TCM is clinically integrated into hospitals as part of (mostly) preventative medicine and treatment, though. I was prescribed a number of herbal medicines when I went in for 1) a twisted ankle 2) GI problems and 3) heatstroke. I’m a foreigner and this was in T1 cities.
Yeah I’ve had the same experience. Alongside real medicine, for minor issues, I don’t really have a problem with it. If nothing else it’s an innocent placebo.
It’s just in rare cases where people over rely on it that I think it’s dangerous. You hear stories like people attempting to cure their cancer with exclusively TCM, but these cases thankfully don’t seem too common.
Yep, fair enough. I imagine if either of us had been really ill the treatment would be similar to what we’d receive in a western hospital, i.e. heavy analgesics. Fortunately haven’t had to see that side of a Chinese hospital.
Anecdotally, I have also seen a TCM doctor since returning from China since I was curious, and it was absolute quackery afaic. Outside of the hospital system it’s an unregulated untested crapshoot.
I liked the accupuncture like, I think that did help (at the very basic level lying down in a dark room listening to soothing music would do on its own) but the 配方 pellets were useless at best.
TCM is way more than a weaponized placebo. Obviously some of it is scientifically bunk, but a great deal of it represents the practical indigenous knowledge of Chinese people developed over millennia of living in their environment and learning how to use it to better themselves.
TCM is clinically integrated into hospitals as part of (mostly) preventative medicine and treatment, though. I was prescribed a number of herbal medicines when I went in for 1) a twisted ankle 2) GI problems and 3) heatstroke. I’m a foreigner and this was in T1 cities.
Yeah I’ve had the same experience. Alongside real medicine, for minor issues, I don’t really have a problem with it. If nothing else it’s an innocent placebo.
It’s just in rare cases where people over rely on it that I think it’s dangerous. You hear stories like people attempting to cure their cancer with exclusively TCM, but these cases thankfully don’t seem too common.
Yep, fair enough. I imagine if either of us had been really ill the treatment would be similar to what we’d receive in a western hospital, i.e. heavy analgesics. Fortunately haven’t had to see that side of a Chinese hospital.
Anecdotally, I have also seen a TCM doctor since returning from China since I was curious, and it was absolute quackery afaic. Outside of the hospital system it’s an unregulated untested crapshoot.
I liked the accupuncture like, I think that did help (at the very basic level lying down in a dark room listening to soothing music would do on its own) but the 配方 pellets were useless at best.
It’s chill when it is a weaponized placebo but people tend to go over board with it.
TCM is way more than a weaponized placebo. Obviously some of it is scientifically bunk, but a great deal of it represents the practical indigenous knowledge of Chinese people developed over millennia of living in their environment and learning how to use it to better themselves.