Why Classical Chinese Medicine?

 

I practice classical Chinese medicine because it works, sometimes miraculously. 

It is a beautifully intricate, unified system of medicine that explains all the complexities of our living bodies in illness and health. The methodology has been refined over thousands of years by doctors who meticulously recorded their clinical successes and failures and this wisdom has been passed down through the generations. This is truly evidence based medicine and the vastness of our database is hard to fathom.

 

Although Western medicine is powerful, we’re in the midst of an epidemic of chronic diseases because doctors don’t know how to manage them, let alone cure them. As a doctor of Chinese medicine, I see the body differently than other doctors. I don’t rely on the same tests and protocols, and I’m not required to prescribe things like statin drugs. The diagnostic tools I use can identify disease processes before they show up on standard tests and my techniques are proven to support the physical, mental, and emotional health of each person.

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Although this medicine is not well known in the West, our interventions have survived the test of time because they consistently restore proper function without adverse effect. Mysterious concepts, like Qi flowing through acupuncture meridians, don't fit into the accepted medical paradigm. Many ask how such little needles could possibly do much of anything? The answers are coming. Scientists have made some big discoveries in recent years that are bridging the gap between East and West by identifying concepts that mirror the Chinese understanding of the body.

 

In 2018, a group of researches proposed a new organ that they called the "Interstitium". They described it as an "open, fluid-filled highway" found in connective tissue all over the body. New imaging equipment allowed them to see it. For the first time, they were able to examine living tissue on a microscopic level, whereas previously only dead tissue could be viewed on microscopic slides. They proposed that it functions as a pathway for communication throughout the body and that it likely plays a role in cancer metastasis. In Chinese medicine we call this organ the San Jiao (I describe this in greater detail on the page about acupuncture).

 

Another hot topic of scientific study is mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are tiny organelles inside almost every cell in the body. They produce 90% of the energy our cells need to survive. They also play a role in breaking down waste products and making unhealthy cells die. It is now well accepted that mitochondrial dysfunction leads to chronic disease. Cancer comes to mind again. These types of discoveries are revolutionizing Western medicine. There's a rush to develop medications to support mitochondrial function. In Chinese medicine, this energy is called Yang Qi. It's an ancient concept and our whole system is designed to preserve and protect it.

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You don't have to wait for new experimental drugs with unknown long term side effects to start benefiting from these discoveries. Treatment is a phone call away.