[Clinical story ] three KIWIs are trying Chinese herbs

Generally speaking, Chinese people may prefer to take traditional Chinese herbs when they are suffering from medical conditions, while the local Kiwis prefer to take western medicines in form of tablets, even for those Kiwi patients who are coming to see me for acupuncture treatments.

There are three Kiwi patients who recently came to see me, and asked to try the Chinese herbs. I felt a bit strange to see this as I often recommend Chinese herbs to locals, but most of them do not take my suggestions.

Case 1; female, Indian.

She is suffering from Cheilitis for two years, she feels dry, peeling, and getting repeated infections.

She has taken many ways in western medicine, seen specialists, but has no improvement. so she wants to try Chinese herbs.

I checked her pulse and tongue, I believe that she is suffering from ‘internal hot’ in Chinese medicine terms, so I subscribed her some herbs to ‘cleaning the hot’.

Case 2, female, European.

She is suffering from fatigue for two months, she feels tired, headache, dizziness, bad sleeping. She went to the hospital twice, has done many examinations, but no improvement. She wants to try Chinese herbs.

I believe that she is suffering from the ‘stagnation of qi’, and give her the herbs that activate her ‘qi’.

Case 3, male, 38 years old, Argentine.

He is suffering from stomache for one week, he feels little nausea, no appetite, very tired, headache. He is off work and has been seeing his GP, the GP provides no treatment for him, so he wants to try Chinese herbs.

I checked his pulse, tongue, I think he is suffering from ‘internal cold’, and subscribed him some ‘warming herbs’.

They have all been seeking the Western medicine first, but it hasn’t been able to help them, also none of the examinations find any causes. The patients’ conditions remaining the same. In my opinion, they may be suffering from a functional disorders of the body.

The Western medicine doctor would want diagnoses causes such as infection, inflammation, cancer, depending on the machine examinations. While the Traditional Chinese doctor will assess the body’s condition, such as hot, cold, stagnation, depending on the patient’s pulse and tongue, it is significantly different practice between the Western medicine and the Chinese medicine.

For the Western medicine, external forces such as medicine, examination, and operation, are often used to deal with medical issues. While in the Chinese medicine we always seeking the alternative ways, using herbs, acupuncture and cupping to regulating the body’s conditions or to stimulating human body’s self-healing properties, in order to recover and heal eventually.

(*This post is written in Chinese and been translated into English. In case of discrepancies between the Chinese and the English version, the Chinese version shall prevail.)