Transcultural headache medicine: A framework for integrating cultural contexts into headache science and care - a call to action from the International Headache Society.

See related article, pages 1973–1979. The lack of effective and widely applicable pharmacological treatments for ischemic stroke patients may explain a growing interest in traditional medicines, for which extensive observational and anecdotal experience has accumulated over the past thousand years. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as “health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal and mineral based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illnesses or maintain well-being”.1 Unlike Western medicine, which focuses on disease, traditional medicine takes the approach that the body provides external clues to an internal imbalance that can be addressed by interventions such as herbs and acupuncture (holistic treatment approach).2 According to a 2003 WHO report,1 traditional medicine is very popular in all developing countries, and its use is rapidly increasing in industrialized countries. For example, traditional herbal preparations account for 30% to 50% of the total medicinal consumption in China. In Europe, North America and other industrialized regions, over 50% of the population have used traditional medicine at least once. The global market for herbal medicines currently stands at over US $60 billion annually and is growing steadily.1 In recent years, several reviews have been published on the effect and potential benefits of traditional Eastern medicine in stroke.3–7 It has been suggested that some herbal medicines, or their products, may improve microcirculation in the brain,4,8 protect against ischemic reperfusion injury,8,9 possess neuroprotective properties3,4 and inhibit apoptosis,10 thus justifying their use in ischemic stroke patients. However, unlike industrially manufactured pharmacological drugs used in Western medicine, the active (potent) components of herbal medicines often have not been specified and measured precisely, although there have been recent attempts to regulate dosages and use of …

Application of signs of dying identified in traditional Chinese, Tibetan, and modern Western medicine in terminal care

WHO International Standard Terminologies on Traditional Chinese Medicine: Use in Context, Creatively

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and integrative medicine are key components of the cultural heritage from Eastern Asia with thousands-of-years history in research and healthcare delivery. Traditional oriental medicine contributes significantly to the prosperity of Chinese and Eastern Asian culture. After the introduction of western biomedicine to Asia, traditional medicine still plays an important role in the healthcare system of many Asian countries and integrated with the mainstream medical treatments as a new track of healthcare named as integrative medicine. With the current trend of globalization, traditional medicine and integrative medicine are receiving gradual acceptance in the Western world. As a result, studies on traditional medicine attract more and more attention from researchers with various knowledge backgrounds and technologies. Medical informatics is a new interdisciplinary branch in medical science when computer science and information technology are combined with research of health science. The application of medical informatics that has extended to the studies of traditional medicine and other therapies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). The special issue supported by this journal provides a forum for traditional and integrative medical researchers and practitioners to share and exchange their new ideas on using computer science and information technology to explore and solve problems in healthcare. It is proposed with the Fifth International Workshop on Information Technology for Chinese Medicine (ITCM 2014) in Guangzhou, China, on 12 to 14 December 2014. The workshop is in conjunction with the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM'14), which was held in Belfast, UK, on 2 to 5 November 2014. Professor Xusheng Liu, Professor Honglai Zhang, and Professor Guozheng Li cochaired the workshop. The conference invited top experts from the US, UK, Australia, and Hong Kong to present their inspiring research outcomes and prospect the future of traditional and integrative medicine. However, numerous scientists and researchers were unable to introduce their excellent idea due to time limit of the workshop. The ITCM 2014 received about 100 submissions. All papers were anonymously reviewed by members of the IEEE conference organization committee. The accepted papers were published in the Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine Workshops (IEEE-BIBMW) (ISBN 978-1-4799-1309-1). Just a few excellent papers were later invited to submit the extension version to the special issue alongside external submissions for consideration of publishing. This special issue has received 37 submissions. All papers have gone through rigorous view, and only 10 of them (27%) are finally accepted for publication. This special issue reflects the up-to-date progress in applications of information technology to traditional and integrative medicine. The papers are categorized to represent the four aspects of medical informatics research of the discipline. In the paper entitled “Standardization of Syndrome Differentiation Defined by Traditional Chinese Medicine in Operative Breast Cancer: A Modified Delphi Study,” Q. Guo and Q. Chen present their research on TCM syndromes. Five papers are selected to demonstrate the research progress in disease diagnosis and treatment. G.-X. Shi et al. report a clinical study on vascular dementia. Z. Chen presents a new mathematics method to explore the classical theory of five elements in TCM in his work “Researches on Mathematical Relationship of Five Elements of Containing Notes and Fibonacci Sequence Modulo 5.” In “Syndrome Differentiation Analysis on MARS500 Data of Traditional Chinese Medicine,” Y.-Z. Li et al. succeed to use MARS500 to process the data of traditional medicine. The paper entitled “Detecting Disease in Radiographs with Intuitive Confidence” by S. Jaeger introduces the new idea to use informatics method to detect disease. Three papers are about information processing of traditional medicine. The paper entitled “Patterns Exploration on Patterns of Empirical Herbal Formula of Chinese Medicine by Association Rules” by L. Huang et al. used association rules to retrieve patterns from classical traditional medical formula. B. Zhang et al. proposed a bioinformatics approach to explore the latent patterns from conventional formula Shuang-Huang-Lian in their work “Using Bioinformatics Approach to Explore the Pharmacological Mechanisms of Multiple Ingredients in Shuang-Huang-Lian.” The paper entitled “Pulse-Diagnosis Signals Analysis of Fatty Liver Disease and Cirrhosis Patients by Using Machine Learning” by N. Wang et al. introduces new data mining method to process diagnostic data of liver disease. Finally, the paper entitled “An Ensemble Learning Based Framework for Traditional Chinese Medicine Data Analysis with ICD-10 Labels” by G. Zhang et al. and the paper entitled “ISMAC: An Intelligent System for Customized Clinical Case Management and Analysis” introduce the applications of machine learning to electronic data analysis of traditional medicine.

