The diagnostic system of the Five Elements in Bellingham Traditional Chinese medicine is used to determine diseases and recommends a combo of the various natural herbs for treatment. There is no doubt that it’s the most precious “medical” wisdom we possess in this Earth. Most medical physicians in the USA and the FDA of course will vehemently disagree!
This type of healthy healing rectifies and balances the flow of energy that’s derived from more than 8,000 natural herbs and plants and is the best way to heal whenever illness comes our way.
How then does the 5 Element Diagnostic System of TCM works?
In China, why is a traditional herbal physician paid a higher salary than a conventional doctor and what scientific basis does this system of diagnosis have in that country? In its end result and structure, this system is in reality extremely practical. This whole system will be simplified for the reader in this article.
To start, within our bodies and in the world, there are always contradictory forces in nature at play such as the elements of dark and bright, dry and wet, cold and hot, etc, which the Chinese refer to as Yin and Yang
Yin is cold and Yang is hot, yin is wet and yang is dry, yin is small and yang is big. By simply comparing energies, this law of opposites is easy to understand. Also, in Chinese philosophy, we have the five elements of metal, earth, fire, wood, and water. Like everything under the sun, each of these fundamental elements is subordinate to yin and yang (they can be wet or fry, cold or hot, etc.) In Traditional Chinese Medicine, each of these elements is embodied in the various organ systems of our bodies.
Metal: corresponds to the colon (large intestine) and the lungs.
Earth: corresponds to spleen and stomach and spleen (metabolism and digestion)
Fire: corresponds to the “triple burner”, blood, pericardium, and heart.
Wood: corresponds to the gall bladder and liver
Water: corresponds to the reproductive system, bladder, kidneys, and all fluids (except for blood) in the body
All herbs are subordinate to Yin and Yang as with everything in existence. They can have dry or wet, and cold or hot properties. A qualified herbal practitioner can determine and taste those energies with his tongue or sense a cold or hot energy within his body after consuming some of the plants. For over three millennia, this is how the organ systems that got affected by the plants were determined and also how over eight thousand plants were sorted into their classifications of yin and yang. (Unfortunately, some of the ancient herbal practitioners died from eating some of the toxic herbs.)
So the question that needs to be asked is, “should we discard all these pertinent information in exchange for our “scientifically verified” understanding of synthetic medications as treatments for our illnesses? The difference of just how diabolic our present medico-pharmaceutical system is becomes shocking.
Each plant and herb possesses moistening, heating, weakening, strengthening, drying, and cooling energetic qualities and each has certain organ systems that herbs and plants most affect. This effect similarly applies to the organs themselves. There needs to be a constant balance between yin and yang. An imbalance of one organ system can also impact various other organ systems.
But, as what usually happens, our body can sometimes go out of balance. One good example of this is a hot fever which signifies too much yang imbalance in the body. A yang deficiency disharmony would manifest as cold feet and hands due to weak circulation.
The primary organ systems can be subordinate to several symptomatic issues. Hence, by asking the patient a series of questions, the healer can start to identify a Yin or Yang imbalance in any of these systems. Practitioners of TCM follow a list of questions that can provide them with all the clues necessary for determining the correct diagnoses. That’s how simple it is.
Aside from questioning the patients about his symptomatic problems, the TCM practitioner will observe the appearance of the tongue (its moisture, texture, cracks, colors, etc) and will take time palpating the pulses on each wrist in nine different pressures and positions of the patient. Either this gives the practitioner proof of what has been collected from questioning or this gives him the reason to look deeper into the symptoms. Amazingly, the outcomes are always correct.
So, the TCM practitioner can map the yin or yang imbalances of the patient and can then use the herbs or plants with the corresponding opposing energy to restore balance to the body of the patient.
If, for instance, a person wakes up several times at night in order to urinate, shows little sex drive, and is frequently cold, (which is an indication of a deficiency of kidney yang) the TCM practitioner may prescribe to him an herbal tonic to tonify Kidney-Yang like Epimedium Sagittatum (Yin Yang Huo) in the event it may counteract this imbalance. However, this is one only herb and one element. The patient may be suffering from more than one imbalance involving several body elements. This may require three to four herbs to be used on each element. In certain instances, one herb like, for example, Dan Shen can treat various imbalances related to the heart. (Note: The herb, Dan Shen has been known to quickly treat several heart conditions such as angina and arrhythmias and save the lives of many people without the need for dangerous heart surgery or medications.)
All the organ systems of the body (five elements) influence each other by producing health and overcoming illness. (Earth overpowers Water as Water overpowers Fire but Fire creates Earth as Earth creates Metal etc.) After the practitioner gathers all the information he needs to bring about balance, it is then verified and re-verified then used on the final diagnoses and herbal remedy. It absolutely works without a doubt.
Remember, in the system of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the most powerful sources of energy are the medicinal plants of earth for the treatment of disease. Acupuncture is solely used as a means to help unblock the energy channels (meridians) that the herbs were working through. Somehow, a lot of acupuncturists have turned this mentality into “herbal therapy is sometimes just something to be integrated.” Unfortunately, this is a gross misconception. First and foremost, a TCM practitioner is an herbal therapist.
Of course, in and of itself, acupuncture sometimes benefits the body in various ways. But the truth is, when used correctly, the strongest sources of healing on earth are plants. This is because structurally, plants are “in harmony” with our molecules as both plants and people are living entities created from the same mother earth. The best tools to unblock the meridians are acupuncture needles which work quite well indeed.
It’s also important to note that there are more 8,000 medicinal plants in 16 distinct categories to help treat different types of disease. These include the astonishing assortment of herbs that’s classified as Tonic Herbs. They are not “medicinal” in the loose sense of the word. In fact they are herbs that almost anyone can use to attain optimum health.
The 5 Element Diagnostic System of TCM may have been over-simplified a bit in this article but it has hopefully provided you with a new awareness of how amazing the ancient but extremely accurate system really is. Over 1,500 years old, the 5 Element Diagnostic System of TCM is still much more preferred in China than the western system and it is still being practiced today. In China, this system is taken more seriously by both the TCM practitioner (who is usually paid more than a conventional medical physician) and the patient.
This healing system should be in every hospital in the US so that the patients can see for themselves how Big Pharma is not the real answer to health and well being and in fact, is a pox to our health and well being.