Chinese medicine has appeared to be unscientific as the basic theoretical framework is inconsistent with modern medicine. Indeed Chinese medicine has rather different viewpoints when it comes to look at how the human body organizes and repairs itself. Many misunderstandings about Chinese medicine would have been out of the basic incompatibility or lack of commonalities with the terminologies used in (western) chemistry, physiology, pathology, etc. The purpose of this article is to make the basic theoretical framework of Chinese medicine a little more accessible to people who do not have a background in traditional Chinese culture.

Fundamental Assumptions

Chinese medicine has developed on the basis of two fundamental assumptions. First of all, the human body is a complex bio chemical machine with highly complex interactions of internal organs. Second, the human body is a very intelligent machine attempting to repair itself under any adverse circumstances. These two basic assumptions actually form the guiding principle for formulating treatments for all kinds of diseases in Chinese medical practices.

In modern medical practices, however, many treatment approaches have often ignored the ability of the human body in attempting to repair itself or assumed the partial loss of such ability. The usual treatment amounts to the use of drugs (remedial measures) to eliminate symptoms or to restore any de-ranged (considered as "abnormal") body parameters to their desired (i.e., statistically normal) ranges. The consequence would sometimes make what is otherwise curable a chronic disease. A classic example is the treatment of diabetes, which amounts to the remedial use of insulin to maintain the blood sugar level. The disease can be controlled, but not cured. On the other hand, Chinese medicine takes a rather different approach which emphasizes on raising the so-called energy level of the body so as to let it regain the ability to regulate its sugar level. Of course it also comes with herbal prescription that helps improve the functions of certain organs that are pivotal to raising the energy level.

Energy: Xue Qi (血氣)

Xue Qi (血氣): The central concept in Chinese medicine is xue qi (血氣) which is a measure of the "energy level" of a human person. Xue qi powers all activities that the body carries out including all normal operations, repairs, immunities, etc. Chinese medicine classifies energy under three broad categories:

• Yang (陽): Energy derived directly from sources which are being circulated through our complex circulation systems that include the blood circulation system and a subtle inter-organ network known as jing luo (經絡); this kind of energy is readily consumable.

• Yin (陰): Stored energy which can be released immediately when yang begins to exhaust.

• Huo (火): Energy extracted from storage which will be used when the yang and yin are exhausted. Huo is the main storage, and the ability to store huo diminishes as we get older. So, sometimes, huo is regarded as our reserve and when it dries up, our life ends.

The first type of energy is often referred to as yang (active), the second type as yin (reactive), and the third type as huo (advance). Being an electronic engineer, I cannot help making the analogy that yang energy is like the power directly generated from the generator, the yin energy is like reactive storage similar to that released from a capacitor, and the huo energy is like the charge stored in a battery.

The concept of energy is scalefree! So, it can be described in different time scales, e.g., a short duration, a day, and even a whole lifespan.

Typically, in the morning, the human body has generated enough yang power to support various operations as the process of generating power is believed to be done mainly when the body goes into deep sleep. The process also requires good supply of blood as the power has to be distributed to various parts of the body. As time moves during the day, the body becomes tired and yin power gradually takes over. In the late evening, huo would have to be used. The kind of feeling that we have after sticking up late for many nights in a row is a typical sign of utilizing too much huo.

If we look at a shorter duration, like swimming in a standard 50 m pool, our body consumes yang at the beginning. When we start to feel tired, we are switching gradually to yin, and when we feel very tired but still insist to keep going, we are likely to burn huo. Marathoning apparently consumes a lot of huo especially toward the later part of the running.

Taking a longer-term perspective, young people have high levels of yang, middle-aged have gradually increased their consumption of yin as their yang has reduced, and aged people have lost much of the yang and yin powers and are already burning too much huo and their energy level is low. When the energy level is insufficient, the body becomes weak in the sense that many less essential activities would not be supported. Eventually the body cannot even maintain the essential functions, and die.

