BEIJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- As China's rheumatology develops, traditional Chinese medicine is thought to be a promising solution for rheumatism, a disorder causing pains in the joints or connective tissue, according to experts at an academic conference.
The meeting, held by the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, focused on fundamental research, clinic application and development of traditional Chinese medicine as a cure for rheumatic diseases.
Experts said that the treatment philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, such as "prevention" comes first and whole-process intervention for chronic diseases, have demonstrated its advantage as well as the promising prospect of traditional Chinese medicine.
Obstacles for promoting treatment with traditional Chinese medicine results from only having individual cases but lacking evidence-based research, experts said.
Over the decades, the combined treatment of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine has been widely applied for autoimmune disease with many traditional Chinese medicine therapies, like external applications and acupuncture, proven to be effective.
Some experts suggested enhancing clinic research on improving clinic efficacy, including building an information database to identify the synergistic effect between traditional Chinese medicine and Western therapy.
