Chronotherapy in Chinese Medicine

Although it is a relatively new concept in Western medicine to tie the treatment plan with the life rhythm of a patient, such techniques have been in use since the start of Chinese medicine, as documented in the Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine, which dates back to roughly 3,000 B.C.

In theory, it has to do with the sequential dominance of a particular organ/system relative to its peers in the body. It is directly related to the theory of the Five Elements, which I will detail in a later posting.

In practice, such strategy can be used in the diagnosis and prognosis of a patient’s condition, as well as in implementing treatment plans. Some people may know of Chinese fortune-tellers, but most probably dismiss those as superstition. In fact, the trend of a person’s life can be predicted, according to the Five Elements theory, such that an individual with a certain bodily composition is most vulnerable at a certain time of his life, which can be broken down to the year, season, day, up to the hour of a day, when he most likely would have problems. The opposite is true also, anyone has his most fortunate hour, day, season and year of his life. However in real life, the vast majority of people have no idea about this system to look into the future, even among the Chinese.

Specifically for the practice of acupuncture, there are techniques to treat a patient according to the specific season or time of the day, which work wonders for time-related symptoms, such as allergies or certain sleep disorders. There are also time related techniques that is used to treat non-time sensitive symptoms, which in most cases work very well also.