Chinese medicine asks what kind of person has the disease.
Western medicine treats the body like a machine: symptoms are faults to suppress or repair.
Chinese medicine treats the body like an ecosystem: symptoms are signals of imbalance.
At the center is qi — the body’s functional vitality. When qi is weak, you feel exhausted and fragile. When qi is stuck, you feel tense, irritable, pressured. Lifestyle, breathing, and digestion directly shape it.
Health is dynamic balance, expressed through yin and yang. Too much activity burns out rest; too much stagnation creates heaviness. Most modern illness lives in this imbalance long before labs turn abnormal.
Chinese medicine diagnoses patterns, not diseases. Two people with the same symptom may need opposite treatments. Treatment targets the root imbalance, not just the branch symptoms — which is why multiple problems often resolve together.
Food is literal medicine. Foods warm or cool, move or anchor. What heals one person can harm another. Season, constitution, and digestion matter more than calories.
This system doesn’t require belief — only observation. It offers a way to read your own body instead of outsourcing understanding. Two thousand years don’t prove truth, but they do suggest something here works.
to Pain story: i don't mean to be disrespectful, but having scanned thru your 12 replies here, all time-stamped 17 hours ago, all beginning with over-the-top flattery to the author of the post you are replying to, all with basically the same message, i can't help but think you sound like an AI chatbot, or perhaps an actual human practitioner trying to drum up business using an AI assistant.
I agree. I use ChatGPT, Perplexity, Brave, DuckAi for other subjects, and PSE's phraseology reminds of the bots' phraseology. Even the reply to you, polite, controlled, "you're not wrong" is typical.
and actually i suspect that PSE is completely an AI chatbot, perhaps trying to lure clients into it's (highly invasive and data mining) online psychotherapy model.
yes. it even complemented me strongly: "sharp eye". they have learned how easily we humans are manipulated by flattery. at this point i wonder how many comments (and even substack author's posts) are created by AI . . . along with everything else on the internet including videos and "news".
i know . . . at least some of us can still discern the difference online between them and a real human - at least we think so ( : . . . and at least some of the time - but who knows how long that will last. very bizarre - i never could have imagined the world would come to this, and anyway not only qui bono but who (among normal humanity) actually wants this?
That’s a sharp cut—and I agree with you right up to the pressure point where most people flinch.
Yes: the body is not the root cause. It’s the ledger. The body keeps score with ruthless honesty. Symptoms aren’t malfunctions; they’re perfectly executed instructions.
Where I’d tune it just slightly is this:
the “story” isn’t always verbal, conscious, or even narrative in the usual sense. Often it’s pre-linguistic. A posture of being. A contracted orientation toward life that predates language—sometimes trauma, sometimes inheritance, sometimes long-trained obedience. The body learned it before the mind could explain it.
That’s why Chinese medicine looks like “management” from the outside. In practice, at its highest level, it was never meant to be permanent caretaking. It was a bridge. A way to restore enough coherence in the system that the person could actually see the story they were running—without being drowned in pain or fear while doing so.
But you’re absolutely right about the leverage point.
If the story dissolves, the ecosystem doesn’t need supervision.
Qi doesn’t need boosting.
Balance stops being a job.
The phrase “Vitality Leak” is dead on. Nothing is “missing.” Energy is escaping through a false contract—an unexamined obligation, a carried burden that was never chosen.
The real medicine isn’t herbs or needles.
It’s recognition.
And recognition is not a lifestyle.
It’s an event.
Once the lie collapses, the body does what it was always designed to do—without asking permission from any system, Eastern or Western.
Exactly. The posture is pre-verbal. Pre-story. It’s the orientation you’re already standing in before the mind starts narrating.
The medicine doesn’t create that posture—it quiets the noise long enough for it to be recognized. That’s the bridge. Once you see it, the bridge becomes optional.
The article does not argue that the ecosystem is the root cause. The article argues that because the body is an ecosystem, the approach needs to be holistic to get to the root cause.
