I am excited to share some of the things I learnt in my Chinese Dietitian course in this post that I believe will help you to make your visit to a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor more effective. If you think the following information is overwhelming, just scroll to the very end for a summary of things you need to know!
A TCM physician will use 望,闻,问,切 methodology to understand your condition especially during your first visit so that the physician will know more about your body constitution in order to Chinese medicine.
The first is 望 which means observing through the eyes of the physician. The physician will observe your face, lip color etc. So try not to put on any make-up as this may affect the diagnosis. In TCM, a person who looks pale may due to to blood deficiency (血虚) so covering up the natural color of your face can affect the judgement of a physician.
It is also very common for a physician to look at your tongue. Your tongue color, surface composition, and the side of the tongue can tell a lot of things about your body to a physician. So very important thing to note is before visiting a TCM physician, DO NOT drink coffee, tea or eat anything that has strong coloring that affects the color of your tongue!
The second is 闻 which includes listening and smell. This is more straight-forward for you as a patient. When you answer the questions asked by a physician, he/she will listen to your voice and cough (if you have) so that he/she can diagnosis better.
If you are seeking treatment for a cough, the physician may not ask you to purposely cough on the spot, but the information they need from you is how long have you been coughing and what color of your phlegm. So make sure you prepare the answers for these questions.
The third is 问 which means to ask. There are quite a lot of things that a physician may ask you so get ready to answer them. The following questions will better prepare you for the visit:
- Do you feel cold?
- Do you sweat a lot?
- Where is the pain located (if it is a pain-related issue)?
- How is your sleep quality (what time you sleep and wake up, how many times you wake up in the night on average)?
- Is your stool loose (便溏) or solid? How often you pass motion (defecate).
I want to emphasize on the last question regarding passing motion. Most physician will ask you if your stool is loose or solid but it is very common for normal people like us to misinterpret what is loose and what is really solid??! So I want to use this chance to share with you how to answer this question so that your physician can diagnose better.
Loose stool means the stool is watery, shapeless or very sticky form. After you pass motion and if you noticed that the inner side of the toilet bowl is stained most of the time, then this can be considered as loose stools.
On the other hand, a solid stool resembles something like goat’s stools (image here if you need to see what I mean) or shapes like bananas that doesn’t stain the inner side of the toilet bowl.
The fourth is 切 where the physician will use his fingers to feel your pulse on your wrist. Normally the physician will not ask to feel your pulse in the first few seconds when you entered the consultation room because it is always better to do so when the patient calms down and in a restful state. Just relax when the physician is feeling your pulse on your wrist. Some physician may ask for both of your hands so make sure you wear something that does not obstruct this area of your hand. (Click here to see an image of what it looks like).
Now you have it! These are the few things you must know when you visit a TCM physician. The following is a summary of what you need to know again:
- Don’t put on make up (especially for ladies).
- Don’t drink or eat food with coloring (coffee, tea, curry etc)
- If you are seeking treatment for cough, take note how long have you been coughing, what color is your phlegm (if any).
- Do you feel cold?
- Do you sweat a lot?
- Where is the pain located (if it is a pain-related issue)?
- How is your sleep quality (what time you sleep and wake up, how many times you wake up in the night on average)?
- Is your stool loose (便溏) or solid? How often you pass motion (defecate).
Hope you find this useful and do share it with your friends if you think they will need these information!