Traditional Chinese medicine, also known as TCM, includes a range of traditional medicine practices originating in Asia, primarily in regions that are now part of China and Taiwan. TCM is a common part of medical care throughout East Asia, but is considered a complementary and alternative medical system (CAM) in much of the Western world. TCM therapy largely consists of Chinese herbal medicine (use of plants, human and animal parts, and minerals to make medicines), acupuncture (insertion of needles in the body), massage, and dietary therapy. It uses a scientifically incorrect "alternative anatomy", metaphysical principles that have no correlates in science based medicine, and is primarily based on a conclusion from these principals that is inconsistent with scientific facts; that the blood is propelled by a supernatural force called qi, whereas in science based medicine blood is propelled by the pumping of the heart. Traditional Chinese medicines play a major role in Chinese lifestyle that is substantially different than the role of medicines in the west. They are part of everyday and social life in Chinese society. Those that have been scientifically analyzed have sometimes been found to be ineffective, have sometimes been used to make discoveries in science-based pharmacology, and sometimes have been found to contain dangerous toxins.

Traditional Chinese medicine theory is based on ancient Daoist philosophical and religious conceptions of balance and opposites (yin and yang), and other metaphysical belief systems. In evidence based medicine, disproved theories are "continually being replaced with new ones", but in traditional Chinese medicine little has changed since antiquity and the most current medical knowledge always had roots centuries old. Chinese knowledge of the human body was based not on anatomical studies using dissection, but on an alternative anatomy based on Ill health is believed to result from an imbalance between what are believed to be interconnected organ systems, with one organ system believed to weaken or overexcite others. TCM practitioners believe that plant and animal products, and minerals can be used to stimulate or calm particular systems and bring them into balance. It is believed that insertion of needles in points of the body (acupuncture) and burning points of the body (moxibustion) stimulates the systems directly along what TCM believes are metaphysical flow lines of qi energy, and that these can also be stimulated by practices such a special kind of massage and exercise. Astrological influences are also believed to affect qi flow in the body, e.g., the alignment of homes with the planets and stars, and the year, month, day, and hour of birth.

Traditional Chinese medicines are made from herbs, human parts, animal parts, and minerals. Chinese herbal medicine plays a special role in everyday and social life in China, so plays a different role than medicines in western science based medicine. In China, herbal medicine is considered as the primary therapeutic modality of internal medicine. The medicines include processed animal parts and minerals, and to plants of Chinese herbal medicine. Snake oil is likely the most widely known outside of Asia, but ginseng is the most broadly used substance for the most broad set of alleged cures. Powdered pre-calcified antler, horns, teeth, and bones are second in importance to ginseng, with claims ranging from curing cancer to improving immune system function to curing impotence.