PARKS THERAPY CENTRE

St. NEOTS, CAMBRIDGESHIRE - 01480 394715

Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine is known as TCM. TCM practice includes theories, diagnosis and treatments such as herbal medicine, Acupuncture and Chinese massage, together with other traditional East Asian Medical Systems including Japanese and Korean Medicine.

TCM theory asserts that all processes of the human body are interrelated and in constant interaction with the environment. Signs of disharmony help the TCM practitioner to understand, treat and prevent illness and disease. TCM theory is based on a number of philosophical frameworks including the theory of;

Yin and Yang
Five Elements
Meridian System
Zang Fu organ theory

Diagnosis and treatment are conducted with reference to these concepts. TCM does not operate within a Western scientific paradigm, but some practitioners make efforts to bring practices into a biomedical and evidence based medical framework. The practitioners at Parks using TCM theory always attempt to interrelate the TCM and Western theory within a clinical reasoning, evidence based framework.

Many people have strange notions of TCM, seeing it as hocus-pocus the product of primitive thinking, placebo, luck or even blind faith. On the contrary, TCM is a coherent and independent system of thought and practice that has developed over two millennia. It is based upon processes of:

Continual critical thinking
Extensive clinical observation
Continued testing

It is rooted in philosophy, logic, sensibility and habits of civilizations entirely foreign to our own. Kaptchuk (2000)

TCM refers to certain diseases in terms of:

Dampness
Cold
Heat
Wind

In Western medical terminology these concepts may be given other names:

Swelling
Stiffness
Infection
Pain

The two different logical structures have resulted in two different medical disciplines moving in different directions.

Western Medicine is primarily concerned with isolable disease categories or agents of disease that it tries to identify, change, destroy and control. The Western physician will listen to your symptoms, search for a cause for the disease and attempt to identify the cure either through medicine, surgery or other physical agents.

The TCM physician directs attention to complete body physiology and psychology together until a pattern of disharmony has been identified. This will indicate an imbalance in the persons body. The question, cause and effect are secondary to the pattern of dysfunction in the body, which will guide the physicians treatment in order to restore harmony, balance and homeostasis in the body and thus allow the body to fight its own disease process. No single part can be understood except in relation to the whole. A symptom therefore, is not traced back to a cause, but looked at as part of the imbalance.

TCM is grounded in observation, logical thought allowing practitioners to diagnose and treat. Many practitioners at Parks Therapy Centre have undergone formal medical training coupled with training in TCM philosophy. The result is that two people may never be treated in the same way, despite their complaint being identical; the methodology of treatment will be decided upon once the practitioner has:

An understanding of the symptoms associated with the complaint
An understanding of the personality and behaviour of the person presenting
A understanding of the influencing factors such as stress, nutrition and personal relationships
An understanding of:

Energy levels
Sleep patterns
Eating habits
Mood swings
Emotional factors
Work demands
Sexual history
Fertility
Pulse quality
Tongue appearance

The list will depend entirely on the condition presenting, the nature of the imbalance and the time of the disease process. Only when the practitioner is fully acquainted with the underlying imbalance will treatment plan be decided upon.

Herbal medicine may be prescribed and used alongside or instead of Acupuncture to regulate and harmonise imbalances.

TCM is used for many imbalances and at Parks Therapy Centre there is a particular emphasis on:

Stress and anxiety reduction
Women's Health problems
Fertility and Infertility for both male and female dysfunction
Systemic diseases such as:

Skin problems such as psoriasis, eczema and acne
Digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohns disease and peptic ulcers
Circulatory/heart problems such as angina, high blood pressure, and varicose veins
Blood and auto-immune disorders
Gynaecological problems such as pre-menstrual syndrome, menstrual irregularities, irritable bladder, cystitis, menopausal problems
Pregnancy and childbirth
Musculo-skeletal conditions such as arthritis, gout, frozen shoulder and polymyalgia rheumatica

Other conditions treated include insomnia, migraines and headaches, depression, tonsillitis, influenza, allergic conditions such as hay-fever and asthma, bronchitis and catarrh.