Week 6: Chinese Medicine Gaining Respectability in the West

It is in our nature as human beings to understand things more that reflect who we are. I think it is for this reason that Chinese Medicine is gaining support in the West. With "hundreds of studies showing clinically significant results using TCM approaches", including the prestigious Harvard Medical School's 2002 review stating..."that acupuncture can safely ease chronic pain" medical directors are being persuaded to introduce TCM treatments to their patient services. The modern Western culture is one based on the scientific method and results driven scientific model. So, when the renown Tuft's-New-England Medical Center finds Tai Chi promotes cardio vascular fitness for chronic conditions, people listen.

Which is why 1/5 of our nation's hospitals now offer complimentary medical services since 2004, with noted American institutions such as Harvard and Columbia Universities leading the way as part of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. These changes and new trends in thought, are based on the "empirical experience of what's worked for millennia" as expressed by Dr. Bradley Jacobs, internist at UCSF's Osher Center. Which is why 1/4 of American's who's conventional treatments have failed are turning to TCM; and why just as many people are being referred to TCM by their doctors. News of TCM's reported success rate with "multisystemic maladies" is getting around, and people (professionals and laymen alike) are taking notice. Even Western neuroscience is having it's own aha's that human being's "complex interactions between mind, body and brain" are "triggered by stress as well as physical and emotional trauma", as TCM has long known.

One of the challenges TCM still faces is to prove the efficacy of Chinese herbs; especially the Chinese formulas, which use multiple botanicals. This is complicated by the fact that many herbs work together synergistically and therefore are more effective in combination with other herbs, than they are when used individually. Another is from American trained doctors who are unconvinced that TCM is as beneficial as Western medicine -or- that it can meet "accepted standards", as defined in the west.

However, there is potential for success, since even the FDA is changing it's guidelines to allow that the "anecdotal evidence of the safety of an herbal remedy be used in lieu of safety tests on animals" for clinical trials...and this type of federal agency support bodes well for TCM in the court of public opinion.