Common TCM Knowledge ⁽¹⁸⁾

As people age, the brain degenerates. The recent memory of the elderly is generally poor, but long-term memory may not be much affected. This leads children to be misled by their parents' clear long-term memory into mistakenly thinking the parents' recent memory is also good;…

News reports of patients dying from self-administered Chinese herbal poisoning appear from time to time. Two years ago, a patient was bitten by a dog but did not go to the hospital for treatment; his sister gave him some Mylabris (banmao), and the patient died…

Can cancer be cured? What determines a cancer patient's survival time? Early cancer can often be cured; in intermediate and late stages, cures are fewer. Treatment of most intermediate- and late-stage cancer patients (especially advanced or end-stage) should aim to prolong life and improve quality…

Summer is the season to sweat, yet many people hide in air-conditioned rooms or blow fans day and night, unwilling to shed a single drop. As a result, all sorts of problems arise: arthritis, eczema, rhinitis, frozen shoulder, frequent urination, unexplained headaches, and aversion to…

Unless there is an unavoidable emergency requiring a decoction, I myself would not advise cancer patients to take decoctions during the Sanfu (dog) days. The Sanfu period is truly the hardest stretch of the year; many weak elderly patients, even without major disease, easily die…

Among the cancer patients I have seen over the years, those who survive longest are almost all optimists. From my own experience, patients who fret easily not only do not recover easily but also handle family and doctor-patient relationships poorly. In every word and deed…

A couple of days ago a patient came to see me. She is from Liaoning, and her whole family are intellectuals. After developing lung cancer, through an acquaintance she met a mysterious TCM doctor said to hold the status of a Tibetan-Buddhist lama. A web…

Among the folk, there have always been people treating superficial tumors by external application, mostly using highly toxic, corrosive Chinese herbs or various vesicant herbs. I have seen in news reports that some Westerners are also trying their own local traditional topical methods for superficial…

If I had not personally suffered from low-back and leg pain for more than three years, I would never have imagined that thickening of the epidural adipose tissue anterior to the thecal sac at the human lumbosacral spine could cause back and leg pain and…

Moxibustion is an economical, easy-to-practice TCM therapy for health maintenance and treatment that can solve many problems. Especially for chronic disorders caused by deep cold, moxibustion may be one of the best treatments. But not everyone is suited to it. For some patients, moxibustion not…