Is There Room for Paradox in CAM?

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.中西醫結合包含中醫和西醫之間的團結合作，但更重要的是中醫學和西醫學之間的互相結合。在世界上對傳統醫學曾有過三種方針，即“否定”，“容忍”和“平行”的方針，均不能充分發揮傳統醫學的作用和潛力。中國採取“結合”的方針，較好地解決了這一問題，不僅滿足當前醫療工作的需要，更重要的是在科學研究中，強調創新，兩種醫學的觀點、方法、優勢互補，獲得大量新的研究成果，如針刺原理和針麻研究，青萬素的發現，瘀血證研究等。雖然現代醫學是主流醫學，但尚不足以解決所有問題，如慢性病，老年病等。用結合的思想可以更好地解決各種難題，使醫學科學更快地向前發展，造福於人民。What attitude should we take toward traditional medicine? There have been three types of policies in this regard all over the world. First, the excluding policy prohibits practicing any traditional medicine. Traditional physicians are not qualified to possess the title of physician, and their practice is illegal. Second, the tolerating policy does not make illegal traditional medical practice, but it does not formally affirm the practice. Third, the paralleling policy allows both traditional and modem medical practices, but their use may not overlap. For example, traditional physicians may not use modem medical facilities.Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, a unique policy of integration has been adopted in China. This policy assumes that both traditional Chinese medicine and modern Western medicine have strengths and weaknesses. It requires that both types of medicine be integrated so as to develop more effective methods in treating diseases and preserving health.There are two senses of the integration of traditional Chinese and modern Western medicine. The first sense refers to the integration of the two types of the physicians, i.e., the cooperation between traditional Chinese practitioners and modern Western medical professionals. The second sense refers to the integration of the two disciplines; i.e., to use both traditional Chinese and modern Western medical theories and practices to create new forms of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and means. The hope was to have the perspectives, methods, and solutions of both types of medicine complement each other.Under the integrating policy, traditional Chinese medicine has been developed tremendously in mainland China. 30 traditional Chinese medical colleges, 2457 traditional Chinese medical hospitals, and 170 traditional Chinese medical research institutions have been established. A number of well-known medical achievements, such as acupunctural analgesia and anesthesia, the discovery of a new type of anti-malaria drug - Qinghaosu (artemisinin), and the study of blood stasis syndrome, have been made by following the integrating strategy.With the rapid growth and development of the diagnostic and therapeutic technologies in modern Western medicine, some individuals are doubtful of the prospect of traditional Chinese medicine and of the necessity of China’s integrating strategy. However, no matter how advanced modern Western medicine as a form of medicine has become, it will not be able to handle all diseases or medical problems effectively and appropriately. The human body and medical reality are too complicated to be fixed by modern medicine once and for all. For instance, in the present time, chronic and geriatric diseases pose perplexing challenges to modern medicine. Possibilities are always open for traditional Chinese medicine as well as the integrated traditional Chinese and modern medicine to make their valuable contributions.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 69 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

