With the wealth of ideas about health and styles of Chinese medicine out there I think it is important to say a few words on my approach to the subject. Medicine always depends on its philosophical foundations since without any idea of what life is we cannot say how we intend to improve it.
My approach can be summarised as:
- Health is determined by hereditary, environmental and lifestyle factors
- The habits we cultivate influence the direction we develop, towards health or illness
- The body is a landscape where these tensions manifest
- Treatments aim to transform this landscape
- Prevention can enable us to build resilience and is preferred
- Symptoms are easier to treat in early stages, before they become manifested bodily changes
- Chronic patterns must involve clarifying lifestyle changes and facilitating them to happen for lasting results
This seems to reconcile what the ancient physician-philosophers wrote about and what we currently know about physiology and therapeutics. It is also general enough to resonate with people from many different backgrounds.