Best Assessment Health Profile Form for new TCM Practioners

Excerpts from ChineseMedicineWorks.com (great site for specialized formulations)

Chinese models of the body mimic kingdoms in ancient society

In China, chaos reigned during the Warring States Period, when approximately 1,500 small kingdoms remained in constant combat for generations. This situation shifted during the third century BCE when smaller states were consolidated and unified as the Chinese Empire. Lo and behold, the image of the body was similarly consolidated and integrated. Only after the birth of the Empire did the idea of the human body as a coherent organism emerge. The visceral organs were assigned roles that corresponded to the political structure of the state: the Heart was the Emperor, the Spleen the Minister of Agriculture, the Stomach the Granary, the Liver the General, the Gall Bladder the Judge. The body became a mutually interacting set of organized bureaucracies. Just as canals, rivers, and irrigation agriculture enabled the production and transport of goods and resources throughout the Empire, a matrix of channels were presumed to transport Qi and Blood throughout the body.

Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine

Contextual and functional vs. reductive and structural

While the Greeks saw individuals, the Chinese saw interdependent networks. While Western science demands analysis of the composition of structures (organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, subatomic particles), the Eastern tradition sees dynamic functional processes interacting within a complex whole. Western logic is reductive and quantitative, Eastern logic is contextual and qualitative. While authority in the West is derived from the latest research, in China it is derived from classical texts. In Chinese medicine it is often necessary to clothe a new idea in the language of ancient authors to gain acceptance. History matters.

Current Utilization

Safety, effectiveness, and low cost appear to drive the utilization of Chinese medicine in the West. It is one of the fastest growing forms of health care in the United States. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Consensus Conference in 1997 stated, “The data in support of acupuncture are as strong as those for many accepted Western medical therapies. One of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs and other accepted medical procedures used for the same conditions.”

As of the year 2000, there are more than one million Chinese medicine practitioners world-wide, and more than 11,000 state-licensed or national, board-certified acupuncturists practicing in the United States, of whom approximately one quarter are medical doctors. Estimates project that there will be 40,000 acupuncture practitioners by the year 2015. Fifty states have recognized the practice of acupuncture, many issuing state licenses. There are more than 56 schools of acupuncture that are either accredited or in candidacy status. Altogether these schools graduate hundreds of students from 3 and 4-year programs. In 1993 the Food and Drug Administration estimated that Americans logged between 9 and 12 million yearly acupuncture visits. By 2002, it was estimated that 20 million Americans, or one in ten, had experienced an acupuncture treatment. It is estimated that $1 billion is spent annually by Americans on Chinese medicine.

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