Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine is a medicine that isn’t very well-known about in the west but works wonders in the east. The main principle of traditional Chinese medicine is the idea of “yin and yang” (tcmworld). 
The thought of “yin and yang” is to find balance in your life, and ultimately this can be applied in a medical way as well. Whenever a problem or issue arises the problem ultimately is rooted from something. The “yin and yang” way of thinking is to analyze your emotions, your thoughts, your habits, etc. and if these fundamental properties don’t balance well then there will problems as a result. The main component behind TCM is to stay healthy and avoid becoming sick beforehand rather than deal with the repercussions after the illness. The TCM stance on “yin and yang” is to balance your spirit, known as your qi. Keeping s balance in your life will keep a balance in your qi ultimately resulting in good health. The TCM idea also incorporates the idea of the “five elements” (orientalmedicine). The “five elements” idea is that each person is represented by one of these “five elements” and should adjust accordingly to find their balance between their “yin and yang”. For instance, a person with a family that has a history of heart problems and or small intestine problems would fall under the fire category. A person who is in the fire category is advised to eat bitter food, and wear red for the harmony of the person to be stabilized so the good qualities of the person can be further expressed. The following elements go along these lines as well and all have their own paths based off their family's medical history or what types of illnesses a person is dealing with in the present.
For a more in depth idea of how the “Five Elements” system works enjoy a clip of Dr. Josh Axe explaining the idea of the “Five Elements”
The idea of TCM was founded over 2,000 years ago in the writings of Huangdi neijing ( The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor) (Shen-nong). The writings of the yellow emperor are composed in two different text, the first being Suwen (Basic Questions). Suwen is composed in such a way where to Yellow emperor is having numerous conversations with various different highly-qualified physicians about the practice of medicine with regard to treatment, diseases, illnesses, and ways to diagnosis an issue that the patient is facing. Lingshu (Spiritual Axis) is the second text in Huangdi neijing. This text explains the idea of acupuncture, and explains the functions of the acupuncture points, their locations on the body, different types of needling techniques and different types of qi. This text in total lists 160 acupuncture points on the body (Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences). These texts are aimed to bring medicine to a greater light and help spread the information of what medicinal practices can do to people's health in hope to create a healthier society as a whole. For more of an in depth history of TCM please see this video.
Common practices of Chinese medicine include acupuncture, tai chi, and Chinese herbal medicine which can range from anywhere from tea, to liquid extracts, and leaves (NCCIV.gov). For further information on this practices please click here.
Doctors often check the patient's qi and after thorough analysis the doctors will know what method to use when treating a patient. By analyzing a patient’s qi the doctor can then understand what type of element a person is so the doctor can treat the patient in a more efficient way. A notable experience with herbal medicine is the use of Yunnan baiyao 云南白药(Yunnan white medicine). Yunnan baiyao is an herb that is known to stop internal bleeding and bleeding on wounds in general. Yunnan baiyao has been known to adequately treat stomach ulcers, hemophilia, along with many of serious injuries to the body (how health works). During the Vietnam war the Vietcong used to carry a vial of Yunnan baiyao with them to treat wounds by applying the Yunnan baiyao directly on the wound as they awaited medical aid to slow the process of bleeding. For further information about the magic of Yunnan baiyao please click here.
"It's easier, somehow, if there's a reason for tragedy-lust or jealousy or hatred or revenge. We can find in these explanations an emotional tenor commensurate with the gravity of the act. There's something we recognize as human, a motive toward which we can direct our rage but can also understand, at some primal level, as an extension of ourselves" (Jamison 179). I think this statement is very true and speaks to the concepts of Chinese medicine itself. We as human beings need to recognize what is the causation of the the action. By understanding this we can then look to, and try to treat what causes a certain problem before it happens. This is a key concept in Chinese medicine, if we can understand the problem whole-heatedly, then we can learn from it, thus by applying practices to it, we can make sure that we won't experience it in the future.
"Empathy is a contagion. Agee catches it and passes it to us. He wants his words to stay in us as "deepest and most iron anguish and guilt." They have stayed; they do stay; they catch as splinters, still, in the open, supplicating palms of this essay" (Jamison 158). This quote can be directly connected to Chinese medicine because of its focus on the long term. Things we do in the now are ultimately going to have a cause and effect, if we treat our bodies poorly now but have fun, then the causation of that will be in the future when our bodies are in poor health, and also the fun is gone as well. Our actions are strong, and what we do now will have an effect on us in the future, if we choose to balance our qi in the now, then it will be easier to balance in the future. If we make our qi extremely off balance now, then it's almost certain that we won't achieve good qi in the future.
