Chinese medicine is like painting – it is an art.

The human body is a masterpiece. Beautiful beyond words. Limitless in its expression. For thousands of years artists have been inspired to recreate the intricacies of the human body through painting, through art. Each subject painted is completely divine and different, a skill that the artist must master in order to truly grasp the trueness of our human form.

I love history and I love to travel, and the two obviously go together perfectly. All over the world I have visited different art museums and galleries. From the National portrait gallery in London, to the Uffizi art museum in Florence, to the masterful Hunan museum in  Chengsha, China, I have seen over and over again the fine historical depictions of humans. Often times the artist utilizes such immaculate detail that one would almost think the work was a photograph.

The artist is able to render our human form into an art piece that tantalizes our imaginations and inspires us to view our world from a different light, a different perspective, solely because they have mastered the art of individualization. Everyone of us has a different skin tone, hair and eye colour. We all come in such different shapes and sizes, with contours as curved as the hillsides of Ireland and as flat as the Saskatchewan prairies. We are all so different and unique, something that the good artist is able to realize.

Well Chinese medicine is exactly the same. Seeing that everyone is so truly different, the good physician is able to look clearly at each and every single being as unique and worthy of care specific to them. Every prescription, every word of advice and every prognosis is completely dependant on the  individual. The Doctor of Chinese medicine uses herbal medicines, or acupuncture needles, to paint a picture of the patient in front of them. They take the signs and symptoms of each individual person as a guiding means to create the most individualized treatment plan possible.

This means even though 100 people may have psoriasis, every single one of them will manifest their psoriasis in a way unique to them. Every single one of those 100 people will have a different shape, different contour, lifestyle habit, genetic background, temperament, appetite, age, and gender. The list goes on in regards to how different we all truly are. Appropriate treatment for any individual, no matter what their problem, has to be based on those unique difference that we all hold.

Although art that involves stick people, and/ or images of humans whereby all the subjects look exactly the same, is still art. This type of art is not truly representative of real life, as it is more cartoon, fantasy, and surrealism. In the same way, any medicine that uses static, identical looking people, as its basis of treatment is also not based on real life. It has become too mechanical and removed from reality.

Real medicine is like art, as it treats every patient as a new painting. An individual creation, that needs individual attention. It is through this appreciation of minute details that the masterpiece is born, and a person’s ills are alleviated.

Wishing you health,

Dr. Trevor Erikson