Insights and Updates

There is an old Chinese saying: "Minor illness seeks medicine, major illness accepts death." I would append a tail to this dog: "For incurable disease, treat gently." Over my years studying Chinese and Western treatment of cancer, this saying has struck me deeply. I once…

The Chinese medicinal herbs daji (Cirsium japonica, Japanese thistle) and xiaoji (Cirsium setosum, field thistle) can be used in some cancer patients and have a good effect in relieving edema caused by ascites.

Cancer is a chronic disease, and treating it is a long process. Patients who choose TCM against cancer, in particular, must take Chinese medicine for a long time to achieve effective control. But not all patients benefit from Chinese medicine. Many take it for cancer…

Beijing's healthcare reform has finally begun: registration fees have been abolished and a medical service fee introduced, though the internet is full of curses. My title and content may both attract abuse, but I do not care. For Chinese medicine to advance, we must respect…

Li Dongyuan, a great physician of China's Jin-Yuan period, took on a disciple named Luo Qianfu. When accepting the disciple, Li asked Luo: "Have you come to learn medicine as a money-making trade, or to learn medicine as a way to transmit the Way?" Luo…

When I was a child, the thing I remember most vividly was my mother often vomiting acid water at our doorstep, in utter misery. Because she was born during the great famine, my mother endured many days of hunger, which led her, before she was…

Because of my profession, I have, so to speak, grown accustomed to life and death. Every year I witness the process by which a great many cancer patients move from life to death. I had a patient who, while alive, was a truly remarkable person,…

Over the past two years I have visited a number of folk doctors who treat cancer with TCM, and followed up on patients who survived thanks to Chinese medicine. I have found that TCM anti-cancer treatment cannot do without "using poison to attack poison." Personally,…

Which kind of treatment is most likely to be effective? After treating people for so many years, I began to think about this question. A person studies medicine with the original intention of saving the dying and healing the wounded. After years of study and…

Cancer patients often ask me: "When is the best time to start TCM treatment?" The answer is simple: "The earlier, the better!" Some patients insist on waiting until Western medicine has exhausted every option before starting TCM, but by then it is already too late.