Tcm Believes In Hot And Cold Foods example essay topic

TCM, or Traditional Chinese Medicine, can be traced as far back as 1000 BC, where stone acupuncture needles were believed to be used. Texts from that period also talked of Yin and Yang and other concepts. The first written work on TCM is titled the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, Huang di Newijing (Gascoigne 11). This book was written in 300 BC, but entries date back to the early 2700's BC. The book is still used in universities of Chinese Medicine around the world and is often called the bible of TCM. Today, TCM is still thriving in China and all of Asia.

In recent years, information on TCM has become available to people in the United States. The United States has several schools of TCM, and it is now much easier to buy the necessary supplies needed for correct practice of TCM (Gascoigne 11-7). During some time about 1000 years ago in the Song Dynasty, a man named Chen Yan classified the causes of disease into three different categories (Gao 31). Chinese medicine does not believe that bacteria and viruses are the cause of disease.

Instead, it talks about influences that cause "disharmony" in Yin and Yang, the Essential Substances, the Organ System, the Channels, and the Five Phases (Cohen 37). "The Six Pernicious Influences-Heat, Cold, Wind, Dampness, Dryness and Summer Heat-are external climatic forces that can invade the body and create disharmony in the mind / body /spirit" (Cohen 37). With symptoms relating to heat, you can either have an excess of heat or a deficiency of it. Excess heat usually lasts for short periods of time and has symptoms such as high fevers, irritability and restlessness, thirst, little or no sweat or urine, and a flushed face. Heat rises in nature, as it also does in your body. That is why the upper areas of your body are the ones that suffer from excess heat.

If you have an insufficient amount of heat you might suffer from hot hands and feet, fevers that occur in the afternoon, sore throat, inability to fall asleep, and irritability. Conditions of insufficient heat are chronic and are caused by a reduction of the body's own healthy energy. Heat affects many different organs in the body, so it is not uncommon to hear things like liver heat, heart heat, and stomach heat in TCM (Gao 37-8). Cold disharmonies are most common in the winter and injure the body's Yang energy. When cold first enters the body it can cause fevers, headaches, and general body pains. If cold enters further and reaches the body's meridians it will produce muscle cramps and pain in the joints and bones.

As cold enters further into your body it will eventually reach your internal organs. To much cold in the internal organs can cause "diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pains, and intestinal noises" (Reid 37). Inner cold, not related to weather conditions, is caused by insufficiency of yang energy. Deficiency of yang energy can occur when you eat too many "cold" foods (Reid 37-9). "Wind animates the body, stirring it from repose into motion just as wind moves the leaves of a tree" (Cohen 39). The first symptoms of wind disorders are tics and twitches, as well as headaches and a stuffy nose.

If wind further infiltrates the body you may experience seizures, ringing of the ears, and dizziness (Cohen 39-41). Dampness usually occurs in the late summer and can be contracted by exposure to rain or water and or living in damp climates. Symptoms range from sluggishness to "oppressive sensations in the chest". Inner dampness, caused by drinking too much alcohol and eating an excess of sweet and greasy food, has symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea (Reid 38).

Dryness is associated with the season of autumn. There is warm dryness and cool dryness. If dryness is contracted in early autumn, it is called warm dryness because the time is closer to summer. If the dryness is contracted in late autumn it is called cool dryness because it is closer to winter time.

Warm dryness exhibits the typical dry symptoms; dry mouth, nose, and throat, and cough, as well as some heat symptoms such as thirst, fever, and irritability. Cool dryness has the same dry symptoms as warm dryness, except now it also exhibits fever, chills, headache, and other cold symptoms. The main difference between cold, and cool dryness is that the person will show more signs of dryness. Dryness enters the body with other climactic elements, so it can be more dangerous than the other 6 elements because of its ability to combine its power (Gao 42-50). Internal dryness is caused by loss of blood and other body fluids.

