issue 16 / volume 40 feature // 13

Some have little effect,
thers are rare and exotic,
the immune system, in

ginseng (used in

luce the risk of cancer,
1), Sea cucumber (has
sand high blood

be brewed as a tea to

hundreds—or even

1ay be more obscure.
pian tubes of frogs

ns, as well as enhance
hly sought-after fungus,
us (can reduce the

»f cancer, and balance

health is based upon
mn and prevention.
focus on treatment,
fe-long pursuit.

x hockey. It took me
covery process was

iry a few more times
went to doctors and
ed all my options I

st. I’m not going to
haps a bit fearful—of
na strange room with
sucking on me was not

Dr. Duzy Duyong Lee,
ee, then warmed upa
en wound. The objective
ck the blood clot out of
ss could start over again.
t farfetched—after all,
rs merely told me to

’s hard to say which
now I’m walking and

) our organs,” said
Medicine Clinic’s Dr.
n, but I touch the
ijust the organ.”
neridian system, a
an’s functionality and
ncludes the body’s
mbs, the defence against
f bodily fluids (urine,

of nutrients (food, air,
dy’s stimulation points,
rect the imbalance and

“Every part of your body has a function,” said Dr.
Kuo. “When someone coughs, it’s not a coughing
problem. There is something inside that is making you
uncomfortable that makes you cough. I ask my patients
why they are tired. They say, ‘Oh, I’m sick, Why are you
sick? ‘Because I have a stomachache so I cannot eat and
so I’m tired.’ Western medicine hears stomachache, they
give you antibiotics—sometimes it’s right—but it’s always
wrong, What do antibiotics do? It makes stomachache go
away, but when antibiotic goes away, the problem returns.
We need to understand the problem, not just the cure.”

As our technology advances, so do bacteria and viruses.
Vaccines, immunizations, and hospital treatments are
tackling health with science, but can they ever snuff out
the holistic approach of TCM?

A recent report in The Journal of Clinical
Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that traditional
medicine still has great potential in the Western world as
well as the East, and it might be a solution for those with
diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

Tianqi, a Chinese herbal mixture that has been shown
to improve glucose levels, was the TCM up for the test. In
a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study,

a sample of 389 people suffering from impaired glucose
tolerance participated, where 198 were offered Tianqi and
1g1 were offered a placebo. The study showed that Tianqi
reduced the risk of diabetes by 32.1 per cent. Of those in
the Tianqi sample, 63.1 per cent reached normal glucose
tolerance, compared to 46.6 per cent of the placebo
group.

Many are starting to buy into
TCM, making it a profitable
market. And the modern science
and medicine communities are
implementing more studies
to identify quality methods of
treatment in relation to their own
practices.

We live in a world where
we are on the edge of
medical breakthroughs
and global pandemics.

Our conditions are

getting better and
worse—but there is no
room to panic. Instead,

we should all take

the time and find the
necessary balance; the
recipe that TCM has been a
cooking up for millennia. =