Traditional Chinese Medicine

Since I am Chinese, I have grown up around Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). However, as I lived mostly in Canada and the United States, I have not been treated with TCM. I probably did have some herbal supplements before, and there was my experiment with acupuncture in treating my peripheral neuropathy.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a broad range of medicine practices sharing common concepts which have been developed in China and are based on a tradition of more than 2,000 years, including various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage (tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy.

Wikipedia

I am sure that through years of anecdotal evidence, there may be some basis for herbal supplements and even acupuncture. However, for major illnesses, I am highly skeptical about using TCM to diagnose and treat the illness. Even worse are the contorted explanations given to try and explain the efficacy of TCM treatment. From my limited experience, much of it is totally illogical, and runs counter to Western medicine or even basic science.

I bring this up because my aunt called my mom about my uncle (dad’s brother). He had a stroke several years ago. I do not remember the exact date, but likely early 2015 based on some data from Google Timeline. Since two out of three of their children were in Asia, I went to the hospital almost daily after work for a few weeks after his stroke. My parents were visiting relatives in Canada at that time; when they returned to LA, they took over the visitations. The stroke was pretty serious from the CT scans I saw. It turned out my uncle had several smaller strokes before, but he never noticed, nor did he go see doctors regularly. I think he was about 70 years old at the time.

The first few weeks at the hospital was pretty bad. He was incoherent, very agitated, and hostile to hospital staff. He did improve after a few weeks, and the hospital sent him to a residential recovery center. My aunt brought him home soon after that and has been taking care of him since then. He showed more improvements but lost a lot of cognitive functions. Meanwhile, my two cousins stayed in Asia, and the last/youngest cousin got married, so my aunt basically took care of him alone. The reason she called today was that my uncle deteriorated a lot recently. He can no longer speak and has lost bowel control. She was looking for information on homes for dementia patients, since my parents had to take care of my grandmother many years ago.

It did not have to happen this way. From secondhand information, mostly from my mom, my aunt relied on TCM to treat his stroke for the past five years. That means no CT scans, no anti-dementia medication, no Western doctor visits. What she had been doing was bringing him to a TCM “doctor” who gave him herbal medicine, and treatment that literally translates to “hitting the head.” （打頭）I cannot find anything on this online, but my aunt pays $40/session, and she gets the treatment done too. I am pretty sure it is not an effective treatment for stroke, or anything at all. Recently, after my uncle’s condition worsened, the TCM practitioner said his brain “shrunk” causing the new symptoms. How did they know? Did they do a brain scan? Nope. It seems like they put a finger on his “energy paths” to feel the diagnosis. Is this like chakra or something? Sounds suspiciously like nonsense to me.

I am not sure what happens now. My uncle used to be the president of a multi-national corporation with hundreds of employees. The cousin not in Asia has a PhD in some kind of medical field (I think occupational therapy). Her spouse is a nurse. The other two cousins went to well-known US universities. I seriously do not understand how things have gone so wrong without anyone suggesting a visit to a neurologist. My grandmother on my dad’s side had Alzheimer’s Disease, and I heard it is typically passed down from mom to sons. My other uncle (dad’s other brother) is also showing signs of dementia per another cousin. I think in addition to the stroke, the first uncle was showing symptoms of dementia too. That should have been a huge red flag to his family to seek professional medical help. It is probably too late now.

I am kind of sad. Although we were not super close (their entire family moved to Taiwan for many years before returning to LA), my uncle did give me my first office job. When I moved here to the US, I worked at a supermarket during the summer before starting my senior year in high school. After a few weeks, he gave me a job at his company, and I worked several years there (full-time summer and Sundays during school year). It was a much nicer work environment, even though I had to help out in the warehouse and drive a forklift occasionally.

I think my mom was able to convince my aunt to at least get a CT scan and get a diagnosis from a real doctor. Maybe there is room for improvement if he receives proper treatment now, but I am not hopeful. 😢