Traditional medicine

My uncle picked us up early in the morning, and drove us to Ilan on the east coast of the island. Within half an hour, we had left the crowds of skyscrapers and arrived at a broad plain surrounded by green cascading mountain ranges. Out at sea, a turtle-shaped island, its back arched in the clouds, rose out of the ocean.

Our destination was a traditional herbal doctor. As soon as my uncle heard I had gone to the hospital for a health check-up, he suggested that I also consult traditional/alternative medicine. So for a while, he has been encouraging me to go to this doctor who lives in the countryside. In his, and many people's minds, Western medical science often only looks at the symptoms of pains and ailments afflicting the body, but does not necessarily target the root causes. Whereas western medical science is quick to prescribe antibiotics and inject the body with man-made chemicals, traditional herbal medicine focuses more on restoring "balance" to the body through the consumption of natural plants and herbs that have been powdered or made into liquid form through long processes of cooking and brewing. Like all things in the universe, there is the "yin" (femine energy/negative energy) and the "yang" (masculine energy/positive energy). And for the body to be whole and healthy, these energies must be balanced and in equilibrium.

We arrived, and were greeted by a warm and friendly middle aged man who bid us to all sit down and have some tea. My aunt, who was with us and knew the man, small-talked for a short while, and at some point he turned to look at me. I felt somewhat uncomfortable at first, as he was staring at my face. Then he spoke.

"There is nothing seriously wrong with you. You are a healthy and sturdy young man". I was relieved, but curious how he could tell just by looking at me. Then he proceeded to examine me more closely, first by looking at the whites of my eyes, and then at my tongue. "I can tell a lot from both these parts of the body", he said. "You must have a lot of things on your mind. Study is not going well, work is not going well. Love is not going well. Life is a troubled mess and you don't know what to do. A lot of worries."

I was surprised. I had not said a word about myself, let alone revealed any of my troubles, but just by looking at me, it was as if he knew me. "You must dream a lot." Then he turned to my mother and said "He's a kind person, with a good heart. But he head never rests. When you see him sleeping, his head is not sleeping. His head is always working, no rest." I was dumbstruck.

Then he continued. "Oh, you must be involved in some kind of love affair. You must either be in love, or there must be someone in love with you." I was embarrased, but gave it some thought and couldn't really think who I could be in love with. "It's about time," he said, "There is something developing." So this herbal doctor is not only a doctor, a healer, but also fortune teller...

At that point, he put his fingers on my wrist and read me. "You must often feel oppressed in the chest, like you can't breathe." I nodded. According to traditional herbal medicine, the wrist can tell more than just blood pressure and heart beat. Different pressure points in the wrist are connected to organs of the body, and "wrist reading" is often used to diagnose the patient, even without the use of stethoscopes or x-rays. "Ah yes, your throat and lung are weak. You must have injured it somehow, and that's why you cannot breathe very deeply. Maybe you injured it through a fever that burnt your insides and you never took the time to heal properly. You must feel as if your tongue is dry a lot, even if you drink a lot." I agreed. "And you must also feel like you have indigestion after eating, right?"

I quickly agreed, and told him about my recent visit to the hospital and endoscopy. "There's nothing wrong with your digestive system! You're looking at the wrong place! Of course the endocscopy result is all good. It's your lungs, your breathing that is out of sync, and it is affecting your other organs. Especially the liver is affected, because it is a little shrivelled because of the lack of enough air getting through. This shrivelling is pushing the stomach, and that's why when you eat you feel bloated." I nodded in acknowledgement and amazement what he knew and how he knew it all. He explained it by drawing analogy with a car engine. Without enough oxygen to carry energy around the body, many mechanical parts will have difficulty functioning. You have to grease it, to "tune" the body parts affected in order to get the body back to running order.

He went to the back of his "consultation room" (which was nothing more than an ordinary living room), and half an hour later came back with a plastic bottle containing some kind of brown powdery concoction. "Here, I have mixed this specially for your condition. It will "tune" your breathing and blood flow, and slowly boost your liver and lungs. In two weeks you'll feel the difference". Of course, this kind of medicine does not fall under the national health insurance, and we had to pay. In cash. And we did. Willingly.

I left the clinic, just a normal house in a row of houses in the countryside. Nothing fancy, no billboards, no medical diplomas or great big advertising on the walls. Just a statue of the Buddhasatva, pictures of other deities, and some simple offerings of fruits and sweets before them. I didn't know the doctor, neither did he know me. He didn't aske me my name, or where I come from or where I live. All he did was feel my wrist, look into my eyeballs and ask me to poke my tongue out. And from that he could diagnose accurately all the things that are bothering me.