研究故事
A Balance of Traditions
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For many decades, modern, Western-style medicine has been the standard for healthcare around the world, offering cures and treatments based on extensive trials, and careful dissections of the causes and effects. But increasingly researchers are looking at a tradition with a very different approach. In Chinese medicine, it’s not the parts but the whole that matter, and it is not just a medicine but a culture and philosophy. HKU and its researchers, located at the crossroads of East and West, are drawing on their unique position to bridge the two and move towards integrating Chinese and Western medicine and therapies into a ‘one-world medicine’ that is based on the best of both traditions.
Both Ends towards the Middle
HKU researchers are uniquely positioned to find the middle ground between the ancient, holistic approach of Chinese medicine and the modern, reductionist one of Western medicine.
East-West Mixtures Improve Mental Health
Professor Zhang Zhangjin of the School of Chinese Medicine has been showing how and why acupuncture and herbal medicines help patients with mental health problems, through modern evidence-based research.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Animals AsiaSaving the Bears in the Name of Science
Traditional Chinese medicine draws on evidence from more than 2,000 years of use, but there are cultural beliefs attached to it, too, especially about the powers of certain ingredients. Dr Feng Yibin and his colleagues have been tearing the two apart in their work on the controversial use of bear bile and the development of new drugs.
Qigong and Tai Chi Tame Chronic Illnesses
The gentle mind-body exercises of qigong and tai chi have been given a new purpose in research by the Centre on Behavioural Health. On the one hand they are being used to calm the mind, on the other to energise it, in patients with chronic fatigue and schizophrenia.
The full version of this article was originally published in Bulletin. Please click here to view this HKU publication.
