Researcher Dr Xiaoshu Zhu

Faced with acute pain, most people head for the nearest hospital. For many chronic conditions, however, more than 5 per cent of Australians now use traditional Chinese medicine, according to Professor Charlie Xue, head of the division of Chinese Medicine at the RMIT University.

Western medicine is some way from wholeheartedly embracing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), but there have been moves to incorporate aspects of it. “When I came to Australia from China 12 years ago, the medical profession didn’t want to know about Chinese medicine, but now it’s more open-minded,” Xue says, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

In Xue’s case, this open-mindedness has seen his treatments incorporated into an emergency medicine setting. “My team now provides acupuncture to treat patients in pain at the emergency department at Melbourne’s Northern Hospital - if we’d suggested this 10 years ago, people would have laughed at us.”

The World Health Organisation has acknowledged the role such medicine plays in health treatments, and in 2002 launched a strategy to gather more evidence on its safety and efficacy. That same year, Australia’s first Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Centre opened in Liverpool Hospital to run clinical trials of herbal medicine and acupuncture for gynaecological problems.

The trials included research into the effect of Chinese herbs on endometriosis. Sydney policewoman Gina*, 32, took part in the trials and, after a decade of debilitating period pain, no longer juggles her shifts to ensure her time off coincides with her periods.

“The first period I had after taking the herbs was much less painful, and by the second month, there was no pain at all,” she says. “It’s been life-altering.”

Meanwhile, with two unsuccessful attempts at in vitro fertilisation, only one functioning fallopian tube and her 41st birthday looming, Joanne Day wasn’t optimistic about conceiving - especially when a doctor diagnosed problems with her new partner’s sperm.

“The specialist said the only way we’d conceive was with IVF, but I didn’t want to go through that again,” says Day, who instead consulted Jann Mehmet, a TCM practitioner in Rozelle. After a few months of regular acupuncture and a healthier diet, she conceived at 41 and had a baby at 42.

“The word is out that acupuncture can treat muscular-skeletal problems, irregular periods, coughs and colds, infertility and many other conditions,” says North Shore practitioner Melissa Scott.

“At first people came as a last resort. Now we find that people who have success with Chinese medicine often come with subsequent problems, rather than go to a GP first. What draws many people is that they’re wary of the side effects of some Western medication.

“Drugs are often Band-Aids that treat symptoms but not the underlying cause - with eczema, for instance, you can be given cortisone to reduce inflammation but it doesn’t address the cause. TCM on the other hand can help by strengthening the immune system and digestive function.”

Few Western-trained doctors refer patients to a TCM practitioner, though one doctor now refers children with eczema to Scott for pediatric massage - an alternative to acupuncture for children who are afraid of needles.

The barriers to more doctors referring patients for TCM include lack of registration - only Victoria has a registration system for its practitioners - and lack of evidence for its benefits.

Still, Xue says, it is the subject of increasing study and there’s some evidence that acupuncture helps treat headaches, period pain, back pain and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. Studies suggest it may improve IVF’s success, though it’s unclear why.

“It may increase blood flow to the uterus,” says Dr Caroline Smith, who has conducted a study of acupuncture and IVF through the University of Adelaide. “It needs more research, but we know acupuncture does no harm and may increase women’s chances of success.”

As for Chinese herbal medicine, its acceptance lags behind acupuncture, which now attracts a Medicare rebate provided it’s done by a medical doctor trained in acupuncture.