Better Food - Better Health - Better Life

Before a syndrome and its cause are shared with a patient, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapist confirms the findings up to five times. Who provides this confirmation? Our body, which communicates with us. However, most people are unable to recognize the signals and language of their own body. It could be said that we possess the most complex machine in the world but use it without any manual.

The state of our organs is interconnected with our psyche. For this reason, it is essential for the therapist to understand the emotions and psychological fluctuations you are currently experiencing. These provide clear clues about which organs require attention and support.

Pain manifests in countless ways, forms, and locations. This is another equally important source of information for making an accurate diagnosis.

The same applies to sweating. Everyone sweats differently, in different areas, and under different conditions. This, too, provides valuable insights to the therapist.

Skin tone, dryness, moisture, oiliness, tendencies to acne, inflammation, or cracking—these parameters provide information about the condition of our digestive system, lungs, and kidneys.

Another crucial factor is your dietary habits, including what you like or dislike. In this area, commonly available information is often misleading. For example, a frequent misconception relates to cravings for sweets. Simply regulating sugar intake or relying on willpower is insufficient to break a dependency on sweets. Why? Because a craving for sweets often indicates poor fat metabolism or a lack of healthy fats in the diet. It is fats, in fact, that can easily curb sugar cravings.

The coating, color, and shape of the tongue form a detailed map of the state of all the body’s vital organs. For a TCM expert, a photo of the tongue can be more valuable than blood or urine tests and is often held in higher regard than X-rays or MRIs.

As you can see, a TCM therapist observes numerous factors before diagnosing a health condition. Only when the same diagnosis is confirmed at least three times from different sources can the therapist confidently determine the cause and propose a solution to health issues.

It is crucial to understand that, in Chinese medicine, the choice of foods, herbs, or even acupuncture treatment strategies is highly individualized. In the West, we often simplify matters into “the best” solution for this or that. However, in TCM, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all remedy.