After a couple of sessions in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) learning about the theories governing this branch of medicine, we finally began the really interesting stuff–actually using TCM techniques to address problems.
Before delving further into what we actually did, I think perhaps it’s necessary to make a note on what TCM is. As opposed to Western medicine, which focuses primarily on symptomatic healing, TCM is more focused on healing the body to heal itself. A TCM doctor looks at all the symptoms of a patient as connected and addresses these symptoms as results of imbalances within the body. Restoring the body balance back to a balanced state, therefore, should alleviate the body of all symptoms. The techniques for doing so involve herbal remedies, acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, and blood letting, among other things.
Acupuncture statue at the TCM museum used previously in imperial exams testing future TCM doctors. This hollow statue with holes for the acu-points would be covered with wax and filled with water. Students must accurately poke the acu-points to release the water in order to pass the exam.
Going into the first day of our practical, I was completely expecting the doctor to demonstrate some of these techniques while explaining the function of each therapy. What completely escaped me, was the fact that after he demonstrated the first time, he handed each of us a needle and said, “Now you try.” No one in the class had previous experience playing with sharp needles, and now we were going to poke each other? What seemed crazy at first, actually turned out to be quite fun. The needles were all very thin and was barely perceptible when they were used. In addition, the doctor was quite specific about the point he wanted us to poke.
Through this experience, I learned two important things: (1) acupuncture is quite effective for curing my neck pain and (2) human skin is really quite tough.