Week 4 TCM

Chinese medicine is more similar to Osteopathic medicine than I had expected. They both take the whole body approach to medicine and consider the patient as a person and not a disease. They also believe that the body is a unit and that everything affects everything else. So when treating the patient for back pain, you don't necessarily focus on the back because other factors could be playing a role.

At Taipei Hospital, the Chinese medicine department is quite busy. Dr. Ho, the chair of the department, sees about 60 patients for consultations and does about 20 acupuncture treatments in a morning or afternoon clinic session (about 4 hours). He is quite busy, but still manages to crack jokes with the patients. He includes a structural exam with his consultation and does some manipulative treatments with foot stomping and arm flailing. I'm not quite sure what he is doing, but he said he will explain it tomorrow. During his 4 hour clinic session, he sees patients for herbal consultation and does 2 sessions of acupuncture. The tables are all lined up and patients are called in as a group. Curtains separate each of the tables. Dr. Ho goes to each table and puts in whatever needles he thinks are needed and moves directly to the next patient. He somehow remembers each patient and doesn't need to refer back to the charts. A volunteer follows and counts the numbers of needles so that they can be sure to remove them all. After he applies needles to all the patients he goes back to seeing patients for herbal consultations.

The Chinese Medicine department also has a weight loss section. Dr. Hsieh comes in on Tuesday mornings to do acupuncture and consult patients who are trying to lose weight. She has a set of about 30 points that she uses on all her patients. She also gives them dietary instructions that are very similar to a low carb diet. She asks all the patients to eat less sugar, starch, and fat and to eat mostly proteins and produce. One patient came in who was just using the treatments to maintain her weight without dietary change and Dr. Hsieh told her that this treatment is for weight loss and dietary change is necessary. Patients are given the option of acupuncture and also electroacupuncture, which apparently stimulates the points more and creates more change in the body. Another patient that came in today had lost 16 kg in 2 months with this treatment, diet and exercise. This was her last visit for the treatment. This case in extraordinary and most people lose weight more slowly, which is supposed to be healthier. This treatment seems to be quite effective and patients seem to be quite happy. Dr. Hsieh consulted about 10 new patients to start treatment today.

Through research on the NIH website, I have been able to learn about research on acupuncture. Researchers have shown that by stimulating a point on the foot that is good for eyesight, the part of the brain responsible for the eye becomes active. I'm not sure if this phenomena can be explained scientifically yet, but it is quite interesting. It is believed that some hormones or neurotransmitters are released in response to the needle. Researchers have also shown that acupuncture changes resting-state brain activity causing analgesic effects. (All of these can be found at http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/topics/index.php?title=Traditional_Chinese_Medicine). I am continuing to learn how acupuncture works through continuing education lectures on the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine website.