Theory
About the Author
In our society, few people grow up wanting to become a Traditional Chinese Physician. They just read up more if interested. Or they go to the local Chinese Physician, a mythical figure placed in a musty re-enactment of all things Chinese and traditional. This ancient figure will descend in the flesh to read your pulse at some point during the diagnosis, following which he’d scribble this prescriptive list of herbs that would become a medicinal drink that will make you well again.
After a short career working as a Management Consultant in Boston and Singapore, the author went on to apprentice for a year in a TCM clinic in Taipei. This meant time working with patients doing acupuncture and blood-letting. This also meant packing herbs and some simple preparation of herbs. The Taiwanese Chinese physician suggested a sojourn to the Mainland to better learn herbs in an institutional setting.
Read article about hunting for TCM universities in China.
The articles on this site are for people looking for a personalized take on various aspects of Chinese Medicine – the author tries to be as objective as possible. It is hoped that both students and users of Traditional Chinese Medicine will benefit from reading the articles.
More importantly, drop a comment or question if you feel like it.
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I am a chinese from Malaysia who have anal fistula problem. The western medication would prescribe countless surgeries for this kind of ailment. I read about a certain Xian Han Shen Zai Hemorrhoid and Fistula hospital in Xian China. Do you know if a foreigner like me can go there to seek treatment. Any pointers where to find TCM for anal fistula around Malaysia or Singapore would be most helpful too. Thanks in advance.
Chinese herbal treatment can reaonably do the following:
analgesic
anti-inflammatory
astringent, dehydrant
anti-microbial
help with healing of wound and growth of flesh
Look at this article for more information, but the gist is that Chinese herbal treatments can help in treating external hemorrhoids, but with internal hemorrhoids, possibilities for treatment depend on the degree of prolapse. Varices can be dried off (and that is likely to be the treatment principle used at the Xian hospital you mentioned), but even if treated, how do we treat the prolapse using Chinese herbs? Here in Nanjing, surgery is the preferred option.
About your anal fistula (肛门瘘道), it is slightly more complicated. The problem is that the tunnels (aka fistulae) will have a tendency toward being inflammed — this is often the result of chronic infection of one or more crypts. Now, we can try to get rid of the root of infection, and this is possible with Chinese herbs. Treatment with herbal medication is easier if the place of infection is reachable for local placement of suppositories e.g. a crypt that causes superficial perianal abscess. Treatment is not so easy but also possible if it is deep abscesses we are talking about – oral antibiotics or intravenous medication is more suitable here.
Now, if the place that was once infected is kept clear of infection, then you can call that a cure. But is this cure permanent? The issue here is that a fistula/tunnel once formed will remain. And openings in the body like a fistula are prone to infection. This is why a more permanent form of treatment will include taking out the fistula too. This is probably why hospitals you’ve been to have recommended the surgical option.
I am not able to recommend places for treatment, but above you have information that you as an educated patient can use to make decisions regarding what treatment method to use.