If you compiled a list of must-do things in China, what would it include? More interesting than simply visiting the Great Wall and eating Peking duck might be riding the buses and trains instead of cruising from A to B at 12,000 m. Sampling grasshoppers or scorpions at Beijing's Wangfujing night market would also suit the more adventurous.
Experiencing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might be less daunting but it's tempting nonetheless. Recent events afforded me the perfect opportunity to tackle the same health issue with both TCM and its Western counterpart. Click here to learn acupuncture point Sanjian (LI 3).
A trip to New Zealand took a turn for the worse when a bout of long-standing lower-back pain intensified within hours from being a nuisance into something far more debilitating. One night, even getting off the armchair in my countryside cottage took the best part of 15 minutes.
I rather hoped it was a bad dream, or at the very least a temporary lapse, but when I woke up equally immobile the next morning the only thing to do was call for an ambulance. If you're ever carted off in one, be sure to ask for the laughing gas. It's supposed to dull the pain but it also does wonders for your mood.
After several hours in the emergency department I was told I'd be kept overnight for observation. Next day, I was told my blood tests were clear and x-rays had revealed nothing worse than "a common degeneration of the lower spine". In other words, "it is wear and tear old-timer, get over it!" After postponing my imminent return flight to Beijing I consulted the West's answer to back pain, the osteopath. It was a piece of cake until he said: "We'll just try a little manipulation - breathe in, breathe out and relax" and I waited for the click that signaled my body parts were being reassembled. Three treatments later, I returned to Beijing with four high-powered painkillers to help me through the 13-hour flight. Click here to learn acupuncture point Hegu (LI 4).
My Chinese colleagues advised me to give TCM a whirl. Deep joy, my chance at last! The Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and its adjoining hospital are near the office so off I limped, bounding down the road like, well, the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
The young doctor there threatened to dampen my spirits. "Massage better than acupuncture," he said, before his senior colleague interjected. "No, acupuncture better" he instructed, and so it was. Three sessions should be enough, they said. As they started inserting the needles I couldn't feel a thing. What's all the fuss about, I thought. This is a cinch!
Years of excruciating dental surgery had made me immune to anything acupuncture can throw at me. I was even jolly enough to ask a friendly young doctor to capture the moment on my digital camera and laughed when I was told I actually had 10 needles up and down my back. Then the doctors dispersed and I regressed to the 1970s and the soothing sounds of Supertramp on my MP3 player. I was wrapped up in my time-warp when I was rudely brought back to reality by a searing pain that seemed to engulf my entire torso. Click here to learn acupuncture point Yangxi (LI 5).
The doctor, it turned out, had returned to check the needles were all firmly in place and found one that needed shoving in further. Naturally, it was the very spike at the epicenter of the inflamed area.
"It only hurt because it was your first time and you were nervous," they told me. I duly returned for the second and third visits. Now, another 10 days on, the pain has largely disappeared, although whether I have East or West to thank, I have no idea.
What I do know is that "no pain, no gain" seems to apply to both treatments. Three sessions in Auckland set me back $210 NZD ($105), while the TCM was just 150 RMB ($22) so in that regard, it was much less painful - and wins hands down.
Article source: chinadaily