TCM I Flashcards
How are natural terms used to describe human conditions in TCM?
People are often referred to as being or suffering from:
* Damp
* Wind
* Fire
What are TCM practitioners employed to do?
Keep people well, as well as treat disease.
What is the Legendary Period in TCM?
Pre-1000 BCE
Why is it difficult to date TCM?
It was principally an oral tradition
What are the key texts during the Legendary Period?
- I Ching (Book of Changes) : primary source of Yin/Yang theory 500 BCE
- Tao Te Jing (Classic of the Way and the Virtue), Lao Zi: primary Taoist text
*TCM has roots in Taoism (plus some Confucianism and Buddhism)
Who was the earliest physician known to use acupuncture?
Bian Que
the earliest physician known to use acupuncture and pulse diagnosis
Which text laid the conceptual framework for TCM?
The Huangdi Neijing
(Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic)
400 – 100 BCE
When was the first textbook of acupuncture written?
270 BCE
Hangfu Mi writes the Zhenjui Jiayijing
(The ABC compendium of acupuncture)
When was the Treatise on Cold Diseases published?
219CE
Zhang Zhongjing publishes the Shang Han Lun (Treatise on Cold Diseases)
When was Bencao Gangmu published?
1596CE
Li Shizhen publishes the influential diagnostic and herbal book Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica)
What did the Republic of China government policy do in the years 1911-1949?
Traditional medicine rejected with the intention of replacing it with Western medicine
How has the Communist Party handled TCM since 1949?
- Situation revaluated in order to consolidate and systematise the traditional practices
- Formal body of knowledge known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) emerges
How old is ‘official’ TCM ?
Only about 70 years old
This is the ‘formal’ body* of knowledge that the Communuist authorities allowed to be published and taught in univiersities
No spiritual dimension
*Considered standardised, mechanistic compared to the classic teachings
What are the differences in emphasis between Western medicine and TCM?
TCM:
Stimulating self-healing
Modern western medicine:
Medication and procedures
What are the differences in basis between Western medicine and TCM?
TCM:
Based on centuries of clinical observation
Modern western medicine:
Based on experimentation
What are the differences in aims between Western medicine and TCM?
TCM: maintain health
Western medicine: Manage disease .
What are the The Eight Principles?
The Eight Principles are the most common way of differentiating the patterns of pathology within the human body
How can using the The Eight Principles help?
The Eight Principles guide us towards identifying where an imbalance may be situated
What are the Four paired Characteristics?
- Yin - Yang
- Interior - Exterior
- Deficiency - Excess
- Cold - Heat
What does pairing Yin - Yang indicate in disease?
Overall quality of disease
What does the pair Interior - Exterior qualify?
Exterior conditions -> skin and muscles
Interior condition -> internal organs
*There is some ambiguity with these concepts -do not be rigid
How can deficienct conditions be qualified?
Deficient conditions arise from chronic weakness
What does the pair Cold - Heat refer to?
- The nature of disease
- Whether symptoms of cold or heat predominate
.
What is the concept represented by Yin and Yang?
The concept of dualism
Describes how opposite forces are related to one another and may give rise to each other
What are some (relative) Yin-associated words?
- Cold
- Wet
- Matter
- Contraction
- Descending
- Below
- Quiet
- Stasis
- Night-time
- Water
What are some (relative) Yang-associated words?
- Hot
- Dry
- Energy
- Expansion
- Rising
- Above
- Loud
- Movement
- Daytime
- Fire
What does the interplay of the Yin-Yang symbol represent?
- The curved line separating the two represents their interplay
- The small circles represent the presence of one in the other
- Nothing is purely Yin or purely Yang
Where does Defensive Qi (Wei Qi) circulate?
To the skin and muscles
What is the relationship of Yin and Yang in the human body?
Yang = activity / Yin = physical form
Activity is nourished by the physical form
Physical form is created and maintained by activity
Yang = activity / Yin = physical form
Why is good balance of Yin and Yang in the body necessary for health?
Good health is an expression of harmony between Yin and Yang
When out of balance, there is disease
What are the Yin and Yang physical relationships in human body?
What is the Taiji?
A representation of the Yin / Yang concept
Taiji -supreme ultimate
What do the Chinese characters for Yin and Yang describe?
Yin = shady part of the hill
Yang = sunny part of the hill
Give an example of the Yin-Yang relational concept?
Walking is Yang compared to sitting, but it is Yin compared to running
Yin and Yang transform into one another. Night follows day, spring follows winter, rest follows activity
What can be expressed if Yin does not cool and nourish the body ?
Yang may rise
Leading to heat signs such as
* headaches
* red-face
* nose bleeds
* irritability
What can be expressed if Yang does not warm and activate Yin?
There may be
* cold limbs
* chills
* tiredness
* lethargy
* poor blood circulation
* oedema
What are the physiological Yin/Yang relationships?
What are the four principal imbalances of Yin/Yang?
- Excess Yang
- Definition Yin
- Excess Yin
- Deficient Yang
What does excess Yang produce?
‘Full heat’
What does Deficient Yin lead to ?
‘Empty heat’
Yang is not anchored
What doe Excess Yin produce?
‘Full cold’
What does Deficient Yang lead to?
‘Empty cold’
Yang doesn’t warm and activate the body
What are the symptoms related to Excess Yang (Full heat)?
- Face: Whole face red
- Thirst: Desire to gulp cold water
- Taste: Bitter taste
- Feeling of heat: All day
- Mind: very restless and agitated
- Bowels: constipated, abdominal pain
- Bleeding: profuse
- Sleep: dream-disturbed, very restless
- Skin: red hot painful skin eruptions
- Pulse: full rapid overflowing
- Tongue: red with yellow coating
- Voice: loud
What is the treatment for Excess Yang (Full heat)?
Clear heat
What is the state of the Tongue in Excess Yang?
Red, possibly with the yellow coating
What is the state of the Pulse in Excess Yang?
Wiry and rapid
What are risks and causes of Excess Yang?
- Stress
- Diet
- Acute inflammation
What foods should be avoided in Excess Yang states?
Energetically hot foods and substances:
* Sugar, Alcohol
* Coffee, Black tea, Fizzy drinks
* Red meats
* Hot spices
* Fried or greasy food
* Onion, Garlic
* Processed foods
What should be encouraged in Excess Yang states?
Cooling foods: Bitter greens, Celery, Watery fruit, Melon