HERBALCONSULTS

Traditional Chinese Diagnosis

Chinese doctor read basic physical signs of health and disease such as eyes, complexion; the color and texture of the tongue and tongue fur; the pulse, and the patient’s personal habits.

Interviewing, observing, listening, and feeling are the four basic methods of diagnosis. The interview focuses on the major symptoms of the disease and background factors which may have contributed to its development. With methodical visual observation traditional Chinese doctors try to find visual onsets of an ailment or problem by examining the skin coloring and form, tongue color and tongue fur, eyes, secretions and excretions, as well as the patient’s mood and movements. The examination of the tongue – its color and fur – is the most important method of the observation-diagnosis and it requires a lot of experience.

Listening to the patient’s breathing, coughing, speech, and the sounds coming from the visceral organs are important in the listening technique.

Also important is the traditional Chinese pulse diagnosis: the physician uses three fingers with light pressure to feel three different pulses, with heavy pressure he can feel three more different pulses at each wrist. The total adds up to twelve pulses, each reflecting the condition of a different vital organ. On each of the twelve pulses the skilled doctor can detect over thirty different pulse qualities. Chinese pulse diagnosis requires sensitive fingers and years of practice and experience.