Traditional Chinese Medicine and Infertility Although health and healing are
common goals of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and allopathic medicine, their ideas on etiology of disease, disease itself and process used to regain health are decidedly different. The allopathic physician learns that disease must be cured by prescribing medicine, which kills bacteria or renders a virus ineffective; at times surgical intervention is a necessity.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach. It often works. The question worth exploring is why TCM succeeds where allopathic medicine fails? What is mechanism of action of acupuncture and herbal medicine, which results in palliation or cure that is not manifest in biomedicine?
Though goal of TCM is to cure a patient, doctor of TCM attempts to do this not by treating disease but rather by treating whole person, taking into account various attributes of an individual which, when combined, account for an individual being sick or healthy. A person, according to tenets of TCM is more than their pathology. While treating pathology may yield impressive results, they are commonly temporary.
A person is not, according to TCM, represented solely by his or her illness, but by accumulation of every human interaction engaged in from moment of birth, including values of and culture from which individual develops. The emotional experiences, eating habits, work habits, work and living environment, personal habits and social milieu are factors that contribute to disease and are factors which, when modified appropriately may lead to regained health.
Though Western scientific community has not, to date, arrived at a methodology to use in research of Chinese medicine, veracity and efficaciousness of this medical modality is nonetheless proved by its long history of continued success. More than a quarter of world's population regularly uses TCM as part of their health care regimen. Chinese medicine is only form of classical medicine, which is regularly and continuously used outside of its country of origin.
THE FOUR EXAMINATIONS
The 'Four Examinations' is a method of diagnosis which dates back over three thousand years. Observing, Listening and Smelling (Listening and Smelling are counted as one of Four Examinations), Questioning and Palpating make up 'Four Examinations'. This method of diagnosis is far from simplistic, allowing practitioner to arrive at a differential diagnosis.
Each of "Four Examinations" can take years to master, and while these diagnostic tools are not replacements for that which Western medicine can provide in analyzing and treating disease, they have ability to offer information which, when understood in context of TCM, provides additional opportunities in mapping out patterns of disease and arriving at greater treatment success.
The doctor of TCM must approach a patient with a clear and calm mind, without a preconceived diagnosis and etiology. This mind-set will enable practitioner to yield clinical gems which are clues about individual who sits before us! This is stuff of TCM.
The subjective, interpretive and objective evidence of an individual obtained via 'Four Examinations' leads to discovery of etiology of disease while concomitantly opening a window to 'Whole Person", thus revealing where in individual's life pathogenesis started and what initiated it. The practitioner of TCM must utilize his own interpretive skills, which takes into consideration what is verbalized by patient and what is observed, while considering what patient does not verbalize as well. Often, that which is not said can be as clinically enlightening as information which is freely provided. The tone of voice, complexion, condition of eyes (in TCM, Shen or spirt of an individual is said to be revealed through their eyes. Who can deny clinical efficacy of this? Is there a different expression revealed through eyes of a clinically depressed individual than from those of a happy, well adjusted one?), facial expression, overall demeanor, how one walks, sits, and stands are all observed and utilized by doctor of Chinese medicine as part of information required to arrive at a differential diagnosis. The doctor must be able to note and sense inconsistencies in an individual that are expressed by patient even without patient being cognizant of chasms which exist between what they verbally express and what their spiritual presentation divulges. The sensitivity to and awareness of these human idiosyncrasies enables TCM doctor to develop an understanding of who patient is even before 'main complaint' is discussed.
