Over the weekend, an incident happened that left me feeling incensed.
My family went out shopping at a prominent shopping center at Orchard Road. Coincidentally, there was a traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) clinic at said shopping center, and my mother decided to consult the ‘physician’.
My mother constantly complains that her hands and feet feel cold when she exercises. I have told her that her ailment is probably due to the massive amount of muscle loss she experienced since she began exercising.
My mother, now in her 50s, began an exercise regiment with my older sister several years ago. Her routine was extremely aerobic in nature, and what resulted was a massive loss in weight.
The problem is that my mother seldom partakes in any muscle-building/strength training exercises. During the exceedingly rare occasions when my mother visits the gym (around once in 4 months), she usually confines herself to the treadmill.
I have been to the gym with my mother many times and have constantly advised her to concentrate on more muscle building activity. After all, the treadmill is a poor substitute for actual road work, and my mother attends 2 aerobic classes every week, compared to a nearly non-existent muscle building routine.
In my opinion, the cause of her ailments is clear. The cold feeling in her extremities is probably due to the massive amount of muscle-loss and de facto drop in blood pressure. It is widely accepted that when dramatic weight loss is experienced due to aerobic exercise, most of the weight loss is muscle, not fat.
My mother decided to defy my advice and chose to consult this TCM ‘physician’ for her ailment.
The result? A $120 bill, or $7 a day for ‘medicine’.
Let’s put that figure in perspective. My father and I both take Hyzaar, a miracle drug for hypertension. It is considered a ‘branded’ drug and is not subsidized by the government (i.e we pay full price for it). Because its patent is still valid, there are no generic counterparts either. It’s cost? Approximately $1.80 a day.
How can a ‘branded’ pharmaceutical drug, that costs billions of dollars to develop, cost less than 1/3rd that of a ‘natural’ herbal remedy?
But the tremendous disparity in price is only one of my concerns. What about efficacy and safety? Do we know for certain that TCM works? And if it does, are there any side effects?
Proponents of TCM argue that TCM is effective because it has been around for thousands of years. But age has no relevancy on the efficacy of medicine. And if TCM was so effective, where are the medical milestones that make it comparable to the development of penicillin or the eradication of small-pox?
In fact, global life expectancy only increased when Western medicine became pervasive.
Is my mother paying $7 for snake-oil? She could be. The ‘physician’ didn’t even inform her of the constituents of her medication or their side-effects. How utterly irresponsible!
But this wouldn’t be the first time my mother has had a run-in with a shoddy TCM practitioner. Over a year ago, she slipped in the bathroom and hurt her ankle.
Initially, she thought it was a sprain. I told her that sprains typically heal in around 3-5 days, and if the problem persists, that she should see a doctor. My mother, unable to reconcile the fact that her son is a Ninja Master Genius, ignored my advice.
About one week later, she went to see a sinseh (Note: when I advised her to see a doctor, I specifically told her to visit a Western doctor. Not some TCM quack).
The sinseh did the usual ‘massaging’ and pulled and pressed on my mother’s leg. It didn’t work.
Nearly 2 weeks after her accident she finally relented and went to see a Western doctor. She was diagnosed as having a hairline fracture. The ‘sinseh’ not only failed to make that diagnostic, but potentially made the problem worse with his ‘magic fingers’. To those who have never visited a sinseh before, I should mention that the majority of sinsehs are heavy handed. Apparently, many other Singaporeans have had run-ins with TCM.
I am an extremely pragmatic person who is ruled by reason and logic. I would be willing to accept any form of medicine, even homeopathy, if it was properly regulated. But considering how much older TCM is when compared to Western medicine, the amount of clinic data is shockingly lacking.
I have heard rumors that the scant research that has been conducted in TCM has been extremely skewed. I have read that placebos are not used as a control group in some of these studies, thereby leaving placebos as a potential determining factor in these results.
But the exorbitant price, secrecy, lack of research and professionalism weren’t the factors that angered me the most. What angered me the most during my weekend encounter was amount of old and retired patients who were waiting to see these ‘physicians’.
Ripping off old, poorly-educated retirees who are suffering from genuine physical problems? That’s plain wrong.
