Preventive Treatment Department

The department integrates clinical care, teaching, and research, and includes a Traditional Chinese Medicine External Treatment Center. It currently has 5 chief TCM physicians, 1 medical doctor, 3 medical masters, 1 tutor for the academic succession of nationally renowned veteran TCM physicians, 2 famous TCM physicians of Hangzhou, 1 famous young TCM physician of the city, and 1 doctoral and master's supervisor at Zhejiang Chinese Medical University. The Department of Preventive Treatment of Disease is a key discipline being cultivated by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Commission. It has dozens of advanced examination, diagnostic, and physiotherapy devices, including a TCM tongue, face, and pulse information collection and constitution-identification system, a health-status assessment system, a TCM meridian detector, an ultra-short-wave therapy device, TDP-series specific electromagnetic-wave therapy devices, a phototherapy device, a core-rotation feedback training system, and a lower-limb pedaling feedback training system. The department follows the principles of preventing illness before it occurs, preventing deterioration after illness develops, and preventing recurrence after recovery. Using TCM diagnostic methods characterized by a holistic view and pattern differentiation and treatment, it identifies physical constitutions, promptly assesses your health status and risks, and has established an integrated diagnostic and treatment system combining oral Chinese herbal medicine with external treatment using appropriate TCM techniques. It has distinctive diagnostic and treatment expertise in subhealth conditions, neck, shoulder, lower-back and leg pain, spleen-and-stomach disorders, insomnia, menopausal syndrome, and postoperative rehabilitation. I. Suitable groups for preventive treatment of disease: 1. People with imbalanced TCM constitutions: according to the Standard for Classification and Determination of TCM Constitutions, people undergoing health examinations whose constitution-identification results show an imbalanced constitution. 2. People in a subhealth state: those in a subhealth state, manifested by reduced vitality and diminished function and adaptability over a certain period, but who do not meet the clinical or subclinical diagnostic criteria for a disease in modern medicine. 3. People with obvious subjective symptoms but no abnormal physical or laboratory findings (such as tinnitus, dry or bitter mouth, bad breath, spontaneous or night sweating, weak constitution and susceptibility to illness, fatigue, blurred vision, dry eyes, nasal obstruction, dry or itchy nose, dry throat, a heavy or cloudy head, somnolence, abnormal sweating, or autonomic nervous dysfunction). 4. People whose physical or laboratory examination results are at borderline values but have not yet reached disease diagnostic criteria, namely people susceptible to disease (such as high cholesterol, high uric acid, a rough gallbladder wall, prostate calcification, polyps, or nodules). 5. People who meet Western medical diagnostic criteria and whose Western medicines work quickly but whose condition easily recurs (such as colds or coughs), or people with chronic diseases in a stable phase (such as allergic diseases including rhinitis, asthma, and urticaria) who need to delay or block disease progression. 6. People who are physically weak before pregnancy, after childbirth, or after surgery and need recuperation and rehabilitation, or whose disease has resolved but who need to prevent recurrence. 7. People who meet clinical disease diagnostic criteria but for whom medication has uncertain efficacy or substantial side effects that are difficult to tolerate (such as adverse reactions to radiotherapy and chemotherapy in patients with tumors or withdrawal of medication in hormone-dependent patients). Clinical treatment programs such as treating winter diseases in summer and taking nourishing herbal pastes in winter are provided according to the season. II. Constitution identification: through manual assessment or a TCM four-diagnostic-instrument analysis, the department analyzes TCM constitution types and the constitution types found in subhealth assessments, disease susceptibility, health status, environmental adaptability, psychological indices, and other factors. The TCM four-diagnostic instrument collects and stores the subject’s tongue, facial appearance, pulse, and inquiry information, analyzes the collected information, assesses the subject’s physical condition, and matches corresponding intervention measures for reference. The use of