Traditional Chinese medicine may be effective in relieving the symptoms of a neurological illness that first becomes apparent during a person's teenage years, a physician said yesterday at a conference on Chinese medicine.
Tourette's Syndrome, is a neuropsychiatric disease. Patients suffer from various uncontrollable physical activities or abnormal vocalizations such as nonstop blinking, shaking of the head and cursing.
Some patients with serious symptoms are prone to hurting themselves, and may bang their heads against walls. In extreme cases, they can commit suicide.
According to the president of the Taiwan Tourette's Family Association Wang Hui-hsiung (王輝雄), the illness occurs in about one out of every 200 people.
Wang, who is also a children's neurologist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, added at the conference that the illness was more prevalent among boys than girls.
It is considered incurable with Western medicine as the syndrome can easily recur after disappearing for several months, the association said. Moreover, Western science is at a loss to explain the origins of the disease, it said.
However, Chinese medical practitioner Lin Pao-hua (林寶華) told attendees that traditional Chinese medicine can be effective in treating patients.
Lin said Western medicine usually tries to "besiege, tranquilize and obstruct" the symptoms, but this can lead to more complications such as depression.
Lin, who has treated 335 Tourette's patients in his clinic, said the illness is similar to jingfeng (
The syndrome manifests dry (
He added that Chinese medicine prescriptions used to smooth the blood circulation may be given to patients. Restoratives such as ginseng, on the other hand, may worsen patients' symptoms, he said while showing video clips of his patients.
"Traditional Chinese medicine is made of plants, minerals and animals and thus is more natural. The medicine can be better absorbed by patients with neurological illnesses," Lin said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
RSS