Traditional Chinese Medicine addresses the full range of human illness. While best known for treating chronic illnesses such as asthma, allergies, headaches, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, lupus, diabetes, and gynecological disorders, TCM also treats acute, infectious illness. Vast research is continuously being pursued in a wide range of TCM applications and reported on in scores of medical journals published around the world.

   TCM effectively complements modern Western medicine when the two systems are utilized in concert for acute, chronic, or life-threatening diseases. In China, a combination of TCM and modern Western medicine has been shown to be more effective for treating liver cancer than Western medicine alone. TCM can also minimize the dangerous side effects of some Western medicines while reinforcing their positive therapeutic effects.

  In his practice, Dr. Hirsh sees many patients in conjunction with Western doctors for barrenness problems and is able to design acupuncture treatments that complement and support the other medical procedures. He frequently gives acupuncture treatment to women who have just been artificially inseminated, and he works with patients taking Clomid (a fertility drug) to help regulate the woman's fertility cycle. As Dr. Hirsh states  that traditional Chinese Medicine can increase the success rate of Western medicine, and at the same time slow down the clock on a woman's aging endocrine system.

 

  Li Shi-zhen, the Chinese doctor venerated for reformalizing Traditional Chinese Medicine in the seventeenth century, told the story of Mr. Ho, an old woodcutter, bent over with age. Mr.Ho lived alone in the forest, which was a good thing, because he could hardly cut wood anymore and had to forage for food to supplement his tiny income. One day he came across a large tuber (which looked like a huge potato), scratched it out of the ground, and made a stew of it. This was all he had to eat for several days. But this was very lucky because, to his amazement, he found himself gradually standing up, having more energy and being able to chop more wood. Attributing this to the plant, he consumed it for several months and gained greater energy-so much that he attracted a young woman whom he married and soon they had several children. The tuber he found (Polygonal multiflorum) was named 'ho- shou wu' in honor of Mr. Ho.

  In Li Shi-zhen's story, the old woodcutter had kidney weakness which gave rise to a weak lower back, poor sexual function, and the symptoms of old age. Ho-shou-wu helps these conditions and it is a major component of 'sho- wu-chih,' a commercially prepared tea that is drunk for health maintenance by millions of Chinese every day.

 

   Hypertension in the West is termed liver fire and can be treated by TCM. A famous physician in China, Dr. Wu, a  was visited by a forty-two-year-old man who had been diagnosed as having hypertension and the early stages of coronary heart disease. He complained of throbbing temples and soreness at the top of his head. An examination identified the following elements: red (not pink) tongue, deep yellow urine, constipation, poor appetite, painful teeth and eyes, insomnia, pain on the right side of the body, and immoderate dreaming. His pulse was "wiry and sinking." The man was diagnosed with constrained liver qi accompanied by liver fire ascending to disturb the head.

  The treatment called for harmonizing the liver, cooling the liver fire, and transforming mucus. Twelve herbs were given as a tea for three days and another combination for nine additional days. With this treatment, the patient's blood pressure dropped from 180/130 to 130/90, well within normal range, and soon all his symptoms disappeared. A final herbal prescription was then given, which was taken for a longer period of time to ensure that the patient's blood pressure remained normal.