...promising results have emerged, for example, efficacy of acupuncture in
adult post-operative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting and in postoperative
dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke
rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia,
myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and
asthma for which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment or an
acceptable alternative or be included in a comprehensive management program.
Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture
interventions will be useful.
In the West, many Chinese medicines have been marketed as herbal supplements
and there has been considerable controversy over the regulatory status of these
substances.
TCM practitioners have no philosophical objections to scientific studies on the
effectiveness of treatments. The main barrier to the adoption of Chinese herbal
medicines into Western practice is economic. It requires a large amount of
expertise and money to conduct, for example, a double-blind drug trial, making
it a large venture to test even one of the thousands of compounds used by TCM.
Because these compounds cannot be patented, there is a distinct lack of a
self-interested party to sponsor such expensive protocols.
How does it work?
The basic mechanism of TCM is akin to treating the body as a blackbox,
recording and classifying changes and observations of the patient using a
traditional philosophy. In contrast to many alternative and complementary
medicines such as homeopathy, practically all techniques of TCM have
explanations for why they may be more effective than a placebo, which Western
medicine can find plausible. Most doctors of Western medicine would not find
implausible claims that qigong preserves health by encouraging relaxation and
movement, that acupuncture relieves pain by stimulating the production of
neurotransmitters, or that Chinese herbal medicines may contain powerful
biochemical agents. However, these are great oversimplifications of TCM and how
or why it works. The metaphors used in TCM theory often concern areas not
readily measured or described by Western science.
Within China, there has been a great deal of cooperation between TCM
practitioners and Western medicine. While more and more medical schools are
including classes on alternative medicine in their curricula, older Western
doctors and scientists are far more likely than their Chinese counterparts to
skeptically view TCM as archaic pseudoscience and superstition. As an example
of the different roles of TCM in China and the West, a person with a broken
bone in the West would never see a Chinese medicine practitioner or visit a
martial art school to get the bone set, whereas this is routine in China. Many
Western hospitals and clinics now offer Tai Chi Chuan or qigong classes as part
of their community health programs.
Western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Most Chinese in China do not see traditional Chinese medicine and Western
medicine as being in conflict. In cases of emergency and crisis situations,
there is generally no reluctance in using conventional Western medicine. At the
same time, belief in Chinese medicine remains strong in the area of maintaining
health and wellness. To put it simply, you see a Western doctor if you have
acute appendicitis, but you take Chinese medicines to make your body healthy
enough to prevent appendicitis, or you recover quickly from the surgery.
Chinese practitioners of Western medicine have been widely criticized for
overprescribing drugs such as corticosteroids or antibiotics for common viral
infections. It is likely that these medicines, which are generally known to be
useless against viral infections, would provide less relief to the patient than
traditional Chinese herbal remedies.
Kaptchuck, Ted J., The Web That Has No Weaver; Congdon & Weed; ISBN 0809229331Z
Maciocia, Giovanni, The Foundations of Chinese Medicine: A Comprehensive Text
for Acupuncturists and Herbalists; Churchill Livingstone; ISBN 0443-039801
Ni, Mao-Shing, The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine : A New Translation of
the Neijing Suwen with Commentary; Shambala, 1995; ISBN 1570620806
Holland, Alex Voices of Qi: An Introductory Guide to Traditional Chinese
Medicine; North Atlantic Books, 2000; ISBN 1556433263
Unschuld, Paul U., Medicine in China: A History of Ideas; University of
California Press, 1985; ISBN 0520050231
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