Conventional medicine, sometimes referred to as Western medicine, is that which is widely accepted and practiced in mainstream society, based on modern notions of biology and chemistry and grounded in scientific method. When visiting a doctor or hospital in a developed country, it is conventional medicine practices that will be used to diagnose and treat illness. While conventional medicine dates back to the age of Enlightenment in the late 17th century, Chinese medicine practices are over thousands of years old. Beginning in parts of East Asia and slowly spreading across the world, they are now used as an alternative or complimentary practice to conventional medicine, most commonly in the forms of acupuncture, remedial massage and Chinese herbal medicine. Here we outline some of the main differences between Chinese and conventional medicine diagnostic techniques.
Underlying Philosophies of the Human Body
Conventional medicine adopts a reductionist approach to health, which sees the body as made of many smaller units that make a whole. This approach allows medical professionals to hone in on a particular component of the body and treat it accordingly, such as the lungs, the heart or the brain. Comparatively, Chinese medicine adopts a holistic approach, believing that each part of the body is interdependent with other parts. Thus, the only way to study a human body is to observe the system as a whole. It is this understanding of health and the human body as an interrelated system that underlies the unique diagnostic techniques utilized in Chinese medicine practice.
Differences in the Diagnostic Process
As well as their differing understandings of the human body, conventional and Chinese medicines adopt unique processes to diagnosing illness. Conventional medicine is steeped heavily in scientific processes, based on medical history, physical examination and laboratory investigations. Chinese medicine also makes use of medical history and the physical examination, but the diagnostic process diverges steeply from Western medicine’s approach.
Because Chinese medicine views the body as a unified system connected by channels which run through key organs and other locations on the physical body, the diagnostic approach always begins with an examination of the body as a whole, no matter where the specific complaint is centered or what the symptoms are. Chinese medicine doctors will analyze many elements of their physique, including body shape, hair, face shape, facial features and skin color. This reflects the holistic philosophy of Chinese methods, which sees all parts of the body as interrelated, including physical appearance.
Because Traditional Chinese medicine views the body as a whole, similar symptoms can be diagnosed as resulting from different maladies and thus two patients displaying the same symptoms can be treated in vastly different ways. Chinese medicine’s approach can be simplified to three basic diagnostic approaches – external stimulation, internal treatment, and resetting of spiritual or informational flow between the different systems of the body.
External stimulation typically involves techniques like acupuncture, which is applied in the belief that the interconnectedness of the body means that stimulation in one area produces predictable effects on another. Internal treatment typically involves the administration of natural and herbal remedies that are formulated for specific key organs, again to affect one part of the body in order to produce an effect elsewhere. Finally, exercises are prescribed to redirect the energy within the body that has come out of sync.
As compare to Western medicine, Chinese medicine can seem very subjective. Experienced practitioners can achieve consistent results by drawing on the millennia of collective experience that makes up Chinese medicine’s diagnostic approach, an approach that is not completely dissimilar to the experience Western doctors apply to every patient they see as well, drawing on their own experiences as well as documented cases they have studied to arrive at diagnoses without or in some cases in spite of modern medical equipment and technology.