If the article would argue that the ecosystem is the root cause, then trying to affect the root cause would mean affecting, i.e. changing, the ecosystem. That is definitely NOT what the article argues.
Sounds to me like Eastern medicine uses what works, while Western medicine uses what makes money! There is an excellent Tube film about Chinese medicine, some doctors are filmed and people testify. Made me wonder if it might be worth the while to fly to China and get treated there, by a real Chinese doctor. Not the Western trained acupuncturists, who do not seem to have the necessary basis (according to 2 friends who did not get any help).
Oliver Brünner. mostly in german. 1 video in english where he explains his journey from wheelchair to marathon, and a few interviews that have subtitles . in settings. he got into nlp then, and after discovering ''Word event formula '' he developed a healing system in accord with that.
I think it is almost impossible for a Western med student to grasp the Eastern way of thinking. Being a Western person myself, it amazes me how fine tuned Eastern systems are,, concentrating on the whole person instead of microscope vision. Of course there will be less good practicioners there, too, and as always, money. Indeed, the first thing to do is listen what the body is telling, and so very few people do that.
Thank you. It is very interesting to see, how sayings of old compliment your view. I am originally Dutch speaking and we have several 'body' sayings - it sticks in my throat (I got enough of this), something that means I don't feel well (cannot get out of the feet) etc. People of old knew this wisdom, but 'modern' science TM has waved all that away. Of course I meant that one should not just 'listen', as in hear what it is saying, but as in 'obey', follow what the body is telling. Not always easy, because it requires a looking within, which I suppose very few people do anymore!
Decades ago, when I was learning about herbal medicines, I bought a book by an experienced Chinese doctor, translated into English in collaboration with his apprentice. My expectation was that it would be valuable herbal pharmacopoeia. Herbs were certainly in there, but it mostly dealt with living conditions and diet. Diagnosis is done by really sitting with the patient, exploring their mental, emotional, and environmental conditions. I couldn't imagine my doctor having the time for that! Then, most of the recommendations were "eat less of these things, more of those things", with herbal medicines only as needed to support that return to balance.
I used Chinese medicine on my dog, who had trouble with intermittent pasty stools and a sore shoulder. I finally got rid of the pasty stools (now he gets it and I know the reason, which is usually something I fed from my plate). He started with spleen qi deficiency, which is quite common in the canine world, then progressed to liver yang rising (seizures) then after the wild fires kidney stealing water from the lungs which is where he is now.
Ultimately, these patterns boiled down to either neutering or vaccinosis because my landlord was NOT satisfied with just the rabies shot. Chinese medicine, while it is great at viewing the body as an ecosystem, does not do very well with loss of organ function, unless natural like menopause. So when you see a Chinese medicine doctor, they are seeing the after-effects of vaccinosis or if a pet, the veterinary Chinese medicine doctor sees the after-effects of desexing. Then it becomes like Western medicine in symptom management.
Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism are two conditions that Chinese medicine doctors, IMO, don't do very well. I am of the opinion that in humans they are due to nutritional deficiencies or imbalances or a combination of both. In the canine world, I believe they are due to desexing. Desexing affects the kidney meridian because of the lack of feedback to the pituitary from the sex hormones. The adrenals can compensate, but their activity is insufficient to return the HPA axis to normal. Menopause is a little different because in menopause, the woman still has her ovaries, so HRT is more likely to work. And over time, the pet suffers from adrenal dysfunction, either Cushing's or Addison's disease. Which way the animal goes depends upon the animal.
If the veterinarian can find a way to give the pituitary the feedback it needs, many, if not all, the problems go away. The other thing I noticed with Chinese medicine is that many of the dietary recommendations are hard to adapt to a Western diet. For example, how many of us can walk into a grocery store or farmers market and find astralagus root or burdock root to simmer in a soup? What I do is I got a recipe book written for DIY fresh food feeders by a TCM vet and studied them. I now use the ingredient list to formulate my own recipes for myself.
