Diagnosis and condition

Conditions are generally western oriented defined diseases like eczema or diarrhea. A diagnosis in TCM refers to the underlying imbalance of the flow of the blood, qi and fluids and therefore is not the same. For example a TCM diagnosis of heart yin deficiency may present with Western conditions such as palpitations, anxiety, and insomnia.

In the context of TCM internal refers to ill health that is a result of a breaking down of the body’s natural flow. Internal conditions are almost always going to be of a more chronic nature and reflect long term diet, posture, and lifestyle conditions. External refers to a cause of disease that comes from outside the body, i.e. infection from virus, fungus, bacteria, etc. So external conditions are generally acute and inflammatory of nature.

In real life you rarely see textbook cases where the symptoms and tongue and pulse all match up just perfectly. In fact I’ve seen maybe a handful of so called textbook cases in my entire career, which by my estimate is something like .001%. That is partly why acupuncture schools (well in the US anyway) are four year programs. Even then you really only learn enough to get started and it takes clinical practice to further develop a truer understanding.