Is Your Focus on Disease, or Wellness?
Both Western and Chinese medicine could be accused of focusing
too much on disease treatment, rather than wellness. Practitioners
from both medicines are taught to be problem-solvers and disease-curers
instead of wellness promoters.
You can't blame Western medical docs - most of their preventive
advice is to avoid negative things. They don't really have a deep
and powerful system of prevention. No wonder they don't see prevention
as paramount.
We can't blame patients for not striving for optimal health.
Most of the time, humans just do their daily thing until something
keeps them from sleeping, working, or enjoying life.
We only think of medicine when we need a cure. We don't live
preventively.
Ignoring Minor Symptoms
We tend to ignore minor problems (like dull headaches at the
end of the day, itchy eyes, morning grogginess) until they get
worse. The prevailing medical system has conditioned us to only
think of medicine for major problems, and to take a symptom-relieving
pill for the minor ones. We take aspirin for headaches, allergy
medicine for the eyes, and drink coffee for grogginess.
Continuum of Disease
Chinese medicine sees illness as a continuum. What do itchy eyes
have in common with migraines, or hepatitis? What does grogginess
have in common with Alzheimer's? Dull headaches with life expectancy?
Western medicine would say nothing. But sometimes there is a connection,
and Chinese medicine can explain it.
Minor symptoms can lead to major illness. Reversing imbalances
sooner can keep you in good health longer.
Chinese Medicine Prevention and Wellness
Many Chinese medicine practitioners do study the prevention and
wellness wisdom of Chinese medical literature. They don't just
give acupuncture and herbs, but they also recommend dietary changes,
exercises and lifestyle modification based on the same personalized
diagnosis used by acupuncture and herbal treatments.
The Yellow Emperor's Classic says, "In the past, people...
understood the principle of balance... They ate a balanced diet
at regular times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided
overstressing their bodies and minds, and refrained from overindulgence
of all kinds. They maintained well-being of body and mind; thus
it is not surprising that they lived over one hundred years."
At the end of this article, you'll find link to more information
about prevention and wellness techniques.
Is Your Health Optimal?
So, if minor symptoms are imbalances that should be addressed
too, what does health look like? How does a healthy person feel?
Is it just an absence of illness?
I decided to put together a chart of symptoms and signs of illness
and wellness. It's based on the multi-system questions a Chinese
medicine practitioner asks a new patient. Inquiry, or asking,
is one of our Four Examinations, or ways of gathering information
about your health. The other three examinations are touching,
looking, and listening.
Holistic Medicine and Irrelevant Questions
Holistic means looking at the whole, not just the parts. Everything
in us is connected - mind and body. Holistic medicine looks at
and treats the whole person.
We're made of systems and organs that work together - the digestive
system, nervous system, immune system, muscles, bones, mind, etc.
The ideal medicine includes all of these, and understands how
they're interconnected.
Beginning to work with a Chinese medicine practitioner means
answering a whole lot of seemingly irrelevant questions. Even
if you came in just for back pain, we're still going to want to
know about whether you feel hot or cold, what you menstruation
is like, and how your sex life is, etc. An extensive line of questioning
just comes with the territory in holistic medicine.
The following chart is a sample of some of the basic information
a Chinese medicine practitioner obtains from each patient. Next
to each, I've shown the healthy experience, and some possible
symptoms of imbalance. How does your health match up?
|
System
|
Wellness
|
Imbalance
|
|
Attitude & Emotions
|
Emotional balance, equanimity,
open heart and mind, patience, tolerance, peace, helpfulness,
service
|
- Anxiety, worry, obsession, grief, fear,
phobia, irritability, anger, depression
- These predispose you to certain imbalances:
Melancholy, impulsiveness, rashness, impatience, selfishness
|
|
Body Temperature
|
Comfortable, unremarkable
|
Feelings of heat or cold,
hot flashes, chills, or alternating fever and chills
|
|
Chest & Abdomen
|
- Comfortable chest, normal breathing,
normal heart function
- Comfortable abdomen, no bloating, no
pain
|
- Feeling of fullness or blockage in
chest, cough with lots of phlegm, hot uncomfortable
feeling in chest, pain in chest, or palpitations·
- Abdominal pain of any type, or bloating
relieved by passing gas or belching
|
|
Exterior/ Immunity
|
Resistance to environmental
changes
|
Aversion or sensitivity
to wind, cold, heat, dryness, or dampness
|
|
Food Intake & Digestion
|
- Good appetite
- Comfortable, effective digestion
- Variety of foods and activities, avoid
activities that cause disease
|
-
No thought of food and
drink, persistent nausea, very high appetite (out of
proportion with nutritional needs) or preference for
rich fatty foods
-
Indigestion, acid reflux,
food digested immediately and always hungry, or stomach
pain better after eating
-
An excess of cold, raw,
or fatty foods, and tobacco smoking are unhealthy
|
|
Gynecology & Obstetrics
|
Regular, red, moderate
menses without pain or emotional fluctuations. That's
right, no PMS
|
- Early, late, light, purple, bright
red, thin, thick, clotted, painful, or irregular menstruation,
painful distended breasts, PMS
- miscarriage, difficult deliveries
- excessive childbirth can lead to long-term
depletion
|
|
Head
|
Comfortable, clear
|
Headaches, heavy-headedness,
pain worse with wind or cold, dizziness
|
|
Sound & Vision
|
|
-
Ear ringing or deafness
-
Unclear vision, visual
blackouts, red or painful eyes, dry eyes, or excessive
tearing
|
|
Sleep
|
Fall asleep easily at a
sensible hour, stay asleep all night, no dreaming or pleasant
dreaming, wake up restored and refreshed, wakeful and alert
throughout the day
|
-
Insomnia: Reduced or
shallow sleep, profuse dreaming, nightlong sleeplessness,
feeling hot or agitated during sleeping hours
-
Somnolence: extended
periods of sleep, drowsy consciousness, desire only
to sleep
|
|
Stool & Urine
|
-
Bowel movement once or
twice per day - firm, without smell
-
Urination 4-6 times per
day, light yellow color, no discomfort
|
-
Constipation, hard dry
stool, difficult defecation, diarrhea, thin stool, loose
stool, urgency, or loss of control
-
Great amount or frequency
of urination, need to get up two or more times at night
to urinate, rarely voiding small amounts, dark yellow
color, pain or burning, or reddish urine
|
|
Sweating
|
Sweating only in hot conditions,
when nervous, or with exercise
|
Sweating in the daytime
at the slightest exertion, at night along with feeling of
heat or hot flashes, or with fever in cold or flu
|
|
Thirst
|
Can drink what is required
by body, ok with drinks of any temperature, about 32 oz.
per day
|
No thirst, desire small
amounts of warm fluids, thirst with little or no desire
to drink, thirst for large amounts of cold fluids, or increase
in urine volume plus thirst that doesn't go away with lots
of fluid intake
|
As you can see, Chinese medicine has higher standards for well
being. For example, Chinese medicine sees PMS as a sign of imbalance,
whereas Western medicine says that since it is the statistical
norm, it's acceptable. But with Chinese medicine, you don't have
to put up with discomfort.
There's no need wait for more serious diseases to develop. We
can treat any of the abnormal symptoms above and keep you healthy.
That way, you'll prevent a lot of harder-to-treat, serious and
complicated diseases.
Sources:
- Wiseman, Ellis. Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine
- My own clinical experience. Some of the normal or healthy
descriptions could not be found in the literature.
- Ni. The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine.
More Information:
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