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Optimal Healing: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Reflecting training and experience in both Eastern and Western medicine, this reference uses a scientific perspective to shed light on the teaching and practices of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In addition to examining the TCM approach to wellness and disease, the resource compares TCM to conventional Western approaches and shows the optimal way to integrate the two disciplines. A user-friendly survey includes a look into the meaning of liver fire, hot qi, and wet heat; offers advice on common complaints, among them how to avoid having bronchitis every winter, how to become asthma-free, and finding relief from back pain without drugs; provides answers to infertility that won’t break the bank; and addresses appropriate food choices for the individual.
- GenresNonfictionHealth
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 25, 2011
I almost gave it a 5, but because it spends a lot of time talking about diseases with scientific names its seems almost funny to give it a rating.
However kudos to the author to see both worlds and try to make and mix the two. I mean the Western view of medicine and the Eastern view. Having been trained in the West Tsang is very analytical of the Eastern techniques but realizes there is much to benefit from the vast knowledge of Chinese medicine. She is critical of both, identifying their strong points and weaknesses.
She has a lot of good ideas that someday I am guessing will see the light of day simply because they make a lot of sense. It is all about healing the sick.
The Western approach is to perform tests but "Chinese medicine therefore does
not require extensive testing. It uses an integrative approach. To diagnose, TCM practitioners
just need to determine which system is out of balance."
The book also delves into acupuncture and cites many examples of instances where this procedure works whereas Western-style cures failed.
However kudos to the author to see both worlds and try to make and mix the two. I mean the Western view of medicine and the Eastern view. Having been trained in the West Tsang is very analytical of the Eastern techniques but realizes there is much to benefit from the vast knowledge of Chinese medicine. She is critical of both, identifying their strong points and weaknesses.
She has a lot of good ideas that someday I am guessing will see the light of day simply because they make a lot of sense. It is all about healing the sick.
The Western approach is to perform tests but "Chinese medicine therefore does
not require extensive testing. It uses an integrative approach. To diagnose, TCM practitioners
just need to determine which system is out of balance."
The book also delves into acupuncture and cites many examples of instances where this procedure works whereas Western-style cures failed.
January 23, 2022
The author of this book is a doctor trained in both Western medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This book itself is helpful because it explains a lot of TCM concepts in terms of Western Medicine. For example, the author determined that “Liver” in TCM corresponds to the sympathetic nervous system.
In regard to the different parts of TCM available for discussion, the book seems to talk most about acupuncture and also some herbs. There's a chapter on TCM nutrition/foods too but it seems to be not too in-depth.
A lot of the book seems to be the author's personal anecdotes. Anecdotal evidence is of course a starting point, but it would have been nice to heart more about larger-scale studies and/or other forms of research. She does mention some challenges with doing research on the effectiveness of TCM. There's a chapter of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on acupuncture where the author mentions how it is hard to do a randomized double blind placebo-controlled study of acupuncture. She also mentions the difficulty in getting funding for TCM research. When it does get funded, some studies done on TCM herbs were not set up properly. For example, to paraphrase, the patients in the study may not been provided the proper herbs based on their TCM diagnosis since their TCM diagnoses wasn't used to categorize which patients were given which herbs.
The author also made some interesting critiques about modern medicine, such as treating symptoms with medication instead of focusing on a person's overall health, including nutrition. I did some searching online, and it seems like even some Western medicine sources say acupuncture can help with pain relief, such as https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healt.... Although how acupuncture works isn't well understood, it seems there's generally not much to lose in trying acupuncture if one is having recalcitrant pain. The author even argues how acupuncture is cheaper and less risky than prescription opioid pain medicine. I'll certainly agree with that.
Overall, what did I get from this book? If I had some chronic pain condition, I might try acupuncture. If I had some other recalcitrant condition that didn't have many good treatment options, I might look into TCM herbs on a case-by-case basis. In any case, having good nutrition seems best to prevent problems in the first place as much as possible.
In regard to the different parts of TCM available for discussion, the book seems to talk most about acupuncture and also some herbs. There's a chapter on TCM nutrition/foods too but it seems to be not too in-depth.
A lot of the book seems to be the author's personal anecdotes. Anecdotal evidence is of course a starting point, but it would have been nice to heart more about larger-scale studies and/or other forms of research. She does mention some challenges with doing research on the effectiveness of TCM. There's a chapter of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on acupuncture where the author mentions how it is hard to do a randomized double blind placebo-controlled study of acupuncture. She also mentions the difficulty in getting funding for TCM research. When it does get funded, some studies done on TCM herbs were not set up properly. For example, to paraphrase, the patients in the study may not been provided the proper herbs based on their TCM diagnosis since their TCM diagnoses wasn't used to categorize which patients were given which herbs.
The author also made some interesting critiques about modern medicine, such as treating symptoms with medication instead of focusing on a person's overall health, including nutrition. I did some searching online, and it seems like even some Western medicine sources say acupuncture can help with pain relief, such as https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healt.... Although how acupuncture works isn't well understood, it seems there's generally not much to lose in trying acupuncture if one is having recalcitrant pain. The author even argues how acupuncture is cheaper and less risky than prescription opioid pain medicine. I'll certainly agree with that.
Overall, what did I get from this book? If I had some chronic pain condition, I might try acupuncture. If I had some other recalcitrant condition that didn't have many good treatment options, I might look into TCM herbs on a case-by-case basis. In any case, having good nutrition seems best to prevent problems in the first place as much as possible.
April 6, 2021
Patricia Tsang was first trained in Western/allopathic medicine before venturing into TCM. Because of this she's able to blend the two together so they compliment each other; there is a time and place for both Eastern and Western medicine. This was a great introduction to TCM and not incredibly hard to read, I have a better understanding of acupuncture, both the history and the practice. On top of being an interesting read, if you're looking for alternative health practices, this is a great introduction to TCM.
July 20, 2011
If I hadn't just finished a very good, easy to understand handbook on acupuncture this would've probably been given a higher rating, but as I had just learned a lot of what I wanted to know...I skipped over parts of her book where things were repeated that I had just read. An interesting thing about her book is how she comes at acupuncture from a medical student/intern perspective and shows the issues she had at first with trying to tie together western medicine and chinese medicine. If I had waited a few days/weeks before diving into this, I'm sure I would've liked it much more and been more into it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews