A VISIT TO TRADITIONAL AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE (TCM) UNIT,
HOSPITAL REHABILITASI CHERAS, KUALA LUMPUR
On 20th November 2014, 15 students from second year Faculty of Pharmacy UKM
went to TCM unit of Hospital Rehabilitasi Cheras located in Cheras just a stone thrown away from
HUKM. The visit is one of the requirement for one of our subjects which is Perubatan Tradisional
dan Komplementari. The aim of our visit was to gain knowledge about TCM because it is very
closely related to pharmacy. As future pharmacists, we are required to continuously update our
knowledge regarding all the fields related to the course and TCM is one of the branch. Besides
that, we were also required to write a brief report and present about our visit and what we have
learnt from the visit.
My group members went there by bus from faculty to HUKM, from where they
walked to the destination. As my house is located near the area, I went there by car. At 3pm, we
were welcomed by a doctor who is in charge of TCM unit in the hospital. First, he introduced
himself and mentioned about the history of the unit and why it was built. According to him, TCM
is one of the leading branch in health sector. TCM unit was built to fulfill the requirement of
patients who prefer complementary medicine together with conventional medicine. At the same
time, they have to make sure that all the services provided are proven scientifically. That is the
reason why the unit in Hospital Rehabilitasi Cheras only provides three types of complementary
medicine services, which are acupuncture, traditional malay massage and shirodara which is one
of the branch in Ayurveda.
After that, we were allowed to interview all the practitioners of TCM employed in
the hospital. First we met shirodara practitioner. He came all the way from India to work there.
According to him, Ayurveda is one of the world’s oldest medical systems. It originated in India
more than 3,000 years ago and remains one of the country’s traditional health care systems. Its
concepts about health and disease promote the use of herbal compounds, special diets, and other
unique health practices. Shirodhara is a form of Ayurveda therapy that involves gently pouring
liquids over the forehead of a person. The name “Shirodhara” comes from the Sanskrit words shiro
(head) and dhara (flow). There are four specialized forms of shirodhara which are ksheeradhara,
thakradhara, taildhara and jaladhara. Besides the information, we were given extra information
about the therapy too.
Next, we met an acupuncturist. She too explained a lot about the practice. She told
us that many research has been done about acupuncture and the treatments are scientifically proven
to be effective. Acupuncture is one of the traditional Chinese therapy or treatment that existed
more than 5000 years. In general, acupuncture is the stimulation of certain points on the surface of
skin using penetration of needles and sometimes need application of heat. According to her,
Acupuncture therapy in Hospital Rehabilitation Cheras mainly used to treat two diseases which
are chronic pain and stroke. Acupuncture can also treat drug addiction but this treatment is only
available in US. In Malaysia, acupuncture can used to treat smoking addiction but it is not
common.
Finally we interviewed Traditional Malay Massage practitioners. There are two
practitioners in the hospital, male and female practitioner for massage of male and female patients
respectively. The male practitioner mentioned that he has been learning about the traditional
massage since he was a kid from his parents and then, he went to learn more about the massage
with different practitioners for about three years in order to obtain more knowledge and skills on
traditional Malay massage. Same goes with the female practitioner. There are many diseases that
can be treated with this massage but for men, the most common one are stroke and chronic pain
while the rarest one is spinal pain. As for the female practitioner, by observing the palms of the
patients, she said that she can predict the type of diseases or conditions that patients have such as
wheezing or cramp.
In conclusion, we have brushed up our knowledge on traditional medicine in Malay
Traditional Massage, Acupunture and Shirodhara. These treatments are originated from different
countries in the world, but useful to patients who suffered from chronic pain and attack. Each
treatment has its own specialty, principle and concept. These treatments are scientifically proved
because they are allowed to be practiced by qualified practitioners in public and private hospitals.
Some of the practitioners gain their knowledge and skill from family members; some are from
qualified courses in universities. After the visit, we get to know the importance of complementary
treatment, especially stroke patients. Most of them are undergoing rehab, so that they can resume
their daily life after stroke attack. Besides that, we have more interest in pursuing our knowledge
in traditional and complementary medicine since it is so important to us. Personally, I believe that
I have learnt a lot from the visit. I have realized that life-long learning is important for a pharmacist
since many new findings are done and many new medicines are being manufactured. Besides that,
as a future pharmacist, I found out that we have to always gain up-to-date information about the
medicine world as it is continually growing. I would also say that I was able to enhance my
communication skills as well as improve my self-confidence through conversation with the
practitioners. This visit is one of the stages of our life-long learning process as TCM is very closely
related to us and the knowledge we gained is very precious.