How do we generate energy? The Importance of Good-Quality Sleep

We generate energy from food and adequate rest. When we sleep, the body produces xue qi. Good-quality sleep ensures enough xue qi. For children, this also means a good investment for future use (i.e., saving up more huo.). Unfortunately, most people nowadays do not have good-quality rest. Even worse, some people have very little sleep, let alone having quality sleep. They are using up their huo much more quickly, and will be more prone to chronic illnesses as they do not have enough energy to self-repair.

A key belief in Chinese medicine is that lack of xue qi is the origin of all kinds of disorders in a human body. The lack of xue qi can be intrinsic (or inherited), i.e., some people are born with a low level of xue qi and they are inherently weak. Consumption of certain Chinese herbs, like ginseng, has proven to help raise the xue qi level. Moreover, the enhancement of xue qi can be gained by improving the functions of certain organs. A Chinese herbal doctor should be consulted for detailed diagnosis and prescription of appropriate herb.

Self Repair and Illnesses

When the human body becomes sick, symptoms show up. In Chinese medicine, this is sometimes a sign of good health because this shows that the body has enough xue qi and is able to perform self-repair. Only when a body is healthy and with enough energy, symptoms are allowed to surface. If the body is weak and without sufficient energy, it could only afford to deal with the more essential life-keeping functions, and relatively less important problems, e.g., a viral attack, would not be attended to.

We don't fall sick! So, we are healthy! Are we, really? The biggest enemy to our own health is our own life style. In Hong Kong, people often work for long hours without proper and adequate rest, the xue qi level is low. Yet, apparently they find themselves pretty healthy and won't even complain about a cold or flu symptom, especially when they are very busy and have no time to take a rest. But when they slow down and take a few days off from work, they fall sick immediately! This is normal from the Chinese medical viewpoint as the body, having gained more rest, has more xue qi and hence becomes more ready to repair and react to problems which were ignored when the xue qi level was low. This is why a person could be more "healthy" if he or she could show symptoms of cold or flu as it is a proof of the body's ability to repair.

When a flu symptom shows up for example, we should take more rest so as to gain sufficient xue qi to let the body do the repair job. Chinese herbal medicine helps the body re-gain its balance. The application of herbs is a complex issue as it involves diagnosis of the patient's status and basic body conditions. (Here, I would avoid to get into details of the issue of balance which involves a much bigger body of knowledge of Chinese medicine.)

Metabolism and Exercising

Chinese medicine strongly believes in the balance of generation and removal processes. This corresponds to metabolisam in western medicine. In Chinese medicine, we refer to the useless substance that has to be removed as du (毒), which literally means poison.

The various organs are connected and communicate with one another through the blood/fluid circulation network, nervous network, and a subtle network called jing luo. Failure of the removal process causes excessive accumulation of du in all communication networks within the body, as manifested by increase in body weight, increase in blood cholesterol level, etc. Cancer is also regarded as a result of failure of removal of du, from the Chinese medical viewpoint. The problem becomes more prominent as we get older.

Exercise is an effective means to improve metabolism. In Chinese medicine, exercise is a means to trigger and maintain a good balance of the generation and removal processes. We need to do sufficient exercise to maintain a good balance. But it is inappropriate to over-exercise as it hurts the body by burning off huo which is our main energy storage. Doing exercise in the late evening is also bad because the body is likely to consume huo after a long day of work.

To keep our body fit, we need good rest and adequate (not excessive) exercise. In fact, people wishing to lose weight (if they are genuinely overweighted) should actually try to improve their sleep quality in the first place and to do adequate exercise. Inadequate rest would only reduce the body's level of xue qi. With a low level of xue qi, the body has to shut down relatively less important functions, and removal of du will be slowed down or even halted. Remember that removal needs a lot of energy too! Therefore, it is conceptually wrong to use exercise as a means to burn more calorie in order to lose weight. It won't work (unless you don't eat or eat very little!) In fact, only when the body has sufficient energy, it can do the removal job as appropriate and maintain a healthy metabolism. The body then would lose weight naturally and to an appropriate point.