acupuncture helps heal the body.
Acupuncture is a simple, safe and effective health care technique that helps promote the body’s ability to heal itself by stimulating specific points to re-balance your Qi.
Acupuncture is a complete medical protocol focused on correcting imbalances of energy in the body. From its inception in China more than 4,000 years ago, acupuncture has been used traditionally to prevent, diagnose and treat disease, as well as to improve general health. In Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) theory, acupuncture works by restoring balance to the meridian channel system; draining stagnation and blockage in areas where too much Qi is accumulated, and boosting and tonifying areas of insufficient flow to treat certain ailments and to relieve pain. This vast system of meridian networks and how they work is a complex subject that takes years of study, but their primary purpose is to distribute Qi throughout your body. If this distribution is disrupted because of stress, anxiety, or lack of sleep, good food, and exercise, acupuncture can help release any blockages.
The goal is to have a smooth flow of qi and good reservoirs of blood, yin, and essence. Acupuncture is the insertion of “thread-like” needles along energy pathways in the body. Treatments are relaxing, effective, and painless thanks to modern technology.
In the western world, some doctors believe that acupuncture works by stimulating neurohormonal pathways which send signals to the brain to release hormones like beta-endorphins. But there is also a lot of anecdotal evidence sharing the benefits of acupuncture. Research demonstrated that the effects of Acupuncture needling include influencing the activity of adenosine, an amino acid which becomes active in the skin after an injury to ease pain. This may explain in part why pain relief is often experienced as one of the benefits of Acupuncture. In fact, much research in the West has focused on this pain-relieving effect, rather than Acupuncture’s traditional role of balancing energy to address a wide range of disorders, and the more subtle mechanisms that may be responsible for its overall benefits to health.
MOXIBUSTION
Moxibustion, otherwise known as “Moxa,” is a healing practice that works by burning rolled sticks of the herb Mugwort on or near the body’s meridians. Moxa is used to warm and penetrate the meridians and acupuncture points and enhance the effect of acupuncture treatment. The intention of moxa is to warm and invigorate the flow of Qi in the body and dispel certain pathogenic influences.
Most commonly, moxa is burned about an inch or two above the surface of the skin until the area becomes red and infused with warmth. Usually, patients report feeling a sudden flooding of warmth that moves along specific meridians. This is a positive result because it means that the Qi is flowing strongly through your body. This healing pillar can be used to treat a variety of ailments including arthritis, digestive disorders, and gynecological conditions.
One thing that is great about moxibustion is that, unlike acupuncture, which must be done by a trained practitioner, moxibustion can easily be done at home. Chinese medical practitioners often train their patients to use moxa on themselves in order to boost its healing effect between acupuncture sessions. Though, you might consider opening a window if you decide to do moxa at home because the herb does produce a good amount of smoke and a scent that some compare to marijuana.
CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE
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Herbal medicine is debatably the most important pillar of Traditional Chinese Medicine. While all of the pillars go hand in hand, herbal remedies play a key role in healing specific ailments. 70% of our postnatal Qi comes from food, herbs, and flowers, which is why it’s so important. Over thousands of years, different herbs have been tried and tested for hundreds of different health issues.
There are many different ways to get the healing benefits of Chinese herbs, but they are most commonly consumed as teas, tinctures, or herbal pills. Some commonly used herbs include astragalus, ginkgo biloba, red yeast rice, ginseng, gotu kola, cinnamon, and ginger. Our organic herbal teas are all used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Naturopathic Medicine to heal certain aspects of the body.
TUI NA
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It’s likely you haven’t heard of tui na, but you’ve probably heard of cupping and gua sha, which are both forms of tui na. Tui na is a type of body work that helps balance your Qi. Tui means “to push” and na means “to grab or squeeze.” This grabbing and squeezing is described as more of a massage that is something between shiatsu and acupressure.
Similar to acupuncture, tui na is meant to unblock channels of Qi through the body that might’ve been blocked due to stress, negative habits or poor health. Unblocking these channels along the meridians helps to restore physiological and emotional balance. The tui na practitioner does this by using oscillating and pressure techniques that change in force and speed. This force and speed can change depending on if it is used a stronger deep tissue massage, which is more yang, or a more gentle, energetic treatment, which is more yin.
The eight basic techniques of tui na include:
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palpating (mo)
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rejoining (jie)
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opposing (duan)
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lifting (ti)
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pressing (an)
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kneading (mo)
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pushing (tui)
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holding (na)
Gua sha utilizes these same principles, but instead of using their hands their practitioner will use a tool. Gua sha also focused on scraping rather than pressing, kneading, or lifting. The tool can be something that is specifically made for gua sha (natural stone), but animal bone, coins, and spoons can also be used.
Gua sha usually leaves behind a reddish rash that is painless. The rash is thought to mean that Qi and blood were not circulating properly, but is now released. Overall, gua sha helps to break up areas of stagnation, congestion and stasis, relax and release sinews, and ease pain.
Like gua sha, cupping helps move stagnant Qi by reinvigorating the body. This is done by applying cups made of glass, plastic, or rubber to the skin’s surface and removing the oxygen. This will leave marks on your skin that look like bruises, but they’re not painful and will slowly disappear. The main purpose of it is to bring blood flow to stagnant or injured areas. The darker the mark, the more stagnant your circulation has been in that area. From a western standpoint, cupping works by basically being a backwards deep-tissue massage (positive pressure) that pulls an area of skin into a suction to decompress (negative pressure) the muscles and connective tissue.
There are three main types of cupping: wet, fire, and dry. Wet cupping involves creating small incisions on the skin before applying the cup, which will pull a small amount of blood out during the cupping session. Fire cupping isn’t as scary as it sounds. The practitioner uses a little bit of fire—usually by setting a cotton ball on fire—and puts it over the cup to create a vacuum. Dry cupping just involves using plastic or rubber suction cups to apply negative pressure to the body.
QI GONG
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Last, but not least we have qi gong. Qi gong literally means “energy work” and is a mind-body-spirit practice that can help improve one's mental and physical health through specific postures, movement, breath techniques, and focused intent. Traditional qi gong theory says that by focusing on a certain part of the body, feeling, emotion, or goal, we can send our Qi towards it.
During a qi gong session, beginners learn certain postures that are coordinated with breathing exercises. Once the posture is perfected, practitioners can find their own subtle flow within those postures and breathing patterns. Qi gong helps clear the mind as is a type of moving meditation.
Qigong works by opening the flow of energy through the same meridians used in acupuncture and Chinese medicine. This flow helps improve our connection to our Qi and the Qi in the world around us.
The slow, gentle movement of qi gong helps to warm muscles and ligaments, tonify vital organs, and promote circulation. From the Western perspective, qi gong can help reduce high blood pressure and cool emotional frustration and mental stress. There are a ton of different forms of qi gong, but the most common categories include medical qi gong, which helps heal self and others, martial qi gong, for physical well-being, and spiritual qi gong for enlightenment and self-discovery.
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