Chinese Medicine is Functional Medicine

Every so often a new buzzword comes into popularity in the medical community, with the latest being "functional medicine." Doctors can now receive special training in this and it is being touted as a new way to practice healthcare that can address the current alarming rise in chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. In functional medicine, the main idea is to determine how and why illness occurs, both addressing symptoms and restoring health with treatments that target the root cause of disease. It does this by taking into account each patient's unique genetics, lifestyle factors, and disease presentation to create individualized treatment plans.

Though functional medicine is a new approach in western medicine, it is in line with the way that Chinese medicine has always been practiced. Like genetics, we consider what we call your constitution, with the understanding that we are all born with different strengths and weaknesses that protect us from certain types of disease but predispose us to others. We also consider the way that lifestyle factors influence health, especially things like diet and exercise. In addition, we try to determine the root cause of the disease, seeking not only to relieve symptoms but to also correct the underlying imbalance that gave rise to them so they are less like to reoccur. By identifying what we call patterns, the individual's unique set of symptoms, we can determine their biggest common denominators and craft an individualized treatment plan. Like functional medicine, we also seek to restore health, especially when it comes to treating chronic disease. We do this primarily with tonics, a special category of acupuncture points and herbs that optimize health by replenishing depletions and strengthening and normalizing the functioning of the internal organs. In other words, Chinese medicine is functional medicine. When it comes to buzzwords, Chinese medicine is also considered to be complementary, alternative, holistic, mind-body, traditional, integrative, and preventive medicine.

Functional Medicine vs. Conventional Medicine

Chinese Medicine is Complementary Medicine

Complementary medicine is any medicine that is used alongside western medicine that enhances its effects. This includes Chinese medicine as well as other types of therapies like massage and chiropractic. In my experience, most therapies enhance the effects of each other and have different strengths that make them better for different types of conditions. For example, western medicine excels in the field of emergency medicine while Chinese medicine is better at treating chronic conditions.

Chinese Medicine is Alternative Medicine

Alternative medicine is any type of medicine that is used instead of western medicine. As with complementary medicine, this includes things like Chinese medicine, massage, and chiropractic. Some people choose alternative medicine because they respond better to it, no matter what they have going on. Others may choose it because it is a less invasive option or because experience has taught them that for certain things the alternative treatment gives them better results. For example, instead of surgery for lower back pain, someone might choose acupuncture and cupping instead.

Chinese Medicine is Holistic Medicine

Like all holistic modalities, Chinese medicine treats the physical body and the non-material thinking-feeling self as one intertwined whole. There is an understanding that physical conditions can cause emotional symptoms and vice-versa, that if we feel better physically we will feel better emotionally and vice-versa. It also looks less at isolated symptoms and more at the general health of the whole person, especially the interrelationship between all of their symptoms. In addition, it aims to heal the person as a whole, addressing outward symptoms while simultaneously correcting the deeper, underlying causes of disease so they are less likely to reoccur. Another central idea is to promote wellness, optimizing the general health of the individual overall to prevent illness.

Chinese Medicine is Mind-Body Medicine

Mind-body medicine is the field of medicine concerned with the ways that the mind and emotions influence the body and physical health. As stated above, Chinese medicine is holistic so it understands that the mind and body affect the health of each other in both negative and positive ways. Treating the mind and body as one intertwined whole is a foundational idea in Chinese medicine.

Chinese Medicine is Traditional Medicine

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as the “sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health, as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.” Though western medicine is often referred to as traditional medicine, the first medical school in the US didn't open until 1765 at the College of Philadelphia, and modern medicine as we know it didn't come into existence until the 19th century with the advent of advances like anesthesia and the germ theory of disease. Chinese medicine, on the other hand, encompasses everything in the WHO definition, including a written record that goes back thousands of years, making it one of the oldest and most time-tested medical traditions in the world.

Chinese Medicine is Energy Medicine

Energy medicine is a field of medicine based on the idea that there is a human energy field that interacts with other energy fields. This is the main principle behind the channel theory of acupuncture. The basic idea is that the same forces that act on and flow through the natural world act on and flow through us as well. The primary unifying force in the universe is chi, the lifeforce energy. In us, chi flows along regular pathways called channels or meridians, and it can be tapped at the acupuncture points. Chi is the energy that knits us together so that all of our systems can coordinate as a cohesive whole. It is also what connects us to everything and everyone around us, weaving us into the fabric of the universe at large.

Chinese Medicine is Integrative Medicine

Like complementary medicine, integrative medicine combines western medicine with other types of therapies. The main difference is that integrative medicine is done in a more intentional, coordinated way. For example, in China, it is common in hospitals for acupuncture and herbal medicine to be offered right alongside western medical treatments like pharmaceutical drugs and surgery. In the US this type of coordination is seen in hospitals in certain states, especially in California, and in the military, where the Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management and the Veterans Health Administration National Pain Management Program Office have trained over 2,800 medical providers in the use of “battlefield acupuncture” as an alternative to opiates in the treatment of acute pain on the frontlines.

Chinese Medicine is Preventive Medicine

In western medicine, the aim of preventive medicine is the absence of disease. This is achieved primarily in three ways. The first is by changing lifestyle factors, like quitting smoking to prevent lung cancer. The second is through treatments that directly prevent the occurrence of disease, like vaccinations. The third is screenings, like annual check-ups and colonoscopies, that can catch disease in its early stages, before outward symptoms manifest. In Chinese medicine, the aim of preventive medicine is to boost the individual's health so that they are more resilient to disease. This is also done by changing lifestyle factors, like diet, and screenings, like pulse and tongue diagnosis. Where Chinese medicine differs, however, is in its ability to address the individual's constitutional weaknesses with treatments like tonics, elevating their levels of health and wellness overall so that they are less likely to get sick.