What are the key differences between Eastern & Western Medicine?
The key differences are it's philosophical foundation - being the seed that creates the big tree; the focus and mode of study, time of creation, and use today.
The philosophical foundation of the Eastern medical model is that it's both holistic and preventative. In a holistic approach we observe and treat your body as a whole. Another dynamic of a holistic approach is to see you as a unique person with your own story, spirit, and ancestry - all of which impact your health. In a preventative medical paradigm a practitioner works with a client to avoid catastrophic health states by addressing health concerns, such as chronic fatigue. The goal is to return an individual to a full sense of healthy vitality. We do this by treating the root as well as the branch of the disease, not just a palliative or symptoms based approach. The focus of study in Eastern medicine is the subtle energy of the body, the subtle qualities of vibrant health. The time of creation was over 5,000 years. The mode of study, was this philosophy, meditation and learning through the practice of using acupuncture and herbs.
The Western medical model derived from 500 years of study on reversing catastrophic, traumatic, health states and is based on a Descartian, reductive, philosophy. The focus of study was taking people who had reached catastrophic health states, such as cancer, heart attacks, stroke and reversing it for their immediate survival. The focus was not quality of life, it was survival. The reductionist philosophy, created intensive study into individual parts of the body. The Descartian philosophy separated the mind from the body – and thus was born psychology, psychiatry as separate from internal medicine.