12 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CHINESE MEDICINETraditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is becoming incredibly popular. However, it is still considered an alternative treatment method. In most cases, it is turned to when classical medicine is powerless. Chinese medicine has proven its significance and effectiveness through centuries of practice. Here are just a few interesting facts:
Chinese doctors treat the patient, not the disease.
In China, doctors treat the most serious diseases and believe that “A patient is not ill because they have a disease, but a disease arises when the patient is ill.”
In the People’s Republic of China, the cost of traditional treatments is covered by mandatory medical insurance.
In the People’s Republic of China, more than 440,000 medical institutions provide traditional medicine services. This includes about 90% of both public and private general hospitals.
Chinese doctors do not have protocols because treatment is always personalized.
The minimum set for treating a wide range of diseases includes acupuncture, moxibustion, and herbal treatments. A Chinese doctor may use between 5 to 25 herbs to create specific combinations for an individual decoction.
In ancient China, a doctor received a salary only when their patients were healthy.
Therefore, doctors in the Chinese Empire were financially motivated to diagnose accurately and treat patients quickly and effectively. For those who treated Chinese emperors, an incorrect diagnosis and treatment could cost them their lives — a medical error in this case was punishable by death.
There are over 300 active points in the human body, each connected to an organ or system.
These are targeted during acupuncture sessions, which are a primary association with Chinese medicine. The needles are so small and inserted so shallowly that there are no unpleasant sensations during acupuncture. On the contrary, acupuncture helps manage pain.
If archaeologists are to be believed, the history of Chinese medicine dates back to the Stone Age.
It is to this period that scientists attribute the stone acupuncture needles discovered during excavations — one of the traditional methods of Chinese medicine.
An experienced Chinese medicine doctor can literally diagnose “by eye” or “by ear.”
Western doctors rely on test results and hardware studies for diagnosis. In Chinese medicine, it’s different. A Chinese doctor looks more at the overall appearance, evaluating the color of the skin, tongue, eye whites, nails, and so on. They can determine a disease literally by ear, assessing the sound of breathing, tempo, and tone of speech.
Chinese medicine distinguishes 30 pulse scenarios. Each of these corresponds to specific disorders.
Enterprises with established norms and rules for dispensing medical drugs were invented in ancient China and are now known as pharmacies.
Nowadays, seeing people with medical masks on the streets during epidemics surprises no one. This method of combating diseases was used by ancient Chinese medicine thousands of years ago but in a different form: people wore pouches around their necks containing a mix of aromatic medicinal herbs. The aromatic oils inhaled protected the body, stimulating the nervous and immune systems.
Few people know, but it was in China that smallpox was first eradicated.
Vaccinations in this country have been done since time immemorial. Though difficult to call them vaccinations, they were somewhat different. To vaccinate a child against smallpox, a pustule from an infected person (apologies for the unpleasant fact) was taken, and its contents were blown into the nose of the child using a special tube — it was believed that one inhalation was enough to acquire immunity. Another method involved wrapping the child in the clothes of a person with a mild form of smallpox.
The Chinese were the first to create a complete encyclopedia of pharmacy.
This happened in 502 BC. The great work consisted of seven volumes, describing the properties of 730 medicinal plants.
Using different ratios, the same medicinal materials have different therapeutic (or harmful) effects.
Chinese medicine doctors adjust prescriptions according to the patient’s physical condition. Therefore, Chinese medicine does not permit the use or sale of herbal medicines or treatment methods without professional consultation from a doctor.
