The Five Element Diagnostic System of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a tool used to determine diseases and it recommends a formula of all-natural herbs for healing. There is very little doubt that herbs are the most precious “medical” tradition that we have on this planet. But as with most instances, most Medical Doctors and the FDA in this country will passionately disagree!

All natural herbs are Traditional Chinese medicine’s healthiest form of balancing, correcting and healing energy that are derived from over 9,000 natural herbs and plants. As citizens of the planet, it is the best form of treatment we can avail of whenever illness comes our way.

So how does Chinese herbal medicine work?

Practitioners of traditional Herbal medicine in China are usually paid a higher salary than an MD in that country. It is a very practical system in its foundation and in its end result. We will try to simplify this whole system to make it better understood by people.

To start, in our bodies and our world, there are always opposite matters interacting with each other like bright and dark, dry and wet, cold and hot, etc. This is called Yin and Yang in Chinese.

Yin is cold as yang is hot, yin is wet as yang is dry, yin is small as yang is big. It’s just like comparing energies. TCM has also such a thing as the five elements: metal, earth, fire, wood, and water. Like everything else under the sun, each of these fundamental elements is governed by the yin and yang principle (they can be wet or dry, cold or hot etc.) In TCM, each of these five elements symbolizes the various organ systems inside our bodies.

Metal: symbolizes the colon and lungs.

Earth symbolizes the spleen and stomach (metabolism and digestion)

Fire symbolizes the triple burner (the three regions of transport of heated water) blood, pericardium, and the heart

Wood symbolizes the gall bladder and liver

Water symbolizes the Reproductive system, bladder, kidneys, and all fluids (except for blood) inside the body.

Like everything in the universe, all herbs in TCM are subject to Yin and Yang and possess either dry or wet, cold or dry energies. After eating some of plants, their properties can be determined and tasted by skilled herbal therapists using their tongue or sense a cold or hot energy within their bodies. For more than three millennia, this is how over eight thousand plants were sorted; yin and yang classifications were use and how the organ systems which the plants affected were known. (Yes, unfortunately, some of these ancient therapists died from taking in poisonous plants in their bodies.)

This begs the question should we just discard all these invaluable information forever and just rely on our “scientifically proven” understanding of synthetic medications as treatments for our wellbeing and health? The contrast of just how wicked the current medico-pharma system becomes truly shocking.

In TCM, each plant may possess moistening, heating, weakening, strengthening, drying, cooling, etc., energetic properties as well as have a specific effect on a specific organ system in the body. This is also true of our organs themselves. Ideally, they always ought to be in perfect yin and yang balance. One organ system that is out of balance can also impact the rest of the other organ systems.

But as they tend to occur from to time, things can get out of balance. A high fever would be a good example of a severe yang disorder. A yang deficiency disorder would manifest as cold hands and feet due to weak circulation.

Those important organ systems can appear as certain types of symptomatic issues and by querying patients about their current health status, the TCM physician can start to see a Yang or Yin problem in each of their systems. TCM physicians may rely on a series of questions that will provide them with all the clues they need to come up with a correct diagnosis. It’s that simple.

A TCM physician will look at the tongue’s physical appearance (its moisture, texture, crack, colors, etc) aside from questioning the patient about his symptoms. He may spend a lot of time palpating the pulses in nine different pressures and positions on each wrist. This can give him either confirmation of what has been gathered from the querying, or it can tell him to look deeper into the problems. The outcomes are more often than not always accurate.

The TCM physician can identify the yin or yang problems of the patient and in order to bring balance to the patient’s body, may then utilize the plants with the precise opposite energy.

If someone, for instance, wakes up lots of times at night needing to urinate, has little sex drive, or is always cold, the TCM physician doctor would prescribe him with a Kidney-Yang herbal tonic called Yin Yang Huo as part of their formula in order to neutralize the condition. This, however, is merely one herb and one element. You may have three or four herbs applied to each element or a lot of body elements involved on each element. A single herb, such as Dan Shen, for instance, may be able to rectify several imbalances related to the heart.

All the organ systems of the body (five elements) can impact each other by creating health and by treating diseases. After the patient gathers information about balance, it is then verified and re-verified then used to the final diagnoses and herbal remedy. It works amazingly well.

The use of medicinal plants for the treatment of disease is perhaps most powerful source of energy of the system of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Most practitioners used acupuncture merely to dilate the energy channels that that is worked on by the herbs. A lot of acupuncturists have apparently turned this thinking around into something like “herbal therapy is something that just needs be added every now and then.” This is a unfortunate misapprehension. A TCM physician, is first and foremost, always an herbalist.

By itself, acupuncture in Bellmore can of course sometimes treat the body in various ways but the fact is, when used correctly, plants are the most potent sources of healing we have. This is because plants are “in harmony” with the molecular structure of our body as both are living entities created by the same earth. Nonetheless, acupuncture needles work quite well and are great ways to open up the energy channels or meridians.

For the healing of most illnesses, we need to also remember that there are about 9,000 medicinal herbs that are grouped into 16 different classifications including a group of herbs in the Herbal Tonic Classification. Some of these herbs are perceived as “medicinal” in the usual sense of the word, nevertheless, these are the herbs almost anyone can take to attain a state of health what the Chinese refer to as the “Three Treasures.”

While the Five Element Diagnostic System may have been over-simplified in this article, we hope it has given you a greater awareness about how this precise and wonderful system works. The Five Element Diagnostic System has been practiced for more than 4,000 years and in China, and is still a much more preferred treatment system then Western medicine. The patient takes it more seriously and Traditional Chinese physicians are usually paid more in China.

The Five Element Diagnostic System needs to be used in every hospital in the US so that the patients can see for themselves that Big Pharma does not have their health and wellbeing in mind and in fact is a bane to our health. It’s sad that Big Pharma operates the way it does; it’s even sadder to know it does so with the full approval and compliance of the FDA, an organization some people deem a fascistic form of government.