Cancer Treatment (Chinese Medicine perspective
)
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Sometimes, Western therapies kill the
cancer cells effectively, but they always, does not address
the source of the problem.
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Cancer
is a terrible disease, but most of them are curable in
early stages. Patients face death threats and difficult times.
No doubts, western Cancer therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation,
and surgery are now commonly used and are supposed to be the
best methods to treat this threatening disease. However, the
side effects of these treatments have been, there as here, often
highly debilitating. |
The patients are keen to have effective alternative or supplementary
treatment especially in the recovery period after surgery, radiation
or chemotherapy therapies. The health providers also want to help
the patient by providing facility and resources for them to obtain
effective and reliable alternative or supplementary treatment.
Joint treatment combining Western medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western medicine against cancer
Traditional Chinese Medicine has 5000 years of history and has been
proved to be effective in many diseases. Many organisations had
made a lot of researches and study in the effectiveness of TCM in
cancer treatment, however, still, it have not been fully explored.
Many researches world-wide indicate that the best results against
Cancer are obtained by means of a joint treatment combining Western
medicine Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the patient pursuing
a suitable diet, and therapeutic exercise.
Psychological adaptation is also an important factor for the patient
to this Chronic and Severe Illness. The philosophy behind Traditional
Chinese medicine may relieve the anxiety of the patient.
TCM perspective of Cancer
In Traditional Chinese medicine, there is no specific
concept of cancer, but there is of tumors. Nutritive tonics and
herbal medicines were developed to alleviate pain and prolong life
by strengthening the body's defenses against tumor progression.
TCM practitioners believe the causes of tumor development come in
two folds. First, external factors include toxins and other environmental
factors. Second, emotional stress, unhealthy diets, and damaged
organs are internal factors. Internal factors also include stagnant
blood, and a blockage or accumulation of qi (pronounced chee), the
vital energy said to circulate along the meridians, or pathways,
linking all parts of the body.
All illnesses, in the perspective of TCM,
are a result of energy imbalance, either an excess or a deficiency
of the body's elemental energies. Qi, the life force, controls the
bodily functions as it travels along the meridians, completing an
energy cycle every twenty-four hours. The flow of qi may be disrupted
by a variety of causes including an imbalanced diet or lifestyle,
stress, suppressed emotions, or lack of exercise. These factors
cause imbalances in yin and yang-complementary forces in dynamic
flux and also disturb the normal flow of qi.
Cancer is as a manifestation of an underlying
imbalance, and a tumor is the "uppermost branch"
of the illness, not the "root". Each patient may have
a different imbalance causing what, on the outside, look like the
same type of cancer. TCM practitioners, in treating cancer, attempt
toidentify the individual patterns of qi imbalance, and prescribe
treatments accordingly.
In treating cancer, Chinese TCM practitioners
make diagnoses of yin and yang, qi, and blood imbalances. Blood,
in TCM, refers to much more than the material fluid. Instead, blood
is the process of nourishing the organism; it occurs in a mutually
regulating relationship with qi and moisture (body fluids). In formulating
treatments, TCM practitioners are guided by 8 principles. In 4 sets
of polar categories, those principles are: yin and yang, chill and
heat, deficiency and excessiveness, and interior and exterior. The
eight principles serve as the framework for the data gathered through
physical examination, tongue and pulse diagnosis, and observation
of symptoms. Once the TCM practitioner forms a cohesive picture
of the pattern of disharmony, he or she can formulate a plan of
treatment to restore balance.
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