Thomas Lee, doctor of traditional Chinese medicine in private practice, Glendale, California on the use of Chinese herbs as an alternative treatment for heart disease:
Tell me how traditional Chinese medicine views the concept of high blood pressure?
High blood pressure or hypertension is totally a Western medical term. From a traditional Chinese medicinal point of view, there is no such term. Actually, we just try to find what's causing the high blood pressure. We try to understand the condition through the study of which meridians are out of balance. So in that sense, high blood pressure is a symptom, not an illness itself. The cause of the high blood pressure is what were really concerned about and were trying to correct.
Talk about what meridians could be out of balance in a high blood pressure patient.
There are quite a few patterns of imbalance in this case. Number one is excessive Chi flow in the liver meridian. This is usually the case for those people with a short temper, or very emotional and, of course, if they have high cholesterol. A second pattern would be the energy deficiency type for those people who easily fatigue or get tired. That will also make the blood pressure go up.
