Swiss crazy for Chinese medicine

NZZ Online – People in Switzerland are increasingly turning to Chinese medicine to cure ailments such as back pain, asthma, allergies and stress problems.

But practitioners say there is still a long way to go before the profession is fully recognised and are calling for it to be covered by the basic health insurance.

Alternative therapies are on the rise. It has been estimated that around a third of the population has tried complementary medicine at least once in their lives.

Acupuncture by a registered doctor is covered by the health insurance and around 70% of people have extra health coverage for other alternative therapies, according to the Federal Health Office.

Making inroads is the ancient art of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is carried out by both qualified doctors and non-medical practitioners.

“Chinese medicine is a medical system that’s not based on the western idea of the body but the Chinese philosophy of the body. It explains diseases and health in a different way,” said Simon Becker, president of the Swiss Professional Organization for traditional Chinese medicine (sbo:tcm) : the largest association of non:medical TCM therapists.

“Chinese medicine tries to influence with different modalities, such as acupuncture and herbs, the harmonies that take place in the body when you get sick.”

In 1999 it was provisionally included, along with four other alternative therapies, into basic health insurance.

But in 2005, after carrying out an assessment, the government decided to strike these out, saying they were too costly.

Becker’s 1,200 member association has joined with other groups, including medical ones, to lobby for the therapies to be reinstated by putting the matter to a nationwide vote. But the move has been rejected by the government.

Polls have, however, indicated widespread public support for the initiative.

Becker says many patients try Chinese medicine after having unsuccessfully tried more conventional methods.

This includes former Mr Switzerland and organic farmer Renzo Blumenthal, who used acupuncture to treat a chronic back problem.

“To an outsider it seems like nothing special and that it won’t have a big effect; after the first treatment my digestion was already a lot better, as was the tension in my back,” he told swissinfo at a recent sbo:tcm event.

Another convert is parliamentarian Simon Schenk, a former national ice hockey player, whose sporting career was dogged by a wrist injury.

“I tried everything, I had several operations, I tried potions, injections, diet, everything and it always stagnated,” explained Schenk.

He described his Chinese medicine treatment as a “moment of revelation” after he could finally start playing again without bandages.

However, wrong impressions of TCM still abound, with people still believing it is linked to the use of tiger bones or rhino horns. No serious practitioner would use these, said Becker, adding that it is illegal.

Chinese medicine is also gaining in acceptance in medical world, some clinics offer it and some midwives are, due to popular demand, using it during childbirth, said Becker.

However, non:medical therapists are still not recognised professionally in Switzerland. This is another goal of the alternative therapies vote.

Many Swiss therapists have trained abroad. Becker himself qualified in the United States, but the association ? which has mostly Swiss members : now offers its own standards.

“In Europe we belong to the leading countries as far as hours and quality of education is concerned,” Becker told swissinfo.

“But in terms of professional recognition we’re still a bit behind other countries such as the United States and Germany… it’s an unbalanced situation which we need to balance.”

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China’s traditional medicine to use scientific help to expand market

Xinhua – The Chinese government is to fund scientific research into traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to improve standards and to study new applications in order to expand its appeal abroad as an effective alternative to Western remedies and chemicals.

In a development outline on TCM, jointly prepared by 16 ministries, the government said that in the next 13 years, it would concentrate scientific support for traditional medicine as it might become “the breakthrough of Chinese innovation on the world stage”.

“Science might solve the key problems of traditional medicine’s development in modern times, so as to complement the ways we view and treat diseases,” the outline said.

It also set a goal to help traditional healing methods and herbal medicines gain a footing on overseas “mainstream” health care markets by 2020.

The government also aims to launch international research programs to promote TCM and establish two influential traditional medicine research institutes and information exchange centers.

Over the past five years, the government has invested $740m yuan (US$92.5m) in TCM research and development.

The plan also said the central and local governments would increase funding for TCM scientific research and actively seek investment from domestic businesses and overseas sources.

It said government will also try to establish a better system of standards for TCM treatments, drug production, medical scientific research and market entry.

Long before the start of modern medical science, the Chinese had developed complex theories in treating illness. Folk doctors used simple tools such as acupuncture needles and concocted remedies from natural ingredients, such as wild plants and animal parts.

The first Chinese medical classic — The Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Medicine — dates back to between 403 BC and 221 BC. Ancient urn fragments suggest the Chinese might have a history of brewing herbs to treat diseases going back 8,000 years.

But TCM declined in the mid 19th Century due to the growing popularity of Western medicine. TCM was even officially banned for a time under the rule of the Kuomintang Party.

After the founding of the people’s republic, TCM was rehabilitated and developed along side Western medicine. About 3,000 hospitals in China provide TCM treatments to nearly 234 million patients each year.

