Branches
Traditional Thai medicine (used as umbrella term for all medicine of Thailand) consists of five primary branches:
- Internal Medicine - Primarily the use of herbs and diet to promote health
- External Medicine - All therapies applied to the external body including but not limited to:
- Bone setting (indigenous chiropractics)
- Thai cupping
- Thai scraping (a practice similar to Chinese Gua Sha)
- Thai massage techniques including compression, Thai acupressure, beating, passive stretching and focus on sen channels (pathways of movement in the body such as tendons, ligaments, nerves and circulatory vessels)
- External application of herbs through balms, liniments, compresses and poultices
- Spirit Medicine - Use of amulets, incantations, sak yan tattooing and shamanistic involvement with spirits for the purpose of healing
- Divination - Use of vedic astrology, numerology, palmistry and geomancy to determine health predisposition and remedial measures
- Buddhism - seen as the mental health branch of Thai medicine.
Read more about this topic: Traditional Thai Medicine
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