Eastern medicine, also known as
Oriental medicine, is traced back five thousand years in history. However,
the real history of Eastern medicine must have begun somewhere in the
prehistoric ages. The reason being that natural human instincts are at the
very foundation of all Eastern medical techniques. A human being's first
reaction to injury was to rub the injured area. If the pain remained, then
one would push on that area to try to eliminate the pain. This became the
foundation for acupressure. Then, if the pain still remained , the natural
instinct of the human being was to pick up an object and use it to push on the
injured area. These objects consisted of stone, wood and other hard
objects. Later the use of animal bone, fish bone or thorns for this
purpose became the foundation for acupuncture. If the pain still remained,
one could then poke the injured area with thorns or other objects to try and
suck the blood out. This became the foundation for cupping and
phlebotomy. If those symptoms later became chronic, humans would heat
objects such as rocks under the sun to be rubbed on the injured area. If
injury occurred during the winter season, ice would be rubbed on the injured
area along with heated rocks. This became the foundation for moxibustion
(heat therapy). Finally, it's human instinct to avoid eating in order to
manipulate the immune system to become more active in order to cure
disease. If the injured person was still sick after using other methods,
they may have tried to eat nutritional foods to help cure the internal problems
that relate to nutrition. This idea served as a foundation for herbology.
Today, acupressure has developed into
the use of fingers, elbows and certain tools and manipulation techniques.
Acupuncture has developed into the use of sharp stainless steel objects such as
needles which may vary in length. Cupping techniques developed into the
use of disposable cups to draw out blood after sticking a certain part of the
body with a needle (phlebotomy). Eastern medicine uses injection needles
only for blood drawing. We do not use needles for injecting certain
medical liquids into the body. Moxibustion developed into the use of heat
packs, cold packs, and even ultrasonic heating therapies. Modern herbology
has now developed as many as 480 different kinds of useful herbs. Each is
prescribed according to the individual patient's needs. Herbs are supplied
to the patient in the form of pills, capsules, powders, or teas in order to help
alleviate their illness.
In conclusion, the real history of
Eastern medicine must be said to have developed at the same time the human race
itself began to develop. As the famous proverb states, "If man is far
from nature, he is close to disease; but, if man is close to nature, he is far
from disease."
