TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE (TCM)

On our last day in Beijing, we visit Tong Ren to gain an understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This is a working clinic where TCM doctors administer herbal medications (in collaboration with regular doctors). The principles of health preservation are based on TCM Theory with 5000 years of history. We have an introductory lecture from one of the TCM doctors whose credible message is that Western Medicine is all about trying to cure after illness strikes while TCM is all about identifying potential areas of illness and attempting to prevent them. Diagnoses of potential illnesses are formed by feeling the pulse, examining the tongue, eyes, ears, finger nails, skin (external signs). Everyone in the tour group was then offered a free individual consultation and in marched five very serious male and one female doctors in their white coats - very impressive. 

M and I sat with an older female doctor and her English speaking younger nurse who would interpret the diagnoses. She felt my left pulse and then my right pulse and asked my age. That was all the information she needed. It seems I must take care of hardening of the arteries, but her diagnosis focused more specifically on preventive care of the kidneys. Kidney disease syndrome includes fatigue, pale complexion, insomnia, decaying memory, oedema, urinary issues, sexual dysfunction, arthritis, joint pain, limb numbness, hearing difficulties. All of these health impacts could be resolved with a three month prescription of Zhong Yan Capsules whose main ingredients include dried tangerine peel, Chinese GoJi Berries, Asparagus, Tree Peony Bark, Rhizoma Alismatis. Take two capsules twice a day after meals. Cost $375. Is it possible that this list of potential kidney dysfunction is merely the impact of advancing age, that is to say that my use-by date is approaching for the longevity of the organs that maintain my health? Or is it possible that the longevity of fully functioning organs need not decay in the way they do provided the right preventive medicines as prescribed in good time by TCM?

I will spare you the full diagnoses of M’s conditions (from pulse and tongue) but they were concerned with heart and lung function. Everyone participated and at least one person spent $1500 purchasing capsules from the clinic.

I have absolutely no idea whether herbal medicines of these types really do have preventive properties for the many diseases that Western medicine treats after the event. I can only suspect that there probably is benefit to be gained from 5000 years of trial and error administering these natural remedies. These doctors strongly believe that our current drug therapies for heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, kidney and gall bladder issues, are largely unnecessary and can be prevented or mitigated by herbal medicines. And I think that we in the West are becoming more suspicious of the overuse of prescription drugs. Would it be too cynical to suggest that traditional medicine is unlikely to cooperate with TCM for fear of income loss? An interesting visit, but again with the spectre of ‘the hard sell’ to gullible tourists.