Editing Hilot (section)

== Traditional Chinese Medicine similarities ==
The geopolitical position of the Philippines as either being the gateway to either enter or exit Southeast Asia has allowed the exchanging of medical knowledge between immigrants, whether they are colonial predecessors or neighboring countries. The [[Chinese Diaspora|Chinese diaspora]] (see also: [[Sangley|Chinese mestizos]]) showed one exchange. The trade between China and the Philippines was recorded as early as the eighth century and enhanced in the sixteenth century.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|title=Way of the Ancient Healer : Sacred Teachings from the Philippine Ancestral Traditions.|last=Apostol, Virgil Mayor.|date=2012|publisher=North Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1299568051|oclc=842880737}}</ref> The activity of trade during the sixteenth century was especially active because of the [[Manila galleon|Manila-Acapulco Galleons]]. The methods used by manghihilots is similar to the Chinese acupuncture study of the ''Yellow Emperor's Body'', the idea that the body through fluids of energy known as a ''yin and yang'', in [[Traditional Chinese medicine|Traditional Chinese Medicine]] (TCM).<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=A flourishing Yin gender in China's medical history, 960-1665|last=Furth, Charlotte|date=2009|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0520208285|oclc=934836292}}</ref> Native Filipino medicine uses the four elements (earth, water, fire, and air) to diagnose conditions while TCM views the conditions of the body through the Five Element Theory: fire, earth, wind, metal, water, and wood.<ref name=":1" /> Another similarity is the diagnosis of imbalance caused by ''engkantos'', or the unseen entities within the body. For instance, the manghihilot may describe a person who is having trouble breathing air by calling that trouble ''engkanto sa hangin'' meaning air entity. This person's actual condition may be asthma according to Western medicine. In TCM, this imbalance may be explained by the imbalance set between yin and yang (the force of yin may be dominating the body and vice versa).<ref name=":1" />   Other similar approaches to diagnosing include herbs (not necessarily accompanied by the blessing of it shown in the Albularyo practice), taking patient history, facial diagnosis, and tongue diagnosis.<ref name=":03" /> Current research on the Hilot shows that it is not clear as to whether or not the Chinese medicine had a direct influence on the Hilot or the Hilot had an influence on TCM because it is not clear whether these Hilot methods were a coincidence of similarities or borrowed from Traditional Chinese Medicine since the people coming from Southern China were primarily involved in commerce. It is also not clear which Indigenous practices originated from Ayurveda.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lemonnier |first=Nathanaël |last2=Zhou |first2=Guang-Biao |last3=Prasher |first3=Bhavana |last4=Mukerji |first4=Mitali |last5=Chen |first5=Zhu |last6=Brahmachari |first6=Samir K. |last7=Noble |first7=Denis |last8=Auffray |first8=Charles |last9=Sagner |first9=Michael |date=December 2017 |title=Traditional Knowledge-based Medicine: A Review of History, Principles, and Relevance in the Present Context of P4 Systems Medicine |url=https://journals.lww.com/01960908-201712000-00001 |journal=Progress in Preventive Medicine |language=en |volume=2 |issue=7 |pages=e0011 |doi=10.1097/pp9.0000000000000011 |issn=2473-294X|doi-access=free }}</ref> It is not known whether these merchants had medical knowledge.