It has become common practice to explicitly differentiate between two types of medicinal systems that are both regarded with ambiguous feelings. On the one hand there is orthodox medicine (<place w:st="on">OM</place>) which is considered established, scientifically proven and successful. On the other is complementary and alternative medicine widely accused of having no scientific foundation, being largely trivial and only effective as a placebo. The level of controversy surrounding  is considerable. In German-speaking countries it is not deemed worthy of being called a discipline of medicine and demoted to the title “komplementäre heilmethoden” which directly translates to complementary remedies. 

At the same time, however, a growing number of media reports portray  as being soulless, generic, lacking focus on the individual and dominated by machines and technology. This trend favours the “soft remedies” that constitute.

Similarities between the two systems

The most significant similarity is the common origin of OM and CAM. Both systems emerged out of shamanic traditions where illnesses are seen as demons that befall people and fasten themselves onto particular parts of the body. Remarkably, many remnants of such imagery can still be found in the language of our modern, enlightened society – “pain in the neck” is a popular example in English, “die Wut im Bauch, ihm ist etwas über die Leber gelaufen” (“the anger in the pit of one’s stomach, something ran over his liver”) are commonly used german idioms.

History 

Both systems take a holistic approach that, for cultural reasons, uses alternate wordings which are, however, based on similar fundamental ideas.

Hippocrates 

Hippocrates (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC) was the founder of the Hippocratic school of medicine centred on his theory of “Humorism” which remained the foundation of medicine until the 19th century. He believed that illnesses were a result of a loss of balance between bodily fluids and saw symptoms as the body’s attempts to excrete disease-causing substances.

TCM describes illnesses as an imbalance of the principles of YIN and YANG (Zhou Dynasty, ca. 1000 – 700 BC) and symptoms as the body’s battle to re-establish the balance between them. 

Empedocles (490-430 BC), a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, was the first to formulate the theory of “4 Elements.” The first references to the theory of “5 Elements” are found in the “Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor” or “Huangdi Neijing” dated 476-221 BC. Both of these conceptions utilise the principles of classification of characteristic properties, astrological signs, points of the compass (Galen, 3rd century AD). Importantly, they converge on accepting the notion that human properties are not static but rather change over time, as the human represents the ‘middle ground’ between the heavens and the earth and is thus subject to both heavenly (Sky/YANG) and natural (Earth/YIN) influences. These ideas form the basis for the therapeutic approach of both systems, which contains a plethora of advice on how to lead a healthy lifestyle as well as on how to cultivate one’s soul.

While Empedocles saw love and hate as primal powers that can bring together or pull apart all four elements, the Daoist classic „Liji“ (4th century BC) proposed that the polar principles of attraction and repulsion are the sources from which the emotions that are attributed to the five elements are developed.
Both systems contain sophisticated knowledge of herbal and animalistic medicines. Arabic medicine substantially influenced and enriched therapies that are now widely used in the western world.

The alchemist, humanist, physician and philosopher Paracelsus (1493-1541) is known, particularly due to his vast knowledge of remedies, as the father of the science that eventually became known as biology. His successful treatments are legendary and he left behind a rich literary heritage including several books on the treatment and cure of diseases.
The first comprehensive Materia Medica of Chinese Medicines was produced by Li Shi Zhen (1518 – 1593). It remains the foundation for phytotherapy in China.
It was in the 19th Century that the paths of TCM and western medicine started to diverge. Under the influence of the forces of enlightenment and empiricism, Virchow (1850), a cellular pathologist, formulated his theory that illnesses are found in the structures of cells thus leaving the holistic path and foraging deeper into the detailed implications of his theory. Growing fondness for experiments and eventually fundamental research spurred on the development of OM leading to numerous discoveries and the establishment of new treatments from which we are all benefiting today.

Differences between the two systems

The mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russel defined the relation between the principles of YIN and YANG as follows:

„YANG is dynamism at the expense of harmony, YIN is stagnation at the expense of progress.”