Internal dryness usually occurs after a person has been sick with a disease that caused them to vomit or to have diarrhea. It can also occur after a great loss of blood or sweat. To much sexual activity can also result in internal dryness (Gascoigne 67-9). Summer heat is the only one of the 6 influences that only occurs during one season, in this case, the summer. Summer heat is caused solely by the extreme heat that can occur in the summer time. The symptoms are very similar to those of heat, but summer heat can also be contracted with dampness.

Humidity and rain are common in China during the summer, so a person could exhibit symptoms such as fever, flushed face, achy joints, nausea, and fatigue at the same time (Gao 52-4). Other than six pernicious influences, disease can also be caused as a result of your emotions and your diet (Gascoigne 62). Well now that I had learned about the causes of disease, according to TCM, I had to figure out how to cure all of these sicknesses. In the old days, the Chinese would usually quarantine you if you were diagnosed with any kind of illness, and let you live out the rest of your days alone on an island... Just seeing if you were still paying attention! Actually there are quite a few treatments for disease in TCM.

I guess the best way to start would be to list all of the major treatment therapies. "There are four basic healing techniques that the practitioner may suggest as treatments: acupuncture and moxibustion, dietary therapy, herbal therapy, and Qi Gong [pronounced "Chi Kung"] exercise / meditation " (Cohen 76). Each therapy procedure can be further sub categorized to specify the appropriate treatment plan (Gascoigne 98). Acupuncture and moxibustion, what are they exactly? Well let's start with acupuncture. "Acupuncture is the art of inserting fine, sterile, metal filiform needles into certain points along the channels and collaterals (tributaries of the channels) in order to control the flow of the Qi" (Cohen 76).

There are 365 basic acupuncture points in TCM, but most practitioners use around 150 of these points. The points are located along your "12 primary channels, eight extraordinary channels, and 15 collaterals" (Cohen 134). The Channels and collaterals are believed to regulate Chi throughout you body. Acupuncture is used to try and balance the Yin and Yang in your body. Acupuncture is not just used to cure diseases, but to prevent them as well. Many people have regular acupuncture "tune-ups" to help keep them healthy.

It takes a trained professional to perform acupuncture so it is not a task that I can take up right now (Cohen 134-149). I can, however, perform acupressure on myself without the worry of causing harm. Acupressure uses the same theories and techniques of acupuncture, without the needles. One uses their, or someone else's, hands to massage, press, and or rub the meridians of the body to stimulate a similar effect as does acupuncture. While not as effective, it can be a quick relief if you have no available means to an acupuncturist (Gascoigne 114). Moxibustion is used in conjunction with acupuncture to further stimulate the meridians on the body.

Moxa is a Chinese herb noted for its ability to help balance Yin and Yang. Moxibustion is the burning of the herb Moxa over the meridians, often at the same time as acupuncture is being performed (Gao 180-4). Dietary therapy is nothing new to the United States. It seems that there is a diet for every condition imaginable here in the US. Most of the diets, or eating plans, are induced for weight loss goals.

Some aren't even good for you in the long run, but in our fast paced world we are always looking for the quick fix. One eating plan in particular caught my eye a few months before I started this report. It was called the Acid / Alkaline diet, and was based on the theory that disease isn't caused by bacteria or viruses. Sound familiar? Don't misunderstand me, viruses do make you sick, but they aren't the cause for disease. They are more of a byproduct created by disharmony in the body.

The Acid / Alkaline theory is based upon the fact that your body has a certain acid to alkaline ratio. The more acid in your system, the more prone you are to creating a breeding ground for bacteria. On the other hand, if your body has a high alkaline to acid ratio, your body is healthy and immune from illnesses. Now I know what you are thinking, "That's great, but isn't this report on Chinese medicine?" To answer your question, yes it is, and the theories I have been talking about were actually created by the Chinese over 3000 years ago. TCM believes in hot and cold foods, each belonging to either Yin or Yang depending on their properties. You can think of hot and cold foods as the modern acid and alkaline.

