Traditional Chinese Medicine Enjoying Rapid Growth at Home
by Peter Barry Chowka From Natural Healthline |
According to the ministry, by late 1995 China had 2,522 TCM hospitals including 123 hospitals of Mongolian, Tibetan and Uygur traditional medicines. TCM hospitals around China had more than 230,000 sickbeds and 350,000 medical workers. The number of TCM hospitals in 1995 was 25 percent more than the year before and comprised 3.8 percent of the total number of hospitals in China. Seventy-five percent of the counties in China have built TCM hospitals and 90 percent of the comprehensive hospitals have set up TCM departments, according to the report.
The ministry official said that the country's TCM hospitals receive 200 million clinic patients and 2.5 million hospital patients a year. In rural areas, TCM hospitals are especially well utilized, attending to one-third of all clinic patients and one-quarter of all hospital patients.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is a comprehensive system of natural medicine that has diagnosed, treated and prevented illness for well over 2000 years. It incorporates the use of natural medicinal plants (herbs), acupuncture, massage, nutrition, meditation, and exercise. According to its proponents it can be an effective remedy for diseases and ailments, and can also can calm the mind, speed recovery, boost immunity, and improve one's quality of life.
In the Xinhua article, the China Ministry of Public Health official pointed to the improvement of TCM's function in preventing and treating diseases and the its overall level of scientific study. "Many achievements have been made in the study and treatment of tumors, immunity diseases, epidemic diseases, and the common diseases such as cardio- and cerebro-vascular diseases," according to the Xinhua report.
In order to supply its practitioners with herbs that form the core of its therapies, traditional Chinese medicine, according to the ministry, has formed a complete system of planting, supply and sales, with 600 production centers covering hundreds of thousands of acres of planting area in the countryside.
TCM, meanwhile, is growing in popularity outside of China. The ministry official noted that, among all of the foreign students who go to China to study natural sciences, the ones who study traditional Chinese medicine make up the largest proportion.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set up seven TCM co-operation centers in China, while China has built international training centers of TCM in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large Chinese cities. Statistics from the ministry show that the export volume of traditional Chinese medicine reached $500 million (US) last year, and that TCM is sold to more than 130 countries and regions.
Acupuncture.com |