After proponents of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) failed a challenge last month to test the effectiveness of TCM, a national authority on the subject has come out to say the challenge between eastern and western medicine is meaningless.

The Nanfang reported TCM practitioners claim they can tell if a woman is pregnant solely by taking their pulse, but one doctor was unable to do so when he tested five women.

A spokesperson for the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine said Chinese and Western medicine are different with equally different ways of diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, the two separate schools of medicine complement each other in a coordinated way that can provide the best possible benefit to the patient, he said.

The spokesperson stressed that the diagnosis procedure for TCM involves a total of four diagnostic methods, of which pulse taking is only one. The spokesperson also said the individuals that proposed the challenge show a superficial understanding of TCM, while the practitioners that accepted the challenge are demonstrating their lack of comprehension of TCM.

Claiming “Chinese medicine is a fake science,” popular Weibo personality Ah Bao specifically targeted the pulse-taking diagnosis method in a challenge by offering RMB 50,000 of his own money to anyone who could prove him wrong.

Chengdu TCM doctor Lu Jilai accepted the challenge, but was only able to identify a pregnant patient on his second try.

Related:

• Skeptic Offers Huge Reward to Debunk Traditional Chinese Medicine
• TCM Doctor Fails Round One of East Versus West Medical Battle

Photo: gw01