Culture

Chinese medicine differs from Western medicine in that it focuses on “health” because Chinese medicine promotes overall wellness of an individual, but Western medicine treats the symptoms of an illness. Chinese medicine is “heal-all”, while Western medicine is “cure-all.” Another major difference between Chinese medicine and Western medicine is that Chinese medicine focuses on plants as remedies. Plants are essential to life. To the Chinese, plants can improve health. Given that Western medicine aims at treating the symptoms and chemical drugs often generate many adverse side effects, more new chemical drugs have to be developed to treat those new symptoms.