This article completes the introduction to the clinical side of Oriental Medicine, briefly describing its main techniques.
    Qigong (pronounced 'chee gung') may be used to show how relaxation and movement blend together harmoniously. Qigong basically means working consciously and patiently with life's forces. It includes aspects of awareness, posture, and breath. Any human act that blends these things is qigong. A good practitioner will help the client become aware of ways she already does these things and work to enhance or expand them. Also qigong is an art and science itself, and can be taught for health and well-being, or prescribed to treat disease (similar to physical therapy).
    Eastern nutritional counseling may be used to bring balance and harmony to the act of eating. Instead of, or in addition to, looking at the chemical parts of food (i.e., proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, etc.), Chinese medicine looks to the essential nature of food relative to its thermal qualities and tastes, each with predictable effects on the body. This way provides for common-sense analysis of food. Perhaps even more importantly, eating habits and the psychology of those habits may be clearly explained. As one becomes more aware of one's motivations, they become easier to change at will.
    This brings us to spiritual concerns. Help in this area is a natural consequence of working with the body and mind and our relationships to things. In addition the Chinese philosophy of the Tao, to which Chinese medicine owes a great deal, offers a simple and organic perspective that can enhance or help develop any spiritual or religious beliefs.
    Rounding out lifestyle issues is attention to one's environment. Feng Shui is a specific term referring to the Chinese art of placement. In general, however, it may refer to how the home, work, and climatic environment affect one's health. Simple suggestions may be made, as certain conditions may fail to respond if one's environment is at odds with healing.
    The remaining techniques are performed on or for the client in the clinic; these include bodywork, herbs, and acupuncture. The methods of external bodywork include traditional medical massage, bone-setting, and topical herbal applications, as well as more modern techniques like electro-magnetism and laser therapy.
    There are also less common, yet traditional, techniques involving scraping or cupping of the skin, and the use of various vibrational healing mediums like tuning forks, light spectrums, and even music or natural sounds. In addition to these, qigong may be used as a medical technique in itself. The qigong practitioner may perform simple movements above or around the body to influence the flow of qi.

            Chinese herbalism is a highly specialized form of dietary therapy, where use is made of relatively strong tastes and natures of substances in a tightly controlled and traditional way for stocking raw in pharmacies, or for further processing into pills, powders, or extracts.

            Herbal medicine is best prescribed and rendered by a licensed practitioner, rather than simply researched and purchased in a store. The commercial herbal industry is not Chinese medicine. Rather it is the use of herbs singly or in general formulations that likely are not appropriate for one's individual needs and come with no guidelines for use. Also processing and potency may not be subject to traditional medical controls.

            Finally, acupuncture is the insertion of fine gauge needles just beneath the skin, or into the tissues, to harmonize the flow of qi. There are many styles of acupuncture, yet all have in common the central aim of removing blockages to the free flow of qi, whether that qi is of a physical or emotional nature. For example, an injury to the upper back and neck, unresolved, may lead to chronic hunching over, collapse of the chest, and depression. The same scenario can occur in reverse, with depression leading to a disposition of the spine and pain. Acupuncture could be applied in both cases to encourage the relaxation and harmonization of the tissues that are maintaining the poor posture. The depression responds as the posture improves. In addition, acupuncture could be applied to calm the mind and promote a feeling of well-being, allowing greater ability for the client's physical injury to heal.

            As such, acupuncture, as well as all Oriental medical techniques, strives to reconcile the physical (yin) and emotional (yang) aspects present in all disease. This distinguishes the medicine from other forms of therapy that may focus on one or the other problem. This way makes for effective and gentle treatment.

            In the next series of articles, we shall get to know the techniques more deeply in relation to areas of health and disease. Next month we will focus on treating childhood issues and illnesses with Chinese herbs and bodywork techniques.