TCMA has developed this resource to help answer the questions and queries that are raised about Traditional Chinese Medicine.

In this section we provide definitions, descriptions and details about all the health giving treatments of traditional Chinese medicine.

Use this section as your personal resource to obtain background information and understanding of the following topics:

• Chinese  Medical Acupuncture
• Chinese Herbal Medicine
• Chinese Tongue Diagnosis
• Chinese Massage
• Chinese Moxibustion
• Chinese Zang-Fu Organ Cystem
• Chinese Ch’i / Chi / Qi / Ki

Medical acupuncture is one of the most powerful and effective healing treatments on earth because it acts directly on the causes of illness and pain.

Is acupuncture safe?

As with any medical procedure, which involves piercing the skin, there is a risk of infection associated with acupuncture. However the risk is negligible if your practitioner follows a couple of simple guidelines:

1. Use sterile equipment. At Traditional Chinese Medicine Australia we use acupuncture needles made of medical grade stainless steel. Needles are stored in sterile packaging until moments before we use them.
2. Disinfect that area to be treated. Before we insert an acupuncture needle we always disinfect that skin with an alcohol swab.

Does acupuncture hurt?

The short answer to this question is generally ‘no’… but now and then you may feel a slight pin-prick as we insert the needle.

Before I go further into answering this important question I want to explain an important distinction between our methods at Traditional Chinese Medicine Australia and many other local acupuncturists:

You see, there is more than one way to insert an acupuncture needle. Many acupuncturists in Australia use plastic applicator tubes to help them insert their needles.

On the bright side, using these applicator tubes does allow for a slightly faster insertion, which means there is less chance you will feel the pin-prick I mentioned before.

However on the negative side, using applicator tubes takes away from your doctors ability to get medical feedback about what’s happening in your body.

You see, there are a number of things your doctor should be feeling for when he or she inserts a needle: things like chi flow and the extent of any blockage at that point.

Because we use the traditional – hands on – method of needle insertion at Traditional Chinese Medicine Australia, we can guarantee you the best treatment that Chinese medical theory has to offer.
The same cant necessarily be said about all acupuncturists in Australia.

Has Acupuncture been proven scientifically to work?

Western medical science has never been sure how to approach acupuncture. This seems to be because the foundations of acupuncture – chi, meridians, and sang fu organ theory – are not observable, the same way arteries and blood are, for example.

However there is increasingly strong support from the mainstream western medical establishment that acupuncture is an effective treatment for certain conditions. In fact the World Health Organisation has identified over 40 such conditions, including: acute and chronic pain, anxiety, back and sine problems, constipation and diarrhea, headache, tinnitus and urinary incontinence, to name a few.

The list grow over the coming years as the results of scientific studies now underway are published.

Chi is the Key!

Medical acupuncture restores the proper flow of life-giving energy, called chi (also spelt ch’I, qi or ki) in your body. When chi flows uninterrupted you experience good health. Your organs function the way they should, your nerves and tissues get the nutrients they need and your system processes and gets rid of toxins faster than they can accumulate.

On the other hand, when chi does not flow smoothly you start to experience the symptoms of poor health. (Please bear in mind that from a traditional Chinese Medicine point of view poor health can mean anything from simple tiredness, a headache, feeling unmotivated ect. right through to life threatening illnesses.)

Chi, Meridians & Organs

Chi flows through your body along channels or meridians. Therefore if your chi is not flowing properly, your acupuncturist will simulate one or more of your meridians.

The most common stimulation technique involves the insertion of ultra-fine needles, 1-2 ½ millimetres into your skin. However, depending on your condition your acupuncturist may decide to give you moxibustion instead, which involves warming your chi with burning cones or sticks of a delicious-smelling moxa wool.

Each of your meridians is associated with an organ. So for instance your heart meridian transports chi to and from your heart, your liver meridian transports chi to and from your liver ect.

When a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner examines you, his or her diagnosis will include an examination of your how your organs are functioning. If a particular organ isn’t functioning properly, then that organ’s meridian will be blocked in some way.

