Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) approaches health in a very different way than Biomedical western medicine. Biomedical medicine is often based on treating symptoms. TCM looks to find ways to help the body help itself, rather than fixing the problem directly. Symptoms are recognized as an indication of what type of help the body needs. A good example of this is the difference in the treatment of an infection like the common cold.
TCM looks to herbs, foods and other treatments that help the body control the invading infectious agent. Biomedical western medicine approaches the problem by trying to kill the infectious agent with antiviral and antibiotic medications. It has been shown that many TCM herbal formulas do have antiviral and antibiotic qualities, however the choice of which treatment to use is based on an understanding of the patterns of symptoms the patient presents rather than whether a herb is known to kill a specific pathogen.
An old herbalist once told a story to dramatize the differences in approach. Imagine a thief has entered the house, much like a virus invades the body. The western Biomedical approach is to pull a gun and shoot the thief. The TCM approach is to open all the doors and windows, crank up the heat, and run around banging pots to scare the thief out. In many ways the TCM approach of using herbs and techniques that induce heat and sweating in the body, encourages the natural process of fever and sweating that the body naturally uses to fight an infection.
All medical treatments have a cost to the body. In the case of the energy intensive TCM type of treatment the patient is left slightly weakened and vulnerable to another infection until the body can shift its dynamics back to normal function (close all the windows again). The downsides to the Biomedical approach is that the infectious agent must be identified before it can be killed. Preventative flu vaccines need to be specific to the virus encountered, otherwise they do not work. This can lead to over medication and side effects. The suppression of symptoms also makes the job of clearing the infection more difficult as the treatments interfere with the natural processes of the body ( in other words there is a dead thief in the house that has to be cleaned up).
Treatment of a cold or flu with foods and herbal medicine can be very effective. For more details on how to do this check out the links below.
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