Is TCM a good form of medical treatment?

Sounds like your mother is having pain going from her biceps to the fingers. “Nerve pain” does exist, and it can be very very debilitating.

1. TCM is rather popular in Singapore, and acupuncture does have good effects on certain types of pain. And most TCM physicians will certainly refer your mother to see a western doctor if they suspect something dangerous is happening.
2. I don’t think cost is a huge consideration nowadays, considering that TCM and non-western doctor treatments typically cost more than seeing a GP.
3. The GP probably can advice you further on whether your mother needs further examination and probably even tell you how much it might cost, then it is up to you whether you want to go for further checks or try to treat the problem first.
4. If the pain is rather persistent and causing a lot of problems, I think there should be something going on. It might be something common like muscle/tendon tears, to nerve issues to spinal nerve compression problems. I think these are pretty common, and delays in treatment tend to cause poor outcomes as the nerve will slowly die as the compression continues.

Take care.

It would be useful (as Dr Israr as suggested) to get an MRI done, come to a diagnosis before continuing treatment.

TCM by itself is not particularly cheap and a clear-cut diagnosis and management plan suggested by the orthopedics would avail you much less angst.

The condition you’ve described sounds like neuropathic pain, which could be due to Cervical Spine nerve impingement/PID/spondylosis and similar conditions.

It may be useful to bring her to an orthopaedic surgeon to get an MRI scan done and find out the medical cause. Common things happen commonly, and thus the most likely condition needs to be ruled out first, upon which other rarer conditions can be investigated for.

TCM may be a good way of complementing western medical science, but it shouldn’t replace proven medical science as the main form of diagnosis and treatment.

Thanks for the question! This brings up the topic of the combination of Eastern and Western medical knowledge.

From hearing the description of your mother’s nerve and muscular condition, I would advice her to go for relevant tests for us to get a clearer picture of the pain. These includes conducting mobility/functional tests to enable me to confirm the diagnosis.

TCM treatment administered could include acupuncture/cupping/blood letting/tuina (again it depends on the diagnosis).

What these treatments aim to do is to stimulate local and systemic immune response through chemical signalling, thereby promoting recovery. It even has immediate analgesic effects.

Just as medication is given over a period of time, she might be required to receive a few sessions of TCM treatment before the symptoms become less severe and less recurrent. Gradually, it will also incite the body’s healing mechanisms to work by itself.

Rest assured that the root cause will be treated and taken care of. If you are still interested to know about the effects of acupuncture, feel free to look it up on PubMed research. Acupuncture has been scientifically proven to effectively treat many types of pain.

There should be no concern for a GP’s capability. As healthcare is patient-centric, I believe both methods will help her condition, as long as treatment is individualized. The GP will also recommend what he or she feels is best.

Wishing you and your mum best of health!