That’s how your doctor knows which meridian to stimulate. Stimulating – or unblocking – a meridian gets the chi flowing freely and as a result, the organ which had a problem starts to function properly again. And you’re on the road to good health again!

They carry the pathogens that can make you ill, as well as the anti-pathogens that heal you.

They’re responsible for regulating yin and yang in your body and therefore your entire wellbeing.

The meridians system lies at the heart of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Understanding the meridian system is as important to a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine as understanding anatomy to a western doctor.

Origins of Meridian Theory

There are two main schools of thought as to how knowledge of the meridian system developed.

The clinical trial and error theory

According to the first school, knowledge of meridians evolved as a result of clinical practice. In other words, doctors and healers in China noticed that applying needles to certain points, and certain sets of points, produced predictable health-giving effects.

Over time the combined knowledge of these practitioners – who were always careful to record the results of their treatments – formed into a coherent theory…which we know today as meridian theory.

The ‘seeking the qi’ theory

The second school of thought suggests that many thousands of years ago, qigong masters, who were skilled in the arts of meditation and advanced breathing techniques felt and saw the paths that chi followed as it flowed through their bodies, and the bodies of others.

Their special skills allowed them to ‘see’ and compare how the body’s energy behaved during illnesses. Over many years, clinical experience confirmed their knowledge  into the meridian theory we know today.

How Our Knowledge of Meridians Can Keep You Healthy

To understand how we use the meridians to treat illnesses, you need to know a little about their functions. However rather than trying to explain every function of the meridians in Chinese medicine here, I’ll focus on the functions which make medical acupuncture and related treatments effective.

As you may well know by, each of your regular meridians corresponds to a major organ in your body. Stimulating an acupuncture point on a particular meridian – by needle, moxibustion or any other means – works to regulate the chi flow to the associated organ.

This is one of the most important clinical effects of acupuncture. However…

Your Meridians Do More Than Supply Chi to Your Organs

Many acupuncture points have links – via the complex meridian network – to organs other than the organ they’re named after, as well as different parts of the body.

For example, there is a point on your lower leg, about ten centimetres below your knee and just to the outside of your the tibia bone, called Zusanli. This point lies on your stomach meridian, so it goes without saying that stimulating it with acupuncture improves your stomach function. However Zusanli is also one of the most important points for improving spleen function.

What’s more, stimulating Zusanli is useful for nausea, poor appetite, depression, chills and fever and knee pain, to name a few of its aplications. All these effects are possible thanks to your intricate network of acupuncture meridians.

What It Means for You

Let’s face it, unless you’re studying the subject, you’re probably not going to loose much sleep over how the meridians were discovered!

But what does matter to you is the  fact that meridian theory gives us the ability to treat all sorts of illnesses with acupuncture, massage and other techniques.

Even western medicine – which is notoriously resistant to ‘alternative’ ideas – accepts acupuncture as a clinically effective way of treating all sorts of conditions.

To help you understand why traditional chinese herbal medicine is so effective, I’d like you to imagine the following situation…

You feel so unwell. So you go to your GP like you normally do, hoping to get a prescription for some drugs to make you feel better. But something funny happens during your consultation. Instead of spending 7 minutes with you and scribbling out a prescription, your doctor picks up the phone.

She calls the local pharmaceuticals company, and tells them that she has a patients who needs some custom made medicine. She outlines your age, general state of health, where you live and what you do for work plus the nature and severity of your current condition. You even overhear a discussion about the weather!

If this isn’t strange enough, when she puts down the phone your GP puts down the phone and tells you that the drug company is going to prepare your personal medicine and it will be ready to pick up tomorrow!
Now this scenario sounds pretty far-fetched I know. And unless you’re Bill Gates and you can buy the drug company, that’s probably not going to happen. On the other hand, when it comes to traditional chinese herbal medicine, this is precisely the sort of personal care and attention you get.

You see, when a doctor of Traditional Chinese medicine treats you with herbal therapy you are getting…

Chinese Medicine is Designed Just for you!

