Diagnosis
### Creating a treatment strategy
Based on the TCM diagnosis, a treatment strategy has to be formulated. Since the treatment strategy relies on the findings of the diagnosis, it is important to diagnose and differentiate the essential (root) symptoms, the main cause of the disease, from the secondary (branch) symptoms, the signs and symptoms of the disease. For example, Liver Fire can be caused by Liver Blood Deficiency. Liver Blood Deficiency can be caused by Kidney Yin Deficiency. In this context, Kidney Yin Deficiency is the root of Liver Blood Deficiency, Liver Blood Deficiency is the branch of Kidney Yin Deficiency. Further, Liver Blood Deficiency is the root of Liver Fire and Liver Fire is the branch of Liver Blood Deficiency. Sometimes it is sufficient to treat the root. Sometimes the root and the branch have to be treated simultaneously. A clear diagnosis will help to determine which of the patient's needs should be treated first or deserves greater attention. As a general rule it is said that acute conditions should be addressed first and the underlying root condition should be addressed secondly. When chronic and acute conditions occur together, treat the more critical condition first. If the acute condition is not critical, treatment of the original problem should be the treatment priority. Positive treatment results reflect the correct treatment strategy and indicate that the practitioner made the right choice in determining which condition should be treated first. If the treatment shows no positive results or just very slight improvement, the treatment strategy should be reassessed and changed accordingly. 1. step: The symptoms presented by the patient are gathered through the four examinations and classified according to the various methods of pattern identification. 2. step: The relationships between the diagnoses must be considered carefully, taking into consideration the foundations of Chinese Medicine (Yin and Yang, Substances, Pathogenic Factors, Zang-Fu organs, and Channels). 3. step: Formulate a clear treatment strategy. 4. step: Choose a point combination that matches the diagnosis. 5. step: Monitor treatment results and adjust the treatment strategy and point combination if necessary.