What industry does the Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine health care belong to?

Judging from the current domestic "National Economic Industry Classification" standards and actual operating supervision conditions, TCM health care-related services based on the Five Elements theory generally fall into the category of "TCM health care services (non-medical)", which is the content of the TCM health care segmentation track under the big health industry, and does not have an independent industry classification itself.

To put it bluntly, the five elements are just an analysis tool of the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine. Like the concepts of yin and yang and qi and blood, they serve the logic of health care and conditioning in traditional Chinese medicine and are not a separate industry category. Just like someone who runs a coffee shop and makes coffee with a hand-made pot, you can't make coffee with your hands alone and be classified as an independent industry, right?

There are actually different opinions on this classification in the industry. Many practitioners with a serious background in traditional Chinese medicine feel that as long as they are services such as food and nutrition matching, moxibustion acupoint matching, and meridian conditioning based on the Five Elements theory, they are essentially part of the traditional Chinese medicine health care service. There is no need to separate it for discussion and classification. Those who insist on treating "Five Elements Health Care" as a separate category are mostly trying to hype up the concept and cut off the leeks. However, there are also people who are engaged in traditional cultural entrepreneurship, and they will provide consultation based on the Five Elements, household adjustments, and work and rest planning. If these types of services do not involve specific operations of health care, some of them will be classified as cultural consulting. However, this type of service has actually broken away from the scope of traditional Chinese medicine health care and is more focused on folk cultural services.

When I helped a friend apply for a health center business license two years ago, I specifically asked the staff of the Municipal Supervision Bureau. He said at that time that our main focus is to use the logic of the five elements corresponding to the internal organs to provide customers with customized moxibustion and foot bath prescriptions. As long as we do not touch acupuncture or prescription drugs, we will The treatment behavior will be directly approved according to the traditional Chinese medicine health care services. The business scope will not separately mark the content related to the "Five Elements". This thing is your internal method of providing services. Outsiders don't care what theory you use, they only see what category you actually do.

Oh, by the way, there is another very important boundary that needs to be clarified here. If someone carries out medical activities such as acupuncture, bloodletting, and prescribing in the name of Five Elements Health Care, then it does not belong to the health care industry and must be classified under the category of traditional Chinese medicine medical services. You need a corresponding medical institution license to practice. Last year, there was a small shop in our local area that was doing bloodletting and conditioning in the name of "five elements to remove blood stasis". Within two days, it was investigated by the Health Commission because it crossed the red line of medical services.

In fact, there is no point in worrying about the nature of this classification. As long as it is a serious use of the Five Elements theory of traditional Chinese medicine to provide compliant health care services, it is definitely classified into the traditional Chinese medicine health care category. If you always want to use the name of "Five Elements" to engage in some flashy cross-border gimmicks, you may one day step into the regulatory trap.