What’s more, your unique medicine is going to do more than just temporarily remove your symptoms. Its going to rebalance your body, so the cause of the symptoms goes away too!
As I write this there are over 400 chinese herbs stored at each of my clinics. When we prescribe herbal medicine for you, that medicine can contain anywhere from one to twenty different herbs (the average is six to twelve herbs per formula).

We even vary the quantities and ratios of the herbs that go into your medicine, depending on the sorts of factors I have mentioned before – like your age, state of health, lifestyle and a host of other environmental considerations.

That means that the medicine you take is tailor-made for you, right down to the minutest detail.

• Balance yin and yang
• Fight infection
• Raise chi levels
• Nourish the blood and promote good circulation
• Increase or decrease dryness, heat, wind, dampness, cold and fire in the body
• Remove toxins from your system
• Improve digestions and absorption of nutrients
• Replenish sexual energy
• Elevate organ function (for example, a health liver will help maintain good emotional health)

Certain herbs (or combinations of herbs) act rapidly, while others are designed to gradually fortify your body over time.

“Why don’t we always use rapid acting herbs?” you might ask. Well if your system is very weak (for instance, if you’ve just had complicated surgery or chemotherapy), we need to gently build up your chi over time, because your system simply can only handle so much.

Depending on your illness, we may prescribe Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture (along with massage and/or reflexology, if necessary), because these treatments work perfectly side by side. For example, we might give you herbs to raise your chi levels and acupuncture to unblock your meridians and make sure the chi flows smoothly to your internal organs.

And if you really want to experience “total” health, don’t wait until you’re sick to take Chinese herbs. Rather use herbs regularly throughout the year to prevent illness. (More information about using Chinese herbs to prevent illness here)

Preparing your Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine

When I started practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine in Australia I noticed many patients did not take the herbs the way they should. I quickly discovered that people who weren’t used to cooking and preparing chinese herbs often didn’t bother! So these days we do all the hard work for you…

There are a number of key differences between chinese massage (sometimes called oriental massage) and other massages.
Of course the best way to really understand the differences is to experience them for yourself.

• Superior results with Chinese massage
• Who should have a Chinese massage massage?
• Chinese massage for physical injuries
• Chinese massage for illness

Superior Results

When you have a Chinese massage at Traditional Chinese medicine Australia Clinic, your doctor will:

• Transfer chi from his or her body to yours to increase your energy levels (you will experiences a deep, penetrating feeling).
• Simulate your acupuncture meridians to regulate chi flow, boost organ function and balance yin and yang.
• Significantly raise the temperature of treated areas to increase rate of healing.

Who should have a massage?

Generally speaking, there are two situations where we will prescribe traditional chinese massage:

1. When you have a physical injury
2. When you have an illness

Chinese Massage for Physical Injuries

(According to traditional chinese medicine, when your nerves are ‘hungry’ you feel physical pain. Your nerves become hungry when the surrounding tissues don’t provide them with the nutrition they need – that is, when blockages stop nutrients gerting through. So to relieve your painand repair your injury, we must remove the blockages.

A refreshing approach

Now, if you’re used to having physical injuries treated by physiotherapists and the like, you may be surprised at the approach we take.
First of all we, we don’t twist, pull or stretch you to work out what’s wrong. We simply apply gentle pressure to the problem area, and quickly determine where your pain points are. You’ll know when we find them I promise!
Once we’ve confirmed your pain point we can start your massage. And from the first minute of your massage you’ll notice that what we’re doing is…

More than just rubbing your muscles!

You’ll notice how deep the massage penetrates. You’ll notice the temperature of the injured area increase (by 2-3 degrees infact). And you’ll also notice how your doctor works both directly on your injury and on areas around it (this is the meridian work I mentioned before).

In terms of treating your injury, here are some of the important effects of chinese massage:

• Removal of scar tissue
• Disperal of toxins
• Tissue regeneration (because the nutrients are flowing again)
• Pain reduction and increased mobility

If you’re anything like most of our patients, you’ll never settle for an ordinary remedial massage or sports massage.

