Traditional Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as pseudoscientific, with the majority of its treatments having no known mechanism of action.[1][2]
"Chinese medicine" redirects here. For the practice of medicine in modern China, see Medicine in China.Traditional Chinese medicine
中醫
中医
"Chinese medicine"
Zhōngyī
Zhōngyī
Chung1-i1
Jūng yī
Zung1 ji1
Tiong-i
Tiong-i
Y học cổ truyền Trung Quốc
Đông y
thuốc Bắc
thuốc Tàu
醫學古傳中國
東醫
𧆄北
𧆄艚
중의학
中醫學
jung'uihak
jung'uihak
漢方
かんぽう
Kampo
Kampo
Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, literati theory and Confucian philosophy, herbal remedies, food, diet, exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought.[3] In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Traditional practitioners then selected elements of philosophy and practice and organized them into what they called "Chinese medicine" (Chinese: 中医 Zhongyi).[4] In the 1950s, the Chinese government sponsored the integration of Chinese and Western medicine,[5] and in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, promoted Chinese medicine as inexpensive and popular.[6] After the opening of relations between the United States and China after 1972, there was great interest in the West for what is now called traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).[7]
TCM is said to be based on such texts as Huangdi Neijing (The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor),[8] and Compendium of Materia Medica, a sixteenth-century encyclopedic work, and includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping therapy, gua sha, massage (tui na), bonesetter (die-da), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy. TCM is widely used in the Sinosphere. One of the basic tenets is that the body's qi is circulating through channels called meridians having branches connected to bodily organs and functions.[9] There is no evidence that meridians or vital energy exist. Concepts of the body and of disease used in TCM reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, similar to the humoral theory of ancient Greece and ancient Rome.[10]
The demand for traditional medicines in China was a major generator of illegal wildlife smuggling, linked to the killing and smuggling of endangered animals.[11] However, Chinese authorities have in recent years cracked down on illegal wildlife smuggling, and the industry has increasingly turned to cultivated alternatives.[12][13]
Critique
Historians of science have developed the study of medicine in traditional China into a field with its own scholarly associations, journals, graduate programs, and debates with each other.[47] Many distinguish "medicine in traditional China" from the recent traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which took elements from traditional texts and practices to construct a systematic body. Paul Unschuld, for instance, sees a "departure of TCM from its historical origins." [48] What is called "Traditional Chinese Medicine" and practiced today in China and the West is not thousands of years old, but recently constructed using selected traditional terms, some of which have been taken out of context, some badly misunderstood. He has criticized Chinese and Western popular books for selective use of evidence, choosing only those works or parts of historical works that seem to lead to modern medicine, ignoring those elements that do not now seem to be effective.[49]
A 2007 editorial the journal Nature wrote that TCM "remains poorly researched and supported, and most of its treatments have no logical mechanism of action."[2][50] Critics say that TCM theory and practice have no basis in modern science, and TCM practitioners do not agree on what diagnosis and treatments should be used for any given person.[9] A Nature editorial described TCM as "fraught with pseudoscience".[2] A review of the literature in 2008 found that scientists are "still unable to find a shred of evidence" according to standards of science-based medicine for traditional Chinese concepts such as qi, meridians, and acupuncture points,[51] and that the traditional principles of acupuncture are deeply flawed.[52] "Acupuncture points and meridians are not a reality", the review continued, but "merely the product of an ancient Chinese philosophy".[53] In June 2019, the World Health Organization included traditional Chinese medicine in a global diagnostic compendium, but a spokesman said this was "not an endorsement of the scientific validity of any Traditional Medicine practice or the efficacy of any Traditional Medicine intervention."[54][55][56]
A 2012 review of cost-effectiveness research for TCM found that studies had low levels of evidence, with no beneficial outcomes.[57] Pharmaceutical research on the potential for creating new drugs from traditional remedies has few successful results.[2] Proponents suggest that research has so far missed key features of the art of TCM, such as unknown interactions between various ingredients and complex interactive biological systems.[2] One of the basic tenets of TCM is that the body's qi (sometimes translated as vital energy) is circulating through channels called meridians having branches connected to bodily organs and functions.[9] The concept of vital energy is pseudoscientific. Concepts of the body and of disease used in TCM reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, similar to Classical humoral theory.[10]
TCM has also been controversial within China. In 2006, the Chinese philosopher Zhang Gongyao triggered a national debate with an article entitled "Farewell to Traditional Chinese Medicine", arguing that TCM was a pseudoscience that should be abolished in public healthcare and academia. The Chinese government took the stance that TCM is a science and continued to encourage its development.[58]
There are concerns over a number of potentially toxic plants, animal parts, and mineral Chinese compounds,[59] as well as the facilitation of disease. Trafficked and farm-raised animals used in TCM are a source of several fatal zoonotic diseases.[60] There are additional concerns over the illegal trade and transport of endangered species including rhinoceroses and tigers, and the welfare of specially farmed animals, including bears.[61]