In physiotherapy, the twain do seem to meet

'Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,' writes Rudyard Kipling in his 1889 poem The Ballad of East and West. Never did he get it more wrong than in the case of 21st-century physiotherapy in Hong Kong.

For the past few years, a few therapists here have mixed elements of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with their Western repertoire. I recently discovered this when I hurt myself at the gym.

My symptoms: numbness in one arm and hand, and pain and swelling around a shoulder and shoulder blade. The cause: a prolapsed upper spinal disc putting pressure on a nerve, plus three torn tendons around the shoulder area. I was ordered off to physiotherapy.

The first physiotherapist I saw was at a private hospital. She used electro-pad therapy, ultrasound and short-wave diathermy (a heat-generating machine), as well as some manipulations. Some of the machinery prompted more numbness and discomfort.

The second physio I saw, at a private clinic and recommended by my doctor, dished out similar treatments.

But at a small clinic, Perfect Pointe, run by Jenny Chan Lai-nga, I was offered acupuncture, alongside manipulations of the hand and elbow - which served to avert a potential spine operation. Chan, a certified practitioner of Western-style physiotherapy, had done a course in acupuncture to enhance her capabilities.

'I believe that traditional Chinese medicine can add some benefits that help certain injuries,' says Chan, who also uses cupping and scraping in some treatments.