In 2021, Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (AHM) in English is officially published by Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and China Association of Chinese Medicine. AHM is a peer-reviewed, diamond open-access international journal dedicated to publishing high quality research in the field of acupuncture and herbal medicine. The types of publication considered are editorial, review article, original article, guidelines and standards, commentary, short communications, case report, methodology, and letter to the editor. Featured by evidence-based medicine researches, AHM publishes innovative studies on acupuncture and herbal medicine, promotes academic exchanges, and drives the transformation of research achievements to serve the international development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and establish the frontrunner journal for international communication of traditional medicine. Since the late 2000s, changes in the disease spectrum have led to significant transformation in medical models and the goals of medicine worldwide. World Health Organization has advocated for universal access to essential medical services for global health benefits and starts the great journey of building a healthy world. Mainly based on acupuncture and herbal medicine, TCM has a long history and has played an important role in ensuring the prosperity of the nation and safeguarding the health of the Chinese people. Although it is ancient, its concepts are not outdated, such as the concepts of harmony between human beings and the nature, the dynamic balance between yin and yang, the individualized treatment through syndrome differentiation, and the active preventive medical thought of health maintenance. All of these theories converge with the frontier directions of modern life science, and exhibit the value of TCM in modern society. The extensive practice has proven that solutions to life sciences and medical problems are entrenched in TCM, emphasizing the worth of its vigorous inheritance and development. The modernization of TCM has been more than 20 years and has made great progress. A meaningful experience is to maintain the inheritance and promote the innovation, through following the theoretical basis of TCM, introducing and learning from advanced scientific and technological methods which is making the past serve the present. “Stones from other mountains can serve to polish our jade.” The synergistic effect can be realized through complementary advantages. Since 2020, a sudden COVID-19 epidemic has wreaked havoc around the world, with China bearing the brunt. Chinese people have united in struggling against COVID-19 with the fearless heroism, and forged the great anti-epidemic spirit of “the supremacy of life, the unity of the whole country, the sacrifice of life and death, respect for science, and the sharing of destiny.” In less than three months, we have won a phased victory in the fight against the epidemic. TCM has participated in the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic and played a critical role in all of the stages[1]. Strict isolation and widespread use of TCM effectively blocked the spread of COVID-19 epidemic, reduced the development from mild to severe, increased the cure rate and reduced the mortality rate. In response to the different outcomes in clinical evaluation studies, the world's first Core Outcome Set (COS) was developed by Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine for clinical trials on COVID-19 (COS-COVID), which determined the “rate of mild to severe” as a critical clinical evaluation outcome[2]. This outcome was recognized and widely used in evaluating the results of clinical trials for TCM, clinical drugs and vaccines. In addition, China has also actively shared its anti-epidemic experience of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine with the world, which has been widely concerned and positively commented by the international community. The combination of the TCM and Western medicine is not only one of the characteristics of China's COVID-19 response[3], but also a vivid practice of inheriting the essence of TCM, maintaining the integrity and promoting the innovation. The pandemic has not only changed the world, but also change the world's attitude towards TCM. Mainly based on acupuncture and herbal medicine, TCM has been popularized and applied in more than 100 countries around the world and legalized in health insurance by dozens of countries and regions. A number of high-level papers have been published and high-level education and personnel training have been sustainably performing. AHM will hold to evidence-based medicine research and adhere to the directions of “inheriting the essence, maintaining the integrity, and promoting the innovation”, report innovative theories and excellent academic achievements in the field of acupuncture and herbal medicine, and move forward to the international leading journal. We will strive to build a bridge between traditional medicine and modern medicine, promote global communication and cooperation, and contribute to the health and well-being of all mankind! Conflict of interest statement Boli Zhang is the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. Funding This article was supported by the Action Plan for Excellence of Chinese Science and Technology Journals(Excellence Plan-D-028).