The idea of warming foods or cooling foods is the basis for eating according to Chinese medicine. However, there is a concept of damp heat, which in the summer can lead to CHF if left untreated. In the winter it reeks havoc upon the digestive system so you end up with liquid poop that smells or doesn't smell. And if the person has an unbalanced kidney meridian issues like leg edema start cropping up. The unfortunate thing about damp heat is that the dampness has to be cleared before the heat, because the person (or pet) may be suffering from false heat, which may go away when the person or animal is placed on a seasonally appropriate draining diet.
I have a friend that went through the training here in Portland. She still does accupuncture. Was so interesting when she did the herbal medicine training. I did one session at the clinic. The questions asked are so thorough, compared to what western doctors ask.
I love this so much! I started reading a book called Energetic Herbalism and she gave a run down of the 5 phases theory so I went to look for more information and landed here. Glad I did, this made it easier for me to understand.
It is true. A great description - you have certainly explained that well. What a skill you have!!!!
The basic difference, I would say, is that the western medicine looks at things compartmentalised, in pieces, and in parts. Easter medicien sees everything relative, always in relation, never absolute. This is why we always look at an ecosystem, because we understand how organs, systems, and signals influence each other.
I've been a practitioner for 10+ years, and I've seen many miracles. The better I am at recognising patterns, the simpler the methods to heal. Will take a lifetime.
Once you understand what blocks the flow of qi and address them - through light, touch, movement, breath, nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, fascia-work, etc., things greatly improve.
We observe everything: complexion, eyes, ears, tongue, check the pulse, palpate the body, and hear the tone of voice. Emotions are related to organs, and any emotional disturbance will create fascial constriction on the organs or an important sphincter in the digestive tract.
Everything carries information and we see it holographically. Simply because the nervous system and the fascia connect everything.
I have used Chinese medicine for most of my health care needs for decades. Several years ago I discovered the work of Andrew Sterman's Cookbooks and videos where he translates the Chinese Medicine diet theory into recipes and principles that I , as a westerner, can understand and use on a daily basis. My health improved dramatically for the better once I incorporated his information into my daily meals. There are several videos on the page linked below.
I had the luck in my life to be with someone who achieved a doctorate in Acupuncture, and is a teacher. I have had a lot of acupuncture in my life and it has really helped me. What is most interesting to me is how the Chinese herbal medicine and formulae use many of the same plants/herbs that western herbalists use for a given health problem. I would also add that hundreds of years of research (past centuries) went into creating Chinese medicine and the only way it was discovered was by trial and error on actual humans, which was probably a pretty gruesome process in ways, on live subjects, as you might imagine. If acupuncture was invented today, it would probably be outlawed from existing for that reason alone.
Thank you! Plus Chinese medicine uses meridians to treat deficiencies, and acupuncture works to restore Qi without the many side effects caused by western medications.
For example consider the Diabetes medicine Metformin's side effects:
"Common side effects of metformin include gastrointestinal issues like nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. More serious but rare side effects can include lactic acidosis, which requires immediate medical attention."
Over the past 30+ years there has been an explosion in prescription meds, of which it seems most people cannot handle so they are constantly having to run to the toilet to pee them out of their system. The meds may mask the symptoms, but make them weaker and sicker over all. Never before have adults have had to all run to the bathroom ao frequently due to all the meds and processed foods.
Acupuncture would be much more beneficial but then again that takes time for the treatments and big pHarma cannot make money off of Acupuncture and herbal remedies.
Western medicine has created a monster with a health care system that profits when people are ill instead of promoting good health of Qi.
A fantastic article! If only more had access to this type of medicine. The addressing of the whole rather than segments is so rational that one wonders why western “medicine” is just that…..a prescription. The whole is so unbalanced. It is being reflected by the abnormal effects in health of humans, animals, plants and the whole ecology, including weather, which is severely unbalanced. Balance trying to rebalance by using extremes.
A Different Way of Seeing Chinese Medicine
Western medicine asks what disease you have.
Chinese medicine asks what kind of person has the disease.
Western medicine treats the body like a machine: symptoms are faults to suppress or repair.
