TCM therapy with drug reduction

Chinese medicine begins drug reduction therapy

30/04/2014

A disease rarely comes alone - so at least it is often older people. Experts believe that more than 60 percent of people over the age of 60 are suffering from multiple illnesses at the same time. What is described as fairly harmless with the term multimorbidity often presents many people with an unavoidable situation: For example, the pill for joint pain often leads to gastric hyperacidity and thus to chronic gastritis, which in turn requires medication for excess stomach acid. A vicious circle is created because the medications change the digestive process, which in turn affects joint inflammation. Functional limitations and required drug therapies interlock in a fatal manner.

Dr. Christian Schmincke, medical director of the clinic specializing in Chinese medicine at Steigerwald, sees a problem in the approach of conventional medicine: „Not the patient as a whole person is treated, but individual organs, joints or the psyche.“ Appropriately prescribed drugs can block, weaken or intensify each other. In their combination, their side effects are often not predictable. An experiment with consequences. The Health Council of Experts expects more than 80,000 hospital admissions per year due to adverse drug reactions. Treatment based on the holistic principles of Chinese medicine therefore first provides a detailed history in multimorbid patients. Through conversations, pulse and tongue diagnostics, the TCM experts learn about how diseases are related. They distinguish in particular between symptoms and underlying disease processes. „Afterwards, we will have a detailed discussion with the patients about which medicines are discontinued immediately, which are replaced by the treatment with Chinese drug therapy and which remain vital and may possibly be dosed lower“, clarifies Schmincke, who, like his colleagues, has a medical degree.

„We can not stop some medications - a Type 1 diabetic, for example, needs his insulin. But especially painkillers, psychotropic drugs and immunosuppressants, we try to free the patients.“ The most important pillar here is the Chinese drug therapy. The formulas are individually compiled for each patient from raw substances such as roots, flowers or barks. This recipe is boiled and drunk in small sips throughout the day. The effect of the so-called Dekokte check the doctors regularly and adjust them. Supportive, they resort to acupuncture, safer body therapies such as Qi Gong, Tuina massages and vegetarian diet. (Pm)