Mission Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture is the main part of another form of medicine called Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM looks at multiple symptoms and their pattern of illness specific to the individual and delineates their cause from a combination of negative imbalances within the lifestyle, psyche, and effects of environmental stress, trauma or invasion by external pathogens. TCM utilizes a holistic approach to medicine and does not try to find one exact reason for illness; rather, it acknowledges that there are several factors that contribute to problems arising in the physical body. There are three main components of treatment available within TCM: acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and nutrition.

Traditional Chinese medicine evolved in China and relies on human trials that have taken place over thousands of years to validate effectiveness. Because results were based on human experience and not laboratory data, a different vocabulary developed to explain how energy (qi) and blood travel through the body in certain pathways (meridians) and can get obstructed by trauma, emotions, environmental factors and lifestyle choices.

History of Chinese Medicine

Acupuncture has a clearly recorded history of about 2,000 years, but some authorities claim that it has been practiced in China for some 4,000 years. Over time as different dynasties ruled China, the art and science of traditional Chinese medicine remained the principle form of medicine that was used to treat all disease, injury, and illness. In the nineteenth century, a war torn China was infiltrated with medical missionaries who brought the ideas of western medicine to the East. When the communist party took power in 1949, acupuncture gained new momentum. During the early 1950’s, the previously established Western hospitals and clinics in China began to study acupuncture and its clinical significance. They began teaching acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine and using it to provide treatments for patients. Over the years, thousands of case studies have been recorded for various disease conditions from these hospitals and clinics all over China. Acupuncture then became very popular in North America after President Nixon’s visit to renew relationships with the Chinese in 1970. During the trip, a member of his staff required an appendectomy which he received in a Chinese hospital using acupuncture as the only form of anesthesia. Soon after this impressive encounter, President Nixon helped to organize a cultural exchange of medical practitioners between the US and China.