How to find a good TCM doctor

Every one wants to find a good TCM doctor to help them to solve their illness problem. It is never an easy way.

It is difficult in old times, since it is hard for people to know a doctor who is famous in a city or town far away, for poor communication tools, such as news paper, telephone, published media, etc.

It is also difficult now a days, for reduced number of high quality TCM doctors in the world, mostly due to the negative influence of the education system of the conventional western medicine to the TCM education system. It makes students in the TCM school feel confidence to practice TCM, but lose confidence after graduate and work in clinic for several years.

To learn the western medicine, hundreds of students can gather in a single classroom to learn. They can watch the same X-ray film at the same time and learn how to set up a  diagnosis. They can read the same textbook to learn how to treat such a disease.

However, in TCM education, it is needed that the student should follow the clinic expert closely and monitor the change of a disease condition day by day. It needs the hand-by-hand teaching from an experienced doctor.

For the same TCM book, a student or a TCM doctor needs life long time to really understand its meaning and be able to apply the knowledge to the clinic. The current TCM medical system, even in China, does not favor such specific need in the TCM education.

It can be said that the graduation of a medical student in the western medicine is as the production of an automatic assembly line: large quantity and the same quality. While the production of a TCM student is as a hand-made art. It needs special and close education and tutor for each student.

On the other side, a good candidate of a TCM student need the student has overall summary and perception mind. He or she should have ability to make conclusion from scattered information, and has stronger prediction ability too. He should have ready mind to evaluate the body mass and function in a way that is different from the conventional medicine.

It sounds hard for you to find a good TCM doctor? Don’t worry, here is some suggestion for you:

(1). If someone claims that they are TCM doctor, they should be able to use the Traditional Chinese herbal therapy.

(2). With their treatment, you do not need to come to them for the same disease for a long time (for instance one year, or two year), or again and again (every year for same illness).

(3). They can explain the TCM meaning in a easy understand way and not play too much medical terminology to block your understanding. They should really link the changes in your body condition to the nature. As it is said that, one of the principle of the TCM is the unity of the body and the nature. If they cannot explain your body condition as a spring, summer, fall or winter in the nature, they may not be a good TCM doctor.

(4). They look at your body structure and function exactly in the Traditional Chinese Medicine point of view, not mixed with the western medicine. It has been proven true that the effort to combine the conventional medicine with the TCM has failed. The western medicine and the TCM are complete different medical systems. A TCM doctor should make a full advantage of the TCM. In many aspects, a TCM doctor needs life long time to practice and learn the TCM.

(5). They should be able to spend long time in their clinic, rather than on some other business or activities. We need a TCM doctor who is more experienced in clinic, not just in talking. So, age is a mark for a good TCM doctor, though it is not always true. A young TCM doctor might also be very good, under the condition that he continues learning. We can say that, for anyone, if he/she continues to learn, what he does not know today, he might know it tomorrow. 

I am not a good TCM doctor but I wish that you can find a good one in your city or town for yourself. Remember, if one TCM doctor cannot help you, never say that it is the TCM therapy cannot help you. The clinic ability among the TCM doctors is largely variable. It varies as the painting skills among artists.

I will not go to a TCM doctor if they give me treatment with both TCM therapies and western medical drugs at the same time. The use of the drug will be a signal that they are not good TCM doctor.