: In China, allergic rhinitis patients are looking not only for western therapy in Chinese traditional medicine but also for treatment in Western and Chinese mixed medicine. Several studies have compared traditional Chinese medicine, Western and Western combined. Such three forms of treatment were not analyzed simultaneously. Aim: The research examines the differences between populations and medical applications of allergic rhinitis patients who received all three treatments to determine the use of different drugs. Methods: The inventory for patients diagnosed with allergic rhinitis (International Disease Classification). The Chi-square test and Tukey test were performed for the region of interest to check the disparity between these three treatments (a significant difference still exists). Results: The interview rate for women with allergic rhinitis is higher than for men regardless of whether it is treatment with traditional Chinese medicine, Western or combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Persons 0-19 years of age was first in the proportion of allergic rhinitis diagnosis and care. Traditional Chinese medicine includes medical measures with maximum hours per person, the daily cost per hour of medicines and minimum overall hourly expenditure. Western medicine, by comparison, costs the lowest daily drug per hour, and the highest total drug costs per hour per person. Between traditional Chinese and western medicine, the total cost per capita of integrated traditional Chinese and Western Medicine as well as drug costs per capita and the total cost per capita. Conclusion: Although only 6.82% of allergic rhinitis patients opt for combined traditional Chinese medicines and western medicine, their rate of receipt is higher each year. Moreover, mixed medications are used more frequently compared to single-component medicines

Traditional medicine has become an increasingly common treatment option for many patients. Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the more popular modalities. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of the needs of male subjects who visited a traditional Chinese medicine expert in a men's health polyclinic. A total of 231 male patients visited a men's health polyclinic comprised of psychiatry, andrology and traditional Chinese medicine. Participants completed a set of general data and screening assessments, including the Androgen Deficiency in Aging Males Questionnaire, the Aging Males' Symptoms Rating Scale, Insomnia Severity Index, Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II, Chinese version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory, Gotland Male Depression Scale, the abridged 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function, and the Situational Fatigue Scale. Blood testing, including a profile of sex hormone levels, was selectively performed according to clinical needs. Eighty-six males (37.2%) sought traditional Chinese medicine. The subjects who had been to traditional Chinese medicine before had a higher rate of erectile dysfunction and infertility complaints, and lower scores on the Gotland Male Depression Scale as compared to those who had never been to traditional Chinese medicine. Infertile male patients seek help from traditional Chinese medicine due to oligo-astheno-tetratozoo-spermia syndrome or failure to achieve pregnancy after treatment for correctable causes such as varicocele. Specific symptoms of male depression might be related to overall sexual complaints rather than to erectile dysfunction specifically. Herbal medicine may be an alternative and complementary treatment for male infertility, erectile dysfunction and mood disturbances, but further research is necessary to determine its efficacy in the male population.

Objective To Analyze the development tendency and major influential factors of the resource and service of traditional medicine (TM) by contrasting the statistical data between China and India.Methods The research data came from the governmental statistical date of traditional medicine.The main statistical indicators included:number of TM hospitals,number of beds in TM institutions,number of health personnel of TM,number of visits and inpatients of TM institutions.A contrastive analysis was given based on these data over the period of 2008-2012.Results In 2012,the number of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospital per ten million populations was 25.1,the number of Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM) hospital per ten million populations was 25.9; the number of beds in TCM institutions per ten thousand populations was 4.5,the number of beds in TIM institutions per ten thousand populations was 0.5; the number of TCM physicians and physician assistants per ten thousand populations was 2.6,the number of TIM physicians and physician assistants per ten thousand populations was 5.9.In 2012,the numbers of visits and inpatients of governmental public TCM hospitals were 426.671 million and 16.882 million; the numbers of visits and inpatients of governmental public TIM hospitals were 73.445 million and 0.947 million.Conclusion There was no significant difference in the number of TM hospitals per ten million populations between China and India.China had obviously advantages in the number of beds in TM institutions,number of visits and inpatients of TM institution.India had obviously advantages in the number of TM health personnel. Key words: Traditional Chinese medicine; Traditional Indian medicine; Medical resource and service

