title: Traditional Chinese medicine: potential approaches from modern dynamical complexity theories.
abstract: Despite the widespread use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in clinical settings, proving its effectiveness via scientific trials is still a challenge. TCM views the human body as a complex dynamical system, and focuses on the balance of the human body, both internally and with its external environment. Such fundamental concepts require investigations using system-level quantification approaches, which are beyond conventional reductionism. Only methods that quantify dynamical complexity can bring new insights into the evaluation of TCM. In a previous article, we briefly introduced the potential value of Multiscale Entropy (MSE) analysis in TCM. This article aims to explain the existing challenges in TCM quantification, to introduce the consistency of dynamical complexity theories and TCM theories, and to inspire future system-level research on health and disease.
authors.affiliation: Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. dr.yan.ma@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Studies, Daemen College, Amherst, NY, 14226, USA.|Daemen College Physical Therapy Wound Care Clinic, Daemen College, Amherst, NY, 14226, USA.
authors.forename: Kehua
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.|Department of Orthopedics, Jiangsu Province Hospital of TCM, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210029, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100053, China. dr.sunsc@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shuchen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: balance; dynamical complexity; modern sciences; quantification; system level; traditional Chinese medicine
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