Chinese medicine treats the body like an ecosystem: symptoms are signals of imbalance.
At the center is qi — the body’s functional vitality. When qi is weak, you feel exhausted and fragile. When qi is stuck, you feel tense, irritable, pressured. Lifestyle, breathing, and digestion directly shape it.
Health is dynamic balance, expressed through yin and yang. Too much activity burns out rest; too much stagnation creates heaviness. Most modern illness lives in this imbalance long before labs turn abnormal.
Chinese medicine diagnoses patterns, not diseases. Two people with the same symptom may need opposite treatments. Treatment targets the root imbalance, not just the branch symptoms — which is why multiple problems often resolve together.
Food is literal medicine. Foods warm or cool, move or anchor. What heals one person can harm another. Season, constitution, and digestion matter more than calories.
This system doesn’t require belief — only observation. It offers a way to read your own body instead of outsourcing understanding. Two thousand years don’t prove truth, but they do suggest something here works.
to Pain story: i don't mean to be disrespectful, but having scanned thru your 12 replies here, all time-stamped 17 hours ago, all beginning with over-the-top flattery to the author of the post you are replying to, all with basically the same message, i can't help but think you sound like an AI chatbot, or perhaps an actual human practitioner trying to drum up business using an AI assistant.
I agree. I use ChatGPT, Perplexity, Brave, DuckAi for other subjects, and PSE's phraseology reminds of the bots' phraseology. Even the reply to you, polite, controlled, "you're not wrong" is typical.
and actually i suspect that PSE is completely an AI chatbot, perhaps trying to lure clients into it's (highly invasive and data mining) online psychotherapy model.
yes. it even complemented me strongly: "sharp eye". they have learned how easily we humans are manipulated by flattery. at this point i wonder how many comments (and even substack author's posts) are created by AI . . . along with everything else on the internet including videos and "news".
Good points – sorry for the "flattery", it is not intended to be 😀
We cannot be sure of anything anymore, and that is what they want: fact and fiction merge, reality and virtual reality merge.
i know . . . at least some of us can still discern the difference online between them and a real human - at least we think so ( : . . . and at least some of the time - but who knows how long that will last. very bizarre - i never could have imagined the world would come to this, and anyway not only qui bono but who (among normal humanity) actually wants this?
That’s a sharp cut—and I agree with you right up to the pressure point where most people flinch.
Yes: the body is not the root cause. It’s the ledger. The body keeps score with ruthless honesty. Symptoms aren’t malfunctions; they’re perfectly executed instructions.
Where I’d tune it just slightly is this:
the “story” isn’t always verbal, conscious, or even narrative in the usual sense. Often it’s pre-linguistic. A posture of being. A contracted orientation toward life that predates language—sometimes trauma, sometimes inheritance, sometimes long-trained obedience. The body learned it before the mind could explain it.
That’s why Chinese medicine looks like “management” from the outside. In practice, at its highest level, it was never meant to be permanent caretaking. It was a bridge. A way to restore enough coherence in the system that the person could actually see the story they were running—without being drowned in pain or fear while doing so.
But you’re absolutely right about the leverage point.
If the story dissolves, the ecosystem doesn’t need supervision.
Qi doesn’t need boosting.
Balance stops being a job.
The phrase “Vitality Leak” is dead on. Nothing is “missing.” Energy is escaping through a false contract—an unexamined obligation, a carried burden that was never chosen.
The real medicine isn’t herbs or needles.
It’s recognition.
And recognition is not a lifestyle.
It’s an event.
Once the lie collapses, the body does what it was always designed to do—without asking permission from any system, Eastern or Western.
Well said.
— Lone Wolf
Exactly. The posture is pre-verbal. Pre-story. It’s the orientation you’re already standing in before the mind starts narrating.
The medicine doesn’t create that posture—it quiets the noise long enough for it to be recognized. That’s the bridge. Once you see it, the bridge becomes optional.
Appreciate the resonance.
— Lone Wolf
The article does not argue that the ecosystem is the root cause. The article argues that because the body is an ecosystem, the approach needs to be holistic to get to the root cause.
