CHINESE MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH:A HEURISTIC MODEL FOR HEALTH PROMOTION AND WELLNESS

Chinese medicine and public health share a common goal: to not only reduce human suffering but to aid individuals and communities to thrive.Yet both fields operate in isolation of one another.There are marked consistencies in the paradigms and theoretical perspectives guiding Chinese medicine and public health.Key premises in public health are the concepts of prevention,health promotion, and wellness.Moreover, while clinically,Chinese medicine is largely problem-based, core concepts emphasize prevention, holism, balance, and wellness.The leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the US and other countries are conditions of "lifestyle" with etiologies that are multifactorial in nature with risk accruing over decades.Importantly, "diseases of lifestyle" are better treated with individual-level lifestyle modifications implemented over time than with heroic biomedical interventions.The scope of practice of Chinese medicine includes multiple modalities that could be used effectively to sustain,support, and encourage health and wellness.The purpose of this research is to develop a useful and functional heuristic conceptual framework integrating key concepts of Chinese medicine and public health that has both research and clinical applications.In particular, I focus on elucidating and characterizing model domains(e.g., patient-provider interactions, health behavior change, and patient empowerment) central to Chinese medicine and public health and provide recommendations for a more integrated approach to health promotion and wellness.