Yowser! Acupuncture Torture in China!
November 26, 2012

Is Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture different in China? As many of you know, I am a fan of TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) and I've already experienced it on three continents and recently wrote about the Acupuncture hospital in Penang.
TCM is best in Asia in my opinion because many of the herbs can not be imported into the USA or Europe and there is much that is past down through the generations. Asian cultures just understand it better.
One of the challenges of traveling while sick is learning to take care of oneself on the road and we've gained many travel health secrets along the way including my whole list of travel health posts.
I am doing fairly well with my health issues in China and I've brought some TCM herbs with me and other special supplements. One thing that is helping is the TCM doctor who is also a principal at the Mandarin school my child is immersing in and I will write more of that. I will also do a 2 day tour here learning more about combining TCM and China travel and will report on what I learn.
But dealing with new doctors, cultures and ways can sometimes be disconcerting ( even at home). I went to one very well known and respected TCM doctor and herbalist in California who was very bizarre, gave us many acupuncture needles to keep and burnt my belly quite bad with the moxibustion. I was also burnt by a TCM school in California, but never burnt in Asia or Europe, despite extensive use of moxibustion.
At one of our first dinners in China, that a very sweet friend of a friend invited us to, I experienced some China acupuncture that I was not expecting. She had heard I was having health problems so she invited her favorite TCM doctor to look at me and have dinner with us. He specialized in stomach issues and acupuncture.
Like most people here, he did not speak English, but my friend asked if I wanted a little treatment, so I said okay. Yowser! It hurt a lot and I never experienced anything like it. He was kind of super stimulating some points I know well now and one on my chin with acupuncture needles..pushing them in and out along nerves related to stomach qi. OMG! My nerves felt on fire for a while..but then I felt better...and enjoyed the scrumptious dinner. ( Usually acupuncture is a very relaxing experience and if there is nerve pain it soon subsides).
I've also been tortured by western doctors/M.D.'s, ( several MD's gave me medicine that made me feel much worse in California and the IV dye for my abdominal MRI there put me in excrutiating pain ( primarily in my kidneys where I had no problems before) for ten days.
So I suppose the moral of the story is one never knows exactly what one is getting into at home or abroad when one seeks medical help of any kind and travel health around the world can be quite an adventure in itself.
Ah, the joys of babyboomer/ senior travel!
Is Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture different in China? As many of you know, I am a fan of TCM ( Traditional Chinese Medicine) and I've already experienced it on three continents and recently wrote about the Acupuncture hospital in Penang.
TCM is best in Asia in my opinion because many of the herbs can not be imported into the USA or Europe and there is much that is past down through the generations. Asian cultures just understand it better.
One of the challenges of traveling while sick is learning to take care of oneself on the road and we've gained many travel health secrets along the way including my whole list of travel health posts.
I am doing fairly well with my health issues in China and I've brought some TCM herbs with me and other special supplements. One thing that is helping is the TCM doctor who is also a principal at the Mandarin school my child is immersing in and I will write more of that. I will also do a 2 day tour here learning more about combining TCM and China travel and will report on what I learn.
But dealing with new doctors, cultures and ways can sometimes be disconcerting ( even at home). I went to one very well known and respected TCM doctor and herbalist in California who was very bizarre, gave us many acupuncture needles to keep and burnt my belly quite bad with the moxibustion. I was also burnt by a TCM school in California, but never burnt in Asia or Europe, despite extensive use of moxibustion.
At one of our first dinners in China, that a very sweet friend of a friend invited us to, I experienced some China acupuncture that I was not expecting. She had heard I was having health problems so she invited her favorite TCM doctor to look at me and have dinner with us. He specialized in stomach issues and acupuncture.
Like most people here, he did not speak English, but my friend asked if I wanted a little treatment, so I said okay. Yowser! It hurt a lot and I never experienced anything like it. He was kind of super stimulating some points I know well now and one on my chin with acupuncture needles..pushing them in and out along nerves related to stomach qi. OMG! My nerves felt on fire for a while..but then I felt better...and enjoyed the scrumptious dinner. ( Usually acupuncture is a very relaxing experience and if there is nerve pain it soon subsides).
I've also been tortured by western doctors/M.D.'s, ( several MD's gave me medicine that made me feel much worse in California and the IV dye for my abdominal MRI there put me in excrutiating pain ( primarily in my kidneys where I had no problems before) for ten days.
So I suppose the moral of the story is one never knows exactly what one is getting into at home or abroad when one seeks medical help of any kind and travel health around the world can be quite an adventure in itself.
Ah, the joys of babyboomer/ senior travel!
« previous | | next »
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e5502a95078833017c33bc52c2970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Yowser! Acupuncture Torture in China!:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The comments to this entry are closed.
so thats what happened before i went to the dinner.I missed that part, which was interesting. I'd like a try as well.
Posted by: winser zhao | November 26, 2012 at 05:40 AM
Ha! Yes, you did miss that part, but it all worked out in the end. ;)
The dinner was also amazing!
Today I am taking some more TCM medicine that the TCM doctor here at the school gave us for a bit of a cold.
And I am liking the self healing TCM instrument here..although it is a bit painful too.
I am looking forward to learning more about TCM in China!
Posted by: Jeanne @soultravelers3 | November 26, 2012 at 05:57 AM
you will see and know more about the TCM in China this time, I heard someone will teach you some movements of Qigong tomorrow, please enjoy it.
Posted by: winser zhao | November 27, 2012 at 07:21 AM