Traditional Chinese medicine Facts for Kids

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. Since the methods of TCM are different from Western medicine, it is hard to find evidence that shows how safe or good TCM really is.

Many of the most important ideas in TCM are based on the teachings of Daoism. Based on the teachings of TCM, it is important to balance the five elements in a person's body: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Each element also has something called yin and yang, or opposite values that must exist alongside each other rather than to overcome the other. The way to balance the yin and yang is to strengthen qi, or an invisible force that brings balance to the yin and yang. Knowing the five elements and the yin and yang is important 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 people to be healthy. The different treatments in TCM are made to bring balance to the elements in a person's body.

These ideas are similar to, but not the same as, the four temperaments, which was an widely-believed theory in European medicine before scientific medicine was created.

Images for kids

The Compendium of Materia Medica is a pharmaceutical text written by Li Shizhen (1518–1593 CE) during the Ming dynasty of China. This edition was published in 1593.
Old Chinese medical chart on acupuncture meridians
Acupuncture chart from the Ming dynasty (c. 1368–1644)
Assorted dried plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines, clockwise from top left corner: dried Lingzhi (lit. "spirit mushrooms"), ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly (plastron), and dried curled snakes.
A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, China.
Artemisia annua is traditionally used to treat fever. It has been found to have antimalarial properties.
Needles being inserted into the skin
An example of a traditional Chinese medicine used in tui na
Acupuncture and moxibustion after cupping in Japan
The Chinese traditional medicine at one of Chinese traditional medicine shop at Jagalan Road, Surabaya, Indonesia.
The logo of the Dutch Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine (or 中 Zhong - Nederlandse Vereniging voor Traditionele Chinese Geneeskunde), the largest of the professional organisations that is recognised by private health insurance companies in the Netherlands.

Traditional Chinese medicine facts for kids

Images for kids

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