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. =