Understanding Chinese Yin and Yang in the Field of Medicine (Chapter 2) #FamilyLife

Chinese doctors have a set of diagnostic rules to detect the various types of pain.
An ache at the back of the head is usually characteristic of stagnation in the channels governing the urinary bladder and top of the liver. Chinese techniques, acupuncture in particular, is especially suitable for most kinds of sharp or acute pain. Relief is often instantaneous and permanent. Chronic pain usually takes some time to respond to treatment.

To understand the principles of Chinese medicine, it is essential to grasp the essence of Chinese philosophy and its central concepts of yin and yang forces in nature, at once opposing yet independent – male and female, negative and positive, call them what you like. Every object or phenomenon in the universe is compounded of these two aspects. The Chinese masters describe a complex law of the unity of opposites that operates between yin and yang.

If the masculine force, yang, embodies fire and all that is bright, hot, upwardly mobile, and active, then the female force, yin, stands for water, forces of dimness, inertia, cold, darkness, and a downward direction. Some also describe yin as the substance (to be) and yang as the function (to do).

The world is further classified according to five basic elements, which form the building blocks for all matter: wood, fire, earth, water and metal. These, too, succumb to the elementary forces of yin and yang. However, the relationship between yin and yang, and hence these elements, is never absolute, but relative, and can and does change continually.

The body, a microcosm of the universe, is also believed to have its vital organs corresponding to the five elements: the liver to wood, heart to fire, spleen to earth, kidneys to water and lungs to metal.

And flowing through everything, are the yin and yang, the basic life force of all matter. Some consider the front of the body to be yin and the back yang, with a further subdivision of upper and lower halves.

Whatever the divisions, imbalance of the two forces in the body leads to ailments, which is why an ailment is never looked at in isolation. The lifestyle and history of the patient is taken into consideration, plus his appearance, personality, habits and temperament.

Is the patient buoyant and effusive with a loud voice and personality, and therefore a case of excessive yang? Or is he quiet, withdrawn and depressed and prone to deficiencies due to excess yin and low qi? A balance is sought, thus ridding the body of the ailments that have resulted from an excess of one particular force.

Usually, a multi-pronged attack is mounted to cure an ailment using a combination of acupuncture, Chinese massage, cupping, moxibustion and herbal medicine.

Acupuncture is probably the most well-known, its origins going back to Stone Age man who used it to cure pain. Today, the needle is often substituted by laser beams, for those patients who fear the pin-pricks.

An acupuncturist’s needle is his most potent weapon. The treatment consists of tiny ones inserted into strategic parts of the body using varying degrees of pressure, to control and regulate the flow of blood and qi. Acupuncture is also used in surgery instead of anesthesia.

A novel form of acupuncture is the pressing of some special seeds on to portions of the ear. For instance, to stop smoking, just press these seeds on to your ears each time the urge to smoke strikes. According to the Chinese, the ear is an extremely vital organ and is believed to hold the key in diagnosing problems almost anywhere in the body.

When man first discovered fire, he also found that certain syndromes of pain and several other illnesses miraculously disappeared when certain areas of the skin were subjected to heat. The Chinese application of this principle is known as moxibustion, in which herbal medicine (usually moxa leaves) are packaged into a small, cigarette-like tube which, when lit and applied to parts of the body, generates a mild heat that helps to remove obstructions in the channels and collaterals, and heightens the efficacy of other methods.