THERE's high-tech medicine and modern medical treatment on the one side and acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine and moxibustion on the other: a hard decision for patients from China as well as those from the West.

Heated discussions about the efficiency of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the difference between Western and Chinese medicine can be followed in the media of both sides.

While Western countries increasingly have adapted aspects of TCM treatments such as acupuncture and special massage techniques, in recent years ever more Chinese people are preferring to go to hospitals offering Western medical treatment. The drop in the usage of Chinese medicine among Chinese people began with the first of the Opium Wars, when Western medicine arrived in China. And with modern changes to Chinese lifestyle, the demands for medicine also changed.

Doris Rathgeber, a German expatriate, is the only foreign TCM clinic owner in Shanghai. She has noticed that younger people in the city in particular don't have much time for TCM. "They are annoyed by the smells from preparing the medicine, the cure is too slow or they find it's a big pain and it seems more convenient to take a pill made of synthetic medicine," she said.

Lately also, forms of treatment such as the preparation of medical herbs as well as the more conventional acupuncture and massage, have increased in popularity among Westerners.

Doris Rathgeber explains: "If you only relate acupuncture and massage to TCM, you miss about 80 per cent of the forms of treatment. One very important aspect of TCM is the medical herbs."

Beyond symptoms

Rathgeber attained her TCM qualifications after five years of study at the TCM University of Shanghai. Her studies also included Western sciences such as microbiology, biochemistry, embryology, pathology and Western diagnosis.

But she also met some professors who opposed Western medicine totally and doubted its long history and reliability.

This attitude and the opinion that TCM cannot heal acute illness upset her."That is simply not true. TCM can heal acute conditions and we are also not afraid to prescribe antibiotics, if we think it is necessary," she said.

She said TCM doctors might prescribe antibiotics in acute cases but continue the treatment with herbal medicine since TCM wants to cure the cause of an illness and not just its symptoms.

Fudan University student Michelle Lam had a good experience with TCM in curing a cold and she also has a relative whom, she says, was cured of cancer with TCM. But, she says, "I would not rely on TCM alone, because although it has been practised for so many years, I think I need some scientific proof."

Doris Rathgeber describes the difference between Chinese and Western clinics by saying that: "In the West we go to a clinic because we are ill but, in China, it is more about preventative care."

She sees dissimilarities in treatment this way: "In TCM it's not interesting to see anatomical details. It's not a matter of the 'why', it's 'how' you treat the result."

Compatible approaches

When Rathgeber compares TCM with Western medicine, she thinks that each sometimes means the same thing but names it differently, "We do not say bacteria or enzymes, we say evil qi (vital energy) or good qi."

Thus, she does not see the main difference between TCM and Western medicine in the way diseases are treated but she says that "I don't want to criticize Western medicine for overprescribing because it's reasonable that doctors are careful, but a doctor needs to take more time with patients. We always see a patient for at least half an hour."

A Swiss masseuse, Helene Stoll who is in Shanghai for an internship at the Shuguang Hospital, has also noticed that Chinese doctors treat their patients in a totally different way to their Western counterparts. "Here the treatment immediately begins, but, on the other hand, the doctors take their time to make the initial diagnosis because they are getting to know the patient and find out where his or her troubles come from."

Rathgeber sees the potential for co-operation between Chinese and Western medicine in China."For a doctor, it's much better to offer solutions from two systems, rather than just one. It's like looking with two eyes or four. You always see more with four eyes."

Contrarily, PhD physician Gao Yueqiu from the Shuguang Hospital in Shanghai says: "From the clinical point of view, the combination of TCM with Western medicine can be more effective, but the theory of TCM might be too different from the Western theory." He underlines this by giving the example that Western physicians see every organ as independent from others while Chinese physicians think that all the organs are interacting and belong together.

However, even professional medical literature suggests that the two systems are quite compatible. Western medicine offers a precise cause-effect treatment for acute conditions but it does not provide for long-term well-being and it does not look at the whole - it is not holistic. And TCM sees psychology and physiology as being closely related.

Rathgeber regrets the disconnection of body and soul in Western medicine and cites a German expression to underline its importance: "Only in a healthy body can live a healthy soul; only in a healthy soul can live a healthy body."