TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine

with Bernd Monecke

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has its roots in ancient China. It has been continually developed over the past 2000 years and is now a complex diagnostic and therapeutic system with a holistic approach. In Chinese medicine, good health is correlated with the free flow of ‘Qi,’ or life force, which moves along certain paths – the meridians – of the human body.

This flow of energy supports all organs and functions of the body, the mind, and the spirit, and ensures a harmonious exchange and a fluent connection of all physical and psychological processes in humans.

If this flow is disturbed or blocked, discomfort occurs, one becomes sick. In TCM, one speaks of patterns of disharmony. These patterns already exist when there is no evident disease in the Western sense.
A disease can therefore be identified according to the stage of its development, and a treatment of two
patients with similar symptoms will rarely be the same. Chinese pulse and tongue diagnostics provide important indications for disorders of individual organs and bodily functions. It provides an up-to-date picture of the actual state of health of a patient, is an important decision-making tool for a treatment strategy, and serves as a point of inspection for the course of treatment at every acupuncture session.

Acupuncture is the most influential Chinese method of healing. This method is well-known mainly in the treatment of addiction, smoking cessation, and in pain therapy. However, the entire human body can be treated by needling, heating (moxibustion), or cupping carefully chosen acupuncture points. Acupuncture is
successfully used in most acute and chronic diseases. I apply a very gentle method of acupuncture, using fewer very thin needles.

Chinese nutritional teachings consider the temperature and taste attributes of foodstuffs, as well as their energetic action. A completely individual nutrition plan can be created for each patient, embedded in Chinese diagnosis and therapeutic principles. Tuina is a special Chinese massage form, also based on TCM diagnostics. In this form of massage, energy pathways and selected acupuncture points are stimulated.

The use of medicinal herbs in natural healing Is based on a long and proven tradition. In accordance with the holistic principle, a single active ingredient is never used alone, but rather a variety of active ingredients, naturally combined, permit treatment which goes beyond mere alleviation of symptoms.
In natural healing, the whole ‘essence’ of the plant is taken into account — its preferred locations, climatic requirements, its appearance and growth, etc. Medicinal plants are individually combined as teas or drops, for each patient, and taken over a long period of time. Most acute and chronic diseases can be treated with plant medicine alone or in combination with other forms of therapy. Western medicinal plants can also be classified and prescribed according to their temperature behavior, their taste and their energetic activity, according to the system of traditional Chinese medicine. By means of Chinese pulse and tongue diagnostics, an even more specific application of the herbs is made possible.