Complementary Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine

170 Alternative Cardiovascular Medicine
they will be in relative balance, but under conditions of strain, one of
them can dominate too much and the other become too weak and then
illness occurs. The goal of treatment is to reestablish the relative balance.
The five elements—wood, fire, earth, metal, and water—are considered
to be the basic components of the material world. A relationship of
mutual interdependence and control exists among the elements, which
is used to classify natural phenomena, body tissues and organs, and
human feelings (4,5). In practice, the theories of yin and yang and the
five elements are tied together so that the individual elements are divided
into yin and yang parts. For example, the liver and the gallbladder belong
to the wood element, where the gallbladder is the yang and the liver is
the yin.
The theories of yin and yang and the five elements are not seen as stiff
theoretical systems but rather as poetic models, which can be applied as
needed. In Chinese medicine, they are used to describe the body’s functions
and illness development. They also assist in diagnosing and treating
in daily clinical work. Man is seen as a miniature universe, a
microcosm with an indwelling life force, “qi,” which balances between
the two opposing forces, yin and yang. Man is not viewed as an isolated
phenomenon but, on the contrary, as tightly connected to the whole, the
universe. The goal of human life is to live in harmony with this.
The Body’s Composition
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the following components
are the basic elements in the human body (6): (1) the inner organs,
(2) meridians and communication channels, (3) Qi (“life energy,” pronounced
“chee” as in “cheese”), and (4) blood and body fluids.
An important assumption in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is
that the inner organs are connected to the body’s surface through a complicated
network of channels (meridians), whose main purpose is to
supply all the parts of the body with life energy, “qi.” These meridians
generally lie deep beneath the skin and touch the body’s surface only at
particular points, the so-called acupuncture points. There are 12 meridians
that are connected to the body’s various organs. Energy flows
through the organs in a fixed order and then starts again at the end of each
cycle. A full cycle is believed to take 24 h. The individual organs are
believed to be most active when their energy level is at its peak.
TCM has a view of man that differs from the Western view in two key
ways. Man is viewed as an integrated part of the total universe, and the
human biological processes are viewed as being controlled by the circulation
of qi. The concept of qi does not exist in Western medicine; even
the description of the body differs from the Western model. Although the