instruments facilitates the objectification and standardization of TCM and avoids the limitations of subjective experience in manually collecting information. Specialists compare objective information collected by computer with clinical-experience diagnoses and ultimately determine which of the following constitutions applies to you: balanced, qi-deficient, yang-deficient, yin-deficient, phlegm-dampness, dampness-heat, blood-stasis, qi-stagnation, or special diathesis. Based on the constitution result, they match individualized health-management recommendations for you. III. Health consultation (health preservation and wellness) clinic: based on your constitution type together with clinical examinations and physical and laboratory test results, specialists will formulate a health-intervention plan tailored exclusively to you, covering exercise, diet, daily routine, medication, and regulation of meridians and acupoints. IV. Health interventions: guided by the concept of preventive treatment of disease and following the principles of preventing illness before it occurs, preventing deterioration after illness develops, and preventing recurrence after recovery, the center has formed a core team of outstanding national-, provincial-, and municipal-level TCM nursing personnel and provides the following traditional TCM therapies. It has more than 50 mature and standardized TCM nursing techniques, mainly covering: Moxibustion techniques: Governor Vessel moxibustion, Thunder-Fire moxibustion, Xie-style spreading moxibustion, comprehensive Fire Dragon Cupping moxibustion, umbilical moxibustion, moxa-box moxibustion, suspended moxibustion, ginger-partitioned moxibustion, and warming and unblocking muscle-release cupping techniques. Cupping techniques: flash cupping, kneading cupping, retained cupping, moving cupping, balanced fire cupping, bloodletting cupping, and Fuyang cupping. Tuina techniques: constipation tuina, diarrhea tuina, insomnia tuina, and meridian-point tuina. Gua sha techniques: facial gua sha, scalp gua sha, ear gua sha, local gua sha, and whole-body copper-plate gua sha. Chinese herbal fumigation: local fumigation therapies such as Governor Vessel fumigation and joint fumigation. Plaster application therapy: formulas for specific diseases, including gas-distension patches, analgesic patches, cough-relief patches, constipation patches, and sleep-promoting patches. Auricular acupoint therapy: auricular acupoint plaster pressing, auricular acupoint massage, and holographic gua sha of the ear. Breast-opening techniques: distinctive TCM manual breast-opening techniques and manual lactation-induction techniques. Meridian-pricking bloodletting therapy. Intradermal needle techniques: press needles and wrist-ankle acupuncture. Suitable groups (conditions in which TCM nursing has advantages): Postpartum care: milk stasis, insufficient lactation, and weaning. Subhealth states and fatigue syndrome. Spleen-and-stomach disorders: spleen-and-stomach deficiency-cold, indigestion, chronic diarrhea, abdominal distension, and constipation. Bone and joint disorders: cold-dampness painful obstruction of the joints and temporomandibular joint disorders. Neck, shoulder, lower-back, and back disorders: neck and shoulder pain, acute lumbar sprain, lumbar disc herniation, and lumbar muscle strain. Externally contracted conditions: colds and heatstroke. Internal medicine disorders: headache, dizziness, insomnia, facial paralysis, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and diabetes-related obesity. Ear, nose, and throat disorders: tinnitus, deafness, and allergic rhinitis. Gynecological and breast disorders: menopausal syndrome, menstrual irregularities, and breast hyperplasia. Pediatric disorders: obesity, adolescent myopia, and indigestion. Skin and cosmetic problems: facial melasma, hyperpigmentation, and acne (pimples). Supportive treatment for tumors: improving tumor-related symptom clusters such as cancer-related fatigue, insomnia, constipation, pain, reduced white blood cells after chemotherapy, and low immunity. V. Precautions for constitution identification in the Department of Preventive Treatment of Disease: 1. Do not smoke or drink alcohol, and do not eat foods such as smoked plums, grapes, or oranges; these factors can produce false tongue-diagnosis findings and affect the result. 2. Do not wear makeup; cosmetics can cover your original skin color, produce false facial-diagnosis findings, and affect the result. 3. Avoid strenuous exercise, which can produce false pulse-diagnosis findings and affect the result. 4. Tell the doctor about any medication you have taken recently.