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29 March 2024

Cold, headache... Chinese pills may cure you

Published
By Majorie van Leijen

In the next couple of weeks a new treatment of the common cold will enter the market; a ready-made formula composed of various herbs that could do miracles. The name of the formula - Gan Mao Ging Re Keli.

Chinese traditional medicine are becoming more popular in the UAE and with the backing of the authorities form a welcome alternative to mainstream healthcare. Be it infertility, diabetes, joint pains or the common cold; there is a Chinese treatment that could solve the problem.

“TCM has accumulated tremendous popularity through assured efficacy, especially in the field of prevention and preserving health,” said Liang Shuqi, doctor at the Bejing Tong Ren Tang clinic in Dubai Health Care City. TCM is an empirical medicine, with the efficacy approved and developed into the exuberant vitality.”

Bejing Tong Ren Tang was founded in 1669 as the supplier of medicine to imperial families in the Qing Dynasty and served 8 emperors over a period of 188 years. Now, it proudly serves the UAE community.

One of the success stories of the clinic is that of inducing fertility through a combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine. Working closely together with fertility experts, the clinic support various fertility treatments with acupuncture. “We have seen around 40-50 couples getting babies, and many of our patients get pregnant naturally after 1-3 courses of treatment,” said the doctor.

When a patients comes in with symptoms such as coughing, fever, sore throat and running nose, the Chinese doctors usually prescribe “root of thorowax” ,”fruit of weeping forsythia”,  ”root of divaricate saposhnikovia” and other herbs.

Furthermore, it contributes to the rehabilitation of serious ailments such as stroke, tumor surgery, arthritis, thrombosis or breast disease.“Western medicines should be adopted for rescue and emergency treatment, however, TCM should be the first choice for post-acute period recovery and chronic diseases,” says Liang.

How it works

There are two major concept s in TCM: wholism and treatment according to syndrome differentiation,” she further explained.

“When we receive a patient who describes certain symptoms, we do not only look at those symptoms, but we try to analyse the person as a whole and understand where these symptoms are coming from. Furthermore, not every person would get the same treatment for the same symptoms, as these may be caused by different factors for every person.”

To understand this approach, one should be familiar with the yin and yang concept, which stems from traditional Chinese pihilosophy but plays an important role in TCM as well. According to the yin and yang concept, there are two sides to everything, and so does the human body have two complementing elements.

“When a patient suffers from yin efficiency, it means that there is not enough water in the body. The symptoms are dry mouth, and sweating over the night. When a person lacks the energy there is a yan deficiency; this person will feel cold most of the time. In case of yin deficiency, we would provide with yang treatment and the other way around, explains Liang.

Treatment methods

Moxibusion is typically effective for people suffering a yang-efficiency.  With a smoking roll of mugwort leave, this method expels excessive body coldness, removes blood stasis, eliminates stagnation and gradually decreases body pain while working along the meridian network of the human body.

The meridian is the channel through which energy circulates and along which the acupuncture points are distributed. There are altogether over 2000 acupuncture points along the meridians. Each point has its unique effect for curing various diseases.

However, treatments mostly contain a combination of several TCM methods, such as acupuncture, moxibusture, and the intake or external use of herbs.  “Sometimes we even treat the same disease with different therapies and methods, based on the fluctuation of conditions at various stages of the same symptom. For instance, the treatment plan for lumbar rehabilitations always contains herbal medicines, acupuncture, cupping and Tui-Na.”

Herbal medicine are much like a kind of food, continues the doctor. “Most of these herbs come from the plant, which is why it is completely safe and natural. The most popular form of using these herbs is decoction, which is the xtracted  liquid of the herb. The doctor will prescribe a formula containing ten to 15 herbs. Our pharmacy will do the decoction, so the patient can take home a ready-made formula.”

Modern technology

Although Chinese medicine date back thousands of years ago, the medical field has developed through history and modern technology has played its role.In ancient China, there was only decoction as a form of herbal medicine treatment. Due to the development of modern technology, this has been expanded into pills, powders, pastes, pellet, emplastrum and unguentum, explained Liang.

“Similarly, thousand years ago acupuncture was applied with bian stone, which is a very sharp stone for slicing and cutting to release blood and expel the pus. With the development of technology, metal and silver needles appeared which made the application easier.”

Receiving around 40-60 patients a day, the clinic mostly serves the Chinese community. However, over the last two and half yearsTCM has been recognized among local communities and people from western countries, said Liang. “Nowadays, a third of our patients is Chinese, a third islocal and the rest are expats in the UAE.

“We do believe that TCM should gain more importance in the health sector. It could benefit more people from different nationalities worldwide, especially in disease prevention and curing chronic syndromes.In China,both TCM and western medicines are considered mainstream in the healthcare industry. They complement each other.”

According to the clinic, TCM is not necessarily more costly than mainstream healthcare. For example, IVF treatment  could cost around Dh50,000-100,000each time,  while one month of treatment at our clinic would approximately add up to Dh5,000, including acupuncture and herbal medicines.

Currently, the clinic is listed with two insurance companies and dialogues are ongoing to become listed at two more companies. “We are the first TCM company to be listed with insurance companies, and our products are approved by the Ministry of Health,” said Liang.