TCM Basics 101: What Are You Made Of?
Now as if things are too simple with dividing the whole world and our body up as only 2 parts (Yin and Yang), our ancestors discover various other concepts of how the body works and is made up of. And I’ll tell you the reason why later.
In Western Medicine which flourishes less than 1000 years back had it that the human is made up of bones, blood, flesh, muscles, connective tissues.
Medieval Medicine which is the so-called Father of Western Medicine sees the body as made of 4 kinds of bodily fluids or humours, namely the black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. Read more about What is Dampness here.
Traditional Chinese Medicine sees the body as made up of 5 elements, namely Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.
Ayurveda sees the body as 3 forms namely Vata (air and space), Pitta (fire and water) and Kapha (water and earth).
Tibetan Medicine have it that the body is made of 4 elements, namely Earth, Water, Fire, Air/Ether.
Esoteric Traditional Medicine then says that on top of the 4 elements, the fifth element is the element of Soul/Spirit.
So then you will wonder: what am I exactly made up of? And for those philosophical souls out there, you will then even question: Who am I?
Medically, the point of knowing that the body is split into different forms and the adoption of so many different schools of thoughts of elemental makeup is so that the people like us who have the arrogance to proclaim the power to rectify pains and sufferings for people can find solutions to rebalance the body. By first identifying which element is too much or too little, then using our very own trained skills and experience and techniques to help you find your balance again.
The fact that Traditional Medicines view the body with elemental makeup which goes beyond the physical means that they hold solutions to problems that are much larger and appears to be unsolvable in modern medicine.
Now, in ancient medicine, there is always this aspect of spirit or soul when they take into the account for healing. I would write a blog on this about healing in future but just know that real recovery and medicine is about treating the entire person on the whole, down to the emotional and mental level. And that is why many conditions and problems or in Chinese we say 疑难杂症 find solutions in ancient medicine because the entire person is taken into consideration, including their lifestyle, their diets, their habits, their threshold for pain, their mentality of handling imbalances. Because by the omission of the mental/emotional/metaphysical elements, we are but just working on the level of mechanics, and the level of problems that can be solved will then be only hovering at the level of flesh and bones, which is usually only 20% of the issue.
Real healing goes beyond.
Further reading:
Everything you need to know about Acupuncture
Men’s Health Series: Which is the Better Way to Treat Prostatitis - TCM or Western Medicine?
How do Acupuncture and Acupressure work and which is the Better One
Everything you need to know about Dampness
It is not normal to have cysts and fibroids
Why Everything Cold is Discouraged during Menstruation
