What are different attitudes between Chinese and Western medical practitioners towards disease？
2 min readAccording to Chinese cosmology，all is born from the marriage of yin and yang.
Harmony between the two produces good health；disharmony leads to disease.One of the major assumptions of traditional Chinese medicine is that disease is due to an internal imbalance of yin and yang，and so the strategy is to restore harmony and traditional Chinese doctors use acupuncture，herbs and special food to help correctyin-yang imbalance until the body returns to a healthy state.Another assumption is that each organ has a mental as well as a physical function，and all parts of the bodily whole are intimately connected.
Western medicine assumes that a disease is due to external forces such as a virus or bacteria.It is based on the Cartesian philosophy that the body represents one functional system，and the mind another.It recognizes that each system may affect the other，but it sees disease as either primarily physical or mental.
What are traditional methods for treating illness？
Traditional Chinese physicians use numerous ways to treat illness by restoring the desired balance between yin and yang and among qi，shen，blood and bodily fluids.These include acupuncture，herbology，moxibustion，food therapy，cupping，qigong exercises，coin-rubbing and others.
Moxibustion is a traditional therapy utilizing moxa or mugwort.Mugwort is agedand ground up to a fluff.Then the fluff is further processed into a stick that resembles a cigar，and it is used to warm area of the body and acupuncture points.
Dieda means“fall and strike.”Practitioners of dieda specialize in healing traumas due to sports’injuries，such as bone fractures，cuts，bruises，etc.It is not strictly a branch of medicine，but a spin-off from the long history of Chinese martial arts.Practitioners may also use more typical Chinese medical therapies if an internal injury is involved.
