Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Diagnosis
TCM diagnosis is the very first thing and the most important step before any treatment
can take place; without diagnosis no body should even try to do anything. Regarding to diagnosis, there are some similarities between Western and TCM doctors, the major differences are TCM doctor takes a holistic approach regardless to whatever the patient’s problem is, while the Western doctor concentrates more on specific problem.
In TCM, the diagnosis process is carried out by four (4) examinations, namely
- Examination by Observation: to look the patient’s expression, facial and body color, the body appearance and the color and shape of tongue, the condition of nails etc.
- Examination by Auscultation and Olfaction: to hear and smell and find out if there is any special breathing-noise or odor.
- Inquirring (Ask Questions): TCM doctor usually ask a lot more questions than a Western doctor because he/she takes a holistic approach without help of the lab-test results. For example, he might ask if patient sweat in the night? How frequent patient goes to toilet? If patient feels thirsty all the time? What kind of foods patient likes to eat? If patient feels angry easily? Not because TCM doctor is more nosey, but because he/she needs whole lot information to help him to confirm his diagnosis.
- Palpation: (To check and feel the pulse):
Pulse taking /pulse reading is the most important also the most difficult step among the four examinations. It calls for doctor’s concentration and experience. Honestly speaking, there are many TCM practitioners do not have sufficient knowledge and experience of reading pulse.
There are three (3) positions near wrist on the radial artery. Each position relate to a specific organ. Reading the pulse is to study the condition of each organ. The left wrist provides information of Heart, Liver, and Kidney-Yin. The right wrist tells condition of Lung, Stomach and Kidney-Yang. Both the Qi (body life energy) and Blood conditions can be studied as well by feeling the pulse
Tongue examination is another important and invaluable diagnostic step; again the organs condition can be clearly represented by the specific areas of the tongue. The shape, color, coating, size, surface texture all can provide information. For example, a red tip of the tongue indicates patient is suffering from heart yang condition showing the patient do not have sufficient sleep or suffering from Insomnia.
Copy right belongs to DR. Peter Yea