Jasmine Patel, MSAOM, LAc has traveled to China and India to practice Traditional Chinese Medicine is a variety of clinical settings. In Shanghai, China she worked in an integrated Western medicine/TCM hospital and in India she worked at an integrated clinic which used TCM, homeopathy, Western medicine and Ayurvedic medicine.
Recent Bastyr grad Jasmine Patel had the opportunity to practice advanced acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and Tui Na with local doctors in different parts of India. Her visit took her to Bombay, Pune, Goa, Ahmednagar and Udwada. She worked in an integrative medicine clinic there which was staffed by an ayurvedic doctor, a TCM doctor, a homeopathic doctor and an allopathic doctor. Jasmine writes:
This clinic is run by donations and all care is given for free. They all see the patient together and then together decide on the best course of treatment. It’s nice to see that these doctors had put their egos on hold and were genuinely concerned about giving the patient the best care. In most cases, a combination of therapies was used on the patient. It was interesting to see the TCM doctor and the ayurvedic doctor creating combined herbal formulas from the two systems of medicine.
Jasmine also writes about how spirituality infuses people’s lives so deeply in India:
When they open their stores and businesses in the morning, they burn incense, chant or pray. At a little temple right outside the train station I watched people leave flowers, bow down, or just walk by and stop for a moment, close their eyes and offer a prayer for a safe journey, or give thanks for a safe journey. Right next to the temple at a little mosque, the same thing was going on.