帝 dì supreme ruler

Number of strokes: 9

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地 dì (earth) 弟 dì (younger brother) 第 dì (ordinal (1st,2nd))

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始皇帝 Emperor Qin Shihuangdi
洪武帝 Emperor Hongwu
永乐帝 Emperor Yongle
黄帝 Yellow Emperor

Wed 29^th May

Chinese traditional medicine backed by UN

For thousands of years Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used very widely in China. The World Health Organization (special agency of the UN) has aroused some debate by publicly supporting TCM as a legitimate medicinal option by including a chapter on it in their global compendium.

Since the PRC was founded in 1949 China has supported both the Western system of medicine and the Traditional. Initially this was a necessity as funds could not support the rapid creation of a Western system of hospitals and medicines for 1,000 million people. Since then there has been a drift towards using both systems for different purposes. For injuries and infections Western treatments are sought while for long-term and minor ailments the traditional system is used. Another factor is cost, China does not have a free health service and so a cheap TCM treatment is attractive compared to a hospital visit. Many Chinese believe TCM can be a good preventive before a disease takes hold.

One of the main concerns about TCM is that quite a few remedies require parts of endangered animals. With increased prosperity these supposed cures for arthritis; impotence and so on have become increasingly sought after. However many ingredients are from common plants and fungi and do not give the same cause for concern as with tigers, pangolins, sea horses and other animals. Acupuncture and moxibustion are part of TCM and these do not require ingesting dubious ingredients.

The main criticism has always been that it has unproven efficacy; however some of the ingredients have been shown to have useful medical properties. The use of herbal medicine in Europe only came to an end in the early 20th century. Every village would have a herbalist with there own special potions. Here also some treatments were beneficial, many of no demonstrable effect (placebo) and a few were dangerously toxic. In China the government spent considerable effort in the 1970s and 80s to choose the ones that are beneficial and this is one reason why TCM has better credentials than remedies from elsewhere.

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