Integrative Medicine
Integrative Medicine refers to ongoing efforts to combine the best of conventional and evidence-based complementary therapies, as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), while emphasizing the importance of patient-doctor relationship and the necessity of patient participation in health promotion, disease prevention and medical management.
Integrative medicine views the patient as a whole, as people with minds and spirits as well as bodies, and includes these dimensions into diagnosis and treatment. This approach is demanding and needs the support of the practicing doctor and the patient.
Combining TCM, or other “alternative” therapies, with conventional western therapies, helps to take advantage of the strengths of each system and to offset their weaknesses. But what does it mean for the patient? As the range of healing approaches is wider, the possibility to get healed is higher!
The Chinese have a unique understanding of the human body: body, spirit and soul build an oneness, which is a part of the universe. The harmony of body and soul is the fundamental basis for health.
Although TCM differs significantly from the Western Medicine, it is also based on solid philosophy and principles, which are very strict and obligatory. The key concepts are “Yin and Yang” and the “5 Elements”.
The concept of yin and yang is the basis to understand Traditional Chinese Medicine. The cognitions of this science originated from the observation of the changes of night and day. Yin and yang describe oppositions, which depend on each other and complement each other. Yin represents night, which stands for cold, silence, passiveness, darkness, inside, latent abilities and female. Meanwhile yang represents day, which stands for warmth, activity, brightness, outside, expression and male. Yin and yang exist in each body, however the respective proportion of yin and yang may vary, as night and day change through the seasons of the year.
The theory of five elements traces back to the observation of various dynamic processes, functions and conditions in nature. The Chinese medicine system adapts this natural phenomenon and reflects them in the organ systems as: wood-liver, fire-heart, earth-spleen, metal-lung and water-kidney. Since the elements interact with each other in nature, the bodies’ organ interactions are also described this way. Body organs affect each other. The statement of five elements indicates clearly that the Chinese Medicine is based on the proposition of balance, development and harmony in nature. The observation of the shifting phases can help us understand the severity code of the diseases.
The western method to observe the human body emphasizes physical structures and components, which affect each other in a very complex way. The fundament “cause and effect” model in Western Medicine is totally different from the Chinese model. TCM will pay attention to the body components, which harmonize in a kind of close dynamic interaction. The combination of both healing approaches opens a wide range of therapies to the patient.
In Chinese medicine, the human body is regarded as an energy system, in which a variety of components interact to build the whole body. For example, Qi and blood, the most important substances, belong to the basic material and immaterial components. According to the Chinese system, neither of them can be considered separately, because they work dynamically together.
The Chinese therapy methods were developed in order to remove disharmony and to make it easier to help the people back to equilibrium and health so that herbs, acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, Tuina-Massage, special nutrition as well as changes in the general life style will be introduced.
Western conventional medicine acts rapidly and chemical on the effected body parts. It is focused on the healing of acute and severe diseases.
By using integrative medicine patient and medical provider work together and develop a diagnostic and therapeutic program that draws on a variety of traditions and expertise to address an individual’s specific needs.
For any question please contact: Doris Rathgeber OMD
Tel.: 021/51019262
website: www.bodyandsoul.com.cn
