Maybe Hong Kong has better regulations on TCM herbs?
Maybe Thailand? Check this article out. This mad genius Thai TCM doctor "found a combination of Thai herbs in the right amounts can inhibit the growth of cancer cells and prevent it spreading". And he only charges 6000-9000 baht for the 10-day herbal cancer cure.
The western pharmaceutical industry has a very hard time penetrating the Chinese market.
Chinese people reject artificial and chemical based medicine. In addition more and more proven Chinese medicine finds its way into the western world nowadays simply because some are miracle drugs.
For this reason, just like in the 20th century, what they did in Europe and the USA, a number of western pharmaceutical companies is spreading again fear and lies about natural TCM. And those lies can simply be unproven and ungrounded. Why? Because they can tell lies as long as they are in their own media outlets (anyone can put stuff online). If they appear in true scientific magazines and articles, they need to show proof and some need to be double-checked before being published. Anyone can tell lies, anyone likes to tell lies about someone else's products. Especially when it's about earning a lot of money.
Yet, hypocritically a number of the products these western companies sell are concentrated TCM but in capsules, tablets or pills.
Yes, I agree and also believe there is contamination to a certain extend among the TCM herbs sold in China and those exported. But I believe the "lower" quality is exported rather than the higher quality. Plus there are all the taxes, duties, etc. So yes, they'll choose the cheapest of the lot (that's what most companies do).
Foreigners don't pay the same prices Chinese do for high-grade herbs.
That's why some herbs and plants cost more than gold (literally).
But here is what they conveniently forgot to mention: you can prove "toxicity" of something which is naturally not toxic. But how to prove and describe "toxicity" on something which is a toxic itself?
I mean, why would anyone say their own product is bad?
There lies the simple problem. Many western medicine is often a toxic or an artificially produced product and has a list of side-effects the size of a book.
This is caused by the need to monetize on a certain medicine within a specific time. After this the medicine becomes "public" and anyone can (re-)produce this. That's why aspirin is soo incredibly cheap nowadays. It's past its single ownership period.
To monetize faster on a certain medicine, western medicine is required by their companies and investors to treat many different illnesses with the same single product rather than only 1 illness. However, the more illnesses it treats, the longer the list of side-effects tends to become.
In contrast to TCM which treats only 1 or a very few illnesses (as it is designed to only treat something specific by a doctor), the list of side-effects is much shorter.
As TCM usually take a longer time to work and change / heal your body, if your body rejects it, you often won't get "hit" as hard as with western medicine.
Now you wonder, why do they put a ton of other TCM herbs in there too? Well, that's simple: with western medicine only focusing on the treatment of the illness, Chinese medicine focuses also on reducing side-symptoms, side-effects and allowing your body to easier absorb and digest the medicine. Not by giving it a nicer taste (it absolutely sucks and reeks), but simply by helping control any condition arising from the treating medicine and above all any condition which arose from your illness in the first place.
I.e. if you have a lung condition you may not just have a lung condition. Your chest might hurt, you may have skin irritation as your body works harder to heal / maintain your lungs' capacity, you may have difficulty breathing and you may have a change in blood-pressure. If it hurts a lot you may be more frequently irritated and have a reduced patience. (just some ideas).
The western medicine might be aimed solely at treating your lungs, but doesn't make your recovery easier or help your body help the recovery.
However, the price you pay for TCM herbs is indeed very overpriced. (Just like some medicine in the USA :) The price you actually pay here is for the doctor. Do you think he'll be happy with a couple yuan? That's just the "consulting fee", not his payment.
@ Magnifico
Yes, there are very effective treatments for cancer via TCM.
Some are already used in western medicine, but they use often less potent varieties.
However, "inhibit" does not mean "cure". Those are two very distinct and different things.
It means it stops its growth or makes them not active anymore. But to cure (get rid of them all together) may often need additional treatments (surgery, chemo, radiation, etc.)
Last thing you want to do is make them dormant and then have them suddenly pop up again.
I just posted that to show an example that some TCM doctors seem to be doing amazing things...
@ da Vinci
You couldn't be more wrong.
The material I read was actually from a scinetific journal and was conducted not just in Europe. And just logically thinking, check what they put on the fields of normal vegetables, that are priced of a few jiao per kilo. Then you have an idea how much chemical effort people go through to save their drugs worth several hundred or thousand kuais per kilo.
Plus Europe similar to Hongkong have high standards in importing food and medz, so they actually care, that includes western meds from other EU or non EU states. So the evil pharmaceutical domination has to wait a bit longer.
