Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has developed through thousands of years of observation by Chinese physicians. It regards the body a unified entity and sees spiritual, mental, emotional, and physiological elements as interrelated and independent. This branch of traditional medicine aims to treat poor health through such methods as herbal medicine, massage, acupuncture, cupping, exercise and dietary therapy.

TCM is widely used in Chinese society today, and is gaining recognition around the world:

• In 2015, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to TCM professor Tu Youyou (1).
• By 2018, TCM had spread to 183 countries (2).
• In 2019, TCM was formally recognised by the World Health Organization (3).
• As of 2019, 3 million Australians visit TCM practitioners annually (4).

References:

(1) Nobel Foundation (2015). Tu Youyou – Facts. Retrieved from <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/facts/>.

(2) People’s Republic of China (2018) National People’s Congress, March 2018.

(3) World Health Organization (2018). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th Revision). Retrieved from <https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en>.

(4) Victorian Government (2019). Chinese Herbal Medicine. Retrieved from <https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ConditionsAndTreatments/chinese-herbal-medicine>.