Shanghai, China - Blog III

Traditional Chinese Medicine

I had planned to be with Minister Chen at a medical college where they teach Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I have written before about my interest in this subject. I brought Dr. Josephine Briggs, who heads the Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Our purpose is to stimulate some scientific cooperation on how Western medicine can be informed by TCM.

We visited a large new hospital about an hour outside the Shanghai city center. It had 750 beds and is connected to the Medical School. We visited three departments at the hospital: the pharmacy, a general ward and the acupuncture center. At the acupuncture center, the management of the hospital had very cleverly identified some of the patients with Utah ties, people who had lived there during the time I was Governor. We walked through three small rooms and observed the treatment of a dozen patients for things ranging from knee problems and bells palsy, to infertility.

Afterward, we gathered in a conference room to ask questions of the medical staff. I find it rather easy to grasp the portions of TCM related to medicine. They use naturally grown plants in combination to produce a therapeutic result. The components obviously have active ingredients that have some impact on the human body. Over the years they have developed patterns of what works in various situations. Diagnosis is done through a form of observation and intuition.

TCM deals with concepts that are thousands of years old, and involves assessment of more than physical well being. It strives to find balance within the various systems of the body. I don't understand all of it, but I think it is important to respect that their approach is different than ours, and to acknowledge there may be a lot we can learn. In medicine, it is important to understand why something works. It appears to me in TCM, it is only necessary to believe something works. What I hope we can do more of, is applying scientific methods to understand why Chinese methods work. Blending knowledge from the two should be our goal. We are working on a Memorandum of Understanding to do just that.

I will admit that what I learned about acupuncture-aided surgery went over the top for me. They do major surgery with the patient awake and alert using acupuncture instead of anesthetics. I didn't see an actual surgery, but they had clips of video.

The difference between TCM and Western medicine typifies the challenge of working cooperatively with the Chinese; two different philosophies and two different systems. Neither should attempt to change the other, but rather to make our systems interoperable.

I spent about an hour at a TCM museum, which was helpful in understanding the history and philosophies. I found it helpful to see the development throughout a few thousand years. They also had a group of students who talked about the teaching techniques used in training TCM doctors. It is critical to remember this is a method of treatment hundreds of millions of Chinese prefer. They don't trust Western medical techniques.

Secretary Leavitt tours a Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum in Shanghai

Diplomacy Speech

The most pleasant part of the day for me was a diplomacy speech I did at the medical school with 300 students. My goal in the hour we had together was to make friends with them. I told them about me and my family. Then I told them about my job. After that, I let them just ask questions about anything. It was great fun. They asked me about TCM in the U.S. We talked about the Olympic Games. I told them stories about when my state hosted the games. We discussed health costs in the U.S. I was very candid about my concerns. They asked me for advice on how to succeed in life. I gave them some thoughts about goal setting.

I concluded my talk with the students by talking about why I meet with students like them. It is to plant seeds of relationship between our countries to help each of them know us better and for us to understand them. The students responded well, and we talked for an hour, but it could have gone much longer.

A Personal Curiosity

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to see an animal display at the convention center. My interest was stimulated because a friend of mine, Ken Bearing, donated all the taxidermy. It is a spectacular display of African animals including an elephant, a 20 foot man-eating gator, a hippo and many others. It is displayed in a spectacular way. They have had over a million visitors since it opened a year ago.

On to Beijing

Tomorrow, it’s a speech to the American business community and then on to Beijing for meetings with various government officials.

Comments

Dear Secretary Leavitt,

You write of an interest in making Western Medicine and TCM interoperable. I am one of many people whose health condition was hopeless when seeking help from WM, but I got relief through acupuncture and then cure through Chiropractic.

Historically Chiropractic is practiced as part of TCM and currently in much of the US Chiropractors can be certified to do acupuncture. However there is a shortage of integration of Chiropractic in our health care programs.
If nothing else, educating medical doctors in appropriate referral and cooperation with Chiropractic could save millions of dollars otherwise spent on pharmaceuticals and surgery.
Chiropractic has documented success in repairing the nervous system. The entire body is controlled by the nervous system and a prominent result of Chiropractic care is overall wellness. Chiropractors frequently refer their patients to medical doctors and acupuncturists, how often do MD’s refer to chiropractors? Only a small percent of what they should. Health care options abound in this country, cooperation and cross-education amongst the health care practitioners should be encouraged. No, Chiropractors are not MD’s, nor do they wish to be. And MD’s are not Chiropractors, nor should they be. Expertise/specialization in a given field is appropriate, it makes for Experts, but a little more education, respect and cooperation would benefit everyone, particularly the patients.

Posted by: Burdoc Nisson | May 19, 2008 at 02:14 PM

I'm delighted to hear that you have an interest in TCM. I have studied alternative healing for 20 years and believe western medicine should be open to this type of medicine. The only way to control our health expenses in the US is to seek an inexpensive alternative approach to healing such as TCM.

Posted by: Vectorpedia (Rick) | May 19, 2008 at 03:57 PM

I'm glad to see you're open minded and looking at ways that focus on restoring health and not isolate disease. It's a very different mindset.

Todd Langer, MSc, CES, Rolfer
www.balance2posture.com

Posted by: Todd Langer | May 22, 2008 at 04:17 PM

Secretary Leavitt:
I am hoping that after all your numerous trips to Asia these past months, you have learned of the importance of Acupuncture as health treatment. It amazes me that Medicare does not recognize (or contribute payment for) this as a viable health treatment; it is much less expensive than alternate treatment, and less debilitating to the patient. I have three ruptured lumbar disks, at risk for surgery, and cannot (or will not) tolerate mulit-daily use of pain medication. What is YOUR opinion on correcting this problem of non-payment for acupuncture?
Thank you...

Posted by: Mickej | May 28, 2008 at 07:57 PM