Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Chinese Medicine

Not Getting Better? Eastern Medicine May Help

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta

For many years, western-trained doctors were skeptical of eastern treatments like acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. But that is changing and some major hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic, now offer Eastern therapies in combination with western medicine.

The combination seems to be most effective in treating chronic illnesses which don’t respond well to western therapies.

Wendy Small was not getting good answers from her doctors as to why her health had collapsed. She was a fit and active young mother who could easily run twelve miles when she began experiencing shortness of breath, a racing heart, and severe leg pain that would keep her up at night.

“I knew that something was specifically wrong with my body, I just didn’t know what,” she says.

After many tests, doctors determined she had something called POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) characterized by fatigue and a rapid drop in blood pressure on standing. They thought the condition probably dated back to her infection with Epstein-Barr the year before. Epstein-Barr is the virus that causes mononucleosis, or mono.

Small could now put a name to her illness, but that wasn’t helping her get better. “I was very frustrated at that point,” she remembers, “because I had gotten the diagnosis and there was really nothing — they weren’t sure what to do.” 

It was recommended she see Melissa Young, MD, at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Young is a western-trained physician who specializes in combining eastern and western therapies.

“There are more and more patients who aren’t getting optimal benefits from their purely western care,” she says. Eastern medicine gives patients a more individual treatment plan, she says, tailored to their particular symptoms. “It’s looking at the whole person and giving the patient what they’re lacking that will allow their body to do their own healing,” she says. 

Small was put on a regimen of Chinese herbs along with acupuncture and a dietary plan to provide specific nutrients. “After a week of being on a dose of herbs, the leg pain I had at night was completely gone,” she says. “I was blown away.” She says she feels like she’s finally back on the road to health. She still needs to pace herself to avoid becoming fatigued, but she’s even starting to run again.

Dr. Young stresses that it’s important to choose a certified Chinese herbalist if you are considering Chinese medicine. “There is this misconception that anything natural is completely safe,” she says. “That is not always the case.” Herbs can react with each other and with western pharmaceuticals, so it’s important that all your doctors know what herbs you are taking.

To watch the video, click here.