If the article would argue that the ecosystem is the root cause, then trying to affect the root cause would mean affecting, i.e. changing, the ecosystem. That is definitely NOT what the article argues.
Sounds to me like Eastern medicine uses what works, while Western medicine uses what makes money! There is an excellent Tube film about Chinese medicine, some doctors are filmed and people testify. Made me wonder if it might be worth the while to fly to China and get treated there, by a real Chinese doctor. Not the Western trained acupuncturists, who do not seem to have the necessary basis (according to 2 friends who did not get any help).
Oliver Brünner. mostly in german. 1 video in english where he explains his journey from wheelchair to marathon, and a few interviews that have subtitles . in settings. he got into nlp then, and after discovering ''Word event formula '' he developed a healing system in accord with that.
I think it is almost impossible for a Western med student to grasp the Eastern way of thinking. Being a Western person myself, it amazes me how fine tuned Eastern systems are,, concentrating on the whole person instead of microscope vision. Of course there will be less good practicioners there, too, and as always, money. Indeed, the first thing to do is listen what the body is telling, and so very few people do that.
Thank you. It is very interesting to see, how sayings of old compliment your view. I am originally Dutch speaking and we have several 'body' sayings - it sticks in my throat (I got enough of this), something that means I don't feel well (cannot get out of the feet) etc. People of old knew this wisdom, but 'modern' science TM has waved all that away. Of course I meant that one should not just 'listen', as in hear what it is saying, but as in 'obey', follow what the body is telling. Not always easy, because it requires a looking within, which I suppose very few people do anymore!
Decades ago, when I was learning about herbal medicines, I bought a book by an experienced Chinese doctor, translated into English in collaboration with his apprentice. My expectation was that it would be valuable herbal pharmacopoeia. Herbs were certainly in there, but it mostly dealt with living conditions and diet. Diagnosis is done by really sitting with the patient, exploring their mental, emotional, and environmental conditions. I couldn't imagine my doctor having the time for that! Then, most of the recommendations were "eat less of these things, more of those things", with herbal medicines only as needed to support that return to balance.
I used Chinese medicine on my dog, who had trouble with intermittent pasty stools and a sore shoulder. I finally got rid of the pasty stools (now he gets it and I know the reason, which is usually something I fed from my plate). He started with spleen qi deficiency, which is quite common in the canine world, then progressed to liver yang rising (seizures) then after the wild fires kidney stealing water from the lungs which is where he is now.
Ultimately, these patterns boiled down to either neutering or vaccinosis because my landlord was NOT satisfied with just the rabies shot. Chinese medicine, while it is great at viewing the body as an ecosystem, does not do very well with loss of organ function, unless natural like menopause. So when you see a Chinese medicine doctor, they are seeing the after-effects of vaccinosis or if a pet, the veterinary Chinese medicine doctor sees the after-effects of desexing. Then it becomes like Western medicine in symptom management.
Hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism are two conditions that Chinese medicine doctors, IMO, don't do very well. I am of the opinion that in humans they are due to nutritional deficiencies or imbalances or a combination of both. In the canine world, I believe they are due to desexing. Desexing affects the kidney meridian because of the lack of feedback to the pituitary from the sex hormones. The adrenals can compensate, but their activity is insufficient to return the HPA axis to normal. Menopause is a little different because in menopause, the woman still has her ovaries, so HRT is more likely to work. And over time, the pet suffers from adrenal dysfunction, either Cushing's or Addison's disease. Which way the animal goes depends upon the animal.
If the veterinarian can find a way to give the pituitary the feedback it needs, many, if not all, the problems go away. The other thing I noticed with Chinese medicine is that many of the dietary recommendations are hard to adapt to a Western diet. For example, how many of us can walk into a grocery store or farmers market and find astralagus root or burdock root to simmer in a soup? What I do is I got a recipe book written for DIY fresh food feeders by a TCM vet and studied them. I now use the ingredient list to formulate my own recipes for myself.
