Welcome again to everybody. Make yourself at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
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I’m not fully versed on TCM but as chinese diaspora/being casually exposed to parts of it, I know it’s some serious stuff (as in, definitely has effects. that I have personally experienced…) and it’s not “Just” “traditional” (connotation: some ancient rites that have never changed or evolved in use/practice). Also my layman understanding is that TCM and general culture regarding health/healthcare is that TCM is more preventative in nature, while attitudes about western (“modern”) medicine is that it’s for ailments/conditions that require immediate attention or reactive in nature… Additionally it’s important to note that TCM and western medicine aren’t in conflict, or at least it’s discouraged for people to believe that TCM is superior or should be the sole mode of healthcare to follow, if that makes sense (I have to note this because in the west I believe it’s very common for pseudoscientific/cultish “alternative medicine” to purport that all of modern medicine is bogus or unreliable while their alternative practice is superior).
Also I don’t have links on hand but iirc there have been modern scientific medical research into aspects of TCM, such as acupuncture being better than placebo for specific conditions… oh, and my personal observation that dermarolling and microneedling have an odd resemblance to guasha (tho I also see influencers/beauty bloggers telling people to use both/all. two comments: beauty industry has been ramping into skincare/dermatology territory for a while now… also the facial version of guasha popularized by beauty industry/influencers both eastern and western is Different from TCM guasha, which leaves marks that should fade relatively quickly).
Lastly I’ll die on this hill: TCM is [mostly]* real medicine while chiropractice is full-on quackery. *moxibustion spooks me and I have the least confidence about that. also cupping
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writing this post made me actually look up cupping, even if only briefly, which I thought was a TCM-only thing, but I learned that cupping and different variants are used in health practices associated with other non-sinosphere cultures, specifically wet cupping which I had never heard of until today. also learned that cupping wasn’t prevalent in TCM until 1950s ??
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//not really TCM related but recently I saw a post floating on rednote that was like “[foreign visitor posting]: I noticed yall don’t really use pain medications even ibuprofen, what’s up with that” and many cn responses being something to the tune of “don’t need to mask the pain in order to keep going, we try to find and treat the cause not the symptom eg pain. only use pain medications when it’s very hard/impossible to cure the cause such as chronic conditions”
You are right in the aspect that TCM is heavily focused on the prevention aspect moreso than the direct treatment of symptoms. Which is why many TCM practitioners will literally prescribe 养生, take care of your health, which is obvious and I think gives many people bad experiences. TCM is built upon natural remedies so I’m sure it’s limited in that regard, and also doesn’t have a surgical aspect.
What I will say though as someone who believes in TCM, not everything you hear people say is TCM is TCM, even in certain “clinics”. TCM is based on 3 foundational books 黄帝内经，难经，伤寒杂病论。They lay out foundational philosophy (which is bullshit, much of it is old hypotheses of how disease comes about, miasma type of thing) and treatment of illness comes from. Many hacks will use the title of TCM to sell weird alternative shit, so be careful and if you do want to try TCM make sure they are certified from a university, because in many countries you can get a bachelor’s in TCM, and that’s about the only way you can trust the practitioner.