My Elective in Shanghai – Experiencing the Use of Acupuncture in China

Abstract

I am a fifth year medical student at Leeds University and have just come back from my elective period visit to China. The aim of my elective was to gain experience in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), particularly looking at acupuncture which had been an interest of mine, and which had prompted my trip to China so I could see it practised in its country of origin. When I arrived I was jetlagged and disorientated yet extremely excited about beginning my elective within a culture so different from my own. I struggled to hoist my luggage into the back of a taxi outside the airport and off we went on the hour-long drive into Shanghai city centre. As we got closer the neon colours got brighter and I became more and more anxious about how I would find my way to the hotel I had booked, not knowing a single word of Chinese. I was in luck when I happened to be dropped off fairly near to another large hotel which had an English speaking receptionist who guided me towards where I needed to be. Feeling quite vulnerable with a considerable amount of luggage, in a strange place that was now dark, I began the walk to my hotel. Crossing the road was a difficult task in itself as I have never experienced such busy, chaotic roads, filled with an array of vehicles including many more bicycles and motorbikes than I was used to. I was later told to be more wary of vehicles on two wheels than four when crossing the road. It became apparent that the two-wheeled vehicles did not follow the same rules as everyone else! The next day I had to get up pretty early to make it to my first session at the acupuncture department of Yue Yang Hospital. Yue Yang is an international teaching hospital, where people come from all over the world to learn more about the practice of TCM. The hospital uses about 30% Western medicine and 70% TCM in its treatment of patients, but there are only a few doctors with knowledge of Western medicine. Most of the doctors at the hospital are keen to spread information about TCM to other countries throughout the world. One of our mentors, Dr Dong, travels fairly regularly to America where he teaches Western doctors and TCM therapists how to perform acupuncture effectively following TCM principles. TCM doctors train for about five or six years to practise acupuncture and are all highly skilled and knowledgeable about the principles of diagnosis and treatment of disease using acupuncture as well as other therapies including herbal remedies. This is quite different from the UK where acupuncture can be practised without such extensive training and knowledge, which led me to wonder whether this was the same kind of acupuncture. We spoke a lot with doctors at the hospital during their lunch breaks. Doctors like Dr Dong who had travelled abroad told us that most of the acupuncture practised in the West is practised contrary to TCM principles, that is to say, according to the meridian system and theories of energy flow through the body. He told us that this could be dangerous and so part of his work involved travelling abroad to teach people the correct way to practise acupuncture. I was shocked to hear this, as I know many people who have received acupuncture here in the UK who have said that they have received much benefit from their treatment. I told Dr Dong this and he said that short term relief can often be gained from applying needles locally to a painful area, but that this effect would not last. He also said that applying needles to certain meridians may have adverse effects on other parts of the body which connect with the same meridian. I attended my first clinic which was run very differently from any clinic I had seen in the UK. Patients did not have appointments but formed a queue outside the room. About five or six patients could be treated at any one time on beds and chairs set up within a small room, which meant there was little privacy for any of them. This, however, did not appear to bother patients in the slightest, who would Sarah Wells medical student Leeds University, UK