[Significance of adaptive response to study of traditional Chinese medicine]

Adaptive response is a topic of general interest in medical research. Utilization of adaptive response has become a new treatment strategy for some diseases, the core of which is to stimulate the mechanisms of body internal protection, to improve the adaptive and anti-injury capability, and to maintain the homeostasis of the body. The existence of adaptive response indicates that the body internal protection can be induced and its key mechanism is the inducement of internal protective factors (internal protective proteins). In this article, some connections between adaptive response and the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) were discussed, which indicated that adaptive response is much beneficial for explaining some theories of TCM such as correspondence between human and nature, strengthening healthy qi to consolidate constitution, acupuncture theory, adaptogen herbs, and treating disease before its onset, etc. Thus the adaptive response is of great significance for explaining scientifically the connotative meaning of the theories of TCM and for promoting the integration of TCM and western medicine.