Classical Chinese Medicine

Conventional Western medicine is based on modern science, which adapts a deductive way of looking at anatomy, physiology and pathology.  It divides the body into 12 relatively isolated systems, and doctors are specialized in treating a very specific system.  Most people born and raised in the US culture growing up learning about the body, health, and healthcare through such a biomedical perspective.

When people get sick, the first thing they think of is to see a conventional medical doctor specialized in that field.  It is familiar, therefore comfortable, and has an impressive track record of enabling heroic medical interventions – such as the effective cure of Polio or sewing your flesh back together after a traumatic injury or a surgery.

Classical Chinese medicine, however, does not come from the same origin.  It adapts a holistic way of looking at the body based on a keen observation of how nature (natural phenomena on earth, the sun, the moon, the other planets, and stars) and other living beings behave and function.  “As above, so below” is perhaps the most concise way to summarize the core philosophy of classical Chinese medicine — the whole of the unit is far more than might be guessed by looking at the individual parts.  This makes Chinese medicine more likely to focus on functional flows and interactions between the body and nature than biomedicine, which is somewhat more concerned with defining the parts with great specificity.

Ancient human beings, regardless which culture they were from, were keen observers of natural phenomena.  Based on such observations and scientific reasoning, the ancient Daoist developed a complicated medical system that has lasts over 5,000 to 20,000 years.  While it shares some anatomical and pathological ideas with the science underlying biomedicine, most of its grounding is quite different.  It has its own logic of conceptualizing the human body and how it interacts with nature.

One of Dr. Paau’s main mentors, Heiner Fruehauf, believes that Chinese medicine as a modality grows best out of its own “soil” – or foundational conditions.  The science behind Chinese medicine is rooted in meticulous calculations of natural cycles and laws of physics.  It has unique methods of rendering a diagnosis and treatment.  It’s a completely different but equally valid scientific system of medicine that works best when it is allowed to follow its own logics.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that biomedical perspectives are useless to Chinese medicine practitioners.  It is quite the contrary, because ultimately both medical systems describe THE SAME BODY!  A mountain may look completely different if you look at it from different angles and scopes.