In my previous two articles, I have been talking about the possibility for Indian Hospital  to utilize Ayurveda in their healing and medical offers to gain a differentiating asset. Yet there are two hollistic medical system in Asia: ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine that I ll call TCM to save some time.

Traditional Medicine is an ancient method of health care that combines the use of medicinal herbs, acupuncture, food therapy, massage and therapeutic exercise… Even though the concept yin yang is becoming a cliche of the occidental popular culture, TCM is really based upon this system: the interrelationship between organs is exactly depicting the yin yang theory.

This system, called the Five Phase theory, is based on the  premise that each organ either nourishes or inhibits the proper functionning of another organ (the yin against the yang). TCM aims at stabilizing the whole system for it to operate. Let’s illustrate this idea with the actual five phases

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So let’s understand the whole system: for instance, deficiency in EARTH (stomach) leads to deficiency in both METAL organs (large intestine and lungs). Defficiency in METAL generates an imbalance in WATER (kidney and bladder) and in turn affects WOOD that will then affect FIRE. Any imbalance breaks down the whole chain…

Diagnosis in TCM is all about understanding if there is an imbalance of one of these five elements. Hence no x rays, no blood tests, no endoscopy… TCM diagnosis consists of four non invasive methods:

  • Inspection of the general demeanor, body. language and tongue

  • Question the patient about medical history, diet, lifestyle

  • Listen to the tone and strenght of the voice

  • Smell any body excretion, the breath or the body odor

  • Palpation of the pulse of radial arteries, the abdomen and the meridian

This is actually not a far cry from ayurvedic techniques (even for the gore part), yet, the main difference resides in the meridian analysis and the will to get rid of all symptoms, even the hidden ones (as all elements are affected by the imbalance of one of them). TCM techniques are pretty obscur as they are practiced among the Chinese community in low profile places (in Singapore it is often practiced in a tiny room inside an appartement of a 16 storey building bar…)

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I definitely need some guidance to find my way in this TCM shop!!

Many medical spa has taken into account the TCM approach to appeal to international custmers, but some Asian hospitals are trying to fill up the void. The Raffles Hospital hospital has just opened Raffles Chinese Medicine a clinic that emphasize TCM as a complementary medicine for a series of condition most notably stroke recovery and hypertension. Yet, the mysticism of the discipline plus the proven efficiency of TCM should entice Asian Hospitals with an important Chinese Community as their potential customers to develop such services:

  • To find best practices to deliver TCM

  • To propose an end to end medical follow up (post op recovery through TCM)

  • To be DIFFERENT