Chinese Medicine

China was one of the earliest countries to develop a medical science. Compared with the west, the Chinese approach is very different, with the basic principle lying in the properties of Yin and Yang. Through 5,000 years of practice and history, Chinese medicine has formed a deep and immense knowledge of medical science, theory, diagnostic methods, prescriptions and cures. A doctor of Chinese medicine takes into account all outward appearances to determine a patient's condition, and the methods of observation, auscultation and olfaction, interrogation, pulse, and palpation are employed in diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Chinese medicine holds that the human body's life is the result of the balance of yin and yang, with yin being the inner and negative energies, and yang representing the outer and the positive. Illness lies where these two elements are out of balance. To translate this into the workings of organs within the body, yang functions to protect from outer harm, and yin is the inner base to store and provide energy for its counterpart. Such a complicated and in-depth knowledge of medical science has been preserved curtsey of records such

as The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Interior Medicine, Shen Nong's Canon of Herbs, and the Compendium of Materia Medica, all of which are comprehensive and profound works.The World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the American Medical Association (AMA) have also commented on Chinese medicine. Though these groups disagree on the standards and interpretation of the evidence, there is general agreement that it is relatively safe, and that further investigation is warranted.