Despite its popularity, TCM is not widely used in health care systems abroad and faces criticism at home. Among the accusations, critics say TCM’s theories lack scientific evidence and its remedies are ineffective and, in some cases, unsafe.

A nationwide debate erupted over the survival of TCM last year after an on-line proposal by Zhang Gongyao, a professor with Central South University, that health authorities remove TCM practices from national health services.

The Ministry of Health has strongly opposed the proposal, saying, “TCM is an inseparable and important component of China’s health sector.” Many outraged opponents said Zhang’s ideas “ignored history and might kill off Chinese culture”.

Other health experts say TCM is and should be widely used in China’s public health care system as many low-income families cannot afford Western medicines. If developed well, TCM could even reverse the perception of the money-obsessed culture of health care caused by expensive Western treatments and chemical drugs, they said.

Speaking on TCM’s shortcomings, Liu Gengtao, a research fellow with Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, said TCM practitioners could learn more about diagnosing illnesses using Western medical techniques.

He welcomed the government plan, saying it could prompt researchers to use science to interpret the values and unique theories of traditional medicine and speed up the development of marketable and effective herbal medicines by combining the best of Eastern and the Western practices.

“China will develop a number of new herbal medicines in the next 10 to 20 years,” Liu said.

“Unlike western medicine, which focuses solely on the disease, Chinese traditional remedy takes a holistic approach.” said Wang Jie, president of the Guanganmen Hospital.

He said the co-existence of TCM and Western medicine was unique to China’s health system, and by incorporating the two, China might invent an advanced system of medicine and take the global lead in medical science.

He thought TCM could have “more advantage” in treating chronic illnesses such as cancers, but said more research should be done to gain the scientific evidence.

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China seeks innovation in traditional medicine

SciDev.Net – In an attempt to promote innovation in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), China has launched a long-term development plan to boost research in the field.

The 15-year plan, launched on March 21, will establish a TCM-based system of disease prevention and clinical treatment, improve modern TCM manufacturing techniques and create a set of internationally recognisable TCM standards.

“Among all academic disciplines in China, the breakthroughs in TCM have the greatest potential for China to develop original scientific innovations,” said Liu Yanhua, vice-minister of science and technology, speaking at the launch.

The plan was initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology and involved 16 government ministries and administrations, including the Ministries of Health and Education, the State Administration of TCM and the China State Food and Drug Administration.

Unlike previous schemes, which stressed the modernisation of TCM with scientific methods, the new plan attaches equal importance to original TCM theories.

It says that both traditional knowledge and innovation are important to TCM’s development and that innovation should be based on the field’s traditional ethos and experience.

But the plan also seeks to establish a system of standards and regulations for TCM that will be recognised internationally.

Zhang Chaozhong of the TCM Development Strategy Research Group at the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China said, “Established European Union, United States and International Organization for Standardization drug evaluation standards are not suitable to evaluate TCM, as modern medicine and TCM are totally different medical systems.”

He said that Western medicine is based on a clear understanding of disease-causing mechanisms in order to develop specific treatments.

In contrast, TCM treatments are based on functional analysis of the patient’s entire body, and use the body’s self-healing abilities along with drugs and other medications.

Wang Zhimin, director of the natural medicine department at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, said no matter how much the holistic and tailored characteristics of TCM are respected, their stability and reliability should be emphasised in order to increase recognition on the international market.

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TCM use very common, but patients seldom tell western physicians

CM NEWS – Almost all Chinese immigrants surveyed in a US study have used some forms of traditional Chinese medicine, but seldom would they communicate with their western medicine doctors about their TCM use.

The study was done at the Center for Education in Family and Community Medicine, Stanford University. According to the researchers, Chinese immigrants constitute the largest group of foreign-born Asians living in the United States. But knowledge of their use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is limited. A survey was conducted to determine their TCM use and to evaluate physician awareness of these practices.

In the study, structured interviews were conducted with 198 Chinese immigrant patients, and a survey was administered to 17 physicians in two federally funded community health clinics.

The results showed that nearly 100% of the patients had used TCM during the previous year, mostly for musculoskeletal or abdominal pain, fatigue, and health maintenance. Self-medication with herbal products was the most common (93% at least once, 43% weekly). A smaller number (23%) had used herbs prescribed by a TCM provider.

Use of acupuncture was less common (14%), although higher than the national average.

Most patients indicated a preference to consult Western physicians for acute infections. Only 5% reported that their physicians had ever asked about their use of TCM. By contrast, 77% of physicians reported that they “usually or sometimes” asked about TCM use.

These results suggest that these patients used TCM, primarily self-prescribed over-the-counter herbal preparations, for many health problems. Information about use was not shared with their physicians, nor did patients perceive their doctors as soliciting sufficient information on TCM use.

[1: Fam Med. 2007 Mar;39(3):195-200.]

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