TCM Gua Sha and Alternative Medicine

Module Assignment: Healers in the News (60 points)

Download, fill-in, and turn in this form. Read through the instructions to the end before you get started. Be sure to use complete sentences where indicated, and maintain this document’s 1-inch margins, single-spacing, and 11-12pt font.

Name:

Instructions:

Your work:

(1) Provide article information (5 points)

Locate a news article that discusses a different healing system from those discussed in Module 2. (In other words, any healing system other than Navajo Medicine, Qollahuaya Medicine, or Biomedicine).

Important!

· Please use news article and not a scholarly journal article or a website.

Article title:

Ancient Chinese medicine Gua Sha trending on social media, here’s why

News source: Click2Houston.com

Date published: March 25, 2034

URL link: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2024/03/25/ancient-chinese-medicine-gua-sha-trending-on-social-media-heres-why/

(2) Identify healer information in article

(5 points)

Read over your article several times and determine whether it includes any of the information listed to the right and discussed in Module 2. Indicate yes or no for each of the questions.

Note that if you cannot answer yes to two or more of the items, you should choose a different article to analyze.

Does the article discuss:

· How healers are recruited? Y/N? _N____

· How healers are trained? Y/N? ___N__

· How healers perform healing ceremonies?

Y/N? ___Y__

· The historical context of cultural healing practices? Y/N?___Y____

· Examples of medical pluralism? Y/N? Y_____

· Discuss the role or status of the healer in the community? Y/N?______Y_

· Concepts of body physiology? Y/N?__Y___

· Explanatory models of sickness? Y/N?_Y______

(3) Describe healer information

(15 points)

For all questions that you answered ‘yes’ to above, describe each of these aspects of the article. For example, if your article discusses how healers are recruited and explanatory models of sickness, describe each of these. Please use complete sentences.

This article by Hernandez (2024) describes how a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice known as “scraping” is used by a licensed acupuncturist quoted in the article. The TCM practice of Gua Sha, according to the acupuncturist, causes capillaries to break near the surface of the skin, helping people who are wrestling with chronic pain. Like acupuncturists—which, in the US is how these practitioners are recruited and trained (although the history of TCM extends beyond traditional medical licensing in the US)—practitioners using scraping perform controlled damage on the patient. Scraping has also been used to help people with sinus pressure.

TCM can be used in conjunction with conventional medicine or in place of it. People have been bruised during these procedures, although professionals state that if properly performed it should not cause lasting damage.

(4) Make a cross-cultural comparison

(25 points)

Choose two of the aspects in Question 3 above described in your article and make a comparison with one of the healing systems discussed in class (Navajo, Qollahuaya, Biomedicine).

· Please write 3-4 complete sentences for each comparison.

Healing system in your article: TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)

Healing system chosen for comparison from Module 2 (Navajo, Qollahuaya, or Biomedicine): Navajo traditional medicine emphasizes the need for the individual to maintain a state of balance within the mind and the body.

Cross-cultural comparison of one aspect from Question 3 above:

Navajo traditional medicine emphasizes the need for the individual to maintain a state of balance within the mind and the body (Navajo Traditional Medicine Program, 2024). TCM similarly has stressed the need for balance, although this specific practice of scraping is using a practice of controlled damage to encourage the body to heal itself and to achieve a state of wellness and balance once again. The concept of balance and unity through the healing practice requires physical pressure being placed on the aspects of the physical body that are out of balance in TCM.