Chinese Medicine

Exploring History - The Story of Medicine - Medicine Around the World and Across the Ages
By: Brian Ward
 

 
The Story of Medicine (Exploring History): Brian Ward: 9781844766727: Amazon.com: Books
http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Medicine-Exploring-History/dp/1844766721
Screen clipping taken: 12/12/2013, 9:30 AM
 
Chinese Medicine
1. The Nei Ching (Book of Medicine) was written by the Yellow emperor Huang Ti in the 200sB.C.
2. Medicine was based mostly on the 12 rivers and their channels and the influences they have on the body.
• These carried blood to the organs.
• A.D.280 Wang Shu-Ho writes the 12 volume book Mei Ching (Book of the Pulse)
3. Treatments included:
• Acupuncture
• Needles are inserted into points of the body where ch'i channels were thought to run.
• May be inserted as deep as 10 inches into the body then wiggled or twirled to restore the flow of ch'i.
• Modern practitioners often pass a small electrical current through the needle.
• This stimulated the flow of ch'i (blood) and restored good health.
• Sometimes cones of dried herbs (incense cones) were burned on the skin at the points for the same reason.
• 1601 Yang Chi-chou writes the 10 volume book Ch'en-Chiu Ta-Ch'eng which describes acupuncture.
• Depends mostly on herbal remedies:
• Castor oil
• Camphor
• Chaulmoogra oil (treated leprosy)
• Iron (treated anemia and continues to today)
• Ginseng (to keep a person alert)  
4. Chinese doctors invented the small pox vaccine.
• The took the puss from a pox on a person and inserted it into others.
• I imagine that doing this at the onset of the illness allowed everyone to develop an immunity at the beginning of stages of the virus before it had a chance to mutate and cause more serious complications.
5. Chinese doctors had long conversations with their patients.
6. They treated the whole body not just the small diseased part.

 

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