Traditional Medicine in Asia

Traditional Medicine in Asia
“natural” and has stood the test of history,
it is often automatically perceived as being
harmless. It is true that Chinese medications
in general are less toxic and safer
as compared to synthetic drugs or other
forms of therapy, but they are by no means
free from adverse effects.
The question of the toxic potentials of
herbs has long been recognized in Chinese
pharmacopoeia, and relevant theories
have been developed to avoid harmful uses
or combinations of potentially toxic herbs,
such as the theories of “Eighteen
Incompatibilities”, “Nineteen Antagonism”
and “Contraindication during pregnancy”,
“Pao Zhi” (herbal process). These theories
continue to guide the Chinese pharmacopoeia
to this day.
Quality assurance procedures must be
strictly enforced in order to standardize
herbal medicine. Chemical tests and assay
procedures must be used to supplement
the traditional standards of the Chinese
pharmacopoeia.
Concerns have also been expressed
regarding the safety of acupuncture. The
risks associated with acupuncture have
been shown to be very small compared to
orthodox interventions. 15 In November
1997, an Acupuncture Consensus
Statement made by the National Institute
of Health in the United States mentioned:
“One of the advantages of acupuncture is
that the incidence of adverse effects is
substantially lower than that of many drugs
or other accepted procedures for the same
conditions. 16 ” In general, side- effects from
acupuncture procedure itself have been
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minimal in the hands of a well-trained
practitioner. 16 Reports show that one of
the more common problems of
acupuncture is forgotten needles. 17 Lifethreatening
adverse reactions are possible
with acupuncture treatment;
18, 19, 20
however, these are usually caused by
practitioners who have not received any or
adequate training. Qualification in medical
practice is important. There should be no
exception in the case of Chinese medicine.
Prospects for TCM
TCM is, by definition, traditional, but this
in no way prevents it from evolving. Great
progress has been made since the past
decade in efforts to understand the
mechanisms of TCM, especially the
physiological effects of acupuncture. In the
meantime, efforts to combine TCM with
biomedicine in China have also accumulated
a great amount of experience and
data. More concerted efforts are needed
relating to theoretical studies which may
elucidate the fundamentals of TCM through
acquired knowledge in Western medicine.
Another challenge lies in how to clinically
combine TCM and Western medicine more
effectively which may eventually contribute
to the organic integration of these two
schools of medicine.
One frequent criticism regarding
researches in TCM is the quality of such
research. Improving the methodology
and devising an approach for the specific
use of researches on TCM may be a
worthwhile task.