Trying to find a way to be healthy can be pretty complicated. So many rules and too many blogs from experts that are not experts just opinions that can be based on facts redirected to pursue you. Gosh that sentence was even complicated.Well Traditional Chinese Medicine is not complicated. It gets lumped into a whole category of mystical fantastical medicines. And when renowned Western Hospitals start including Traditional Chinese Medicine, it gets called quackery by some “real doctors.” It is a shame they are so afraid to share the value of healing and discount medicine they don’t understand. As a person with a body, there is room to share healing modalities! So here are 7 misconceptions about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which includes use of Acupuncture.
1.Traditional Chinese Medicine says we have a magical Qi that is the energy in our body. TCM has been around over 3000 years. Descriptions are going to be different. The fact is we are very electrical. Signals are continuously moving from the brain everywhere in the body. And we know these signals can slow down and get blocked like in conditions of multiple sclerosis, neuropathy, and when intoxicated. So magical Qi? No, it is real energy signals moving through the body. When something as little as a gnat sits on a hair on your arm, you feel it within seconds. You bang your elbow and pain or energy shoots up and down. This is Qi. Not a mystery force. And to follow this is Acupuncture puts a thin lightening rod to signal the brain to say- come here, fix this.
2. Yin and Yang is some mystical force of balance. Yin and Yang is a phrase from thousands of years. In current time you could relate it to if you had 80 percent of a pie left, you ate 20 percent. Together it still makes a whole pie. Yang is the word for the movement and energy, with Yin being the rest and quiet. It is just how to relate anything to each other. We may not relate many things in medicine the same as back then but the philosophy was and is important in TCM. When you have a sore throat, this is excess yang, and most likely yin deficient. Your throat is out of balance and a Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctor will try to help you get it back in balance. It is a philosophy to understand the health condition. Knowing how the body is out of sinc whether deficient, excess hot or cold is important to regain homeostasis.
3. Chinese Medicine gives organs an emotion and is not real medicineTraditional Chinese Medicine did not perform autopsies. They palpated, experimented and asked a lot of questions. In TCM, and in real life, organ systems are affected by emotions. In our culture, we lump anxiety and stress together but they are 2 different feelings that affect different parts of the body. Stress is situational. Like a stressful job. Anxiety is not being able to resolve something. You get anxious because you may not know how to figure out a solution, or maybe their is no solution and the situation stays in your mind day after day, causing anxiety. Many times Anxiety and Stress are going on at the same time. When you are stressed, it affects your stomach. Maybe you have had an acute stressful situation and you had a pain in your stomach. Chronic stress leads to acid reflux, gas, constipation. Then Anxiety. Anxiety grows. So many unresolved situations over the years that play like movie reels in the mind over and over. What happens is adrenal glands produce cortisol to work with the anxiety. Then the liver produces glucose for the adrenal glands. This over taxes the liver.
4. The Mind is not connected to the body for medicine and healing purposes
Comments like this insult who we are. To say we do not have feelings that affect us physically. Like we are superficial robots disconnected. We know when we are sad we barely breathe. When we are happy our energy goes up. And when we are anxious and nervous we can get palpitations, breathing difficulties, diarrhea etc. So if we can work on our emotions, it will help us breathe deeper, relax and digest our meals more efficiently, and reduce pain.
5. Herbal medicine is dangerous and has no value in healing
What an ignorant statement I have seen on the internet many times. I mean aspirin, come on, was derived from willow bark. Western medicine dates the discovery in 1763, but a greater back story is traditional Chinese medicine is willow bark, or liu shu pi, was used for thousands of years. We know herbs are a powerhouse of vitamins and nutrients. Parsley, Oregano, Thyme, to name a few. So Chinese Herbs are what were indigenous and grew in their region. Ginger, ginseng, turmeric.. hundreds of herbs. They all do somethings different. They are food, nutrients, not a hard stretch to understand. The body needs nutrients period. Herbs have particular vitamins and minerals that have been studied for thousands of years! If you believe food heals, herbs are food, they heal.
6. Acupuncture is a placebo and not real medicine
Acupuncture sends the signal for your body to focus on an area to heal. It causes a micro causation which brings the white blood cells in to heal. Look what they are doing with prosthesis and nerve conductivity. The body has billions of nerves so it is easy to understand how a thin needle placed close to a nerve would draw attention from the body.
7. Cupping marks are bruises and can be dangerous
Bruises are from impact. Cupping is not impact. Cupping lifts the fascia, and lets blood flow move under the skin. Old trauma leaves stagnant blood maybe for years under the skin. The “bruise marks” are actually old blood that gets cupped up to the surface and now able to move through the body and be released. Cupping is great for Chronic issues as well as acute pain.