The West is fast catching up on traditional medicine and complementary or alternative medicine (CAM), says the World Health Organisation. Interest is growing steadily in developed countries, such as the United States, Germany, France, and Japan, in these older approaches to the healing art, which once dominated Third World medical practice.
Relatively few countries, however, have developed policies and regulations on either traditional medicine or CAM.
China is one of the few big nations to have integrated traditional medicine into a modern health care system. Most of the country's hospitals (at least 95 per cent) have traditional medicine units, says the WHO. Traditional medicine accounts for 30 to 50 per cent of the nation's total medical consumption. Some 800 manufacturers of herbal products account for an annual output worth US$1.8 billion.
Traditional medicines are popular in other Asian countries, as well, especially in rural areas. The WHO estimates that 40 per cent of the population in Indonesia uses traditional medicine, and the figure is rising to 70 per cent in the countryside.
Acupuncture originated as a part of traditional Chinese medicine, and its use has been increasing worldwide in recent years. More than three-quarters of pain clinics in Germany offer acupuncture therapy.
Besides acupuncture, Chinese medicine includes herbal remedies, diet, exercise, and massage.
'The duration of treatment depends on the nature of the complaint, its severity, and how long it has been present,' say Harriet Beinfield and Efrem Korngold, authors of Between Heaven And Earth, a book on Chinese medicine.