Health is a big blessing. Life and its joy cannot be enjoyed without health. But it is also true that disease is a part of life. The man has been trying to fight diseases since very long as health is the most precious gift of Nature for humanity.
China is a big civilization with a variety of culture, traditions, and customs. From the art of defense up to the science of medicines, Chinese people show many distinctions. Chinese medicines are a wide range of practices of medicine including traditional ways of curing or treating diseases. Chinese medicines were prepared from the traditions of Chinese people some 2000 years ago. Chinese medicines are primarily used as complementary alternative medicines. These may include herbal medicines, massage, and dietary therapy or medicines. Concepts used in traditional. Chinese medicines practices depict their origin in pre- scientific culture. So, Chinese medicines are different from other scientific medicines both in their composition and mode of action.
According to research, Chinese medicine practices started around 1, 1000 BC, when the only dozen of drugs were first prescribed. With the end of the 16th century, the number of the drugs has reached to 1900. And in the last century the number of drugs was reported 12,800. The historical physicians of Chinese medicines practices are Zhang Zhangjing, Hua Tuo, Sun Simias, Tao Hongjung, Zhang Jieg, and Li Shizhen.
Traditional Chinese medicines is an ancient system (applied today as well) of a concept of balanced energy that is firmly believed to flow throughout the body. This balanced flow of energy maintains a person’s physical, emotional and spiritual health. The disease appears when the flow of energy is disrupted its balance is disturbed. Chinese Medicines contain herbs, minerals and animal products to regulate the flow of the vital energy in the body.
Besides medicines /drugs, Chinese’s medicines practices also include massage and exercise. More commonly, Chinese medicines are designed to promote and maintain health through diet and exercise. Chinese medicine practice is different from the western medicines because Chinese practitioners study for many years to grasp the concepts completely. In traditional Chinese medicine, there are almost 13000 medicines used in China. Plant elements and extracts are commonly used in Chinese medicines. Such medicines are called herbal medicines. Some Chinese medicines are also made from human body parts and excrete.
In certain civilizations the use of human parts, for instance, nails, dried placenta, hair is not suggested as Chinese medicines. Some Chinese medicines are made up of from animal parts like pangolin scales, snake oil, etc. Chinese medicines may also contain materials obtained from some insects like a centipede, leech, Scorpion and others. The most commonly used plants in Chinese medicines include Crow dipper, cockle buzz fruit, croton seed, and camellia. Chinese Cucumber, Gingko, Ginseng, lily bulb, ground cardamom fruit, willow bark medicines obtained from such plants have many good effects for the relief of pain, breathing problems, stress relieving, etc.
In short we can say that Chinese medicines are made up of natural resources and their mode of action is different from western medicines.