A relative of mine is suffering from an advanced serious ailment (e.g., fourth stage cancer; ALS with paralysis, etc.); can Chinese medicine help them?
Answer 10. Chinese medicine may be of help, but you should not expect that it will cure a far advanced or progressive disease. Unfortunately, there are some books and other publications proclaiming miraculous cures that present a false image. Chinese medicine can be of help in alleviating some symptoms, possibly slowing progression of the disease (perhaps doing even more than that), and providing the comfort of having some intervention that is not harmful. Your relative may not actually desire such treatment (especially if it doesn’t hold the promise of a cure) and the treatments may be inconvenient (swallowing a lot of pills, drinking unpleasant decoctions, getting frequent acupuncture). So, before further investigation or embarking on treatment, make sure that the person really wants to pursue this and is actually able to follow through with recommendations. Sometimes, friends and relatives of the seriously ill patient makes lengthy inquiries into treatment strategies only to find, a