Chinese Massage for Illness

Chinese massage, like acupuncture, is a wonderful way to remove blockages in your meridians, and therefore improve the way your organs function. In fact if you are sick, your doctor will often prescribe both massage and acupuncture because they compliment each other so well.

If youre new to Traditional Chinese Medicine and you haven’t read my page on acupuncture yet, I recommend you do so now, because it contains important information on chi, meridians and organs… information which will help you better understand what im about to say.

If your doctor is giving you a massage to treat an illness , he or she will focus on your acupuncture points . Did you know that there are over 100 acupuncture points on your back, neck and shoulders? And that these points are windows to ever major organ in your body?

So for instance just inside your shoulder blade on your shoulder blade meridian (which runs parallel to your spine), theres a point called Feishu (which simply means lung point). By applying pressure here your doctor can determine whether there is a blockage associated with your lungs.

Where a blockage occurs your doctor will work on the blocked point to get chi flowing smoothly again. And if you’ve read my acupuncture page you know that this means good health.

As well as over the more than 100 acupuncture pointes on your back there are 34 extraordinary points just next to your spine (17 on each side).

By working on these extraordinary points your doctor is delivering a boost to your whole immune system.

Gives a whole new meaning to the term back rub, doesn’t it!

You’d be amazed at what a simple tongue diagnosis can tell a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine about your health. But checking your tongue is one of several non-invasive techniques we use to make a diagnosis.
Here’s an outline of the methods we use to diagnose health problems.

• Diagnosis by observation
• Diagnosis by smell and hearing
• Pulse Diagnosis
• Diagnosis by inquiring

Diagnosis by Observation

A tongue diagnosis is part of a larger category if diagnostic techniques known as observation. Observation, as the name suggests, involves your doctor making a visual assessment of your wellbeing.
Of particular interest are your:

• Expression of spirit
• Complexion or colour
• General appearance
• Outlets: including the tongue, but also your eyes, nose, lips and ears

Diagnosis by Smell & Hearing

“You want to smell me?” I can almost hear you cry. The good news is that we’re not going to get up close and sniff you! But certain conditions do give rise to particular smells.

For instance bed breath often indicates excess heat in the stomach. If other diagnostics methods confirm this, then we mat prescribe traditional Chinese herbal therapy to balance the yin and yang in your stomach.

We’re also very interesting in the sound of your voice and the way you’re breathing. If you have a cold for instance, your doctor can tell wether you have a dry cold or a wet cold by the way you breathe and cough.

Pulse Diagnosis

Feeling the pulse is one of a series of diagnostic techniques known as palpation. Don’t be scared of the technical word though – palpation just means examining by touch.
Taking your pulse in Traditional Chinese Medicine is a bit different than in western medicine. For starters we take your pulse on both wrists using three fingers at a time. And if you pay close attention, you’ll notice the subtle changes in pressure being applied.

Why take your pulse this way?

Each of the six areas on your wrist that we palpate correspond to a major organ in your body: heart, liver and left kidney on the left wrist; lung spleen and right kidney on the right wrist. Feeling your pulse at each of these points helps us understand how the corresponding organs are functioning.

Also according to traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis theory, your pulse has certain defining properties. These are:

1. Speed
2. Depth
3. Strength
4. Shape
5. Rhythm

Your pulse can be normal or abnormal in relation to each of these properties. So for instance, the speed of your pulse could be normal or abnormal. If it’s abnormal it could be slow or rapid.
It’s the nature of these abnormalities that gives us an insight into the state of your health.

I won’t try to explain all the possible abnormalities and what they indicate, because you’d be reading for the next three if I did. But just to give you a couple of examples:

• If the depth of your pulse is ‘superficial’, this often indicates the beginning of what we call an exterior disease, such as cold or flu.
• If the shape of your pulse is ‘thready’, then this indicates stress, accompanied by a chi deficiency.

