These are the common therapeutic methods performed by trained TCM practitioners. The methods are: diaphoretic (dispersion of pathogens from the body's surface); Emetic (expelling toxic substances via the mouth); Purgative (relieving the bowels); Regulating (building the body's resistance to pathogens by controlling body functions); Warming (eliminating cold and boosting yang);
Heat-Removing (diminishing fever and quenching bodily thirst); Tonifying (nourishing and boosting qi or life energy); and Resolving (elimination of accumulated and stagnated qi, blood, phlegm, retained food and fluids that have hardened into lumps).