TCM believers(2)

A foreigner receives acupuncture on her belly. Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Dongwen TCM Clinic

Guided by traditional philosophy

The ways that TCM treats diseases vary with each individual, and there's no universal prescription. Even with a problem as simple as a headache, Wang Yuntao may apply needles on different body parts for different patients.

Wang, a TCM doctor working for the Beijing Dongwen TCM Clinic, treated Lamb's wart.

He once had a German patient who suffered from cervical and stomach pain for a long time. Wang gave her a cupping treatment on the back, an abdominal massage and used needles to let out a few drops of "bad blood" in an acupuncture technique known as blood letting.

For one Australian who suffered from depression, Wang diagnosed him as weak in energy and splenic yang, so Wang used acupuncture and herbal drugs to nurse the patient's yang, instead of anti-depression medicines.

It's the person that Chinese medicine treats, not the disease, Wang concluded. TCM treats one person as one whole, observing one's essence, vitality, and spirit. In Wang's eyes, there's no disease, all he sees is a sick person.

Wang noted that his European and American patients are usually interested in TCM, finding it mysterious. He said they are also attracted by the use of herbs and other natural elements, and want the treatment to have no side effects.

"Of course there are people who are really skeptical," Wang added. "Because they already have been prejudiced with preconceived Western ideas. They cannot understand it."

"Western medicine is based on people's common cognitions and modern natural science, thus it makes sense to people."

A saying followed by some Chinese people is, "Go to Western doctors for urgent cases, but go to TCM doctors for fatal illnesses."

However, Wang disagrees with this. He thinks Chinese medicine is not weak for urgent cases, including stomach flu, and twisted ankles.

Wang told Metropolitan that people with knotty diseases - the ones that are not deadly but chronic and hard to deal with - such as high blood pressure, infertility, diabetes and others, should seek help from TCM rather than Western medicine.

As an example, for treating diabetes, instead of injecting insulin, TCM aims to help the pancreas to grow stronger and produce its own insulin. For herniated discs, hepatitis B, AIDS, cancer and other diseases, TCM won't get rid of the bad body parts or virus through an operation, but make the patient survive with the illness and have a better quality of life, said Wang.

Natural but cheap

The advantages of TCM over Western medicine are that it is simple, cheap and effective, said Wang. "TCM stresses individualization and treatment according to syndrome differentiation. You need no blood tests or advanced machines."

Another TCM doctor, Wang Zemin, who has practiced over 30 years, shared a similar opinion. Wang Zemin, who works at Wangjing Hospital, specializes in treating tumors and blood diseases with TCM methods, especially with fresh crude drugs such as dandelion.

Western medicine focuses on the size and position of the tumor, but TCM regulates yin and yang, supports the body's resistance, and makes the body heal itself, said Wang Zemin. 

Wang Zemin used to work at the foreigners' treatment center of hospitals in the 1990s, and he has been called to many countries to treat patients. Based on his years of experience, he said doctors should combine Western and Chinese medicine - chemotherapy, operations and herbal treatments - to recuperate.

However, the drumbeat for abolishing TCM in China hasn't stopped ever since the 1919 May 4th Movement, because it is not based on the scientific method. Scholars and ordinary people have become divided over the merits of TCM, and the debate continues online.

Wang Yuntao thinks behind this lies the economic interests of Western medicine companies that want to move into the Chinese marketplace, as well as the difference between Western and Eastern ideologies. He added that the image of TCM has been seriously damaged by frauds and quacks. 

The only way to get TCM recognized internationally is conducting an academic project with a massive database across the country to come out with reliable, convincing results, organized by the government, said Wang. But until then, it seems that questions about TCM will never stop, despite converts like Lamb and Merrill.