Half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Chinese scientist Youyou Tu in recognition of her pioneering work on the antimalarial artemisinin, extracted from Artemisia annua, a traditional Chinese herbal remedy used to treat fever. This is clearly a great encouragement for scientists who engage traditional medicine research. As Youyou Tu stated in her Nobel Prize awarding lecture, artemisinin is a gift from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to the world, this definitely will generate great interest in not only TCM but also other traditional medicine systems from other parts of the world, including Europe, Africa, India, Americas, etc. Though the Nobel Prize selection committee did not confess that the prize is to award traditional Chinese medicine, rather a new drug discovery inspired from TCM, this is indeed the exciting and encouraging event for Chinese TCM scientists. In my opinion, it is meaningless to dispute if artemisinin is still belonging to TCMor westernmedicine. Any contribution or new discovery derived from TCM to benefit for the human health should be recognized and respected. TCM needs to be developed and modernized. Any standpoint that developed or modernized TCM does not belong to TCM may drastically hinder the TCM modernization and integration with modern medicine process, or even deepen the gap between TCM and modern medicine. Evidence-based medicine is the future of TCM by means of modern biomedicine advances and novel approaches. In the past 20 years, TCM has undergone rapid development period evidenced by a number of achievements including the geometric growth of TCM research papers, booming TCM industry, TCM new drug research and development, etc. However, TCM is still facing grand challenges in the future development. Shortage of modern scientific evidence for safety, effectiveness, quality and mode of action should be emphasized and dealt with solutions. TCM experienced-based feature should be turned into evidence-based and science-based one. Following several aspects are suggested for the future modern TCM research: a) TCM-based new drug discovery. TCM is still a non-fully explored treasure house for new drug discovery and development. According to TCM resource survey, there are over 12000 TCM species, among which majority are herbs. Apart from artemisinin and its derivatives, a number of single chemical entity drugs have been developed and successfully marketed, such as arsenic trioxide, ginsenoside Rg3, bifendate, β-elemene, indirubin, etc. It is anticipated that more new drugs could be discovered from this vast TCM resource with modern drug discovery technology and methodology. b) Research on the holistic TCM quality control. The current quality control approach is more focused on a single marker or a few marker determinations, which follows the western drug quality control model and hence, could not really monitor the quality of TCM products. Systemic and comprehensive quality control method should be developed for the TCM crude drugs, prepared slices and finished products, especially for those multiple-ingredient herbal products. c) Research on TCM processing. All TCM crude drugs should be processed in different extent before they can be used either for decoction or for herbal production. TCM processing method is mainly based on the traditional knowledge or experience. Mechanism of processing either for the purpose of enhancing efficacy or eliminating toxicity should be thoroughly investigated and clarified. d) TCM efficacy and safety research. During the development of TCM, greater attention needs to be paid to the integrated evaluation of the effectiveness and safety based on TCM theory and modern scientific research. New evaluation methodology fit for TCM complex feature should be developed with international collaborations. Globally recognized evaluation criteria should be constructed. Other TCM research focuses include pharmacokinetics, geo-authenticity, active principles and giant data library. It is firmly believed that TCM will contribute more than ever to the human health along with the rapid advances of biomedicine science and eventually developed into an evidence-based medicine system.

