Postcard from China

Saddened by Terri's passing, I just cannot get myself to giggle this Friday.

Instead of the usual Friday Giggles, I want to tell you about my recent trip to China, specifically, my meetings with many cancer survivors there, and the supplemental treatments they take. I say supplemental because everyone I have talked to have had conventional treatments which included surgery, and/or radiation, chemo.

What I am about to share is purely what I have seen and heard in the last two weeks in China, and what I have learned over the years. I am not presenting any of this to anyone as an alternative to your current treatment. Talk to your doctors and your family about your treatment plans. Consider this a postcard from China only.

As I started to write the first part, I realized that there is quite a big of material to convey. So I will have to break it up and post a little every week.

Bored yet?


Part I: Medicine - Chinese Style

No matter what you see and hear in the news about the trade surplus that China has against the US, China remains a poor country, and one with a very large population. Many parts of China do not have adequate medical care. Therefore, many Chinese still die of simple illnesses that are fundamentally curable by modern medicine. In this sense, China is years behind US in terms of general level of medical care available to most of its citizens. This situation in the rural area is especially true. In the big cities like Beijing, people have access to very good and very affordable medical care. The big hospitals in major cities, both private and public, offer international-standard cure. My entire Chinese experience has to do with big-city, high-end medicine.

In big cities and rural area, what is common, is a deep rooted believe in TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine. Practitioners can vary from graduates from major medical schools to country doctors who provide tonics and ointments. Some rely on CT scans for diagnosis, others can only read your pulse, check your nails and check your tongue. Remedies can come in modern-looking capsules, vacuum sealed pouches or a brown paper wrapped bag of nuts, leaves, berries and the dried bits of some unfortunate creatures. For centuries, before the advent of western medicine, the Chinese people relied on TCM remedies handed down from fathers to sons, from masters to students.

For an interesting read on TCM, check out this wikipedia entry on Li ShiZhen (1518-1593), the man who compiled "Ben Cao Gang Mu" (Compendium of Materia Medica), an encyclopedia of all known Chinese medicinal herbs. The wikipedia link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qichun.

Amongst the professionals who practice "western medicine" and "Chinese medicine", there is often an equally deep rooted distrust of each other. Some scientists and western medicine practitioners condemn Chinese medicine practices as "unscientific", Chinese medicine practitioners accuse the other side of being ineffective and the cures being as harsh as the disease. This is not hard to imagine as the same arguments happen over here to between the MDs and others.

One thing that is different in China - call it steeped in tradition or call it ingrained in the life style, people do generally believe that overall well being is essential in preventing and curing of diseases. Consequently people spend a lot of time, effort and money to "boo" themselves, even when they are healthy. "Boo" is the sound of the Chinese word for fortifying. The Chinese also believe that after an illness, surgery, or chemo, you especially need to boo yourself, to get your strength and wellbeing back. Traditionally, the most boo-ing things have been renshen, lingzhi, huangqi and a few others. Never heard of them? They are also known as ginseng, ganoderma lucida (or rishi) and astragalus. When modern methods finally caught up with ancient beliefs, all three odd-looking things have been shown to have strong immune-stimulation properties. Pretty boo, uh?

While the discussion of western medicine vs. Chinese medicine still rages on, many practicing physicians, MDs, have a much more pragmatic take on things. They dispense chemo, radiation for cancer treatments, and at the same time, they also tell their patients to eat pigs feet to protect their WBC. Why pigs feet? Collagen. Pigs feet is one of those boo things also given to women just after giving birth. It is a common practice in China for cancer patients (who can afford it) to take ganoderma extracts while on chemo to support their immune system. Some even report that it keeps their hair from falling out. After chemo, even the biggest cancer hospital in Beijing (dominated by western medicine) routinely prescribe their patient with a TCM brew made of astragalus and another herb.

I visited several MDs who are my parents' friends. Nearly all of them said, almost casually, now that chemo was over for me, it was time to find some Chinese medicine man to give me something to "tiao" and "boo" myself, meaning to "adjust" and to "fortify".

I did not hear a single person advocating a TCM-only treatment for cancer. However, all the people I talked to believed that there is a time and place for everything, and that it is the combination of conventional medicine and TCM that gives them the edge.

What is the general magic boo-ing formula for everyone? The consensus is that there is no such thing. To get one's personalized brew, one would have to consult with a TCM doctor. There are several big hospitals in Beijing specializing in TCM treatments. Because I had so little time, I did not have time to visit one. Maybe on the next trip.

Coming up next:
- Guo Lin - A Survivor's Story
- Guo Lin Qigong
- The Green Oasis of Life in Beijing