TCM down to the bare bones

While the Hong Kong government continues efforts to promote traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and restore it to its former stature, even young people, when they suffer bone fractures or twisted ankles, seek healing from the traditional bonesetter.

The art of bone setting traces back to martial artists, who frequently suffered sprains and fractures during practice, as far back as ancient times. The dance-like movements, controlled breathing and mental focus of bonesetters are quite like the movements applied in the art of combat. The art of the bonesetter similarly demands physical strength, especially in the wrists.

Mystical aspects aside, bonesetters follow several standard practices. They use crutches instead of casts to set broken bones and they apply pungent herbal pastes to ease pain and to speed up recovery. Nearly every bonesetter has a "secret" house remedy, handed down only to male members of the family from generation to generation. Usually, the secret potion consists of a blend of herbs decocted in casseroles. For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Abstinence from physical over-strain.

On the wall of Ho Kwok-wai's clinic in Kennedy Town, Sai Wan are four hand paintings. The paintings, on rice paper, yellow with age, depict, respectively, cranial bones, foot and figure bones, the vertebral column and the trunk. The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches engraved on the paintings reveal their provenance - back in the 1970s.

On another wall is a plaque that was presented to Ho's father, Ho Chung-sing, by a friend. Inscribed are the words, "Benevolent Heart and Skillful Execution" - high praise indeed for a traditional Chinese physician. Ho Chung-sing, a dedicated practitioner, opened his clinic in 1965 and devoted his life to the healing art. His son, Ho Kwok-wai, who was to inherit the clinic, was only five at the time. Over the years, his father taught him the skills of setting bones hand by hand.

"Back in the colonial period, there were no formal schools to teach bone-setting and traditional Chinese medicine," Ho recalls. "My father and I went out to the mountains in southern Guangdong to gather herbs. We'd go back home with baskets full of roots and leaves. Then, we'd sort them and chop them and boil them up for patients."

Famed Lingnan branch
The Lingnan branch of Chinese medicine was named for the Lingnan area, loosely referring to Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where an abundance of healing Chinese herbs is found. The elder Ho was among the branch's practitioners. He attended the School of Medicine at Jinan University where he apprenticed under Long Cenghua, a great master of osteopathy.

Since Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, TCM has made major strides. Ho registered as a TCM practitioner in Hong Kong and took up the family practice of setting bones. Since the handover, the Hong Kong government has made increasing commitments to re-establish the practice of TCM - funding advanced research, establishing teaching schools and promoting public education.

In contrast to Western medicine which heals bone fractures with plaster or through surgery, TCM applies acupuncture, massage and traditional Chinese medicines to treat patients. TCM embraces the concept of a vital life force. The practice focuses on a combination of forces both dynamic and static, while treating patients internally and externally.

"We fix bone fractures by massaging aching muscles and applying medicines, while instructing patients to move their joints. This way, patients are treated as complete entities. They recover gradually without many side effects," Ho explained.

This objective of all TCM treatment is to restore the natural flow of qi, or vital life energy, the energy circulating through the internal organs. The treatments are set to prevent the onset of disease by relieving congestion in the blood flow. This high objective and the sweeping claims advanced by TCM have stirred accusations among skeptics that traditional Chinese physicians are quacks. "It's true that we treat patients through our personal experience," Ho said. "We have no unified methods of treatment or defined prescription doses. That's because each patient has different physical conditions and we treat each as unique." For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Abstinence from sexual over-strain.

With greater formalization of the practice of TCM, today's doctors must pass a licensing examination in order to qualify for registration as a doctor of TCM and to open a clinic. The licensing exam falls under the supervision of the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board of the Chinese Medicine Council.

An average of 40 patients per day with ailments related to osteopathy visit the clinic, Ho said. "More and more people nowadays trust traditional Chinese physicians. Some people were introduced by their friends. Some bring their X-rays to provide direction while others come to avoid the risks of infection and the pain of surgery."

Ho has imported several pieces of high-tech equipment over the years to facilitate treatment. "The electric current produced by machines has greater healing efficacy. In my father's time, we relied completely on the strength of the hands," Ho said.

TCM treatment restrictions
Currently, traditional Chinese physicians in Hong Kong are restricted to "pure TMC-related treatment", said Ho. "We are not allowed to take X-rays. Sometimes, patients have to transfer to radiology departments for X-rays and then come back for further treatment," he added.

With more attention paid to TCM by the Hong Kong government, Tu Feng, a senior lecturer at the School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), said: "We expect to standardize and specialize TCM with traditional Chinese treatment as the essential, coordinated by the methods of Western medicine. Physicians in TCM or Western medicine all have the same goal after all - to cure patients." Before coming to Hong Kong, Tu was a clinical professor and chief physician in orthopedics at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

"Times change, but the core of TCM remains," Tu concluded. "It is through the combination of science, art and religion that traditional Chinese physicians learn to practice, heal, and care." For further information of Chinese medicine, please click to learn Keep optimistic emotions.
Abstracted from chinadaily.com.cn.