ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to highlight the development of traditional Chinese medicine, its philosophical and theoretical tenets, its status and some policy implications in the People’s Republic of China, the UK, and the US. Traditional Chinese medicine is first and foremost a holistic system in which health is understood as the cooperative functioning parts within a context. Chinese medical thinking was predicated on two other major principles in addition to Yin-Yang, namely, Chi or vital energy, and the Five Phases doctrine. In China, acupuncture has been used in over a million painless surgical procedures, including pulmonary lobectomies, heart surgery, Caesarian sections, and various abdominal operations. Acupressure treatment uses the same points as in acupuncture except that pressure is applied in this case with the fingertips.
