Integrated network-based medicine: The role of traditional Chinese medicine in developing a new generation of medicine

摘要

According to the philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), health is the state of harmony between individual internal physiological networks (IPNs) and external environmental networks (EENs). Aberrant interactions between and within these networks cause complex diseases. TCM is grounded in these holistic principles, integrating philosophies from art and science; it stresses the maintenance of balance, or homeostasis, between the systems of the body and nature.