January/February 2006
Tibetan Medicine
By Chris O’Brien
Think of Tibetan medicine, and you may imagine yourself lying in the middle of a healing Mandala while chanting, orange-robed monks blow incense across your loin-clothed body. But that’s not an accurate image. A modern session with a Tibetan medicine practitioner would be much like talking to a physician, finding out what ails you and getting recommendations for treatment. Like many other Eastern healing systems, Tibetan medicine is a historically valid and recognized institution and a complete medical practice that is still widely used today.
Originating on the high Himalayan plateau‹some say about 2,300 years ago, concurrent with the recorded beginnings of Tibetan culture‹Tibetan medicine can roughly be described as an amalgamation of modern Tibetan philosophy and neighboring medical practices, including the traditions of Ayurvedic, Persian and Chinese medicines. Though Tibetan society today is a peaceful, benevolent culture, it wasn’t always so. By the sixth century, the Tibetans had unified into a formidable empire, and by the seventh century, they were the dominating military force in Asia, consequently adapting and absorbing knowledge and practices from the cultures of the region, including those of India, China, Mongolia, Turkey and Persia. (As a quick aside, this time of dominance was a turning point for Tibet, which then abandoned the military quest in favor of the acquisition of spiritual and cultural growth, evolving into what we today know as Tibetan culture, religion and medicine.)
Tibetan medicine, like many Eastern and alternative medicines, differs primarily from Western medicine in that it focuses on the individual, both in diagnosis and treatment, versus the practice of prescribing one-dose-fits-all remedies that’s common in allopathic medicine.
“Tibetan medicine is essentially very holistic,” says Phil Weber, M.D.,
practitioner at the Shambhala Clinic (a.k.a Boulder Family Practice Tibetan Medicine Clinic). “It’s based on trying to understand the whole mind-body situation as well as the concept that the basis of healing is connected to your own intrinsic health and healing ability.”
The idea is that there exists a natural balance between the mind, body and spirit, and that a disruption of this balance long precedes but ultimately leads to the physical manifestation of illness.
“Tibetan medicine acknowledges that health and illness result both from the relationship between the mind and the body and people's connectedness to the natural world and sense of spirituality,” says Eliot Tokar, a Tibetan medicine practitioner in New York. Therefore, part of the treatment is to deal with current symptoms. But beyond that, and what makes Tibetan medicine unique, is the focus on remedying the core imbalance that was the original
stimulus for the current illness and symptoms.
How it works
Tibetan medicine uses three main tools, called Nyipa sum, to measure and adjust this natural balance. Often referred to in English as the vital energies, these three systems, rLung, mKhris-pa and Bad-kan, incorporate the five elements‹earth, wind, fire, water, space‹and very roughly correspond to the Ayurvedic doshas vata, pitta and kapha, respectively.
“A disturbance in one or a combination of these three principle systems
results in illness,” says Tokar. “The disturbance can come from diet, behavior or environmental factors whose qualities, based on their constituent elements, act to disturb the qualities of any of the three energies.”
For example, too much stress can affect vital energies, as can a junk-food diet, smoking, prescription drugs, exposure to toxins and so forth. “The manner in which these factors can result in illness will be more or less complex depending on the acute or chronic nature of the problem,” Tokar says. “All illnesses must be seen as individual and based on the situation of the particular patient's background.”
In short, these three vital energies must be in balance for health and
healing to occur. And Tibetan medicine practitioners are trained to discern the current state of your vital energies and make recommendations for treatment and rebalancing.
Typically, a practitioner will do an intake, which includes assessing your overall physical and psychological demeanor, as well as an interview to find out as much as possible about your current and past medical conditions, as well as any factors that might be contributing to illness. The practitioner will also usually do a traditional urinalysis, a pre-clinical observation technique used to help decipher your state of balance or imbalance. Finally, they will check your pulses‹not the pulse an allopathic physician would check, but rather energetic pulses similar to those used in Chinese medicine.
From the information gathered, a practitioner can then make an accurate diagnosis and prescription. Most Tibetan practitioners, under typical conditions, employ a hierarchy of treatments, beginning with the gentlest and least invasive. So, for example, dietary and lifestyle modifications would first be recommended, followed by herbal remedies and finally physical remedies including moxibustion, baths and physical therapy. The ultimate treatment is twofold, including remedies for addressing the obvious symptoms of illness as well as the
underlying imbalance of vital energies.
Traditional practices do have protocol for fixing broken bones and even treating cancer, but in the West, allopathic medicine is a more effective solution for serious cases such as these. In fact, most Tibetan practitioners don’t have a problem recommending or working with Western doctors and practices.
“Sometimes the best results come from using both at the same time,” says Weber. “And sometimes Western medicine is so skillful that it can handle a serious illness very quickly where it might take much longer to heal with a Chinese, Ayurvedic or Tibetan system.” Weber points out the benefits of using both Western and Eastern practices by sighting a self-directed study where his clinic found that post-surgical patients who received acupuncture were in better physical and psychological shape more quickly, and left the hospital two to three days sooner than usual. This is an example of balancing the energies to allow the body, mind and spirit to work with the medical procedure and heal quickly. “Often people wind up unknowingly or subconsciously fighting their treatment,” says Weber. “And that struggle could lead to further illness or perpetuate the current problem.”
Again, the main feature of Tibetan medicine is that it is practiced on an individualized level and not on a disease-model basis. Therefore, actual treatment for the same illness will vary from person to person.
Finding a practitioner is usually best through word of mouth. Training in this practice comes through family lineage (if you’re Tibetan), apprenticeship or by attending a Tibetan medical college. However, no official certification program exists in the West. For chronic conditions such as allergies and anxiety, you should expect some tangible results within three to six visits. On average, a visit costs $40 to $80, and most practitioners are willing to discuss price if there’s a hardship.
Resources, local and beyond
If you’re interested in finding out more, check out some of these links:
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 FEATURE ARTICLES
