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Wed, 15 Oct 2008

/xLife/China: Chiropractic in China: Its Called Tui Na

I managed to mess up my lower back recently, resulting in severe, debilitating pain for several days. If I were living in N.America, and being averse to knives and drugs, I would turn first to a chiropractor. In China (and, as far as I can tell, all of Asia) chiropractors are a very rare breed. A friend of mine suggested that I should try Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM - 中医).

Personally, my first thought was that acupuncture (针灸) might be helpful....

A lot of Chinese hospitals, naturally enough, seem to have TCM departments, and I knew of one for sure here in Beijing, a place that I have had a couple of very good, and very cheap experiences with before: Haidian Hospital (海淀医院)[1].

I asked for acupuncture. The doctor said no, the best thing would be Tuina (推拿), which might be most generally described as Traditional Chinese Acupressure Massage. (The progenitor of Japanese Shiatsu, which is probably more familiar to most Westerners....)

I would have to agree, in the end, because Tuina includes spine manipulation techniques that are very similar (and similarly effective) to those used by chiropractors. He massaged the area for about fifteen minutes, then put me on my side, and pressed back on my upper shoulder while pressing forward and down on my upper knee so as to put some torque on the whole spine. Then he dropped his weight into my knee to give the lumbar area a sudden surge of extra torque, and my vertebrae snapped back into place with the customary satisfying crack. Three treatments on three successive days and I was almost back to normal.

I thought 100 RMB per treatment was a bit expensive for the local standard of living, but I might have been paying a bit of "white man's" premium. And at about US$1 ~ 6-7 RMB, it is still much cheaper then a comparable amount of attention from a chiro in N.America.

I saw them adjusting other peoples necks, but have not yet had that experience from a Tuina doctor myself, so I cannot comment. Cervical adjustments, in my experience of chiropractic, require more finesse and a much lighter touch then is necessary for lumbar adjustments. Whether that skill is common here, I do not yet know. But I will not hesitate to go get some Tuina for any future spine issues while I am living in China.

[1] http://www.hdhospital.com/EN/

posted at: 14:03 | path: /xLife/China | permanent link to this entry

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Wed, 15 Oct 2008