Summary and evaluation of traditional Chinese medicine health activities

The overall completion met expectations, covering a total of 327 residents of all ages, and the practicality was positively evaluated by 72% of participants. However, there were also problems such as cognitive confusion caused by conflicting views of different academic schools and insufficient adaptability of some experience projects. It is far from a "perfect science popularization activity", but it did touch on the real needs and pain points of ordinary people for traditional Chinese medicine health care.

I squatted the whole way in the moxibustion experience center that day. The one who impressed me the most was Aunt Zhang, who lives in Building 3. She used to have difficulty lifting up because of adhesions around her right shoulder. She had shoulder and neck moxibustion twice in a row and learned the "rice-shaped exercises" and "wall climbing movements" from the massage therapist. Last week, she met me at the vegetable market. She grabbed her arm and showed me that she could now lift it above her head to reach the soy sauce on the shelf. She said, "It's more effective than the imported plaster I used before."

It's not all good reviews. Something went wrong when we tried the medicinal diet. The astragalus, angelica and black-bone chicken soup we cooked did not clearly indicate the contraindications. Aunt Li, a hyperthyroidism patient living in Building 12, drank less than half of the bowl. In the afternoon, she felt panicked and went to the community hospital. Later, we came to the door specially. Sorry, I just found out that she was very angry and couldn't touch Qi-tonifying medicinal herbs like astragalus. After this incident, we posted a reminder in the most conspicuous place of the experience area at every event: "All experience projects need to be consulted by the on-site doctor first. Do not try blindly."

This time we specially invited two Chinese medicine practitioners from different fields to sit for consultation. One is an old Chinese medicine practitioner with 40 years of clinical practice. He says, "To maintain health, you must first nourish the spleen and stomach. If the spleen and stomach are not good, any supplement will be useless." The other is a recent graduate of the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. A doctor who had just been practicing medicine for a few years came up and said, "Take ten tonics is not as good as walking 3,000 steps a day. Exercise is the most economical way of maintaining health for ordinary people." An old man raised his hand in the middle of taking notes and asked, "Which one of you is right? Should I drink the Four Gentlemen Soup first or play Baduanjin first? ”

The whole room burst into laughter, and later we reserved half an hour for two doctors to talk to each other. The old Chinese medicine doctor also admitted that if your spleen and stomach are so bad that you can’t absorb anything you eat, exercise alone is of no use. The young doctor also said that if you are so weak that you can’t take two steps without taking a breath, you will lose energy if you insist on exercising. In the end, the two gave a unified statement: There is no health regimen suitable for everyone. It is more important to identify your body type first and then talk about methods. Don't tell me, after the event ended that day, several residents gathered around the two of them and asked them what their constitution was. It was much more useful than the popular science pamphlets we printed before.

Of course, some people think that our activities are "engaging in feudal superstition." During the second pulse diagnosis session, a young man wearing fashionable brands came. As soon as he sat down, he said, "I drank the dampness-removing tea I bought online for half a month and couldn't stand up. Aren't you Chinese doctors just deceiving people?" ”The old Chinese doctor felt his pulse, asked about his daily diet and rest, and said that he had a cold-dampness constitution. Most of the dampness-removing teas sold online were cold-cooling recipes with chrysanthemum and honeysuckle added, specifically for removing dampness and heat. Of course something would happen if he drank the wrong amount, so he gave him a cold-dampness tea. According to the recipe of "boil three slices of ginger and three red dates in water every day, don't drink it on ice", last week the young man came to the community to ask when the next event would be held. He said that his diarrhea problem was cured, and now he wanted to know how to deal with hair loss after staying up late.

To be honest, I played the drums when we were preparing for the event. Nowadays, there is too much controversy on the Internet about traditional Chinese medicine for health care. On one side, there are marketing claims that TCM can cure all diseases, and on the other side, there are extreme remarks that denigrate TCM as worthless. We organized this event for fear that we would not be able to please both parties. After actually finishing the course, I discovered that ordinary people don’t care about the online scoldings at all. They just want to know specific questions such as “I stay up late every day and have a headache”, “Is there any solution for my child who doesn’t like to eat?” “Can moxibustion be used for my knee pain?” What schools and theories are not as effective for them as a small prescription that suits them.

Now I have read more than 300 feedback questionnaires. Some said they hope to teach more about Baduanjin and Wuqinxi. Some said they hope to teach more about women’s health and the treatment of chronic diseases in the elderly next time. There are also 3 feedbacks saying that “they are all useless gimmicks.” We also wrote them down unchanged. Next time, I plan to go in and give you a simple physical self-assessment scale. I also plan to invite a few more doctors from different fields. Even if the views are different, it doesn't matter. Everyone can understand that "there is no standard answer to health care", which is better than the amount of knowledge we force-fed.

Oh, yes, we now put the leftover moxibustion sticks at the community service station. Residents in need can come and pick them up at any time. There is also an updated taboo reminder posted next to them, so as to avoid the recurrence of the previous problems and gain wisdom.