As we know, the goal of TCM is to balance out the Yin and Yang in our bodies in order to be healthy. Not surprisingly, TCM recommends eating a fairly equal amount of Yin and Yang foods, while trying to stay away from hot foods. Under certain conditions, TCM could recommend the consumption of hot foods if you had an illness from an overabundance of cold foods. Hot foods correspond with acidic foods and beverages like coffee, soda, any kind of fried food, corn, beans, vinegar, and sugar. Cold foods stand for alkaline foods which include most fruits and vegetables. A general guideline to follow is, "The greener the food, the higher its alkaline level" (Cohen 165-192).

This kind of diet can be very rewarding for your body. For example, fat is created to protect your body from all the acid inside. If you lower your acid levels by eating foods higher in alkaline, your body no longer needs the fat to protect itself so it burns it off and uses it for energy (Cohen 195). It seems to me that the main difference between TCM and moderns medicine today is that modern medicine focuses more on acute care, while TCM takes the whole picture into consideration. If you go to a traditional doctor in America feeling sick it might go something like this".

Doc, I'm not feeling to well, do you think it could be because I haven't gotten much sleep lately, I've been eating unhealthy foods, I have been really stressed out, and I don't exercise?"Most likely not, you probably just have the flu. Here take these pills twice a day for 1 month and you should feel fine. Here's your bill". Alright so I might be exaggerating, but the point is doctors today will likely diagnose you with a sickness like the flu, just give you medicine, and send you out of their office.

In TCM, they look at the whole picture. If you come in to a TCM facility feeling ill, they will ask you what your diet has been like, if you have had any emotional extremes lately in your life, if you have been getting sleep, and if you exercise regularly. And it doesn't stop there! Once you have been diagnosed, they don't just give you medicine and send you on your way, they tell you what you can do in the future to avoid getting this illness again. In TCM they take the whole picture into account when diagnosing you, not just the disease itself, but the cause of it. Another major difference between TCM and standard medicine today is the approach that they use.

TCM aims at preventive care so you never get sick in the first place, while standard medicine just cures the diseases as they come. When I first heard that TCM didn't believe that bacteria were the cause of disease, I was skeptical. After all, I had been raised believing that the only way to prevent getting the flu was to get a shot. But when I started thinking about the hot and cold foods and our emotions relating to illnesses, it started to make sense to me. I started thinking about when people actually got sick, and tried to figure out why. When is flu season, from late October to March right?

Well let's take a look at that time frame. October is Halloween and we stuff ourselves with sugar and candy. Not even a month later comes Thanksgiving, the feast of all holidays, where we eat potatoes, turkey, gravy, and dessert. Next month is Christmas, and not only do you eat a lot again, but it is one of the most stressful times of the year. Next comes New Years where you stay up late and drink champagne. Come February you have Valentines Day with even more candy and maybe some stress as well.

March is St. Patrick's Day with more alcohol and sugar, and then comes Easter and all of those eggs filled with chocolate. That's your flu season right there. Herbal therapy is my primary reason for choosing TCM as the topic of this report. Herbal therapy has the most direct connection with the Chinese martial arts. For centuries, Chinese martial artists have been using herbal therapy to further enhance their training, and to prevent injury.

Herbal therapy is divided into internal and external applications. Internal injuries are treated with teas, syrups, or pills. Externally, the injury is treated with liniments, powders, plasters, or balms. For stamina and health, herbs and roots are brewed into teas.

Each martial art system has its own highly guarded recipe for these prized tonics (Woodward 169). There are three main ways to make a Chinese herbal remedy. The first, and most popular way to prepare a remedy, is by making a decoction, or Tang. "Tea drinking is such an important part of Asian culture that it is not surprising that preparing a decoction (basically a tea) is the most popular way to use Chinese herbs" (Reid 134). Decoctions are helpful in treating acute disorders, because the tea is quickly assimilated into your body. Hard and tough herbs, like bark and roots, are usually used in decoctions because boiling them in water is the only way to release their therapeutic properties.

