Chinese Medicine Perspectives on Myocardial Ischaemia

Abstract

Chinese medicine (CM) has treated cardiovascular disease (CVD) for hundreds of years, albeit under the auspices of very different clinical descriptors. CM is based on very different metaphysics to that of biomedicine, viewing the body and health in a vastly different manner, and its medical system has developed around this unique understanding. One could describe CM as an energetic model of the human, since CM views that body and indeed the world as being based on ‗qi‘, a fundamental substance akin to ‗energy‘. It is necessary to understand the underpinning philosophies and theories that guide CM in order to appreciate how the cardiovascular system is understood and how it is treated with major modalities such as Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture. CM has its own unique diagnostic techniques that are used to detect pathology in the body. A feature of diagnosis is the recognition of underlying patterns of disharmony (or CM syndromes) for diseases or disorders or symptoms. Treatment, typically with Chinese herbal medicine or acupuncture, is aimed at not only the disease but its underlying pattern of disharmony