How do Western Medicine and TCM differ?
Because Chinese medicine views the mind and body as ecosystems in miniature, it seeks to improve our capacity to balance and renew our intrinsic resources. Chinese medicine can minimize the erosion of our “soil” by enriching it, maximize the flow of nutrients by increasing circulation, and help prevent bottlenecks that obstruct vital movement. Often Western medicine intervenes only after crises arise, whereas Chinese medicine anticipates problems by sustaining our interior harmony. By correcting depletion and stagnation at earlier stages, greater problems are avoided in the future. Sometimes Western medicine has little to offer for nagging chronic conditions that Chinese medicine can help. One is not a substitute for the other. They are often complementary. Whereas Western medicine may heroically rescue us from acute life threatening illness, Chinese medicine can protect and preserve our health day to day. In modern China, TCM is both taught as well as practiced alongside Western medic
