I'm a very no-nonsense guy and this system is actually very practical in it's structure and end results! I have simplified (whew!) the whole system for you just below along with This Chart.  and also with the most important "Three Treasures!" You will find these "Three Treasures"  at  Understanding Chinese Tonic Herbal Medicine. Read all of this below carefully, it's really pretty easy to understand. You'll be glad you did!

The Traditional Chinese 5 Element Diagnostic System is used as a tool to determine disorders and prescribe a combination of all natural herbs for healing. It is without a doubt the most valuable “medical” wisdom we have on this planet. Of course The FDA and most Medical Doctors in this country will fervently disagree! 

This healthy form of healing, balancing, and correcting energy which is supplied from over 8,000 natural plants is the true way we as "citizens of this planet" have been created to be healed when any illness comes our way. 

So how does this diagnostic system work? What scientific basis does it have and why is the Traditional Herbal Doctor in China usually paid a much better salary then the typical MD in that country? This system is actually very practical in its structure and end result. This article will attempt to simplify the whole system for you. 

To begin with, there are always opposite matters in our world (and our bodies) such as hot and cold, wet and dry, dark and bright etc. The Chinese call this factor Yin and Yang: 

Yang is hot as yin is cold, yang is dry as yin is wet, yang is big as yin is small, It is easy to understand by just comparing energies. There are also five different elements; these are water, wood, fire, earth and metal. Each of these basic elements like everything under the sun are subject to yin and yang (they can be hot or cold, dry or wet etc.) Each of these five elements in TCM represents different organ systems within our bodies. Here's how it breaks down:

Water: represents the kidneys, bladder, Reproductive system, and all fluids other than blood in the body 

Wood: represents the liver and gall bladder

Fire: represents the heart, pericardium, blood and the “triple burner” (the three areas of heated distribution of water)

Earth: represents the stomach and spleen (digestion and metabolism) 

Metal: represents the lungs and colon.

Please see this Five Element Theory Chart for more details 

As with everything in existence, all herbs are subject to Yin and Yang and have hot or cold, wet or dry (etc.-etc.) energies. A good herbalist can taste and determine these energies on his tongue or feel a hot or cold energy in his body after eating some of the plant. This is how over the last 3,000 years eight thousand plants were grouped into their categories of yin and yang and also how the organ systems that the plants affected were determined. (Yes, sadly a few of these early herbalists died from ingesting poisonous plants in the process.) 

So now an important question arises; should we just throw away this valuable data for all time in exchange for our “scientifically proven” knowledge of synthetic drugs as medicine for our health? The contrast of just how evil our current pharma-medical system is becomes staggering. 

So then all plants have cooling, drying, strengthening, weakening, heating, moistening (the list goes on and on) energy factors and they have specific organ systems the plants most effect. The same is true of our organs themselves. They should ideally always be in a perfect balance of yin and yang. Also an imbalance of one organ system can affect many other organ systems as shown in this diagram. 

However, as we all know, things get out of balance from time to time. The perfect example of an excess yang disorder would be a hot fever. A deficient yang disorder would be cold hands and feet from lack of circulation.

These major organ systems are subject to a number of symptomatic complaints so by questioning the patient the doctor can began to see a Yin or Yang condition in each of the systems. TCM doctors use a check list of questions that will give all the clues they need for getting the right diagnoses. It is quite simple. 

Besides questioning about symptomatic complaints, The TCM doctor looks at the condition of the tongue (its colors, cracks, texture, moisture, etc) and spends a lot of time feeling the pulses in 9 different positions and pressures on each wrist. This will either give the doctor confirmation of what has been gathered from questioning or tell him to look deeper into the problems. The results are always amazingly accurate. 

So in this way the TCM doctor can chart the patient’s yin or yang disorders and can then apply the plants with the exact opposite energy to bring balance to the patient. 

For example if a person is always cold, has little sex drive, and wakes up many times in the night needing to urinate (a kidney yang deficient condition) the TCM doctor would give them (as a part of their formula) a Kidney-Yang tonic herb such as Yin Yang Huo ( Epimedium Sagittatum) to counter balance this condition. However this is just one element and one herb. There may be many body elements involved and 3 or 4 herbs applied to each element. Or in some cases a single herb such as Dan Shen for example, can correct many imbalances involving the heart. (Note: An article on the herb, Dan Shen, will soon be released by the author; Dan Shen can correct many heart problems such as arrhythmias and angina quickly and save many lives without dangerous drugs or heart surgery.) 


All five elements (organ systems of the body) affect each other by generating health and by overcoming it as this diagram shows. See this chart for greater details.  (eg: Earth overcomes Water as Water overcomes Fire but Fire generates Earth as Earth generates Metal etc.) After the balance information is gathered from the patient, it is checked and re-checked then applied to the final diagnoses and formula. It works absolutely beautifully.

Remember, the correction of disease with medicinal plants is by far the most powerful energy source of the Traditional Chinese Medicine system. Acupuncture was only used as a way to help open up the meridians that the herbs were working through. Many acupuncturists have somehow reversed this thinking into "herbal treatment is just something to be added sometimes.” This is an unfortunate misconception. The TCM Doctor is always first and foremost an herbalist. As an example, I am a TCM Herbalist and I am trained in both Traditional Chinese full body acupuncture and Korean hand acupuncture yet I only occasionally use acupuncture as a back up treatment. 

Of course acupuncture can, by itself, benefit the body in many ways sometimes but the reality is, the plants of the earth when used correctly are the strongest healing source there is. The reason for this is the plants are “in tune” with our molecular structure as we (The plants and us) are both created living entities of the same earth. However acupuncture needles are great tools to help open up meridians and they work quite well.

Also please remember that over 8,000 medicinal herbs in 16 different classifications are used for most healing of disease which includes the amazing group of herbs in the Tonic Herb Classification. These herbs are not considered “medicinal” in the usual sense of the word and they are the herbs most anyone can take to achieve optimum health of the most important “Three Treasures” which are Jing (Essense), Chi (Energy), and Shen (Spirit). Please see my article at Natural News on The Classification of Tonic Herbs here.

I may have over-simplified the TCM 5 Element Diagnostic System a bit (I have a book on TCM that is almost 7 inches thick!) but hopefully it has given you an insight to this amazingly accurate system. This diagnostic system is over 1,500 years old as practiced today (Over 4,000 years in its beginning) and is still much more preferred in China then the western system. It is taken more seriously by the patient and the Traditional Chinese doctor is usually paid more in China.

We need this system to be available at every hospital in America so the patients can see for themselves that Big Pharma is not at all a benefit to our health and is in fact a disaster to our health. Big Pharma does not just operate legally but also with the approval of what some consider being a tyrannical form of government; The FDA. 

I don’t know about you but Nature’s Healthcare Plan sounds much better to me.