Pulse diagnosis: Encyclopedia - Pulse diagnosis

Pulse diagnosis

Pulse diagnosis is a diagnostic technique to be used in Ayurveda and other Asian traditional medicines. Advocates claim that by taking a pulse, for instance in ayurveda, imbalances of vata, pitta, and kapha doshes may be discovered. It may also be possible to identify the presence and location of certain kinds of disorders in the patient's body. Advocates also claim that identifying imbalances in the body's physiology through this symptom may help them prevent the full development of a disease.

In no system of medicine is pulse diagnosis used in isolation; in all cases it is combined with all other information available to the practitioner.

Similar concepts appear in modern Western medicine. For example, certain kinds of heart attacks, such as ventricular defibrillation, may be identified by feeling the pulse and characterizing its speed, strength, and rhythm. A fast, weak, thready pulse might indicate certain kinds of heart failure or shock from blood loss. A pulse present in the upper arm, but not at the wrist, is indicative of unusually low blood pressure.

chinese pulse
yinyanghouse

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pulse diagnosis", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki