Traditional Chinese Medicine

     by Bruce Ferguson, MS, DVM

Traditional Chinese medicine has developed over a period of at least 3,000 years. Veterinary aspects include TuiNa (manual therapies), Herbal Medicine, and Acupuncture. Chinese philosophical underpinnings of the medical system are based upon the notion of balance. A disease process in a body can be viewed as a situation in which too much or too little energy or biological substances (eg, fluids) are in disharmony. The social and natural relationship the Chinese traditionally prized was one based upon harmony above all else. In contrast, the Western medical view of disease is primarily due to causes that can be killed, cut out, or somehow contained.

The Chinese manual therapies termed TuiNa include massage, acupressure, physiotherapies, and bony manipulations. A number of modern physical and manual therapeutic modalities share with TuiNa the theoretical framework of body symmetry and restriction-free motion as a key to overall health and biological function. TuiNa may be applied in complex protocols by trained practitioners, or simple techniques may be taught to clients so that they can lovingly give body work to their companion animals.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine includes some of the most advanced uses of herbs on the planet today. There are over 3,000 plant parts, animal parts, and minerals in the Chinese Materia Medica that are useful in a wide variety of health conditions. As with modern drugs, herbal medicines have exact indications, precautions, and contraindications. In contradistinction to modern drugs, herbal products are chemically complex and commonly have nutritional as well as drug-like activity in the body. Since most of our companion animals co-evolved with plant life as some part of their food supply, the absorption, metabolism, and elimination of these products occur in rather natural fashion in the body.

Acupuncture is the use of fine needles to stimulate exact points on the exterior of the body in order to have therapeutic effects. The points occur in groups along pathways termed "channels" that have somewhat similar function. Some of the acupuncture points have the ability to adjust the regulatory mechanisms of various organs, while others have more broad ranging physiological effects. For example, points along the dorsum just lateral to the vertebral spinous processes may be used to influence the function of viscera just ventral to that point. And a point distal and lateral to the tibial tuberosity may be used to positively influence immune system function or release endorphins to effect pain relief. For more information about acupuncture, please see the following article.

As with Western biomedicine, Traditional Chinese medicine should only be used by those appropriately trained. Adverse events may occur from improper body manipulation, use of wrongly prescribed herbs, or improper needle insertion into body tissues. The good news is that such adverse events are rarely reported in the human or non-human literature. A medical system 3,000 years old has had plenty of time to learn of its limitations and dangers. Thus, Traditional Chinese medicine is actually one of the safest medical systems on the planet today.