If you’re sick, your pulse will more often than not exhibit a combination of abnormalities. And that’s where the clinical experience of your doctor becomes important… because the more pulses your doctor has taken, the more he or she can apply the subtle art of pulse diagnosis to your individual circumstances.

Diagnosis by Inquiring

Not surprisingly, your doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine wants to know what’s wrong with you, in your words. Some of the most important information relates to…

• Pain: Wether you have any and its nature
• Your appetite and thirst
• Fever and chills: do you feel hot, cold, or do you switch between the two?
• Defecation and urination: not so pleasant to talk about, but information you provide can give us more useful clues about what’s going on.

So while the tongue diagnosis is perhaps the best known of all the diagnoses in Traditional Chinese Medicine, you can see that its just one of many techniques we use to assess your state of health.

One of the great things about the processes I’ve outlined here is the fact that it can take a well-trained doctor a matter of minutes to diagnose your condition and suggest a treatment plan. So you can be on your way to renewed health before you know it.

First of all don’t be put off by the term zang-fu organ. It’s simply an expression to describe the 12 major internal organs of the human body, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory.
Six of these Organs we call the zang organs, and the other six we call – you guessed it- the fu organs.

Your Zang Organs

The zang organs include the:

• Heart
• Lung
• Liver
• Kidney
• Spleen
• Pericardium

Your Fu Organs

The Fu organs comprise:

• Stomach
• Gallbladder
• Small Intestine
• Large Intestine
• Bladder
• Sanjiao, also known as the triple burner or triple warmer

The Differences & Relationships Between Organs

You can think of the zang organs as your body’s production department, and the fu organs as the processing department. Or you might like to picture your zang organs as factories full of machinery, whereas your fu organs are warehouses – waiting to be filled!

I mentioned before that there are intricate relationships among your organs. In fact, each zang (yin) organ has a fu (yang) pair. Each pair of organs performs an important physiological function.

For example, your stomach rots and ripens food while your spleen transforms and transports the end products of he digestive process (If you’ve read the page about chi you’ll know that your stomach and spleen create much of your acquired chi.)

Here’s a table, which shows each pair of zang-fu organs.

More Fu Organs

You’re probably aware that your body has more the 12 zang-fu organs we have talked about so far, like your brain and for women your uterus.
These along with your marrow are known as the extraordinary fu organs.

Chi (pronounced like the ‘chee’ in ‘cheek’) is like air: you can’t see it but you sure can feel its effects. And you know pretty quickly when you haven’t got enough of it.According to ancient Chinese philosophy qi is the fundamental energy of nature and the universe. Every movement or change in the physical world is cause by movement and changes of qi. Similarly, everything you do, and everything that happens in your body, is driven by qi.

To maintain good health you must have plenty of qi, and it must flow throughout your body smoothly. This ensures that all your organs and tissues get the energy they need, when they need it.

Of your qi levels drop, or the flow of qi becomes blocked in your body, you will start to experience poor health. While we often us the term qi to refer to all the qi that resides and flows through your body, you in fact have several different types of qi working to keep you healthy. Here are some of the main categories…

Different Types of Qi

• Source or Primary qi
• Pectoral or Essential qi
• Defensive qi
• Nutrient qi
• Functional qi

Source or Primary qi

This is the qi you inherit from your parents. Source qi is based in the kidney and from there flows throughout your body via your meridians. Source qi’s most important role is to provide your organs with the energy to function properly.

People born with too little source qi are prone to illness. However people born with plenty of source qi aren’t necessarily off the hook, because source qi needs nourishment. This nourishment comes from food and air (see pectoral qi below).

If you’re worried that you don’t have enough source qi, and that you’re going to be unhealthy all your life, help is at hand. Traditional Chinese medicine – herbal therapy and medical acupuncture – are the booster shots you need to maintain a healthy body.

Pectoral or Essential qi

The qi forms when clean qi from the lungs and qi of food essence from the stomach and spleen combine. As the name suggests, your pectoral qi is stored in your chest.

