Traditional Chinese Medicine - Traditional Theatre

First in a series

The New York Times recently published an article, The Enigma of Chinese Medicine. The author described his experiences with what is called traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM. I am going to write about my experiences, all of which were fraught with fraud.

TCM is quackery elevated to theatre. It is theatre that is in the realm of the absurd, with a script tailored on the fly by the director, to his mark's willing credulousness. It is sold by charlatans to desperate prey. Along the way, animals are tortured, with some hunted to the brink of extinction. Under that white coat beats the heart of a businessman with zero ethics, giving false hope to terrified people grasping at a life preserver, in a sea of desperation.

I developed adult onset asthma from the air and water pollution in Washington, DC. The belt from DC to Virginia Beach is the US asthma capital, and acupuncturists and Chinese herb doctors are only too happy to set up shop there - it's happy hunting. And they're only too happy to tell you they can cure asthma - guaranteed.

My wife is Chinese, and she insisted I go to a motley bunch of people, all of which claimed they could do what western medicine could not. Everyone used 'western medicine' and 'western doctor' as a pejorative. All of them wanted cash only please - no checks. The few that would take a check, wanted it made out to 'cash.' None of them kept records. Whatever they needed to write down was scribbled on a small note pad, kept in a desk drawer.

All of them, after gaining trust, deteriorated into physical, verbal and financial abuse which my wife refused to acknowledge.  When I wanted to stop going, she became hysterical. All of them told my wife, in Mandarin, that if I stopped going I would die.

My experiences will continue in future posts.