Traditional Chinese Medicine

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

If you go to Greece, you will surely sample Greek food.

The same would apply if you visited Mexico — you would be tempted to try authentic Mexican cooking.

• Would you go to a place to try out their traditional forms of medicine?

Some places have traditional forms of medicine that developed centuries ago. Southern India, for example, has a medical system known as Ayurveda, and many people travel to that region just to get treated using Ayurvedic treatments.

Most places in the world developed ways of treating illness throughout history. Over time, many of those systems disappeared and were replaced by modern medicine.

The ancient system of Traditional Chinese Medicine continues to thrive in the modern world, and Chinese medical treatments fetch a lot of money for their practitioners, even in cities across the United States!

Watch the video below to learn more about the concepts behind Traditional Chinese Medicine.

• How does the speaker describe the five elements?
• What does nature have to do with this system of medicine?
• How are these elements related to human health?

Read more about the Five Major Organs and check out the graphic based on the five elements.

Then, reflect on the following questions.

• How is this approach different from regular modern medicine?
• What do you think regular medical doctors would think of this approach to medicine?
• Do you think traditional or folk medicine can be effective? Why or why not?

Most modern medicine is based on scientific discoveries of the past couple of centuries. For example, the idea that bacteria cause disease is new and did not exist in the ancient world.

The treatments used in Chinese medicine are just as interesting as the theory behind them.

In the Got It? section, delve into some of the treatments you would expect to receive in Traditional Chinese Medicine.