Background Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine (TCAM) has attracted increasing attention in developed countries, but its mainstream status in China, the home of TCAM, is unclear. Over the period of 2004–2016, we analyze the health resources and health resource utilization of traditional medicine in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals in China. Methods Over 2004–2016, we obtained data from all TCM hospitals in all Chinese provinces to create a hospital-based, longitudinal dataset. TCM health resources and their utilization were measured by two outcome variables: (1) primary outcome variables comprising the proportion of TCM physicians, TCM pharmacists, revenue from TCM drugs, and TCM prescriptions and (2) the secondary outcome variables, as proxies of westernization for TCM hospitals, comprising the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 and the proportion of surgery in inpatient visits. We used linear regression models with hospital-fixed effects to analyze time trends for the outcome variables. Results The number of public TCM hospitals remained stable from 2004 to 2016, while the number of private TCM hospitals increased from 294 in 2004 to 1560 in 2016. There was a small percentage increase in the proportion of TCM physicians (0.280%), TCM pharmacists (0.298%), and revenue from Chinese medicines (0.331%) and TCM prescriptions (1.613%) per hospital per year. Chinese drugs accounted for less than a half of the total drug prescriptions, and accordingly, just one-third of the drug revenue was from Chinese medicines at TCM hospitals. The proportions of physicians, pharmacists, revenue from Chinese drug sales, and traditional medicine prescriptions never reach the 60% benchmark target for mainstream in TCM hospitals. As proxies for Western medicine practices in TCM hospitals, the number of medical equipment above RMB 10,000 rapidly rose by over 13 percent per hospital per year, but the proportion of inpatient surgeries declined by 0.830 percentage points per hospital per year, reflecting a mixed trend in the use of Western medicine practices. Conclusion For the 2004–2016 period, traditional medicine, although making progress towards the mainstream benchmark of 60% TCM services, was still not mainstream at TCM hospitals.

Arab countries have long tradition of using traditional medicine which enjoys mass foundation among local people. Recently, China's import and export trade of traditional medicine products with Arab countries showed an increasing trend year by year. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Strategy, Arab countries played a more important role in China’s foreign trade. With the aim of promoting the spread of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Arab countries, cooperation with relevant countries shall be differentiated. The Gulf region is economically advanced with its people enjoying prosperity, where is suitable for developing TCM product and service trade. The Levant has strong advantages in traditional medicine research, where academic communication shall be frequented. Countries in north Africa enjoy profound traditional friendship with China, where are suitable for dispatching Chinese foreign aid medical team to promote TCM. Meanwhile, we are supposed to take advantage of Confucius Institute and Chinese culture centers as platforms to spread TCM culture, to strengthen cooperation with medical universities and research institutions in the target countries, to enroll more Arab students to study TCM, to develop international standard Chinese-Arabic basic nomenclature of Chinese Medicine, and to carry out Traditional Arabic & Islamic Medicine researches. Key words: Belt and Road Initiative; Arab countries; Traditional medicine; Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM); Traditional Arabic & Islamic medicine(TAIM)

