Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has developed over a period of at least 3,000 years. To attempt to practice even but a single aspect of TCM, acupuncture, without some understanding of its philosophical and theoretical underpinnings can lead the practitioner to less than optimal result.
Acupuncture performs certain functions in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It regulates the flow of Qi (energy flow) through the channels and organs, removes blockages, strengthens the body’s Protective Qi and lessens the virulence of Excesses. Traditional Chinese Medicine’s philosophy moves in an entirely different dimension from that of Western Medicine, one in which various phenomena are interrelated as part of a pattern. The sense of phenomena as intertwined patterns has important ramifications. There is an overwhelming sense of context: events or objects by themselves have no meaning. Everything of our system and disorder issues are closely interrelated to each other.