About the contamination it was up to 1000 times over the allowed range of pollutants.
About Western medz, actually a lot of medz I would say the majority is not based on some barrel of crude oil but extracted from natural components.
Just because it is white and in a pill doesn't mean it's made by evil chemisists in a secret underground liar.
Plus the reason for the doses and strength is to actually be directed at the disease and area.
Chinese medz are to regulate the elements, meridians and enrgy and a lot of them are plain useful. There are doctors in shanghai and beijing they are trying to build a symposium, banning drugs that have no positive effect or are too contaminated. And they are not stopped by the western syndicate but by their TCM one. They don;t want to get rid of the billions of profit for useless medz growing in the fields. Undertsandibly
Chinese medz don;t necessarily help with the side effects that's why you walk out of a TCM hospital with 50 different packs of medz and a 1000Kuai bill for a common cold, fever or other rubbish.
Plus they have combo medz in the west as well...take Tylenol it kicks the ass of any cold symptom, fever...etc not a cure for every flu but compared to what you would get a TCM doc it's cheaper, faster and plain better.
I am still using TCM and I like the idea of it, but taking poison to help my body to get better, no thanks. Plus for serious diseases I wouldn't see a TCM doc anyway...I have seen them misdiagnosing lethal diseases, just to not upset the patient and thus slowing the healing process. How f..ed up is that.
Plus the good TCM docs prefer to work in places where they get paid proper...HK,Thailand,Europe,US and that leaves us with underpaid, overworked docs that couldn't give less of a crap and have fill sales quota.
But that goes for the Western docs here too.
I am saying just be careful, do your homework in terms of pollutants and chemicals used in TCM.
You're right about that. The cheaper the product the more toxins you're likely to find. (hence why they had a problem some years back with 2 million baby and children toys that were painted with lead-based paint)
However, with our own production of TCM and active components of "new" medicines I can say there are those (including us) who aim to raise the bar to the very top and produce our crops as sustainably / environmentally conscious and/or organic if possible :)
Several of those include the cancer fighting active components that article refers to.
PS: I have friends who worked in various sectors of the food industry. And they said: "if you know how they produce food in Euope / America, you'll never go to the supermarket again" :)
"I am still using TCM and I like the idea of it, but taking poison to help my body to get better, no thanks."
I'm not saying you're wrong in warning the OP to be cautious about taking TCM, but Vioxx is a perfect example of a western drug that is "poison". It had to be taken off the market because it made people prone to heart attacks.
So, suggesting western "medz" over TCM because it's less toxic isn't necessarily accurate.
I don't say that western medz are without fault or toxic elements.
But just the case that in china there is no controlling organ to stop abuse, toxins, or just faulty or useless medz doesn't mean there isn't any problem here.
China supports it's businesses if people drop dead by it nobody cares.
Thats the difference if a drug or ingredient proves to be toxic or harmful they "Must" take it off the market.
I knew this guy who had a lung condition too so they gave him this wormgrass crap praising it buying it for dunno 20000 kuai per100 gram and they found out it was fake and the few real ones are contaminated plus that it's at the brink of being proven absolutely useless. Except if you like to eat expensive no flavor worms turning into grass....
That's my point, I rather eat my clean western poison rather than Chinese poison.Plus you never see here how they make it and thus you still don;t know if they really give you medz or just a skimmed down version of wanglaoji. And wanglaoji being the better scenario.
That said I still don;t mind to take Chinese medz when I know it is provided, proper, and if it's prepared right under my nose.
I am a big friend of herbal medicine but when scientists say that the effect of the drug is not nearly as good as the toxic side effects than what's the point?
Silvio's comment in a previous post had some validity. Some scientific studies may be funded by pharmaceutical companies to discredit herbal medicine, which is basically their competition. So don't believe every scientific claim you read.
TCM also lends itself to potential abuse because they are not required to divulge the contents of the herbs they're prescribing and even if they did, there's still no way to be sure how safe it is.
That's why I consider a third alternative which is western herbal medicine. The advantages are:
- no language barrier
- the herbalists (ie naturopaths) in the west generally do not have proprietary ownership of the herbal remedies they are prescribing and therefore will not have any need to conceal the contents.
- the herbal remedies will be from western manufacturers, presumably with good quality control.
- you can go online and research the company that manufactures the herbal remedy you've been prescribed and research the ingredients and read customer testimonials about people who've used the herbal remedy.
For minor ailments, you can prescribe your own herbal remedies without consulting any doctor. For instance, if you have allergies, just google "natural or herbal remedy for allergies", spend some time learning about the product, and order the herbal product online.