근대 동아시아 전통의학의 지위 부침과 변화는 메이지시대 한방의학을 제도적으로 폐지하였던 일본의 역사적 경험이 끼친 영향이 컸다. 이는 식민지 조선, 대만뿐만 아니라 주권국가로서 면모를 유지하였던 중국 역시 예외가 아니었다. 중국은 근대로 접어들면서 전통문화를 부정하고 서양문명을 급급하게 추구하는 근대주의 사조가 팽배하였다. 그 가운데 중의부정론과 중의폐지론이 제기되었다. 그리고 일본에 갔다 온 의학유학생과 정계인사에 의해 법적, 제도적으로 중의학을 배제하려는 중의폐지안도 등장하였다. 이로써 근대 중의학은 식민지 조선의 한의학과 마찬가지로 불안정한 지위에 처하게 되었다. 하지만 식민지 조선과 달리 끝까지 주권국가였던 중국에서는 중의폐지론자도 있었지만, 국수주의, 민족주의, 민생주의 등 이념으로 무장한 중의옹호론자 역시 엄연히 존재하였다. 중의폐지론자와 중의옹호론자는 치열한 각 축전을 전개하였다. 양쪽의 대립은 비록 중·서의계 각각의 집단 이익과 무관하지 않았지만, 한편으로는 동서의학의 관계 설정 및 중국 의료근대화 방식 등의 문제에 대한 논의와 고민을 심화시키는 데 기여하였다. 한편, 조선인 한의계와 마찬가지로 근대 중의계는 서양의학을 배척할 대상으로 보지 않고, 일찍부터 동서의학의 대화를 모색하기 시작하였다. 중서의회통, 중의과학화, 이후 중서의결합까지 근대 중의학은 서양의학을 수용하여 중의학 스스로 개량과 혁신을 시도하며 새로운 형태로 변화하였다. 하지만 서양의학을 수용하는 것과 동서의학의 근본적 차이를 무시한 채 동아시아의학의 서양의학화를 지향하는 것은 별개의 문제였다. 일원적인 근대 과학 인식을 거부하고 서양의학을 상대한 동아시아 전통의학의 독특한 가치를 주장하는 인식은 근대 한중양국에서 공유되고 있었다. 그리고 그 시대에 공통적으로 미해결된 문제로 남겨진 동아시아 전통의학의 과학화와 동서의학 절충의 과제는 오늘날 중국의 중서의결합, 한국의 동서의학 통합(혹은 협진) 같은 형식으로 계속 추진되고 있다.In the Meiji Period, Japan abolished Kampo Medicine systematically; the historical experience impacted the status’ changing of traditional medicine in modern East Asia. The situation was not only in Korea and Taiwan that are colonies, while China, who could maintain the form of a sovereign country, was not exceptional. In modern times, the trend of thought that blindly denied traditional culture and pursued westernizing was very active, and the theory of denying or abolishing traditional Chinese medicine came on stage under the background. Some oversea medical students who had come back from Japan and some politicians launched the campaign of“abolishing traditional Chinese medicine”, which wanted to abolish Chinese traditional medicine systematically and legitimately. Since then the traditional Chinese medicine’s status, which is the same as traditional Korean medicine, was greatly shaken. Nonetheless, it is different from colonial Korea that China has maintained the status of a sovereign state all along. Although there was a group who tried to abolish traditional Chinese medicine, meanwhile there was a group who embraced nationalism and people’s livelihood, and the group was headed by traditional Chinese medical circles. The two groups competed fiercely. Although the antagonism between the two groups was closely related with the respective advantages of Chinese and western medical circles, their argument made contribution to the deep thinking and discussion about the relationship between eastern and western medicine and the modernization of Chinese medicine. On the other hand, traditional Chinese medical circles in modern times, who were the same as traditional Korean medical circles, didn’t regard western medicine as something that should be repelled, on the contrary, they tried to communicate with western medicine in very early times. From confluence of Chinese and western medicine, scientization of traditional Chinese Medicine, to combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine in later times, modern traditional Chinese medicine absorbed western medicine constantly, tried to promote the reformation and improvement by itself, and accomplished new development. Absorbing western medicine, however, is different from pursuing westernization of east medicine blindly without the awareness of the difference between them. Some of the men of insight in the two countries had the consensus that they would refuse unitary learning of modern science, and emphasize the unique value of traditional East Asia in comparison with western medicine. The tasks of scientific systemizing traditional East Asia medicine and harmonizing eastern and western medicine were not solved at that time by the two countries; nowadays the combination of Chinese traditional and Western medicine in China and medical integration of eastern traditional and Western medicine in Korea are trying to figure out the solutions.

The control of cancer progression, relief of pain, and improvement of the quality of life of patients have been continuing endeavours of both traditional and conventional medicine. Amongst various traditional medicines, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine are two of the oldest and most popular alternative medicines known to the public. TCM is widely used in China, where it is integrated in conventional oncology practice in several large hospitals. Ayurvedic medicine (addressed in a separate chapter) originated in India where it is widely practiced as well as in other countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal. The management of chronic disease such as cancer by these traditional medicines relies on complex theories and concepts, described in virtually every textbook on alternative and complementary medicine. The treatment approaches are based primarily on the use of herbal and oil-based formulations, for which efficacies remain surrounded by controversies and lack of proven evidence. Yet, recorded observational facts, particularly in China and India where traditional medicine is often integrated with conventional therapies in a hospital setting, are that alternative medicine can achieve significant benefits in improving a patient’s quality of life when practiced with integrity by experienced practitioners. As well, ingredients of medicinal formulations used, including herbs and marine products, are an undeniable source of novel anticancer agents, some of which are discussed in greater detail in this book.