History and Philosophy:

Eastern medicine originated in China and has a history of over 4,000 years. It is a holistic and preventive medical system. It is holistic in that we heal your body as a whole rather than treating isolated symptoms, and preventive because our primary aim is always to support your body’s natural ability for fighting off illness and injury.

The fundamental difference between Western and Eastern medicine is that the former focuses on removing illness, while the latter aims to promote health. Both modalities have their strengths, and they should be used to complement and support each other.

For example, insomnia occurs when the body’s natural sleep drive becomes compromised. The Western medicine solution is to prescribe sleeping pills that bypass the impaired mechanism and induce sleep. This provides immediate relief, but the underlying condition remains. Eastern medicine takes a different approach – our goal is to restore the body’s innate ability to rest, so that you can find your natural sleeping rhythm again without needing to rely on pills.

Eastern medicine is all-natural, non-invasive, and chemical-free. Its central principle is that the human body is composed of interconnected systems which work together to maintain ideal health. There are five internal systems – Xin, Gan, Fei, Pi, and Shen – which have close though not exact correlations to the organ systems in Western medicine. When a person is healthy, all five systems work in harmony. Blood and energy (Qi) flow smoothly through the body. But when there is an imbalance between the systems or when the flow is blocked, illness occurs.

The Five Internal Systems:

• Xin controls mental health, vitality, and blood circulation; somewhat similar to the nervous system.
• Gan controls the flow of fluids and energy in the body, as well as emotions. Analogous to the circulatory and endocrine systems.
• Fei is like a combination of the respiratory and immune systems. It governs breathing and exchange with the world outside the body.
• Pi digests food and distributes nutrients throughout the body.
• Shen is responsible for urinary and reproductive functions, as well as growth and development.

Acupuncture and acupressure massage stimulates nerves, muscles, and connective tissue to relieve back pain and joint pain. But since acupoints also connect to the internal systems, they can help with more than just muscuoskeletal pain.

Stimulation at the correct acupoints, along with herbal supplements, can correct imbalances and deficiencies in these systems. This helps relieve deeper ailments such as headaches, stress, allergies, insomnia, infertility, and weight problems.

Techniques of Eastern Medicine:

• Acupuncture is the gentle insertion of extremely thin needles into the body to stimulate specially chosen points.
• Herbal supplements are all-natural formulas combining plants such as ginger and ginseng; they are most often consumed as tea.
• Acupressure massage relies on pressure from the fingertips of the practitioner instead of needles.
• Moxibustion is a special form of acupuncture that involves the burning of herbs at one end of an acupuncture needle while the other end is inserted into the skin. This stimulates and increases circulation.
• Cupping creates vacuums at particular acupoints, which draws circulation and energy.

Nabacu Eastern Medicine > About > How It Works