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Popularity of quacks shows public anxiety about healthcare
Source: Xinhua |
September 25, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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BEIJING resident Tian Jizhong gets up at 6am every day, slapping himself and stretching his tendons after he learned "self-healing" treatments from a so-called "cure-all master" last year.
Tian, who is in his 60s, has suffered from leg pains for years. He and his friends attended several paida (slapping) and lajin (stretching tendons) therapy lessons last year, held by disciples of Xiao Hongci. Xiao claims that the slap massage and stretch therapy he claims to have invited can cure all ailments, including diabetes and high blood pressure.
After Tian learned the therapy, he began to slap himself and stretch his tendons every day, saying the treatment makes his body feel healthier. He believes it can bring harmony to his body. Tian is one of many Chinese who appear to be taken in by a number of unqualified practitioners or quacks.
They are increasingly appealing to people who distrust the professional medical establishment are afraid of visiting licensed doctors because of soaring medical costs at hospitals. They also appeal with their approach to "traditional" Chinese healing.
In an online chat room, convert Tian is also an activist and proselytizer who promotes the therapy and seeks new converts.
Media reported that 49-year-old Xiao Hongci, whose original name was Xiao Hongchi, used to work in the investment and financial sectors. He began to study medicine when he was 44. Only two years later, he wrote and published a book about self-healing therapies based on traditional Chinese medicine, which became a best-seller and made him famous. Xiao then opened a blog account on the Internet, attracting more and more followers around the country.
On his official website, Xiao sells benches specially made for stretching, charging from hundreds to more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,576). Xiao has spread his healing therapy to Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia. His healing videos can be found on Youtube.com.
However, so-called Master Xiao and his therapy have drawn criticism and skepticism. He was asked to leave Taiwan in 2011 for violating medical treatment laws.
The Taipei City Department of Labor and the Department of Health also fined him because he promoted folk medicine practices and claimed that diabetics could be cured after seven days of slap massage.
Also last year, relatives of a liver cancer patient in Beijing reported to the police that the patient spent more than 20,000 yuan to attend Xiao's therapy lessons but died three months later.
Not for everyone
"Although TCM includes slap therapy, the healing effects are limited, and it isn't suitable for everybody," said Ma Kejian, director of the research institute of traditional Chinese medicine in southwestern Yunnan Province. Ma said that Xiao's case is far from the only one in the country and represents a phenomenon in which people blindly trust what are called traditional remedies and pick up inaccurate information.
In 2010, Zhang Wuben, a self-proclaimed nutritionist, became a guru overnight through his food therapy forums on a television program - his hallmark theory is that mung beans cure all. Zhang's book - "Eat Your Way Out of the Diseases You Have Eaten" became a best seller.
But Zhang's medical "qualifications" were later exposed to be fraudulent and his theories have been refuted as followers failed to find cures after paying expensive fees to consult with Zhang.
?Health Godmother?
Ma Yueling, once considered as the "Health Godmother" in China, claimed she cured diseases ranging from cancer to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through a variety of unorthodox treatments.
But it emerged that Ma was a nurse without certifications to prescribe treatment. However, Ma's website has 220,000 registered members. Her four books, as well as her monthly magazine, have been read by millions.
These cases do not seem to have sounded any alarm bells for the public.
The continued emergence of "cure-all" quacks and their success reflect people's anxieties about health, Ma "herself" said.
"Although it hurts a little bit during the slapping, it makes me feel healthy. I'd rather endure the pain than go to the hospital and spend a lot of money," Tian said.
He added that treating even a small ailment will cost hundreds, even thousands of yuan in a hospital, which makes him and other people fear turning to a licensed doctor.
The popularity of so many quacks shows the tremendous demand for health care, said Wu Kankan, an expert at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wu said although the country has seen rapid development in recent years, the development and reform of the health care system is sluggish.
With the increasing number of chronic diseases, people begin to pay more attention to health and life quality.
According to the Ministry of Health in May, 260 million people suffer from chronic diseases, including heart diseases, hypertension and diabetes.
"People's anxieties about health and the huge demands on healthcare give those quacks opportunities to make profits and realize other goals," Wu said.
Fan Jian, head of the Institute of Sociology of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, said China should build up a more comprehensive mass healthcare services system , with strong regulation and supervision to eliminate health care and medical fraud.
