The highest realm of Traditional Chinese Medicine is that all things can be used as medicine.
It is different from Western medicine.
Western medicine focuses on components, insisting on analyzing the constituents of everything.
Sometimes this works, but other times it doesn't.
Traditional Chinese Medicine, in contrast, doesn't study components. Instead, it focuses on properties like warm, cool, cold, and hot; on yin and yang and the five elements; and on mutual generation and restraint.
Chinese medicine primarily regulates the human body in two ways: tonifying or purging (which isn't as simple as strengthening the kidneys or causing diarrhea).
"Tonify the deficient, purge the excessive."
However, various illnesses can change dramatically and are categorized by severity and urgency. Therefore, treatment often requires complex prescriptions, with ingredients adjusted as the illness progresses.