The idea of warming foods or cooling foods is the basis for eating according to Chinese medicine. However, there is a concept of damp heat, which in the summer can lead to CHF if left untreated. In the winter it reeks havoc upon the digestive system so you end up with liquid poop that smells or doesn't smell. And if the person has an unbalanced kidney meridian issues like leg edema start cropping up. The unfortunate thing about damp heat is that the dampness has to be cleared before the heat, because the person (or pet) may be suffering from false heat, which may go away when the person or animal is placed on a seasonally appropriate draining diet.
I have a friend that went through the training here in Portland. She still does accupuncture. Was so interesting when she did the herbal medicine training. I did one session at the clinic. The questions asked are so thorough, compared to what western doctors ask.
I love this so much! I started reading a book called Energetic Herbalism and she gave a run down of the 5 phases theory so I went to look for more information and landed here. Glad I did, this made it easier for me to understand.
It is true. A great description - you have certainly explained that well. What a skill you have!!!!
The basic difference, I would say, is that the western medicine looks at things compartmentalised, in pieces, and in parts. Easter medicien sees everything relative, always in relation, never absolute. This is why we always look at an ecosystem, because we understand how organs, systems, and signals influence each other.
I've been a practitioner for 10+ years, and I've seen many miracles. The better I am at recognising patterns, the simpler the methods to heal. Will take a lifetime.
Once you understand what blocks the flow of qi and address them - through light, touch, movement, breath, nutrition, herbs, acupuncture, fascia-work, etc., things greatly improve.
We observe everything: complexion, eyes, ears, tongue, check the pulse, palpate the body, and hear the tone of voice. Emotions are related to organs, and any emotional disturbance will create fascial constriction on the organs or an important sphincter in the digestive tract.
Everything carries information and we see it holographically. Simply because the nervous system and the fascia connect everything.
I have used Chinese medicine for most of my health care needs for decades. Several years ago I discovered the work of Andrew Sterman's Cookbooks and videos where he translates the Chinese Medicine diet theory into recipes and principles that I , as a westerner, can understand and use on a daily basis. My health improved dramatically for the better once I incorporated his information into my daily meals. There are several videos on the page linked below.
https://anncecilsterman.com/free-resources/
Thank you!
I had the luck in my life to be with someone who achieved a doctorate in Acupuncture, and is a teacher. I have had a lot of acupuncture in my life and it has really helped me. What is most interesting to me is how the Chinese herbal medicine and formulae use many of the same plants/herbs that western herbalists use for a given health problem. I would also add that hundreds of years of research (past centuries) went into creating Chinese medicine and the only way it was discovered was by trial and error on actual humans, which was probably a pretty gruesome process in ways, on live subjects, as you might imagine. If acupuncture was invented today, it would probably be outlawed from existing for that reason alone.
Thank you! Plus Chinese medicine uses meridians to treat deficiencies, and acupuncture works to restore Qi without the many side effects caused by western medications.
For example consider the Diabetes medicine Metformin's side effects:
"Common side effects of metformin include gastrointestinal issues like nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. More serious but rare side effects can include lactic acidosis, which requires immediate medical attention."
Over the past 30+ years there has been an explosion in prescription meds, of which it seems most people cannot handle so they are constantly having to run to the toilet to pee them out of their system. The meds may mask the symptoms, but make them weaker and sicker over all. Never before have adults have had to all run to the bathroom ao frequently due to all the meds and processed foods.
Acupuncture would be much more beneficial but then again that takes time for the treatments and big pHarma cannot make money off of Acupuncture and herbal remedies.
Western medicine has created a monster with a health care system that profits when people are ill instead of promoting good health of Qi.
A fantastic article! If only more had access to this type of medicine. The addressing of the whole rather than segments is so rational that one wonders why western “medicine” is just that…..a prescription. The whole is so unbalanced. It is being reflected by the abnormal effects in health of humans, animals, plants and the whole ecology, including weather, which is severely unbalanced. Balance trying to rebalance by using extremes.