Pectoral qi has two main purposes:

1. To support the heart. According to traditional Chinese medicine your heart is your most important organ. Not only does it control your circulation, but it’s also responsible for regulating body temperature, among other things.
2. To support the lungs, which control respiration.

Defensive qi

Formed from the qi of food essence, defensive qi is your 24-hour a day bodyguard. It dwells in your muscles, skin and hair, and defends your body against attack from external pathogens that can make you sick.
Defensive qi has the ability to open and close the pores of your skin, among other things, to regulate the moisture and temperature of body tissue.

Nutrient qi

This type of qi once again originates with the qi of food essence. Nutrient qi circulates in the blood vessels, and both generates new blood and nourishes existing blood as it circulates.

Functional qi

We use the term functional qi in relation to the function of a particular organ. So for instance, if you’re diagnosed with a liver condition we’ll say your liver is qi deficient; or your liver qi is stagnant ect. – depending on the exact nature of your condition.

Moxibustion is similar to medical acupuncture… except that instead of needles, we use burning moxa wool to treat or prevent diseases. Like acupuncture needles, moxa is often applied on the meridians and their acupuncture points; and like acupuncture its wonderful for simulating your chi and blood, which in turn ensures that your organs function well.While we can use acupuncture to treat most illnesses, moxibustion is a useful type of treatment for certain types of conditions only (see below)

What is Moxa?

Moxa wool is the fibre from the leaves of the Artemisia Vulgaris Moxa plant. The wool is rolled into cones or sticks for medical use. A moxa cone can be anywhere from a couple of millimetres to one centimetre tall. A moxa stick can be as long as 20 centimetres long and up to 1.5 centimetres wide.

Properties and Use of Moxa

Moxa is yang, which corresponds to heat. Therefore we use moxibustion to treat illnesses where there is a yang deficiency, or excess yin, such as certain types of cold or flu, or joint pain brought on by cold weather.
Because it is yang, moxa must never be used to treat illnesses where there is excess heat, such as hot fevers.
But moxa’s yang nature isn’t its only clinical property. Breathing in moxa’s distinctive smell – which most people find delicious – has the effect of regulating your chi and blood, plus warming and removing damp from your meridians.

Different Types of Moxibustion Treatment

Treatment with Moxa Cones

Burning Moxa cones has historically been the most common way to apply moxa. There are two methods of moxa cone application: direct or indirect. In direct application, we place the cone directly on the skin at the appropriate place (usually an acupuncture point , but possibly also over an area of chronic pain). We then ignite the moxa and let it burn.
If we leave the cone to burn out, the procedure is known as ‘scarring moxibustion’, because the treatment may leave a small scar or blister (don’t worry you’ll never br forced to have the treatment if you don’t want it. These days its mostly patients who grew up in china who request it). Far more often however, we’ll remove the cone just before you start to feel discomfort – so you get all the good without the bad!

With indirect application, instead of placing the cone directly on your skin, we’kll put a substance – such as garlic, ginger, salt or monkshood cake – between the cone and your skin.
The substance we use depends on your illness. For example, garlic is effective for healing skin ulcers and insect bites; ginger treats abdominal pain and diarrhoea; monkshod cake is used to remedy impotence; while filling your belly button with salt and burning a moxa cone on top is wonderful for cold limbs, vomiting and hernia pain, among other things!

Treatment with Moxa Sticks

Moxa sticks are popular with patients, because they take away the ‘pain factor’ (having said that, I should point out that even direct moxa cone treatment is only a tiny bit painful).When you receive moxa stick therapy, your doctor will simply hold a stick of burning moxa just above your skin for a few minutes usually until the skin starts to show signs of redness.

Best of Both Worlds

Another treatment technique is a combination of traditional acupuncture and moxibustion. The warming needle technique involves first inserting a needle into an acupuncture point or place of pain, the wrapping the handle of the needle in moxa wool, then igniting it.

The needle transfers the mild heat from the burning moxa to your body. This treatment is particularly effective for cold weather conditions such as painful joints and numbness.