The Ministry of Health said last month that China will invest hundreds of billion yuan to set up large-scale health projects, including medical care, disease prevention, psychological disease prevention and cure systems.
Tian, who is in his 60s, has suffered from leg pains for years. He and his friends attended several paida (slapping) and lajin (stretching tendons) therapy lessons last year, held by disciples of Xiao Hongci. Xiao claims that the slap massage and stretch therapy he claims to have invited can cure all ailments, including diabetes and high blood pressure.
After Tian learned the therapy, he began to slap himself and stretch his tendons every day, saying the treatment makes his body feel healthier. He believes it can bring harmony to his body. Tian is one of many Chinese who appear to be taken in by a number of unqualified practitioners or quacks.
They are increasingly appealing to people who distrust the professional medical establishment are afraid of visiting licensed doctors because of soaring medical costs at hospitals. They also appeal with their approach to "traditional" Chinese healing.
In an online chat room, convert Tian is also an activist and proselytizer who promotes the therapy and seeks new converts.
Media reported that 49-year-old Xiao Hongci, whose original name was Xiao Hongchi, used to work in the investment and financial sectors. He began to study medicine when he was 44. Only two years later, he wrote and published a book about self-healing therapies based on traditional Chinese medicine, which became a best-seller and made him famous. Xiao then opened a blog account on the Internet, attracting more and more followers around the country.
On his official website, Xiao sells benches specially made for stretching, charging from hundreds to more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,576). Xiao has spread his healing therapy to Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia. His healing videos can be found on Youtube.com.
However, so-called Master Xiao and his therapy have drawn criticism and skepticism. He was asked to leave Taiwan in 2011 for violating medical treatment laws.
The Taipei City Department of Labor and the Department of Health also fined him because he promoted folk medicine practices and claimed that diabetics could be cured after seven days of slap massage.
Also last year, relatives of a liver cancer patient in Beijing reported to the police that the patient spent more than 20,000 yuan to attend Xiao's therapy lessons but died three months later.
Not for everyone
"Although TCM includes slap therapy, the healing effects are limited, and it isn't suitable for everybody," said Ma Kejian, director of the research institute of traditional Chinese medicine in southwestern Yunnan Province. Ma said that Xiao's case is far from the only one in the country and represents a phenomenon in which people blindly trust what are called traditional remedies and pick up inaccurate information.
In 2010, Zhang Wuben, a self-proclaimed nutritionist, became a guru overnight through his food therapy forums on a television program - his hallmark theory is that mung beans cure all. Zhang's book - "Eat Your Way Out of the Diseases You Have Eaten" became a best seller.
But Zhang's medical "qualifications" were later exposed to be fraudulent and his theories have been refuted as followers failed to find cures after paying expensive fees to consult with Zhang.
?Health Godmother?
Ma Yueling, once considered as the "Health Godmother" in China, claimed she cured diseases ranging from cancer to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) through a variety of unorthodox treatments.
But it emerged that Ma was a nurse without certifications to prescribe treatment. However, Ma's website has 220,000 registered members. Her four books, as well as her monthly magazine, have been read by millions.
These cases do not seem to have sounded any alarm bells for the public.
The continued emergence of "cure-all" quacks and their success reflect people's anxieties about health, Ma "herself" said.
"Although it hurts a little bit during the slapping, it makes me feel healthy. I'd rather endure the pain than go to the hospital and spend a lot of money," Tian said.
He added that treating even a small ailment will cost hundreds, even thousands of yuan in a hospital, which makes him and other people fear turning to a licensed doctor.
The popularity of so many quacks shows the tremendous demand for health care, said Wu Kankan, an expert at the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wu said although the country has seen rapid development in recent years, the development and reform of the health care system is sluggish.
With the increasing number of chronic diseases, people begin to pay more attention to health and life quality.
According to the Ministry of Health in May, 260 million people suffer from chronic diseases, including heart diseases, hypertension and diabetes.
"People's anxieties about health and the huge demands on healthcare give those quacks opportunities to make profits and realize other goals," Wu said.
Fan Jian, head of the Institute of Sociology of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, said China should build up a more comprehensive mass healthcare services system , with strong regulation and supervision to eliminate health care and medical fraud.
The Ministry of Health said last month that China will invest hundreds of billion yuan to set up large-scale health projects, including medical care, disease prevention, psychological disease prevention and cure systems.
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