“ Yin and Yang and the four seasons are the beginning and end of all things, the root of life and death. If the balance between these two is broken, disease will occur. The ancient Chinese believed that all things are composed of the two integrating forces of Yin and Yang. The Hindu approach will strive to restore the harmony among the mind, body, and spirit systems. According to the Chinese approach, the purpose of medicine is to restore the balance of Yin and Yang within a body. Traditionally, Asians, such as Chinese or Hindu individuals, believe that people are sick because their inner and outer forces are out of balance.
3. Why a person becomes sick from Asian perspectives A Taiwanese saying that “an inferior physician treats symptoms, the average physician treats illness, and the superior physician heals the whole person” reflects the nature of this integrative medicine. The medicine that treats should therefore treat the whole person and not only the physical condition. A holistic concept involves all possible human components, how they interact, and how they fit into total existence. Holism or being holistic is defined as “A philosophical theory according to which a fundamental feature of nature is the existence of wholes which are more than the composite assembly of the parts and which always tend to become more highly developed and complex”. The medicine that heals should be integrative and holistic. A person should be seen as a whole person rather than being dichotomized and fragmented into body and soul, or physical and mental. The number of hospitals in the United States that offer complementary and alternative therapies has more than doubled in the last 10 years. For instance, George Engel’s medical paradigm has upheld biopsychosocial factors in health. This emphasis on a holistic approach has always been the focus of Asian traditional medicine, and it has gradually gained acceptance in the Western developed world. Therefore integrative medicine urges caregivers to pay attention not only to physical problems, but also to the psychological wellbeing and social factors that may have caused or contributed to a person’s illness. Health is about the complete person and not just the condition of the body. If health is to be understood as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, , this approach should be introduced into all healthcare. This unique approach has often been associated with complementary and alternative medicine.
Integrative medicine seeks to integrate the whole person, including the person’s physical symptoms, social environment, and inner state of being, into the process of diagnosing and treating illness. The concept of the harmony and unity of Yin and Yang reflects this understanding. Any off-balance of this integral unity, a person will feel sick, therefore, a person must maintain a harmonious relationship within himself and his surroundings. Not so according to Oriental tradition that sees person as a combination of body, mind and spirit. Often people mistaken health as the absence of diseases. Oriental people have always been holistically minded in terms of what is health. This article will examine the traditional Chinese understanding of health in comparison with Hindu thought. Maintaining a balance between Yin and Yang within the macrocosm and microcosm is the key to a person’s health according to Chinese traditional understanding.
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