Traditional Chinese Medicine Works

Herbs, Minerals, Animal Parts; Just One Part in the Whole of TCM

Mar 26, 2007

The Chinese have been practicing TCM for more than two thousand years. That's a lot of practicing. Spend that much time on one project and you're a master of the craft.

More than two thousand years ago, the first TCM book was written. Around this time, the available knowledge was collected and published, in a manner of speaking. This was the beginning of the philosophy of TCM, according to some authorities. The book arose from local remedies and practices that existed long before the first compilation. TCM is a complete medical system. It is a complex science.

Excellent medical service

In China, it’s very common to find a TCM doctor in a pharmacy. He will be seated at a small table close to the TCM counter. If you inquire about a treatment for an ailment, he will ask you to be seated. He will take your pulse, look at your tongue and ask about your symptoms and your diet. Today’s patient has eczema. The doctor will speak in such terms as: fire in the blood, must treat the Yin invasion of the system, must cool the blood, purge fire from the system, must nourish the body’s Qi. He will write a script which you take to the counter. From a hundred little draws behind the counter, the clerk will pick and weigh an assortment of herbs, minerals, bark, roots, animal bones, insects, and on and on. Ill prescribed TCM can be lethal. So everything is carefully measured.

The patient will be given instructions on how much and how often the medicine should be administered. What is meant by the medicine? The following is a list of ingredients for treating eczema:

Administering the medication

All of this will be put into a pot and boiled. The broth after fully boiled and poured into a vessel for drinking is beastly. It looks like a cup of coffee poured onto a forest floor and then sucked up with a wet/dry vac. The taste is absolutely indescribable. Vomiting is sometimes an immediate reaction.

If one follows the instructions, if one forces oneself to drink the concoction as prescribed, one suffering will subside by day break. TCM is generally a treatment that requires time and repeated applications. However, there are instances when suffering is decamped overnight. Within four days, the patient’s sores were beginning to dry-up. At the end of the week, the lesions were beginning to dry and fade.

Prescription re-fills

Small recurrences of the rash are treated by another trip to the pharmacy. Within two months, he felt cured. But cured denotes a terminus. At the moment, that would be improper and risky. When the lesions began to appear again, the herb in his system tended to the infant rash. It would recede on its own. The doctor told him that he could also bathe in the broth.

A small miracle

This is not a cure. But, it’s way out in front of whatever is in first place. If one suffers from skin afflictions, one should try TCM if all else has failed. A side note that the patient wanted to mention is, he had two warts on his hand. They disappeared.

The copyright of the article Traditional Chinese Medicine Works in China Travel is owned by Peter Luca. Permission to republish Traditional Chinese Medicine Works in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.