Thread: Chinese Medicine

Just interested in how many others use Chinese medicine/herbs etc for their ailments?

I wasn't a skeptic, but had never really though about eastern medicine, but over the past month or so, i've been visiting a herablist and in a very short time, he has cured a variety of minor ailments.

Eg: I had a lump in my eyelid from a blocked duct. The GP referred me to a specialist to have it cut out. It was going to cost $430..... I drank some herbal tea for 3 days and it is gone - that cost $25. No surgery, no drugs, just a natural tea preparation to sip twice a day!

Granted, some of the ingredients in the herbal teas are a little........scary, but i am amazed at the quick results!

Now, unless I need a medical certificate for work, I don't even think about a GP - I go straight to my medicine man! I can't believe I haven't explored this route earlier.

My g/f is a qualified naturopath (no longer practising). She's always mixing up weird concoctions for me. Most of them taste horrible, but they do the job. I've even busted her putting stuff in my drink bottle behind my back!

We had a Chinese medicine practitioner stay with us around Christmas. She offered to do accupuncture on my shoulder - I aggravated an existing rotator cuff injury a few weeks prior.

She did the thing with needles, then I don't know what the equipement is called but she used a thing that was like an electricians multimeter to touch points on my ear. She identified various injuries I had over the years by this machine touching my ear (eg torn hip flexor in 2003, and recurrent shin-splints). she then taped a couple of tiny hard lumps to a few points in my ears, instructed me to leave them for a week and put pressure on them regularly.

Lo and behold, my shoulder was fixed within a couple of weeks, and has been fine ever since.

So whilst I really don't understand TCM, I will certainly give it a go again in the future....

Tim

I use Chinese Medicine and acupuncture routinely and have done so for years.

BD

I think both eastern and western medicine will some times work better than the other on certain things.

I think when it comes to serious illness and disease western medicine wins hands down as we pour so much money into reaserching these but neglect anything that's not life threatening, so eastern medicine probably win for everything that isn't life threatening.

However some of the things like their shark fin soup and and eating tiger paws or shit like that for power i find absolutely redicoulous, but on the other hand i've also met many dimwit GP's who would seem to have gotten there degree's from a cereal packet.

Granted, some of the ingredients in the herbal teas are a little........scary, but i am amazed at the quick results!

Scary, ohh yeah, from what i've 'heard'. That's one reason I have not taken the plunge. I've considered it recently nevertheless. Was this 'medicine man' recommended to you?

Originally Posted by M1CH43L

However some of the things like their shark fin soup and and eating tiger paws or shit like that for power i find absolutely redicoulous, but on the other hand i've also met many dimwit GP's who would seem to have gotten there degree's from a cereal packet.

I totally agree here

A masseur put me onto him.

Yep - some of those ingredients are weird!!! I asked him not to tell me what was in my teas...... Flying squirrel poop was one! Ewww!

Cool subject. It's interesting to hear so many positive responses. After millenia of trial and error there must be something in these herbs to help people. Science seems just to be catching up on how some of these things interact with out bodies to have the effect that they do.

I'm a big fan.

Sometimes I think in our "modern" world we overlook the simple answers to some of our "medical" issues.

The spit of a sparrow is supposed to have good medicinal properties.
Sore throat and fever.

Originally Posted by MO

The spit of a sparrow is supposed to have good medicinal properties.
Sore throat and fever.

I would of liked some a few days ago when I had a sore throat.

Originally Posted by MissFit

A masseur put me onto him.

Yep - some of those ingredients are weird!!! I asked him not to tell me what was in my teas...... Flying squirrel poop was one! Ewww!

rolf

what makes me more concerned is issues such as this:

“According to the World Wildlife Fund, tigers are hunted
primarily for the use of their body parts in Chinese medicines, and
to a lesser extent for souvenirs such as skins and mounted heads.
Traditional Chinese medicine, as well as traditional Ayurvediv
Indian medicine, are the oldest continuously used medicines in the
world. Traditional Chinese medicine originated around 3,494 B.C.
when the Chinese Emperor experimented with medicinal plants.
Patented Chinese medicine has the highest demand in Asia, including
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

Medicines made from tiger bone are used to treat symptoms such
as joint pain and stiffness, muscular weakness, back pain,
paralysis and muscular spasms. Other tiger parts are used such as
tiger tails which are mixed with soap to cure skin diseases. Tiger
whiskers are used as a charm of protection and courage, and the
tiger brain is used as a treatment for acne. A bowl of tiger soup
can have a price as high as $320. The World Wildlife Fund posits,
"the medicinal use of tiger parts has been practiced in East Asian
countries for centuries and a belief in their efficacy for treating
health problems is deeply rooted in local cultures." Therefore,
the cultural aspect of the tiger trade should not be underestimated
in China”


Tiger Trade from India

August 13, 2008
Grabbing Tiger Trade by the Tail
China has a staggering 1.3 billion people. But throughout all of Asia, there are fewer than 4,000 tigers remaining in the wild.
Even with a small percentage of Chinese citizens coveting tiger products in traditional Chinese medicine, there is enormous pressure on the declining species and subspecies. Tigers are illegally killed in Asian countries where they live, and the body parts are then smuggled to China.

© HSI/Teresa Telecky
To address this problem, the government of China has encouraged people to breed tigers on a commercial scale. Over the past two decades, several wealthy entrepreneurs have established industrial tiger breeding facilities or “farms.” Although to its credit China banned the domestic trade in tiger parts in 1993 and removed tigers from the official list of traditional medicine ingredients, the law is not effectively enforced and the government continues to hand out tiger breeding permits.
Now, not surprisingly, breeders who have been stockpiling tiger carcasses in freezers for the past 15 years—in the hope that eventually the trade will reopen and they can sell tiger parts legally—are pressuring the Chinese government to rescind the ban.
Chinese government officials now publicly point to the continued decline of wild tiger populations as evidence that China’s domestic trade ban has failed and should be rescinded. The officials have also balked at a decision by a United Nations treaty called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora that they should close down their tiger farms.
The ban has substantially reduced the use of tiger-based medicines, and recent research shows that demand is down in China and that the public is generally aware of the issue. Even more tigers would be killed if trade in tiger parts resumes and the use of tiger-based traditional Chinese medicine were legal. It would dramatically increase threats to wild tigers, whose parts are preferred over captive-raised tigers and whose killing is far less expensive than the cost of raising a captive tiger.
When the Olympics close, we must and will do what we can to keep the world’s focus on the threat to wild tigers and the misguided tiger-breeding enterprises in China. We will marshal forces to preserve the current ban, knowing that to lift it would deal a death blow to the species.
Grabbing Tiger Trade by the Tail - Wayne Pacelle: A Humane Nation

To me that's an ethical/moral issue...even if those things did have an effect, is it moral/ethical to take the life of an endagered species for our own well being? Probably not.

Originally Posted by azzah

To me that's an ethical/moral issue...even if those things did have an effect, is it moral/ethical to take the life of an endagered species for our own well being? Probably not.

ummm. fair enough. If it were human beings being culled; your own human bones, human teeth, or penis- would you still say the same? I doubt it.

Further, I don't know about you; but I want my grandchildren (and those of other people) to appreciate the astounding beauty of, not only tigers, but elephants and those amazing mammals, whales; whom are also subject to insane and immature culling for purely superstitious medical whims.