Shi Jinghua, President, Canadian Anti-Cancer Rehabilitation Association | FOUNDERS Part 1
https://youtu.be/NZc8LhUcOa8
(Transcript from the episode's English subtitles, translated from the Chinese interview; speakers not labelled. Host: Sarah Yu.)
(The views expressed are the guest's own experience and opinions and do not constitute medical advice. Please consult a licensed physician about any health concern.)

[0:00] Highlights
What can Chinese medicine actually do? The WHO made a rough assessment of the human population: people who are basically fully healthy are only about 5%. Those clearly confirmed to be ill are 20%. And the in-between? The in-between state is called sub-health: 75%. Ask yourself: how much do you really know about yourself? Do you fully understand yourself? Honestly, many people don't really know themselves.

[0:34] From apprentice to PhD in Chinese medicine
Thank you so much for your contribution to TCM in cancer care. Could you tell us a bit about yourself? In my early years I learned under my master. After learning under my master, I went on to study a bachelor's in medicine. After that, I went to Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine for a master's in integrative treatment of malignant tumours, and then a doctorate in Chinese medicine. So this field, plus my own practice here in Vancouver, in Chinese medicine, in clinical practice, adds up to more than thirty years of experience.

[1:14] What the anti-cancer association does
Because in Canada, the treatment of cancer patients is mainly Western medicine, following the Western medical system. So on the treatment side, we basically don't intervene; we stay out of it. So you focus on prevention? We work on prevention, or recovery after treatment. These two are, so to speak, around the main treatment, one before, one after. Those two areas. I was with my supervisor, Professor Chen Ruisheng, in clinic, and we found that in China it was mostly like this: some tumour patients who had been through some Western-medicine treatment, and had then reached a certain stage, would be referred to Chinese medicine for treatment. So in treating tumours, what role can Chinese medicine play? First, when used alongside Western chemotherapy and radiotherapy, herbal medicine and acupuncture can reduce toxicity and enhance efficacy: that is, cut down the toxic side effects and at the same time boost its efficacy.

[2:20] Sub-health comes in three kinds
In Chinese medicine, we break it down a bit further. Those 75% of people, we can divide into three or four stages. For example, there's one kind of person who is about to fall ill. They're already right at the edge. But people in this state, as long as no sudden illness has struck yet, look just like a normal person. Then after a while, suddenly, you find many people suddenly have a brain hemorrhage, a sudden heart attack, that kind of sudden event. That's a portion of people who are already close to the edge of illness. That's one kind. Another kind already has minor ailments, all sorts of little problems, one or several of them. For example, a chronic stomach problem, a chronic cough. Those are minor ailments. Another kind: the body has hidden problems. For example, look at this lawn here. It seems the lawn is lush and green, but if you dig down, there may be all kinds of weed roots in the soil. If you leave it untended for a while, say you go back to China for a few months, it may come up overgrown with weeds. So how to dig out those hidden problems: that's another part of it.

[3:36] Treating vs. conditioning
From the Western angle of treating disease, say someone has E. coli diarrhea. They take a Western drug, it's cured at once. That's treating. Relatively speaking, I think for bacterial and other externally caused problems, it can stop them. That kind of thing is treatment. Now, TCM's conditioning: generally we say conditioning. Why use that word? Because the way we in TCM see it, people, from the TCM perspective, are divided into nine types. Say you are the balanced type, normal, very healthy, that's one. Others may lean toward qi deficiency, some toward yin deficiency. Some, like us here in a place like Vancouver, many are the cold-damp type. In Guangdong and other hotter places, the damp-heat type is common. Here there are also many damp-heat people. So once we've sorted people into these constitution types, as we condition them, we hope they can move from their original, skewed constitution toward a normal one. Step by small step, conditioning like that, and then the big step is treating disease.

[4:46] Warmth and flow
What do you think of moxibustion? Moxibustion is very effective, because it's a yang-warming method. because nowadays a large number, quite a few patients, have problems tied to the body's lack of heat, not enough energy in the meridians. TCM especially stresses two words: one is 'warm', one is 'flow'. So in detox, in acupuncture, in tuina, that's the 'flow' at work. But add moxibustion, or some electric warming heat, and then that provides the 'warm'. It can promote free flow in the meridians. Promoting flow in the meridians also promotes blood circulation. That is to say, from the TCM angle, it raises your own healing capacity; from the Western angle, it boosts your immunity.