A local physician, George R. LeBeau, D.C., of Oceanside, California, was among a group of American medical professionals who recently witnessed demonstrations in China which combined modern technology with procedures that have satisfied Oriental patients for thousands of years.
Dr. LeBeau, who is an associate professor at the Cleveland Chiropractic College of Los Angeles and an experienced team doctor in a wide variety of sports, spent two weeks investigating Eastern sports medicine facilities in Beijing with China Educational Travels, Ltd., of Skokie, Illinois.
Those taking the tour were led by Kenneth Lubowich, a doctor of oriental medicine and acupuncture practicing at Chicago's Olympia Fields Osteopathic Medical Center, who has been promoting the trips for medical practitioners since 1986.
"I found that the people of China are anxious to improve their standards of living," Dr. LeBeau said, "and are impatient with their government's apparent reluctance to reform. Yet, they're proud of their heritage and aware of their potential impact on the Western community."
Dr. LeBeau joined his colleagues on tours to government-supported sports schools where young athletes with Olympic potential live, study, and train with the best medical and coaching personnel the country has to offer. Especially striking, he said, was the contrast between the latest Western-style technologies working beside traditional approaches 3,000 years old.
Among the items on the visiting physician's itineraries were "hands-on" workshops conducted by leading doctors at China's National Olympic Training Center.
Dr. LeBeau indicated there was a willingness to exchange information about sports medicine on the part of both American and Chinese physicians, and that while the Chinese were interested in adopting Western ideas -- the Americans recognized that traditional oriental medicine had much to offer athletes and medical professionals in the United States.
Examples of modern Western technology were on hand at both the training center and other facilities in Beijing. The group also experienced cultural insights during a tour through Guang An Men, a hospital specializing in Chinese traditional medicine.
Traditional medicine in China covers acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine, manual medicine, and countless other techniques which have satisfied the Chinese since the time of the Ming Dynasty.
Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine first came under Western scrutiny when then-president Richard M. Nixon made his historic trip to China in the 1960s. Many of the ancient techniques have been in constant use there only because they work, but are still suspect by contemporary medical practitioners because research has failed to quantify their mysterious mechanisms of action.
Since human hands are the principal instruments for treatment here, equipment in Spartan treatment rooms consisted mainly of wooden pallets upon which patients sit or recline to undergo medical treatment.
A fragrance of smoldering leaves resulting from moxibustion (use of slowly burning herbs placed over an acupuncture point) could be smelled in one area of Guang An Men Hospital and an odor of a formaldehyde-based antiseptic in others.
The hospital pharmacy is an example of the total body approach in treatment used by those practicing traditional Chinese medicine. A patient complaining of arthritis in the knee, for example, could receive both specific therapy at the site of pain, along with a prescription for a diet plan to re-enforce treatment.
Many elements of traditional Chinese medicine are based on a network of points on the body principally known for their use in acupuncture. In Oriental medical philosophy, illness is often caused by a blocked meridian along that network which causes an imbalance of Qi, or vital energy, as important to the harmony of health as blood.
With acupuncture, harmony is restored by clearing the meridians when needles are inserted in these points and twirled. Herbs are sometimes burnt in wads atop the needles in a technique called moxibustion, or electricity may be used in a modern twist on twirling; an electric current runs through the needles, purportedly offering a stimulus more consistent than the manual method.
Dr. LeBeau and his compatriots all appeared to be enthusiastic about the contributions traditional Chinese medical techniques can make toward helping the athletes in the United States remain healthier and recuperate faster from their injuries.
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