Traditional Chinese medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a branch of traditional medicine from China. It is at least 3,500 years old. Treatments include herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping, massage, and exercise.

TCM's methods are different from Western medicine, so it is hard to find evidence that TCM is safe and helpful.

Many of TCM's most important ideas are based on the teachings of Daoism.

TCM says there are five elements in a person's body: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The different treatments in TCM are made to bring balance to these elements.

Each element also has something called yin and yang: opposite values that must exist alongside each other instead of trying to take each other over. In TCM, the way to balance the yin and yang is to strengthen an invisible force called qi.

Knowing the five elements, the yin, and the yang is important in TCM because each organ of the body is related to one of the five elements. It is important to strengthen a person's qi because balancing the yin and yang of a person's organs is important for health.^[1]

TCM also addresses how mentally stable a person is in the process of their healing.

In the 19th century, many European doctors working as missionaries in China, and they started translating TCM. For example, Dr. Gottlieb Olpp helped spread the ideas of traditional Chinese medicine to Germany.

These ideas are similar to (but not the same as) the idea of the four temperaments. This was a widely believed theory in European medicine before scientific medicine was created.