"When preparing a decoction you should use 24 ounces of water for ever 1-2 ounces of herbs" ("Traditional Chinese Medicine"). You should never boil the herbs in a metal pot. This can damage the therapeutic properties of the herbs (Gao 112). I found an enamel pot to make my decoctions in, but glass, Pyrex, or ceramic will work too. When preparing a decoction you need to bring the water to a boil first, and then add the herbs. When the water returns to a boil you have to simmer the herbs for about 20 minutes, and then let them sit to cool for another 20 minutes.

Taoists believed that it was not beneficial to drink tea when it was hot or cold. Instead, they recommended drinking tea at room temperature (Woodward 169-171). Another way to prepare an herbal remedy is by making a medicinal wine, or Jiu. "The ancient practice of aging herbs in alcohol is by far the simplest and, by some accounts, the oldest known method for making medicinal preparations" ("Traditional Chinese Medicine"). Alcohol helps to bring out the therapeutic properties of the herbs, and the longer the herbs are soaked in alcohol, the more potent the wine will become. You should age the herbs in the wine for a minimum of 90 days, but it is not uncommon for herbs to be aged for years before the wine is used.

You can use the wine internally by drinking it, or externally by using it as a liniment. The wines that are used as liniments are usually poisonous if consumed orally. Internal wines are usually used to treat internal injuries, like internal bleeding or deep bone bruises. Liniments are used as a treatment for bruises, cuts, and sore muscles. There are many patented liniments for injuries sustained in the martial arts. The most popular is Dit Da Jow, which is used for bruises and sore muscles.

There are many different brands of Dit Da Jow, each containing a slightly different array of herbs. There is no best Jow, as each one reacts differently to the user (Woodward 170-172). The last way to prepare an herbal formula is by way of pills or capsules, known as Wan in Chinese. In order to make pills of capsules, you must first grind all of the herbs into a fine powder. You can use a blender to grind the herbs, or just purchase them ground from an herb shop. Once the herbs are ground into a powder, you take the selected amount of powder and mix them with a sticky substance such as honey.

Then you form the powder into the size of a pea and let sit to dry. To make a capsule, "Purchase empty gelatin capsules from a health food store (the preferred size is 00) " (Joiner 18). Then fill the capsules with the selected amount of powder and store in a cool place. Pills and capsules are usually used to treat long term illnesses such as chronic muscle pains and chronic fatigue (Cohen 108-09).

The formula was called Si Wu Tang which translates into four-substance decoction. "This formula is noted for its ability to enrich, regulate, and circulate the blood. It is without a doubt the most famous blood tonic in Chinese herb ology" (68). The formula was supposed to reduce muscle soreness and fatigue after martial arts training. Qi Gong and Tai Chi are the last method of curing diseases, and two of the primary exercises preformed and recommended by TCM. TCM believes that stagnant blood in the body can reduce the chi, and throw the Yin and Yang off balance with each other.

The recommended cure for stagnant blood is exercise and or decoctions like Si Wu Tang. The main differences between Qi Gong and Tai Chi are the approaches that each take to training. Qi Gong primarily consists of meditation and gentle body movements aimed towards cultivation of the chi and health. Tai Chi is a martial art that uses meditation and gentle body movements, but also incorporates self defense techniques to stop an attacker using their own energy against them. Both are fine ways to help prevent stagnant blood and to cultivate your chi, the only difference is the martial application of the two. TCM recommends these two forms of exercise over others, because it is very easy on your joints.

Older people who may practice Qi Gong or Tai Chi will not be limited or restricted because of bad knees or arthritis (Cohen 258-267). Acupuncture, dietary therapy, herbal therapy, and Qi Gong are the four treatments plans used in TCM. A combination of the four of these assures a healthy lifestyle and a long life.