Chinese Medicine Terminology Explained (part one)

What do all of those weird words mean that you always hear during acupuncture treatments?

I wanted to start a series where we can finally get down to some of the most confusing parts of Chinese medicine. Let’s be real though, it’s all a little mysterious if you haven’t learned about acupuncture or Chinese medicine in school. It’s honestly a bit mysterious to anyone that has been through school! Haha, that’s where these blog posts will come into play. I’m here to try to bridge the gap between what our culture currently understands from a western perspective, and what we (the acupuncturists) are taught about the body from an eastern perspective. 

The best place for me to start is by trying to uncover some of the meaning behind what these special terms mean because they do get used a lot during your treatments, and they tend to make people want to scratch their heads.

What are these mysterious words? The big ones are Yin, Yang, Qi (pronounced as Chee), Dampness, and Wind. There are other words that we can definitely talk about in the future, but for now, I think these are the big heavy hitters.

The above terms represent either an energy or physical substance that flows through the body. Depending on the term, it is either a beneficial substance that we want in abundance to nourish the body (we can think of it as a helpful resource to our system), or it is a pathological substance that can wreak some chaos on our systems (and the goal here is to release it from the body). The amount and condition of these substances contributes to the bodies overall state of health and balance or pathology and dis-ease. These are dynamic terms that have more than one meaning depending on the way it effects the body (similarly to how certain words might have unrelated meanings when used in different contexts in language). I think having a good understanding of the way these terms are used, and the effects they can have on the body, will allow for deeper meaning in the conversations that you have with your acupuncturist about your health.

When you are able to understand the dynamics behind what is going on in your body, you can connect to your own healing experience and want to take part in it more. 

Part two of this blog series is going to dive into the basics of Yin and Yang theory. Having a good background idea of this massive concept will be crucial to leading into a bigger topic: how does Yin and Yang being out of balance effect our health? I look forward to addressing these topics with you all

-Dr. Corinne Brown, OMP